I'm slowly waking up this morning, my faithful mug filled with wonderfully black coffee, piping hot. It's rainy and overcast and I'm watching my neighbors tiptoeing outside to pick up their soggy newspaper. The house is still dark and perfumed with the scent of my freshly toasted parmesan bagel. There is something extremely peaceful about this morning.
Earlier in the week, I noticed the most amazing bagels posted by Cenk at Cafe Fernando. He used a recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice
Bagels are one of my favorite forms of bread. They are chewy but can also be crisp when toasted. They can be sweet or savory, used for any meal, and can be dressed up or down as you like. They can even be made into bagel chips!
The bagel recipe begins with a warning by Cenk that there will be kneading by hand involved. Given the quantity and stiffness of the dough, it will likely destroy a standard issue KitchenAid mixer. I'm not worried and figure it can't be all that bad, as I've kneaded bread doughs many times before. So, I lay out my ingredients, already thinking ahead to how I will top the bagels.
I start by making the sponge and allowing it to rise. Next, additional yeast and flour are added. I used my mixer to begin the dough making process but after adding the last cup or so of flour it began to churn and make disturbing noises. I flipped it off and turned my blob of dough onto my work surface for kneading.
I kneaded the dough into a ball and at this point there is a remaining 3/4 cup of flour that you must knead into the dough. It sounds easy. I begin with a sprinkling of flour and realize it may be more difficult than first thought. The dough is stiff and from its chunky texture, I realize that I will likely be kneading longer than 10 minutes.
I push and roll the dough, continually moving it and working it. The muscles in my arms begin to slowly burn, and with each kneading movement they tighten and burn more. My calves started to also burn and it was then that I realized I was on the tips of my toes. I kneaded the bread on top of my wood cutting board which is 1.5" thick, so in order to get the right leverage on the stiff dough I needed to be higher. I didn't have a stool handy, so continued to work out my calves as well.
At this point, only about 5 minutes had passed. My breathing steadily increased throughout the kneading process and it was then that I hatched my latest idea ... a workout video based on bread baking. I can see it now, "Don't be a dough boy - knead your way to tighter buns" or "Need abs? Knead dough!".
After a few expletives and seriously determined to never read Cafe Fernando again, my kneading stopped, somewhere around 15 minutes. It seemed like an eternity. I used a high-gluten bread flour which is suggested, while Cenk used all-purpose flour which required double the kneading time. He must be in amazing shape.
The dough is cut into 12 portions and shaped into balls. It's important to take this step seriously as it determines the final shape of your bagels. For a perfect looking bagel, make a nicely round and smooth ball. After the balls rest for 20 minutes, they are then given their signature hole by using your thumb. Just poke it through the center of the ball until it touches your forefinger, then work it around to stretch out the center as desired.
Place bagels on greased baking sheet and allow to rest another 20 minutes then place into the fridge overnight. The next morning, mine looked like this:
I prepared the boiling water in which to boil the bagels, then set up plates with my topping ingredients. I used a mix of grated parmesan and crushed black pepper, freshly chopped rosemary, sesame seeds, and cinnamon/oatmeal/brown sugar.
After the bagels boiled for 2 minutes (I wanted mine extra-chewy), I allowed them to cool for a few seconds before dipping them in my ingredients. I suggest rolling them around so all sides are covered. In retrospect, I might use a bit of egg wash next time to help the sesame to adhere. After they baked, the seeds flaked off easily. Here are my bagels awaiting the hot oven:
I baked the bagels for a full 15 minutes until I achieved a golden-brown color. I cooled on a wire rack for a few minutes before splitting the first one open. The bagel was chewy and delicious, especially with the slab of butter I put on top of it.
While I expected my favorite topping to be sesame seeds, it turned out to be the parmesan/black pepper combo. It was the absolute best, so savory and rich. The oatmeal/cinnamon/brown sugar was a last minute idea and it tasted surprisingly good.
So, was it worth the effort? Of course, and I will make them again. I might even begin reading Cafe Fernando again :-)
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Freshly made bagels, chewy and delicious!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Naan two ways: green onion and sesame
One of favorite Indian foods has to be the naan. A flat, chewy teardrop shaped bread used to scoop up meat and stewed dishes. I watched Anjum make naan and realized that it's fairly simple to replicate without a tandoori oven. She encourages adding different toppings to the bread, so I made a few naan with green onions and a couple with sesame seeds. The result? Pure happiness.
I used Anjum's recipe as published on the BBC website. It uses only a few common ingredients and can be made from beginning to end in about 1-2 hours.
Naan
9 oz. flour (250 g)
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
4.5 fl. oz. milk (110-130ml)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons melted butter for serving
Topping suggestions: nigella seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, minced garlic, fresh cilantro/coriander, chopped green onions.
Sift the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture. Combine milk and oil, then pour into the center well.
Using your fingers (love this part), begin from the center and slowly make a circular motion. As you widen your circle, you will begin to add in more of the surrounding flour. Continue doing this until all of the flour is added and the dough begins to come together.
Once the dough begins to come together, remove from bowl and knead for 8-10 minutes until a soft dough forms. I kneaded and kneaded, started to break a sweat only to realize a mere 3 minutes had passed. There's something to be said for making bread from scratch -- you get to burn off calories while making it.
Place dough into a greased bowl and cover with a damp towel. Place into a warm location to rise for an hour, or until doubled in size. I preheated my oven to 200 degrees, then turned it off, thus creating a warm environment to stash my dough. I've never made a bread without yeast that needed to rise. To be honest, I don't think mine doubled but it seemed a bit puffier and the consistency was very soft and smooth, so I proceeded.
After the dough has doubled, punch it down and cut into 5 pieces. Roll each piece thin and into an oblong teardrop shape. The dough is very soft and rolls easily, just remember to dust your surface with a bit of flour first. My naan came out to be about 8" long by 6" wide. Use your fingers to press any toppings into the rolled dough.
Turn on the broiler of your oven. Place a baking sheet on the top rack under the broiler to heat up. Once heated, take half of the rolled dough and carefully drop it onto the baking sheet and put under the broiler for 1-2 minutes. Watch it closely! My first batch got a bit too brown as it suddenly went from light to dark in a matter of seconds. Remove from oven and brush with plenty of melted butter. Repeat with remaining dough -- makes 5 pieces.
Chewy, tender, slightly sweet and absolutely divine. I could have eaten all 5 pieces without any hesitation. I was surprised at just how simple it turned out to be. The effort is really only in the 10 minutes of kneading up front, otherwise you're just waiting for it to rise. The bread is worth trying at home, especially when paired with a nice spicy curry.
You might also like these posts:
Classic northern chicken curry
Anjum Anand is my new food crush
Monday, March 10, 2008
Ciabatta catastrophe - how do you measure up?
Don't let the photo fool you, the bread turned out rather disgusting, both in taste and texture. I guess I'm on a ciabatta roller coaster having great success recently, now followed by a ciabatta disaster.
I enjoyed the ciabatta bread made in less than 5 hours and figured the full-length version must taste EVEN better. I thumbed through my recipe books and looked online, settling for a recipe from Epicurious. The recipe required a 'sponge' to be made the night before. I whipped the sponge together in a matter of minutes and let it set until the next day, about 18 hours later. On the following day, I carefully measured the ingredients and heated liquids to exactly how they were listed. The dough was much stiffer than with the 5-hour ciabatta but I assumed this must be what 'real' ciabatta dough is like.
It wasn't until the loaves were baking that I had my first inkling something was wrong. The loaves looked 'too smooth' and not as rustic. I patiently let them cool before cutting into the first loaf only to discover a typical bread texture.
There weren't any holes and the texture wasn't chewy at all. And to add insult to injury, it didn't even taste good - just bland. Such a disappointment. I'm not sure what I could have done wrong to make the bread such a flop. The yeast didn't seem bad either, so I chalked this one up to a 'bad day'.
Then today, I received a comment on the 5-hour ciabatta post and it got me to thinking. The recipe I used for the 5-hour ciabatta had been written using weight measurements and I weighed everything accordingly on a kitchen scale. Kate mentioned that she tried making the recipe without a scale and using varying amounts of flour from 2 to 4 cups. She wondered how many cups are equivalent to 17.6 ounces called for in the recipe.
It's interesting how weight vs. volume measurements can throw off a recipe. With weight, a pound is a pound. With volume measurement, how you measure ingredients can greatly impact the recipe. I decided to test this out for myself in trying to answer her question on how many cups are in 17.6 ounces.
I started by using a spoon to shake the flour onto my scale. I measured the 17.6 ounces of flour, then spooned the flour into my measuring cups. Using this method, 17.6 ounces of flour was equivalent to about 3.5 cups of flour.
I decided to now try the reverse. I normally dip my measuring cup into the flour bag, then level off the cup. I used this method to scoop out 3.5 cups of flour, then weighed on the kitchen scale. The 3.5 cups of flour measured this way ended up weighing 22.5 ounces, a difference of 4.9 ounces! Pretty significant.
This could explain the issue I had over the weekend with my ciabatta bread, since I did scoop versus using a spoon to fill my measuring cup (which I believe is how you're supposed to do it). I guess I'm destined to be a rule breaker.
So, the big question is -- how does everyone else measure their flour? Do you spoon it into your measuring cup or do you scoop it out of the bag/container with your measuring cup?
Monday, March 03, 2008
Ciabatta bread in less than 5 hours
I've been craving bread lately, nice thick slabs of chewy and crusty bread, good old European style bread. I've looked through my books and nothing sparked my interest. By dumb luck, I happened across a recipe last night for a quick to make version of ciabatta. I love the texture of this bread and knew it could be fit into my schedule for today.
The recipe comes from a bread forum that I haven't read before, but the photos looked fantastic. The only confusing part of the recipe was the type of yeast involved, since the recipe didn't specify. Other recipes on the site utilized mostly instant yeast and based on how the ingredients were combined (yeast mixed with flour, not proofed), it seemed as though the recipe was using instant yeast. I wasn't able to locate instant yeast at my store so opted to use active dry yeast.
I checked several reliable references who stated instant yeast and active yeast could be interchanged measure for measure, however typically active yeast needed to be proofed first. I worried and pondered for awhile. When I finally looked at my yeast package it stated that it could be used without proofing as long as the water temperature was increased. Perfect! Oddly, the original recipe didn't many anything about water temperature.
The recipe measurements were in grams, so I converted to ounces and weighed everything accordingly. I've included both the original measurements and my conversions:
Ciabatta bread
500g bread flour (17.6 ounces)
475g water (2 cups @ 120 degrees)
2 tsp. yeast (active dry)
15g salt (.5 ounces)
The ciabatta dough is noted as being extremely sticky and gooey due to its high water content. I followed the directions as stated, with the exception of using water warmed to 120 degrees. All of the ingredients are dumped into a mixing bowl and roughly combined, then allowed to rest for 10 minutes. After the resting period, turn on the mixer and beat for 10-30 minutes until the dough pulls away from the sides and bottom of the bowl. This took about 10 minutes using a medium speed on my mixer. Since the dough was so moist, I used the paddle attachment on my mixer instead of the dough hook. I don't think a dough hook will work due to the softness of the dough.
Pour (yes, pour) the ciabatta dough into a greased bowl. The dough is the consistency of stringy pudding, pardon the expression but it's kind of 'snot-like' and unlike any other dough I've worked with. Don't add more flour, just go along with it.
I preheated my oven to 200 degrees and then turned it off. This creates a warm environment for the dough to rise. Place the covered bowl in a warm place (i.e. my warm oven) to triple in size, about 2.5 hours. I covered the bowl with a greased piece of tin foil.
After tripling in size, use a spatula to scrape the dough from the bowl onto a heavily floured surface. Cut into 2 or 3 pieces, spray with grease and dust with flour, and allow to sit for 45 minutes. When I removed the dough from the bowl, I tried not to punch it down too much but just let it fall onto the work surface, then cut in half and separated the two pieces. I gently rubbed with a bit of olive oil before dusting with flour. 
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees while the dough is resting. Place 1/2 cup or so of flour onto a half sheet pan so that it has a thick coating of flour. After the dough is done resting, pick up one piece of the dough and in a single motion turn it upside down on the sheet pan while also stretching it to about 10" in length. Even though the dough rested on a heavily floured surface, it still stuck. I didn't have a dough scraper, so used a big cleaver to scrape the dough off the work surface and turned it upside down on the baking sheet.
The dough will look as though you've damaged it -- fear not. Just don't fuss with it. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Turning the dough upside down will help to redistribute the bubbles inside the dough. You want to be gentle with the dough so you don't knock all the bubbles out of it.
Place the baking sheet onto the center rack of your 500 degree oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 205 degrees. I've never used a thermometer on bread before, but did so. Mine took the full 20 minutes.
I removed the bread and it looked amazing. This is where my patience falters and I become anxious to dive into what I've made. I let the ciabatta set for 15 minutes before slicing the first piece. The bread was crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. As you can see, it had the incredible bubbles throughout the dough. The texture is chewy, just the way it should be. I am in love. 
The flavor is lightly yeasty and the texture is so chewy. I've read that due to the quick nature of this bread that it won't be as flavorful as one requiring a sponge created overnight. I think it's great, but will have to try a full-length version of this bread. I can hardly wait to make a panini out of it but will save that until tomorrow. I've already eaten too many slices and need to slow down for today. It wouldn't be good to eat 2 loaves of bread in one day ... or would it? :-)
Monday, February 25, 2008
Not a single nook or cranny!
Do you know what these delightful dough pillows are supposed to be? They are an early morning attempt at making my very own english muffins. I felt inspired after seeing Foodbeam's beautiful muffins, but I didn't have all the ingredients on hand to make her recipe. So, I found a random recipe from the web and I ended up with not so surprising random results.
I'm going to chalk this one up to a bad recipe. The reviews of it were spotty but I decided to give it a go anyway (arrogant to think that I wouldn't have any problems using the recipe). The dough is easy enough to make, and I followed instructions carefully regarding the temperature of water and milk, assuming that previous bakers had somehow overlooked these delicate matters.
I did make them a wee bit smaller than normal sized muffins, but I used a glass as a cutter and that's the size it happened to be. While they fried in the pan, I had high hopes but became increasingly concerned that they seemed to retain their pillowy shape and didn't take on the expected flattish signature look of an english muffin.
As I put on the second batch to cook, I picked up a fork and cracked into one as though looking for a pearl in an oyster. My once happy face put on an immediate frown when I couldn't find a single nook, not even a cranny!
The muffin center was a soft but bread-like consistency. I slapped on some butter and found it still tasty, but not the english muffin I had hoped to create. I have learned my lesson about being anxious to make something without first having the right ingredients to make the right recipe. As punishment I will eat my cranny-less muffins and reflect on my impatience.
