Kitchenette

Note: I do not speak French. At all. Sure, I like to sound like I know what I’m talking about. A la carte. Au bon pain. L’homme mange.  The truth is, my knowledge of the French language is limited to what I have picked up from food-related items, American pop culture, and my favorite movie of all time, Amelie. However, just one whiff of this month’s Daring Baker challenge will have you and yours spouting off French as if you were a true Parisian.

Okay, not really. But it does smell good.

This month, the DB challenge was hosted by Mary at The Sour Dough and Sara at I Like to Cook. And before I forget, the complete (massively huge!) recipe can be found here and you can see what other DB’ers have done with their breads by checking out the blogroll here. Yes, my friends, it is Julia Child’s famous French bread recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume II.

Many of the Daring Bakers seemed to have approached this one with much fear and trepidation. Understandable, considering the recipe is so. flipping. long. and that it takes nearly an entire day to complete. However, I had the upper hand for this, my first DB challenge ever: I had made Julia’s recipe before. In fact, I do believe it was the first yeast bread I ever made, having just bought the fabulous book, The Way to Cook, also by Julia.

Yeast breads have never quite freaked me out the way they do some people. I guess I’ve always figured that, if all else fails, I’ll end up with something potentially resembling bread. Something that can at least make good croutons. Or dog biscuits. Whatev.

And so it began. With the exception of the initial mixing in the KitchenAid, I made the whole thing with my own two little hands. I had Mr. K firmly affixed to the laptop, reading the gargantuan recipe out loud as I went along. Here is the bread during the initial rest, just after all that kneading.

Here’s what is quickly becoming my favorite bread-related object (you know you’re addicted to food when you have a favorite bread-related object!). This is simply a clear plastic, food-safe bucket with quart/liter measurements marked on the side. Mr. K was at a food specialty store and mentioned that he’d been looking for one, and they just happened to have one in the back that they weren’t using. Score! Not only is this good for rising dough (note the straight sides), but you can mix up a giant batch of iced tea or lemonade or whatever. Plus, no need to pour in the 10.5 cups of water, since the measurements are already on the side of the bucket! We use a dry-erase marker on the side, which wipes off quite nicely.

Finally, here are the batards on the baking sheet, ready to go into the oven. I used a sort of hybrid between the regular recipe (in which you bake the loaves on the baking sheet the entire time) and the baker’s oven variation. I picked up this method from several recipes in The Bread Bible, which gives you all the benefits of the baker’s oven with none of the requisite physical coordination requirements of the dreaded baker’s peel. Follow the directions for the baker’s oven (preheat the baking stone, use the brick or ice cubes, etc. to create the steam, and so on), but begin by setting the baking sheet directly on top of the hot stone. At some point, the crust will have formed enough that you can slide the bread easily off the baking sheet and onto the hot stone itself - this is also a good time to rotate the loaves if they aren’t baking evenly.

It is torture to wait for this stuff to cool enough to eat. However, if Julia says the French never eat warm bread, then there will be no eating of the warm bread! C’est la vie! We did, however, spread it with lots of European butter and warm roasted garlic.  And for that, my friends, there are only three words to do this bread justice, and they are most certainly NOT French:

Nom. Nom. Nom.

I have been a bit lazy and slow to post lately.  Part of the reason is, of course, that as I’ve gotten more and more excited about food blogging, I’ve naturally found more and more food blogs out there to add to my RSS feeds.  Just the other day, I had over 40 blog posts waiting for me to read.  Forty!

Of course, I spent most of yesterday enamored with so many lemon meringue pies, I could hardly stand it.  Yes, the Daring Bakers were hard at work this month, making pie crust, lemon curd, and meringue (three things that terrify me), and the results were scrumptious.

So scrumptious, in fact, that I’ve decided to throw my hat into the ring and become a Daring Baker myself.  I think that makes me brave…or crazy.  Either way.  I am hoping to begin with the March challenge.

Speaking of things that are both brave and crazy, we are moving right along with the whole 366 recipes in 366 days thing.  One of the consequences of The Project is that, in order to fit all these recipes in while still maintaining some semblance of a life outside the kitchen, we have to make things we would ordinarily buy instead.  Like hamburger buns!

Something tells me that topping these delicious whole wheat buns with a big juicy hunk of beef and cheese kind of defeats the purpose of them being, you know, healthy or something.  But who cares?  It was tasty!  Just look at those sesame seeds!  And the pretty tomato-y color!

A few notes:  Yes, the recipe says two tablespoons of yeast, and yes, that sounded like a lot to me, too.  But everything will be fine.  Just trust me.  The dough rises quickly as a result (mine doubled in a half hour), so keep an eye on it.  I found whole wheat pastry flour in the bulk section at Whole Foods, but it’s also available here.  It provides the nutritious whole grains without being too dense and heavy, but you could maybe substitute regular whole wheat flour and adjust the unbleached/whole wheat flour ratio.

Also, here is what one looks like when stolen and devoured by a Labrador Retriever.

Whole Wheat Sun-dried Tomato Buns
Adapted from Cal-a-Vie Living’s recipe for Epicurious.com

2 tbs dry yeast
2 c warm water
1 tbs honey or sugar
8 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 c whole wheat pastry flour
2 c unbleached flour
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbs cornmeal
1 egg white, beaten with 2 tsp water
2 tbs sesame seeds

1.  Dissolve the yeast in the water and honey.  Let stand until frothy to activate the yeast.  Add the tomatoes, oil, flours, garlic powder, and salt.  Mix with a mixer or by hand.  Knead on a floured surface (I was lazy and used the KitchenAid) for 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.

2.  Place in an oiled bowl, turn to coat, cover, and allow to rise until doubled.  Divide into 10 portions and shape into balls.  Flatten into buns and place on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat, parchment paper, or sprayed with cooking spray.  Sprinkle with cornmeal, brush with the egg white, and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

3.  Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Remove to a wire rack and cool for at least 5 minutes before slicing to fill.

And so it begins.

Not just this blog, but with it, 2008. Another year, another new calendar. Another set of resolutions. Get healthy. Get out of debt. Make 366 recipes in 366 days. Get organized.

Wait, what? Back up. Did she just say make 366 recipes in 366 days? You heard me right, folks. Forget the rest, my one and only resolution for 2008 is to make 366 recipes before the year draws to a close and then blog about them.

Of course, it goes without saying that I am, in fact, insane. Let’s just get that out of the way right up front so that we can move on to bigger and better things.

Like chunks of bread dipped in steamy pots of melty cheese.

It seems fitting somehow that I would start off The Project (how we adoringly refer to it these days…I’m sure come September or so we will have some other not-so-adorable names in mind) by making Rose Levy Beranbaum’s recipe for basic hearth bread. I spent New Years Day mixing and waiting and kneading and waiting and baking and waiting. Oh, and did I mention waiting?

I am relatively new to breadmaking, but I am quickly learning that yeast breads are not something to be rushed. None of the yeast breads I’ve seen so far from The Bread Bible can be accomplished in anything short of an entire day, and that is just the sort of patience and simplicity I am hoping to welcome in 2008.

The basic hearth bread has just a hint of whole wheat flour included, which adds great flavor without making it seem heavy and cardboardy (post number one, and I’m already making up words!). Cut into chunks, it was the perfect thing to dip into this:

Smoky Cheese and Ham Fondue.

Oh yes. When I promise melty cheesy goodness, I deliver.

There is a soft spot in my heart for fondue - prior to receiving our own fondue set, The Melting Pot was one of our favorite restaurants. It was there that Mr. Kitchenette and I celebrated our dating anniversaries, our engagement, my passing of the dreaded CPA exam, etc. So, in addition to the ginormous quantities of cheese involved, fondue holds warm and fuzzy memories for us for other reasons. Real reasons. Ones that don’t involve cheese.

Plus, you can have it on the table in 20 minutes or less. Can’t beat that.

And so, without further adieu, recipes 1-3 of The Project:

Basic Hearth Bread
adapted from The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

For the sponge:

1 c bread flour
1/4 c whole wheat flour or kamut flour
3/8 tsp instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp honey
about 1 1/3 c water, at room temperature

1.  Mix all ingredients until very smooth, about 2 minutes.  The sponge should be the consistency of a thick batter.  Scrape down the bowl, cover, and set aside while you make the flour mixture.

For the flour mixture:

1 3/4 c plus 2 tbs bread flour
1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt

2.  Whisk the bread flour, reserving 2 tbs bread flour if mixing by hand, and yeast together.  Scoop it over the sponge to cover it like a blanket, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and allow to ferment 1-4 hours at room temperature.

3.  Mixer method:  Mix the dough using a stand mixer on low speed for about 1 minute until it forms a rough dough.  Cover again and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.  Sprinkle on the salt and knead on medium speed about 7 minutes.  The dough will be smooth and will cling slightly to your fingers.

Hand method:  Add salt and mix until flour is moistened.  Knead in the bowl until it comes together, then scrape onto a lightly floured counter and knead by hand for 5 minutes, adding as little of the reserved 2 tablespoons flour as necessary.  Cover and rest for 20 minutes.  Knead the dough for another 5-10 minutes until smooth and barely sticky to the touch.

4.  Both methods: Scrape the dough into a lightly-greased 2-quart container.  Push dough down and spray lightly with cooking spray.  Cover and allow the dough to rise until doubled, about one hour.

Scrape dough onto floured counter and press into a rectangle.  Give it one business letter turn (fold top and bottom sides in to the middle to make a smaller rectangle, then fold left and right sides in to the middle of that).  Return to the container, oil the surface, and allow to rise until doubled (about 45 minutes to an hour).

5.  Turn the dough out onto the counter and shape into a 6 inch ball and set on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a nonstick baking mat.  Alternatively, form dough into a rectangular loaf shape and place in a lightly greased loaf pan.  Cover shaped dough with greased plastic wrap and allow it to rise until almost doubled (45-75 minutes).

Preheat the oven during this step to 475 degrees about one hour before baking.  Place oven rack in lowest position and place a baking stone on rack.  Place a shallow pan (I use my broiler pan) on the bottom of the oven.

6.  If desired, use a sharp knife or razor blade to slash the top of the dough.  Mist the dough with water and quickly set the baking pan on the hot stone in the oven.  Toss 1/2 cup of ice cubes into the pan beneath and immediately close the oven.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Turn oven temperature down to 425 degrees and continue baking for 20-30 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean (200 degrees on an instant-read thermometer).  Rotate pan halfway through baking to ensure even browning.

7.  Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack.  Enjoy!

Smoky Cheese and Ham Fondue
adapted from Fondues by Barnes and Noble Books

1 c grated Gruyere
2 c grated smoked Cheddar
1 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2/3 c dry white wine
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
4 oz smoked ham, chopped

1.  Toss together grated cheese and cornstarch.

2.  Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat.  Add onion and garlic and cook for 10 minutes until softened.  Place wine in the fondue pot and heat until boiling.  Gradually stir in grated cheese mixture and heat until completely melted.

3.  Stir in onion and garlic, paprika, and ham.  Cook for a few minutes until thick and smooth.  Serve with cubes of bread, Granny Smith apples, and/or raw veggies.

Chocolate Fondue
adapted from Fondues, above

9 oz dark chocolate, chopped
2/3 c heavy cream
2 tbs brandy (optional- can substitute orange juice)

Place all ingredients in a double boiler (or use a glass bowl set over a pot of simmering water).  Heat gently, stirring, until chocolate has melted and is smooth.  Transfer to fondue pot and serve with fresh fruit, marshmallows, cookies, etc.