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Entries in Baking (3)

Tuesday

Mar092010

Son of Pepe - From the Kitchen

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 12:00PM

For the past three weeks I have been cultivating a colony of yeast into a sourdough starter. The colony, as you may recall, is much like a pet. And my pet, Pepe, has not always been a good pet. For a while Pepe went on a wild alcohol binge. One of the by products of the yeast fermentation process is alcohol, and apparently Pepe likes his hooch. For about a week, each day, when I would go to feed him, he would smell like your soused up uncle Tom who hasn’t seen a sober day in 10 years. But, with a little tenderness, and some tough love, I was able to wean Pepe off the hooch. And this Sunday, with Pepe back to full health, I cooked part of him up into a nice loaf of No Knead Sour Dough bread. And boy was Pepe delicious. My wife and I almost ate the whole loaf in one sitting.

Here is how I turned Pepe from sour starter to sour delicious.

1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups white bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups purified water
1/4 cup starter [Pepe]

- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. The dough should be shaggy. If your starter is a little runny, you might add a touch more flour, to ensure a good shaggy dough.

- Cover bowl and let sit for 15 hours. After 15 hours the dough should be roughly two to three times bigger, have a sweet sour smell, and be a bit more wet.

- Pour dough out onto a floured surface or onto a Silpat. P.S. I have a love for the silpat. That doesn’t make me any less of a man does it? Sprinkle lightly with flour and cover with a cotton cloth. Let sit for three hours.

- Heat oven and cooking dish with lid to 450 f°. Make sure to use a heavy bottom dish. I use an enameled dutch oven but pyrex will also work.

- Once the oven and dish are searing hot it is time to get baking. Spill your dough right into the dish. I just kind of scrape it off the silpat. It is not elegant in the least. I am sure real bread bakers would roll their eyes at my neanderthal technique.

- Cook for 30 minutes at 450. Uncover. Cook for another 10-15 minutes until top is a nice golden brown.

- Remove from oven. Be careful not to burn yourself. It hurts. Slice up the bread and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

KjO

Kristian j. |

Meet Pepe - Kristian's Kitchen Chemistry

Friday, February 26, 2010 at 12:00PM

Meet Pepe. He's the newest member of the Olsen family. Pepe was born about five days ago. Yes I know Pepe just looks like a jar of glop, but he is more than that. Let me explain.

A workmate recently started brewing his own beer. This new hobby introduced him to the wonderfully weird world of yeast. Did you know wild yeast is everywhere? In fact, you probably breathed some in with that last breath you took. I digress. My workmates journey into the world of yeast naturally led him to sour dough bread. Did you know that the particular strain of wild yeast found in the Bay area is what makes San Francisco Sour Dough Bread so delicious? Apparently it produces a flavor that we humans really enjoy. Again, I digress.

Anyway, one day my workmate was sharing his adventure of making sour dough bread from scratch. As one of my goals this year is to become more proficient in the kitchen, I was very interested in his tale. Needless to say, I rushed home and whipped up my own batch of sour dough starter.

Now to the important question: Why have I named my starter Pepe? No I am not the weird guy who likes to name everything. Rather sour dough starter is really like a pet. You have to feed it, water it, and care for it. It is actually a living thing. You see ,what happens is ,in the right conditions the wild yeast in the air and flour forms a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria in the air and flour. Fun Fact: This thriving colony of microorganisms can actually live for centuries, as long as you keep it fed.

Making the starter is really easy. Total ingredients needed: two - flour and water. Here are step by step instructions on giving life to your own pet sour dough starter.

1. Select a home for your pet: I am using a wide mouth glass Kerr jar but you can use just about anything you can cover. You don’t need a container you can seal as your pet will need to breath.

2. Mix one cup of warm water with one cup of flour. That’s it! The whole recipe. I am using whole wheat flour. But pretty much any flour will work. If you really want to go crazy you can grind up your own wheat berries. You don’t need to add any yeast. The yeast is found in the air and in the flour. With the right conditions the yeast will activate and start producing CO2 and alcohol. You can add commercial yeast to give it a boost, but the flavor of your bread will be less distinctive.

3. Cover but don’t seal your jar. Your starter should be kept in a warm place. 70-80 degrees is perfect. This temperature allows the starter to take root and grow. Above 100 degrees will kill the starter. Other than that, yeast is pretty hardy stuff.

4. Feed your pet. Every 24 hours throw half of the starter away and add ½ cup of flour and ½ cup of water. In about three or four days, [this is an average sometime it take more and sometimes it takes less], you should start getting a lot of bubbles throughout and a pleasant sour or even a slight beery smell. Your pet might even grow a little. This is a good thing. Here is the key. When your starter develops a bubbly froth, it is done, you have succeeded. I know this sounds to simple to be true, but remember people have done this for millennia. Shoot people discovered this recipe before they discovered indoor plumping.

5. Refrigerate the starter. Once your starter is a success put it in the fridge. This will slow down the fermentation process so you will only need to feed your beast every 2 weeks or so. Remember your pet will need to breath. So punch a hole in your lid or use a rubber band to hold a piece of cheese cloth over the mouth of your jar.

6. Hooch. Hooch is a layer of watery liquid that will rise to the top of your starter. The hooch contains alcohol, a by product of the fermentation process. It smells a bit like beer, because, well, it is a bit like beer. But don’t drink it…unless you are seriously desperate. And if that is the case…you need help man. Seriously get some help. Just take a spoon and stir the hooch back in. Or if you like a thicker starter you can drain it off. Remember the hooch is nothing to worry about…Now the hoochie mama down the street…that is a whole different story.

Congrats…you now have your own little pet. What’s its name?

Come back next week when I will share my adventure in turning Pepe into No Kneed Sour Dough Bread.

Kristian

Kristian j. |

To Tickle the Olfactory

Sunday, December 20, 2009 at 05:42PM

There is nothing better than the smell and taste of fresh baked bread. This past weekend I employed my considerable skills [mocking witticisms of my fabled skills should come rushing to the forefront of your mind right now] to bake up a delicious loaf of no-knead bread. Basically no-knead bread is a technique for those of us who love bread but are a little lazy busy. Below are the photos of the delicious adventure and below that is the recipe. Trust me when I say this is the easiest bread to make..and those who eat it will think you spent hours in the kitchen.

Recipe.

Recipe found in New York Times Dine & Wine section

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Kristian j. |