I just returned from a week in Rome. I'll limit myself to commenting only on the bread and pizza or this entry would go on way too long!
I was gratified that some of the standard breads served at most evey trattoria and restaurant looked, smelled, and tasted almost identical to Tartine's country loaf or Vermont Sourdough. We didn't have one crumb of bad bread the whole week.
Failure to plan. That was my situation this morning. I wanted to bake bread but failed to plan for it yesterday so I had no refreshed starter to elaborate, no poolish, no biga, no preferment of any kind. So I decided it was about time that I tried Jason's Quick Coccodrillo Ciabatta. I made the semolina version.
I followed the formula exactly, using the greater amount of water. I baked with steam for the first 10 minutes and left the oven temperature at 500 F the entire time. The loaves were done in 15 minutes.
I'm embarassed to say that this is the first bread I've baked since the summer. What can I say, I've been busy. At least I've been dutifully feeding my starter!
Today I baked Pane Lariano from the formula in Daniel Leader's book Local Breads. It's 50% whole wheat. I've made the all-white flour version many times and everyone loves it. I'm happy to report that this version came out just as good and I'm sure everyone will love it as much as the other.
To celebrate the Jewish New Year, 5774, I baked ITJB's Honey Whole Wheat Challah in a round braid, as is traditional for Rosh Hashana. Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy, sweet, peaceful, and prosperous New Year!
In the first photo you can see the indentations from my "poke" test to be sure it was ready for the oven. I didn't use any seeds because my kids prefer their Challah plain.
Sjadad
We had a crowd over on Firday night for a pizza party. Of the dozen balls of dough I prepared, we made 10 pizzas in my wfo with various toppings. I was the pizziaolo and with all of the activity there were no photos taken of any of the final products :(
I recently baked the Pain de Campagne from Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast and was very pleased with the result. This is a "hybrid" bread formula, meaning it is made with both a levain starter and a small amount of commercial yeast. After a long room-temperature bulk fermentation, the loaves are shaped, placed in bannetons, and then put in the refrigerator to retard overnight befoe baking. Forkish directs you to bake the loaves right out of the fridge. I've often wondered about this method as I have come across conflicting advice from various experts an
I baked David's version of Pane Pugliese. I didn't have durum flour so I followed Peter Reinhart's suggestion in BBA and used 1/3 as much semolina. Otherwise I followed David to a "T". To be honest, I was a bit concerned about not scoring the loaf. I had visions of a tight, dense crumb. I worried for nothing, as you can see.
It's been too long since I baked up some Vermont Sourdough, so that was today's bake. Why have I waited so long?! The loaves sang as soon as they emerged from the oven, and the crust developed those beautiful hairline fissures we all aspire to achieve.
