Farine

In Paris with an eye-phone

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 15:43:00 +0000

Today I am taking you for a stroll in Paris with a few pictures from our last trip there back in May. The young woman in the headscarf is Ilham the Baker. She is from Morocco. She bakes all her goods herself at home on the day and night before the market. We bought bread and chatted for a while. She gave us sweet mint tea and cornes de gazelle, cookies baked in the shape of horns. I am keeping her in my thoughts.

Paris, attacked

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 16:48:00 +0000

The sun was pouring in through the windows, bluejays were noisily scolding each other in the neighbor's trees, our little rescue was happily chewing on her favorite squeaky. I was catching up on some reading that had piled up when my phone beeped with the notification that Paris was under attack. One of the shootings had been at Le Carillon and Le Petit Cambodge in the 10th arrondissement not far from Place de la République.
My hands were shaking as I called up Google Maps on my phone. We have very close friends right around the corner from Le Petit Cambodge. The place is actually their six-year old's favorite hangout. We have had lunch with them there. Never having seen my American grandkids go for soup with such passion, I can still picture the lust with which the little girl had attacked her bobun (a kind of brothy soup) and her dexterity with the chopsticks.
It couldn't be that very place, right? There had to be another Cambodge somewhere else.
I managed to center the map.

My heart fell. It was their hangout. Their quartier. Their blessed little corner of Paris.
On the map, I could see rue Bichat, a street that we know well for having walked the length of it many times. One I remember fondly for the kindly face and bright smile of the Arab grocer from whom we used to buy fruit in the evening on our way back to our rented apartment.
On the map, I could see Théâtre Laurette where we have seen several plays over the years. Including one in which another friend's youngest daughter once made her stage debut. The theater is minuscule, so tiny you almost walk straight from the street onto the stage and the actors hang out in front while waiting for the doors to open.
On the map, I could see the canal. Gorgeous but at times very dirty (at night, after a few drinks too many, some find it entertaining to upend garbage cans into its dark and silent water).
An urban village. Shabby chic, as they will later say in the news.
On that bright California afternoon, the sun suddenly went from the sky.
I remembered another Friday, thirty-five months ago almost to the day.
I had to make sure our friends were safe. I knew they had been out for the evening. I also knew they would be walking home from the métro. I tried calling: land line, cell phones. Nobody picked up. I left voice mails. I texted. No reply. More than an hour passed. I couldn't stop shaking.
I heard from them the minute they got home later that evening. They had been confined behind police barriers, then stuck in the métro with no signal on their cell phones. Their only thought had been to get the six-year old safely back home.
Some families are still waiting to hear, the lack of news both a blessing (there is still hope) and a torture (wouldn't they have heard if s/he was still alive?). With love and longing, I look at the faces of the victims. They look like all of us. They are all of us. In our wonderful diversity.
A couple of days before the attacks, I met two women who lost their sister in a mass shooting three years ago. Like ours, their grief hasn't abated. Like us, they still can't bring themselves to believe their loss is for real and forever.
Last Friday so many new families have joined our fellowship of despair.
And yes, I write about the Paris attacks because Paris is and will forever remain my hometown. When I open my mouth to speak, my voice is the voice of the city, the accent of home. Both in French and in English. On the night of the attacks, I fell asleep listening to a France-Inter podcast, a literary one, unrelated to terrorism. I couldn't tell you what it was about to save my life. I just listened to the accent. As soothing as a lullaby, it took me back home.
I woke up in the middle of the night, my heart too heavy for my chest. The memory of what had just happened came back in a flash. I tried to fall back to sleep but my thoughts wouldn't let me. I put my earbuds back on. But this time it was painful. As if I were listening to the waning echoes of an age of innocence. I switched to a mainstream American podcast. The voice of home too.
And don't think that because I only write about what happened in Paris, I have no feeling for the victims in Beirut, Baghdad, Kunduz or elsewhere. Whatever the weapon of choice, each and every attack on civilians is a monstrosity and a crime against humanity. A few months after we lost Noah, I remember reading about an entire family wiped out in the Middle East, an entire family save one member. I don't recall whether it was the mom or the dad who survived. The loss was so horrifying I blocked out the details. But I remember thinking: how does one survive with such pain?
Looking at the faces of the victims, I remember commuting to work through Grand Central Terminal in post-9/11 New York City. Flyers everywhere. People searching for loved ones. I remember being awed by the courage and dignity of my fellow New Yorkers.
Now it is the turn of my people in Paris. Please watch this conversation between a father and his little boy.

Andrew Ross: The Skinny on Gluten (Grain Gathering 2015)

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 01:02:00 +0000

Picture of a gluten window taken in 2013 during Didier Rosada's All about Ciabatta class

I am probably the least science-minded person you and I have ever met. Which is kind of silly if you think about it because my own mother had been studying for her doctorate in organic chemistry when she met my father and even though in the end she chose to be a stay-at-home mom, she always kept a warm spot in her heart for the sciences. Not me. Never a fan. Sorry, Mom!
So you won't be surprised to read that I felt a bit nervous reporting on Professor Andrew Ross's lecture on gluten at the Grain Gathering 2015. I listened to his talk. I dutifully looked at the slides. I took notes.
But I wasn't comfortable with what I had jotted down. Not comfortable enough to make a blog post out of it. So I wrote to Andrew Ross, a cereal scientist at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon (as well as a passionate and accomplished baker) and asked him if he would agree to share his talking points. He very kindly forwarded me the text of his whole talk. All direct quotations from his text are in green and between quotation marks. The rest comes from my notes (I am keeping my fingers crossed!).

Gluten has unique functional properties: it traps gas. That's why when bread is baked, you don't get a solid brick. How come?

"Gluten is a group of proteins found in the endosperm (floury interior part) of wheat grains. Gluten-like proteins are also found in barely and rye." Wheat includes all types: common hard- grained bread wheats, common soft-grained wheats, einkorn, emmer, spelt, and khorasan (kamut™) among others.
"The gluten-forming proteins of wheat are made up of two types: gliadins and glutenins."
"After the addition of water and mechanical energy to wheat flour to form a dough these proteins combine to form functional gluten. Functional gluten is what gives wheat flour doughs their unique gas holding and viscoelastic properties that lead to leavened breads. Gliadins contribute the flow and glutenins the elastic characteristic of wheat-flour dough."
Gliadin contains amino-acid sequences that are particularly toxic to celiacs.

What are the potential problems related to wheat?

Celiac disease (an autoimmune disease): definite
Specific wheat allergies: definite
Non-celiac wheat sensitivity: fairly certain
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS): under challenge

"Although a fairly large segment of the population appears to be avoiding, reducing, or wanting to avoid gluten, even the most ardent science-based advocates of the reality of non-celiac gluten sensitivity estimate its prevalence at 0.63 to 6% of the population."

"Questions arise as to why there has been a documented increase in celiac disease in the last say 50 years, still estimated at about 1% of the population. Some blame has been laid at perceived changes in wheat grain composition independent of changes in other factors in the environment of the western world in the same time period."

Are we eating more gluten?

Not really. "US wheat consumption per head was maximum in the years around 1870 to 1900 at around 225 lbs per person per year."

For more info see Consumer Preferences Change Wheat Flour Use

Has gluten concentration increased?
I look at my notes. They read "Nonsense" underlined three times!

In this 2012 article, Sapone et al write: "“One possible explanation is that the selection of wheat varieties with higher gluten content has been a continuous process during the last 10,000 years, with changes dictated more by technological rather than nutritional reasons.” According to Andrew Ross, "this piece of speculation" can be challenged by data showing that it is simply not true: Research does not "support the likelihood that wheat breeding has increased the protein content (proportional to gluten content) of wheat in the United States." (Donald Kansarda, Can an Increase in Celiac Disease Be Attributed to an Increase in the Gluten Content of Wheat as a Consequence of Wheat Breeding?, J Agric Food Chem. 2013 Feb 13; 61(6): 1155–1159.) For more info, read Kansarda's whole article.
Also, ancient hulled wheats often had a high protein content.

Is it possible that, as a population, we haven't had enough time to adapt to gluten?

It is often asserted that, as a species, we haven't had a chance to adapt to wheat because it has only be introduced in the human diet 10,000 years ago.
But then, what to make of milk? "Caucasian humans have adapted to life-long dairy consumption within about the last 7500 years."
For more info, see Archaeology: The milk revolution, by Andrew Currie
Also, cereal grains have been part of our diet for an estimated 23,000 years (wild wheat and barley), and 105,000 years (sorghum).
For more info, read Six Thousand Years of Bread: Its Holy and Unholy History by H.E. Jacob.

So how did we get to Wheat Belly?

"In Wheat Belly, Davis states “[wheat is] an 18-inch tall plant created by genetic research in the '60s and '70s, this thing has many new features nobody told you about, such as there's a new protein in this thing called gliadin. It's not gluten”. This statement is so categorically wrong that it does not dignify a response. However, it has swayed many people."
"Others have insisted that the “problems with wheat” stem from the introduction of the short stature wheats in the 1960s." It is true that wheat breeders have thought more about functionality than nutrition for the last 30 years. But coincidence isn't causation as you can easily verify yourself if you google "spurious correlations." Do it, it is hilarious! I just did and discovered for instance that "divorce rate in Florida correlates with per capita consumption of 1% and skim milk (US)". Ha!
Short stature wheats are not new. They have been around for years in Asia and Australia. And kernel composition and straw height are not associated with each other.

If there is a problem with non-celiac wheat sensitivity, is it even gluten?

That question is still open to debate. Some researchers think that wheat sensitivity is caused by wheat components other than gluten. Others insist it is gluten. But even the latter say that added together celiac disease, true wheat allergies, and non-celiac wheat (or gluten) affect about 10% of the general population.  "That leaves 90% of us who might benefit greatly from the consumption of well-fermented mostly whole-wheat products."
Non-celiac wheat sensitivity is a more appropriate label than gluten sensitivity.

Are there wheats that function well for bakers and are less likely to trigger celiac disease in susceptible individuals?

Einkorn and emmer have a much lower reactivity to celiac disease.
New varieties could be developed with the quality traits we desire but with a lower potential to trigger celiac disease in susceptible people.
Strongly recommended reading (open-source download): Kucek, L. K., Veenstra, L. D., Amnuaycheewa, P., & Sorrells, M. E. (2015). A Grounded Guide to Gluten: How Modern Genotypes and Processing Impact Wheat Sensitivity. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 14(3), 285-302.

Kucek (in above article) proposes that long fermentations are beneficial. "However," Andrew Ross says, "I am personally skeptical that the advent of fast-fermented machine-made bread is the culprit leading to the increase in celiac disease. Other factors may be at play. Allergies and many auto-immune diseases not all related to wheat also appear to be increasing. The so-called 'hygiene hypothesis' suggests other factors are primary in the relative increase in auto-immune disorders in the western world."

Fructans -which are present in wheat- are part of the fiber composition. For most of us, increased fiber is a good thing, but not for people with low tolerance to fermentation in their gut. Why do people with NCGS report feeling better when eating long-fermented bread?
Lack of exercise
Changes in infant feeding practices
Processing techniques
Hygiene (too much of it)
Light pollution/sleep deprivation
Nitrogen content of soil (best driver of protein content in wheat)

In answer to a question, Andrew Ross explains that, as a baker, he too favors long fermentations: he preferments 15% of his flour in the starter for 12 to 16 hours, adds the other 85% of the flour, mixes the dough and lets it proof for 3.5 hours, then divides and shapes and let it proof again for 1 to 2 hours. And to conclude he adds: "Despite my interpretation of the literature that modern wheats are perfectly safe for the grand majority of the population, it may a defendable hypothesis that older heritage varieties do have advantages over more recent high yielding wheats in terms of mineral nutrition and aspects of flavor and aroma. That is a whole other argument."

My most heartfelt thanks to Professor Ross for sharing his talking points. I have only included a few of his sources but I will gladly email the others to whomever requests them. Most of them are very technical and not necessarily available outside research libraries.

A picture of gluten strands kindly contributed by my facebook friend Yohan Ferranta talented baker and baking consultant who lives and works in Spain.

This is actually a picture of his levain. Thank you, Yohan!

The rope bridge

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 17:13:00 +0000

Have you ever seen the humongous Ikea poster representing an empty rope bridge over what appears to be a mist-shrouded river? The first time I saw it, I thought it was beautiful. But it soon became so ubiquitous that I now find it too much "in your face" and in fact rather annoying. (The only rope bridge I ever saw and walked a bit myself is the one pictured above during a visit to British Columbia back when we lived in the Northwest.)
Well, yesterday I attended a CASA meeting during which, unexpectedly, the moderator used a lovely little Tibetan bell to call us all to a few minutes of meditation. We were asked to let go of all thoughts, to note and dismiss those which still came up, to pay attention to the muffled sounds of traffic, the creaking of wood floors, the whoosh of water in the pipes, then to let go and mostly focus on our breathing.
The minute I started focusing on my breath, coming in, going out, I felt the sway of the Ikea rope bridge. It had stretched almost to infinity and I couldn't see the end.
Gone were the river and the tree. Gone as well was the mist.
The rope bridge swayed over a bright landscape of stones and sand. The sky was at its most luminous over the horizon where the ropes narrowed to very thin parallel lines and I knew with absolute certainty that Noah and other people I love were on the other side. Not necessarily waiting. But connected. By the rope bridge. By my breathing. By our collective breathing.
I tried to let go of the idea but I couldn't.
I thought of Noah, of breathing. Of how a wretched boy had taken it upon himself to put a stop to the breathing of twenty-six persons who had been very much alive on the morning of December 14, 2012. I felt I was breathing for them. For all the Americans who stop breathing everyday because of gun violence.
I tried to let go of the idea but I couldn't.
The rope bridge kept swaying.
Last week a presidential candidate reportedly said: ""There is no doubt that this senseless violence is breathtaking, but I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away."
Yes, this senseless violence is breathtaking. Literally.
Heartbreaking too. Literally.
I know the candidate has children, I don't know whether or not he has grandkids. If he has, I doubt any of them has been murdered. If it were the case, the media would likely have taken up the story and I strongly doubt that he would have found it in his broken heart to say what he said.
Thankfully most of us don't need to see a once exuberant child forever stilled to feel sorrow and compassion. Most of us have enough imagination to figure out the horror of it.
Whatever our political views, most of us have enough kindness in our hearts to accept the idea that something needs to be done to try and prevent as many senseless deaths as humanly possible.
But guns have become so prevalent that unless the United States as a whole decides to follow Australia's example, gun control may remain an elusive goal for a long time to come. We also know that "fewer than 5 percent of gun crimes are committed by people with mental illness." So what can be done?

Could we agree that reporting what we hear and see could be a start? That prevention could the beginning of an answer? An answer that both proponents and opponents of gun control might accept as middle ground?

Sit comfortably, hold your head straight and close your eyes. Focus on your breathing. Can you feel the sway of the rope bridge? Now let one thought come your way: would you rather have your child or grandchild on the other side or breathing alongside with you?

Don't dismiss the thought. Let it swell and ebb as you breathe. Let it take hold of you. You can be an agent of change. You can try and change other people's minds and hearts. You can register to vote, show up at the booth and cast your ballot.

And meanwhile if you see or hear something, please say something, hopeful that some stranger may one day do the same for your kid or grandkid.

The silver bell rang again. I stopped focusing on my breathing. I opened my eyes. The rope bridge was no longer swaying. But I have seen it and I know it is here and I am walking it. We all do.

Hazelnut cookies

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 00:26:00 +0000

You know how sometimes you set out to make whipped cream and you go for it with such enthusiasm that you get butter? Well, the same thing just happened to me with hazelnuts.
I wanted to make Chocolate and Zucchini's excellent cauliflower soup with hazelnuts and turmeric which I have made several times in the past. It is the perfect soup for a fall evening. Fragrant, exotic and yet low-key: spices, chicken stock, one onion, a humble cauliflower and a handful of hazelnuts.
When we were kids, hazelnuts abounded in my grandparents's yard in Normandy and in memory of the halcyon days of childhood, I bring back a bag each time I travel to the Northwest. Why, when I lived there, I sometimes even treated myself to hazelnut meal. Which is probably why I have lost my grinding touch.
Anyway I was trying to grind some Northwest hazelnuts into a fine powder as per Clotilde's instructions when, pff! they turned to butter. And chunky butter at that. Not good for my soup!
I tried another batch and this time I got an approximation of what I was looking for. I didn't dare grind the hazelnuts as fine as I would have liked. Still, the soup worked out. But I was left with hazelnut butter.
Too fancy for a weekday breakfast. Instead I made cookies for my one and only, using some of the soft winter wheat flour I buy at my local farmers' market whenever it is available. Butter by mistake, cookies by design! It could have been worse.

Ingredients: (for 18 cookies)

85 g chunky hazelnut butter (any other chunky nut butter would probably do)
80 g Jammu soft winter wheat flour (from Coke Farm in San Juan Bautista). I asked the farmer's dad whom I see at the market every week what Jammu refers to and he said it was the place in India the wheat variety originates from. Any whole-wheat pastry flour would work though
40 g honey
6 g hazelnut oil (optional, I think)
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

Method:

Put everything into a bowl
Mix with electric mixer until combined
Roll into a roll
Refrigerate until firm
Slice and bake in 310°F convection oven for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Grain Gathering 2015: Josey Baker and Jonathan Bethany on whole-grain artisan bread for the home baker

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 21:50:00 +0000

Bread made with 100% Sonora wheat grown within two hours from San Francisco

Unlike many of the classes and demos at the Grain Gathering, the whole-grain for the home baker workshop took place in the lobby kitchen of WSU Extension, a place well-suited for a demo but hardly the perfect stage for a dance. Yet a choreographed performance is what Josey and Jonathan opened with, arguing that were no better introduction to the five golden principles of whole-grain baking than the W.W.W. S. B. pas de deux. Keep in mind the dancing bakers when you bake at home and you'll get a loaf that tastes good, looks beautiful, nourishes the body and consists of sustainable ingredients :

Whole grain
Wild yeast
Wet dough
Slow fermentation
Bold bake

According to the two Js, baking is a subtle thing; the more you do it, the more fulfilling and interesting it becomes. "Even when we practice a lot, it is hard to get exactly the loaf we dream of but it isn't hard to make a very good loaf of bread."

Josey Baker started baking in his San Francisco Mission apartment about five years ago when a friend gave him a sourdough starter. Two and a half years later, he opened his own bakery, The Mill. Today he works with a team of ten people and bakes about 350 loaves a day. He is also the author of Josey Baker Bread: Get Baking - Make Awesome Bread - Share the Loaves, a book for novice bakers. Cool writing (surfer dude style), great recipes and lots of useful tips. A great learning tool!
Jonathan Bethony is the resident baker at the Bread Lab in Mt Vernon, Washington. He too started as a home baker. He later attended the Professional Training Program at the San Francisco Baking Institute. After graduating he baked with local and legendary bakers in the Bay Area and was introduced by Craig Ponsford to the latest and greatest trends in whole-grain milling and baking. Today he is at the forefront of research and testing and continues to bake with the stars. What a job!

Note: Josey kindly gave me permission to quote directly from his blog for more details about the W.W.W. S. B. principles. What isn't in green and between quotation marks comes from my notes. Thank you, Josey!

Whole grain
"i’m definitely not tied to all breads being all whole grain (there’s a different bread for every occasion, and many of our breads are 50% whole grain), but the more bread i make, the more bread that i eat, the more i am drawn to breads that are mostly whole grain. i find these breads both more interesting to make, and more interesting to eat. we’ve been working with a bunch of different grains lately (einkorn, rye, spelt, khorasan, corn, oats, buckwheat, a bunch of different wheats such as Sonora, Cabernet, Cristalo, Bolero, Merica, etc) and i’ve been elated by how much i’ve grown as a baker, and all of the flavors, textures and aromas we’re getting. and we’re just scratching the surface. we’ve got a stone mill in the bakery so that we can control the granulation and then use the flour immediately in whatever fashion we dream up – mixing it directly into dough, or soaking it overnight, or toasting it and mixing with boiling water, or cooking it into a porridge… new possibilities present themselves everyday."

Camas Country Mill whole wheat flour

Milling is a subtle process which Josey learned from Dave Miller. Whole-grain flour has the potential for more flavor and aroma. At the bakery, he has baked loaves with flours milled at different dates: all flours performed almost exactly the same but the aromas were much stronger with the freshly milled flours (they drop after two days). He buys Sonora grain at $1.20 lb. Buying the flour would be more affordable. But the quality wouldn't be the same.

Wild yeast
"a sourdough starter is a magical little beast. it’s a combination of flour and water, along with wild yeast and bacteria that are naturally found on flour and in the environment. starters can be tricky to work with, as you need to constantly monitor their development and characteristics in order to make the bread you’re after. in order to keep your sourdough starter alive, you have to “feed” it regularly with flour and water, and by doing this you can coax the wild yeast and bacteria into the proportions that are good for bread baking. most bread is made with yeast that’s made in a factory, and this yeast is created in order to make bread rise quickly and dependably. but it wasn’t always this way – the first breads ever were most definitely “sourdough” – made with a mixture of flour and water that was allowed to ferment by the power of the wild yeast that was lucky enough to find its way into the mixture. the best breads that i’ve ever had have been made using a sourdough culture. if used properly, a sourdough culture yields bread that tastes better, lasts longer, and is healthier for you."
A sourdough starter is very easy to keep alive: leave behind a spoonful, mix in half-a-cup of water, half-a-cup of flour and leave it alone. The starter Josey and Joanathan are using for the demo has sat at room temperature for 16 hours. It has a strong funky aroma.

Levain

A levain is a sourdough preferment.
Josey's levain is at 100% hydration.
Take ripe starter, mix in mix in half-a-cup of water and half-a-cup of flour and leave it sit for 8 to 12 hours. It will show visible signs of activity but it will be very young.
When taking the starter straight out of the fridge, it is safer to do two feedings.
If you keep your starter out on the counter, feed it everyday.

Final dough

Take some of the levain (size of a big orange), fold in some water at 75 or 80°F to break it up, add whole wheat flour and salt
Percentage of levain in final dough: for most whole-wheat doughs, between 8 and 10% by flour weight is good. For rye breads, 30 to 40% levain is what works best (the dough needs to be way more prefermented because you need much more acidity in rye doughs).
If you want to cut down on bulk fermentation, adding more preferment is the way to go. That's where a skilled baker can make bread work into his or her schedule.
You can do an autolyse (they always do at the bakery). It helps minimize oxidation by reducing dough manipulation. To do an autolyse, mix flour and water. No salt. Reserve some of the water. Let sit a while. The autolyse can be done overnight. (Beginning home bakers can skip this step if they find it confusing).
Twenty minutes after mixing by hand, dip your hands in water and stretch and fold inside the bowl. Rotate the bowl and do it again. Make sure you go all around. Repeat twice at 20-minute intervals.
At this stage you can also stick the dough in the fridge overnight.

Wet dough

"it’s a lot easier to end up with moist bread if you start out with moist dough. why don’t more people put more water in their bread doughs? because it makes for a dough that is very sticky and tricky to handle, and well, that’s a pain in the ass now isn’t it? this is especially true if machines are dividing the dough, or shaping it into loaves. only the sensitive human hand can handle dough like this, and even then, it takes hundreds, thousands of loaves to get the hang of shaping “high hydration” dough consistently. most breads out there have 60-70g of water for every 100g of flour. our breads have between 75-125g of water for every 100g of flour, and this totally depends on the particular flour of a given bread. we aim for a dough that is fully hydrated and yields a bread that has a moist and supple crumb."
Fully hydrating the flour is the goal: not using much water makes the dough easier to handle but it doesn't make for good bread. You have to try and find for yourself how much water to use. At the bakery, they hydrate the Sonora flour at 110%. They started off hydrating the einkorn at 85% but it was too much. They now hydrate it at 75%. Hydration varies for every gain. Trial and error is key!

A wet dough is going to be tricky and sticky, difficult to work with. A very wet dough wants to spread out. Sometimes it needs the support of a pan.
If using heavily chlorinated water, let the water sit a bit before mixing so that the chlorine has a chance to evaporate.

Slow fermentation

"good things take time, didn’t your gramma teach you that? the flavors and textures of a long-fermented loaf are just flat out better than those of a short-fermented one. the life cycle for most of our breads goes something like this: our sourdough culture hangs out for 20-24 hours before being mixed into dough, our dough relaxes for 3-4 hours before being shaped into loaves, our loaves chill out for 14-18 hours before being baked into bread. so our bread dough has matured over a couple of days before it’s baked into bread, which gives the yeast and bacteria of our sourdough culture time to perform their magic: producing the perfect mix of acid, alcohol and gas to make good bread."
With rye bread you can go faster (there is more preferment in the dough). All other breads at the ferment for a total of 36 to 48 hours (most of that time in the fridge): at the bakery, they don't use a starter but old dough kept in the fridge for 24 hours.

With commercial yeast, it is even more important to slow down the fermentation: use a tiny pinch of yeast and let the dough sit at room temperature
Rye flour has a higher enzymatic activity: if you add 5 to 10% of rye to your dough, it speeds up things.

Bold bake

"when a loaf goes into the oven it is the moment of truth – did we make the right decisions over the last 48 hours? and so begins the waiting game for that loaf to complete its transformation. you can’t rush this phase of the process, just like every other one. we bake our breads anywhere from 30-120 minutes, depending on the size and type. regardless, we bake each loaf till it’s crust is dark and substantial and its insides are fully cooked. folks occasionally point out that we burnt our bread. while i admit that our loaves are significantly darker than those from most bakeries, i also stand by the flavors and textures created by the bold bake, and encourage critics to employ their taste buds."

It is best for the home baker to bake in a Dutch oven
Pre-heat the Dutch oven at 475°F for 45 minutes
Slash the loaf
Bake for 20 min with the lid on. If you leave the lid on for too long, you won't get the same color and crust and the crust might be leathery.
Bake uncovered for another 25 minutes. Check the bread and if not dark enough, give it another few minutes.
The best spot in the oven is usually the middle.

Further tips for the home baker:

Shaping

Go nice and gentle on the shaping (go for air-shaping if there is no space to work).
Let the bulk-fermented dough sit 20 to 30 minutes at room temperature. If cold, let it rest one hour.
Lightly flour the top of the dough so that it isn't sticky and dust the bench (at the bakery, Josey uses only water on the bench because the dough is a really nice mixture of flour and water and all that flour has fermented and he doesn't want unfermented flour in his dough.)
Flip the dough upside down. Gently grab the side nearest to you, lift the dough off the table. You are not pulling, just lengthening. Put it back on the table and fold the dough in your hands two-thirds of the way up the loaf. Grab the top, stretch it upward and fold it about two thirds down the loaf.
Rotate 90° and fold the dough down half-way, then fold it half-way again.
Seal with the heel of your hands.
Flour the basket. If the basket isn't lined, dredge the bread in rice flour.

Proofing

At this point, you can stick the bread in the fridge after one hour and let it sit there for 6 hours, then bake it straight out of the fridge.
If you don't need to use the fridge, let it rest about 3 hours at room temperature.

Slashing

If the dough is over-hydrated or over-fermented, then slashing is challenging. It feels violent. You have to commit to it. If not, you are not going to get the loaf's full potential.

That's it, readers! The two Js didn't give out any formula. They know that as long as we bake WHOLE, WILD, WET, SLOW and BOLD, we'll end up with good bread.

After 20 minutes

Stuff happens.

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Sat, 03 Oct 2015 19:50:00 +0000

Indeed it does. And when it happens to strangers that's all it is. Stuff. The papers are full of it everyday. In the words of Marcel Proust, "that abominable and sensual act called reading the newspaper, thanks to which all the misfortunes and cataclysms in the universe over the last twenty-four hours, the battles which cost the lives of fifty thousand men, the murders, the strikes, the bankruptcies, the fires, the poisonings, the suicides, the divorces, the cruel emotions of statesmen and actors, are transformed for us, who don't even care, into a morning treat, blending in wonderfully, in a particularly exciting and tonic way, with the recommended ingestion of a few sips of café au lait."
Because of the three-hour time difference between Connecticut and Washington State where we then lived, the morning Sandy Hook happened, I was precisely reading the paper and having coffee when my daughter called. It was still dark out but the lamp over the table cast a golden glow all around the kitchen. I don't remember anything of what I read. It was probably just stuff. Happening to strangers. Murders, fights, plane crashes, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, hurricanes. Who knows? Regular stuff. Sad but part of life. For other people. Not me.
My daughter was so distraught that I had trouble understanding what she was saying. Finally I got it that there was an active shooter at the elementary school where her three younger kids, my grandkids, were in attendance and that she was rushing back from work to get there. Shock set in.
She said she would call back as soon as she could. I rushed to wake up my husband and went to the computer for live updates. I found still pictures of the school with police cars parked outside. Later I saw a video of kids being evacuated. I thought I saw the twins. I worried about Sophia. The news from my daughter were more and more anguished. The girls had come out but not Noah. It took a long time before they knew for sure. The most horrible hours of their lives. And ours.
Just stuff.
I know we can't be distraught about everything that happens in the world. There has to be a buffer between us and the tragedies the papers are full of and the truth is there are some things we can do nothing about.

But there are some things each of us can do.

We can elect people who get it. People with common sense and a conscience. We can establish a list of priorities and make sure we vote for people who share them. In terms of the availability of high-velocity arms, I find it hard to believe that the founding fathers were for unregulated access to 21st-century weapons of war. Adam Gopnik makes the case that the Second Amendment is in fact a gun-control amendment. Read the article to the end. The last sentence is a call to action.
But it might not be enough. According to How they got their guns, an article in today's New York Times, "criminal histories and documented mental health problems did not prevent at least eight of the gunmen in 14 recent mass shootings from obtaining their weapons, after federal background checks led to approval of the purchases of the guns used."
Another thing we can do then is act preventively by working towards putting in place a reporting system so that each and everyone of us knows whom to call if we hear or read threatening statements or comments. It might not always be enough and it would need to be thoughtfully put together to filter out pranks and baseless denunciations. But it would be a start.
And in many cases you don't need a sophisticated system to report your concerns: if you hear something or read something, say something. In my State, just a couple of days ago, four high school students were arrested suspected of plotting killings. "The plot was foiled on Wednesday when a group of students alerted a teacher after they overheard three of the four discussing a plan to open fire on the school." The teacher notified the police who sprang into action. We will never know the names of those who have been saved but they now have a chance to grow up. That is the one and only goal.

And as the grandmother of a shooting victim, a start is all I am asking for. The start of a conversation. In each and every neighborhood, each and every county, each and every State and at the national level. Yes, stuff happens. People lose it. But if you lose it and go on a rampage and all you have at your disposal is a bicycle chain, a baseball bat or a knife or even a .22 rifle you cannot kill dozens of people in a couple of minutes.
Some countries have taken drastic measures after carnages such as the ones in Aurora, in Sandy Hook, in Charleston or two days ago at Umpqua College (and many other places I can't possibly list here.) It is hard to believe that our country, the United States, the land of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, finds itself paralyzed and unable to devise ways to better protect its citizens.
I believe that most people are good. I also believe that some are terribly misguided and some are hopeless sociopaths. We can't protect our kids and ourselves against everyone and everything. But if we get together in good faith, linked across the political spectrum by the strong desire to do better than we have done so far, we may make our country a safer place to live.
Stuff happens. Until it happens to someone you love, it remains stuff. Next year we'll be electing our new president. Republican or Democrat, he or she will the president of all of us. I'd like to think that stuff will sometimes keep our president awake at night, tossing and turning and thinking hard about better ways to save us from ourselves.

What will it take for us to actually care?

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 15:09:00 +0000

That's the central question. Maybe the only one. And maybe the answer is that nothing ever will. If the massacre of twenty little kids and six educators going peacefully about their school day in a quaint New England village wasn't enough, what hope can we reasonably hold that anybody's freedom to survive will one day be more important to us than unfettered access to lethal weapons, important enough that we actually stand up and do something about it?
Today we are in mourning not only for the innocent victims of yesterday's Oregon shooting but for their families and friends. Their world has catapulted into darkness. With time, light may shine again but it will never be the same. A black hole will remain. A pulsating void, expanding and shrinking over and over, but ever present, casting its shadow over every day of their lives.
People ask me how many grandchildren I have and I always want to say "nine." Because Noah is still my grandchild and I still can't accept that he is gone. But I never answer "nine" because if questions are asked (where do they all live? how old are they?), then I have to explain and I can't always. What happened to Noah, to us, can never be the subject of small talk.
So I say "eight" but it feels both like a lie and a betrayal. I don't want to constantly talk about our loss, or rather it is the only thing I really want to talk about but I can't. So I don't. I say "eight" and each time I do, I feel that Noah recedes a little further. Pain is a constant.
Yesterday ten families woke up whole as we did on the morning of December 14, 2012. By night time they had been brutally amputated as we were. I know first-hand how they feel. Why is it that President Obama gets it and Congress doesn't? What will it take for our elected officials to feel enough of our pain to actually take measures to minimize the possibility of such massacres?
Is compassion a word we no longer understand? A word we no longer teach our kids?

A friend just share this on Facebook: Five things you can do about gun violence. Please read and share. Thank you.

Dave Miller's formulas for einkorn, Renan & Sonora breads (Grain Gathering 2015)

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 22:51:00 +0000

Related posts:

The Grain Gathering 2015
The Grain Gathering 2015: Dave Miller on milling and baking

After the Grain Gathering, Dave Miller very kindly sent me the formulas he used in class. Please remember that he dries his levain from one bake to the next (see Meet the Baker: Dave Miller).

Process for levain (for all three breads)

First feeding

Sieve out dried sourdough bits
Add water to soften, create a mush, let sit 1 hour
Add back sifted-out flour, should make stiff ball (DDT: 78°F)
Ferment for 10 to 12 hours

Second feeding

Ferment for 4 hours (DDT still 78°F)

Third feeding

Ferment for 3 hours (DDT still 78°F)

My heartfelt thanks to Jacqueline Colussi for her help with inputting the formulas into BreadStorm.

Einkorn Bread

MC-Dave Miller's Einkorn Bread (Grain Gathering 2015) Renan Bread

MC-Dave Miller's Renan Bread (Grain Gathering 2015) Sonora Bread

MC-Dave Miller's Sonora Bread

Grain Gathering 2015: Dave Miller on milling and baking (revised)

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 23:53:00 +0000

Related posts:

The Grain Gathering 2015
Dave Miller's class formulas and levain-building process (coming soon)

Note: Revised on September 30, 2015 based on suggestions by Dave Miller.

Dave Miller of Miller's Bake House in Oroville, California, needs no introduction. A marvelous baker and dedicated miller, he has become a living legend in the world of bread. So I knew his workshop would be excellent (and mobbed) but I also knew that since he was planning to cover all the stages of whole-grain breadmaking starting with milling your own flours, I would only attend the first afternoon if I didn't want to skip pretty much everything else at the Grain Gathering.
Fortunately my friend Laurie Knuever of Ratio Coffee & Pastry in Vernon, British Columbia, herself a passionate and talented baker, did stay for the duration and took loads of notes and videos. She generously agreed to share them with Farine. Thank you, Laurie! What wonderful reference tools for those of us who couldn't be there.

Milling
Dave Miller has been milling for 30 years (and milling his own flour for 28 years). While he once owned and ran a very big bakery, he now bakes once a week for the Chico farmers' market.
For the purposes of this class, he baked with three different varieties of wheat:

Einkorn: Dave loves the flavor, his customers are crazy about it and it performs very well
Sonora: It has a beautiful creamy color and usually a very good flavor (although not this year)
Renan: A French variety grown in Mount Vernon, Washington

Considerations

Different types of stones yield different qualities of flours. The larger the stone the easier it is to get the type of granulation you want. A 40" stone is pretty much ideal. Heat is a major concern and the coolness of the big stone takes away some of the friction heat.
Granite is often chosen for millstones because it wears unevenly and stays rough for a longer period of time. However today composites are often preferred. They are popular with bakers because they self-sharpen (the natural stones don't).
Another variable to take into consideration is the amount of grain fed at a time: the smaller the amount, the finer the flour. Softer wheat offer less resistance. Spelt and rye can be fed faster than wheat. Kamut has to be fed the slowest.
The space between the stones is also an issue. You don't want to make it too tight or the flour will start tasting like ground stone. The two stones need to be very close but they can't touch. An adjustment may be needed every year but that isn't always the case.
Dave dresses his own stones once a year but then he runs his mill seven hours a week, which isn't much. "Dressing a stone" means roughing up its surface. If your stones have become too smooth and you try to remedy the problem by bringing them closer to each other, you create more heat which leads to a loss of performance and nutrition. Also you don't want circular grooves in your stone (and they will happen if the stones don't get dressed regularly).
Dave dresses his stones by feel (working where the smooth spots are).
When milling, Dave doesn't go by temperature but by smell: if your wheat flour isn't aromatic right out of the mill, then the aromas won't be in the bread either. The temperature of Dave's flour is never more than warm.

Four basic qualities of flour:

Light, fluffy and very fine. It offers no resistance when you put your hand in it. It is also very aromatic.
Finely ground endosperm with large bran specks. It happens when milling softer wheat. Some millers will temper their wheat to get the speck. It is especially advantageous if you are bolting (good separation). Still fluffy.
Sandy, kind of gritty. That is Dave's least favorite. It affects the functionality of the wheat. There is no good separation between the endosperm and the germ and much less bonding with gluten. Not contributing to the dough (the loaf will be denser)
Overheated: which is what you get when you put more pressure on the stones in the hope of getting a finer grain. Loss of aroma and less nourishment. The biggest culprit is trying to feed too much wheat at a time. Ideally you want each berry to have as much contact with the stone as possible (which can't happen when the grain berries are all crushed together). Overheated flour behaves like a weaker flour.

Should you age your flour?

No, with whole-grain flours aging doesn't bring about an increase in performance. The quality is good right off the mill.

Cleaning the millstone

If your stone gets encrusted with flour (picture below), you need to scrape it off.

Dave cleaning up a flour-encrusted stone

That's it, readers. This is the extent of my notes and pictures for the class. For the rest of the post, I am relying on Laurie Knuever's videos and notes. Again, thank you, Laurie, you saved the day!

Laurie Knuever's videos
Please note that these very informative videos are unedited. Watching them is pretty much like attending the workshop. Which is awesome.

Dave Miller: Dressing the milling stone (8:55 min)
Dave Miller: More dressing of the stone (27 sec)
Dave Miller: Even more dressing of the stone (3:00 min)
Dave Miller: Milling of flour (7:20 min)
Dave Miller: Grain being fed into mill (13 sec)
Dave Miller: Discussing einkorn (1:32 min)
Dave Miller: feeding the levain for whole-wheat bread (5:45 min)
Dave Miller: Mixing the Renan dough (22 sec)
Dave Miller: Mixing of whole-wheat dough - part 1 (15 min)
Dave Miller: Mixing of whole-wheat dough - part 2 (4:11 min)
Dave Miller: Mixing of whole-wheat dough - part 3 (5:07 min)
Dave Miller: Mixing of the Sonora whole-wheat dough (7:05 min)
Dave Miller: Shaping very wet doughs (4:36 min) (problem with the orientation of the camera but excellent otherwise)
Dave Miller: Shaping with water on the table (1:02 min)
Dave Miller: More shaping (0:52 min)
Dave Miller: Stitching technique (1:14 min)
Dave Miller: Handling of the dough while shaping (6:13 min)
Dave Miller: Scoring and baking (1:31 min)

Laurie Knuever's notes
Note: the text of Laurie's notes has been slightly adapted for the purpose of this post.

Pre-shaping wet doughs

Use your bench scraper to make a ball at a steeper angle.

Shaping wet doughs

Use just as much flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the surface of the table or use water on the bench if putting the dough into a sprayed pan.
Build a little tension by doing a 4-fold – top to bottom, bottom to top, and side to side and other side to side. Smooth side goes down on the table.
For shaping an oblong, Dave does the four folds and makes a fairly rectangular shape. Top goes down to one third, then he dusts his thumbs generously, and quickly brings the top down over by gently rolling it to the bottom of the dough.
Too gassy is if you handle the dough gently and the bubbles still break. You have to be very careful with whole grain doughs – always handle them gently. Do not use a lot of force. It’s no disaster if the dough is too gassy when you are shaping it but you will not get as much volume when it bakes.
Once the dough comes out of the retarder (15 hour bulk retard) at 47° F, it is divided right away, sits on boards for 3 hours. Then it is shaped and proved for 4 to 5 hours before being loaded into the oven.
If all the steps had to be done at room temperature, the dough would be much more difficult to work with and the shaping method would have to be adjusted accordingly. Dave would back off the hydration in the formula and do more stretch and folds to help build strength.

Proofing

The right amount of tension is the secret. Not too much and not too little. You want it to hold its form while it has proofed, but by the time it goes into the oven, you want it to relax a bit so it can swell as it bakes. You want to dough to be relaxed just prior to baking to get the oven spring.
It takes five hours to proof approximately. Some people are getting great results with cold retarding and cold proofing prior to baking. It improves the crust.
You can overnight cold ferment and proof the loaves just prior to putting in the oven.

Challenges

Taking the dough temperature is really important.
Different doughs/wheats vary in how much activity they show during bulk ferment. Sonora is an example: when they first worked with it for the class, it was really soupy after first mixing it. But after it fermented, it was too tight. It also needs more bulk fermentation. The loaves will come out flat if you don’t do more bulk fermentation.
You need to learn to make judgement calls in the moment. There are no simple answers, because each day is different.
To prevent molding, don't leave used baskets stacked for too long. Unstack them as soon as possible. The couche cloth should be hung to dry.
Honey problems in dough: Some honey affects the quality of the rise of the dough. Some honeys can kill the yeast. Honey can also turn the crust liquid after baking which is called starch degradation.
The levain may change with variations in temperature or weather: It may be getting more acidic. Use taste and smell as tools to judge the readiness of the levain.
Soakers can cause problems, especially in the summer (enzymatic activity).

How to perk up a culture

Give successive feedings with shorter ferment times, catching it at a fairly young age to cut acidity.

How to strengthen dough without changing formulas

Keep accurate records of dough temperature, room temperature etc..
Mixing: changing the number of folds, changing the time of the mix.
More folds will help.
More levain will help.
Another pre-shape.
Bulk retard or retarding shaped loaves to give it strength.

What if you have too much strength in your dough?

Increase hydration. Sometimes aggressively mixing a dough made with high protein wheat can give better results - higher volume, more open crumb - if hydrated sufficiently.
Decreasing the percentage of levain can help.

Loading the bread into the oven

Score the loaves, pre-steam the oven, load the bread, steam again.

Grain Gathering 2015: five flatbreads by Jeffrey Hamelman

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 21:30:00 +0000

It is always a thrill to take a class with Jeffrey Hamelman, Director of King Arthur Bakery in Norwich, VT, and author of Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes but to watch him bake in a wood-fired oven in a beautiful orchard with a soft breeze swirling around fruit-laden appletrees takes the experience to a whole other level, especially when the first breads start sliding out, blistered and bubbly, and the air fills with the seductive fragrance of fire-burnished dough.

Flatbreads go way back: people were baking and eating them long before the first leavened bread came along. And of course they remain the dominant bread in many parts of the world. In my early years as a baker, I read with tremendous interest Jeffrey Alford's and Naomi Duguid's Flatbreads & Flavors: A Baker's Atlas. I travelled with it to many exotic destinations without ever leaving my kitchen. I even used it to prepare for a two-week camping trip by boat up and down the rivers, lakes and canals of southeastern Ontario where I knew we would be without access to real bread. I had decided to make Norwegian crispbreads as I was pretty sure they would travel well. The recipe called for whole-grain flours and there was none to be had on our side of the River. Determined to tackle the wilderness on whole-grain power, I had gone to Tara Natural Foods in Kingston, Ontario and stocked up. I remember driving back to our cabin, feeling virtuous. I made stacks of crispbreads and sealed them inside plastic containers. They were excellent and wholesome and I have the book to thank for saving us from the sponge-like sandwich bread to be found at mini-marts along the waterways. Plus there is something eminently festive about flatbreads, the way they pop out of the oven, ready to eat and share with a crowd.

True to the international spirit of flatbreads, Jeff had decided to take us on a little tour that morning. We baked:

A spinach-filled flatbread from Lebanon
Another savory flatbread, this time from Tunisia
Tarte flambée from the Alsace region of France
Socca, traditional chickpea flour crêpe from Southern France, also to be found in Liguria, Italy, under the name of farinata, and probably my personal all-time favorite
An anise-chocolate flatbread from Spain

All doughs for Jeff's class had been made the day before, so we didn't get to see any mixing.
For ease of reference, each flatbread will be posted in a separate post. I'll start with the Lebanese flatbread and work my way down the list. It may take a while to cover all of them but come they will!

Jeffrey Hamelman: flatbread with chocolate and anise liqueur (Grain Gathering 2015)

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 21:27:00 +0000

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I have eaten my share of anise flatbreads over the years (Moroccan bakers sell them at open-air markets in Paris) but I can't remember any as sinful as this one. With no anise seed in sight, the flavor comes from generous pre- and post-baking sprays of anise liqueur (Jeff actually used Pernod) and a melted dark chocolate filling. Make it at your own risk: by the time you have your second bite, you'll know you just got yourself a serious new addiction!
Jeff got the idea from a traditional Catalonian flatbread that Lot Roca Enrich from Harinera Roca baked for him at her family home when he visited last summer. Except that there was no chocolate in her version. Just anisette and caramelized sugar. I am pretty sure it was just as seductive though and I'd love to try it as well.

MC-Jeffrey Hamelman: Flatbread with chocolate and anise liqueur (Grain Gathering 2015)

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together to moderate gluten development. Alternatively, the dough can be mixed by hand (Desired dough temperature: 75°F)
Bulk ferment for 3 hours, with folds every hour. Give extra folds to hand mixed dough as necessary
Divide the dough into four 550g pieces
Round the dough pieces moderately and leave to relax fully
Stretch the dough into a long and narrow shape. If necessary, let it relax and then stretch again. The final length of the dough piece should be about 28"
Spritz half of the dough lightly with anise liqueur
Spread 45--50 grams of finely chopped chocolate over the spritzed surface and fold the remaining dough over this to cover the chocolate. Seal the dough well.
Relax the dough for 30--45 minutes
Brush olive oil on the surface of the dough. Sprinkle generously with white sugar
Bake with a soft live fire or after the rake-out of embers. Bake time is dependent upon the heat of the oven.
If the sugar has not caramelized, caramelize it with a propane torch
While still very hot, spritz the entire surface generously with anise liqueur.

Tips:

You can use Pernod (or any anisette liquor) or half-Pernod half-water (but Jeffrey says it won't be as good)
Chocolate has to be 62% cocoa and cut into very small pieces.

Jeffrey Hamelman: Tunisian savory flatbread with 100% high-extraction flour (Grain Gathering 2015)

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 19:02:00 +0000

Related posts:

In Jeff's own words, "this is a good basic flatbread formula. It is easy to make and quite versatile, supporting a great variety of fillings.
The 85%-extraction flour gives it more color and flavor than white flour. If you don't have access to high-extraction flour, you can either mix some whole-wheat flour with your white flour or sift whole-wheat flour to remove some of the bran and use that.

MC-Jeff Hamelman's Tunisian flatbread dough (Grain Gathering 2015)

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together to a smooth, well-kneaded ball
Place the dough into a bowl, cover with plastic and leave to rest at room temperature for at least 8 hours
Divide dough into 60 gram balls
Flatten with your palms, then use a rolling pin to roll the dough out into a flat thin disc
Lightly water the rim, and place any desired filling onto the lower half. Fold the top half over to seal
Bake in a very hot oven (at least 600°F) until the bottom shows brown spots (1 or 2 minutes)
Flip and bake for about 1 more minute
Cover with cloth to keep pliable. Slide the cloth into a plastic bag
The flatbreads can be baked ahead of time for later reheating
To reheat: cover in aluminum foil and bake for about 5 minutes

Tips:

You don't have to round those quite as tight as the Lebanese flatbread. Light-rounding (just a few seconds) works fine.
When the dough has relaxed, turn it into a nice little disc in your hands then use a rolling pin to make it a 6-inch circle (start with circle and stretch it to an oval, then turn in 90° and stretch into an oval again)
Brush or spray bottom half of the disc lightly with water (more isn't better!)
Fill and make sure you get a good seal. Make sure it is dry.
If baking in a home oven, bake at 500° F and flip the flatbreads.

The possibilities for fillings are practically unlimited. Below are the two Jeff demoed during the workshop.

Spicy Tomato Filling

Ingredients:

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 or 2 jalapeño pepper, chopped
2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted
2 tsp coriander, ground
2 tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp salt
Dried red pepper, hot (to taste)
1 28-oz can of plum tomatoes
Parsley, chopped (to taste)

Method:

Heat the olive oil
Add the garlic, onion, green pepper and jalapeño pepper
Sauté until onion is translucent, about 6 to 8 minutes
Add the cumin, coriander, fennel, salt and red pepper, and mix it all together
Add the plum tomatoes and cook until it thickens somewhat, stirring often
Add the chopped parsley. Check for seasoning
Cool the topping (it can be made up to 3 days ahead)
Spread lightly on the bottom half of a disc of flatbread. Fold the top over and bake as per the instructions above

Note: Baked flatbreads can be kept in foil and reheated. Any leftover filling can be used in casseroles, eaten with pasta, etc.

Feta Filling

1 jalapeño pepper, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
8 oz. feta cheese
Cilantro leaves, to taste

Jeffrey Hamelman: Lebanese flatbread with savory filling (Grain Gathering 2015)

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 20:33:00 +0000

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Jeff drew the inspiration for this bread from Man'oushé: Inside the Street Corner Lebanese Bakery, a book by Barbara Abdeni Massaad with gorgeous photography by Raymond Yazbeck. The man'oushé is Lebanon's favorite flatbread and Massaad travelled all over the country to collect every recipe she could find. The book is an eloquent portrait of a people through its bread (and its tastebuds). Sit down with it if you can and allow yourself to be carried away to the land of milk and honey...

The dough
Yield: 30 little breads (or turnovers as Massaad calls them in the book)
MC-Lebanese Flatbread dough by Jeffrey Hamelman (Jeffrey Hamelman used King Arthur flours: Sir Galahad all-purpose and Round Table pastry.)
Method

The day before the bake, mix the dough to moderate gluten development (desired dough temperature: 75°F)
Bulk ferment for one hour, then divide in 75 g pieces
Round the rolls strongly and refrigerate overnight, covered
Next day, roll the dough pieces into circles about 5" in diameter
Place spinach filling in the center of each dough piece, being careful to leave a rim of dough about ½" wide all around
Lightly brush or spritz water onto the rim
Gather the dough into 3 equal segments, making a tight seam with each segment
Make sure the edges are well-pinched together
Let the dough relax for about 30 minutes
Brush each piece lightly with olive oil and bake for about 8 minutes
The dough should be pliable after the bake; take precautions not to overbake it.

The filling

Ingredients (for approximately 30 pies)

1035 g spinach leaves
45 g salt
260 g onion, minced
40 g sumac
70 kg lemon juice
207 g olive oil
175 g feta cheese

Method

Add the salt to the spinach leaves and rub thoroughly together. Let sit for 1 hour
Rinse well under cold water
Squeeze out as much water as possible (the spinach must be dry)
Chop it coarsely
Mix together all the filling ingredients
Put approximately 85 g into the center of each disc of Lebanese flatbread dough and finish as detailed in the recipe.

Tips:

The dough might fight you when you try to roll it out, so do it in stages: flatten it some, let it rest 30 seconds while you flatten another one, pick it up again. It will have slackened.
The triangle-shaping is a bit difficult to master. Once you have put some filling at the center of the dough disc and brushed the perimeter with water, the important thing to remember is to pick-up the edges of the dough at NE and NW (not E and W), so that you can bring the two northern edges together at the center then bring up the bottom part.
Make sure the edges are well sealed.

I made the recipe yesterday here at my house and had no problem with the shaping. Of course the breads (Assaad calls them turnovers in her book and I guess they look more like turnovers than they do flatbreads) didn't turn out as pretty as Jeff's but then I didn't expect them to, especially on the first try and probably not ever! I did adapt the formula a bit. In the book Assaad says you can replace half of the flour with whole-wheat flour. I used about 70% whole-wheat flour. Here is my revised formula (for 12 turnovers):

MC-Lebanese flatbread dough with whole-wheat flour

Jeff also mentioned that the author was coming out with a new book. I looked online. The book is called Soup for Syria: Recipes to Celebrate our Shared Humanity and it will be published in the United States in October this year. According to the website, all profits from the sales will go to non-profit organizations to help fund food-relief efforts for displaced populations.

Now you probably don't need another soup recipe (not even from contributing celebrity chefs and/or cookbook authors such as Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi, Anthony Bourdain, Alice Waters, Paula Wolfert, Claudia Roden, Chef Greg Malouf, etc.) and even less another cookbook, but this is about feeding people who have been displaced from their home by horrific events and find themselves powerless to meet their family's most basic needs just as winter is coming.
Ordering Soup for Syria for yourself and/or as a present to the cooks in your life is an easy way to extend a helping hand. A hand holding a steaming bowl of soup. Imagine thousands of bakers' hands reaching out, holding bowls of steaming soup. With flatbreads on the side of course...

Jeffrey Hamelman: Tarte flambée (Grain Gathering 2015)

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 20:31:00 +0000

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Jeff borrowed the formula for tarte flambée from his own best-seller Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes. Funnily (to my French ears) he refers to the pie (also known as Flammekueche) as a traditional pizza from the Alsace region of France. I had never thought of tarte flambée as a pizza. Tarte flambée carries no Mediterranean overtones, there is not a tomato in sight, no oregano, no mozzarella. It is as un-Italian as could be. Yet, come to think of it, Jeffrey is right. It does belong in the same family as pizza: the toppings may be different but the doughs are indeed identical. Tarte flambée is a typical avant-cuisson (pre-baking) flatbread: wood-fired-oven bakers used it prior to baking bread to make sure their ovens were hot enough.

Dough

Ingredients: (for 4 pies)

MC-Jeffrey Hamelman's Pizza Dough (Grain Gathering 2015)

Method:

Mix all ingredients to moderate gluten development (desired dough temperature: 75-78°F)
Bulk ferment for one hour, then divide the dough into 450 g pieces
Round the dough pieces tightly, place into floured tubs
Cover well and refrigerate 1 to 2 days
Stretch the dough, top as desired, and bake in wood-fired oven with a live fire.

Topping

Jeffrey credits Jacquy Pfeiffer of the French Pastry School for generously sharing his topping recipe.

Ingredients: (for 4 pies)

450 g crème fraîche
35 g egg yolk
2 medium onions, peeled and thinly sliced
500 g bacon, cut into pieces about 1" square or lardon-shape
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Nutmeg, grated, to taste

Method:

Whisk the crème fraîche, yolks, flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg together
Stretch the pizza dough
Spread the topping on the dough, about 1/8" thick, leaving a 1/2" rim around the edge
Spread onions and bacon on top (be generous but don't overlap)
Bake in wood-fired oven with a live fire, at least 700°F

Note: If your wood-fired oven isn't hot enough or if you are baking in a home oven, make sure to pre-cook the bacon and lightly sauté the onions.

Tips

You can make the tarte flambée either round or square. Either way make sure to size it to the size of your peel
Stretch and fold the dough between your hands, pulling at the rim a bit so that the rim isn't too thick
Using dough straight out of the fridge makes it less likely that it will tear
You can use cornmeal on the peel but Jeff prefers using semolina because cornmeal burns (high fat content)
You can make your own crème fraîche (by putting 75% heavy cream and 25% buttermilk or sour cream in a warm place for up to 24 hours)
At home, pre-cook onion and bacon and bake the pie at 500°F on a pizza stone for about 5 minutes then finish it quickly under the broiler.

Jeffrey Hamelman's Socca (Grain Gathering 2015)

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 20:30:00 +0000

Related posts:

Here is another flatbread recipe that Jeff kindly shared from his book, Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes, 2nd edition. And, in my humble opinion, one of the easiest, simplest and tastiest flatbreads you can make at home.
"Socca is a regional specialty of the area around Nice in southern France. It is also popular in Genoa, Italy, where it is known as farinata." I have never had it in Nice but we had bought some off a street vendor in Genoa five years ago when we visited Liguria. A trip I well remember as we had to cut it short: my mom -who lived in Paris- had been taken ill and hospitalized.
We hadn't gotten the call yet when we shared the smoking slice of pure bliss. I remember there was no rosemary or other topping: just salt and a fair amount of pepper and it was perfect. Sorry, no picture, which tells you how excited (and hungry) we were. Jeff's is just as good. Try it!
I know I will, first chance I get (that is as soon as the heat wave abates where we live and we can stand lighting the oven again).

MC-Jeffrey Hamelman's Socca (Grain Gathering 2015) Method:

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl
Add the water and the olive oil and whisk until smooth
Let the batter rest for at least two hours
Liberally oil two 14" pizza pans. Heat the pans in the oven
When the oil is hot, pour the batter evenly into the pans (the batter should be about ¼" thick)
Bake the socca in 500° F oven until it is dark and crispy, 10--15 minutes, depending upon the heat of the oven
Finish by broiling the the socca for 3 to 5 minutes until the surface is mottled
Cut into rectangles and eat while warm. The top and bottom should be crispy, and the center creamy and moist.

Variations:

. A very light sprinkling of rosemary
. Artichoke hearts that have been steamed or lightly sautéed and thinly sliced
. Niçoise olives
Note: it is best to add the artichokes or the olives a few into the bake so that they don't sink to the bottom.

Tips

It is a very wet batter. Like water. In fact hydration may need to go up to 250% (depending on the flour)
Heat the pans to smoking before pouring in the batter
When done, the socca should be a little crusty on the outside and creamy inside.

The Grain Gathering 2015: keynote speaker Marie-Louise Risgaard

noreply@blogger.com (MC) — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 20:32:00 +0000

I was delighted to read on the 2015 Grain Gathering program that Marie-Louise Risgaard would deliver one of the keynote addresses. I had never met her but I knew that her family had a farm and a milling business in Denmark and I owned and loved her mom's book, Home Baked: Nordic Recipes and Techniques for Organic Bread and Pastry. Hanne Risgaard's Real Rye Bread was actually the very first bread I had baked in the months after we lost Noah, in part because having never baked rye bread with the grand-kids, I wasn't weary of re-awakening painful connections, but also because I had wonderful memories of summer vacations spent in Denmark with my former in-laws when our own children were little and I was hoping to find some degree of comfort in making rugbrød, a staple in their household. The recipe is terrific as are many others in the book and now I was to hear Marie-Louise, Hannah's daughter, tell in person the story of Skaertoft Mølle, her family's small organic mill (mølle means "mill" in Danish). How lucky was that?