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Leek & Shiitake Mushroom Foccacia

Leek & shitake mushroom focaccia

Even though Gérard lives and works in a remote area, his home/bakery is clearly a magnet for local food and nutrition enthusiasts, including serious home bakers, many of whom are long-time friends. That is how I met Bob Low, Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Vermont (UVM), who is currently teaching a course on endocrinology and metabolism, including nutrition, at UVM Medical School.
Professor Low – an avid home baker and long-time levain aficionado – is interested in the nutritional benefits of levain-fermented bread. From what I understood, he is currently reviewing the existing research. I was all ears, as you can imagine, and can only hope that his synopsis will soon be made available.
The conversation around the table was rendered all the more lively by the fact that Gérard poured Sancerre all around and served a marvelous foccacia covered with fragrant and meaty mushrooms (grown nearby) and other local organic produce.
Gérard kindly allowed me to share his recipe on Farine.

Ingredients:

1 flatbread (dough made with firm levain; hydrated at least at 80%; containing 30% freshly milled whole-grain wheat, rye and spelt flours)
400 g shiitake mushrooms, stem removed, sliced (oyster mushrooms can be substituted)
1 leek, sliced and parboiled for a few minutes with a pinch of baking soda (to make it tender)
1 large onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
Freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Olive oil
Clarified butter

Method:

  1. Sauté the onion in a mixture of olive oil and clarified butter
  2. Add the garlic when the onion is golden
  3. Cook at very low heat for about 10 minutes (do not let the garlic turn golden)
  4. Add the mushrooms and cook about 15 minutes
  5. Add salt and pepper to taste
  6. Remove from heat
  7. Preheat oven at 475ºF/246ºC
  8. Slice open the flatbread and drizzle some olive oil on both open faces
  9. Spread the mushroom-onion mix on both
  10. Grate fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano over the mushrooms
  11. Bake for 15 minutes
  12. Sprinkle the cut-up and parboiled leek on top
  13. Slice and eat hot with a glass of cold Sancerre. Bliss ensues…

The foccacia goes to Susan, from Wild Yeast for Yeastpotting.

Kouglof with Cherries & Saffron

This lovely recipe was sent to me by Christiane Macri, a SHB blog friend (in case you are wondering, SHB means “serious home baker” as I learned today in a mail from the Bread Bakers Guild of America). As I didn’t have a kouglof pan, Christiane was kind enough to send me one as well. Merci mille fois, Christiane!
The kouglof (also spelled kugelhof or Gugelhopf or kugelhopf, etc.) is a brioche of Germanic origin, very common in the Alsace region of France as well as in Germany, Austria and in the Czech Republic. It is usually made with baker’s yeast, raisins, almonds and sometimes a few drops of kirsch.
According to a local legend, the Three Kings stopped in the village of Ribeaupré (Alsace) on their way to Bethlehem and created the kouglof as a thank-you present to a pastry-shop owner who had offered them hospitality. To make it more distinctive, they gave it the shape of their turbans.
Christiane’s recipe uses white starter, raisins and almonds. I replaced the raisins by dried cherries and the almonds (which I didn’t have) with toasted hazelnuts. I also replaced part of the all-purpose flour with white whole wheat flour. The original recipe called for 175 g of butter but Christiane reduced it to 150 g and I followed her lead. I had to adjust the flour and liquid amounts to take into account the difference between French and US flours. Finally I added saffron because I love the way it showcases the flavor of the cherries.
A bundt cake pan can be used in lieu of a kouglof pan.

Ingredients:
470 g unbleached all-purpose flour
120 g white whole wheat flour
150 g mature white starter
20 g water, lukewarm
4 eggs
5 g salt
100 g dried cherries (or raisins)
80 g ground hazelnuts (or almonds, sliced thin)
50 g sugar
30 g warm water (to soak the cherries or raisins)
150 g butter, at room temperature
100 g milk, scalded, then allowed to cool
1/2 tsp saffron threads, steeped in scalded milk for one hour

Method:

  1. Soak the cherries in the warm water
  2. Place flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of the mixer and mix (using the hook)
  3. Add starter, milk (with saffron threads inside)
  4. Mix for one minute
  5. Add eggs, one by one
  6. Mix for 5 minutes on medium speed
  7. Add softened butter, little by little
  8. Mix a bit faster for about 10 minutes
  9. Add the cherries and mix on first speed one minute
  10. Cover and let rise for 1 ½ hour
  11. Butter or oil the pan
  12. Sprinkle the sliced almonds or chopped hazelnuts at the bottom
  13. Knead the dough briefly and shape into a ball
  14. Make a hole in the center and stretch it until it is big enough to go over the central “chimney” in the pan
  15. Transfer to the pan and let rise again for one to one and a half hour
  16. Pre-heat the oven to 400ºF/200ºC
  17. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes (according to your oven)
  18. Unmold on a rack and allow to cool
  19. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar

Enjoy!
Jan.3 update : Oops! I just realized I was showing you the kouglof slice lying down instead of standing up as it comes out when you cut it. Here is the “right” picture:

This kouglof goes to Susan, from Wild Yeast for Yeastpotting.

For those of you who might be interested, here are a few snapshots taken a couple of years ago as we were crossing Alsace on our way to my in-laws (who live in Belgium):

Chocolate Cherry Lean Brioche with Hazelnuts

Looking for a reasonably healthful holiday bread? Well, look no further. This little brioche might just do the trick! It is rich in chocolate, dried cherries and hazelnuts but rather low on fat and sugar, completely butter-free and made with a healthy proportion of white whole wheat… To top it all, it doesn’t contain a single speck of commercial yeast. What’s not to like?
Of course it doesn’t compare to a pan d’oro but, for health reasons, who would eat (or make for that matter) a pan d’oro more than a few times a year? My family likes to munch on something chocolatey while watching the kids open their presents. This year, I think I’ll make this brioche (but I’ll double the proportions).
The idea comes from a slim French book entitled Les Pains des Quatre-Saisons, an appealing compilation of bread recipes (sometimes with accompanying memories) contributed by readers of an organic gardening magazine.
I took some liberties with the recipe to adapt it both to our taste and to the family health requirements.

Ingredients (for one smallish brioche):
For the dough
150 g unbleached all-purpose flour
100 g white whole wheat flour
20 g agave syrup
1 egg, beaten + 1 other, beaten as well for the wash
50 g milk (you might need more according to how thirsty your flour is), at room temperature
50 g roasted hazelnut oil (the hazelnut oil contributes nicely to the taste but, if not available, a neutral vegetable oil – not canola – will do), at room temperature (soft butter is used in the original recipe)
40 g mature white starter
1 pinch of salt
For the garnish
60 g hazelnuts, roasted and skinned, chopped
50 g dried cherries, quick-soaked in warm milk and drained
50 g good quality dark chocolate chips, chopped

Method:

  1. Pour the flour in a large bowl
  2. Make a well in the center and pour in: milk, salt, agave syrup, egg, starter
  3. Mix well, adding milk as necessary
  4. When incorporated and gluten is starting to develop, progressively add the oil
  5. Continue mixing until smooth and flexible (but the dough should be rather firm)
  6. Ferment in a tightly covered bowl until doubled in volume (in my case, it took 12 hours @ 68ºF/20ºC)
  7. When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 400ºF/204ºC, making sure there is an empty cast-iron (or other metal) pan at the bottom and a baking stone (if available) on the middle rack
  8. With a rolling pin, flatten the dough into a rectangle (0.20″/0.5 cm thick), spread the garnish on the rectangle, taking care to stay away from the edges
  9. Roll the dough tight, as you would a jelly roll and pinch the ends closed
  10. Shape as desired and set on a parchment-covered baking sheet, brush with the egg wash and let rise another 40 minutes inside a tightly closed plastic bag
  11. Pour 1 cup of water in waiting cast-iron (or metal) pan and slide the brioche into the oven
  12. Spray the oven once with water and close the door
  13. After 20 minutes, rotate the brioche
  14. Bake another 30 minutes and cool on wire rack.

Raisins (soaked in rum or not) could be used instead of cherries, white chocolate instead of dark and, if opting for raisins, you might want to use walnuts instead of hazelnuts and to spice up the whole thing with some cinnamon. You can also use only all-purpose flour and replace the agave syrup by sugar (which was in the original recipe). However you end up making it, enjoy!

Jeff Hamelman on maintaining a rye starter

Jeff Hamelman, author of Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes as well as Bakery Director and Certified Master Baker at the King Arthur Flour Company, to whom I had forwarded a reader’s question about maintaining a rye starter, was kind enough to send the following information in reply:

“We do feed our cultures twice daily at the King Arthur Bakery, seven times per week. Aren’t those cultures lucky to be in a bakery that requires them to be healthy every day? For maintaining cultures when they are not going to be used daily, each person has to decide for him/herself what approach to take. I know people who bake just on weekends who feed their cultures twice daily every day—that’s a level of commitment I don’t think I could take on! On the other extreme, there are people who proudly make bread with a culture that has been refrigerated and utterly neglected for weeks, and claim that their bread is just fine. This is mentally indigestible to me (the bread is probably pretty indigestible too).
We must first and fundamentally acknowledge that our culture is a living environment, and like us, will be in best health with regular meals. That said, it’s just not practical to feed a culture 14 times per week if it is only going to be used once or twice a week. In that case, I would give at least four feeds per week, more if possible, and spread them out to fit one’s schedule. For example, one might feed the culture Monday morning before going to work and then refrigerate it in the evening. Then do the same Wednesday and Friday, and then Friday evening make levain for Saturday baking. I’m kind of making this up as I write, but some sort of regimen like that may be suitable. There are, of course, other considerations, such as time of year, ambient temperature and humidity, and so on, so some adjustments may be necessary along the way.
What kinds of adjustments? Well, let’s assume we want the culture to ripen in 12 hours. In winter perhaps our build here in Vermont might be:
Mature culture 100 g
Flour 150 g
Water 90 g
After 12 hours, all looks good, the culture has domed nicely and is fully fragrant and ripe. Come summer, the kitchen is so much warmer and more humid that the culture would ripen in eight hours if we continue to use those proportions. We might therefore reduce the amount of mature culture in the build to 50 or 75 grams, or whatever is required so that the culture is mature in 12 hours. As bakers, we have to be very attentive.
My good friend James MacGuire always brought his culture with him on vacation, and as he delightfully recounts, he could never stay in the same hotel twice because he had left such a floury mess, not to mention that weird smelling paste that was in the bin. He now has another method—one that I’ve not tried, but James is not just a great master, he is also completely committed to quality, and he wouldn’t do this if it didn’t work: he feeds his culture, maybe a bit stiffer than usual, and then after an hour refrigerates it. It is, of course, unripe at this stage, which means there is a nutrient supply available during the refrigeration phase. I’m sure there are other strategies for long term storage, but there is one important consideration regardless of the method used: once you’ve returned home, give the culture a couple of days at room temperature with two feedings daily to reinvigorate it.”
Jeff will monitor the comments to this post, so if you have any questions, please feel free to add your grain of salt as we say in French.
Thank you, Jeff!

Rhubarb, Ginger & Honey Muffins

It isn’t the season for rhubarb, so why am I talking about these muffins? Well, I found the recipe in a great book I just got in the mail, The BloggerAid Cook Book: Changing the Face of Famine. It isn’t a bread book, not even a regular cookbook which I might ordinarily have bought but it is an important book because it helps each of us do something about world hunger. When we buy the book, all the proceeds go to the World Food Program‘ School Meals Programme, which benefits an average of 22 million hungry children a year.
In countries where school attendance is low, the promise of at least one nutritious meal each and every day boosts enrollment and promotes regular attendance and we all know what difference education can make in preserving the world for our own kids and grand-kids. If you have read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, you have learned this fact first-hand and if you haven’t, you are in for an eye-opening experience when you do (that book was one of the best ones I read last summer).
In the poorest parts of the world, school feeding programs can double primary school enrollment in one year and among the principal beneficiaries are girls, who otherwise may never be given an opportunity to learn.
Four hundred millions of kids (many more than the 22 millions WFP is currently in a position to help) suffer from hunger around the world, so it is tempting to think that our purchase of that one book will not make a difference. But it will. Sometimes pennies are what stand between a child going to bed hungry and a child going to sleep as we want our kids to go to sleep and anyway, if all our purchases combined only helped feed one single child, wouldn’t it still be worth it?
So please consider purchasing the book, for your relatives, for your friends but most of all for the millions of kids who need help. If you were in their parents’ situation, you’d beg us to buy the book for your children’s sake. So let’s just do it! Because we can… Most of us food bloggers really can. Right?
Back to the book. What I love about it – besides the fact that it helps hungry children everywhere – is that it is a compendium of recipes gleaned from fellow bloggers around the world. If I had known about the initiative, I would have gladly participated. But I hadn’t and I didn’t. The only thing I can do now is let others know about it, so that they can purchase the book too.
I won’t list the contributors, there are too many and quite a few of them have gorgeous blogs which you’ll enjoy discovering. I find moving that so many are from developing countries, especially India. Hunger is in their backyard in a way that it is not here in North America (even though we have our share of poor kids) and they rose to the occasion by bearing testimony to what they see every day of their life and by inviting us to make a difference. Let’s do it!
This blog is mostly about bread and there aren’t a lot of bread recipes in the BloggerAid book but there is another muffin recipe that I will make (avocado corn) and a baked cinnamon apple pancake that sounds really delicious, and then there are recipes for many other dishes which have nothing to do with bread. My copy of the book is full of little flags for recipes I intend to try.
The rhubarb, ginger and honey muffins drew my attention because I love ginger with a passion and I am also extremely fond of rhubarb. I have in my freezer some cut up rhubarb from last year’s bounty but I also have rhubarb jam which I had made in early summer and that’s what I used here. If you don’t have access to rhubarb in any shape or form before spring, I would use applesauce, sweetened or not according to taste.
The recipe has been contributed to BloggerAid by fellow blogger David Hall from Book the Cook. I adapted it somewhat.

Ingredients (for 6 big muffins or 12 small ones):
100 g rhubarb jam (or applesauce) (David uses fresh rhubarb simmered in honey)
125 g unbleached all-purpose flour
120 g white whole wheat flour
60 g rolled oats
5 g baking soda
25 g crystallized ginger, roughly chopped
200 g plain yogurt (I used wholemilk, not no-fat or low fat)
50 g grapeseed or other neutral oil (David uses melted butter)
35 g liquid honey
bran for topping, if desired (I had spelt bran left over from hand-milling some spelt and I used that)

Method:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF/177ºC
  2. In a large bowl, sift the flours and baking soda
  3. Stir in the oats and ginger
  4. In another bowl, mix yogurt, egg, oil and honey
  5. Pour into the flour and oat mixture
  6. Combine thoroughly. If the mixture looks a little dry, add a little milk until it falls easily from the spoon (I did add some milk)
  7. Pour into muffin liners, sprinkle with bran (if using) and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until risen and golden brown. Eat slightly warm.

David says his daughter loves these little muffins. I tried them on some of my youngest grandchildren (age 3 and 4) and they gobbled them up in spite of the (slightly) spicy ginger taste. Since they are nutritious, I was quite happy to see them disappear.

These rhubarb, ginger and honey muffins go to Susan, from Wild Yeast for Yeastpotting where I hope they’ll convince many more people to buy the book!