Baking Frenzy

After taking the bread out of the fridge and letting it begin its primary fermentation, alex and I began making homemade strawberry jam! All the ingredients are simply thrown together in a pan and allowed to come to a boil, the tricky part is knowing when you're done. There are a variety of methods for this, and it will take a bit of experimentation to decide which one I like most. Below, the finished product. We used jars from Heath. They worked out well, and equally as important, they're aesthetically pleasing! We ended up preserving one (more on that here). Overall, very satisfied with the results!
Back to the Brioche (see previous post for more info). This "log" is actually quite heavy, and it was delicate to form. I could see why it needed to be cold to properly shape, similar to pie crust! More reason this bread may more appropriately fall under the "pastry" category.
After rising and baking here's the end result! the crust was very flaky, and when you bite into it, you know its brioche, meaning, it tastes like butter (delicious!).
Using the bread I made a grilled cheese with pilota cheese and strawberry jam from earlier. All the flavors melted together this tasted similar to a strawberry cheese pastry, but a bit less sweetness. I think these may fall under the category of consuming "rarely." My poor taster, hopefully all this rich food won't kill him...
Finally, since I've been meaning to attempt tempering chocolate, I made dark chocolate truffles with Grand Marnier. Coated in toasted coconut (left) and traditional cocoa powder (right), plated of course with strawberry jam (needed a theme after all!)
There are few chocolate deserts that can compete with a well done truffle, except maybe molten chocolate cake...anyway, it's a classic, and one of my favorites. While simple in terms of ingredients, they are relatively difficult technically. Mostly in terms of timing and temperature sensitivity. I still need to improve my tempering skills (for more info see here).

Overall, a productive day I would say.

Preparing for tomorrow

Considering it's the weekend (when I particularly enjoy baking) I thought I would go ahead and make something a little more involved time wise. Intelligentsia (a favorite coffee shop in Silver Lake) is conveniently located next door a wonderful cheese shop, that aside from selling some seriously delicious cheese also has great prepared foods from retailers such as Ricks Picks, Little Flower Candy Co, Vosges, and many more favorites (here's the link: http://www.cheesestoresl.com/). Its hard not to get distracted, or end up buying way more than you intended. I went in today with the singular purpose of looking for a cheese that would be good on grilled cheese, but not the usual gruyere. I was recommended Pilota, which is a creamy sheep/cow's milk cheese from the south of France. When you taste it, it literally melts in your mouth (perfect for melting on bread!), it's mellow and slightly sweet, but well balanced with the salt content. It smells (and tastes) like a mixture of butter and roasted nuts, though still manages not to be too rich or overpowering. She suggested that this cheese would pair better with sweet, as opposed to savory additions to the bread. So, what would be better than homemade strawberry jam? I've never made jam before, but the technique seems simple enough.

Now, for the bread the ultimate pairing for a sweet grilled-cheese (or any grilled cheese really) is of course, brioche. This very enriched bread is the staple to many new-style dishes lately (new-style eggs benedict to brioche french toast). And its no wonder, it tastes incredible. And as soon as I started making the dough for the overnight rest it became evident why this bread is so decadent; it is almost 1:1 flour to butter ratio (by weight). Essentially, consume with caution. Though brioche is also often made with lower ratios I figured if I'm going to do this, I may as well do it "right."

Since I'll have jam, I also think I may try a dark chocolate truffle plating I've been thinking of...

More on that tomorrow.

I have all of these ideas constantly running through my mind, and I'm trying to come up with something new, some twist on a classic, or entirely different. I've got a starting point, and according to my research/general knowledge, this hasn't been done. This could either be because no one has thought of it, or its a terrible idea. We'll see!

Brown-Butter Toffee with Fleur de Sel

as per request for toffee, and feeling like I needed to redeem myself for the brownie incident (I realize I can't expect everything to be perfect the first time). I decided to brown the butter a bit before adding the rest of the ingredients in attempt to give the toffee a bit of a deeper flavor since I often find toffee to be lacking flavor if not accompanied by chocolate. According to my official taster (alex), it was a successful venture!I'm finding myself lusting over more kitchen appliances than say, shoes. The other day while roaming Williams Sonoma, I found a copper kitchen aid. It was beautiful, fully equipped with a height adjuster. Needless to say, I love it. I don't however, love the price tag ($400)! Or pretty much anything by le cruset...I'm really excited to get into a professional kitchen and discover a whole new set of fun gadgets to play with. flame torch? agreed.

Things on my immediate to try list: Sourdough and a truffle plate.

butter....

Had some left over heavy whipping cream from the attempted brownie incident, so decided to make butter!

Brownies, buttercream, and the importance of silicon baking sheets.

Today I thought I would try something classic/simple: brownies! Using Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc for the brownies, and adding in buttercream made of vosges creole bar to make it just a bit more interesting. The recipe called for non-alkalized cocoa powder. Apparently, most cocoa powders are produced with alkali, also known as "dutch cocoa," except for this one (pictured), from whole foods anyway. Interestingly, alkalized cocoa is usually the preferred form for baking, as it mixes better and has a milder taste, the main drawback is that it lacks more health-promoting flavanol antioxidants than untreated cocoa. Below, buttercream! butter, heaving whipping cream, vanilla, and dark chocolate. How could this possibly not taste incredible?
Ok, so I thought I would use my mini ramekins to make the brownies, then cut and layer them with buttercream. I thought I had buttered them appropriately, but evidently not...resulting in a delicious, yet slightly malformed finished product. Silicon would have prevented this, and if baking enough would be a wise investment, not only for presentation (aesthetics are important after all), but also to provide a more even heat distribution during baking, eliminating the slightly overdone exterior of the brownie that so often occurs.

Whats next? Taking suggestions!

Lavash Crackers

In an attempt to try something new! This dough (flour, yeast, salt, water, oil, and honey) can also be used to make pita. After rolling out paper thin dough topping were added (see below; Pink Himalayan salt, rosemary, and garlic). It required about ten minutes of kneading, which doesn't sound so bad, until about the 8 minute mark when my forearms starting cramping up, clearly I need to work on my "kneading muscles."Dough ready for the oven with all the toppings
Finished! Broken into "shards" as opposed to pre-cutting pieces.
Tasted, as you would expect, like fresh crackers! In the future I would try to roll out the center a bit more to get a better brown across the entire cracker, or try pre-cutting to see if that would help!

just when I thought I knew good bread...

I pulled the dough from the refrigerator this morning, and allowed to rise at room temperature until doubled, which took about 3.5 hours. Testing my patience, I know that in this case "slower is better." Once risen I had to resist the urge to punch down the dough, reminding myself this is not a sandwich bread, you want to keep as much carbon dioxide as possible to form those little holes throughout the baked loaf signature to quality baguettes. The dough was incredibly soft, and I handled with great care. Using my new pastry scraper, which was well worth the $5.99 investment.
After gently rolling the dough into an oblong shape I cut, or more like "pressed" using a sharp knife dipped in ice water to get the three baguettes. After resting for 5 minutes (to let the gluten relax to make shaping easier), I pulled them gently to make the final shape.
Due to a lack of a baking stone, I inverted a baking sheet, lined with parchment and dusted with cornmeal. Ready for the oven. Because this stove, like 99% of all home stoves does not have a steaming feature I placed a pan on the top and when loading the bread added a cup of boiling water, then periodically (3-30 sec. intervals) spritzed the oven to create steam-which is what will allow the crust to get crisp.
The finished product! Forced to stare at (and smell) while waiting for it to reach room temperature (coming down from the optimal internal temperature of 205 degrees).
It was, amazing. I have to say I'm in love with this recipe and can't wait to try others from the same book. The texture was crisp on the outside, yet creamy on the inside, with a subtle sweet-nut like flavor. Will be using tomorrow to make ham and gruyere sandwiches (left over from the souffle!).

it has been an awarding first day.

souffle!

My first attempt at a souffle, starting of course with melted butter (it is after all French!)
Grating gruyere into the bechamel sauce (melted butter, flour, and milk, simmered to a semi-thick consistency)
Whipping up egg whites to be folded into the bachamel (along with an egg yolk and ham)
The folding process is definitely the most difficult aspect of this otherwise simple recipe. Keeping the bechamel at a good temperature/consistency without heating too much while whipping the egg white and folding it all together with as minimal mixing as possible. I could probably improve on this technique, but for a first attempt I think it went well! (rosemary ham pictured below)
The finished product! Slightly deflated at this point, but delicious none the less! I would like to try a sweet (chocolate perhaps?) souffle next!

Whats next? I'd like to venture into more forms of bread including lavash crackers, rosemary-potato bread, and sourdough (get to start my own culture!!). As well as other desserts.

butterbreadboulangerie!

Beginning my next food adventure, only this time, I'm baking. In May I'll begin the pastry arts course at the French Culinary Institute, to be followed by a masters degree, in the food science-nutrition area of study. This blog is dedicated to the culinary expeditions of my upcoming education.

To start!

Tomorrow I'll be starting with Pain a l'Ancienne (courtesy of "The Bread Baker's Apprentice"). This relatively simple bread is a lean, rustic bread. I'll be using a delayed-fermentation method (mixing the flour, salt, yeast, and ice-water the night before and placing in the refrigerator). In theory-provided I do this correctly-the ice water will result in a different combination of flavors (resulted from slowing enzyme activity!), and producing a bread with a slight sweetness, and nutlike flavor that can't be achieved from the traditional 12 step warm water process. The cold delays yeast activation; until after amylase (the active enzyme in bread baking) begins to release sugar from the starch (flour). When warmed, the yeast begins to consume the sugar producing carbon dioxide (what makes the bread rise) and ethanol (which is burned off during baking). But because this process was delayed there is now more sugar, and the yeast consumes less than it traditionally would. This results in a distinct flavor and caramelizes the crust during baking.

Why not use this method for all doughs?

It won't work. Specifically for those that are enriched (such as with sugar or other flavor agents). But with a lean bread like this (ingredients: bread flour, salt, yeast, water), it should evoke a fuller flavor than would not be achieved with other fermentation methods.

Also on the menu, souffle au jambon. attempting a savory souffle with rosemary ham, gruyere, and a bechamel sauce!

pictures, of course, to follow.