BAKE!

Department of Correction

If you're wondering what to do with the hazelnuts in the Chocolate Hazelnut Tart recipe on page 18 of BAKE! you are not alone.  Somehow the essential instruction was omitted from the printed book, but it's an easy fix.  At the end of step 4 in the recipe, the missing text should read, "Stir in the hazelnuts."  If only every mistake were as easy to correct...

Gruyere and Walnut Bread from BAKE!

Photo credit:  Quentin Bacon

One of my favorite recipes from BAKE, this bread combines the nutty flavor of Gruyere and the richness of toasted walnut pieces.  In BAKE it's stated as a variation of the sandwich bread recipe.  Here I've rewritten it as a stand-alone recipe and in the style I used for the scores of bread recipes I did for my upcoming bread book.  Enjoy!

Mothers Day 2012

With my mother in late 1995

Yesterday would have been my mother Ann Malgieri's 91st birthday.  Every year she would jokingly remind me, "Now don't forget, I want one cake for my birthday and a different one for Mothers Day."  I don't remember that I ever made two different cakes, but I always drove over with a cake and the makings of a special dinner for Mothers Day. 

Lunch at Nahm in Bangkok

Australian-born chef David Thompson has two restaurants called Nahm to his credit.  The first, opened in 2001, is in the Halkin Hotel in London and has a Michelin star.  The second, at the Metropolitan Hotel in Bangkok, opened in late 2010.  A few months after the opening in Bangkok I had a memorable dinner there and wrote about it here last year.  Lunch a little more than a week ago was also excellent.

We started with an amuse of a pineapple wedge topped with sweet pork, followed by a couple of appetizers:  satays of mussels and minced spicy pork to be rolled into a betel leaf.  The pineapple amuse is above; here are the appetizers:

Mussel satays

Bangkok Update, Day 1

Magosteens at Klong Toey market

April in Thailand is the hottest month of the year; my first day was typically hot, but the humidity was mercifully low, so the heat wasn’t oppressive.  Our weather luck held out for the whole visit.  My friend Jennifer flew in from Hong Kong and the morning after we arrived, it was time for a visit to Klong Toey, our mutual favorite food market. I stocked up on dried chilies and we both indulged in mangoes and mangosteens, at the height of their season, to bring back to the hotel.  Klong Toey is easily accessible via bus, sky train, and of course, taxi.  If you take public transportation, use this Klong Toey map to cover the few blocks from the train.

The market sells every conceivable type of fresh food like these incredible chilies and fresh green peppercorns I was dying to take home:

The Sourdough Chronicles VI: Concluding for now with a rosemary focaccia

Rosemary sourdough focaccia fresh from the oven

It has been exactly 9 days since I first mixed up the new starter.  Last night I made the levain or sponge from it for the focaccia recipe here.  Here's the risen levain early this morning:

Sourdough V: Almost ready to bake...

After the last step, I fed the starter again:  100 grams starter, 100 grams tap water (the starter was fermenting easily enough, so I switched), 100 grams unbleached bread flour. Here's what the starter looked like before feeding: Starter after the fifth feeding

Sourdough IV: Liftoff!

I've always loved "before and after" photos and though I don't think any professional photographers will be green with envy about the following ones, they sure do the trick for me.  But before the photos, more instructions:

Put 100 grams of your starter from the previous step into a 1-quart plastic container; stir in 100 grams distilled or spring water and 100 grams unbleached bread flour:

Before (note the red line)

I fed the starter in these containers late last night. This is what I found early this morning:

Sourdough III: Feeding the new starter

Once your initial mix for the starter has begun to ferment, you'll need to feed it.  Feeding gives the yeast more carbohydrates to digest allowing it to continue fermenting.

Uncover the starter and add:

100 grams distilled water or spring water

100 grams unbleached bread flour

Stir the water into the starter to dilute it, then smoothly stir in the flour.  Scrape the starter into a clean bowl.  Note the date and time of the feeding on the label, then cover the bowl.  Here's my starter atop the refrigerator next to what's left of a 50-pound sack of bread flour and a gallon of distilled water:

Now, the waiting game again...  If it's warm in the room, the starter should begin fermenting after 6 to 12 hours.

Sourdough II: Mixing the Starter

Cultivating a new sourdough starter is just about the easiest baking project you can attempt.  See the previous post for particulars on the equipment and ingredients.

100 grams organic dark (whole grain) rye flour

100 grams (weight) distilled water or spring water

1/4 teaspoon organic barley malt syrup or organic maple syrup

Pinch of additive-free salt (take the pinch between your thumb and index finger)

1.  Put a 1-quart bowl on a digital scale and tare (zero) the scale.  Weigh the flour, then tare the scale again.

2.  Slowly pour in the water until you have exactly 100 grams.  Scrape the malt syrup off the spoon into the water and add the pinch of salt.

3.  Use a new or scrupulously clean rubber spatula to mix to a heavy paste as in the photo above.

4.  Scrape the starter into a larger glass bowl, spread it flat, cover with plastic wrap and label with the date and time.

The Sourdough Chronicles, Part I

A fully developed, acidulated and bubbly sourdough starter

Cultivating a sourdough starter from scratch is easy – as long as you use the right ingredients.  When I first tried making a starter about 20 years ago for How to Bake I began with white flour, distilled water and nothing else – it was a hit-and-miss process.  Last summer when I needed to get some starter going for BREAD! I consulted Professor Calvel’s book Le Gout du Pain (The Flavor of Bread) and saw that he used a combination of white and whole-grain (dark) rye flour.  I also discussed cultivating a new starter with Sim Cass who developed new bread formulas for the career-training baking program at ICE.  Then I went about developing a formula that merged both methods.