my breads bring all the boys to the yard...

Around labor day, I was invited to a potluck as a sort of last hurrah of the sunny weather. After much deliberation as to what I would bring (usually i'm pretty quick to sign up for dessert...which was taken in this case. My thought process then went from an epic salad to...) I decided to make buns. The hostesses were making carne asada tacos and there was mention of hot dogs, so I figured buns would be appropriate. So I looked up a pretty basic bun recipe and altered it so that I could use starter instead of packaged yeast.

ingredients:

5 cups of flour
2 packages of active dry yeast (or 2-3 cups of starter. I think I used 2 1/2 which produced some pretty fluffy buns)
1 cup of milk
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup of vegetable/ olive oil
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp. salt

method:

1.stir together 2 cups of flour and yeast. If you're using proofed starter: measure out 2-3 cups of starter and then mix 2 cups of flour into that. In a pan, heat the milk, water, oil, sugar and salt. I just heated it until the sugar dissolved and the milk was warm. The original recipe wanted me to put it in the microwave, but I'm not really a fan of them. Add the heated mixture to the flour and yeast and beat until smooth.

2. mix in enough flour to make a soft dough. This is where I part with the original recipe. The original wants your to dust a flat surface and let your dough sit under the bowl for 10 minutes. I left mine to rise for 6-8 hours while I went to work (or in the case of labor day, I made the dough the night before and let it rise while I was asleep).

3. After you let it rise, you're going to want to knead it a little bit and separate the dough evenly (you can use a scale if you have one, or just eyeball it) into 12 (slightly flat) little balls. place on a greased sheet to rise until doubled in size.

4. This is the fun part. Add things to your buns (if you want). I topped the starter buns with a garlic paste. I put cheese on top of the second round of buns. I mean, you can do anything. Go crazy. But then put them in the oven, preheated to 400 for 12-15 minutes.



A week or so later, I decided to make buns for something else (this blog maybe? or a friend was coming to dinner? sandwich bread?) but I didn't have time or energy (or something) to proof the starter. So I made them with yeast. I do have to say, that the buns I made with starter were better. The flavor of the bread was awesome, they were fluffy and filling and just good. The ones I made with the yeast, not so much. Because of my time constraints (it really much have been dinner) I only left the dough out long enough to rise, which doesn't provide very much flavor. The longer you leave dough out to proof, the more flavor it collects, which is a good thing (unless you want your bread to taste like flour..). This was (I believe) also my first experience with active dry yeast. Which turned out pretty well. The buns were fluffy and pretty good, they just didn't have as much flavor as their starter counterparts.

Even though I wasn't completely happy with the second round of buns, they still contributed to another awesome dish. A few days after the buns, I was invited to a going away party (another potluck) so I decided I would try to make a broccoli casserole. (I have never made one, so it was another learning experience...) Did you guys know they put soup in casseroles? Cream of mushroom soup! It seemed like a salty cheater method, so I nixed it(/couldn't find it in the grocery store..) in favor of what I assumed to be the main ingredients (..cream? and mushrooms?) I won't go into depth about the casserole, but I did crumble some of the remaining buns for the topping. My point is, use your mistakes!!

"What's Focaccia?"

One day at work (probably a few weeks after the first successful sourdough) a co-worker of mine realized that I didn't know what Focaccia was. After a few minutes of unsuccessful descriptions, we decided that I would just have to look up a recipe and make it in order to figure it out (which really isn't that complicated but at the time it was like trying to describe what clouds were to someone who had never seen clouds). So I found the following recipe and proceeded to go absolutely crazy. Seriously, the possibilities are endless.

ingredients:
2 3/4 cups of flour (varies)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of white sugar
1 cup of water
2 cups of proofed starter (or 2 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast...i think)
thyme, rosemary, pepper, sage, or whatever you want, really
1 tablespoon of oil to mix and 2 tablespoons for the top (later)

Method:

in a large bowl stir together the salt, sugar, yeast, herbs of your choice (about a tablespoon or more, depending on how strong you want the flavor to be. I always use freshly chopped herbs so I usually end up measuring with my hands. Mix in the oil (you can use vegetable oil, but i usually use olive oil) and water. Add the flour just until everything starts to pull together.

Turn out your dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead while you add the remaining flour. Continue kneading until until it's smooth and elastic. I've never used a mixer for this, and it's always been on the right side of perfect, so don't worry if you don't have a mixer. Coat a large bowl with some oil, put your dough in it, cover with a damp cloth and put it in a warm place to rise until doubled.

Punch down your dough, preheat your oven to 450, and spread your dough out onto a greased baking sheet. Pat it out until it's 1/2 an inch thick (mine are usually rectangles, but if you prefer circles you can do it that way too) Brush the top with some oil and then add your cheese and topping (this is where I usually go crazy) Bake it for 15 minutes until beautiful.


(Basil, Gorgonzola, and caramelized onions)


(Finnish cheese, sage, and caramelized onions)


(Parmigiana and olive)


(Manchego with capers)


(Gruyere, basil, and caramelized onions)

So, you get the idea. These may not be the most traditional forms of Focaccia, but they're super easy, delicious, and make great snacks or lunchtime munchies.

It Started with a Starter

So, Ive realized that some back-tracking is going to happen in order for me to get to the new recipes and breads. I'll start at the beginning. In May, a friend graciously gifted me part of her sourdough starter (we're talking Oakland yeast, my friends). For those of you who don't know what a starter is, it's basically the alternative to active dry yeast. Restaurants will sometimes use these if they bake a lot of bread and some places keep their starters for years. The advantage to maintaining one of these puppies is the flavor of your bread. I've noticed that even using my starter for regular dinner rolls results in a tastier product. The down side is that you have to maintain it. It's like a little animal or pet. I usually keep my starter in the refrigerator (it slows the production of the yeast) and I feed it a flower-water mixture every week or so.

Getting a starter was a pretty big step for me. Although they aren't really difficult to make/ cultivate I had given it a go in December and failed because of conditions that were not ideal. So once I had one to obsessively care about, I decided it was time to make sourdough. After a few failed attempts (including one recipe I tried out the night before my graduation ceremony..which flopped), I stumbled across the one that I regularly use (from ):

The first step is to proof your starter. This involves emptying it out into a large bowl and mixing into it a cup of warm (not hot) water and a cup of flour. I try to let this sit out at least overnight or do it in the morning before going to work. You'll know it's ready because it gets frothy and bubbly (it sounds gross, and it sort of looks gross but it is also really exciting.)

To bake this you will need:
2 cups of your proofed sponge (starter)
3 cups of unbleached flour
2 tablespoons of oil
4 teaspoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt

the method:

start by putting 2 cups of your proofed starter into a separate bowl. Feed your remaining starter 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water, return it to it's receptacle and put it back in the refrigerator.

Add the oil, salt, and sugar to the 2 cups of proofed sponge. Start adding the flour 1/2 cup at a time. Either knead it in or use a mixer with a bread hook if you have it (i don't, so by hand it is!). The amount of flour you need will vary. I usually know my dough is ready when it won't accept any more flour (it won't be too wet, and you want to stop adding flour before it's too dry)

next, you'll want to place a damp cloth over your bread and put it in a warm place to rise. I usually turn my oven on for a minute to warm and then put the bread in it (but don't leave the oven on, or it'll cook your bread.) Let it rise for a couple of hours. Also keep in mind if you have an older oven you might have to re-heat it every once in a while. My oven cools about every 20-30 minutes, so around that amount of time I try to heat it back up. Your bread has risen enough when a finger poke creates a pit that doesn't spring back.

Punch down your dough and knead. Form it into a loaf and place it onto a lightly greased pan. Cover it and let it rise again until it has doubled in bulk.

Once it has risen again, place it into the oven (or if that's where its been all this time, take off the damp cloth and just turn on your oven) Do not preheat your oven and bake your bread at 350 for 30-45 minutes. It's done when the crust is a lovely golden brown color and the bottom sounds hollow if you tap it with a wooden spoon.

Breads and Things

So the idea behind this blog is pretty simple: bread plus goal meets indeterminate ending. The goal is to learn about breads and things, or at least that was the goal to begin with. I'm a recent graduate in a pretty bad job market, so needless to say I've had some trouble finding a job. Which has left me with a lot of time to do the things I have been putting off while I was in school. Things like, getting sick, having my wisdom teeth removed, and sustaining silly accidental injuries just to make use of my health insurance before it expires. This process of discovery, shall we call it, has first off given me a lot of "alone time" in my very small apartment and secondly resulted in a very strong desire for baked goods. Deciding perhaps, that my obsession and hobby could potentially become a career, I started volunteering at a local bakery (getting up at 3am really isn't as bad as it sounds). The Bakery I now work at one day a week specializes in organic, home-made, "Californian" sandwich bread...which is great for me in terms of learning how to mass produce bread in a commercial kitchen but isn't really teaching me how to make artisan bread or pastries. So in favor of a well-rounded education, I have decided to teach myself! So, the goal with the indeterminate ending is as such: I will make one new type of bread or thing a week, every week until I know absolutely everything.