Give or take...

Fresh berries are in here in the Hudson Valley, and I wanted something light but tasty as a carrier for the berries. I figured a shortbread cookie would be perfect. As I often do, I went to my King Arthur Flour Cookbook first, and was startled to find the following ingredient:

1-1/2 to 3 cups flour

What? A variance of 100%?! I mean, we all know that volumes of flour are inexact (which is why all my recipes use weight, not volume), but this makes my grandmother's recipes sound like nuclear physics by comparison!

Here's the slightly more precise recipe (rom Epicurious)I ended up using, which gave me just what I was looking for: a tasty, crumbly, but light base for the berries and whipped cream. And quick and easy to make. Don't skip the orange zest.


Scottish Shortbread

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh orange zest
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar (turbinado if you have it)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine chopped-up butter, sugar, zest, and salt in stand mixer or mix by hand until thoroughly blended. Add flour and mix with fingers. Form a ball, wrap dough in plastic, press into a disk, and place in refrigerator about 30 minutes (or freezer for 10).
3. Leaving dough on plastic, press out with hands and/or floured rolling pin into about a 5 x 10-inch rectangle. Transfer to baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Poke surface evenly with fork. Lightly score partway into serving-size pieces. Sprinkle top with sugar, and bake about 15-20 minutes until edges are brown and middle is just beginning to turn golden.
5. Cut on score lines all the way through. Cool on rack. Top with berries and a dollop (1-8 tablespoons, as King Arthur might say) of freshly-whipped cream.

Visit https://vimeo.com/36158371 for a beautifully shot, lyrical meditation on bread featuring Maurizio Negrini, a third generation baker from Bologna, Italy, now baking in Boulder, Colorado. When you watch the video, not how wonderfully wet and loose the dough it. You can tell already this is going to be good bread.

Kudos to Una Morera for creating this loving tribute to bread and the people who bake it for us.

Spring fling pizza

To celebrate the end of asparagus season (in our garden, that is), I made this colorful as spring-y red and green asparagus, double-smoked bacon, and goat cheese pizza. I refrigerated the dough overnight, but in a pinch, you can use it the same day -- just don't refrigerate, or refrigerate briefly. If you don't have sourdough or levain on hand for the crust, increase the flour and water by 80 g each and the yeast to 3/4 teaspoon. Or even better, build a levain following the instructions on my website.
 
Recipe:
Makes 2 12-inch pizzas  - use one for this recipe, freeze the other for future use or another pie.
 
Dough:

• 274 g all-purpose flour
• 48 g whole wheat flour
• 161 g levain
• 200 g water
• 9 g salt
• 1/4 teas instant yeast
• 1 teas olive oil

1. Mix all ingredients and let sit, covered with a dish towel, for 25-30 minutes. 
2. Knead by hand for about 6 minutes if using a levain, about 12 if not.
3. Place in container misted with spray oil, cover with plastic wrap (also sprayed), and place in refrigerator overnight.
4. Remove from fridge about 3 hours before baking.
5. At least 1 hour before baking, place a pizza stone into oven on top shelf, and preheat to 500 degrees F.
6. Divide in half, form a ball, let the dough sit, covered, for about 10 minutes to relax, then form the pizzas. (If only making one pie, freeze the other ball of dough at this point.)

Topping:

• 6 or so asparagus
• 1/4 pound double-smoked bulk bacon
• 1/4 pound fresh goat cheese
• A few tablespoons of grated Gruyere or Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbl olive oil

1. Cut the asparagus on the bias into about 2-inch pieces and toss with 1 Tbl olive oil
2. Cut the bacon into half-inch cubes, saute until cooked halfway through
3. Crumble the goat cheese into chunks.

Assembly and cooking

1. Brush the crust lightly with olive oil, top with asparagus, cheeses, and bacon.
2. Place onto pizza stone, bake until crust is brown on the edges, about 5-8 minutes, depending on your oven.

See my cover story of the American artisan bread movement, and how I translated it to my kitchen, in the May issue of Saveur magazine. Also, some great recipes by Dan Leader (Bread Alone).

Here's a crumb:

I was at a French conversation class in New Jersey recently, and a poor soul who didn’t speak French, having been dragged there by his wife, had taken refuge in the back row. The teacher asked each of us introduce ourselves, and when my turn came I said, in my fractured French, that I enjoyed baking bread.

“Pain au levain?” came a voice from the back of the class.

“I thought you didn’t speak French,” another student said in disbelief.

“Not a word! But bread I know!”

That’s when I knew the artisan bread movement had arrived.

Special Holiday Edition: Highlights from The Bread Doctor

In recognition of the special role that bread plays in Easter and Passover (think "matzo"), I'm publishing selected questions I've received recently on the Ask the Bread Doctor feature of my website, williamalexander.com. Feel free to chime in with your own answers -- most of these questions have stumped The Doctor!

Dear Bread Doctor,
Whenever I make Greek Easter bread, I add the dyed red, hard boiled eggs when shaping the loaves during the 2nd rising and what always happens is that the egg in the middle drops down into the loaf.
 I suggested that she insert a chicken instead, to delay the placement of the egg into the loaf. (She was not amused)

Dear Bread Doctor,
What happens when you leave a wet bread outside the window and describe the process.

 The birds eat it? The larger question is, why would someone be leaving wet bread outside a window???

Dear Doctor,
What is the correct quantity of preservative in 100kg flour?

Dear Reader: 0 kg.

(By the way, for you non-metric folks, 100kg is 220 pounds). Find out what commercial bakery would be asking advice from me....and avoid it!

Dear Doctor,
We own a large pizza franchise....

I really thought Herman Cain had enough on his hands back when this question came in without worrying about his pizza crust.

and my favorite...

Dear Doctor,
Getting readership on the internet is tuff enough without abusing the few you have.

No argument there!

But thanks, everyone, for the questions. Some are really fantastic! Keep those cards and letters coming!

Biscuits au Levain

Sourdough biscuits? Why not? After all, buttermilk biscuits are common, and buttermilk is cultured milk, while sourdough or levain is cultured water. The recipe for my levain, which I use in all my breads and pizzas, is here. I made these up in less than a half hour total, and they were fantastic. Beside levain, the other secret is lard. That's right, real, honest-to-goodness lard (if you can't bring yourself to use it, substitute unsalted butter). Here's the recipe (credit is due to the Sarah's Musings Blog, whose recipe I adapted for my levain)

Makes 8 2-1/2 inch biscuits

333 grams (about 2-1/2 cups) all-purpose unbleached flour
14 grams (1 Tbl) sugar
7 g (a scant 1 tsp) Kosher salt
10 g (2 tsp) baking power
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup lard or butter, frozen or very cold
180 grams (about 1 cup when frothy) levain 
115 grams, give or take (about 1/2 cup) milk

1. Feed levain at least 2 hours before beginning.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
3. Mix all dry ingredients. Chop lard or butter into chunks and work into dry mixture with fingers until reduced to the size of peas. Do not overwork.
4. Add levain and mix thoroughly.
5. Add milk, mixing in, until dough just holds together. It should be a very tight dough.
6. Using hands, knead lightly for a minute and push into a disk on a floured countertop, pushing it out gently and evenly until about 3/4 inch thick.
7. Use a biscuit cutter to cut into biscuits, recombining dough and reforming as necessary.
8. Place on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper
9. Bake about 30-35 minutes until just starting to turn brown on top.
10. Serve immediately.

Ich bin ein Berliner

As is now forklore, when President Kennedy made his famous speech in Berlin in 1963, pledging America's support against the Soviet blockade, he announced, "Ich bin ein Berliner," meaning, "I am a Berliner." Unfortunately, this was heard by most in the crowd as, "I am a jelly doughnut," as Berliner is the common name for this yeast-raised, deep-fried doughnut. I just cooked up a batch, using a recipe from Dan Leader's latest book, Simply Great Breads, using my wife's homemade wineberry jam for the filling. They are absolutely delicious, especially when eaten warm, right out of the fryer.  And gorgeous to look at on the plate. But be warned: they are highly addictive. Grab a copy of Dan's book and give 'em a try. One tip not in the recipe: forget the awkward pastry bag for filling these things. Instead splurge a few bucks for an icing syringe (aka cupcake injector). Bon appetit!

52 Loaves now in paperback

The last remaining hardcover copies of 52 Loaves have, alas, gone to where unsold books go to die (which is often to attics, as insulation -- I have this dream of my own books one day insulating my house), as bookstores make room (we hope) for the paperback release, complete with a lower price, a new cover design and shorter subtitle. If you don't own it yet, look for 52 loaves at a bookstore near you, or order online.

Yes, you can just take the recipes and instructional videos from my website , but if you really want to know why there's a picture of any abbey and the cover and what I'm doing with a scythe, you'll have to read the book. As Julia used to say, "Bon Appetit!"

A fishy way to build a levain

Thought you bakers would appreciate this recent posting to the Bread Doctor feature of my 52 Loaves website. This reader has come up with an - um - creative way of aerating his sourdough starter, or levain during the building stage. (A mature levain does not need oxygenation). I file this under "wacky ideas that should become part of the breadmakers'  canon." Bravo, Chris Kmotorka!

===========

While I'm sure my wife will be less than enthusiastic...I used to keep a sourdough pot then stopped, but not before drying and freezing some starter. I am pulling a Frankenstein as I revive it--I hooked a small aquarium pump (with a new hose) and am using it to keep air bubbling up through the starter. Do you foresee any problems? I'm thinking it will take care of the stirring part. 

 

He followed up, at my request, with a photo and a further explanation:

The Birth of the Aquarium Pump Levain

Let it be known that I am a man of leisure. This means that if I think something can be done more easily, in a way that will save me effort, I will inevitably work twice as long and twice as hard to find out.

Do I want to stir my infant levain every few hours and risk inadequate oxygenation? Of course not. Do I want my Frankenstein Starter, resurrected from dehydrated and frozen sourdough to return to the land of the living through such mundane means? Of course not. Something mechanical and unnecessary is certainly required. Thus the birth of the Aquarium Pump Levain.

The set up could not be simpler. A small aquarium pump, quarter inch hose, and my tub of levain. Unfortunately, I already had the aquarium pump and some unused hose so I wasn’t able to turn this into a several hour project with multiple trips to the pet store, and if lucky, the hardware store to boot.

Apparently I got lucky. It didn’t take long for my levain to start bubbling and begging for food. It was while stirring in another feeding that I hit on the idea of the aquarium pump and I immediately gathered the pieces (all two of them) and plugged one end into the wall and the other into the belly of the beast. Bubbles. Big bubbles. Oxygen bubbling up from the bottom of the tub to the surface. This certainly seemed like it would work. If I wandered through the kitchen I would sometimes move the hose around a bit to make sure air was hitting different spots, but other than regular feeding, I didn’t spend any time whisking and stirring.

But I can’t help thinking that they probably make some kind of octopus fitting the would allow me to sink the hose into the starter with three or four of more pieces of hose radiating throughout the levain and feeding the oxygen to all corners at the same time. I might have to do that. You know, for those weekly feeding sessions. Time for a trip to the store.

The Earth Oven Returns to the Earth

From 52 Loaves: 

 “I’m going to have to build the oven base over again, with mortar,” I moaned to Anne.

“What’s so wrong with that?”

“The project is escalating. Now we’re into a permanent structure.”

“Not necessarily.”

Guess my wife was right (again). Recently, the tarp that had been protecting my earthen bread oven from the elements blew off while we were out of town for a few days, exposing the oven to a torrential downpour, followed by frost and snow, and, well, it's safe to say that that oven has baked its last loaf of bread. The force of the hundreds of pounds of clayey earth collapsing on itself even destroyed the base(!), blowing out the mortared brick.

The truth is, I only used the oven on several occasions, because it was so time-consuming to heat it to baking temperature, but I'm still sad to see it go, for I had at least been able to hold onto the illusion that I'd someday use it again.  (I'm also sorry not to have a time-release video of its demise.) In memorial, then, here are some photos of the oven, followed by a full reprint of a chapter from 52 Loaves about its construction.

Here's my son Zach digging the foundation. What came out of this immense hole (see next photo), mainly clay, would eventually become the oven.

Once the base was completed, a wet sand form provided the inner mold for the oven -- all that clayey soil we'd saved from the foundation.

When it was good, it was very good.

 

Click here to read Terror Firma, the short chapter on building the earth oven: round  1.

Year-end honors for "52 Loaves"

I'm very grateful for some year-end honors accorded my memoir, 52 Loaves.

The book has been named to both the Kirkus Reviews and Booklist Top Food Books of 2010, and an excerpt has been included in Best Food Writing of 2010. (Of course, if you're only going to buy one food book this season...IT'S THE ONE WITH ALL MY CHAPTERS (not an excerpt), comprendez?

Herb and Bacon Focaccia

When I see focaccia on the menu, I usually turn the page, for more often than not it tastes like stale pizza crust, but being in the mood to try something new, I figured I could easily do better. I went to my cookbook library, but after being discouraged by complicated recipes with poolishes and overnight this and that, I decided to do it the simple way, by started with my basic pizza dough and turning it into focaccia by way of getting they hydration up to 72% and doing some stretching and folding, as with ciabatta.  I had some fresh thyme and sage in the garden, and threw in some bacon for good measure. The result: a delicious, airy crust with an herb-infused flavor.

Here's the recipe:

Dough:
 326 g all-purpose flour
 161 g levain (see my levain recipe here )
 212 g water
 9 g salt
 1/4 teas. instant yeast

Topping:
 2 Tbl chopped fresh sage
 1 Tbl chopped fresh thyme
 3-4 Tbl olive oil steeped with some sage and thyme
 6 slices bacon, cooked about 2/3 of the way through  and chopped

1.  Make the dough: combine all ingredients, mix, cover with towel and allow to rest for 25 min.
2. Knead by hand about 7 minutes. The dough will be quite wet.
3. Place in oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap sprayed with vegetable oil spray and let sit at room temp for about 2 hours.
4. Place in refrigerator for at least 4 hours; more time if you have it. Then return to countertop for another hour or two, until it's no longer ice cold. It won't rise an awful lot; don't worry about it.
5. On well-floured countertop, gently press dough into a 6-inch square; cover with the plastic and let rest a few minutes.
6. Lightly flour the top of the dough., then grab the dough in the middle of the square and stretch outwards about twice the original size, and fold back. Do the same with the other half, envelope style.
7. Cover and rest for 30 min. Repeat the folding; cover and rest 30 min.
8. Cover a rimmed  cookie sheet with parchment paper and lightly spray with oil. My pan was about 11 by 16 inches, but the size is not too important.
9. Using your fingers, gently push the dough out to form an even layer over the pan about 3/8 to 1/2 inch high. It may not fill the pan. Add the herbs, cover with plastic and let rise about 1-1/2 hours.
10. Preheat the oven to 525 degrees.
11. Fifteen minutes before baking, Brush with the herb-infused olive oil, then use your fingers to gently poke indentations into the dough, thus working the oil into the dough. It will pool up in the dimples. Add the bacon.
12. Place in oven; turn oven down to 450 degrees and bake for about 15-20 minutes until lightly golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes, but it's best eaten when warm.

A vist to the bread museum (okay, so I'm a dweeb)

On a recent trip to Provence, I found myself staying in Bonnieux, where I'd read in a guideboook there was a certain museum of interest. I asked our innkeeper where it was, and he had to consult a map. "You're the first one to ever ask," he said.

Figures. The museum in question was the Bread Museum, or more properly, the Bakery Museum, La Musée de la Boulangerie, and I wasn't leaving town without seeing it. Fortunately, by the time we'd arrived on this rainy Sunday afternoon, the crowds had dispersed, and we had the place almost to ourselves. Other than the plaster figure loading the (authentic) oven  (the museum was formerly a bakery) and some ancient reapers,

much of the museum is devoted to documentation regulating the price of bread and flour -- not the most thrilling collection, but real important if you happened to be living in France a century or two ago. Still, there were some great vintage posters, some neat antique baking instruments, and we had a grand time. So should you ever find yourselves  in Provence on a rainy day, I highly recommend it. If you find it.

Pizza Disastro

What better way to celebrate -- or mourn -- the last week of summer than to make a pizza in the clay oven that had not been used all season long. After some difficulty, I got a good fire going, had the last mojito of summer, then after about an hour, threw in one last piece of firewood and pronounced the oven ready for cooking.

This was so easy! What hadn't I used this thing more? Inside, Anne and I prepared two small pies: one with chorizo and leek, the other with fresh tomatoes and basil. Ten minutes later.... Maybe 15 minutes...Okay, 20 minutes (or more) later I brought both pies out to the oven.

The fire, which had been roaring when I'd last seen it, was nearly out. No matter, I should have enough residual heat. I slid the pie off the peel. No I didn't. I had taken so long to make the second pizza, the first one was by now glued to the peel. I somehow got it into the oven, if a little deformed. Odd... no sizzle. Surely the oven hadn't cooled that much. I put my hand in to test the temp. If you can't keep your hand in for a count of 3 the oven's ready -- I could have left in there all day. I threw in some more wood and huffed and puffed like mad, reviving the fire. Better....now the back of the pie was cooking, but the front was still raw. I tried to rotate it. Ever try to to rotate raw dough in an enclosed space?

Twenty minutes later the pie (which by now resembled a calzone that had been dropped on the ground) was cooked/burned/almost raw, depending on where you looked.

Wising up, the second pie I cooked the way God intended us to cook: in an electric oven on a pizza stone.


Buon appetito!

52 Loaves now available on Kindle

Finally...52 Loaves is available on Kindle, and coming very, very soon (maybe even by the time you've read this) to Nook, iBook, and Sony.

Thanks for your patience, all you e-readers!

Recreating Nana's Potato Bread

I received a distress call from a reader who is trying to recreate a bread she tasted and loved: her "Nana's" potato bread. (Am I the only one who flashes back to the scene in Annie Hall where Woody Allen meets Diane Keaton's parents -- and her "nana" -- whenever I hear that term?)

Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions? The reader's note follows:

I too have spent many hours trying to create a perfect bread and was delighted to hear your story.  I was wondering if you had any suggestions for my own bread journey.My nana always had a homemade bread that was their daily bread. It was this deliciously moist, tasty potato bread that was slightly sweet, with a rich, slightly nutty, moist smell. It could be left on the counter without any covering for a day or so and not get stale.She died was I was in junior high, but at some point, I wrote down the recipe while she was making it one day. I have spent YEARS trying to recreate this recipe and have had no luck. Here is the recipe as I wrote it down.

Boil 2-3 little old potatoes.
Mash in a bowl, working in 3 T. sugar or honey and 3 t. salt. Mash together.

In the meantime, put yeast in potato water or sugar (water)

Alternate a cupful of liquid, then cupful of flour, alternating until like soft cake batter. Put yeast in, let stand until bubbly (about 2 hours). (This is where I become confused with what is considered the liquid. Was it the potato mash or yeast water? Should I combine the yeast water and potato mash? I have tried a dozen variations and can't seem to get it right)


After bubbly, knead in enough flour so that it no longer sticks to your hands. Put in a bowl, grease top, put in over or put wet cloth over it. Rise unt50 miil doubled in bulk.

After doubled in bulk, knead down, cut into greased pan, let rise to top of pan.

Heat over to a little before 350 degrees. Bake about 50 minutes. Turn oven down to 300 degrees after 15 minutes.

I have no exact measurements and have tried to recreate this recipe. I have gotten close to getting the same texture, but I can't recreate the flavor. Do you think this could have to do with the yeast that was floating around that kitchen? Her kitchen always had a delicious smell. She was a big gardener and excellent cook who cooked using local vegetables and herbs from her garden. Her compost was right outside the kitchen. Do you have any suggestions for resources or ideas of how I might recreate the recipe

Largehearted Baker

When the host of the music blog Largehearted Boy invited me to participate in a feature where writers discuss music relevant to their books, my first thought was, "Well, that's a stretch." My second was, "but publicity is publicity," and my third thought (and trust me, three thoughts on any given topic is about my max) was,"this is not such a stretch at all." See why...

The Readers Speak

I thought (in yet another transparent evasion of my blogging duties) I'd share some reader comments with you this week  Apparently (and I have to admit, somewhat surprisingly) the recipes I provide in the book do work for others as well:

• I have been baking bread for some time, and read your book just recently.  I tried the Peasant Bread recipe and was amazed.  Every time I've made it, it's turned out wonderfully, nice rise, some gas holes, wonderful flavour.  I add 1/4 cup of flax meal, and make it into two batards with stubby ends, sometimes give one away and eat the other, or freeze one...So thank you for providing such a neat book and a delightful recipe.  I bake pretty well every day and thank you every time. - Janice L.
  
• This is the first loaf of bread I've ever made from scratch. It might be the best bread I've ever had.   - Adam C
  
• Loved, loved, loved the book!  So fun, and I learned so much- will be buying a few for presents, for sure.  Cheers,  Mary
  
• There’s no particularly useful information. The humor is mildly amusing at best. - S.T.

You can't please everyone...Keep those cards and letters coming!

Of Hazy Apples and Starter

My recent mention on the Diane Rehm show that I built my sourdough starter (levain) using a couple of hazy apples (the haze being wild yeast), and the posting of my levain recipe on her website has caused some consternation among listeners who don't have local apples (and who does, this time of year?).

Here are a couple of solutions: Firstly, you can use an apple from a store - but get an unwaxed one. There will still be plenty on yeast on the skin. If you can get an organic apple, so much the better. Or, if you have something else growing that's sweet and local (e.g., someone mentioned they had strawberries; another person had grapes) you can toss that in instead. But you can even skip the local fruit. There's plenty of yeast right in flour. But the other thing the fruit provides (aside from some "local color") is sugar to help get the yeast going. Baking instructor and writer Peter Reinhart adds canned pineapple juice to make his starter (the pineapple possibly having some other beneficial properties, in addition to sugar).

So, don't sweat it -- there are lots of ways to get your starter started, and the website The Fresh Loaf has a number of them. Have fun with it, and if it doesn't work out the first time, throw it out and start over!

Full instruction are included in 52 Loaves, and the recipe can be found on my website

Pain de l'Abbaye

I'm going to let another bread blogger speak for me this week. "MC," as she goes by, who writes the blog Farine (the French word for flour) decided to try making my pain de l'abbaye this past weekend. This is the recipe I developed on the spot while trying to restore the lost tradition of baking to a 1300-year-old abbey in Normandy. It's a bit unusual in that it uses both a poolish and a levain, the reason being that, with the volume of bread they were making, keeping enough levain going for a pain au levain (with no commercial yeast) would have been difficult for the monks, so I came up with a recipe using an overnight poolish (a batter of flour, water, and just a pinch of yeast) for flavor, with a little of my levain thrown in for both flavor and texture.

The result: pain de l'Abbaye St. Wandrille. Read MC's experiences with it and see her mouth-watering photos (that's hers above) here.