Awhile ago I had promised myself to do more baking to regain some of those skills I lost due to not using them much over the last many years. While I have done more baking since I started this blog, I haven’t done nearly the amount I want, so I’ve made that promise to myself again and hopefully will stick with it.

The bread I baked the other day is the first loaf I’ve baked in quite some time, and I realized just how rusty those skills become without use. Don’t get me wrong, it turned out fine, but I do need a little work on my skills to get my breads to the level I would like them to be. None the less, I thought I’d share the recipe I used as it produces a bread with really good flavor. The crumb was a little dense for my taste, but again this was more due to my rusty skills then the recipe itself.

Before I get into the recipe though, there are a few terms I need to go over as many of you may not be familiar with them. First off is the term “poolish.” There are numerous different types of pre-ferments and words used to describe them. Poolish is one such term. While there are many different words out there, I find that there are 4 that people need to know. The rest of the terms are mostly variations on these 4 terms. These are, sourdough, levain, biga and poolish. The first 2 are preferments that capitalize on wild yeasts and micro organisms. These tend to take numerous days to create initially. Once created they are stored in the fridge and “fed” every so often to keep them active. When ready to bake with these type of preferments, a bit of the starter is pulled from the fridge and “fed” over a day or 2 to make the wild yeasts active again before making bread. These starters give bread a wonderful depth of flavor and often a slight sourness to them. These are very traditional methods of leavening a bread.

In contrast a biga and poolish use a small amount of commercially prepared yeast (store bought) to create a preferment. The yeast is mixed with water and flour, covered and allowed to sit for a few hours or overnight. Like its sourdough cousins, these starters help add depth of flavor to the bread and contribute to a more open texture and crumb. The main difference between a biga and poolish is hydration. A biga has less water and is more dough-like in consistency while a poolish contains more water and is closer to a batter or sponge in consistency.

In this recipe I also use a “stretch and fold” method of fermentation. During the initial bulk fermentation the dough is gently stretched out, folded into thirds, turned 90 degrees and folded into thirds again then gently rolled to tighten the surface again. This is often done every 30 minutes for the first 90 minutes of fermation and is used in open textured breads to help align the gluten strands.

Finally, if you are looking for a nice crisp crust to your bread you really need to invest in a pizza stone, preferably a large, square one and a spray bottle. The pizza stone will help provide a more even temperature in your oven, along with helping to crisp the bottom of your bread. The spray bottle, filled with water, will create the perfect steamy environment, in your oven, for producing a nice crust.

Basic Batard

1 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/4 cups water, 90-100°F
3/4 tsp. yeast

2 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup water, 90-100°F
2 tsp. yeast
2 1/2 tsp. salt

Start the night before you want to bake. To make the poolish, combine the first set of ingredients and mix until well combined. Cover, loosely with plastic wrap and allow to ferment, at room temperature, overnight. The following morning, combine the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl and set aside. Add the remaining water to the poolish and mix to loosen. Add the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Pour out, onto the counter that has been lightly dusted in flour and knead for 7-10 minutes. The dough will be slightly soft and on the sticky side. Refrain from adding too much flour as you knead. You want the dough soft. Lightly oil a bowl and place the dough in it. Place in a warm spot (preferably about 70-75°F – an oven with the light turned on is perfect if your kitchen is on the cool side). Every 30 minutes do a stretch and fold, as described above, making sure to be gently so as to not knock the gases out of it. After 90 minutes the dough should be about double in size. If not allow to proof a little longer, without doing any additional folds. Divide the dough in 2 and form into batards (a short fat baguette). Allow to rise for 30 minutes. Meanwhile place pizza stone in oven and preheat to 500°F. Dust a peel with flour, place batards on the peel, dust the tops with flour and, using a thin, sharp knife slash the top of batard starting about 1 inch from the end and going to within 1 inch of the other end and about 1/4 inch deep. Open the oven door and, using the spray bottle spray the sides of the oven. Try not to directly spray the pizza stone as excess moisture on the stone may make it crack. Quickly slip the loaves onto the pizza stone, close the oven door and reduce the heat to 450°F. During the first 5 minutes of baking quickly open the oven door and spray down the sides of the oven with water 3 times to produce steam. Do this quickly so as to not lower the temperature of the oven too much and to trap as much steam as possible. Bake for an additional 20 minutes or until an instant read thermometer registers 200-205°F.

As tempting as it may be to cut into the bread right away, allow it to cool for at least 15-20 minutes to help develop its flavor.

About 3 weeks ago I made my own sauerkraut for the first time. You can find the post about it here. For the last week, I have been checking and tasting it daily to see if it was ready. Today I decided it had fermented enough so I packed it up into smaller containers and refrigerated it. In hindsight, the next time I make sauerkraut I will let it go just a little further and get a touch more sour as I really like sour things, though my wife thought it had just the right amount of sourness. Either way I am very happy with the results. My homemade stuff is so much better than the store bought stuff, and it is so easy to make. I don’t know why it took me so long to attempt to make sauerkraut, but after this experiment I think it will become, at the very least, a yearly thing. Maybe next year I will make a larger batch and attempt to can some when it is done.

Of course, once the sauerkraut was ready I couldn’t wait to cook with it so I threw together one of my favorite dishes, Choucroute. Technically what I prepare is not truly choucroute as I use beer in my dish as opposed to white wine (usually Riesling) and I skip many of the traditional spices such as juniper berries, mace, nutmeg, etc. in favor of caraway seed, but choucroute sounds so much better than Sausages Braised with Sauerkraut. This dish can be made up pretty quickly, but I prefer to cook it slow and low for 1-2 hours as I find this long, slow cooking yields a depth of flavor that quick cooking just can’t achieve. (continue reading…)

I’m sure there was a time in my life when I didn’t like sauerkraut, but I can’t remember it. I do remember, in my distant past, not being overly fond of it, but I can’t remember ever disliking the stuff. That is not the case today nor has it been the case for many, many years. Topping my hot dogs and brats, served as a cold salad similar to cole slaw, or even as an ingredient in chocolate cake, it is one of my favorite ways to eat my vegetables. My favorite way to prepare sauerkraut though is to slow cook it with numerous pork products (sausages, bacon, salt pork, pork chops) onions, apples, caraway and beer. Pork and sauerkraut are a match made in heaven, as far as I’m concerned, the kraut’s sharp tang a perfect foil to pork’s fatty richness.

I realized, not long ago, that as much as I enjoy sauerkraut, I had never made it from scratch before. I knew that I would have to remedy that this year so this past week I headed out to our local farmer’s market to pick up some cabbage. At the stall of one of my favorite farmers there I found a giant head of cabbage, weighing in at 13 pounds. I had my doubts about a cabbage that big the farmer assured me that it was sweet and tender. Deciding to place my trust in him, I bought the cabbage for a whopping $2.50 and brought it home to turn it into sauerkraut.

Kraut making is a rather easy task. At it’s most basic you shred the cabbage, you salt the cabbage, you pack the cabbage into a container, cover it and let it ferment for a few weeks. That’s about all there is too it. Well…..almost. There are a few things to keep in mind, but trust me making sauerkraut is a pretty easy process. (continue reading…)

I have to admit, I am not much of a baker. Sure, I took all the required baking classes in culinary school, and as a chef I have done my fair share of baking and pastries, but it is not a skill that I particularly enjoyed and thus didn’t really work on developing. I was always more about the rush and the instant gratification of line work as opposed to the more methodical, slower pace of the bakery. Recently though, I have had a desire to flex those old, rusty baking skills. Some experiments have turned out great, some….well….let’s just say I’m beginning to believe in the old adage, “If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.” Well, I have not lost it, more like just misplaced it temporarily. One of my more recent successes has been with the focaccia recipe from “Baking with Julia.” I’ve taken her ingredients but have altered her technique a little to suit my tastes. Her recipe creates a focaccia that is just a little too thin for my tastes, but I knew I also didn’t want one of those 3 inch thick sponges that grace the shelves of supermarkets across America. Taking Julia’s recipe and tweaking it gave me something in between and exactly what I was looking for. I hope you feel the same way also. As for the toppings, I really like this onion and sage topping but feel free to top it however you like. I imagine I will change up the toppings quite regularly.

Onion Sage Focaccia

2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups Water, slightly warm
2 Tbsp. Dry Active Yeast
1/4 cup Olive Oil
6 1/2 cups All-purpose Flour (unbleached if possible)
4 tsp. Salt
1/3 cup +1 Tbsp. Olive oil
1 small Onion, peeled and thinly julienned
2-3 Tbsp. Fresh Sage, chiffonade (fine julienne)
Sea Salt or Kosher Salt

In the mixing bowl of a mixer combine 1/2 cup of the warm water and the yeast. Allow 5 minutes for the yeast to active then add the remaining water and olive oil. Stir to combine. Mix together the salt and flour then add to the liquid. Stir just to combine. Place mixing bowl on mixer and, using the dough hook, mix the ingredients on medium speed. Turn speed to high and knead for 10 minutes or until dough can pass the window pane test (when you can stretch a small amount of dough to the point where you can almost see through it). Place dough in a bowl rubbed with olive oil and coat dough completely with a light coat of oil. Cover and allow to rise until double (1-1 1/2 hours). Gently punch down and allow to double in size again. Punch down again, cover bowl tightly and place in refrigerator for 24-36 hours.

The next day pull dough out 1 1/2 hours before you want to bake it. Preheat oven to 425. Place 1 Tbsp. of the olive oil in a saute pan, over medium heat and add the onions. Cook without coloring until onions are half done. Add the fresh sage, toss until wilted then remove from heat. Allow to cool to room temp. Pour 1/2 of the remaining 1/3 cup of olive oil into a 12×17 baking pan or jelly roll pan. Add dough, coat both sides with the oil and gently spread the dough out. Be gentle as you don’t want to knock out all the bubbles you created overnight. You probably won’t be able to completely stretch it all at once, so allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes then finish stretching it to almost fill the pan. Allow another 10 minute rest then dimple the surface of the dough with your fingers. Sprinkle on the onion-sage mixture, drizzle with the remaining olive oil and finally sprinkle with the sea or kosher salt. Place in the oven and bake for 18-25 minutes. Allow to cool on the baking tray so that it can absorb all the olive oil around the edges.