Abel Sierra posted another in his series of fascinating outside-of-the-box things that one can do with just Flour Water and Salt two weeks ago. And I am indeed fascinated at the breadth of what one can do creatively with just these three ingredients. And that also meant another that I would warehouse until the time came. Which was now!
I had bit and pieces of dried fruit leftover from the holidays and I also had some local made grain free spiced granola that I had bought at the farmer’s market. The granola was rather expensive and there wasn’t a lot of it so I added the dried fruit and toasted groats to boost the volume of the add-ins.
So last week I jumped for joy at getting some great spring and 'honeycomb' on my croissants and of course imparted as much of the experience as possible (since that's what TFL is all about ...
The dough is the Tartine Basic Country Bread. The formula of the polenta bread can be found in Tartine Bread (page 93). I added pumpkin seeds, corn oil, fresh rosemary and blue corn polenta instead of the usual variety. It follows a similar approach as the porridge breads in Tartine Book #3 by using a polenta soaker. The soaker was too wet. Nothing that can't be fixed by dehydrating it in the oven until it becomes more like a paste. Another change I made to the Tartine method was an overnight cold retard in the fridge during bulk rise.
the banana rye date and pecan bread made it to the iron skillet this morning! My maple syrup comes from a friends trees in Wisconsin. He taps each Spring. Delicious.
A fabulous and incredibly informative set of email exchanges on Mariana’s part a few weeks ago had me:
The Persians make an enriched flatbread that could be challah’s twin only flat instead of braided. Sweetener, oil or butter, milk, eggs and saffron. It is called Shirmall. The Iranians make all kinds of different breads with most of them the flat variety and they eat a lot of bread too…..if you have ever been there. Iran is also known for the best saffron in the world as well and..... I just love saffron.
how often can a person make and eat pizza before they get tired of it ? Apparently a LOT !! I wanted to see how this dough would do after X days in a plastic bag in the fridge. The answer is wonderfully. Very much improved flavor profile and great holes !! I used some of my chef son's sweet Italian sausage and it really added to the flavor. Same mode of operation as far as the rest of it. Layered sliced provolone on the bottom crust after it had risen for a while on the stove top. I made sure a put plenty of EVOO in the skillet before I laid the dough in.
Love this bread but I have a few questions for anyone out there who regularly bakes this delicacy. Nigella seeds in with flour at the beginning or sprinkled on during shaping? Butter, margarine or olive oil to enrich the dough during shaping? Saffron to colour the dough yellow or not? Bake hot & fast or cooler and more slowly with a lid? Enrich the dough with egg & butter or not? Egg wash to finish with a shine or not?
