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I almost forgot it was World Bread Day! But, my weekend baking actually applies pretty well to the holiday.

Yesterday I baked bialys. I learned about these breads from an employer, who wanted me to develop them as a product for their bakery. She loaned me her book The Bialy Eaters: The Story of a Bread and a Lost World by Mimi Sheraton. The bialy is a small yeast roll, similar to a bagel, which was invented by jewish bakers in Bialystok Poland. Unfortunately, after the holocaust and World War II, the bread was mostly lost to Poland and exists only in adopted countries where survivors immigrated and recreated traditional breads. In the book, Mimi Sheraton travels to Bialystok and talks to people about their memories of the rolls. It's a rather sad book, as she often discovers how much was lost from the traditions of Poland, and is really more of an anthropological tale more than a food book, but it's still an interesting read.

This batch I used the recipe from Artisan Breads Across America, by Maggie Glazer. Supposedly it is adapted from Kossar's Baker in New York, who is famous for their Bialys.

Bialys are made from a stiff, lean dough, and Glazer recommends a food processor for kneading, which I didn't find necessary (my DLX was fine with the workload). When I baked these at the bakery, I used to retard the dough overnight, which worked great. This time I just made them in a single day: a 2-3 hour first rise, then formed them into 2.75 ounce rounds, and let them proof another couple of hours unti large, soft, and puffy. My house was a little dry so I spritzed the rounds with water to keep them from forming a skin.

Once the rounds are proofed, the special shaping comes into play. You pick up the round, stick your thumbs in the middle and gently pull outward, creating a thin depression (but not a hole!) in the middle. The center dough will be nearly see-through, and will bake up crispy. An onion/poppyseed mixture is schmeared on top of the rolls, and they are then baked in a very hot (450 degrees+) oven. They will brown up nicely in 8 or 9 minutes: watch them closely and pull them out when they are brown. Unlike Bagels these rolls are not boiled first: they have a nice chewy crust right out of the oven but can lose a little something with age--reheating or a quick toasting helps with that! It's a little tricky to get the center "hole' big enough so that it doesn't close up during baking--every roll turns out a little different!

We ate them plain right out of the oven, and later on split them and ate them toasted with cream cheese.

Happy World Bread Day, one and all!

Being a Monday, there is very little likelihood I'll get to bake. So I baked Sunday instead. I baked two Blueberry Cream Cheese Braids.

A sourdough loaf with my new starter (I haven't had a chance to post about that yet).

Without question, this was the best sourdough loaf I've ever made.

I also baked something like the Pugliese from The Bread Baker's Apprentice with some left over mashed potatoes I had.

So tomorrow, to celebrate, I'll eat them up, and perhaps share some at the office as a World Bread Day gift.

Last week I had 11 people over for dinner to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving..Food becomes a focal point for most ex pats (living outside their birth country). My ex chiropractor for example, would get misty eyes when he spoke about his mothers roast duck...in France.

And for dessert, I made an english trifle, a sour cream and raison pie and a cherry pie. My husband, a week later is still craving cherry pie, claiming he did not get enough of last weeks...so he BUYS a frozen one yesterday...claiming he didnt want me to go to "any extra trouble" and that a frozen one would "be almost the same". Now I am not a food snob, but Hades will freeze over before I eat a piece of this frozen pie, pictured below. Also I had alterior motives... the previously mentioned "doubts about the oven temp"

The good thing about it, was that it almost burnt, prooving again that there is something seriously out of whack with the temperature guage somewhere in my oven...

But, as beauty is in the eyes of the beholder...so is taste...

After last weeks failures of french bread...and the previous weeks sourdough fiasco, I have decided to move onto something that is tried and true in the kitchen. The thought was to check the oven's ability to remain at a constant temperature since they moved the gas tank and laid new lines on the roof.

The cookies came out of the oven "as normal". I had moved my only rack into the top position for the french bread attempts, so the first cookie batch came out a little crispier than normal, no photos of those ones!! This was the last of the Nestles pre chocolate chips, I have a single bag of hersheys minis left...But we prefer the Nestles.

I have also noticed that my key board is not spacing correctly...Most electronic appliances seem to deteriorate quicky in this humid enviroment..and I have experienced first hand its wonderful effects on french bread crusts....

It's been a long week already, and it's only Thursday! I actually did bake last weekend, but am only now getting around to posting about it.

Beatrice Ojakangas' book, Whole Grain Breads by Machine or Hand, has been languishing on my bookshelf for nearly a year and I finally got around to trying one of her recipes. Ms. Ojakangas hews mainly to straight yeasted breads and does not appear to have an interest in or experience with artisanal breads. That isn't a slam, just an observation, since I didn't happen to see any references to baking on a stone or using steam during baking. If the recipe I tried is any indication, her breads are definitely worth making.

I selected a buttermilk rye with fennel seeds. During a recent trip to the store, I had picked up some buttermilk with no particular recipe in mind, so I had some on hand. My wife does not enjoy caraway, but she does like fennel and it goes well with rye. So, when I happened across that recipe, it was an easy pick. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished loaves:

And another of the crumb:

As can be seen in the photos, I should probably have given it a little longer to rise, although it was already doubled in size. That may have reduced some of the splitting. It might also have helped to use some steam during the first few minutes. The recipe calls for baking the bread on a baking sheet but I baked it on a preheated stone, which probably contributed to a larger than expected oven spring. Whether in spite of, or because of, my tweaking, the bread is delightful to eat. The crumb, while close-textured, is not dense. The bread is moist and chewy and makes a great base for sandwiches. The fennel contributes a pleasing crunch, in addition to it's fragrance.

I'm looking forward to trying more recipes from this book.

PMcCool

I am thinking of coming up with a sure fire recipe for this loaf.

But of course, before I do that I have to master my new "progressive" glasses, the yahoo beta format, uploading pics into this site while I continue to try and produce french bread in a location where the flour and humidity and yeast are all unstable...But, it may just be me...

 I have baked french bread twice this week, putting all my new found knowledge and lists and tips into play...all to no avail. The first batch I had to pry off the couche...the second batch came out firmer, pale and without a crust despite feeling crusty in the oven when I first took them out...

I just know at any minute my dear husband will walk through the door asking where "todays batch"is and I am sure that will send me into a homicidal rage...I have accomplished nothing other than whinging to the site owner for the mentally incompetant set of directions for uploading pics , and putting 9 measly pics into photobucket.

I dont know if my inability to read the screen text is flour smudges, the progressive lenses, or general eye fatigue due to reading for the past week on french bread..which didn't help me out anyway did it??

So, tomorrow, I will take another stab at uploading pics, and perhaps bake my old standby loaf, which should soothe me, if not, there is always margaritas made with fresh lime juice...

 Bye for now..

For my birthday, my mother bought me the brand-new King Arthur Flour Whole Grains Baking book. It's well timed. Their first book turned me on to bread baking, but after a few months, I moved toward whole grain breads almost exclusively, and the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion is about 95% white flour recipes. I learned a lot from it, but I wasn't baking much from it. So, suffice to day, I was itching to knead something up out of this book as soon as possible.

This morning was the first morning that it was cold enough here that the furnace kicked on. Unfortunately, we discovered that the ignitor has failed, so we got a fan running but no heat. So I've done what any good home baker would do: put together enough batches of bread to keep the oven on all day. It has kept the house warm and smelling wonderful.

I made a simple French Bread yesterday. I didn't use a pre-ferment or anything: I actually wanted to experiment with long knead times and see just how much of a difference in taste and volume it made. Something just didn't see right with my dough. It felt tight and, although moist, kind of puckered up.

After I tasted it it was obvious what was wrong: I added much too much salt.  Almost double.  The crumb still wasn't too bad:

I saved about 8 ounces of the dough in the fridge to throw into today's batch.  I wanted to try the old dough method.  Indeed, I did end up with a much tastier loaf today (I reduced the salt in today's batch accordingly).

I thought this loaf came out particularly pretty.

I baked a couple loaves of French Bread and a Whole Wheat Loaf today: 

The French Bread turned out very good.  I used a poolish and autolyse, then when I went out for a hike this morning I popped the dough in the fridge so it had an extra slow, long rise. It always seems to help.

I've started reading the copy of Good Bread is Back I got a month or so ago.   I'm finding it more interesting that I expected to.  I was afraid it was going to be too scholarly and dry, but, although the author is an academic, he clearly has a passion for bread that shines through in his writing.  I still have quite a way to go, but so far I am enjoying it.