A Year in Bread: February 2008

When I was a young'un, I moved from "Baja Oregon" to a very small coastal town in southwest Washington. A town where the locals joked, in some cases bragged, that, upon arriving, you should turn back your clock 20 years - to the '50s. (um, no) A town where, in the only 'ahead of their time' moment I witnessed there, they hated Calif…er, Baja Oregonians with a vengeance.

Well, mostly.

Some folks (read: young men, sadly, with an emphasis on the young) were utterly fascinated by the strange creature in their midst and vacillated between semi-awe and hormonal stupidity. The strange creature, being a child of the coolest artistic little beach towns in Baja Oregon, thought this was mildly amusing behavior for about 15 minutes.

I arrived in late-spring and my first summer there was, to put it mildly, not my best year. Two things saved me that wet, foggy summer. The first was a job at the local pizzeria, where Gina, a wise-cracking New Jersey girl — everyone swore we were sisters — taught me to toss rounds of dough high in the air and, much harder, catch them again. She also let me play with the brick oven. I loved Gina.

The second bit of salvation arrived one night when a guy I had dated a few times introduced me to his best friend's girlfriend saying, "Stay away from her." (um, no) When we got away to the bathroom (maybe this is why we go in pairs) we discovered we had both gotten the same marching orders. We broke up with the guys and have been best buds ever since. Duh.

This bread, made in loaves, was Becky's favorite. I baked some every week or so for years and years. Then Becky and I lost touch. I also mostly stopped baking this bread. Both sad things.

I recently found Becky again via the marvels of the Internet and invited her down to visit. The first thing she said, after a huge hug, was, "Did you make my favorite bread?" Of course, I had. And an extra loaf to take home. I believe she turned to her husband and said, "told ya!" but I may be imagining that part.

Onion Cheddar Breadsticks

Ingredient US Volume Metric Volume US Weight Metric Weight
onion diced 1 large
olive oil for cooking onions
instant yeast 4 1/2 tsp 23 ml 1/2 oz 14 g
water 1 1/2 cup 350 ml 12 oz 335 g
bread flour 6 cups 1.45 liters 27 oz 750 g
milk 1 cup 235 ml 8 oz 225 g
butter 1/4 cup 60 ml 2 oz 55 g
cheddar cheese grated 2 cups 475 ml 9 oz 250 g
salt 2 tsp 10 ml 1/2 oz 15 g

Notes:
This bread can also be made as loaves or dinner rolls. Shape the dough as desired, let rise until doubled in size and bake ~20-25 min for rolls, ~40-45 min for loaves.

Half an hour before mixing the dough scald the milk (or bring it barely to a boil in the microwave if you prefer), add the butter and set aside to cool.

Chop the onions into small pieces. Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Pour in enough olive oil to barely coat the bottom of the pan. Add the onions and sauté for 5-10 minutes, until they start to brown around the edges and look like this. Scrape the onions and oil into a bowl and set aside to cool. (This accomplishes two things: brings out wonderful complex flavors in the onion and reduces the amount of water in them. Compare the amount of onions before and after cooking. The amount of flour you need depends partly on how much water cooks out of the onions. Go figure.)

In mixing bowl, combine water, yeast, 2 cups of bread flour and mix for about 1 minute, just enough to make a wet mess. Set aside to rest until the milk is cool.

Have a cup of tea and come back in half an hour.

Mixing the dough
Add the cooled milk/butter, onions, and cheese to the mixing bowl along with 3 more cups of flour. Mix well, adding the last cup of flour a bit at a time until a softish dough forms. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for twenty minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured counter and knead by hand for 7-10 minutes. (If you are using a machine, mix on medium for ~3-4 minutes, adding some of the last cup of flour if needed, before turning out on floured counter and kneading for a minute or two.) The dough should be smooth and elastic.

Place dough in clean bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in bulk.

Shaping breadsticks
Divide dough in half, set aside one piece. Stretch the dough into a rough rectangle, letting it rest if the gluten is too tight and it springs back.

Cut dough into 3/4 inch wide strips using a knife, pizza cutter (they roll easily), or, my favorite, a plastic putty knife. Place breadsticks on a parchment lined baking sheet, either straight or twisted. Cover and let rise until doubled in size.

Baking
Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Bake for 15 minutes. They should be golden brown, but will still be soft. They crisp up a bit as they cool and are best within a couple of hours of baking.

Note:
I just said these were best eaten the same day they are baked — maybe nabbed while still warm and eaten while running away from the baker. This is a fairly large recipe, however, because I usually make these for parties... meaning that I almost never bake them the same day as they will be eaten. I bake the day before or, if earlier, I freeze the baked breadsticks. They are small enough to go directly from the freezer to a 350F (175C) oven for ~5 minutes to thaw and crisp them up before serving. The room temperature ones only take a minute or two to warm up.

Flickr set: Onion Cheddar Breadsticks

Technorati: Food recipe baking bread artisanal artisan bread baking kitchenmage breadsticks breadsticks for becky

Labels: Beth, breadsticks

Continue...

In casting about for a topic for February we somehow came up with bite-size breads with cheese. Go figure. However, having arrived on that topic the first thing that occurred to me was gougères.

Gougères are savory Pâte à choux puffs typically made with cheese, usually gruyere, but other cheeses are sometimes used. I frequently make them for parties because they keep easily for a day in the fridge (or a month in the freezer) and reheat beautifully in the oven.

Making this dough can be intimidating the first time because it's unconventional. But in fact it's easy and fast. Choux is a bread (pastry) leavened with steam. A wet dough, as it heats up the liquid in it turns to steam and causes it to rise and forming large internal bubbles which are stuffed with something sweet in the case of eclairs and profiteroles. According to Wikipedia:

A chef by the name of Panterelli invented the dough in 1540, seven years after he left Florence, along with Catherine de' Medici and the entirety of her court. He used the dough to make a gâteau and named it Pâte à Panterelli. As time passed, the recipe of the dough evolved, and the name changed to Pâte à Popelin, which was used to make Popelins, small cakes made in the shape of a woman's breasts. Then, Avice, a pâtissier in the eighteenth century, created what was then called Choux Buns. The name of the dough changed to Pâte à Choux, as Avice's buns looked similar in appearance to choux, which is French for cabbages. From there, Antoine Carême made modifications to the recipe, resulting in the recipe most commonly used now for profiteroles.

The recipe below is based on one by Thomas Keller, the owner and chef of The French Laundry. But I've tweaked it and the inclusion of prosciutto is completely my own (albeit obvious) idea.

Prosciutto Gougères
Makes about 24.

Ingredient US volume Metric volume US weight Metric weight
prosciutto 6 thin slices
water 1 c 236.6 ml 8 oz 225 g
unsalted butter 7 tbsp 105 ml 3.5 oz 100 g
kosher salt 1 1/2 tsp 7 ml -- --
ground mustard 1 tsp 5 ml -- --
freshly ground white pepper 1/2 tsp 3 ml -- --
all-purpose flour 1 1/4 c 295 ml 6 3/8 oz 183 g
large eggs 4 - 5 ea
gruyere grated -- -- 5 oz 142 g

Heat the oven to 450F/230C.

Slightly cook prosciutto in a skillet over medium heat — about 10 seconds per side. Then coarsely chop by hand, you should have about 1/3 cup lightly packed.

Mix the mustard, salt, and pepper with the flour. In a medium saucepan, combine the water and butter and bring to a boil. Add all the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium, and stir, smearing and cutting through the batter, for 2 minutes, or until the mixture forms a ball and the excess moisture has evaporated (if the ball forms more quickly, continue to cook and stir for a full 2 minutes).

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle and beat for about 30 seconds at medium speed to cool slightly. Add 4 eggs and continue to mix until completely combined and the batter has a smooth, silky texture. Stop the machine and lift up the beater to check the consistency of the batter. The batter in the mixing bowl should form a peak with a tip that falls over. If it is too stiff, beat in the white of the remaining egg. Check again and, if necessary, add the yolk. Finally, mix in 3/4 cup of the Gruyere and chopped prosciutto.

Line a pair of baking sheets with parchment paper, (or Silpat if you have one). Fill a one-gallon heavy plastic bag with the batter and snip off a bottom corner. Pipe the batter into 1-tablespoon (15 ml) mounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches (5 cm) between the gougères. Sprinkle the top of each gougère with about 1/2 teaspoon (2 ml) of the remaining grated cheese and bake for 7 to 8 minutes (my oven needs 10 minutes), or until they puff and hold their shape. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees F (175C). and bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes to a light golden brown color.

(Note: Unless you have a convection oven, I recommend cooking these in two batches, if you have a convection oven you may be able to cook both sheets at once.)