No Need to Knead Focaccia

My camera is still broke but thank goodness my oven isn't! Today I baked focaccia bread from Suzanne Dunaway's No Need to Knead book on Italian breads. Since the NY Times No Knead Bread baked so successfully, I was delighted to find that there were more recipes just like it. Even though the book says that most of these bread recipes could be done in 90 minutes or so, I preferred letting my focaccia dough rise in the refrigerator for about 18 hours. Bread couldn't get any easier than this! :)

Focaccia
(from No Need to Knead by Suzanne Dunaway)

2 cups lukewarm water (85 to 95F)
2 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast)
4 cups unbleached bread flour
2 tsp kosher salt

olive oil
fresh chopped rosemary
sea salt

In a large bowl, mix the warm water and yeast together until dissolved. Stir in the salt and 2 cups of the bread flour and mix for about 2 minutes. Then add in the remaining 2 cups of flour and mix for another 2 minutes. I basically just stirred until the dough was well combined (didn't really bother looking at the time). Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in the refrigerator overnight. Two hours before baking, take the focaccia dough out and let it do its second rise in a warm place.

Preheat your oven to 500F. There are a variety of shapes you can do for focaccia but I did the traditional one in the jelly roll pan. Just pour your dough into a oiled jelly roll pan and with your fingers dipped in cold water, make dents in the dough and spread it outwards to fill the pan. Sprinkle the dough with the olive oil, sea salt, and rosemary to your liking. Turn down the oven to about 450F and then bake the focaccia for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Cloverleaf Dinner Rolls

Tonight we had delicious leftover pot roast and gravy with warm goat cheese salad and these heavenly buttery biscuits you see on the left. I have to say that the photo does not do these rolls justice. So you'll have to make them yourself to see how you won't be able to stop eating them. :)

Beth's Favorite Buttermilk Dinner Rolls
(from The Bread Bible by Beth Hensperger)

1 tbsp (1 package) active dry yeast
pinch of sugar
1/4 cup warm water (105F-115F)
1 cup warm buttermilk (105F-115F)
2 tbsp sugar or honey
Grated zest of 1 lemon
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, or olive oil
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 tsp salt (kosher)
4 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Rich Egg Glaze (Mix 1 egg with 1 tbsp of milk)
3 tbsp sesame, poppy, or fennel seeds


1. Combine your yeast, sugar, and warm water in a small bowl and stir to dissolve. Let stand 10 minutes to proof if necessary.
2. In a large bowl or electric mixer, combine the buttermilk, sugar, lemon zest, melted butter, egg, salt, and yeast mixture. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour and mix until smooth and creamy. Switch to the dough hook attachment (if you are using an electric mixer) and add in the rest of your flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough clears the sides and no longer looks overly batter-like (yes, batter-like is a technical term :P). Knead the dough by hand for about 4-7 minutes or 3-4 minutes if kneading by mixer. Knead briefly by hand if doing by mixer.
3. Place dough in a oiled bowl and let rise until double, or about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. If kitchen is not warm, place in a slightly warmed oven (make sure oven is not on while dough is there).
4. Place dough onto a lightly floured work surface. There are many different ways to shape rolls but I've made cloverleaf rolls so that's what I'll explain. You divide your dough in half and then divide those two halves into 8 pieces. For each piece, split into 3 equal pieces and place in a oiled muffin tin making sure they are touching each other. Cover with plastic and let rise for about 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 375F. Brush each roll with your egg glaze and sprinkle with seeds if you please. Bake in oven for about 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to wire rack but these are best eaten warm with a generous slathering of butter.

French Bread V 2.0

Finally a success! The bread rose very well and after baking ended up with a very crunchy crust and super soft inside. I could definitely tell the difference between my previous batch and this batch. This batch you could squeeze the bread and it would give way indicating a lovely soft dough inside. This recipe is based upon the Minimalist loaf (New York Times No Knead Bread) and some advice I got from the forums.

French Bread

2 cups bread flour, preferably King Arthur's Flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cups tepid water

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or your hand. Add in the warm water and mix until combined and doughy. Put in a clean, oiled bowl and let rise about 12-15 hours. Room temperature should be 70F or so but just make sure it rises to about 10 cups.

2. Put dough out onto lightly floured surface. Cut into two pieces and flatten out. Doing this to both pieces, take the end nearest you and fold forward. Using the side of your hand or palm of your hand and seal the seam. Repeat with side farthest from you. Turn dough over, smooth top, and shape into a long, loaf-like shape by rolling it on the surface (make sure most of the dough is of even thickness). Place in a french bread pan or make-shift one with some heavy towels (make folds inbetween loaves). Cover with towel and let rise about 2 hours or until puffy.

3. Preheat the oven to 450F-500F (the hotter the better). If you are using a baking stone or tiles (I highly recommend it), preheat the oven for about an hour to get the stone good and hot. Spritz your loaves with water and then put in the hot oven. After 2 minutes, spritz loaves again with water. Repeat 2 more times every two minutes. Then bake for 20-25 minutes. Let sit for about 30 minutes before slicing.

French Bread: Attempt #1

So I attempted my first batch of French Bread yesterday with some success. They came out golden with the characteristic crunchy crust but the taste was a bit on the salty side. The recipe is a Julia Child one and goes as follows:

3 1/2 cups flour
1 package active dry yeast
2 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups tepid water

I guess bakers normally use sea salt or kosher salt but I thought since it was only 2 teaspoons and she didn't specify kosher salt that I could use just normal table salt. I'm still investigating into this but I've looked at Chris Kimball's recipe for European bread (from Cook's Bible) and his proportions are just about the same. In fact, he calls for 1 tablespoon of kosher salt and 2 teaspoons of table salt if you don't have kosher.

The only other factor that I can think of is that I used King Arthur's Select Artisan Organic All Purpose Flour that has a protein level of 11.3%. Its supposed to be ideal for european breads which use an all-purpose flour lower in protein content than normal american all-purpose flour. If anyone has input on this problem, please let me know. I'll make another batch of the bread possibly tomorrow with kosher salt.

I also bought Chicago Metallic's French Bread pans for baking the bread and they worked wonderfully. The perforated bottoms gave it a real professional look.

Chocolate Babka (burnt)

I have to say that I am once again disappointed by one of Gale's recipes. Normally Chocolate Babka is served during Easter (or at least that's what I've read) but since I'm not Eastern European I figured tradition wouldn't hold a grudge against me for baking it around Christmas. Well... I burned it. It is still edible but I think I might have to trim the crust which is a shame because some of the filling is closer to the crust.

• The recipe calls for 5 egg yolks and 1 whole egg. And this is supposed to make a cake or dough with only 2 cups of flour!? I ended up adding 2 more cups just to make it kneadable.
• The filling composed of 4 oz of bittersweet chocolate, 1 egg white, 1 tbsp of butter, and 7 oz of almond paste. My super-duper-never-has-a-problem-with-anything food processor couldn't get this filling together. It was so sticky and unspreadable that I basically just dotted clumps of it onto the dough which is why most of it ended up concentrated in certain parts.
  
• The dough would not cook all the way! This batter was just way too much for a single snail roll in a 9-inch cake pan. It rose like Mt. Everest and even after 45 minutes, the insides were far from done. And I was right too because when I opened it up the insides were just right. But pretty much the crust got ruined.

Martha has a recipe for this in her Baking Handbook (and it even had a strudel topping!) and now I wished I had baked that one. Poop.

Meron Pan

For those of you that like Japanese sweets (e.g. manjuu, pocky, etc.), you might like meron pan (Melon Bread). Its basically a sweet bun with various flavors including melon and maple and there are some that have anko (sweet red bean paste) inside. We went to a Japanese market in Mountain View this weekend and I picked up a couple as sometimes they are hard to find.

I'm not sure where you can order them online but if you ever stop by a Japanese market and find them try them out!

Oh and a small little Japanese trivia for you. "Meron" is a japanization of the english word "melon" and "pan" is also a borrowed word from Portuguese meaning "bread".

English Muffins and Sauce Hollandaise

I was surprised that these turned out pretty well. It was my first time making english muffins and so I was totally unsure as to how the dough was supposed to be during the entire time. It was very wet and pretty much batter-like up until cutting them out into circles. These were a bit of a pain since it required about 3 different waiting times but I do think they were well worth it. The muffins were very tender, soft, and chewy. They even looked like those Thomas English Muffins you buy at the supermarket! :)

Note: Try saving up your tuna cans and cutting both ends off to use as the muffin rings. They tend to spread a bit if you don't have the rings in place. Also, I used a baking stone instead of a baking sheet and this proved to make the crust extra crispy as I like them. I highly recommend getting a baking stone if you do a lot of baking.

I made eggs benedict this morning just for these muffins so please see recipe for sauce hollandaise at end.


English Muffins
(from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook)

11 ounces (about 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tsp instant yeast
1 cup warm water (about 110F)
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp nonfat dry milk
3 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 tsp coarse salt, plus more for sprinkling

Other Essentials:
Vegetable Oil for bowl, plastic wrap, parchment, and rings
Semolina flour, for pan
Anise seeds, for sprinkling (optional)
Unhulled sesame seeds, for sprinkling (optional)

In a medium bowl, combine 5 ounces (1 cup) all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon yeast, the warm water, and the honey; whisk vigorously until mixture is thick and slightly foamy, about 1 minute.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the remaining 6 ounces (1 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon yeast, and the dry milk. Sprinkle over the wet flour mixture, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours. Refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.

Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix on medium-low speed until all dry ingredients have been incorporated into the dough, about 2 minutes. Add the butter and salt, and continue to mix on medium speed until combined (the dough should be smooth but slightly tack), about 5 minutes. If the dough is too dry, add a little room-temperature water, 1 teaspoon at a time; if the dough is too wet, add more flour, 1 teaspoon at a time.

Transfer dough to a lightly oiled large bowl. Cover bowl with oiled plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until the dough has doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

With lightly oiled hands, gently knead dough in the bowl, covering all sides with oil. Turn out dough onto a piece of plastic wrap. Form dough into a flattened rectangle; wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 1 hour or overnight.

Line a baking sheet with parchment, brush with oil, and lightly dust with semolina flour. Lightly oil eight English muffin rings, and place on prepared sheet. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface, and roll out to 3/4 inch thick. using a floured 3-inch biscuit cutter, cut out right rounds; place each round in one of the oiled rings. (Dough can be rerolled in order to cut all eight muffins.) Set aside in a warm place until rounds have risen slightly, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F.

Sprinkle rounds with seeds or salt, as desired (about 1 teaspoon per muffin). In a large skillet over medium heat, melt enough additional butter to coat the bottom of the pan. When the butter is bubbling, carefully transfer rounds to the skillet with a wide spatula, leaving muffin rings in place. Do not crowd the pan; rounds should fit comfortably without touching. Cook muffins until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Flip them over, and cook until golden, about 4 minutes more. Return muffins to the baking sheet, and remove muffin rings. Bake until muffins are cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes. (They should reach and internal temperature of 190F.) Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Muffins can be eaten warm, or allowed to cool and then split open with a fork and toasted. The muffins can be wrapped in plastic and kept at room temperature for up to 3 days.


Eggs Benedict

Did you know the McDonald's Egg McMuffin was modeled after Eggs Benedict? They replaced the hollandaise sauce with the piece of cheese though. The eggs benedict I made this morning tastes similar to the Egg McMuffin... not sure if that's a good thing but it was definitely yummy. :) Basically you just toast a split english muffin, add a poached egg and slice of canadian bacon (back bacon), and then spoon over the hollandaise sauce on top.

I have to say that it took me 5 tries to make the sauce (I wasted quite a bit of butter and eggs this morning lol.) You have to be really careful not heat the mixture too much or the sauce will curdle or separate. Some ideas for troubleshooting after recipe.

Sauce Hollandaise

2 sticks (1 cup) butter (Note: You may not use all of this)
3 egg yolks
juice of half lemon
salt and pepper to taste

First, clarify the butter (Note: I personally think this step is optional but I've read that the hollandaise sauce is a lot thinner if you don't.) Melt the butter on low medium heat in a small saucepan. Remove the white scum that has floated to the top and then strain the butter. Set aside.

Fill a medium saucepan half with water and bring to a simmer. Put the egg yolks into a heatproof bowl (stainless steel) and spoon about 3 tablespoons of the hot water into it. Start whisking immediately over the heat until the egg yolks turned into the consistency of thick cream (ribbon stage). Immediately take pan off the heat (Note: This is quite important. I didn't do this the first four tries and my sauce split.)

Slowly pour the clarified butter into the egg yolks. Do not put it in all at once nor pour too slowly. Your sauce should start becoming the consistency of mayonaise. You don't have to use all your butter and please be aware that if you add too much butter, the egg yolk-butter emulsion will no longer hold and it will curdle. Add your lemon juice, mix, and taste with salt and pepper.

Hollandaise sauce doesn't store very well so try and use it the same day.

Please see an excellent video of this recipe here.

Troubleshooting:
If your sauce curdles, try several of the following methods:

• If your sauce is too thin or has separated, try spooning a tablespoon of cold water into it. If that doesn't work, try the next tip.


• Take a teaspoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the sauce and whisk together until thick. You'll have to pour the curdled sauce into this mixture slowly.


• I've read in one book that you can mix 1 egg yolk with a tablespoon of water and combine your mixture into that. I haven't tried it though.

Macaroons & Milk Bread

No, these two don't really go together well but they will be together here in light of not having posted in the last day or two due to school projects and work (Why must these things get in the way of my blogging? :) Like I mentioned in my last post I'll be going through Gale Gand's Chocolate & Vanilla book doing each recipe and recording my experiences with them here. So let's start with the macaroons.

Recipe #2: Chocolate "burgers" with White Chocolate Filling
(technically #2 since I have already made the hot chocolate pudding)

Actually this recipe isn't going to make it here because it essentially failed. Like I had mentioned earlier, the recipe called for 1 egg white and 3 cups of confectioners' sugar rendering my batter white and crumbly and most definitely not "soupy" like it was supposed to be. On impulse, I added some water to moisten up the batter but when I put them in the oven they exploded... not a pretty sight.

The recipe's only saving grace was the white chocolate filling. It's actually a cream cheese base with added white chocolate. I don't normally like white chocolate so much but this filling was indeed exceptional. And I do think it would work well as fillings for other types of baked goods like a filling for a sponge cake or another type of sandwich cookie (just be sure to double/triple the recipe as appropriate). Try it!

White Chocolate Filling
3 oz white chocolate
3 oz cream cheese, softened
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

Cream the cream cheese and butter together. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave (or use the double boiler method) and let cool a bit before adding into the cream cheese/butter mixture. Whip until combined.

Nigella's Chocolate Macaroons

So I couldn't just have the filling and no macaroons now could I? My next attempt was Nigella's chocolate macaroon recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess. These tasted wonderful except that they spread into something very thin in the oven. I'm not sure why but the batter was definitely "soupy" and perhaps a little too soupy that they couldn't hold any shape. The recipe calls for 4 egg whites and about a cup of confectioners' sugar. (See! 4 egg whites versus 1 egg white with a lot less sugar). Even though they spread very thinly I still used them with the white chocolate filling and they tasted fabulous. But they still didn't look like macaroons, dammit.

Next try: Martha Stewart's French Macaroons recipe

I actually really love this baking handbook and had success with two other recipes that came out of this book. This macaroon recipe calls for less egg whites but has a lot more almond flour than the previous two recipes (incidently, I decided against making the chocolate variation again.) The batter was definitely better and their shape held up pretty well when I piped them... but then they fell flat again once baked. I actually think that it was my fault this time. I must have overwhipped the egg whites because they were perfectly round and domed when I piped them onto the baking sheet.

Anyways, I made the swiss meringue frosting that goes with these cookies and they tasted fabulous despite not being so "macaroon-looking". As with Nigella's cookies, they didn't come out nice and smooth but rather bumpy and discolored. I think I'll have to start paying attention more to my egg whites and making sure I don't overbeat them.

Recipe for Martha's French Macaroons here. On a good note, I had my boyfriend take these to work and they were gone in an hour. :)



The Milk Bread

There is an "English bread" that they sell at the local Andersen's Bakery that I absolutely adore. Its not quite like your normal white bread as it is a bit richer and tenderer(?) (almost like brioche.) This craving struck me the other day and I searched high and low on the internet for such a bread. I found a link on the BBC food site that had a recipe for Milk Bread. The neat thing about this bread is that there is hardly any kneading involved and you do come out with a very nice bread. Instead of the fresh yeast it called for, I used instant yeast and this greatly shortened my rising times. In fact, my second rise went too far and my bread collapsed upon itself. It still was a decent loaf, just didn't look very pretty. At any rate, I would probably try using the fresh yeast or normal active dry yeast next time to see if the flavor comes out a little stronger and/or more complex. But this is an absolutely wonderful recipe for beginning bread makers since you basically knead for about 30 seconds in the entire recipe.

Check for the recipe here.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Ever since I've finally had success with baking white bread using The King Arthur Flour Baking Companion recipe for White Bread 101, I've decided to continue my baking training further with more of their recipes. This here is a soft, rich, and absolutely delectable sweet bread. I baked it yesterday (I absolutely had to bake something being that the apartment was under 50 degrees) and pray tell the wonderful smell that filled the apartment foreshadowed the imminent bread eating that would make the bread less than half a loaf today. I'm quite pleased with myself, more so because the bread did not come out dense as it had raised (rised?) quite nicely in a warmed oven. Which I might add, has been my saving grace ever since my bread starting coming out well.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Dough 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1/4 cup potato flour 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk 1 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cinnamon 3 tbsp sugar 2 1/2 tsp instant yeast 4 tbsp butter 1 cup water, warmed to about 110 degrees F

Filling 1/4 sugar 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 cup raisins or currants (optional) 2 tsp unbleached all-purpose flour Egg wash, made from 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water Topping 2 tbsp butter 2 tbsp sugar 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Make Dough:
In an standing electric mixer, combine all the dry ingredients and give it a whirl to mix it up. Melt your butter in the microwave or on the stove and let cool a bit. Then dissolve your yeast in with the warm water. While mixing on low, pour the butter into the flour mixture and then the yeast water. Go on low until dough comes together (if its too crumbly add a little warm water at a time) and then switch to medium (about 3 on a KitchenAid mixer) for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and satiny. Knead by hand for about a minute and then transfer the dough into a oiled bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise for about an hour to an hour and a half.

Make filling:
Mix filling ingredients together in a small bowl (except for the egg wash). Set aside.

Assemble:
Flatten dough into a long rectangle; about 16 x 8 inches. Brush the dough with some of the egg wash (reserve some for the topping) and press the filling onto the dough. Then starting with the short end, roll dough into a log making sure to pinch the ends so the filling will not leak out. Place dough in a lightly greased loaf pan (I used a 9 x 5) and let rise for about an hour or until the dough has risen about an inch over the rim of the pan.

Make topping:
Combine all topping ingredients in a small bowl. Brush top of bread with reserved egg wash and gently press the topping on.

Bake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the bread for about 45 minutes or until inner bread has reached about 190 degrees. If the bread gets a little too brown during baking, tent lightly with foil. Remove from the oven and let rest in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then gently remove from the pan onto a cooling rack. Some of the topping will fall off but don't worry too much about it. Let the bread sit for about 10 to 15 minutes before slicing and devouring.