BBA Catch-up

Since August and my last post I have been baking BBA breads, but I haven't been very good at staying in order or posting. Here are my last few months of breads, in no particular order whatsoever:)

BBA #14: French Bread


BBA # 22: Pain de Campagne, shaped into a Boule

BBA #18: Light Whole Wheat

BBA #17: Lavash, soft variation

BBA # 26: Poolish Baguettes

BBA #6: Challah, Three Braid

BBA 11: Cranberry Apricot Walnut Celebration Bread

My dad is in town, and as he has been hearing all about my bread baking exploits for the last few months, he twisted my arm to fire up the ol' oven and get to baking!


I have a few BBA breads to catch up on but the Cranberry Walnut bread caught my dad's eye, and he had the great idea to add in some dried apricots. I made a couple additional alterations based on what I had on hand, using 2% milk rather than buttermilk, and omitting the citrus extract altogether. I was intimidated by the double braid, as shaping as been my achilles heel thus far, so I went with a really big single braid.


The final result was delicious! I think this dough would be amazing even without the additions, it had a great slightly eggy, rich, well rounded flavor, and the cranberries and apricots were just gilding the lily. I have to say this was probably also the best looking bread I've made for BBA so far. The shiny egg wash, the pretty braid shape, and the ruby studded interior= gorgeous!!!

I would definitely make this again, especially as a hostess or holiday gift. It's very impressive but actually quite simple to make. My braid came out a little lopsided, but even this shaping novice was able to turn out a pretty loaf.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Last week was my bday, hooray for me, hooray for presents. My fave present so far is - big surprise here - a cookbook. My hubby got me Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, by Ana Sortun.Since then I have been cooking up a storm, or haboob, as the case may be. I found a really cool Middle Eastern market, Baiz Market in downtown Phoenix, got a ton of cool new spices, pita, and 3 different kinds of feta (who knew!).

So far, the household favorite has been Muhammara on Flatbread with Za'atar. Muhammara is a walnut, red pepper and pomegranate dip. Remember the first time you tried hummus, or tzatziki, and the flavor combos were a revelation? Muhammara is the same thing! Here is a copy of the recipe from my cookbook, and here's another variation from Paula Wolfert that I want to try, to compare.

Za'atar is a spice blend of Jordanian thyme, sumac, sesame, and some other stuff. It is addictive and amazing, especially on this flatbread. In this batch pictured, I kind of skimped on the za'atar, next time I will use a lot more!

Flatbread with Za'atar

adapted from Spice, by Ana Sortun

1/4 oz active dry yeast (1 packet)

3/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cups bread flour

1 tsp salt

4 Tbsp olive oil

6 Tbsp za'atar

Proof yeast by mixing with warm water until it blooms. Whisk in the 1/4 cup olive oil, flour, and half of the salt. Knead with a mixer or by hand (pretty easy with this dough) until satiny and tacky, but not sticky, adding more water or flour as necessary to achieve that texture. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and put in the refrigerator overnight to rise. Two hours before baking, remove from fridge and place on a 10x12 baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and let dechill for 90 minutes. Stretch out dough to corners of baking sheet, trying to keep it an even thickness. Brush with remaining olive oil, sprinkle with za'atar and remaining salt, and let proof for 30 minutes, uncovered. Preheat oven to 375 and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on the edges.

BBA: Cinammon Raisin Bread

For Bread School this week, we made Cinammon Raisin Bread. It was supposed to have walnuts too, but mine were old and rancid so I skipped them. Do not worry, I bought new ones and they are keeping perfectly in the freezer as we speak.

This bread was remarkably easy to throw together. In fact I was multitasking while I was making the dough - you know, doing seven things at the same time poorly rather than one thing properly- but it still turned out heavenly. This bread is soft, delectably cinammony, slightly sweet, and even better toasted with cream cheese. I used the sugar topping variation, where fresh out of the oven, the loaves are brushed with butter and sprinkled with cinammon sugar.

Warning: if you are having a 7 year old girl sleepover party when this comes out of the oven, make a double batch. I had to beat those childrens off with an ICarly hairbursh to keep them away from my loaves!

Want to see more?

• As usual, Paula at Bell'alimento has some beautiful step-by-step photos
• Carolyn of Two Skinny Jenkins did the cinammon swirl variation
• Flour Girl went super creative and made cinammon raisin rolls

BBA #6: Ciabatta, Biga Version

For this week's Peter Reinhart Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge, we made Ciabatta. Reinhart has two versions, one that uses a French poolish starter, and one that uses an Italian biga starter. I decided to go with the biga version after reading online that its higher hydration percentage makes for a looser crumb.

The biga begins with flour, yeast and water, kneaded lightly and let to rise overnight. Then the next day more flour, yeast, salt, and water(or whole milk or buttermilk, and I subbed buttermilk) is added, and the serious kneading begins. This is a very wet, sticky, messy dough, so I called in my mom for backup but she needed a little boost to reach my countertops:)

Once the dough reaches the tacky but not sticky stage, you stretch it out, and then fold it over itself, let it rest for 30 minutes, and repeat. I found this video on YouTube about stretching and folding. The dough is then divided and set up in a couche to proof. I am couche-less, so I used parchment paper, and scooched them up against each other. The dough is pulled one last time before baking, then put in the oven for about 15-20 minutes total, until it reaches an internal temp of 205. The hardest part is waiting an hour for everything to cool, as usual.

My final product was pretty, pretty, pretty good (channeling Larry David). The taste was great, very flavorful, and I liked the openish crumb pattern. My loaves were a little softer than I'm familiar with ciabatta being, I think because I used buttermilk instead of water. It was a good deal of work though, and we ate one whole loaf for breakfast, and another the next day for dinner, so next time I think I'll double or 1 1/2 the recipe to make it completely worth all the trouble.

BBA #5: Casatiello

Time for my Bread School report!

This week we made Casatiello, an Italian pimped out version of brioche. It's a direct dough, with lots of eggs and butter, and studded with salami and cheese. Very tasty, in fact, a little too tasty for me. I'm not one for 9 cheese jalapeno rosemary garlic sausage loaves and the like. I prefer my bread plain and simple I guess. I used Boar's Head salami, Kerrigold Swiss (from Ireland?!), and decided to bake it two 6" cake pans, so I could gift one of the loaves.

Next up: Challah!

BBA #4: Brioche

I finally cut this loaf open at 1 AM last night. I still haven't learned the don't start bread past 5 PM rule. Maybe it was a good thing, if I wasn't half asleep, perhaps the vast amounts of butter in this bread would've bothered me. I chose to make the Middle Class Brioche version, cuz I'm pretty middle class through and through.

Since it was so late, I don't remember a lot about the process. I was drinking a great Malbec. The bread didn't rise much. The house smelled great. My hubby thought it was pound cake. I regret doing two loaves, rather than a fun shape. And my loaves came out not quite right, shape-wise. I'll try to piece together more and get back to you.

What I do remember is that the brioche made a great breakfast, topped with homemade strawberry jam. I think I'll make a pineapple vanilla sauce to serve with it for dessert tonight, yum.

BBA #3: Bagels

My father-in-law turns 88 next week. His favorite joke goes something like, "What's a yiddish word that starts with A? A bagel!" He retired from the City of New York Sanitation Department after 32 years, 31 years of which he played saxophone in the NYC Sanitation Department Marching Band. In the early 70's Mayor Lindsay trimmed the fat and disbanded said band, depriving future generations of the joys of civil servant music and prompting a bunch of ol' fellas to retire grumpily. Lousy bagels are just one of the things my father-in-law is still grumpy about, so Frankie, this one's for you! A bagel!

The bagels were not too difficult to make, and did come out wonderfully, with a soft chewy middle and a slightly crunchy exterior skin. I kneaded the dough by hand, giving props all the way to past village bagel makers and their invincible arm muscles. Geez! 17 minutes and I'm sore as hell today. In hindsight though, it was cool to feel the dough change in my hands, and finally reach that satiny texture. After 15 minutes of struggling, I think I developed a kneading rhythm, so maybe it will be easier next time. Another fun and delicious bread baking experience, thanks to the BBA Challenge. I know it sounds rote, but I really never would've thought to make bagels myself. I think I might trot this recipe out a few times a year, if it's a three day weekend, or if I happen to get my hands on some good lox.

Or maybe it can be an annual birthday treat for Frank, of which I hope to celebrate many more.

BBA #2: Artos

So it's true, you really do have to account for humidity when calculating proof times. Here in the lovely Arizona desert, we range from a whopping 7-12% humidity most of the year so its been something I've read about but never experienced, kind of like high altitude baking.

I'm trying to make excuses for my overproofed, wrinkly-ass Artos boule in case you can't tell.

Luckily, the fam doesn't know any better and thinks Artos is supposed to have lomas and arroyos.

Air bubbles nonetheless, it IS delicious, and if it lasts until tomorrow morning, we are going to have some rockin' french toast. Maybe even raspberry jam-brie-prosciutto Monte Cristos...

I forgot to stir in the fruit and nuts, and opted against the glaze due to sticky fingers on electronics phobia. I had grand plans for shaping it into monkey bread like Pinkstripes did, or trying a 5 strand braid, but ended up going the simple route and making a giant ball. I'm glad I did, it would've been hard to pretend the braid was supposed to have wrinkles. I may just use my leftover poolish to try this again, with complex shaping and fruit and nuts. It is a three day weekend after all:)

P.S. Artos would be a great cat name.

BBA #1: Anadama, part 2

While the first loaf of Anadama was gobbled up in one sitting, the second loaf made it through the week. This bread really held up well! It didn't get stale, moldy, or lose any of its flavor. I finished off the last of it for lunch today, topped with canadian bacon, egg and tomatoes, YUM.

BBA #1: Anadama

I joined another online cooking thingy. Groan says the husband, until I tell him the details.

For the BBA Challenge, 200 bakers worldwide will be baking every recipe in Peter Reinhardt's The Bread Baking Apprentice over the next year or so. It was this book that really got me to start baking bread, and I've loved everything I've made from it, so it seemed like an appropriate challenge.

This group is communicating in like 7 different ways, including Twitter, Facebook, Google and everyone's individual blog. I am trying to tweet along, but I still don't quite get it. I put a Twitter link up in case you want to talk to me INSTANTLY, or be my Twend, but I figure good "old-fashioned" blogging will work too.

Our first joint task is Anadama Bread, which Reinhardt says is a New England classic, though I never heard of it in my Boston days. It is enriched with cornmeal and molasses, which gives it a satisfying crunch, and an underlying hint of sweetness. It is made with an overnight cornmeal soaker, to elicit every last bit of sugar, but is otherwise a direct method bread. It is very delicious plain with butter, and I can't wait to make sandwiches with it all weekend. I have a feeling it will make a mean BLAT (A=avocado).

Cocodrillo Ciabatta

Today is Bread Baking Day! Every first of the month, an international group of bloggers bake a themed bread together.

This month was Spring Country Breads, hosted by CindyStar. Cindy asked us to be inspired by a celebration of spring, and a lovely spring picnic in the country is just what I had in mind with this Ciabatta, fondly known as Cocodrillo Ciabatta all over the internet.

I found my version on Fresh Loaf, one of my favorite bread blogs and information sources. While I don't know why it's called cocodrillo, I imagine maybe because it is uses a direct method, so you can be lazy like a crocodile and still make a delicious rustic loaf in one day with no advance planning?

Whatever the etymology might be, here is my Spring Country Breads recipe-

Cocodrillo Ciabatta
makes 4 small loaves

500 g flour

475 g water

2 t instant yeast

2 t salt

Combine flour and water to form a ball, let autolyse for 20 minutes. Add in yeast and salt, then using the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed in your electric mixer for 5 minutes, or until dough starts to crawl up the paddle. Switch to a dough hook and mix for another 10 minutes on medium.

Place in oiled glass bowl to rise. Dough needs to triple (very important)! For me, this took about 2.5 hours. If, after the first hour, dough has more than doubled, fold or punch down.

Once dough has tripled, remove to well floured counter, divide into 3-4 pieces and bulk rise for 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 500. When nicely risen into a bubbly knobby hunk, stretch and fold into a 10 inch oblong, or as close as you can come. This dough is very wet and hard to work with, but I consoled myself with imperfections are good, imperfections are rustic! Because the dough was so hard to work with, I placed it on parchment prior to placing in the oven. I didn't want to degas it too much trying to put it directly on the stone.

Bake at 500 for the first 5 minutes, opening the door every 30 seconds to spray oven walls with water. After 5 minutes, turn oven down to 450 and bake another 10-15 minutes, or until you get a good bottom thump and internal temp is 205.

I loved this recipe, it was so simple and produced a great wide open crumb. If you are so inclined to do the math, this dough has about a 95% hydration, which is the highest I've ever made. Next time I want to play around with a pre-ferment on this one to develop the flavor a little more. It was however, delicious, rustic, and perfect for a lovely spring picnic in the country!

Fun with Flatbreads

So, after 2 tries, I am officially concluding that homemade pita bread is pretty easy, and better than the store-bought version. Store-bought pitas are pretty good when toasted, but they are either crispy or doughy. I like my pita with a bit of a crunch in the darker parts, but still soft and yielding inside. Sheesh, I sound like a romance novel.

Getting back to the bread, I've read a lot about recreating a baker's oven with hand misting, or pans of water to create humidity, but this time I just stuck the rolled out dough in the oven, on a cheapie baking sheet, on the lowest rack, and it came out just as nicely as last time, when I drove myself crazy trying to clean out Windex spray bottles, etc, to try and humidify my oven. Plus my pockets held their puff better this time. So if you want to mess around with the fiddly stuff, go for it, but if you don't have time, no worries.

Pita Bread

from the Joy of Cooking

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 Tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 packets active dry yeast

2 Tbsp melted butter

1 1/4 cups room temperature water

Combine everything in your mixer's bowl and turn with a spatula to combine ingredients. Knead on low with your mixer's dough hook for 10 minutes, or until dough is "smooth, soft, and elastic."

It is fun to play around and add a splash of water, and then a pinch of flour to see how that affects the dough. I'm by no means an expert, but I think I know what I'm looking for- you don't want to dough to be so dry that it sticks to the sides of the bowl, nor so wet that it doesn't travel up the dough hook. It's an eyeball thing, and ten minutes is a long time to watch stuff spin, I'm sure you'll figure it out if I did. Joy says the dough should be "slightly tacky but not sticky."

After ten minutes, place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set in a dark place to rise for 90 minutes. When you have 10 minutes left in the rise, preheat your oven to 475, and put the baking sheet, pizza stone, or whatever you'll be using in the oven to preheat too. When your 90 minute rise is up, the dough should have doubled in size. Punch it down, marvel at how cool yeast is, and cut into 8 pieces with a pizza cutter. Roll the pieces into balls, and let rest another 20 minutes, then roll out into a thin 1/4 inch round. (Joy says 1/8, but it puffed better when a little thicker).

Bake 2-3 at a time, or as many fit on your pan at once. Stay close to the oven, and start checking them after 3 minutes. Mine took about 5-6 min each.