Posts tagged Breads
In and out Focaccia – Focaccia with green olives, oregano, cherry tomatoes, and ricotta salata
Mar 23rd
Focaccia fuori e dentro – Focaccia alle olive con origano, pomodorini e ricotta
Fougasse stuffed with olives is quite a common little bread in France, nothing too original in here, but then I added oregano to the olives inside the dough and topped it with cherry tomatoes and ricotta salata to make it a little more “full”.
In Italy focaccia is a little different, it tends to remain simpler with rosemary and onions or just tomatoes, but I have never really seen focaccia with cheese. Oh well, that’s not really a problem. I had leftover dough from another focaccia I made when I had guests, and I really love leftover dough so you can play with it, it’s like a little toy.
The great things with such a “loaded” focaccia is that you can just eat it as is, and don’t need extras to accompany it.
Whoever has been to France probably knows the boulangerie Paul, it’s somehow a huge chain that sells bread all over France…yes the word chain is not very sexy nor has a great connotation in terms of quality….BUT Paul makes good quality breads, very consistant (and not cheap, referring to the baguettes with the grid marks on the bottom, yuck, I really hate those) so you can be in Orleans, Nantes or Paris, the bread is always the same…which is unlikely to happen if you enter an unknown boulangerie. Some breads can be ecstatic and others below average…and getting an average baguette IS a spoiled day for a French. Of course boulangerie Paul cannot compete with the best local boulangeries in town but they do have cute and delicious little breads and their petits pains aux olives, aux noix (walnuts) or aux lardons (bacon) are quite good. So basically my point was that I made this fougasse thinking about my friend Paul…
So when in France and you’re not sure where to find good pastries or bread, check out Paul, even though it’s not top of the line, little artisan baker, their breads and pastries are fresh and good.
When making bread dough like this one, it is important the dough remains very fluffy and elastic, if your ratio of flour vs water is too high, the dough will be hard and will have a tough time rising. You need a soft and almost sticky dough.
Ingredients for one focaccia
For the dough
- 1/2 lb flour
- about 6 g compressed yeast
- about 120 ml water
- salt
- 2 tbs green olives, chopped
- 1 tbs fresh oregano, chopped
For the topping
- about 15-20 cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
- 2 tbs ricotta salata, crumbled
- rock salt
- olive oil for drizzling
Preparation
In a mixing bowl or working surface mix flour with salt olive oil and yeast that had been previously dissolved in lukewarm water.
Knead the dough, if too sticky add flour but the dough needs to be elastic and borderline sticky when kneading it. At the end of the kneading period, the dough will be elastic and very soft.
Cover with a towel and let it rise for one hour, then knead again and let it rise for two hours.
Spread the dough using your hands, you don’t necessary need a rolling pin, you can flatten it up using your fingers.
Top with cherry tomatoes, placed evenly on top, then ricotta. Sprinkle with rock salt and olive oil.
Cook in a pre-heated oven at 390F for about 20 minutes or until the bottom is golden brown and top as well.
You can serve it hot, lukewarm or even cold, it’s delicious either way!
For the love of bread – Whole wheat country bread with figs
Jan 4th
Pour l’amour du pain – Pain complet aux figues
This is one of my mom’s favorites, she made it to eat it with fish terrine for that crazy Jan 1st meal. Seems like she recently got into bread making and so excited to make it for me. I love breads in France, all of them, baguette à l’ancienne, baguette tradition, pain de campagne, etc…they’re all so good that I love to eat them just plain, like some people would eat cookies and bread is the first thing I request when I arrive.
Not all bakeries make great bread but we all know where the best bread in town is, and get it fresh every morning and people have absolutely no problem driving a few miles to get the bread they want even though there is a boulangerie (bakery) at every corner here. Every one has its favorite boulangerie and we can have serious discussions about where the best bread is and why. Too bad I am no baker, otherwise I would open one in my San Francisco neighborhood since finding good bread there is like a mission impossible. Or eventually make it for my own consumption…I repaired my own shoes once, so why not make bread? I think making great bread is not an easy task though, you need the right ingredients, and a perfect humidity. I think the constant high humidity level in San Francisco makes it difficult to keep the bread crunchy for too long.
She made this bread very quickly and I was impressed with easiness of the process, it’s fairly simple. So you don’t need to be a baker to make it. I always thought it’s impossible if you’re not a baker to make good bread, and I have to say that some home made breads can be delicious.
Ingredients for one bread
- 12.34 oz (or 350 g) whole wheat flour
- 7-8 figs cut in pieces
- 10.14 fl oz (or 300 ml) water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 pack yeast
Preparation
In a container, place flour, add salt and mix. Dissolve yeast in water, and add gradutally to the flour. You need to have a little sticky consistency. Mix but to not over knead dough. Make a thick baguette shape bread. Let it rise for 2 hours. When dough has doubled its size, insert fig pieces and sprinkle with flour. Cook in a pre-heated oven for about 30 min. or until the bread is golden brown.
Now it's the goose's turn – Farro brioche with goose egg and orange blossom water
Nov 21st
C’est au tour de l’oie de pondre – Brioche d’épeautre à l’oeuf d’oie et eau de fleur d’oranger
I went to whole Foods again this morning, and I decided to buy a goose egg after the last week experiment with duck eggs. Instead of another omelette, I wanted to try and bake with them since I heard so many wonderful things about how delicious pastry you can get with the use of goose eggs. They’re larger and even richer than duck’s eggs, and more expensive, since one costs $5. I know my mom used to make pasta with those, my uncle in Italy has geese and always gives her some of his eggs, and I don’t think there’s anything that can please her more that that.
So going back to my Whole Foods story, I arrived at the cash register and the cashier had no idea how much they were, so I told him $5 each and he did not believe me, so he proudly decided to give it to me for free. He said there is no price, so it’s free. I like that principle. Oh well, I rarely get free stuff, so I for once I left happily holding carefully my egg in my hand since it was so big, it didn’t fit anywhere and I certainly did not want to break it.
I had made brioches a while ago that turned out really well, so I took that recipe, making some changes to quantities and ingredients but still using the same technique of letting it rest overnight in the refrigerator, and adding some flavors to the dough. Et voilà ma belle brioche!
I think I will have to get used to baking more since this neighborhood I moved into, there are absolutely NO bakeries, and that is a big bummer. There is one a couple of blocks down but I looked at the bread and pastries and they don’t look very appetizing at all, so I will have to either drive miles to get bread or do it myself. I am no baker, and it takes time to make good bread so not sure how that will work. Call me crazy but the other thing I do when I go into a bakery, is look at the cleanliness of the windows. If the windows are dirty, it’s not a good sign of cleanliness of the overall bakery and I walk away.
Goose eggs can very a lot in size, and they’re about the equivalent of 3 regular eggs. Mine was very big and the yolk amazingly huge, so my brioche quite rich. I added half farro flour that I am in love with. I also used Écorce d’orange en poudre, (orange peel powder) I bought in France. I’m sure you can find something similar in the US, probably in some health food stores. The brioche is deliciously perfumed with orange blossom water and rich while being light at the same time. So yes, goose eggs make great pastries and brioches.
Ingredients for 2 brioches
- 1/2 lb (or 250 g) white flour
- 1/2 lb (or 250 g) farro flour
- 1 large goose egg
- 1 cup (or 250 ml) milk
- 1 regular egg yolk for topping
- 2.82 oz (or 80 g) butter, soft and diced
- 2.82 oz (or 80 g) sugar
- 1 tbs orange blossom water
- 1 tsp orange peel powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp beer yeast dissolved in 4 tbs lukewarm water (or dry yeast)
Preparation
In a large mixing container, mix both flours, add sugar and salt. Make a whole in the center and add egg, orange blossom water and orange peel powder. Mix well and gradually add milk, vanilla extract and yeast. At this point, you will obtain an elastic dough. If the dough is too liquid and sticky, add flour. Knead well. Add butter incorporating it carefully to the dough but do not over knead or “heat” the dough. Let it rise for about 2 hours.
Knead again and place in in the refrigerator overnight. Knead the dough again, then cut dough in two equal pieces, then cut again each piece in three . You should have six little dough balls. Grease two loave pans and place three pieces of dough in each pan, and let it rise for another additional 2 hours.
Baste top of each loaf with egg yolk, and cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 30 minutes. Check once in a while to see the top didn’t burn. Remove from the oven and eat lukewarm with jam or as is.
