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.

Amy's Bread...The Book

Last Monday night, Kevin and I packed up the kids and headed into the city for Amy’s book release event.  She and co-author Toy Dupree were set up in Chelsea Market, signing the re-release of their book, Amy’s Bread.  It was a wonderful evening.  I got to catch up with my former colleagues and friends.  Amy had a huge spread of bread and sweets, representing the recipes in her books.  (She released ‘The Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread last year)  I was very happy to partake in the coconut dream bars.  I missed them so.
Everything in the bakery had pretty much remained the same.  I was surprised to see the same retail staff as was there three years ago.  It is unheard of to have such low turnover in bakery retail staff.  It speaks volumes for Amy’s culture.  The retail manager, Luke, recently married and bought a corner store on Lake Placid.  He’s moving in six weeks.  I guess I’m not the only one who decided to change things up in a big way. 
Kendall and Ann were busy getting the Thanksgiving lug plan started; just kidding…they were great and I loved seeing them.  I call Kendall whenever I need a pick-me-up or whenever I have a question about weights and pricing.  She’s full of spunk and she’s always laughing.  She and Josie hit it off right away.  Josie, of course, went Mommy hopping through the bakery.  This kid loves Mommies and if there’s another Mommy in the room, she wants nothing to do with Kevin and I.  She hugged and cuddled with Ann and Jessica, the operations manager at the bakery, too.
I spent a while catching up with David, formerly my daytime counterpart.  He’s known as the ‘peacekeeper’ in the bakery.  He was my ‘go to’ guy whenever I had staffing woes.  I have a very big decision to make, which I will write about once it is made; David gave me great advice as he always did.  He’s been at Amy’s for 10ish years now, which means he has seen it all and he knows how to handle just about anything that comes his way.

The Book…
Truth be told, I never read the 1st edition of Amy’s Bread.  It was out of print when I was considering a job at Amy’s and though it was on her bookshelf in the office, I never sat down to read through it.  When I got home from the signing, I cracked open my new book.  I was anxious to read what Amy and Toy wrote and I was eager to see how everything turned out.  I was working at Amy’s during the recipe testing and the re-write process.  This book isn’t just new packaging, Amy and Toy retested and updated all the recipes and much of the text has been completely revised. 
Writers have a voice and every writer’s voice is different.  My style of story telling is totally different than say, Frank McCourt (and hopefully more uplifting).  Amy and I have a very similar voice.  In fact, if I were to write a book about bread, this would be it.  Her way of explaining the bread baking process is unlike any other I’ve read.  It is very down to earth and simplified though it maintains its scientific integrity.  When preparing to write this, I was thinking about what makes us different.  Why can Amy and I explain this process in a way that’s easy to understand and attainable for a non-professional baker?  What sets us apart from Jeffery Hammelman, Joe Ortiz, Ciril Hitz and Michael Suas?  It took a while for me to see the obvious.  We’re moms!  Amy is doing what moms do best…making something complicated, easy to understand.  I remember getting an email from her about a product being ‘yucky,’ and thinking, this is what I love about Amy.  She isn’t afraid to shy away from the technical jargon and put things on a real level.  I’m sure the hardcore, old school men in the business wouldn’t appreciate ‘yucky’ in the same way I do but I truly value her candor.  I didn’t realize how rare these qualities were until I left Amy’s and spent time at other bakeries…she is one of a kind.
Bottom line, if you enjoy reading my blog, buy this book!   It includes my absolute favorite bread from Amy’s, pumpkin pecan.  I think it is my favorite because it was only made in November and I looked forward to it all year.  I actually froze several loaves to eat them throughout the rest of the year.    It also has a recipe for whole-wheat challah which I helped test during the research process.  I’ve been writing this post while watching the snowfall outside and waiting for my mini-batch of whole-wheat challah to rise.  It just came out of the oven and I broke the cardinal rule of baking…I cut it open and at a hot slice.  Hot bread is never bad and this one is no exception.  It transported me right back to Chelsea Market.   I know I’m being a little sappy but I got teary eyed.  I miss the frenzy, the smells, the bakery team, the city life.  Maybe there’s still time…..

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?

Thumbs Up

I had the good fortune of visiting Sullivan Street Bakery yesterday.  Jim Lahey, of no-knead fame, is the owner of Sullivan Street.  He invited me to stay and watch how his operation works.  Of course I couldn't just stand by and watch so I jumped in and helped mix, divide and shape his bread.  The bakery is different from anywhere I've baked before yet still remains very much the same.  My afternoon started with Antonio, the mixer.  As far as I could tell, he is the longest running baker there.  After twelve years, he can do it all.  Every bakery has an anchor.  The anchor tends to be the person who mixes the dough.  The mixer has to be trusted above all others.  Yesterday, Antonio was mixing 200 kilo batches of dough...that's about 500 pounds.  Imagine if he forgot the salt or worse yet, added too much salt and he ruined 500 pounds of inventory in one swoop.  If the dough is properly mixed, it easily lends itself to shaping and it will have the flavor and structure that Jim, in this case, is striving for.  I tend to get a little bored with mixing (unless it's mixing brioche), shaping is more my game.  I don't know how these anchors can do what they do, day in and day out.

At Bread Alone, Alex was the mixer.  He came in at 5am every day and mixed away.  That was his only responsibility but he knew it well.  He knew when to add ice to the water and how much to add.  He knew when the flour was a little young and what to do to improve the dough.    Amy's Bread has several mixers.  There is actually a mixing team.  Amy mixes more varieties of dough than Sullivan Street or Bread Alone.  The mixing team is very strong and they too have an anchor.  Orlando has been at Amy's Bread for at least 10 years though I can't remember exactly.  He is the head mixer.   He mixes 6, sometimes 7, days a week as the mixers often do.  The mixing team works in the early morning.  Orlando was always the 'go to' guy if I had any problems over night.  Brioche didn't rise properly, challah was too cold, potato over-proofed....no problem, Orlando would fix it!

After I got to know Antonio, the first shift of bakers arrived to start shaping and dividing the dough.  A couple days ago, Jim had a contest to see if anyone on his team could divide dough faster and with more accuracy than he could.  The prize was $100 to match and $200 to beat.  Antonio's brother, Oscar became a very rich baker that day and Jim seemed pretty bummed that he let his speed slip.  Jim's method of dividing was totally different from mine and it difficult for me to get the hang of.  Oscar divides in much the same way in which I was taught.  Who knew there were so many different ways to achieve the same results?  When dividing the dough by hand, a balance scale is used to make sure all the pieces are the same weight.  It is important to try to get the proper weight on the first cut because it is easier to shape a whole, rectangular lump of dough than to try and shape lots of small bits that occur when the piece is too heavy or too light.  Jim told me the bits signify doubt.  If you doubt your ability to feel the correct weight of the dough, you end up with bits.

Once the pieces were divided, Jim showed me his shaping technique.  Again, this was new to me.  It's been a long time since someone showed me something new in terms of the baking process.  It was total brain candy!  I fumbled with Jim's method of shaping.  Normally, I loosely shape the interior of the loaf and tightly seal the outside.  Jim shapes the exact opposite way.  I use the outside edge of my hands, the lines created by my pinky fingers to my palms, to fold the dough over.  Jim uses the line created by his thumbs.  That being said, I was all thumbs and not in a good way, when I tried to shape like Jim.  It took a lot of effort and I loved it.  My hands had to think for the first time in years.  I didn't get to stay long enough to master the new-to-me technique but I did get to hang around and talk theory with Jim Lahey.  I dorked out with one of the biggest baking geeks in the business!  What a great day.

The Magic of Baking

A couple years ago, Mark Bittman from the NY Times ran an article about "no-knead" bread featuring Jim Lahey, creator of Sullivan St. Bakery.  Lahey claimed he created a revolutionary method for baking bread at home.  Every time I teach a baking class, someone asks me what I think about this concept.  I often tell the students that I think it's cleaver but not revolutionary.  For thousands of years, this is how bread has been made in Europe.  Lahey uses a Dutch oven, the French use a cloche (a bell shaped clay pot that traps steam).  Then I did what I never thought I would do...I ordered Jim Lahey's new book, My Bread.

My grandmother bought me a Dutch oven for Christmas.  It was the only thing I really wanted.  I've never owned one and I often wish I had one for making stews and such.  Along with Lahey's technique, I do not find crock pots revolutionary.  I see them as one more thing to find a storage space for.  My Dad is the crock pot king (when he's not making kebabs on the grill).  He can't understand why I don't have one.  Any self respecting cook should own a crock pot, right?  I love slow cooking but I use the oven to roast or the stove top to stew.  Why add one more thing to my already crammed kitchen?  That being said, I am willing to add the Dutch oven because it serves multiple purposes.  It works as a pot for the stove, a pan for the oven, a really heavy brick when you need to press something flat, a torture device (have you seen the inside lid of the Lodge brand pot?)...

While I was relaxing at my grandmother's house in Maryland, I read Jim Lahey's book cover to cover.  There are two big ideas in  My Bread.  First, it is centered around the use of the Dutch oven as a vessel to bake bread.   The pot can hold the high temperatures needed to bake crusty bread and it traps the steam naturally released by the dough during the baking process.  Second, the "no-knead" technique is explained.  Basically, the ingredients are stirred together, not mixed, in a bowl.  12-18 hours later the mixture is turned out onto the table, folded and roughly shaped into a boule.  This rests for another hour or two and is then turned into the pre-heated pot and baked.  While the flour and water are getting friendly, the long fermentation time allows the gluten molecules to find each other and join together.  This is creating the gluten network that kneading the dough or mixing on a machine would.  Lahey believes letting time do the work creates more flavor and greater texture in the final product.

Not only did I read the book, I followed his basic recipe and I did another unthinkable...I baked bread at home.  I never bake bread at home because I know it won't be the same as the bread I bake in a steam injected, stone deck oven.  Here comes the revolution:  The boule I pulled from the pot, nearly a day after starting the process, was incredible.  The crumb was open and airy.   The crust was thin and crisp.  I'm sold!  Though what Jim Lahey is preaching may have been done before (and he is quick to say this in his book), the revolution comes from the idea that great bread is now accessible for the home baker.  Yes, I know the history of baking and how the modern technology came to be but I went to school for this and it is my business to know this.  Lahey brought these ideas down to an undertandable, easy to grasp level.  Baking his bread was so easy.  Around 7pm, I dumped the ingredients into the bowl and gently combined them with my hands.  The next morning, I turned the mix out and did the folding described in the book.  I let the dough rise, baked it and would have had a nice specimen to go with dinner but it didn't last that long.  I couldn't get over how great the outcome was and I ate the whole loaf.

Where's the magic?  I see Jim Lahey's technique as revolutionary not because of the way he is baking bread but because of the way he has gotten people into baking.  Millions read Bittman's article  and they tried the recipe at home.  It is one of the most downloaded articles in NY Times history.  Jim Lahey did for baking what J.K. Rowling did for reading.  Sure Harry Potter is just another fantasy series.  There are lots of critics that say some older series books, like the Tolkien trilogy, are much better.  They say there is nothing revolutionary about her books.  The only reason I am mentioning Rowling is because I have been a huge Potter fan since day one.  I'm one of the nutty adults who stood in line at midnight, with all the kids, when a new book was released.  I cried when Dumbledore died.  That is all to say that I always defend the books not because I believe in the stories but because I believe Rowling single-handedly got kids reading again.  The video game generation suddenly began to pick up books.

Jim Lahey is single-handedly getting a generation of fast food, microwave junkies to get back to the basics and to bake bread at home.  He has made it so easy that people who have always been afraid to bake are trying his method and they are getting great results.  As soon as my bread came out of the oven, my mind quickly jumped to J.K. Rowling.  The only difference is, I saw her vision from the begining.  It took reading Lahey's book and trying his formula but now I see his vision too.