dabrownman's blog

The first time I made limoncello I used the skins of 7 lemons per liter of grain alcohol and let the the grain sit on the skins for 20 days to extract the oil from skins and then let it age another 20 days to mello after straining filtering and cutting with sugar syrup 5o-50.  I used 454 g of sugar per liter of water and liter of lemon oil alcohol extraction.  It was a real Amalfi Coast recipe from Villa di Marie but I didn't like it that much even though it tasted just like the too many samples I had in Italy and couldn't get enough of. 

Mandarin left, lemon middle and orange right.  The orange was first to bottle.  When you mix the sugar syrup with the filtered alchohol the 50-50 mix goes cloudy but will clear later as the orange has already done. 

Now, many years later after much trial and error (like baking), I triple the skins to 21 lemons (to get a much stronger lemon flavor), cut the grain alcohol 50 -50 with vodka (to cut the heat of the grain) and let the alcohol sit on the skins for 60 to 90 days before straining filtering and and blending with sugar syrup that now is 340 g of sugar per liter of water (the original was too sweet) and it mellows for another 60-90 days.  I use the same recipe for minneolas, oranges and this year for the first time mandarins .  Folks tell me it is the best cellos they have ever had and I agree.

Finally got all of the varieties in the final bottles this past week.

It goes great with some Grilled Italian squash lasagna and some of David Snyder's Pulgliese Capriosso.

These sweet little jewels are made with home made puff paste and lemon curd with a little dollop of cream cheese to make it interesting.

I use 1 C AP, 1/4 C WW with some butter and shortening (6 T split 50-50) and few T of ice water (4-5) to make the dough.  After refrigerating, take 2/3 rds of the dough and roll it out as wide as my stick of butter and about 10" long and 1/4" thick.  Slice the frozen stick of butter into 4 slices lengthwise and lay one piece at time on the top of the dough and fold it over laying another piece of butter on top, fold over again and continue until all the slices of butter are encapsulated in the dough roll up.  Then roll out the other 1/3 rd of dough into a rectangle that is 1/4" thick.  Then put the butter layered portion onto this dough and encapsulate it.  Freeze for 20 minutes and then start rolling and folding 2 turns between freezes until you get the number of layers you want.  I did 6 turns folding in 1/3rds for 2,916 layers of butter.   The curd is Rachel Allen's with some  fresh ginger added.  Just cut the 1/4" puff into 3" squares, dock the center and put a T each of curd and cream cheese in the center.  You can mix the two which is what I normally do and wish I had done it on this bake.  Bake at 400 F until nice and brown - hopefully not as dark as mine and spin them in 8 minutes.  These were in 20 minutes because my apprentice was not paying attention tpo check them at 15 the first time.  These 8 used half the puff in various shapes.

 I have been behind on posting so will try to catch up quickly, now that taxes and citrus processing are finally done.  Am starting the retard of 22 hours for a couple of different kinds of baggies - one I promised teketeke I would make with YW since hers came out so well.  YW has really grown on me and this will be the 3rd bread bake in row using YW.  The other baggie is identical to the YW one, after the levain build, but is SD.  Both are around 17-20 % Rye and WWW so will be different than the normal mainly white baggie with poolish.  But, there are some other things to post first.

The retarded loaf came out almost identical to the non retarded one.  It was perhaps a little more sour.  Tasting the non retarded one from yesterday, it is more sour today and about the same sour as the retarded one just out of the oven.  I would guess the retarded boule will be even more sour tomorrow too.  This bread is hard to make but worth it.  I never had a bread that tastes like it, the crust is dark and softens as it cools, the crumb is moist and open, for 40% whole grain bread.  It is one of the best breads I have ever had, much less baked.  it just looks great too with the dark crust and deep yellow crumb.  Here some pix's of the retarded version 5 of  Brachflachen Mehrere Vollkombrot.

Pre-shaped

Passes poke test

Slashed

Just out of the oven

Can you find the hairs?

Crumb and crust close up

Preparing for a

Nice lunch of grilled turkey franks on super-grain challah with cheese, pickled peppers and mustard, pickles, tomatoes,  apples and a home grown salad.

This is version 5 of my SD multi-grain challah called Brachflachen Mehrere Vollkombrot but wanted to make a special one this year - that non Jews would like - by Easter.  I added; whey water, a Yeast Water levain on top of the SD one, sunflower seeds,  white diastatic rye malt, malted barley, lentils, vital wheat gluten and various sprouted grains while cutting back on; the egg,  molasses and honey.  The crust came out lighter than usual but was still very dark and thick but soft after it cooled.  The crumb was more moist, more open, even with 40% whole grain and more interesting with the the sunflower seeds and the sprouted berries.  The taste is far superior and everything I would want in this bread.  It its a lot of work but you will be rewarded with a fine Holliday bread.  The method and formula follows the pix's.  I had an identical boule retarding in the fridge overnight, have now baked it off and those pictures will follow at the very end. I also added the 20 g of Pink Himalayan sea salt to the formula which was missing.  I do like using both starters.  SD for taste and YW is known for its spring and mpoist crumb by my experience.  These 40% whole grain breads with sprouts and seeds need all the help they can get and the YW seemed to help in spring and moistness.

Method

2 days before bake, take the berries and soak them in water for 5 hours.  Place a sheet of  wet paper towel on a tray and spread the seed out on top of it.  Cover with two more sheets of wet paper towel.  I just get the towels wet, squeeze out the water and unravel them to flat. Cover the whole shebang with plastic wrap and let sit until needed’

1 day before baking make the 2 starters.  There is 4 hours between each of the builds.  At the 12 hour mark, put both levains in fridge overnight for retardation of 8 hours

In the morning, take out the levains and put them on the counter for one hour as you autolyse the dough flours with the whey water and water (I used an equal part mix as usual) in your mixer bowl with the paddle on KA 1 then cover with plastic.

After an hour add the levains and mix again until they are incorporated and cover.  Let autolyse for one more hour.

Add the salt and all the mix-ins except the seeds, switch to dough hook and knead on KA 2 for 8 minutes.  Add in the seeds and the sprouts and mix until combined.  Transfer dough to a well oiled and plastic covered bowl.  Let rest 15 minutes.

 Do 10 S&F’s on a floured work surface, form into a ball and put back into a plastic covered oiled bowl.  Do 3 more S & F’s at 15 minute marks only do 4, 3 and 2 S&F’s.  Let dough develop in plastic covered oiled bowl for 1 hour.

Divide dough in half and pre-shape into boules.  Do final shaping 10 minutes later making sure the skin is stretched taut, dust top with 50/50 mix of AP and Rice flour and place top down in basket lined with a well floured towel, using the same dusting flour combination.  Place baskets in a tall kitchen trash can liner for 1 hour.  Place in fridge overnight to retard or, when dough has risen 70%, it is ready to bake when it passes the poke test.

Pre-heat the oven at 500 F on regular bake for 45 minutes with your steaming method and stone in place.  Invert baskets onto parchment paper on a peel, do a T-Rex or, my favorite, 3 Toed Chicken Slash or a beauty of your own and slide into oven on the parchment paper.  Turn down temperature to 450 F and steam for 15 minutes.  Remove steaming apparatus and parchment, turn oven to 425 F convection and bake for another 25 minutes or so turning the boule every 8 minutes 1/3rd of a turn.  When the bread has reached 205 F inside, turn off oven, keep door ajar and let boule crisp on the stone for another 12 minutes.  Then remove to a cooling rack until cool.

If retarding, take the bread out of fridge in the morning and leave in the plastic bag.   Immediately start your pre-heat of the oven and bake as above.  My retarded boule will be going in the oven shortly.  It rose beautifully in the fridge.

 This bread also bakes very well Tartine Method in a cold or hot Dutch Oven. 

Had to make a couple of changes to Sweetbird’s hugely fantastic, far better than magnificent, Buckwheat Bread recipe that can be found here:

 http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/27784/buckwheatpear-sourdough-pear-hard-cider#comments

 First off we, my apprentice and I, used aWashingtonstate hard apple cider called Spire.  It was their mountain apple draft variety and used 245 g in the dough instead of 230.  We also; did not use any cider in the SD levain and used the excess apple water squeezed from the re-hydrated dried apples and frozen fermented apples from the YW plus some water.  Also used Whole Rye and WW with the Buckwheat in the first SD levain build since our starter had them and we think these grains make better bread when used in levains.   I wanted to taste the cider so I drank 90 g just to make sure it wasn’t spoiled or otherwise not up to the task at hand.

 My apprentice, bless her heart, substituted an Apple / Orange Yeast Water levain instead of SAF instant yeast since we don’t stock any commercial yeasts in the pantry, autolysed 1 hour instead of 30 minutes, sprouted the buckwheat groats instead of scalding them (after making red and 2 white malts she’s into sprouting it seems) and then put them all inside since she reasoned enough stuff would be hanging out in the end anyway.

Because the mix – ins were so wet (compared to sweetbird’s), I added 30 g of BW and 30 g of BF to them and let it autolyse while the dough was doing the same thing, added chopped pistachio nuts and chopped cooked buckwheat soba noodles, added fermented apple pieces saved when refreshing the YW that were previously frozen, re-hydrated the dried apples in apple juice.

 My apprentice also cut the salt to 10 g from 11 since the pistachios seemed salty to her when tasted for poison and she was a little bloaty this morning, added 15 g home made white diastatic malt to the vital wheat gluten, and finally, subbed bread flour for the AP which birdsong recommended doing after her bake.

 So, not much at all really major changed in the scheme of things we call bread.  We agree with sweetbrird that the dough needs 2 S & F sessions at 40 and 80 minutes and another to pre-shape at 2 hours.  Do a quick S & F to form into a ball.  Drag the skin tight and put into your large floured benetton.  Place into a plastic bag and let it final proof for at least an hour or so.  You can get your oven ready at 500 F with your steaming method in place while it proofs.  My final proof was 1 ½ hours about twice as long as sweetbird’s and it was not over proofed.

 The bread was turned out onto parchment on a peel and slashed with my patented ‘angry face with really nasty eyes design,’ steamed for 20 minutes at 430 F, then the steam was removed.  The bread then baked on the stone for about another 45 minutes until it reached 203 F and then left in oven for 12 minutes with the door ajar and oven off.

Will post the recipe later if somone wants it.  This boule finished weight was 1,305 g.

Was getting ready for tomorrow's Sweetbird Buckwheat and Apple SD Bread bake and for once was organized enough to pinch off some of the buckwheat starter and make some lovely SD pancakes for breakfast.  I took 30 g of refreshed buckwheat starter and added;  60 G of bread flour, 60 g of buckwheat flour and 120 g of milk.  After mixing I let it stand on the counter for 1 hour and then in the fridge overnight for 8 hours.  This morning I took it out of the fridge and let it stand on the counter for 1 hour before mixing in 1 tsp of honey, a large pinch of salt,  1/2 of a large beaten egg, 1/16 tsp each baking powder and baking soda.  You forget how much you like SD buckwheat pancakes when you don't have them for years and years.  This recipe made 2 nice sized pancakes.

Ian is well known for his interesting and delicious bread combinations.   I had taken his BPOC SD and made it into an even stranger bread by replacing his Semolina with 5% each; WW, Whole Rye and Whole Spelt.  For his bacon, cheese onion and potato I used; home made apple smoked pork jowl, ancient white vapor cheddar, caramelized onions and potato flakes.  The bread came out beautiful inside and out and was just plain delicious.  Definitely one of the 10 breads in my top 5 (actually it is one of the top 3).

I have been eating up all of the half a loaf, boule and batards that I froze after each bake over the last 3 months to see which ones I liked most and how best to rate and present them.  Being a sandwich king, I thought each might be presented as a nice lunch.  I was going to wait till I had finished them all (and have nearly done so), photo with the new old Nikon camera to do them justice this time, but, I had to break this one out separately since it is by far, far and away the best sandwich and lunch I have had these past few weeks.

Since this bread only deserves the best, the sandwich was a Dabrownman Super Special - Curried Grilled Chicken with Mango Chutney.  The sides were cold Rosemary, Pecorino, Parmesan,White Polenta, home grown Field Greens, Meculin and Lettuce Salad, home made Kosher Dill, Bread and Butter with Serrano Pepper pickles and a home grown navel orange.  The curry, chutney and polenta recipes follow the pix's as a bonus for all lunch lovers on TFL.

The first pix is a mis en place recipe for the Grilled Chicken Curry.  It has about 2 T each starting from the far right diced small; celery, green onion, red onion, grilled Italian squash and eggplant, carrot, red pepper, poblano pepper,  each orange mango chutney and mayo,  1/2 tsp Madras Curry powder, 1/2 grilled chicken breast,  1 T each; dried apricot, cranberry and raisin (reconstituted with hot water.) Mix it all up and you are finally done with this fine sandwich's filling.

Rosemary White Polenta with Parmesan and Pecorino

1/4 C medium grain white corn meal

1/4 C white corn flour (ground from WCM above)

1 C milk - any kind

1 C chicken stock - I use home made

1 T butter

1 T fresh rosemary chopped fine

1/2 C Pecorino and Parmesan grated cheese blend

pepper

Bring milk and stock to a simmer and slowly add the corn meal and corn flour while whisking constantly.  When the mixture thickens to a thick porridge, stir in butter, rosemary.  Turn off the heat and add the cheese.  Pepper to taste.  Serve warm for dinner but it is much better the next day cold for lunch.

Orange Mango Chutney

 In large fry pan sauté:

 1 T oil

½ T fresh ginger and 2 cloves minced garlic

 Sauté until fragrant about 1 min and add:

1 C brown, white or red onion, Sauté until soft about 3-5 min Add:

 1 C red bell pepper

1 T minced hot chili (jalapeno, Serrano, Thai)

1 ½ tsp Madras curry powder, curry powder or hot curry powder

½ tsp Gharam Masala

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp each cayenne powder and red pepper flakes

1/8 tsp each; allspice, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon

 Sauté for 1 minute until spices are fragrant then add:

 2 C diced mangos

½ C apple cider vinegar

½ C brown sugar

Zest of 1 orange - Supreme the orange and add the segments with the juice of membrane

1 diced pealed and cored small apple (can use pineapple and juice instead)

¼ C raisins

½ cups Macadamia nuts (optional)

 Simmer until the chutney thickens to jam about 20-30 min.  Place hot in sterilized jar and put into refrigerator when cooled.  It also freezes well in small portions which is what I do.

 You can chutney just about anything but you may want to use lemon zest, segments and juice depending on your choice of fruit or vegetable being made into chutney.

I've been making as many things as I can with oranges to try to use up this past years crop before donating the rest to the food bank.  So I've been  making orange marmalade.  Several years ago I forgot that I had marmalade on the stove and it nearly burned but it was just darkly caramelized like a flan.  So marmalade in this house now comes light, medium and dark just like the bread crust and crumb does.  No wonder jam and bread go so well together.  I think it was MiniOven that said when you think the bread is done, leave it in the oven 5 more minutes - same goes for jam - let it cook 5 more minutes or even 10 or 15.  I've now carmelized strawberry, apple,  pear. prickly pear tuna, raspberry and blackberry jams too.  Changes them completely.

A blend of Seigle d’Auvergne and Borodinski where diastatic malt is used in the dough on the French side and non diastatic malt with scalded rye berries is used on the Russian side.  Thank goodness no retardation is required, no matter how nice it would be, to produce a nearly classic clash of multicultural bread with different colored malts and multi grain flours that ends up being slightly unique in the end - in a peaceful and united way.   The loaf rose well during final proof but the spring was more of a sprawl.  The crust is chewy the crumb is moist, soft and quite airy.   It tastes like your eating really good Russian Rye bread while walking down the Champ de Elysee in the springtime.  Recipe follows the pix's. 

Pink Himilayan Salt, the scald, dough and levain

Red Non D and White D Malts

Rye berries being scalded with the Red ND Malt

White D Malt on white flour

Before final rise

 French / Russian 57% Rye, 11% WW Rustic Bread

 Directions

 Take 10 g of 100% hydration starter and add10 Geach; Rye, WW and AP flour along with 30 g of water.  Mix well, cover with plastic and let sit for 6 hours on the counter.  Then add 20 g each of the same flours and 60 g water.  Let sit on counter for 6 hours.  Refrigerate overnight.  In the morning add10 geach of the flours but no water and let sit on the counter covered in plastic wrap.

 Scald the rye berries and red non-diastatic malt in50 gof water.  Boil until the water barely disappears.  Turn off heat and reserve covered with plastic wrap on counter with the levain. Let sit 2 hours then start autolyse.

 Mix the bread flours, white distatic malt and water well, cover and autolyse for 1 hour after the scald and the levain have rested 2 hours on the counter.

 Mix in the levain and let autolyse for 1 hour.  Then add the scald and the salt and mix well.  Do 5 S&F’s on an oiled surface and place in an oiled bowl.  Then do 5 S&F’s every 20 minutes 2 more times.  Pre-form into ball using the final S & F’s at the 1 hour mark and let sit in an oiled bowl for 20 minutes.

 Shape as desired, I did an oval, dust with rye bran or other bran, flour or rice flour and place in prepared basket.  Place basket in plastic bag and let proof until dough has risen 70% - 80%.  You can also proof in a DO.

 Pre heat oven to 500 F for 45 minutes, with your stone and steaming apparatus in place.  No steam needed if using a DO.  Take dough out of benetton by overturning onto a piece of parchment on a peel.  Slide bread and parchment paper into oven onto the baking stone.  Turn oven down to 450 F and bake for 15 minutes.  Remove steaming apparatus and turn down oven to 425 F with convection on now.  Bake about 20 minutes more until bread reaches 205 F in the middle.   Let sit on stone, in off oven, with the door ajar for 10 minutes.  Cool on rack.

 If using DO, bake at 500 F for 20 minutes with lid on, then remove lid and turn down temperature to 450 F.  Bake about 20 minutes more until middle of bread is 205 F. 

There is only one thing better than Gingered,  Tres Apple Almond, Vanilla Granola Crisp with Bourbon Dried Fruit.

And that is Gingered, Tres Apple, Almond, Vanilla Granola Crisp with Bourbon

Dried Fruit and home made Vanilla Ice Cream covered in Chocolate Sauce.