Norwich Sourdough Bread Recipe I love baking all kinds of bread, but a basic sourdough loaf is an essential staple at our house. Good with everything from blue cheese to blueberry jam, and quite possibly even better unadorned, we always feel something is missing if there isn’t a loaf resting on the cutting board, ready for a quick snack or a hearty sandwich. I first tried this recipe, adapted from the Vermont Sourdough in Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes, about a month ago. I loved it then, and have made it several more times since, to make sure the first time wasn’t just beginner’s luck. Nope; this one is a real winner. It’s a plain, honest, not-too-sour sourdough with a touch of pumpernickel for depth of flavor. The original recipe calls for 125% hydration starter. Norwich Sourdough (adapted from Vermont Sourdough in Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman) Yield: 2 kg (four or five small, or two large, loaves) Time: Desired dough temperature: 76F Method:
How to Make a Sourdough Starter: Day One — Pinch My Salt Today we begin the great sourdough starter experiment. The goal of this experiment is to catch some wild yeast and try to keep them happy so that they will multiply. By harnessing the power of wild yeast in a sourdough starter, we’ll eventually be able to bake bread without using any commercial yeast at all. There are several different ways to create a sourdough starter and I don’t know that any one method is truly better than the others. Here’s how I started: I mixed one cup of whole wheat flour with 3/4 cup of room-temperature pineapple juice in a bowl until everything was well blended. Want to create your own sourdough starter? Here are the instructions (click on the links for photos): Day One: In a small bowl, mix one cup of whole wheat or whole rye flour with 3/4 cup (6 oz) canned pineapple juice (at room temperature) until all of the flour is hydrated. Day Two: You probably won’t notice much change at this point. Day Three: You may notice some activity at this point.
French Apple Cake This French Apple Cake is packed with apples and has a dense, creamy base with a cake-like top layer. When I walk into the grocery store in the middle of September and see bushels upon bushels of every type of apple you can imagine, I’m inspired to go through my huge stack of recipes and make every single one that includes apples. So far this fall, I’ve made apple cupcakes with cinnamon-cream cheese frosting, apple turnovers, and my favorite Dutch apple pie. I’ve had this French apple cake bookmarked for about two years now and kept putting it off… I hadn’t actually read the entire recipe, but assumed it would be a little fussy and I’ve been all about simplicity this fall season. Once I picked it up and read through it, I was elated to see that the recipe was actually really simple to put together and didn’t require any special equipment. Two years ago: Honey-Peanut Butter CookiesThree years ago: Pumpkin Doughnut MuffinsFive years ago: The Baked Brownie
The Wednesday Chef Pizza Monkey Bread Recipe Ok are you ready for Pizza Monkey Bread. It will kinda change your life. And maybe your waistline. I’ve seen Monkey Bread made from scratch or with pre-made biscuit dough from the market. Stick these suckers in mini bundt pans and into the oven they go! Ingredients 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast1 cup warm water1 tsp sugar2 cups Bread flour1 cup AP flour2 tsp salt1/2 cup Butter, melted2/3 cup Pecorino Romano cheese, grated3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped5 Scallions, chopped10 Basil Leaves, chopped5 cloves garlic, mincedSalt and Pepper1 cup Marinara or Pizza sauce Instructions Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.In a medium bowl, combine the Bread flour, AP flour and salt. Tags: Bread, bread flour, breads, bundt pans, dip, monkey bread, Pizza, pizza bread, pizza bread recipe, pizza dip, Pizza Monkey Bread, pizza sauces, sauce, savory monkey bread
Flour + Water = Starter Ah, summer… corn on the cob, lazy reading in the hammock, and… sourdough starter, of course! I’ve been taking advantage of this warm weather to try raising some starters from scratch. I had done it before in a week-long class (in fact, that’s the starter I’ve been using for months), but we were able to keep our cultures at a constant 80 degrees F, and we added extra malt to jump-start the process. I wanted to see how it worked with just flour and water, in the warm but fluctuating room temperatures of my non-air-conditioned house in these beautiful early summer weeks in northern California. Success! Raising a starter seems to be something that is perceived as mysterious, complicated, or hard. I did this a couple of times, once with rye and once with whole wheat flour. Ready to try it? Sourdough Starter from Scratch Ingredients: White flour (bread or all-purpose), preferably one that contains malted barley flour. Equipment: General process: Day 1 AM: Day 2 AM: Day 2 PM: Day 3 AM:
Science of Bread: Basic Sourdough Starter Recipe In addition to flour, water, and yeast, your starter also contains bacteria. When these bacteria feed on the sugars in flour, they produce acidic by-products. This is what gives sourdough its sour taste. Actually, all doughs contain at least some bacteria. So why aren’t all breads sour? Sourdoughs and other raised breads also differ from one another because of the eating habits of the yeasts that make them rise.
Briosza, brioszka (brioche), najlepsza Jeśli spadać, to z wysokiego konia. Jak robić brioszkę, to z przepisu samej mistrzyni francuskiej kuchni, Julii Child. A Wielkanoc nie może się obyć bez drożdżowej baby, prawda? Małe brioszki można upiec do koszyczka lub na wielkanocne śniadanie. Składniki: 1/3 szklanki ciepłego pełnego mleka 2,5 łyżeczki suchych drożdży (10 g) lub 20 g drożdży świeżych 3,5 szklanki mąki pszennej 5 dużych jajek 1/3 szklanki cukru pół łyżeczki soli 175 g masła, w temperaturze pokojowej 1 szklanka suszonych żurawin lub rodzynków Ponadto: 1 jajko roztrzepane z 1 łyżką mleka, do posmarowania Mąkę wymieszać z suchymi drożdżami (ze świeżymi wcześniej zrobić rozczyn*). Mleko, mąkę z drożdżami, lekko roztrzepane jajka, cukier, sól umieścić w misie miksera. Po tym czasie ciasto odgazować, uderzając w nie pięścią, ponownie przykryć folią spożywczą i schłodzić w lodówce przez 4 - 6 godzin (lub całą noc). W tym celu: Foremki do brioszek posmarować dokładnie masłem i oprószyć mąką, strzepując jej nadmiar.
winosandfoodies Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes Cupcakes are still quite the trend, aren't they? Well, I don't think this trend is ending anytime soon... especially when the sky's the limit for cupcake flavors! Take for instance Boston Cream Pie. It's not exactly a pie but rather a cake. Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes recipe from Cook's Illustrated Pastry Cream: 1 1/2 cups heavy cream 3 large egg yolks 1/3 cup granulated sugar pinch of table salt 4 teaspoons conrnstarch 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold & cut into 2 pieces 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract Cupcakes: 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 teaspoons table salt 1 cup granulated sugar 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened but slightly cool, cut into 12 pieces 3 large eggs 3/4 cups milk 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract Chocolate Glaze: 3/4 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup light corn syrup 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract When the cream reaches a full simmer, slowly whisk it into the yolk mixture.