The Weekend in the Kitchen
I spent some time in the kitchen this weekend. I was baking bread and establishing a separate starter that wouldn't see the inside of the refrigerator until the last loaves were done. There was also a fair amount of cleanup after the flour flew. The first loaf was out of the oven on Friday morning was another attempt at an Anadama Bread that turned out well, just not too open in the crumb.
This is a link to my blog article where I chatter about that loaf.
http://chaosamongstthefloursandflowers.blogspot.com/2011/08/poor-old-anna.html
The new starter was just an elaboration of my regular starter that I wanted to keep on the counter as an experiment for the four loaves i had in mind. My expectations were that it would be more vigorous and possibly more flavorful. The vigorous quality was met but it was not quite predictable. I should have foreseen that. The flavor is better but only to a subtle degree, not earthshaking. It needs more counter time.
The next loaf was an interpretation of the pan de Horiadaki that David first blogged about recently. I didn't follow his formula too closely because I had been asked to add some whole wheat to the loaf. I substituted about 1/3 of the flour weight with Golden Buffalo. As you can see, I did use an 8" cake pan which I think worked out well. The loaf went to an acquaintance of Mrs PG so there's no crumb shot.
There is a crumb shot of my next loaf which was another psomi, using 25% Golden Buffalo this time. It was an attempt to use sesame seeds to see if I could find a more noticeable presentation. I really like this recipe. The crumb is open and the flavor is great.
I liked the flavor of the psomi so much that I baked one for one of my entries in the Leavenworth County Fair. The other entry is a sourdough, a category that I won last year. That may have just been beginner's luck so this year's entries aren't quite perfect in appearance but the taste is better thanks to the information that is given out so kindly here on TFL.
Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.
Comments
Lovely baking, PG! Will you share the recipe for psomi bread?
Codruta
Thank you for your compliment! My recipe was based on the recipe that dmsnyder posted on pan de Horiadaki. He found that one in Maggie Glezer's "Blessing of Bread" . It is a fine loaf of bread. I'll send you the recipe through TFL messages as soon as I can organize all my work from this weekend.
In the meantime, you can't go wrong with David's recipe. if you want to add some whole wheat as I did, just soak the flour for about 3-4 hours before mixing.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23828/sourdough-pan-de-horiadaki-quota-blessing-breadquot
thank you! I think I'm OK with david's instructions and your suggestions about the whole wheat. Don't spend your time to write me the recipe, I think I can manage. Maybe I'll replace the sugar with brown sugar, or honey. Did you used sugar?
codruta
I used honey and maple syrup with equal results. The whole wheat flavor dominates over either sweetener because only 1 Tbs or 15 g was used so your idea of brown sugar or honey will be fine. David used household sugar and got great results. I look forward to seeing the pictures of your loaves.
I think the second one using the cake pan looks very interesting - no score? I remember David's which had a very rich crumb. Too bad there's no crumb shot. Perhaps you could ask your friend to send one in (just kidding.) -Varda
I admit when I first read the formula and looked at the pictures that I had the same question. I rally started to doubt when I saw how much gas was present in the loaf. The gas could be attributed to my starter rebuilding project. Even after shaping for the proof, some of the gas bubbles were just too big to let be so I improvised with a sweet corn skewer to pop the most blatant. I suspect that the long , about 50-55 minutes, bake at 400F may have had something to do with the fact there were no blow outs. Keep in mind that the dough was in an 8" cake pan, not on a stone, so the oven spring was a little more gentle than the 450F with stone that I usually employ.
If I recall correctly, Varda, your home is somewhere in the vicinity of Boston. Check out the pizza joints owned by Greek immigrants or their descendants in your area of the Commonwealth. You'll probably notice that they often make up their dough and spread it into a well oiled pie pan. I remember that C&S and C&M Pizza in Fitchburg, where I mis-spent my college days at Fitchburg State- class of '71, both used that procedure. It worked well then, it probably still does.
As far as I know ALL the storefront pizza joints in the area are operated by greek americans - not necessarily immigrants. And they all use a standard pizza pan rather than a pie pan. But I haven't been to Fitchburg in recent memory so perhaps the ones there still use the pie pans. -Varda