Weekend Baking, Part 3

Pane Siciliano. Another two-day bread. But oh so worth it. This is very likely one of the most visually appealing breads I've ever made. Between the "S" shape and the deep color of the crust, it has taken A LOT of willpower to wait to eat it. But I must because I've already got a loaf of ciabatta going and I don't need bread going stale left and right, it'd be madness. (It should be noted that I freeze a lot of bread when I make it. If you wrap it in foil and then stuff it into a freezer bag, it holds up pretty well. I just can't eat it all quickly enough!)



So anyways.. this is another Reinhart bread, which means that it was complicated and I don't feel like typing up the whole recipe. But I will share a few things. First, this is a bread made partly with semolina flour. Semolina flour is the same stuff dried pasta is made from and when you bake with it, it imparts a wonderful flavor and aroma to the bread and it helps to makae the crust the deep color it is. The other things that help with that color are olive oil and honey. Other than those items, it's a standard bread. Sort of.


Making this was easier than the ciabatta, though there was a lot more kneading involved. But that's kind of fun and it's a nice workout. And as if it were possible, baking these loaves smelled even better than the ciabatta loaves. I'll post an update after I've tried a slice, but I am very excited.

Weekend Baking, Part 3

Pane Siciliano. Another two-day bread. But oh so worth it. This is very likely one of the most visually appealing breads I've ever made. Between the "S" shape and the deep color of the crust, it has taken A LOT of willpower to wait to eat it. But I must because I've already got a loaf of ciabatta going and I don't need bread going stale left and right, it'd be madness. (It should be noted that I freeze a lot of bread when I make it. If you wrap it in foil and then stuff it into a freezer bag, it holds up pretty well. I just can't eat it all quickly enough!)




So anyways.. this is another Reinhart bread, which means that it was complicated and I don't feel like typing up the whole recipe. But I will share a few things. First, this is a bread made partly with semolina flour. Semolina flour is the same stuff dried pasta is made from and when you bake with it, it imparts a wonderful flavor and aroma to the bread and it helps to makae the crust the deep color it is. The other things that help with that color are olive oil and honey. Other than those items, it's a standard bread. Sort of.


Making this was easier than the ciabatta, though there was a lot more kneading involved. But that's kind of fun and it's a nice workout. And as if it were possible, baking these loaves smelled even better than the ciabatta loaves. I'll post an update after I've tried a slice, but I am very excited.

A ha!

I did some reading about ciabatta today, specifically about the recipe I used.  Turns out a lot of other people had the same issue of not getting big, open holes and a super-light airy texture.  I'm happy to find out it wasn't something I did wrong but of course this means that I'll need to choose another recipe for the next go around.  I'll pencil it in somewhere...

Grumble

If anyone of the few people who are reading this knows anything about using Blogger, I need a little help. I don't know if it has something to do with using a mac or if its Blogger itself, but basically Blogger hates me and ignores all requests to reformat any of my posts and seems to insist on choosing its own formatting for the post below this one, so... any help? Thanks.

Weekend Baking, Part 2

Ok.  This was on the plan for the weekend.  I got a copy of "The Bread Baker's Apprentice," by Peter Reinhart for my birthday and I've been itching to try one of the recipes from this book since.  Reinhart is a James Beard Award winner so I figured I can't go wrong.  I won't go into the recipe much since its rather involved and there's a a lot of technique-type details that require photos from his book to really get a grasp of. 

The process was kind of fun but it was also a little more difficult than some of the breads I've made.  This may have contributed to the new burn on my left hand, but that might also have been because I'm a little bit stupid and careless.  Verdict's still out on that one.

The loaves looked great.  They smelled amazing.  The whole damn house smelled like a bakery after they'd be in the oven for about 10 minute.  The crust was a great combination of crunchy and soft, a little bit like the soft sided Italian bread we used to get up in Syracuse.  Sadly, when I cut into the first loaf, I didn't find the big holes I was hoping to find.  I'm not sure exactly where I went wrong, but the crumb was pretty tight.  It's not a dense bread by any means, though.  I actually really like the soft, light texture.  But it's not ciabatta.  At least I don't think so.  After I cut a few more slices I started to see some bigger holes, but still nothing like was I was expecting.  I did make three loaves though, so maybe one will turn out be be what I was expecting.  If not, they definitely deserve a repeat attempt.  

Weekend Baking, Part 1

I wasn’t planning on baking anything last night, but I had some free time and wanted to make something, so I tried to decide what I wanted.  At first I settled on chocolate chip cookies, but I thought it’d be worthwhile to try something new and then I remembered a recipe I had come across for chocolate chip yogurt muffins.  I know, it sounds kind of weird, but they ended up being kind of normal.  Well…not exactly.

 

Anyways, here’s the recipe from thefreshloaf.com after I made a few tweaks

Heat oven to 375F.

DRY: 

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup chocolate chips

WET: 

1 beaten egg

6 oz.  low fat vanilla yogurt 

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup melted butter or margarine

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine all dry ingredients (including options) in a large bowl, and wet ones in a smaller bowl. Add wet ingredients to the dry ones. Stir only till moistened.

Fill large or small muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake about 16-18 minutes for large muffins; 12-13 minutes for minis.

The original recipe says that they freeze well.  I’ll probably freeze a few just to test it out.

So here they are.  They came out pretty well.  They’re not nearly as rich as some muffins, which may or may not be obvious based on the ingredient list, but they’re good.  They’re moist and tender, slightly sweet and have a nice hint of vanilla from both the yogurt and the extract.  The originally recipe also says you can use any number of things in place of or in addition to the chocolate chips, like blueberries or chopped nuts, etc. so that may be in order for the next go.  But for now, I’ll enjoy these.

Out for a little ride

Last night I went out for a bike ride through the neighborhood, partly to celebrate finally fixing my bike and partly because it was too damn nice to not be doing something athletic outside. It was a decent ride, about an hour or so. I'm not actually much of a biker, but I've had a nice mountain bike for a few years and sometimes I can't think of any other ways to stay active, so I take the bike out.














Sometimes I wish I had a road bike so it'd be easier to ride to the store or something, but yesterday I was glad I had the mountain bike. I rode around some of the streets for a bit then decided to go play on the gravel walking trails that wind through the woods that my development mostly cleared out for its existence. I got to see the brook that some of the streets claim to be next to (none of them really are) and there was some cool trees and rocks along the way too.














I finally had to pack it up though because I'd be riding in the heat with my pack on to carry my camera and I was drenched in sweat and awfully hungry. But that made it easy to commit myself to devoting most of the rest of this weekend to food.