Monthly Archives: June 2009

As I was meandering through the internets yesterday, I stumbled across this recipe for dinner rolls and orange rolls.  I hadn’t really been planning on making anything from the bread book today, but after a dinner invitation from friends I thought I would try them out to bring.  Good Decision.  I followed the recipe to the letter, dividing the dough in half at the end to make both the dinner rolls and orange rolls.  Great Decision.  Both types of rolls turned out light and soft and oh-so-delicious.  As the dinner rolls came out of the oven I hit them with melted butter, and then a generous sprinkling of kosher salt.  Oh.  Yum.  And the orange rolls were bright, citrusy, buttery delights.  Goodness Gracious.  Please make these rolls this weekend.  And eat them all before I get wind of it, or I’ll be knocking on your door soon enough!

Today’s bread recipe is very similar to the baguettes with poolish, with just a slight variation.  A Pate Fermentee is usually a small amount of dough reserved from a previous mix which acts as your started and gives extra flavor when added to subsequent mixes.  The main difference between a pate fermentee and a poolish is the presence of salt (the poolish doesn’t contain salt).  Rather than reserving unbaked dough from my previous baguettes (mainly because I didn’t think to), I mixed up the pate fermentee as listed in the book.  The resulting loaves are delicious, though both Justin and I thought the baguettes with poolish had slightly more flavor.

Baguettes with Pate Fermentee
–Adapted from Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman

Pate Fermentee:

1 3/4 cups Bread flour
3/4 cup Warm Water
1 tsp Kosher Salt
1/8 tsp Instant Dry Yeast

Mix flour, water, salt and yeast together until smooth.  Cover tightly and let stand 12-16 hours.

Final Dough:

5 1/2 cups Bread flour
2 cups Warm Water
2 tsp Kosher Salt
1 1/4 tsp Instant Dry Yeast
Previously mixed pate fermentee

–Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl except the pate fermentee.  In a stand mixer, using the dough hook, mix on first speed for 3 minutes to incorporate all the ingredients.  As the dough comes together, add the pate fermentee in chunks.  If necessary, add additional flour or water.  The dough should be moderately loose.  Raise the mixer to second speed, and continue to knead for 3-5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.

Spray a second bowl with non-stick cooking spray, or coat with about a teaspoon of vegetable oil.  Add the kneaded dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Allow to rise in a warm place for about an hour.

After an hour, dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and fold in half.  Return dough to greased bowl, cover, and allow to rise another hour.

After this second hour of rising, remove dough from bowl and cut into four to six portions.  Lightly shape portions into rounds, and cover with plastic wrap.  Allow dough to relax for about 15 minutes.

After dough has relaxed sufficiently, form each portion into a baguette, round, or oval loaf, as you choose.  Transfer shaped loaves to parchment-lined baking sheets.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1 to 1/2 hours.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Bake loaves for 20-25 minutes (depending on the size of the loaves) or until golden brown and internal temperature reaches 210 degrees.

The first chapter containing recipes in the bread book is chapter four: Breads Made with Yeasted Pre-Ferments.  A pre-ferment is a mixture (typically) of flour, water, and very small amount yeast that is combined 12-24 hours before the final dough is made, and it helps to add a lot of extra yeasty flavor to the final loaves of bread.  The first recipe in this chapter is Baguettes with Poolish.  Poolish is a type of pre-ferment, that typically has a high ratio of water to flour, making for a very loose pre-ferment.  It also does not contain any salt.  All the flavor is developed from the yeast and flour.  This is a very straight forward recipe, yielding a simple, flavorful loaf with a crisp-chewy crust.  Goes perfectly with a delicious bowl of soup – especially soup made by great friends!

Baguettes with Poolish

(adapated from Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman)

Poolish:

2 1/2 cups Bread Flour
1 1/2 cups Warm Water
1/8 tsp Instant Dry Yeast

–Combine Flour, Water, and Yeast in a bowl until smooth.  Cover tightly and let stand 12-18 hours.

Final Dough:

5 cups Bread Flour
1 1/2 cups Warm Water
1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt
1 1/4 tsp Instant Dry Yeast
Previously Prepared Poolish

–Combine all the ingredients for the final dough in a bowl.  With a stand mixer, use the dough hook and allow to combine on 2nd speed for 6-10 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic.  Dough will be moderately loose (add additional flour or water as needed in the first minute or two of mixing).

If mixing by hand, combine ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon or spatula until dough has come together for the most part, then pour out dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand for 10-15 minutes, adding additional flour to keep dough from sticking to your hands or the surface.

Once dough is smooth, place in a clean, greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Allow to rise in a warm place (75-80 degrees) for 1 hour.  After an hour, pour out dough onto a floured work surface.  Gently fold dough in half, and return to the bowl.  Cover again, and allow to rise for an additional hour.

After an hour, pour out dough onto a floured work surface.  Cut dough into 4 portions, gently form into rounds, and cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 15-20 minutes.  After dough has relaxed, form into baguettes and place on parchment-lined baking sheets.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for another hour and a half.  Score, or slice, the tops of the loaves after they have risen.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Pour a cup of water in a small oven proof pan (I used a foil mini loaf pan).  Place this pan on one of the oven shelves.  The steam will help create the characteristic crisp crust of a baguette.  Bake baguettes for 25 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 210 degrees.  Slice, butter generously, and shove into pie-hole.

To try to encourage ourselves to eat at home more and try even more new recipes, we are each going to choose a cookbook and attempt to cook every recipe in them.  I know this is not a new or original idea, but it is a fun one that I can get behind.  Plus, lately I have been sticking with old favorites rather than branching out to find new ones.  Justin is still deciding on exactly which book to commit to (after he first picked up my On Cooking text and I looked at him like he had lost his mind) and I’ve chosen one I know I can count on, Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes, by Jeffrey Hamelman.  There are 118 recipes for different breads in this book, of which I’ve already tried about 15.  Mmm… I’m already starting to anticipate the warm, yeasty smells!  I promise to report on the failures as well as the successes – even though they’ll probably make me cry.  Or gag.  And please feel free to drop by to help clean the dirty dishes!  First one to the sink gets their own loaf!