Ciabatta

Look out, it’s the dreaded Ciabatta monster! This thing is wet and frustrating and difficult to work with but also bubbly and delicious.

Ingredients:
500g flour
475g water
15g salt
2tsp yeast.

And that’s it. Put all the ingredients in the bowl, and get that gluten going! A stand mixer is helpful here like none other. I don’t have one. It almost resembles a batter more than a dough so hand kneading is out of the question. I mix it for 5 minutes at a time and take breaks. With a stand mixer it can be anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes before the dough starts coming off the sides of the bowl.

Let it rise until tripled in a well oiled bowl (takes 2-3 hours depending on the weather)

Turn out onto the heavily floured counter and cut into three or four piece, then let them proof for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, crank the oven up to 500˚ F.

Beg and plead the loaves into loaf shapes on a sheet of parchment paper or a damn well floured peel. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Ta-da.

Moved to http://jamesthebaker.wordpress.com/

Fiddleheads!

I know, I said I wasn't going to post today. But we had some fiddleheads that we needed to eat, and it occurred to me that a lot of people have never really heard of them, or at least never heard of them as a food. They are very pretty. They have a somewhat delicate flavor, so I just steamed them and put some butter on them. On the side I had spaghetti with a nice alfredo sauce (if you ask I can publish the recipe, although I didn't measure anything). I also used the chance to break out my snazzy new (and by new I mean vintage) Pyrex™ bowls. They are brown with wheat on the side.

Apparently tonight I'm going to work.... but without my work actually being there. I work in an old milk truck with a kitchen in it, and the truck is in the shop tonight. So.... not sure how that's going to work but it'll be fun.

Bread tomorrow. Probably.

Fresh Tomatoes and Jalepeño Pizza

Nummy pizza with fresh tomatoes instead of sauce, and a cup of whole wheat in with the crust. My parents' smoke alarm was totally flipping shit, as it always does when the oven gets up to 550˚, and for some reason the crust was a bit burned. It gave it a nice toasty taste so no harm done, but I'm a perfectionist so it bugs me. The pizza stone I used is a lot smaller than the tiles I use back at the house, so my baking sheet/makeshift peel didn't get it on the stone very straight. But in all, a success.

Chocolate Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins

Ingredients:
1 11.5 oz bag of bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter (melted)

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Combine the cream cheese, 1/4 of the sugar, and one egg in a bowl and beat it until it'll tell you anything you want to know. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. Combine them. Melt half of the chocolate and fold in along with the unmelted half. Distribute among 12-18 greased muffin papers, then top with the cream cheese mixture. Bake for 25 minutes.

For the future: Next time I want to not mix the batter nearly as well after adding the chocolate and give it a marbled texture. That should complement the cream cheese nicely. And of course, it's pizza night. I put some whole wheat in the dough this time, I can't wait to see how it turns out, although I'm out of my element using my parents' oven.

No post tomorrow since I have a train ride back to Mass. I'm thinking of doing cinnamon buns soon, although I might do a bread or something first since so far I only have sweets on here.

Lemon Ginger Scones

Ingredients:
3/4 c buttermilk
1 egg
2 c all purpose flour
3/4 c whole wheat flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c butter
1/2 c crystallized ginger
1/2 c candied lemon peel
1 lemon's worth of zest
Another tbsp of sugar

First! Preheat the oven to 375 F. Put the buttermilk and the egg in a bowl and beat them until they're sorry. Put the dry ingredients, minus the fruit, in a different bowl and mix up real good. Cut in the butter. Add the fruit, then mix again. Add the buttermilk and egg mixture, then knead until the moment you start to wonder why you went through all the trouble of cutting in the butter, and not a second longer! Condense into one large patty about 2" thick. Score the top with a knife in eight slices, but do not separate yet. Dust with a tablespoon of sugar. Place on an ungreased baking sheet and cook for 25-30 minutes.

Second! Eat them. yummy!

Recipes © James Hartman under Creative Commons