Pain au Levain

Hi! I made pain au levain from peter reinhart's book. This was the first time I used a starter in my bread. I made a starter from scratch. This involved me going through all of the phases laid out in the book. The bread came out good! I don't know if it was worth 2 weeks of trouble to get the starter ready. Not to mention having the starter die twice (and having to restart the starter) before getting it right. Also the starter doesn't seem sustainable. Having to add over 2 cups of flower every 5 days and throwing out the majority of it sounds unrealistic. The bread was good though!



I think the bread did have more flavor than usual. I cut up the bread into pieces and brought it to work:


I split the dough into 2 batches. I probably overcooked the second batch but I kind of like it when it's almost burnt:


And here the second batch is sliced:


Next up, sourdough!

Focaccia

Hi! I made focaccia last week. Again, it was from this book. The dough is very similar to the dough used to make the ciabatta that I made a few weeks prior. The dough comes out so smooth and feels so good when I have to mess with it.

The process involves putting together the initial dough, stretching it out a bit, and putting it in a ball shape. Then I left it in the refrigerator, covered, for 2 to 3 days. At that point I spread the dough out into a big cookie sheet, and dotted it with my fingers.

The topping I used was a sort of herb oil. All it was was olive oil, red pepper flakes, minced garlic. chili powder, kosher salt and black pepper.

The focaccia was amazing right out of the oven. It was so crispy on top and soft underneath. I brought it into work the next day and it was still good but the top was no longer crispy. People seemed to like it, though.



Next up, pain au levain. My starter is well on its way already! (Sort of.)

Apple chips

Hokay, so. At pike place market there are these people that sell apple chips. They claim that they are 100% apple with nothing added. They're supposedly just baked. Those things are amazing. I love them so much I want to cry. Sooo I decided to try it out for myself. I used my mandolin to cut some gala apples and bake them at about 275 for around 2 hours I think. The outcome was terrific!! I loved it!! It tasted like the pike place market people!! Sooooo good. I am in love. Such an awesome snack. The chips are completely crisp, and they produce such a satisfying crunch when you bite into them. The only problem with these guys is they take a long time to bake (about 2 hours) and you can't make a lot at a time, since they probably can't be layered on top of each other on the baking sheet.

Here's the before pic:


And another after shot:


Check out this cool chip with the star:

Ciabatta

Happy holidays! Last week my older sister and I made ciabatta, again from this book. It was amaaaaazing. Definitely my favorite bread from the book so far. The bubbles in the bread were so big and awesome looking. The bread was amazing as toast. One recipe made 3 ciabattas. Mmm. Definitely will make again.

And now, some more pictures for your viewing pleasure.

BUBBLES!!!


TOAST!!


TOAST WITH GOAT CHEESE!!! This seems like it'd be good with some sun dried tomatoes on top iykwis. Riyeeeet.


...next up, focaccia!

Classic french bread

Oh hi. I made the second recipe in this book. It came out delicious. Tasted like real bread. One thing I did wrong was make the cuts in the dough too deep, as you can see in the pictures. Also, apparently the baguettes were supposed to be half the size. I was supposed to make 4 instead of 2. Whoops! Anyway, here are a few pictures from along the way:





And then here they are:


I also brought them to work:


Some people at work seemed indifferent about the bread and some said it was good. No one had the guts to say it was bad. Next up, ciabatta!

"Lean Bread" from Peter Reinhart

Oh hello there. I made the first recipe from Peter Reinhart's new book.

It is called "Lean Bread". I don't know why though. It probably explains in the description. The bread came out awesome.

Here's a picture of the final product:


The recipe made enough to produce two of them:


I made the dough, which was pretty painless, and then let it sit in my refrigerator for 2 to 3 days (but you don't have to leave it in there that long). Then, day of, you have to shape the dough and then let it rise for 1 hour, covered:


Then, let the dough rise for another hour, uncovered:


Then, I managed to blow all the fuses in my house other than the oven, before actually putting the bread in the oven. I still baked the bread, using candle light to see:


I still got a shot of the babies in the oven:


Since my refrigerator wasn't working (as there was no power in my place), I decided to put my refrigerated goods in bags and hang them outside my window:


And 2 more windows:


Hopefully there is power when I get home but I'm not getting my hopes up. Didn't hear back from my landlord yet.

Tomato and onion tart

Hey hey. I made a tomato and onion tart today. I am staying at my mom's house right now and she has mad tomato plants in full bloom around the house, so I used those cherry tomatoes in this tart. The bottom layer is 1 large onion that I caramelized, 1 package of feta cheese, a bunch of basil leaves (also from my mom's garden) and 2 eggs. I mixed all of those together and put that on the bottom of the tart. On top of that I put a bunch of cherry tomatoes that I had roasted in the oven before hand for about an hour. The crust is a whole wheat and olive oil crust. I thought that the tart was very delicious. In the future I will work on the crust, because it was a little tough. The cherry tomatoes were really good though, since they were roasted before hand. The feta cheese was also delicious.

And here it is after my sister and I got our hands on it:


I totally took what felt like all day to make this tart. Ok, not all day, but a good 3 or 4 hours. It's nice having nothing to do, and just taking my time and being inefficient. I can only do that for another week and a half!