Posts Tagged ‘Bread’
Friday, September 16th, 2011
I’m sure there’s plenty of cock waving when it comes to which nation produces the greatest chefs in the World. Japan? Spain? The US? England? France? Denmark? To be honest, as long as I’ve got a great plate of food in front of me, I don’t really care. But one thing I’d stake my reputation on (for what it’s worth), is that when it comes to making sandwiches, the Yanks p**s all over the competition.
Us Brits may have invented the humble sarnie, but the Americans have taken it to a whole new level. Here the sandwiches are a proper meal, lots of good stuff slapped between whichever kind of bread you fancy. The fact that burgers sit in the same section on a menu kind of sets the tone. Now I’ve tasted the brave new world, I feel kind of sad when I think about the Prets and Eats I used to visit so often back home, especially as most of the really good ones come out of small independent shops and delis.
Anyway, to prove the point, I thought I’d show you the evidence by showing you a few of our favourites (excluding burgers) from the recent months. GET READY TO DROOOOOOLLLL.
The Delores from Rheas Deli
Smoked peppered turkey, spicy cranberry sauce, muenster, bacon, tomatoes, red onion, pickles, pickles jalapenos, spinach on Dutch crunch bread.
(more…)
Tags: Bread, Delores Sandwich, Golden Gate Sandwich, Ike's Place, Korean Steak Sandwich, Mayoose's CA-BLT, Meal, Paul Reubens Sandwich, Rhea's Deli, San Francisco, Sandwiches, Sarnie, Saul's Deli, The Eggbert, Whole Foods
Posted in Lunch, Opinion, Travel | 3 Comments »
Sunday, September 11th, 2011
So that’s it. It’s over. 4 and a half months, 18 weeks, 90 days, 720 hours, 43,200 minutes of hardcore baking action. We graduated from the SFBI Professional Bread & Pastry Programme last Friday, and I’ve go to say it was a bitter sweet occasion.
In the week running up to the graduation, as a group we made over 160 products, and most of them in multiple numbers. We were split into four groups as usual, with two groups concentrating more on bread and the other two predominantly on cakes and pastry. It was a full on week of late nights, early mornings, little sleep and lots of coffee. We all started on pastry, prepping stuff to be frozen and items with good shelf life, and the production schedule steadily ramped up over the week to fever pitch, particularly on Thursday and Friday for us bread people. It was full on, but hugely enjoyable. I have to admit, I felt pretty emotional as I scored the very last loaf that went into the oven.
(more…)
Tags: Baking Institute, Bread, Chocolate, Class Of 2011, Diploma, Graduation, Michel Suas, Pastry, Production, Products, San Francisco, SFBI, Viennoiserie
Posted in Opinion, Reviews, Travel | 10 Comments »
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
Going back in time a bit, on the last day of the bread section of my course we had a flat bread day. We made pitta, pizza, lavash and naan breads. Knowing we were going to make them, I thought I’d give my course mates a little taste of ‘home’ by making some spiced fillings for a few of the naan. Well everyone knows how much us Brits love a curry.
The breads are made with a whole wheat biga, which is a (typically) Italian stiff pre-ferment, although I imagine the Indians would use hunks of ‘old dough’ to add flavour and a bit of leavening. As the biga is made of whole wheat and has a wee bit of yeast in it, you don’t need to make it the night before, just a few hours before you make your final dough, which has a 3 hour bulk ferment, so you’ll need to get a bit organised.
I made the meat (keema) filling for the carnivores and a vegetarian version for the herbivores and we baked the breads in the schools wood fired oven, which I’m guessing most of you out there don’t have. Don’t worry, you can cook them in your oven at home. Just make sure it’s as hot as Hades, and that you bake the naans on something solid and heat retaining like a pizza stone or heavy roasting tin.
Ready?
Ingredients (makes 4)
For The Bread
380g White Bread Flour
30g Whole Wheat Flour
170g Water (temp of around 26c)
16g Ghee or melted butter
12g Salt
1g Instant Yeast
160g Goat or regular low fat Yoghurt
225g Whole Wheat Biga (see below)
More Ghee / Butter for brushing the bread with
For The Keema
400g Minced Beef
(more…)
Tags: Biga, Bread, Butter, Coriander, Cumin, Garlic, Ghee, Keema, Naan, Onions, Oven, Tandoor, Turmeric, Whole Wheat Flour, Wood Oven
Posted in Recipes, Snack, Travel | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
A week or so ago on a rare, but none the less slightly grey and grim San Francisco Saturday, we headed to an area of the city called Sunset. It’s a part of town bordered by Ocean Beach (the local break for a lot of SF surfers) and the Pacific Highway that on paper has a lot going for it, but seems to have become a bit neglected, a bit like a faded British seaside town.
We’d read that the area is on the up again following a small cluster of new(ish) and interesting places opening up down there, one of which is a cafe / restaurant called Outerlands. I’d first heard about Outerlands from a Tartine Bread video that features the owner, David Muller. David had met Chad Robertson through a love of surfing, and Chad taught David how to make the bread that he now serves at the cafe.
(more…)
Tags: Black Butte Porter, Borage, Bread, Brocoli, Chad Robertson, Cheese Sandwich, David Muller, Grilled Cheese, Outerlands, Potato, San Francisco, Soup, Sunset, Surfing, Tartine
Posted in Lunch, Opinion, Reviews, Travel | No Comments »
Sunday, July 10th, 2011
My latest, greatest baking discovery is the Dutch Oven I bought a few weeks ago. Recommended by the tutors at the SFBI as one of the best ways to cook bread at home, they yet again have proved they know their onions as it’s already helped me knock out a bunch of consistently great bread in the kitchen of our rented apartment.
The reasons it works so well are two fold. Firstly, the cast iron retains heat brilliantly, and as you’re baking in a sealed vessel your bread is less likely to be subject to any fluctuations in oven temp, which means a good even bake. The second reason is that it the lid traps steam, so there’s no need to fanny about with trays of boiling water or spraying your loaves pre-baking.
You could try something like a Le Creuset, as used baking Jim Lahey’s no knead loaf (where you almost pour the dough in), will work OK, but the Lodge Combo-Cooker I acquired is the business. Firstly, it was about the quarter of the price of a Le Creuset (they are quite a bit more expensive in the UK I’m afraid), and It’s other advantage is that you can invert it using the lid / skillet as the base to bake on which helps give a better crust colour while you’re venting the loaf. NB. You don’t have to have a Dutch Oven to make this formula, but it will give you better results.
(more…)
Tags: Bake, Baking, Bread, Combo-Cooker, Dan Lepard, Dutch Oven, Hand Made Loaf, Home, Le Creuset, Levain, Lodge, San Francisco, SFBI, Sourdough, Starter, Wheast Germ, Whole Wheat Flour
Posted in Equipment, Recipes, Travel | 9 Comments »
Saturday, June 25th, 2011
Last week bought with it mixed feelings. It was our last week of studying ‘pure’ bread. This week we’ve moved on to Viennoiserie, and whilst I am totally relishing the fresh challenges and new techniques we’re getting to experience dealing with enriched doughs, I’ve got to confess, I’m missing the bread ‘lab’ quite a bit.
The week was basically a review of all the techniques and baking concepts we’d covered over the past couple of months, and started where we began with baguettes. It was really good to revisit our French friends, as it helped cement a bunch of stuff that wasn’t really glued down. I guess in those first few weeks there was so much information flooding into my brain that I couldn’t really grasp hold of it all, and with baguettes being one of the most challenging breads, there was a lot to remember.
So we did a good day of mixing, shaping, rolling, scoring and baking the buggers, and I was relieved that aside from a few howlers here and there, I was pretty happy with how they turned out. For me, in many ways the scoring is the trickiest thing. You need to get the angle and depth of the cuts just right to get that spring and the famous baguette ears. I changed my technique after a bit more of an in-depth critique of my first batch, which improved results, but I’ve still got a lot of practicing to do.
(more…)
Tags: Baguette, Bread, Flat Bread, Gluten Free, Hand Mix, lavash, Miche, Naan, Pitta, Pizza, Poilaine, review, San Francisco, SFBI, Sourdough, Viennoiserie, Week, Wood Fired Oven
Posted in Opinion, Reviews, Travel | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Well maybe not everything, but it doesn’t get much better than kicking things off with an East 17 pun. So, another week, another post. Are you bored of bread yet? You better not be.
Last week was all about European, predominantly German, style breads. Which means rye. And lots of it. I’ve got to put my hands up and admit that I’ve never been the world’s biggest fan of rye breads. I don’t mind a bit every now and then, and like the flavour in small doses, but I never crave those dark, heavy loaves like I do a good bit of toothsome, tangy sourdough.
You might be expecting me to say that having got hands on with them that I’m now a convert, but I’ve got to say, I’m afraid I’m not. I also find it hard to fall in love with breads with names like Volkornbrot and Swabian Bread. Maybe that’s because I’m shallow.
Sunflower Rye
But that doesn’t mean that last week was a lost cause, in fact far from it. We started the week with some great sourdoughs incorporating increasing percentages of rye so we could see the effects on the bread making process, and taste the development of flavour. My favourites were the sunflower, Finnish and honey ryes, the latter of which went up to around 75% percent rye flower.
(more…)
Tags: Almonds, Bagel, Beaujolais Nouveau, Bratwurst, Bread, Finnish Rye, French Coutry Shapes, Honey Rye, Pretzel, Rye, San Francisco, Saucisson, SFBI, Swabian, Volkornbrot
Posted in Recipes, Travel | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
To quote Jimmy Castor’s ‘Troglodyte‘, “What we’re gonna do right here is go back. Way back. Back into time…” because last week was all about kicking it old school, both in terms of ingredients and baking methods. We’re talking ancient grains and wood fire ovens.
Ancient wheats like spelt, khorasan (more commonly known as Kamut) emmer and, einkorn, and grains like millet, sorghum, quinoa, and teff were the precursors to modern wheat. They fell out of favour centuries ago as farmers and latterly scientists, developed the higher yield grains that we ‘enjoy’ today. However, wheats with increased yields and higher levels of protein / gluten are much harder for our bodies to digest, and less healthy. For this reason, ancient grains have become fashionable again, and are considered by many to be the future of bread.
(more…)
Tags: Ancient Grains, Baking, Bread, Einkorn, Emmer, Future, Kamut, Khorasan, Millet, Past, Quinoa, San Francisco, SFBI, Sorghum, Sourdough, Spelt, Starters, Teff, Wood Fired Oven
Posted in Opinion, Reviews, Travel | No Comments »
