Archive for the ‘Bread’ Category

Ok, I guess it pays up most of the time.. As a formerly impulsive person, patience was a quality that was hard for me to acquire. Someone who enjoys instant pleasures and loves succeeding without putting in too much effort, finds it hard to get around the idea of a long process that brings fruit only on its end, and God forbid, even carries with it a few failures along the way. But like a few other qualities, my Grandpa, growing up, and life itself have taught me to overcome those urges, to wait.

Growing sourdough at home requires patience. Sourdough is, in fact, natural yeast, that replace all or almost all the yeast in recipes. It also enriches the products you make from it with a slightly sour taste, which cannot evolve in simple breads you make using regular yeast with no starter dough or lengthy making processes. The initial sourdough growing takes a few days, during which it usually needs to be fed once a day. After it’s ready it will also require some once a week TLC in the form of water and flour.

It took me 2 failed attempts and a successful third one to get my sourdough right. As soon as it started spreading that wonderful yeasty scent, I began looking for good sourdough bread recipes. I’ve tried 2 so far, both of them by Eric Kayser, a very talented French pastry chef. The first recipe I tried was of baguettes, which turned out tasty but I wasn’t that pleased with the texture. The second recipe I tried produced the most wonderful ciabatta breads! I tweaked with the recipe a bit - using whole wheat flour and bread flour mixed together, and I also let it rise for much longer than specified in the recipe, simply because of circumstance.

The ciabattas turned out having a wonderful stiff crust, big holes, which I adore seeing in breads, and a marvelous and balanced taste. Patience is required when making this recipe, it needs to rise 4 different times, but it is definitely worth your while.

Some notes and tips about the bread:

* There are two types of sourdough - a stiff one, that looks like a regular dough (in French: Levain dur), and a liquid one (in French: Levain liquide). The recipe in this post makes use of levain liquide.

* I used the clear instructions on Joy the Baker’s blog to make the sourdough. She has written a great step by step guide to preparing and maintaining sourdough, photos included.

* When I refresh my sourdough, which happens once a week, except for the water and flour I also add to it half a teaspoon of honey, which is a good choice of food for the yeast. A good friend from my pastry course, Idan, gave me this tip a few weeks ago. This doesn’t affect the taste of the products made from it, or at least not that I’ve noticed.

Cibatta au levain liquide / Adapted from Eric Kayser
Makes 4 ciabatta breads

Ingredients:
375 gr bread flour
130 gr whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp active dry yeast
150 gr levain liquide
350 ml water, warm
2 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Place both types of flour and the dry yeast in a bowl and mix them together.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients except for the salt. Start kneading.
3. When the mixture starts forming into a dough, add the salt. Knead for 10-12 minutes.
4. Let rise at room temperature until double in volume. With my sourdough it took about 6 hours.
5. Fold the dough to get some of the air out of it, and let rise again until double in volume (again, about 6 hours).
6. Move the dough to a working surface, be careful and try to avoid getting any air out of it at this point. Divide the dough into 4 equally sized parts. Let rise an hour at room temperature.
7. Gently shape each part into a ciabatta, by gently pulling the dough from each side. Don’t worry if the shape isn’t perfect, the most important thing is to keep as much air as you can inside the dough. Let rise for 45 minutes at room temperature. Meanwhile preheat oven to 500F (260C). If you have a baking stone, place it in the lower third of the oven before preheating it.
8. If you want to produce a harder crust, sprinkle some water into the oven before putting the breads in it, which will create a moist environment. Bake the breads for about 10-12 minutes, or until knocking with your finger on one of them produces a hollow sound.
9. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

There is something magical about Friday afternoons. The street’s commotion is slowly fading away, and is replaced with tender and soft clouds of calmness, that descend all over town. Cooking aromas rise from the neighbours, letting our senses imagine what great meals are being cooked for the Friday night family dinner. All this atmosphere excites me a great deal, and that’s one of the reasons Friday afternoons are my preferred baking time.

The shaped challah, before rising

And after rising… chubby and cute

In my early years I’ve never been very much of a family person, and most of the time I used to look for outdoor activities. And then there was this moment when I started enjoying and appreciating that nice family time at dinners, and now I’m a big fan. Those holiday times, when folks at work are constantly complaining about that family overdose - these times are heavenly for me!

I’ve made this challah for the first time a couple of years ago, when we were about to go and dine with Avi’s family. Everyone, including me, loved it so much that there hasn’t been a dinner I haven’t brought it to ever since. And though I found many tempting challah recipes along the way, I wasn’t able to bring myself to try them, knowing that I’ve already got the winner in my hands.

Some notes and tips about the challah:

* You can use this dough also for making sweet rolls, which you can shape as you please - as regular round rolls, or in an 8 shape, a knot shape or simply braided, as the big challah shown here in the pics.

* Extra crunchiness - Avi prefers his challah with raisins. But this bread will also welcome dried cranberries, or walnuts or even chocolate chips. Add them to the dough after it has finished the first rising process, and you’ve taken all the air out of it.

* The recipe indicates to brush the bread with beaten egg before inserting it into the oven. This gives it a great intense color and contributes to a crunchier crust. But there are times when I prefer it less golden and less crunchy - and then I simply brush it with water, instead of the egg.

* Yeast - I know quite a lot of people that have yeastofobia. This may have been a reasonable fear 10 years ago, when the yeast weren’t of the quality they make them nowadays, and you had to jumpstart them using some sugar and water. Today there’s no need for that, and also no need for your fear. As long as you use the yeast before their “use by” date, and follow the recipe (that will usually tell you to add the yeast to the dough ingredients apart from the oil and salt, which could kill them), there’s really nothing to be afraid of.

* Yeast 2 - Most of the time I’m using active dry yeast, simply because they last longer. If I’m using just a part of a yeast package, I seal it as much as I can, and refrigerate it. That’s how I found it best to keep them.

* Converting fresh yeast to active dry yeast - you should use a third of the quantity of fresh yeast specified in the recipe when you want to use dry yeast instead.  If you want to convert the other way around - multiply the dry yeast quantity specified in the recipe by 2.5-3 in order to use fresh yeast.

Sweet Challah / Carine Goren
Makes 2 challah breads

Ingredients:
1 kg all-purpose flour
50 gr fresh yeast (or 17 gr active dry ones)
3/4 cup sugar (or 1/2 a cup if you prefer it less sweet)
2 eggs
1 3/4 - 2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp salt

1 egg, beaten, for brushing before baking (optional, see tips)
sesame

Directions:
1. Place the flour in a bowl and mix the yeast into it.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and knead at medium speed for about 10-12 minutes, until the dough is shiny, and sticks a bit to the bottom of the bowl, but isn’t sticky all in all.
3. Grease the surface of the dough with a little oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise until the dough doubles its volume.
4. Divide the dough into 2 even parts. Divide each part into 3 even parts, and roll each one of the into a stripe, and braid the 3 stripes of each challah together. If you want to do a more elaborate braid, made out of 5 stripes instead of 3, divide each one of the 2 dough parts into 5 even stripes. Then give numbers to the stripes from 1 to 5, pinch all the 5 stripes together on one of the ends, then put no. 1 over no. 3, then enumerate the stripes again in the new order and put (the new) no. 2 over no. 3. Enumerate the stripes again and put no.5 over no. 2, enumerate again and repeat the whole process (1 over 3 and so forth).
5. Place the shaped breads on a pan lined with parchment paper, and let rise until it doubles its volume.
6. Brush the breads with the beaten egg or with water (see tips), scatter sesame all over them, and bake in an oven preheated to 350F (180C) for about 35 minutes, or until golden (on all sides, bottom as well). Another good indication for knowing that the bread we’ve baked is ready, is to knock on its bottom, if the sound it makes is hollow, you can take it out of the oven.
7. Cool and serve.

Of all the things I bake, bread is the one thing that amazes me the most. Although it’s one of the simplest things to make, and maybe even because of that, the process of putting such a small amount of ingredients together, kneading them, letting them rise and with almost no effort at all, getting such a wonderful smelling loaf that bakes slowly in the oven, rises some more, and fills the house with a great scent - you must understand the pleasure I’m talking about. Actually, the person that made me admire this whole bread baking process is Michael, a friend of mine from work, who worked as a cook for a couple of years for some famous restaurants in Tel Aviv, in between 2 high-tech jobs.

I don’t get to make bread as much as I want. I’d like to make bread every weekend. Bread means home to me, and on weekends, when you’re home with your loved ones, what can be a better companion, food-wise, than bread? Anyway, I get to make it just maybe once a month.

Lately, after tasting some seriously amazing loaves from the Arcaffe bakery here in our town, I’ve really wanted to make something similar. I browsed through their web-site and read that they developed their bread recipes with Eric Kayser’s help, and that the recipes are secret. I’ve tried to find some of Kayser’s bread recipe, but no luck there as well… What I do know is that their bread is made using sourdough and that it’s really crusty. I’m planning to start raising my own sourdough soon, but this time I made the bread using regular yeast.

I found this recipe on Recipezaar, it had so many good reviews that I decided to try it. The dough is great and really easy to work with. I’ve sprinkled water on top of the loaf while baking in the oven (did it 2 times) so the crust would become crunchier, and it did. Next time, though, I’ll sprinkle some more water, for an even crunchier crust. I’ve also rolled the bread in flour after shaping it and before the second rise, and also scattered some cornmeal on top of it. The loaf tasted great, and was airy and fluff. The cornmeal added more crunchiness to the bread. The great taste lasted only one day, though, the next day it was a bit dry.
All in all it was a good bread, nothing sophisticated about its taste or anything - just good and easy to make white bread.

Crusty French Bread / Recipezaar
Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients:
2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
5-5 1/2 cups bread flour

Directions:
1. Dissolve yeast in warm water and sugar in large bowl; allow yeast to proof or foam (about 10 minutes).
2. Add salt, oil, and 3 cups flour; beat for 2 minutes.
3. Stir in 2 cups flour to make a stiff dough.
4. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
5. Place in oiled bowl, turn dough to coat all sides, cover and let rise until doubled.
6. Punch down and divide in half.
7. Shape dough into two long slender loaves.
8. Grease and sprinkle with cornmeal either a french bread pan or large cookie sheet.
9. Place loaves in pan and cut diagonal gashes on top of each loaf (I use scissors).
10. Cover and let rise until doubled.
11. Bake at 375°F (190°C) for about 30 minutes.
12. Note: You can sprinkle or spray water on the loaves during baking if you want a really crunchy crust.

לחם צרפתי / מתכון מהאתר Recipezaar
עבור 2 כיכרות

רכיבים:
2 כוסות מים חמימים
1 כף שמרים יבשים
1 כף שמן
1 כף סוכר
2 כפיות מלח
5-5 1/2 כוסות קמח לחם (שטיבל 2)

הכנה:
1. ממיסים את השמרים במים החמימים יחד עם הסוכר בקערה גדולה. משאירים כ-10 דקות, עד שנוצר קצף.
2. מוסיפים מלח, שמן, ו-3 כוסות מהקמח. לשים כ-2 דקות.
3. מוסיפים 2 כוסות נוספות מהקמח, עד ליצירת בצק עמיד.
4. לשים כ-10 דקות, עד לקבלת בצק חלק וגמיש.
5. מניחים את הבצק בקערה משומנת, משמנים גם את פני הבצק עצמו. מכסים ומתפיחים במקום חמים עד להכפלת הנפח.
6. מוציאים את האויר מהבצק התפוח ומחלקים לשני חצאים.
7. מעצבים את הלחמים שלנו - אפשר כשני כיכרות ארוכים.
8. מגלגלים בקמח ומפזרים קמח תירס מעל. מניחים את הכיכרות על תבנית מרופדת בנייר אפיה או בתוך תבנית לחם מתאימה.
9. חותכים בעזרת סכין חתכים אלכסוניים לאורך הכיכרות.
10. מכסים ומתפיחים עד להכפלת הנפח.
11. אופים ב - 190 מעלות, כ-30 דקות, עד להזהבה.
12. הערה: ניתן להתיז מים על הכיכרות בעודן נאפות בתנור, להשגת קרום קשה יותר.