Monthly Archives: January 2021

Pugliese Please

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Pugliese is not the easiest of breads to make, but is one of the tastiest with wonderful crumb and crust. The recipe below calls for durum flour, but I substituted what I had on hand, which is Soft Wheat Flour Tipo “00”. This is a high hydration dough which means it is very hard to handle. It is very soft and very sticky and you don’t want to add extra flour to make it easier to handle as you will reduce the hydration.

Typically pugliese is made in round loaves, but I made one round and one batard, as those are the Dutch Ovens I have. Anyway, if you are up to it, and have some time, give this a try. It is one of the best breads I have ever made.

Pugliese, high hydration Italian loaf

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20595/pugliese-high-hydration-italian-loaf

This is approx 82% (the recipe 3 X’s is approx 84%) total hydration dough. The recipe comes from Rose Levy Beranbaum ‘the bread bible’

INGREDIENTS
Biga

  1. 225 g – All purpose flour
  2. 3/16th tsp – 0.6 g instant yeast
  3. 177 g – water, at room temperature (70F to 90F)
    Dough
    • 213 g – All Purpose flour
    • 213 g – Duram Flour – or Soft Wheat Flour Tipo “00”
    • 1 ½ tsp – 4.8 g Instant Yeast
    • 15 g – salt
    • 354 g – water, at room temperature (70F to 90F) about 12 oz
    METHOD
    6 hours or up to 3 days ahead, make the biga. Use the “Ultimate Flavor” method (let the biga to ferment for 12-24 hours at 55-65 deg, then store in the fridge.)
  4. Combine all the biga ingredients in a large bowl and stir the mixture until smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl…3 to 5 minutes. Should be sticky or tacky enough to cling to your fingers. Cover the bowl, with oiled plastic or lid and set aside until tripled and filled with bubbles..about 6 hours. Stir it down and use it, or refrigerate it up to 3 days.
  5. In a large bowl, dissolve the biga in the water… a few little undissolved pieces are ok.
  6. Whisk together flours, yeast. Add salt and whisk again.
  7. Add the flour mixture to the biga and water and mix until wet and combined.
  8. Autolyse (self digest) for approx 50 minutes
  9. Stretch and fold 3 times.
  10. Repeat stretch and fold 3 or 4 times -30 minutes apart,
  11. After dough forms good gluten strands, (I cut the dough in half here as I didn’t have a proofing container big enough to proof this large a recipe,) form a ball, and cover, letting it rise in a (ideally 75F to 80F) until tripled…about 2 hours.
  12. Preheat oven and Dutch ovens to 500F.
  13. 1 hour before baking pour the dough out of the bowl onto lightly floured surface…cut it in half.. and with very few gentle motions pull it over itself into a rough ball. Gently pick it up and drop it seam side up into the floured banneton. Sprinkle top lightly with flour, and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Allow to rise until it has increased by about 1 ½ times, up to 1 ½ hours. It will just start to push up the plastic. Dust with a little flour and score the top with 3 or 4 large slashes.
  14. Bake with steam turning down the oven after the first five minutes and then continue baking with steam for 12 minutes total at 450F or adjusting your ovens temperature to bake the loaves for approx another 20 minutes, until deep golden brown….leave loaves in off oven with door ajar for 5 to 10 minutes

Knot In My Stomach

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Actually, it is a lemon knot in my stomach. Dan and Frances gave me some lemons from a neighbor’s tree, permission granted of course. I happen to see a simple recipe for Lemon Knots and decided that would be a great place to use one of the lemons. It was.

It is a very easy recipe, especially since I do not make my own puff pastry. I tried rough puff once, but found the full puff purchased in the market is better than what I could make at home. I may make full puff one day, just for the experience. I’m thinking about it. No promises.

Now, what to do with the other 11 lemons….

I added some sparkling sugar after the egg wash. It provides a little crunch and sweetness balance to the lemon zest.

Lemon Knots with Puff Pastry


https://www.thebittersideofsweet.com/2018/05/30/puff-pastry-lemon-knots/

INGREDIENTS
• 1 sheet Puff Pastry, thawed
• 1 Egg
• 1 tablespoon Water
• 1/3 cup Powdered Sugar
• 3 teaspoons Lemon Juice
• Lemon Zest

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix together egg and water and set aside. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. On floured surface unfold pastry and roll out into a rectangle. Cut 12 strips.
  3. Fold each strip in half from top to bottom. Then make a knot.
  4. Place on baking sheet and brush with egg wash.
  5. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
  6. In the meantime, whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice.
  7. Brush on cooled knots. Top with lemon zest.

Here Today, Scone Tomorrow

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Raspberries were on sale ($2.99/package,) the forecast was for light rain, and it was a non-golf day. Whaddya expect? Scone morning everyone!

Dropped berry scones make a delicious, easy, breakfast in 30 minutes. This recipe makes 6 large free-formed scones. I formed these by hand shaping them into hamburger-like 3” diameter patties.

I froze half of them for a future breakfast. Scones can be frozen for up to 3 months, then thawed on the counter for an hour before reheating in the oven. Even easier is to microwave them, still frozen, in 30 second bursts, being careful not to overheat them.

Where We Stop, Nobody…

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I saw this video on FB last week. A baker from Turkey demonstrated making these small, round, enriched bread loaves. The method was so simple and the final product so beautiful I couldn’t resist trying my hand.

The video was in the baker’s language, but it was captioned either with automatically created captions (I hope) or by someone who was very obviously neither a baker or a native English speaker. In honesty, the computer’s, or human translator’s, mastery of English is far better than my translation to any language other than igpay -atinlay.

Luckily, and oddly, the recipe ingredients were listed below the video. Oddly in that they were listed in US and Metric units. The method was pretty standard and required little adjustment. I made a few modifications to the original recipe. I mixed and kneaded the down in my stand mixer, rather than my hand. I divided the dough into 7 pieces of 150g each. Next time, I will make each 175g and make 6 loaves as reflected below. This batch of loaves were 5” diameter and 2/5” high. I would like them a little bigger, maybe 6×3”.

The cutting board in this photo was made by my father, or me, I cannot remember, but it is still our day to day cutting board ‘lo these 40+ years.

Enriched Bread – Small Round Loaves

INGREDIENTS
• 200 ml warm milk
• 200 ml warm water
• 10 g (1 Tbl) sugar
• 10g (1 Tbl) instant yeast
• 30 g (2 Tbl) melted butter
• 600g (5 cups) flour
• 8 g (1 tsp) salt
• 25g butter cut in strips to lay on cut rolls before baking

METHOD

  1. Add milk, water, sugar and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until combined
  2. Add 300 g flour,butter, salt and mix
  3. Add remaining 300 g of flour and knead until a smooth dough forms, about 8 minutes.
  4. Form the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. (I spray olive oil into the stand mixer bowl.)
  5. Cover and let rise for 45 min
  6. Gently deflate the dough and divide into six 175g pieces
  7. Roll each piece into a ball, tensioning the surface by rolling with a cupped hand on a clean surface. Each ball should be approx 3” diameter
  8. Pat each ball down to flatten and place, well spaced, on a parchment paper lined baking tray. Oven spring will double the size of the loaves
  9. Cover and let rise for 15 – 20 minutes until it passes the poke test
  10. Dust lightly with four, cut a deep slash all the way across the ball with a lame or razor blade or very sharp knife.
  11. Lay a strip of butter, about 0.5”x0.5”x3” long in each slash. (Cut a stick of butter lengthwise into ninths.
  12. Bake in a preheated over at 400F for 25 min.

Cheese and Jalapeño Bread Twists

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I made some Olive Bread Sticks a few days ago which quickly disappeared. To follow up, I decided to design a recipe for Cheese and Jalapeño Bread Twists. I used a basic 80% hydration dough and Frances’s home made pickled jalapeños.

At the request of the QC Department, Manufacturing was tasked with making a few minus the jalapeños, which I, err… I mean they, did. Let me give you a bit of advice. If you make these bread twists, I strongly suggest having a glass of milk next to you after your second or third bite. If your peppers are anywhere near as hot as Frances’s (although she won’t think these are all that hot) you will be grateful for the advice. These are delicious. (Hot, but delicious.)

If you would like them for an appetizer or hors d’oeuvres cut them into little one inch pieces. Best if served warm.

Cheddar Jalapeños Cheese Twists

INGREDIENTS
• 354g (1½ cups) warm water
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. yeast
• 437g (3½ cups) AP flour
• 1 tsp Salt
• 3 Tbl butter
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 cup finely diced pickled jalapeños
• 1 egg for wash
• Sea Salt

METHOD

  1. Mix warm water, sugar and yeast together. Let that sit for 5 minutes.
  2. Add flour and salt to the water. Mix this until smooth and ferment for 10 min.
  3. Roll out the dough in a ~ 15 x 15” square on a floured surface.
  4. Brush the dough with the melted butter and sprinkle with cheddar cheese and diced jalapeños.
  5. Fold the dough in half. Cut the dough into one inch strips.
  6. Twist the one inch strips of dough and place on a cookie sheet.
  7. Cover with oil sprayed plastic wrap and proof for 30 min.
  8. Coat with egg wash and sprinkle with Sea Salt.
  9. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min or until golden brown.