Tasty treats, a disaster, and a field trip (to Pasticceria Bruno).
So I have been a busy little beaver this past week and fate has been mostly kind. Even though i was hobbled by last week's unfortunate encounter with a slow cooker box, I wasn't really slowed down too much in the kitchen. First up this week was a garlic and asiago cheese ciabatta built on a poolish.
Outside:
and inside:
the picture is a bit washed out but it had a nice open crumb laced with asiago and chunks of garlic. crust was thin, toasty and plenty chewy. I'd to get it a little thicker in future attemps which I think will happen if I use my starter instead of commericial yeast (lower the ph) and bake it a little longer.
The following day, I hit up the restaurant supply store and went on a bit of a shopping spree. A metal peel, two bannetons and an oven thermometer (finally) later, I returned, anxious to bake. I whipped up some jalapeno and cheddar bread with some levain from the day before. It looked great going in the oven, but then mr thermocouple died awfully dead and left me with a slowly cooling oven and these half-cooked loaves:
and the marvelous crumb that would have been:
The next day that old clunker of an oven was one part younger and back in action, but it was a bit too late for me. I had taken off for NJ/NYC with my grilfriend for the weekend. We found ourselve in pasticceria bruno which, despite the prominently displayed copy of Artisan Baking, took me all of a half hour to realize that this was the bakery Glezer featured in her book along side Biago's pandoro recipe. I ordered four seasons pizza and a cup of dulce de leche gelato. The food was delicious. The pizza crust was a bit soft for my liking, but the out of this world creamy fresh mozz more than compensated.
I also got a loaf of sourdough bread to take home. From the looks of the camera-shy crumb, it was about 70% hydration and have a small percentage of whole wheat flour. We ate it the following day with some herbed olive oil. The bread was subtley sour and its hearty crust and airy crumb were very well balanced. I hope to make some progress towards achieving this kind of balance in the coming months. Here's the loaf:
We got back last night and this evening I started baking for my trip on the 27th to lake placid. I'm staying in a house with 20 bread lovers so I'm planning to bring about 5 loaves with me. I made two boules to take and a baguette for myself. The dough is built on pate fermentee, 65% hydration, and had a small percentage of whole grain rye and wheat germ added. Tastes slightly sweet and nutty, with a very light crumb.
The outside, all washed out with that pesky flash:
and the crumb, which refused to stand still for its close-up. Please, forgive the blurriness:
phew. well, once school starts again i'll have something to keep me from baking non-stop, but until then I've got another month to blow paychecks on flour. This week i'm working on returning my starter to glory, and might bake one more batch of bread to take up to lake placid. I'm thinking about making some pizza with some friends on wednesday night too... we'll see.
benji
Comments
I want the ciabatta. Do you know how wonderful I would instantly become in the eyes of all who know me if I fed them a loaf like that? Did you follow the Glezer recipe and add in? The boules are lovely. Doesn't look like there'll be any left by the time Friday rolls around...
Thanks browndog. It certainly is a loaf for making friends, haha. The ciabatta is loosely based on the bba poolish ciabatta, but I've adjusted the proportions a bit. For the poolish I put ten oz of 60 degree water with 10 oz of ka bread flour and an 1/8 t of instant yeast, mixed till it was smooth with a wooden sppon and let it sit at room temp for 10 hours, at which point it is bubbly and tastes slightly sweet but has not collapsed. Then I added 15 more oz of bread flour, and dissolved the poolish in 7.5 oz of water bring the dough to 70% hydration (I think if i had gone a little higher, i wouldn't have needed to slash). I mixed those two, let them rest for 20 min, added 1.5 t instant yeast and 3t kosher salt, and mixed until it was smooth. I folded it twice during its primary fermentation at 20 and 40 min then let it double, shaped, let it rise for an hour and the threw them in my oven. I have some dough pics here. As for shaping, i did a typical ciabatta fold but put some thin slices of asiago (made with a veggie peeler) and about 6 chopped cloves of roasted garlic in the middle.
Your breads look sooo incredibly beautiful! I am drooling over here at the asiago and garlic ciabatta.
You are making me want to run and pull out my Sir Stinky, my starter right now for the others!
Would you mind tell me or describing to me a "typical ciabatta fold", please?
Thanks bluezebra, I was really proud of them this week! By ciabatta fold i meant to lay the dough flat on the counter, fold one third on to the center, then then other third on that, then stretch it in the direction parallel with the seam. I proof this shape seam side up and bake it seam side down. I have some bad pictures of the dough pre and post fold here.
If you have any more questions/suggestions i'd love to hear them.
giving YOU lessons, lol! Your breads are beauties and I can only dream of making mine look like that right now! Your fold sounds good! I will try it when I make Ciabatta, maybe next week.
I like your photos. It's wild how much your dough came together from before to after shots. Did you develop it solely by hand using a "stretch and fold" type of technique?
TIA!
Hey, just cause they looked nice doesn't mean it's out of your reach, bluezebra!
I mixed the dough by hand after a 20 min autolyze. i left it in the bowl, streching it, folding it back in on itself, then rotating it 90 degree for ~10 min.