Sunday, August 29, 2004
Good morning! The farmers' market yesterday was a complete sell-out of bread by 10 am and a complete (every last item) well before the end of the market. It was difficult for me to judge how much bread to make Saturday morning because the weather forecast was for thunderstorms and rain rain rain.
Rain, thunderstorms, and hot, humid weather are not my favorite conditions for making crusty french breads. I've cried out loud when the dough falls as it's being placed into the oven. The two french breads I made turned out about a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. They certainly didn't stay very crisp in 94% relative humidity. I did let customers know that they could recrisp the crusts in a warm oven.
I was not thrilled with my tomato-basil pesto biscotti -- too much olive oil, I've surmised. back to the drawing board.
And, as I promised, the importance of cooling.
When bread is forst put into a hot oven on a baking stone, it rises a bit as 1) the gas bubbles expand, and 2) the yeast gives a rapid growth spurt. I don't really believe that the rise due to rapid yeast growth is significant - I doubt it's a valid arguement, but it is well-publicized, so I better mention it. This rise is also called "oven-spring". And believe me, you better be prepared to compensate the newly forming crust for expanding to accomodate this volume increase. Usually, slashing of the dough is done to control the shape of the bread. I call it an episiotomy of the crust. The slashes keep the rest of the crust from cracking, tearing and developing fissures.
The more "proofed" the dough is when you place it into the oven, the shallower the slashes need to be. The converse - an underproofed dough - needs to be slashed much more and almost directly toward the center of the loaf. If I am rushing the bread, I often slash an inch or so into the dough and I make the cuts closer together. I still occassionally get some splitting of the crust near the bottom, but it took practice.
I love a loaf fresh out of the oven. I tear a piece off, dip it into a bowl of softened butter and pop it into my mouth. As a baker, I feel it is my duty to ensure good bread. Ha ha!
But, after I've torn off a piece of hot bread, I'd better eat the rest within the next couple of hours. It becomes stale and hardens much faster than a loaf that has been allowed to cool for 30-45 minutes. The reasons, I think, are 1) The gluten, a bread protein, has partially geletinized during the baking and that needs to "set" in order for the loaf to withstand slicing. and 2) the interior of the bread is probably above 195 degrees fahrenheit and it is under some pressure (because the crust formed about 1/3 way through baking). That means there is a fair amount of steam - water vapor that hasn't yet redistributed itself throughout the crumb. It is comparable to allowing a cut of meat to rest after cooking. And 3) It is incredibly cool to listen to the crackling of the crust when you remove it from the oven.
Next week, I plan to bake twice the number of loaves.
JoEllen
(0) comments
Rain, thunderstorms, and hot, humid weather are not my favorite conditions for making crusty french breads. I've cried out loud when the dough falls as it's being placed into the oven. The two french breads I made turned out about a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. They certainly didn't stay very crisp in 94% relative humidity. I did let customers know that they could recrisp the crusts in a warm oven.
I was not thrilled with my tomato-basil pesto biscotti -- too much olive oil, I've surmised. back to the drawing board.
And, as I promised, the importance of cooling.
When bread is forst put into a hot oven on a baking stone, it rises a bit as 1) the gas bubbles expand, and 2) the yeast gives a rapid growth spurt. I don't really believe that the rise due to rapid yeast growth is significant - I doubt it's a valid arguement, but it is well-publicized, so I better mention it. This rise is also called "oven-spring". And believe me, you better be prepared to compensate the newly forming crust for expanding to accomodate this volume increase. Usually, slashing of the dough is done to control the shape of the bread. I call it an episiotomy of the crust. The slashes keep the rest of the crust from cracking, tearing and developing fissures.
The more "proofed" the dough is when you place it into the oven, the shallower the slashes need to be. The converse - an underproofed dough - needs to be slashed much more and almost directly toward the center of the loaf. If I am rushing the bread, I often slash an inch or so into the dough and I make the cuts closer together. I still occassionally get some splitting of the crust near the bottom, but it took practice.
I love a loaf fresh out of the oven. I tear a piece off, dip it into a bowl of softened butter and pop it into my mouth. As a baker, I feel it is my duty to ensure good bread. Ha ha!
But, after I've torn off a piece of hot bread, I'd better eat the rest within the next couple of hours. It becomes stale and hardens much faster than a loaf that has been allowed to cool for 30-45 minutes. The reasons, I think, are 1) The gluten, a bread protein, has partially geletinized during the baking and that needs to "set" in order for the loaf to withstand slicing. and 2) the interior of the bread is probably above 195 degrees fahrenheit and it is under some pressure (because the crust formed about 1/3 way through baking). That means there is a fair amount of steam - water vapor that hasn't yet redistributed itself throughout the crumb. It is comparable to allowing a cut of meat to rest after cooking. And 3) It is incredibly cool to listen to the crackling of the crust when you remove it from the oven.
Next week, I plan to bake twice the number of loaves.
JoEllen
Monday, August 23, 2004
Okay, things are growing quickly - not just the bread. Last Saturday, I sold most of what I offered at the farmers' market. I made a new biscotti and was less than thrilled with the texture, but that probably had to do with me erring in the recipe.
For some reason, I decided to quadruple the recipe in writing - but then decided that the mixture would not fit in my mixing bowl. So in a great mental disfunction, I premeasured only 75% of the recipe into the bowl - except for the eggs - I brain-cramped and added 100% of the eggs, then I fruitlessly tried to remove two eggs from the mixing bowl. Well, it wasn't the best example of my baking, but it tasted great and broke easily. -- Back to the drawing board.
I hope that Margaret Sevi will be proud. Mrs. Sevi made biscotti for her husband, Al, to bring to work as a midmorning snack. I had the great honor of working with Al in New Jersey. He taught me a field engineering credo - if it's not in your meats (he'd tap his head with his finger), then you gotta use your feets. Meaning: if you can't correctly remember what you saw in the field, you've got to go back and look again.
Al was in his early seventies when I worked with him and he was a biscotti purist. No nuts and other inclusion bodies (Fruits, chocolate, etc). Just a nice crisp flavored biscuit to dip into the coffee and nibble at. I had no doubt that he was traveling back into his memories as he snacked, because he would finish with his snack and then tell me story from his past. He was a remarkable unremarkable man. He was in world war II, on a plane, taking pictures from the gunnery. He graduated chemical engineering school when the classes included foundry and casting. He is truly in love with his wife and family. He makes maple syrup in his garage and root beer on the back porch. He invited me to come pick berries from his bramble in the backyard. More than once, he had to give me directions to the gorge nearby so I could enjoy the crisp clear New Jersey air. I miss seeing him and his wife. Thankfully, his children inherited a good cheer gene.
Hmm, I have also retreated to my memories instead of relating the BBC news.
I may be in the Kokomo Tribune again this upcoming Wednesday. Nicole Roales is writing an article on artisan breads and I have submitted a home baking-type bread recipe and have no qualms about publishing here as well:
Basic loaf bread
makes about three pounds of dough (2 large loaves)
6 cups of bread flour plus more for kneading
4 1/3 cups water
2 packets of yeast
1 tablespoon of kosher salt
spray cooking oil
Pour the water into your mixer. Sprinkle the yeast into the water, whisk briefly by hand to distribute the yeast. Wait 5 minutes or so to see if the yeast is active. It should foam or bubble. Pour most of the flour and all of the salt into the mixer and knead on lowest speed until flour is just moistened thoroughly about 2 minutes. Turn out onto a clean and floured countertop. Let dough hydrate for 10 minutes (It takes a while for the flour to thoroughly absorb the water). This is just about the same time for the bowl to be cleaned, dried and put away.
With well floured hands, knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. You probably will add the rest of the flour. This takes about ten minutes of active kneading by hand. If you choose to use your mixer, you only knead for 4-7 minutes. Shape the dough into a large ball.
You can check to see if you kneaded enough by pressing with your finger about 1/2 inch and letting go. The dough should spring back rapidly and "erase" your fingerprint. This dough should be slightly sticky like the glue on a "Post-it" note.
Let the dough rest for a few minutes while you oil a large plastic or ceramic bowl. Kitchen spray is okay, too, if you don't have any oil.
Place the ball of dough into the oiled bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap or a dampened tea towel (not terrycloth! The dough will pick up fuzzies and the terrycloth is very hard to clean.).
Let ferment for a few hours until more than double in size. I find that the oven with only the pilot light or a light bulb is just the right temperature.
After the ferment, GENTLY remove the dough from the bowl and fold in half, the in half again in the other direction. It should look like a quarter of a circle. Don't punch it too hard or you might not get a light fluffy loaf. Put this dough back into the covered bowl at room temperature for an hour or so until it rises again.
After this rise, remove the dough from the bowl and cut the dough into two pieces about the same size. Shape into a rectangle and the roll up into a log that will fit into your well-oiled loaf pans. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
At room temperature, let rise in the loaf pans until just cresting the top the of the pan. This may take about another hour or more, depending on room temperature.
When risen, place the bread into the middle of the oven and reduce the temperature immediately to 425 degrees. Bake for about 35-45 minutes until the bread is done and sounds hollow when thumped. If it starts to brown too quickly, cover it lightly with aluminum foil.
This bread formula works well in my oven at home. I use the convection setting and I calibrate my oven temp on a regular basis. It always chagrins me how many people don't know whether their oven is really 400 degrees when the thermostat says it is. For instance, I have a small wall oven at the Bakery that is at least 50 degrees too cool. I can compensate for this low temperature by setting the thermostat higher. The only way to know your oven temperature is accurate is to measure it with a good oven thermometer. These thermometers are available at a relatively low cost at stores that carry cooking supplies. Look on the cooking gadget aisle.
Bread always needs to cool before any packaging. In my next post, I promise to explain why cooling is so important.
Good luck to all bakers and there should be a special prayer for us, especially when we're not in our natural habitat of a hot, steamy kitchen.
JoEllen
(0) comments
For some reason, I decided to quadruple the recipe in writing - but then decided that the mixture would not fit in my mixing bowl. So in a great mental disfunction, I premeasured only 75% of the recipe into the bowl - except for the eggs - I brain-cramped and added 100% of the eggs, then I fruitlessly tried to remove two eggs from the mixing bowl. Well, it wasn't the best example of my baking, but it tasted great and broke easily. -- Back to the drawing board.
I hope that Margaret Sevi will be proud. Mrs. Sevi made biscotti for her husband, Al, to bring to work as a midmorning snack. I had the great honor of working with Al in New Jersey. He taught me a field engineering credo - if it's not in your meats (he'd tap his head with his finger), then you gotta use your feets. Meaning: if you can't correctly remember what you saw in the field, you've got to go back and look again.
Al was in his early seventies when I worked with him and he was a biscotti purist. No nuts and other inclusion bodies (Fruits, chocolate, etc). Just a nice crisp flavored biscuit to dip into the coffee and nibble at. I had no doubt that he was traveling back into his memories as he snacked, because he would finish with his snack and then tell me story from his past. He was a remarkable unremarkable man. He was in world war II, on a plane, taking pictures from the gunnery. He graduated chemical engineering school when the classes included foundry and casting. He is truly in love with his wife and family. He makes maple syrup in his garage and root beer on the back porch. He invited me to come pick berries from his bramble in the backyard. More than once, he had to give me directions to the gorge nearby so I could enjoy the crisp clear New Jersey air. I miss seeing him and his wife. Thankfully, his children inherited a good cheer gene.
Hmm, I have also retreated to my memories instead of relating the BBC news.
I may be in the Kokomo Tribune again this upcoming Wednesday. Nicole Roales is writing an article on artisan breads and I have submitted a home baking-type bread recipe and have no qualms about publishing here as well:
Basic loaf bread
makes about three pounds of dough (2 large loaves)
6 cups of bread flour plus more for kneading
4 1/3 cups water
2 packets of yeast
1 tablespoon of kosher salt
spray cooking oil
Pour the water into your mixer. Sprinkle the yeast into the water, whisk briefly by hand to distribute the yeast. Wait 5 minutes or so to see if the yeast is active. It should foam or bubble. Pour most of the flour and all of the salt into the mixer and knead on lowest speed until flour is just moistened thoroughly about 2 minutes. Turn out onto a clean and floured countertop. Let dough hydrate for 10 minutes (It takes a while for the flour to thoroughly absorb the water). This is just about the same time for the bowl to be cleaned, dried and put away.
With well floured hands, knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. You probably will add the rest of the flour. This takes about ten minutes of active kneading by hand. If you choose to use your mixer, you only knead for 4-7 minutes. Shape the dough into a large ball.
You can check to see if you kneaded enough by pressing with your finger about 1/2 inch and letting go. The dough should spring back rapidly and "erase" your fingerprint. This dough should be slightly sticky like the glue on a "Post-it" note.
Let the dough rest for a few minutes while you oil a large plastic or ceramic bowl. Kitchen spray is okay, too, if you don't have any oil.
Place the ball of dough into the oiled bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap or a dampened tea towel (not terrycloth! The dough will pick up fuzzies and the terrycloth is very hard to clean.).
Let ferment for a few hours until more than double in size. I find that the oven with only the pilot light or a light bulb is just the right temperature.
After the ferment, GENTLY remove the dough from the bowl and fold in half, the in half again in the other direction. It should look like a quarter of a circle. Don't punch it too hard or you might not get a light fluffy loaf. Put this dough back into the covered bowl at room temperature for an hour or so until it rises again.
After this rise, remove the dough from the bowl and cut the dough into two pieces about the same size. Shape into a rectangle and the roll up into a log that will fit into your well-oiled loaf pans. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
At room temperature, let rise in the loaf pans until just cresting the top the of the pan. This may take about another hour or more, depending on room temperature.
When risen, place the bread into the middle of the oven and reduce the temperature immediately to 425 degrees. Bake for about 35-45 minutes until the bread is done and sounds hollow when thumped. If it starts to brown too quickly, cover it lightly with aluminum foil.
This bread formula works well in my oven at home. I use the convection setting and I calibrate my oven temp on a regular basis. It always chagrins me how many people don't know whether their oven is really 400 degrees when the thermostat says it is. For instance, I have a small wall oven at the Bakery that is at least 50 degrees too cool. I can compensate for this low temperature by setting the thermostat higher. The only way to know your oven temperature is accurate is to measure it with a good oven thermometer. These thermometers are available at a relatively low cost at stores that carry cooking supplies. Look on the cooking gadget aisle.
Bread always needs to cool before any packaging. In my next post, I promise to explain why cooling is so important.
Good luck to all bakers and there should be a special prayer for us, especially when we're not in our natural habitat of a hot, steamy kitchen.
JoEllen
Monday, August 09, 2004
BLOGWISE - Blog Directory and Weblog Research
These guys are fast. In less than two weeks, they sent me an email saying they had reviewed my blog and "have checked the site for suitability and am pleased to confirm that I have added it to the directory."
If you post blogs and are in need of making it more public, please give them a try.
(0) comments
These guys are fast. In less than two weeks, they sent me an email saying they had reviewed my blog and "have checked the site for suitability and am pleased to confirm that I have added it to the directory."
If you post blogs and are in need of making it more public, please give them a try.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
This week I've decided that we can do both the Farmers' MArket as well as a wedding on Saturday. The menu for the market is going to be Julia Child's French Bread, Bolillos, and half whole wheat bread.
For the sweets, we're doing the Nigerian cookies, Coconut Macaroon, Amaretto cookies, Cinnamon Rolls, and Chocolate croissants. I found a great recipe for croissant pudding at this website, too, that uses the chocolate croissants!Star-Telegram | 07/21/2004 | Express Lane
Please wish me a prosperous weekend - and a quick recovery, as that I'm going to be humping another load of fifty pound flour sacks down to the bakery!
(0) comments
For the sweets, we're doing the Nigerian cookies, Coconut Macaroon, Amaretto cookies, Cinnamon Rolls, and Chocolate croissants. I found a great recipe for croissant pudding at this website, too, that uses the chocolate croissants!Star-Telegram | 07/21/2004 | Express Lane
Please wish me a prosperous weekend - and a quick recovery, as that I'm going to be humping another load of fifty pound flour sacks down to the bakery!
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Another sellout at the farmer's market! The last customer, a very nice man from my former employer, stopped by just as we were putting stuff away. I tried to explain how lemon madeleines are so fantastic that Marcel Proust and M.F.K. Fisher wrote of them. He choose the Sourdough Boule that was remaining and took the manly route of chocolate cherry chunk cookies.
I was able to set aside a package of white chocolate macadamia cookies for Gordo's Taco Shop. And I held a small container of madelaines for a very thoughtful business friend of mine. I had a couple of new-for-me additions this week.
Bolillo Bread, or bolillos, that I am learning how to make for Mexican Tortas. They'll probably be on my weekly bake schedule, since they sold out in two hours.
I made a cookie from a www.thecookietin.com website especially for an acquantance from Nigeria who might see them as a little piece of home.
Coconut Macaroons - this was my first batch of them and they are so easy! I can't remember where I got the recipe, but I had to change it anyway for my big commercial ovens.
4 egg whites, whisked in a mixer until soft peaks
1.5 cups sugar
4.75 cups shredded coconut
While whisking the eggs whites, add the sugar gradually. Stir in the coconut. Put on food-handler's gloves (It's better this way) and roll the mixture into ping-pong ball sized balls and place onto a cookie sheet lined with a silpat or other stick-free baking sheet. I baked them at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes - but I started checking them at 20 minutes. This made a little more than three dozen.
I just found out that there's going to be a live remote broadcast next week at the farmer's market. But I have another obligation for that day. Alas, cruel marketing! I know I'm going to regret spreading myself too thin, but I'll probably do both.
Well I must go back to bed so I can get up for church in the oh dark early hours (6:30 am mass).
(0) comments
I was able to set aside a package of white chocolate macadamia cookies for Gordo's Taco Shop. And I held a small container of madelaines for a very thoughtful business friend of mine. I had a couple of new-for-me additions this week.
Bolillo Bread, or bolillos, that I am learning how to make for Mexican Tortas. They'll probably be on my weekly bake schedule, since they sold out in two hours.
I made a cookie from a www.thecookietin.com website especially for an acquantance from Nigeria who might see them as a little piece of home.
Coconut Macaroons - this was my first batch of them and they are so easy! I can't remember where I got the recipe, but I had to change it anyway for my big commercial ovens.
4 egg whites, whisked in a mixer until soft peaks
1.5 cups sugar
4.75 cups shredded coconut
While whisking the eggs whites, add the sugar gradually. Stir in the coconut. Put on food-handler's gloves (It's better this way) and roll the mixture into ping-pong ball sized balls and place onto a cookie sheet lined with a silpat or other stick-free baking sheet. I baked them at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes - but I started checking them at 20 minutes. This made a little more than three dozen.
I just found out that there's going to be a live remote broadcast next week at the farmer's market. But I have another obligation for that day. Alas, cruel marketing! I know I'm going to regret spreading myself too thin, but I'll probably do both.
Well I must go back to bed so I can get up for church in the oh dark early hours (6:30 am mass).
