Homemade Sourdough Baguettes

Equipment needed:

Kitchen scale with tare button (a must for consistent baking results at home)

Rounded bowl scraper/spatula (this is the bread making tool I value the most and it costs $2.00! Mine is a Fat Daddio's.

Medium size bowl

Parchment paper (I think this is the easiest way to bake these, I forget sometimes and have to pry these off the pan)and baking sheet

Squirt bottle with plain water or a couple of ice cubes

Total time about 8 hours, hands on time less than 20 minutes-depending on how good you are at shaping a baguette.

This is the recipe I use (with modifications I often make in parenthesis)- as you can see it isn’t very detailed.

3 ounces starter

11 ounces flour (I sometimes use AP, often I use about 3 ounces of whole wheat or spelt and 8 of bread flour)

¼ ounce salt

6.6 ounces water

                                    mix to shaggy

                                    rest 30 minutes

fold 4X @ 30 minute intervals

bulk ferment 1 ½ hours, fold

bulk ferment 2 hours, divide

preshape- let rest 15 minutes

shape

proof 1 to 1 ½ hours

bake at 500 degrees with steam for 20 minutes




Additional thoughts and notes:


Our starter's hydration level varies. There are a lot of great threads over at The Fresh Loaf if you want to learn all about establishing and maintaining a starter. I'm pretty loosey-goosey about the whole thing, I feed the starter when I remember and usually throw it in the fridge if I'm not baking much and am feeding the starter less than once a day in warm weather or once every two days in cool weather. I made this starter six years ago and it is a tough kid, she can take some falls on the playground and get right back up again.


And about the timing on this recipe- I've followed it to the letter and I've also had a few of the 30 minute stretches go an hour or so. I've also had the first bulk ferment turn into an overnight in the refrigerator. (Actually the bread in the photos above sat for two days in the fridge, it was still quite good but I definitely pushed the boundaries.)I think the handling is key, using one of those spatula/scrapers is gluten forming magic. 

Grown Up Mac and Cheese with Blue Cheese and Swiss Chard

I made this bread video and I was going to post it on Thursday no Friday okay on Saturday, for sure on Saturday. And on Saturday I tried. Youtube and I are having some issues. And it’s not even that interesting, five minutes of bread making. But maybe I think that because I’ve seen it so many times I don’t need my recipe anymore. So that’s coming, I want to take some still shots so I need to bake some more bread. But in the meantime we still have to eat and I’m trying out a homemade lightbox in an attempt to up my game photo wise.

Tangy Grown Up Mac and Cheese with Swiss Chard and Spring Rabb

Ever since I baked that Spinach Tart I have been craving Macaroni and Cheese.  I resisted until I couldn’t resist anymore. This take has tons of veggies and was made with high fiber pasta. The Swiss chard tucked in the middle is a pleasant compliment to the tangy blue cheese. Served with spring rabb lightly sautéed in homemade chicken broth.

The recipe is a guess- based on recollection. I used ingredients in the fridge and pantry.

Grown Up Mac and Cheese

2 ½ cups low fat milk

2 tsp butter

2 TBSP flour

1 heaping tsp country style Dijon mustard (a recipe for this will follow at some point)

About 1 cup shredded mozzarella

¼ cup American cheese (the secret cheese at a restaurant I worked at where everybody raved about our Mac and Cheese, it adds a creamy consistency you just can get from ‘real’ cheese)

½ cup blue cheese crumbled.

Fresh ground pepper to taste

1 bundle Swiss chard including most of the stems, chopped up fine

2-3 cloves of garlic

2 TBS homemade chicken broth

14-ounce package of Trader Joe’s high fiber penne pasta, cooked a minute or two less than instructed.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Sautee garlic, chicken broth, and Swiss chard over a medium-low heat until chard is tender and most of the liquid evaporates- about 7 minutes. Set aside.

Melt butter, add flour and whisk until flour is completely coated. Slowly add milk, whisking constantly until smooth and sauce like. Add cheeses one at a time stirring until incorporated and creamy (reserving a little bit of blue cheese and mozzarella to sprinkle over the top) Salt and pepper to taste.

Add sauce to cooked pasta (I return the pasta to its cooking pot, you want a vessel large enough to stir it together easily)

Pour about ½ the coated pasta into a lightly oiled or non-stick 8X11 pan. Top with cooled Swiss chard mixture, then add the remaining pasta and any left over sauce.

Sprinkle the remaining blue cheese and mozzarella over the top and bake until bubbly and melty- usually about 15-20 minutes.

A layer of Swiss Chard adds color and tempers the bold flavor of the blue cheese.

Ridiculously Healthy Spinach and Mushroom Tart

Spinach and Mushroom Tart Topped with Briny Kalamata Olives

Yup- no butter, no bacon but the yogurt lends a pleasant tang and the olives provide a briny burst. She ain’t pretty but she’s good.

Enough for a 9inch tart pan

Preheat oven to 400

Crust:

½ cup AP flour

½ cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 Tbs Ground Flax Seed

¼ tsp salt

¼ cup cold water

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Ground pepper to taste

Mix first five ingredients in a bowl, add water and olive oil. Stir until incorporated. Knead briefly. Dough should be soft and wet, almost like cookie dough. Roll out or press into tart pan. Dough is pretty thin, about the thickness of a nickel. Refrigerate until filling is ready

Olive Oil Crust with Whole Wheat and Flax Seed with a curious cat

Filling:

About 15 mushrooms, cut into matchsticks

¾ lb leafy greens(I used frozen spinach because it’s what I had but the recipe is based off of a Provecal Swiss Chard tart)

1 small red onion, coarsely chopped

Garlic to taste

1 egg

¾ cup yogurt

¾ cup shredded Romano cheese

¼ tsp grated nutmeg

16 or so Kalamata olives pitted and cut length wise

Sauté mushrooms in a little olive oil over medium heat until liquid is released and dissipated. Add well-minced garlic during last few minutes of cooking.

Crimini Mushrooms

Meanwhile puree thawed spinach (or blanched fresh Chard or Kale) and onion in a food processor.

Set mushrooms aside and sauté spinach to remove excess moisture- about ten minutes over med-low heat. Remove from heat.

Sheeps Milk Reggiano and freshly grated Nutmeg

Combine yogurt, egg, nutmeg, and cheese together in a medium bowl. Add spinach and thoroughly combine. Add mushrooms and mix until evenly distributed.

Dark Kitchen + Bright Green Spinach = Picture that looks like it came from the fifties

Spread filling into awaiting tart shell, top with olives and bake for about forty minutes until crust looks brown and has begun to pull away from the sides of the tart pan and the filling is set.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Pitted Kalamatas top this savory SPinach and Mushroom Tart

I just learned that I have high cholesterol- I do love cheese and butter and eggs and bacon... I think I could live quite happily (if not quite as long) on a diet of breakfast food and macaroni and cheese. 

But I also love my leafy greens (really! thanks Dad!) and avocados and garlic and ginger and onions and spicy peppers- in fact I love almost everything on the heart healthy diet- except for nuts but they don’t love me either so we’re square. 

Why did I resist?

Two weeks in and I feel great (though that mention of Mac and Cheese has got me yearning). I’m still eating things I like all I’ve done is flip the ratios around, add a salad course. Even if six months from now the medical community changes its mind yet again and decided that there is some other X factor that causes heart disease I’d still make this tart again, only this time with Kale!

Summer Berry Raw Fruit Tart

It's been so long since I've posted that I'm no longer embarrassed about it.

Last weekend there was a barbecue/get together to reconnect with a dear friend. As designated dessert lady it is always a struggle for me to balance my urge for buttery baked goodness with the dietary needs of those who have gone gluten/sugar/dairy free. But when the berries at the farmers' market are as delicious as they have been, the struggle, it turns out, is no struggle at all.

Crust

1 cup pitted dates ( I soaked mine for minute or two then drained them)
3/4 cup almonds
1 1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Put about half of the nuts into a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground. Add dates, salt, and  spices then whir a few more times. Add remaining nuts and process until it all comes together. (My measurements are approximate, I read that walnuts on their own can be too oily so I added the almonds- and perhaps a pecan or two- but then there were just a few lonely walnuts left in the bag so I threw those in at the end.)  Press "dough" into mini tart pans- it should be thick enough to at least sort of hold together- and refrigerate at least thirty minutes or until you are ready to fill and serve.

Berry Topping

1 pint raspberries
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 pint blueberries

Mash raspberries with fork. Add vanilla and mix until it is the consistency of jam. Add the blueberries and toss together.

Carefully remove the crusts from the pans, these suckers are delicate. Or, alternately, I'm sure you could just form a crust with your hands and skip the tartlet pans altogether. Then fill/top with berry mixture and garnish with a (in this case chocolate) mint sprig and serve.

Weekday Lamb Pizza

Lamb Pizza

Pizza is my fall back, don’t know what else to make, meal. I’ll put just about anything on a pizza. For this one I had some leftover ground lamb from the farmers market in the freezer and some ciabatta dough in the refrigerator (I try and either make extra when I’m baking bread or just start a batch through the first rise when I have some extra time so that there is always some dough on hand). Served with a side salad it is a complete meal.

¼ lb ground lamb, precooked in the frying pan with some spices (I’m going to say I used cumin, salt, pepper, and paprika- but that’s a guess, premixed curry powder would work well too) a half an onion, diced, and some minced garlic. When the lamb is cooked through drain off the excess fat and set aside.

About a cup of diced tomatoes. I used a batch of frozen tomatoes left over from summer. They were oven roasted before I froze them so the flavor was sweet and a little buttery.

Some cheese. Feta and Romano or Parmesan.

Fresh parsley, minced.

A glob of dough. I used something goopy thus the awkward shape but fabulous chewy crumb. Jason’s Ciabatta recipe from The Fresh Loaf works great for this if you are in a hurry (well a few hours versus a few days, with yeast you can’t hurry much more than that) but I’ve definitely become a convert to the long slow ferment. Once the dough has gone through its initial rise it will keep in the refrigerator for several days, just pull it out and allow it to come to room temperature before you form the pizza. It’s like buying premade pizza dough from your own refrigerator.

This dough is very wet, more like batter than regular slicer bread dough, so trying to shape it into a pretty round disc will just frustrate you and compromise the crumb. After the final rise I stretch it out onto a silpat or parchment paper and slide that directly onto my preheated pizza stone. I have the pizza stone on the bottom rack because it’s nice to have enough room to get in and out of the oven to add toppings without burning myself on the top heating element.

Drizzle the dough with a bit of olive oil and bake without toppings in a 475-550 (the silpat manufacturers say 480 is the max for those) degree oven for 3-5 minutes. Top with lamb mixture and cheese and cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the crust is crisp.

Remove from oven, add parsley and be sure if you used a silpat you take the pizza off the baking sheet before you slice the pizza.

Here's to 2010!

This wreath was simple to make. I bet it could be made with any dough that you can form into a ring. I followed these directions.

Winter Squash Soup w/Apple Cider Greens

The soup, made with leftover roasted acorn squash, is simple so I dressed it up with some chard sautéed in an apple cider vinegar reduction then topped all that off with a dollop of tangy yogurt. Served with a side of homemade sourdough bread (you can link to my current favorite recipe here) this made for a warming mid-week meal.

SOUP

1 Acorn (or other winter) Squash
1 ½ cups stock (I used homemade vegetable stock but chicken or turkey would be good too.)
Salt and Pepper to taste
A pinch of herbs de provence

GREENS

About 2 cups of chopped raw greens (kale, chard, even collards- but I’d up the cooking time for those)
4 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
a scant tsp of sugar
1-2 tsp bacon grease (okay I suppose olive oil would work too)
Red pepper flakes to taste

Split and clean squash. Lightly coat with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast center side down on a baking sheet @ about 375 degrees until the squash is tender to the touch.

When it is cool enough to handle scoop out the squash and combine with stock in food processor or blender. Puree until smooth. Pour into a sauce pan and heat through adding herbs, salt and pepper to taste.

While the soup heats combine bacon grease, cider vinegar, sugar and pepper flakes over medium heat in a skillet until sugar is dissolved and mixture is just bubbling. Add greens, reduce heat and cook until greens are to your liking, stirring occasionally.