the Art of Eating: Article Review

I couldn't have been more excited when I saw the cover of the Spring 2011 issue of the Art of Eating. Pop art brioche!  It doesn't get much better. This quarterly, advertisement free, food literature magazine is based out of Peacham, VT.  I first became acquainted with it while baking at The Patisserie in Milford, PA where it regularly appears on their newsstand.  

Upon receiving the this issue, I immediately skipped to the article "Brioche" by James MacGuire...a man after my own heart.  MacGuire included details about the history, travels and types of brioche along with a recipe and instructions to make your own.  Through his text and dialogues with French bakers, brioche was romanticized in a way that would make Proust (and his madeleine) proud.

He writes: "Within the chestnut-colored exterior lies a yielding delicacy.  So complex is the mix of the buttery fermented flavors of the crumb and the contrasting dark, well-baked toastiness of the crust that brioche is often used as a metaphor to describe yeasty, full-flavored cuvees of Champagne - a compliment to both."

MacGuire also discusses how underrated brioche tends to be.  Pastry chefs are too wrapped up in chocolate and cakes to care about baking a yeasty delicacy.  On the other hand, bread bakers are too consumed with baguettes and sourdoughs to work with a fickle, buttery dough.  Alas, the poor brioche gets stuck in the middle...not quite a bread, not quite a pastry.  MacGuire himself fell into this trap.  In pastry school he admits he was too "busy" to learn how to make brioche.  However, he confesses, "When I did learn to make it, I understood Maurice's [the head baker] insistence that something so delicious yet so simple must be perfect."  This took me straight back to my days at The Culinary Institute of America where I was required to present six perfect brioche a tete in order to graduate.

If you haven't had the pleasure of reading an issue of the Art of Eating, order a copy from their website. You won't be disappointed.  I highly suggest ordering this particular issue as "Brioche" was far and away the best article I have encountered to highlight the joys of eating and baking this special bread.

Dexter's Laboratory

When Mark and I were in the early planning stages of The Patisserie, we knew the menu was going to be local.  He is very strong in his convictions about organic, local products.  I wanted my piece of the menu to incorporate as many Pennsylvania traditions as I could.  I found out the Milford, 'Mill' ford, once milled buckwheat flour.  I use a buckwheat flour blend in my seeded wheat bread.  I make an apple bread because we are just a few miles from Warwick, NY, apple capitol, USA.  I use onions and potatoes from Pine Island, NY (check your bag of onions, I bet they were harvested in Pine Island!) in a beer bread which also incorporates, Yeunling, our Nation's oldest brewed beer, from Pottsville, PA.  When we first opened I made pretzels a la the Pennsylvania Dutch.  Of all my attempts at creating local, story based products, these were the least successful.  I thought they were beauties but the soft, salty twists just didn't sell.  I made pretzel kaiser rolls for Mark to use in a roast beef and blue cheese sandwich but he didn't sell enough of them to make it worth the daily pretzel process.

Pretzels are not as easy as you may think.  Mixing the dough is pretty simple.  It is a straight dough, meaning there are no starters, nothing to do the day before.  Everything is dumped into the bowl and it gets the hell beat out of it.  Most of my doughs are gently mixed but this one is mixed hard and strong.  Pretzels are supposed to be chewy and dense, not light and airy like a far less mixed ciabatta would be.  Typically, high gluten flour is used which is the same one would use when making bagels.  I use regular bread flour because I want my pretzels to be a little softer than the norm.  Once the dough is mixed, I divide it into 3 ounce portions and shape it into little logs.  These logs rest for a while before I roll the dough out into long snakey strands and twist them into the pretzel shape.  The resting step is super important in pretzel production because of the intense mixing.  The gluten strands are forming such a tight network, they need to relax before you can roll them into the long strands.  If they aren't given the proper time to relax, they will A. spring back into short strands and/or B. rip and tear.  The pretzel twisting isn't too difficult once you get the hang of it.  They kinda twist themselves if you get the right wiggle going.

The hard part of pretzel production is the dipping.  Pretzels have to be dipped in a lye solution in order to get that nice dark, crisp, salty crust.  Some home recipes say baking soda can be used to achieve this.  It can't, I tried.  I hate working with the lye because it is a hazardous chemical, sodium hydroxide.  Did you ever see the scene in fight club when Brad Pitt sprinkles lye on Ed Norton's hand and it burns a hole in it?  That's what I dip the pretzels in.  The solution is one ounce of lye with one quart of water.  I have seen bare handed bakers dip pretzels in this mix.  Not me!  I wear heavy rubber work gloves that come up to my elbows and I make sure I'm wearing my glasses to protect my eyes.  Carolyn, my dip assistant extraordinaire, says I look like Dexter from Dexter's laboratory when I'm in the process.  Once the pretzels are dipped, Carolyn sprinkles salt on top and they are baked until dark, golden brown.  Yum!

The hotel next door is interested in ordering pretzel kaisers so this week pretzels returned to our menu selection.  They are selling like hot cakes.  Finally, enough sales to make the pretzel production worth while.  I'm sure the Super Bowl helped out with the sales.  Pretzels and football seem to be well paired.  Carolyn and I also played around with filled pretzels and we came up with a yummy, 4 cheese jalapeno concoction.  Double Yum!

500 Pound Baker

As a baker, the comments I hear most from my admirers are 'I can't believe you don't weigh 500 pounds,' or 'how do you stay so thin,' or 'if I worked here I would gain so much'.  Really, if I had a dollar for every time I heard a variation of this, I'd be rolling in the dough.  The truth is, after I had my babies, I couldn't wait to get back to work so I could shed some pounds.

Baking isn't an easy job.  Working in any capacity in a kitchen, isn't an easy job.  For starters, I bake all the bread at 500 degrees.  The oven is the center of the bakery and I am loading bread in and out all day.  I don't care how cold it gets outside, 500 degrees makes you sweat.  They don't make air conditioners with enough capacity to efficiently cool a space using bread ovens...500 degree ovens + 95 degree weather = more sweat.  I remember one day at Amy's Bread, the ambient temperature rose above 110 degrees.

Aside from the ovens, there's the dough.  My dough tubs are about 20 pounds a piece and I have about 10 of them a day.  This is a very small quantity compared to many bakeries.  I move my 10 tubs around the room several times.  During the winter, I'm moving them from hot spot to hot spot and rotating them to make sure they are evenly heated.  I have to fold all the dough at least once during it's rise.  I stack, unstack, re-stack...lots of lifting and bending.  Each time I need a 50 pound bag of flour, which is about twice a day, I have to run down two flights of stairs and carry it back up to the kitchen.  The flour sacks are just the start of this two flight trip.  I have to go down to storage for all the dry goods...nuts, dried fruits, seeds, salt, yeast....

Energy exertion aside, being surrounded by baked goods day in and day out, doesn't mean they are beckoning.  Yes, I eat a lot of bread but probably no more than average.  The bread I eat is probably a little on the healthier side of average as well.  I don't eat a lot of sweets on the days I am working.  Mark and I were just conversing about this natural diet plan.  On the days I'm working, I am surrounded by sweetness and all I really want is a bacon, egg and cheese.  On the two days I am off, I crave the sweet stuff but the last thing I want to do is make it myself and I'm not going to get crappy store brand sweetness when there's better out there...just two days away.  Sometimes I remember to grab a couple cookies for the road on Sunday before our weekend begins.  Sometimes, I venture into another bakery to get something sweet.  Rarely, I bake a pan of brownies at home.  Mostly, I wait until Wednesday when I can have anything I want and I don't really want it anymore.

That's my story...why I don't weigh 500 pounds.  If you happen to see a 500 pound baker, it must be the boss and he/she can't possibly be doing much of the baking anymore.  

Doubled in Size

ciabatta dough on the rise

That's what she said...he, he, he.  Clearly, my new found love for 'The Office' has gotten the best of me. 

Almost every bread recipe you find will tell you to let the bread rise until it has doubled in size.  I let bread rise every day and this still baffles me.  How are you supposed to remember the original size in order to know if it has doubled?  If you're anything like me, ie impatient, you check the dough every five minutes to see if it is ready to go into the oven.  Okay, maybe I don't check it every five minutes when I'm making a couple hundred pounds of dough but if I'm just making a small batch...I check it every five minutes.  I actually tell my students to find something else to do for a couple hours when they are baking at home.  Forgetting about the dough is the best option, sometimes.

I find the best way to know if the bread is ready to bake is the finger poke test.  This is so easy and it works every time.  Simply poke a fingertip into the dough and watch it spring back.  If the dough immediately springs back and holds its original shape, it's not ready, not even close to ready.  If the dough deflates when you touch it, you have over-proofed dough that will not rise again.  If the finger dimple springs back slowly and still leaves a slight impression in the dough, it's perfect.  You can bake away.  This works every time with every kind of dough.  There you have it, doubled in size - demystified.

Don't worry if you don't get it right.  I still jump the gun.  As a matter of fact, just last week I grossly under proofed a batch of brioche buns.  The hotel next to the bakery wants brioche buns to use for their burgers.  They want them ASAP.  They have, after all, been waiting for a month for the bakery staff to return from winter break.  There was not much wiggle room for product development, just get the buns to the tables.

Last week I had sick babies and my husband's truck is in the shop.  I had to bake extra early in the AM so I could be home in time to get him off to work.  I was pressed for time.  Friday morning, I mixed a batch of brioche for the big bun test.  After 5 hours of poking and waiting, the buns still didn't seem proofed enough.  I should always trust myself but in this case I didn't.  I thought, gee these things have been in the warm, steamy, proof box for 5 hours, they've got to be ready, right?  Nope, they sucked!    I baked them off thinking, well, I don't know what I was thinking but they weren't light and fluffy.  They were dense and they split open because they were, drum roll, under proofed! Don't worry, they didn't go to waste but they weren't ideal either.  Apparently, someone from the hotel wanted to come talk to me about what brioche is supposed to be like.  I am so glad he didn't and I bet he is too.  I will be the first person to notice and the first person to admit when one of my breads doesn't turn out the way it should.  I will also be the first person to correct the problem and send out a stellar product the second time around.

Sunday morning, I mixed another batch of brioche.  I tweaked the formula a little so the dough would be slightly more forgiving than the very delicate brioche I normally mix.  I shaped the buns and let them do their thing.  Five hours later, my baking was done but the rolls weren't ready (yes, I used the finger poke test).  I tagged out and tagged Mark in.  Mark had, after all, proofed and baked thousands of rolls very similar to the two dozen I made, when he was responsible for the 2, 30 pan convection ovens at Amy's Bread.  I left a big sign on Mark's work station so he wouldn't forget the little guys.  Later in the day I got a text message saying that the buns were beauties!  Mission accomplished.

Baguettes

Just as there is a special place in my heart for brioche, there also lies one for a perfect baguette.  What makes a baguette perfect?  Well, the industry places certain standards on the baguette.  It must weigh 350g, 14 oz pre-baked.  It must be 22 inches long and it can only be scored or cut 5 or 7 times.  Easy, right?  Not on your life!

There are so many opportunities to screw up the baguette along the way.  I'm amazed and excited when mine turn out the way I hope.  It starts with a dough.  As I've mentioned before, I use poolish in my French dough.  The poolish is 50% water and 50% flour with a pinch of yeast (technically 1% of the flour weight).  This mixture sits for 18 hours before it is mature enough to use in the dough.  I know it is mature when I see big bubbles beneath the surface and there isn't too much resistance in the gluten network.  Each morning, the first thing I do is to dump my poolish tub (a rubber maid trash can) into the cold steel mixing bowl.  Then I add the appropriate amount of water and flour for the batch size I'm mixing.  These days my batches are about 60 pounds.  I mix these three ingredients at a very slow speed just until there are no big flour lumps.  I stop the mix, cover the bowl with a garbage bag and wait for at least 20 minutes.

Waiting....this is called autolyse.  Autolyse is a method developed by the grandfather of bread, Raymond Calvel.  He is a Frenchman who wrote 'Le Gout du Pain.'  'The taste of bread,' is a scientific approach to baking and one of my all time favorite books.  At any rate, during autolyse the protein in the flour starts to digest itself lending to a more extensible gluten network.  Extensiblity is important when you're striving for 22 inches! During the baking world cup, Team USA, autolysed their dough overnight.  I have to admit, I didn't think that autolyse was a needed step until I started using it.  My dough is much happier now that I take the proper time to let it do it's thing.

After the 20 minutes are up, I add the salt and the yeast to the dough and continue to mix on a slow speed.  My dough is only mixed on high speed for a minute or two.  I don't want to fully develop the gluten in the dough because I want to leave that up to time.  This method of slow fermentation will help to bring out the flavor and the texture of the bread.  Think- ciabatta versus bagels.  I then cut the dough out of the mixer with a sharp knife, into oiled tubs (again, gotta love rubbermaid).  If I were to pull off pieces of dough rather than cut it, I would be damaging the gluten network.  The dough sits in the tubs for about an hour before I fold it, punch it down, turn it...whatever the lingo, I'm simply stretching out the dough and folding it over itself.  This process evens out the temperature of the dough and gives the yeast a brand new source of food.  It is also a gentle way of developing the gluten a little more.

After another hour passes, I start to divide the dough into it's final portions.  Again, I cut off pieces with a sharp bench knife and weigh them out on a balance scale.  These pieces are then shaped into little logs that rest for 15 minutes or so before I start rolling them out into baguettes.  The baguette shaping is in line for the most difficult part of the process.  If I hadn't spent night after night, shaping thousands of baguettes at Amy's Bread, I would still be an awful baguette shaper.  The shape has to be a perfect line but the propensity to end up with a dog bone where there is less dough in the center, is very high.  Once I shape my perfect baguettes, I line them up on a wooden board, snuggled in a couche , or linen, to rest and rise.  'Coucher' means 'to sleep' in French.  This is where they stay until they've properly risen.

When they are ready to bake, I flip them onto my oven loader with a 'planchette.'  This board is a gentle way of moving the baguettes to a new surface.  I then score them, the other most difficult part of the process.  These five lines are cuts made with a straight razor called a 'lame' (pronounced like the beginning of 'llama' not like the word for 'uncool').  The cuts have to be a an exact 45 degree angle.  They overlap slightly and they run down the exact center of the baguette.  If I get this right, the baguettes 'ears' will open up, yielding a beautiful final product. 

I leave the soldiers in the oven until they are a a little darker than golden brown.  I'd say it's more of a mahogany.  The dark color is the 'Maillard Reaction' which is kind of like carmelization.  If the baguettes are light in color they will have much less flavor.  Think in terms of sugar...plain, white, uncooked sugar tastes sweet but once it is cooked, the resulting caramel is teaming with flavor.

That's it.  A day in the life of a baguette.  I have to mention, my son Keegan was exactly 22 inches long the day he was born.  Is this nature's way of telling me I chose the right profession?

Josie's Bread

The night before Josie was born

When I was pregnant with Josie, I switched from an OB to a midwife with only three months to go.  My husband and I saw the documentary "The Business of Being Born," and it made me change my mind about everything I thought I wanted as far as the birthing process was concerned.  My family is very traditional in terms of doctors and medicine.  I didn't know that there were so many options available for having babies until my lamaze instructor clued me in.  (On a side note, I have remained very close with said lamaze instructor and because of my experience, Lamaze International has asked me to be a spokes person for them.  I have to do a video bit and tell my story...how cool!)

It took me a week of constant calls to find a midwife who would take me on at six months pregnant.  Finally I found Barbara Charles in Long Island.  She delivers babies in a birthing center operated out of a hospital.  It was exactly what I wanted.  Barbara is a little wacko in a good way.  If there was a Saturday Night Live sketch or a sitcom portraying a midwife, she would be the one for the job.  She's a little hippie, a little granny and a lot of love.

When Barbara told me I had to drastically change my diet because I had gained too much weight, I was sad.  When she told me I couldn't eat any more bread, I was devistated.  I'm a baker; how can I give up bread?  Not even whole wheat or multi-grain, I asked.  She said she'd allow one slice of toast a week.  Yikes!  What was on my plate?  Mostly veggies, no fruit (too sugary), some meats were included on the list.  It was impossible.  There were some things she mentioned that sparked my interest.  Nettle is good for milk production and quinoa supposedly helps fortify the breast milk.  Hemp seeds are high in omegas (brain power) and flax seeds contain B-vitamins.

I decided to create an homage to Barbara and to the my unborn baby in the form of a loaf.  I would create a bread I could eat.  Grains, in general, are hard for your body to process.  They have to be denatured in order to be processed at all.  Denaturing can be accomplished by soaking, cooking, grinding, etc.  A lot of times this is done without being realized.  Think about preparing rice or baking with whole wheat flour.  I decided to sprout the grains for the bread.  Sprouting is just what it sounds like.  I give the grains just enough water for them to sprout.  It's like starting a garden.   By sprouting the grains before grinding them into a paste, enzymes are released and the grains are sort of predigested and changed from carbohydrate to protein.  All this means is the body can easily absorb ALL the vitamins and minerals contained in the grain and the calorie and carb content is drastically decreased.  This is the basic idea behind the raw food diet craze.

I played with a lot of different techniques in terms of sprouting and baking.  For instance, when flax seeds are hydrated, they release a gooey substance, in much the same way okra does when it's cooked.  This stuff prevents the other grains from sprouting if they are all sprouted together.  In the end, it took almost a year to come up with an optimal product.  Obviously, Josie was part of the family and Keegan was on his way but without Josie, this bread wouldn't be.

The Final Product

Josie's bread is made from sprouted wheat berries and quinoa.  Wheat berries are the grain that is ground to make wheat and white flour.  Using the whole berry instead of just the milled portion is packing in the nutrients.  Quinoa is a 'super food'.  It is the only grain to form a complete protein by itself.  Normally, grains have to be combined with legumes to form a protein, beans and ricefor example.  Three days prior to baking, I start sprouting the grains.  Once they all have shoots coming from them, I grind them into a paste.  On the day of the bake, I mix the paste with rye flour, spelt flour, whole wheat flour, local honey (which helps ward off allergies to local pollen), dried nettle leaf, whole flax seeds, hulled hemp seeds, oats, water, yeast and salt.  This unconventional dough is shaped into loaves and allowed to rise.  It is then baked yeilding a dense product akin to a german black rye.  The flavors are very earthy.  It smells almost like a fresh cut lawn and tastes of the complex blend of seeds and grains.

The benefits of this bread stretch beyond pregnancy.  Diabetics have found it has a low glycemic index on account of the reduced carbs.  Customers with a gluten intolerance have been able to partake in a loaf because rye and spelt flour contain little to no gluten.  The bread is also fiber rich thus stimulating digestion.  I'm trying not to say 'it keeps you regular' but it keeps you regular.  It stores remarkably well both at room temperature and frozen.  Also, it is yummy... the best byproduct of all!

Send me an email, crampsey@gmail.com,  if you're interested in ordering a loaf of Josie's Bread.  Due to it's natural ability to last a long time, it ships well too.  That being said, I bet it won't last a long time once you try a slice!

Chocolate Cherry Bread

My husband ate the entire loaf of chocolate cherry bread the minute I brought it in the door.  He was so excited to see it at the bottom of the bag.  I only make it once in a blue moon because no one buys it.  I can't say no one because there are customers who consider this bread their favorite.  There's actually a list of people we have to call when it appears on the bread line.  These people will reserve 4 loaves at a time.  They know how great this bread is!  I think it is one of those things that you have to try before you form an opinion.  The idea of chocolate bread is hard to grasp.

The flavors in this bread complement each other well.  The chocolate comes from a dark Valrohna cocoa powder.  It isn't sweet, just chocolatey.  There are also bittersweet chocolate chunks throughout the interior crumb.  I mix in a couple shots of espresso which bring out the chocolate flavor and add a bit of robustness.  The dried sour cherries are soaked overnight in a mixture or brandy, kirsh and sweet cherry juice.  The dough also includes a healthy dose of sour culture and pate fermente.  These add to the longevity as well as the flavor of the bread.  Though this bread is technically a sourdough, the sour is not an 'upfront' flavor.  If you can resist eating the whole loaf straight out of the bag, this bread makes great French toast or bread pudding.  I like to spread mascarpone cheese on a warm slice.

This is not my original creation.  I have added to the different formulas I've encountered but the idea of it comes from Nancy Silverton of La Brea bakery in LA.  By all accounts, she was the 1st to bake and sell this bread.  Amy's Bread has a version that is made on the weekends.  She also makes small, roll size loaves every day at the Hell's Kitchen location.  Wegmans ssells a chocolate cherry bread as well.  The management at Wegmans thought it was a good idea to have the bakers stand out in the store and give samples of this bread to customers.  None of the bakers were really known for their people skills (hey---they're bakers, not salesman!).  The higher-ups would tell us the selling qualities of each kind of loaf before sending us out to the floor.  They would always say, "this one is great toasted with butter," as if there is a bread that isn't great toasted with butter.  One of the bakers, Dave, said that he was going to tell customers the chocolate cherry bread makes a great tuna sandwich.  Every time I bake this bread, I think of tuna sandwiches and have a little laugh thanks to Dave and Wegmans.

I attended an event for the Patisserie last year and this was one of the breads I brought for everyone to try.  One lady exclaimed "this bread sounds sooo gross but it's really good."  I don't know why it gets such a bad rap because it is quite fabulous.  It also ships well and keeps longer than most loaves (again, if you can manage to not eat the whole thing in one sitting).  That's my sales pitch for one of my favorite breads!  I'll send out a bulletin next time I plan on making a batch.  I made a suprise, impromtu batch on Christmas Day.  As mentioned, my husband was thrilled!

2-Day Poolish

When I was in Culinary school, I learned the right way to do everything...the right way to shape baguettes, the right way to mix a dough, the right way to treat starters....  For the most part, I still do everything right but the longer I bake, the more I push the envelope.  For instance, most bakers take the temperature of their surroundings everyday.  There is a complex equation for finding the proper liquid temperature to add to a dough in order to get the "desired dough temperature."  [WT= FF(DDT)-TTF] It involves finding the room temperature, the flour temperature, the temperature of the starters, and the friction factor which has to do with the length of time and force with which the dough is mixed.  The DDT is what will give you the best possible outcome for any given product.  Everyone's DDT is different.  I may be shooting for 80 degrees while another bakery is going for 75 degrees.  My DDT changes with every season.  I am currently trying to get my dough to come off the mixer at 95+ degrees.   This is difficult given my temperature constraints.  The thermal death point of yeast is around 140 degrees which isn't really that hot.  Also, my big, thick steel mixing bowl is freezing cold every morning making it difficult to get a warm dough outcome.  When I was a student, I always laughed at the other students who had their thermometers resting in the flour bags.  Isn't it obvious that the flour temperature should be the same as the room temperature?  Well, not so in my new world.  My flour is stored in a basement, two flights of stairs below the bakery (I'll get to the joys of lugging 50 pound bags up these steps another time).  The basement flour is always cooler than the room temperature in the bakery. [insert photo of me sticking my foot in my mouth here]

What does all of this mean in the real world?  It means that I come in somewhere between midnight and 2am, take my coat off and make a couple decisions.  First, I turn on my oven and decide if it's cold enough that I have to turn on the convection oven too.  If the answer is yes, I determine whether the ambient temperature is such that I need to turn on both convection ovens.  Last winter there were days  I had to turn on the gas burners in order to get the room up to a livable temperature.  After generating some heat, I fill a couple buckets with my desired water temperature.  I don't use a thermometer, I use my instinct.  I stick my hand under the running water and use my patented Goldilocks method...too hot, too cold, just right. 

I have to say that it is very important to take temperatures if you're just begining to bake bread.  I have a couple things going for me.  I've been baking bread for a long time and I've been baking the same breads in the same setting for a long time.  I know my dough!  I know that yesterday the French dough moved (rose) a little slow so today I will use slightly warmer water and maybe I'll sit the dough tub in front of the convection oven for a little while.  I know that the cheese bread is always a rapid riser so I put it in the coolest part of the bakery after it is shaped so it won't rise too fast.  I know that the seeded dough moves so fast in the summer that I have to cut the yeast in half if I want to avoid a disaster.  If I was mixing a new dough in a new setting, I would take the temperature to have a starting point.

Where does 2-Day Poolish come in to play?  Well, as I said, I push the envelope.  Sometimes I am successful.  Certain sourdoughs are made the day before they are baked.  This helps me to jam pack the oven for every second it is open from the time it comes up to temperature.   I have found that I can refrigerate my sour starters if I need to skip a feeding.  The poolish is much like the dough because it contains a small amount of yeast.  In the summer I mix poolish with ice cold water and I reduce the yeast.  I literally put ice in the water.  In the winter, I mix with room temperature water and I up the yeast a little.  The bakery was closed on Christmas Day.  Normally I would bring my poolish tub home and mix the goo 18 hours before I need it.   I really didn't want to think about the bakery on Christmas day so I decided to try 2-Day poolish.  I mixed a tub right before I left the bakery on Christmas Eve.  I used cold water and a tiny amount of yeast to balance the long fermentation time.

I arrived at the bakery on the 26th hoping to find a nice bubbly tub of poolish.  When I took the lid off the bucket, I found an over-fermented yuck.  It was clear from the water marks on the sides of the tub that the poolish had risen to it's maximum ability and then it fell.  Normally, I can stretch and hold the poolish in my hands to put it on the scale.  Not this stuff.  I had to scoop it out with a pitcher and pour it onto the scale.

How did this affect my dough?  My French dough is typically like a big fluffy pillow but with the 2-day poolish it was what bakers call 'slack.'  It was more clay-like and it lacked life.  Yes, it made nice baguettes and I'm sure the day to day consumers were not aware of my blunder but I was.  My ciabatta was more like a flip-flop than a slipper.  Again, it wasn't bad, it just wasn't that good either.  I'm sure it was better than I dough with no starter at all but that's about it.

If any of my fellow bakers out there want to try to push the envelope to see what you get, don't do it with the poolish.  2-Day poolish is a failure!,  another one to chalk up on the experience board.  On the flip side, 2-Day croissants seem to be a success!

The Power of One

Amy Scherber once told me you're not truely a baker until you've baked through all the seasons.  It's so true.  In the summer I have to move at warp speed to shape and bake all the dough before it eats me alive.  The heat/humidity combo is what yeast likes best.  On the other hand, in the winter I have to boil huge pots of water, turn on ovens and burners, mix with super warm water just shy of temperatures that will kill my yeast and wait...wait...wait for the dough to rise.  Based on the 15 degree temperatures and last Sunday's ice storm, we are in the throes of winter.

Some bakeries have a 'proof box'.  Proofing is fancy baker-speak for rising.  They yeast is prooving itself by making the dough rise.  Retarding is refridgerating or slowing the yeast growth.  Really fancy bakeries with tons of money to spend have one unit that can proof and retard the dough.  It's a really cool concept.  You can put dough in at the end of the day, the box keeps it cool then slowly warms it throughout the night so it is ready to bake as soon as you need it to be.  At Amy's we didn't have a proofer and bread was retarded in the walk-in cooler.  We didn't need a proofer because the quantity of dough was such that when the last of the baguettes were shaped, the first were ready to bake.

I could really use a proofer at the Patisserie because I bake small batches of bread.  Last winter it took me eight hours to accomplish what I could in five hours over the summer.  As I mentioned, there were lots of pots of boiling water and several hot sheet pans used to get my bread to rise.  I actually have a proof box but it is supposedly missing it's heating element which renders it useless.  It's not totally useless because it is air tight.  It traps the steam coming off those hot pots.

Last week I decided I had some time to tinker.  Working the night shift at Amy's gave me the opportunity to fix things I never dreamed I'd be able to, like giant ovens and roll dividers.  Not many people make service calls at 2am.  I read a lot of manuals, turned several screws and took some risks but I could get things to work most of the time.  Anyway, I thought maybe I could figure out what was wrong with my proof box.  I started by plugging it in and crossing my fingers in hopes that it wouldn't start a power surge or an electrical fire.  I waited for a few minutes and low and behold...steam!  Warm steam was filling the box!  The thing worked.  I went through an entire winter last year using a cold box that could have been warm if I'd only tried plugging it in.

When Mark opened the bakery, the box really didn't work.  A mechanic was supposed to fix it but he removed the heating element and never was seen again.  The previous owner of the box harrassed the mechanic in an attempt to get the heating element back but no one ever saw him again.  Apparently he either never took the element or replaced it stealthfully because my box works.  Let this be a lesson to never accept that something is broken until you've at least tried to plug it in but don't tell my daughter.  We're hoping she's accepted that the ABC singing toy is really broken and not just turned off!

'Can'ettone

I just wrapped up the last of my holiday bread classes for the season.  This is my favorite class to teach because we bake my favorite breads to eat.  With the students, I make German Stollen, Italian Panettone and Irish Barm Brack.  Every culture has a holiday bread of some sort and they always have tons of fruit, sometimes booze, butter and sugar.  Most of them keep for longer than a regular loaf of bread.  In the case of Stollen, it keeps indifinitely.  As a matter of fact, you're not supposed to eat it until a couple days after it is baked.

Stollen comes from Dresden, Germany.  It is supposed to represent a swaddled baby Jesus.  My recipe is for an almond stollen.  It has a log made of almond paste and sliced almonds that resembles a breakfast sausage (according to my students and coworkers) running down the center of the loaf.  The dough encasing the sausage is made of flour, lots of butter, sugar, candied fruits and almonds.  At the Patisserie, I use candied orange and lemon peel imported from France.  This isn't the candied fruit your grandma puts in her fruit cake at Christmas.  No bright red cherries here!  This stuff actually has flavor beyond sweet, tons of it!

The best, most decadant part of Stollen creation....it's dipped in butter.  Does it get any better?  When the loaf is hot from the oven it is dipped in clarifed butter (ours is an 83% fat, cultured butter).  You dip it when it's hot so it absorbs more.   Once it's wet and gooey, it gets rolled in vanilla sugar...that's sugar with added vanilla bean.  I challange you to find a Christmas loaf more glutenous than this.  The butter and sugar crust actually serves a purpose.   This is how one is able to keep Stollen around for months without worry of decay.  Last March, we found a hidden Stollen I baked in December and it was still yummy!

Barm means yeast and Brack translates to speckled in Gaelic.  Barm Brack is a yeasted bread speckled with lot of fruit.  It wouldn't be Irish without the booze and this one is boozed up for sure.  The currants, raisins and candied fruit peel are soaked in whisky over night (for a non-alchy version you can soak the fruit in black tea but what fun is that?).  The fruit represents 200% of the flour weight in this dough.  That's pretty much unheard of in the baking community.  Neither I, nor my students, would ever believe the dough would hold all the fruit if we didn't see it happen.  Like a King Cake, this bread is baked with inedibles representing prosperity or demise in the comming year.  Yes, the incredibly optimistic Irish include misfortune in their bread lure.  Apparently you could find a matchstick in your slice...this means you will beat your wife or be a beaten wife for the year.  Better yet, you could find a piece of cloth which represents how empty your pockets will be. You may get lucky and find the ring and marry or the coin and be rich.  I think there are seven jujus in all.  Maybe the true fortune is not breaking your teeth on one.

In our class, we made chocolate cherry panettone.  This is not the traditional raisin, candied fruit peel bread that comes in the box in every department store around this time of year.  I included this modern version in my class to distinguish it from the other two breads.  It can get a little confusing jumping back and forth between doughs when they all have the same basic ingredients.  So, I folded some melted chocolate into this dough and it stood out from the rest.

Panettone literally translates to Tony's bread.  Legend has it, a poor baker named, you guessed it, Tony, won the heart of his society sweetheart's father by baking him this bread.  The two were married, ate lots of bread and lived long happy lives.  Now this bread is a customary Italian Christmas gift.  You can find it everywhere.  I saw the stacked boxes in TJMaxx last week.  I'm sure the quality of those loaves is outstanding.  My version is not meant to keep beyond a couple days.  This bread is not as dense as the other two.  It contains a lot of butter as in a brioche loaf and not nearly as much fruity bits as the other breads.  We baked mini-loaves in the class.  In order to demonstrate how easy it is to find alternatives to ring molds or expensive paper Panettone molds, I had the students bake their bread in soup cans.  This is how our bread became affectionately refered to as 'Can'ettone!

Ginger Bread

Josie and her ginger bread

I thought it would be fun to play with the concept of gingerbread this year.  Instead of a traditional cakey or cookie-like dough, I decided to make an actual bread.  I started with a basic 25% wheat, 75% white flour formula then I added spice...heavy on the ginger, a little cinnamon and a sprinkle of nutmeg and clove.  Finally, I chopped candied ginger and I dumped a few handfuls of raisins into the mix.  I shaped the dough into logs and scored a straight line down the center.  I was pretty happy with the way it came out but it was missing something.  Then I remembered the jar of black strap molasses I had hiding under my work station.  It's been there since I was pregnant. I used to put a tablespoon in a glass of milk for extra calcium, magnesium, potassium, and iron in order to remedy my crampy legs.  Betcha didn't molasses was so good for you!  

Back to the bread....the 2nd batch I mixed included the molasses and now I'm content.  There's an extra richness.  It has the gingerbread flavors with a bread texture.  I can't believe I forgot the molasses on the first go as this is the base for most gingerbread cakes and cookies.  I also changed the shape a bit.  Instead of logs, I twisted the dough into turbins or spirals.  This makes for larger, softer slices.   Next mix I will be replacing the raisins with currants because a) it will make it a little more delicate b) those currants are tiny but they pack a big punch of flavor and c) I have a huge box of them in storage!



I brought a loaf home from the bakery on Sunday, hoping to share it with my family.  Yesterday morning, Josie and I ate the whole thing before Kevin even saw it.  Whoops!  Guess I'll have to make another batch so he can get a taste too.  I was going to toast it because it was a day old (yes, I'm spoiled) but it didn't require any heat to bring out all the flavors.  The best part about the bread is the little bits of candied ginger that melt in your mouth with every couple of bites.  I'm so excited about this bread...a holiday treat without the sweet.  The sweet, hopped up on sugar and butter, candied loaves of holiday tradition wear me out after a while.  I can only eat so much candied citrus peel before I'm ready for the fun to be over.


After a conversation with Mark and Christian, we decided to make this bread part of our line-up through the holidays.  It will be available at the Patisserie on Thursdays and Sundays through December.

Mmmm....Rosemary

When I returned to work after my most recent maternity leave, I was told that the hotel/restaurant next door to the Patisserie was serving rosemary baguettes and they were telling their clients that I made them.  They were really giving their guests something frozen and reheated they ordered from Sysco.  I only know this because our customers were coming in and asking if we had any rosemary baguettes.  So, I did what any decent baker would do....I started making them!

I tweaked my basic sourdough formula...a little less wheat...a little more levain, which is a stiff wheat and rye sour...a pinch of yeast to make it less dense and more airy....fresh rosemary from Keith's farm.  For the first week or so, I shaped the dough into stubby baguettes but I wasn't happy with the crust.  It was a little too think on the bottom.  Then I remembered I had some square proofing baskets I wasn't using.  I dusted the molds with brown rice flour to keep the dough from sticking and to give the crust an interesting look.  Also, a generous dusting of rice flour has a much better mouth feel than a heap of regular flour.  The end result is my new favorite bread.  I am so in love with the rosemary loaf that I haven't eaten any other bread since it's conception (expect for a little Stollen but that's a special treat).  I really hope our customers find as much value in it as I do so that I can keep baking it.  The hotel/restaurant next door actually started ordering it in roll form.  Now everybody wins!

Thanksgiving

I'm in total production mode as Thanksgiving is quickly approaching.  This tends to be the busiest holiday for bread bakers...everyone needs bread to go with their Turkeys.  This year at The Patisserie, I'm offering an Apple Cranberry Walnut Sourdough.  This bread exemplifies the holidays for me.  It has a hint of cinnamon...just enough to make it smell fantastic when it's baking.  I make this bread the day before it is baked (which is why it isn't typically available on Wednesdays).  It sits overnight so all the flavors can get real friendly.  It is my grandmother's favorite bread. She and my cousin fight over it and hide it from each other.

I also have a Portuguese Corn bread on the menu.  Contrary to the southern US style cornbread (which is more a corn cake), this is a yeasted bread that is packed with flavor and it has a nice soft texture.  This is the ultimate day after Turkey and Cranberry sandwich loaf.  It also makes a great stuffing.  I just add chopped onions, carrots and celery, sprinkle some herbs, saturate with chicken stock and bake for 40 minutes at 350F to get a yummy homestyle stuffing.  I used it this morning for my fired egg sandwich...yum!

Next on the list is the Seeded Wheat Bread.  This bread has it all, whole wheat, rye, pumpkin seeds, oats, flax seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds.  It is Mark's favorite bread.  It has a nice soft, airy texture to spite all of the inclusions.  The seeds are toasted which gives the bread a nutty flavor.  I must give a nod to Amy's Bread for inspiring this loaf.  She makes a similar product though hers is missing the oats and our sour starters are different.

As always, I will be making a variety of French products...rolls, mini baguettes and batards.  I will have an herb loaf too.  This one is great to throw in the stuffing mix as it is already herbed up for you!  Better yet, Christian has been working away to create stuffing mix for everyone.  It includes French bread, herb, seeded, rye and rosemary loaves.  It is cubed and it has had time to dry out...perfect for your stuffing.  We add fresh sage, rosemary and other seasonings to the mix....all organic.