With all the hype, in recent years, about artisan breads, sourdoughs, and preferments, you might get the idea that baking regular, old white has become a dying art. But if you look a little deeper at many baking sites you’ll see that the standard loaf of white bread still reigns supreme when it comes to home baking. With all the knowledge out there, why does this humble loaf still get so much attention, while at the same time often being maligned? The answer is pretty simple; it’s convenient and pretty easy. Many recipes call for standard all purpose flour, so there is no running to the store to buy bread flour as you probably already have all purpose flour on hand. Secondly, there is the time factor. Most standard loaves of white bread can be made, from beginning to end, in just a few hours, as opposed to many artisan style breads that can involve numerous hours over the course of a couple of days.

Sure, these long fermented, Old World breads and techniques can create breads with an unrivalled depth of flavor, but they can be time consuming and in this day and age people don’t always have the time or the energy to be feeding starters, or have the forethought of preparing a starter the night before.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not opposed to experimenting and baking these types of bread, quite the opposite, in fact. I love playing with breads made with these starters, and I think everyone should experiment with baking their own sourdough breads at one time or another. But I also think that everyone should have a simple, no fuss bread recipe that can be made with minimal effort and just a few hours of time.

This bread, makes a great “everyday” loaf, perfect for sandwiches, toast, or just eating as is, smeared with a little butter. It has a soft, dense crumb from using softer all purpose flour, and enriching it with fat, in the form of milk and butter. The flavor might lack the punch or the depth of longer fermented breads, but it makes the perfect conveyance for sandwich fillings or butter and homemade jelly, and guaranteed, it beats the pants off of any store bought white bread you can buy.

White Bread
makes 1 loaf

1 cup milk, warmed to 100-110°F
2 Tbsp. + more for the top butter, melted
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. yeast, not instant
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt

Combine milk, butter, sugar and yeast. Stir well then allow to sit for 10 minutes to allow the yeast to start to activate. Add the flour and salt, and mix, in a mixer with a dough hook, for 10 minutes. Alternatively, mix in a bowl until the dough comes together, then pour out onto a counter, that has been lightly dusted with flour, and knead, by hand for 12-15 minutes. Place into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp towel and allow to rise, in warm place, for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size. Lightly grease a bread loaf pan. Turn out onto the counter and gently deflate the dough. Pat out into a square, the sides of which are the length of your bread loaf pan. Roll up the dough tightly, pinching the seam together and placing it on the bottom. Fold the very ends under to form a smooth loaf, and again pinch the seams together and place the dough, seam side down, into the loaf pan. Cover with a damp cloth and again allow to rise for about 1 hour, or until doubled. Meanwhile heat the oven to 350°F. When dough has doubled bake for approximately 45 minutes or to an internal temperature of 205°F. Remove from oven. Remove bread from pan, place on a cooling rack and brush the top of the still hot bread with melted butter. Allow to cool before cutting.

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.

Roast chicken, a dish so simple yet so difficult to master. When I was in the restaurant business roasting a simple chicken was often used as a test when hiring a new chef. At a glance roasting a chicken is one of simplest things in the world, but really think about it. How often have you had a truly great roasted chicken? So often the breast is dry or the thighs are undercooked, the skin never takes on that great crispness, or the whole thing just tastes rather bland. Yes, it’s simple to roast a chicken and yet so difficult to make it great. Roasting a chicken takes a lot of skilled technique and it is difficult to cover up if you have made an error at any point. That’s why so many people use it as a standard to measure chefs by.

Believe me, I have roasted countless chickens in my time. In the beginning it was a hit or miss proposition, but slowly I learned a few techniques that helped me conquer this foe. Search the internet and you will find a number of “fool proof” ways to roast a chicken. Let me tell you, first off there is no fool proof way. It takes diligence and missing that mark will definitely mean undercooked thighs or overcooked breasts. Some methods will have you rub butter over the flesh, under the skin. This is a great method but time consuming and a pain the ass if you aren’t careful as you can easily tear the skin. Also what about the wings and legs and thighs, it’s pretty hard to get under the skin on those.

All good methods will have you truss the chicken, pulling all the meat in tight to the body. Many people kind of tune out when they hear the word truss, thinking it is some difficult task better left to butchers and chefs. Not so! It is relatively easy and I will show you, step by step, how it’s done.

If at all possible start with a good quality chicken. At least try to find an organic bird from a small producer, or better yet source chicken from a local farmer if at all possible. Your last resort should be any of the large named producers. These birds are filled with antibiotics and hormones and in general are quite tasteless compared to locally raised birds.

Finally, we come to seasoning. A good roasted chicken requires copious amounts of salt and pepper to make a flavorful bird, both on the outside and on the inside. Beyond that the choice of herbs and aromatics is yours. Personally, I like to keep it simple, oftentimes, flavoring the bird with garlic only, though adding lemon or orange wedges to the cavity imparts some wonderful flavor as well as herbs such as thyme, rosemary, tarragon or others, whatever suits your tastes.

Roast Chicken
1 whole chicken (4-6 pounds)
1-1 1/2 Tbsp. butter*, softened
2 heads garlic
salt
pepper

Remove the giblets from the chicken and save for another use. Rinse the chicken under cold running water, then pat dry. Allow to sit for 1 hour at room temperature to take the chill off (don’t worry about letting it sit out, it’s not sitting out long enough for it to be dangerous). Meanwhile break apart the heads of garlic and peel the cloves. To make the job easier, lightly crush the cloves with the flat side of a knife. The skins should then pretty much slip off. Preheat the oven to 500°F. Once the chicken has rested, pat dry again and season the cavity with plenty of salt and pepper, getting your hand in there to run the seasoning into the flesh. Add the garlic cloves to the cavity. Next fold the wing tips underneath the bird.

Take an 18″ piece of butcher’s twine, find the center of it and wrap it around the neck of the bird, making one complete loop to secure it. Bring the two ends of the string up alongside the bird and over the thighs.

Loop the string around the end of the legs and have the ends cross in the center.

Next loop the strings all the way around the bird, underneath the tail, again meeting in the center, pulling them tight and tying them off.

Season the outside of the chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Use more than you think you need. Finally, take the softened butter and rub it all over the outside of the chicken. Place the chicken in a pan on a roasting rack. If you don’t have a roasting rack, peel 1 or 2 onions and cut into 1/2″ slices. Place the slices in the pan and place the chicken on top of that. Place the chicken into the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 425°F. Roast for approximately 45-55 minutes or until an instant read thermometer, stuck into the thickest part of the thigh registers 162 degrees (I prefer to use a digital probe thermometer that I leave in for the entire cooking process. I set it so that an alarm goes off when it reaches the proper temperature). Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before carving. Many recipes will tell you to cover the bird during this rest, but I find this to cause the skin to get soggy and one of my favorite parts or roast chicken is the crispy skin. Giving the chicken this resting time will allow the meat to relax, which in turn will allow more of the juices to stay in the meat. Carving before allowing this rest period will cause the chicken to expell much of its juices and moisture. This resting period goes for just about any large cut of meat. Carve and enjoy!

*I often use butter, but many fats can be used in place of the butter. Olive oil is probably the other most popular choice although I have used both duck fat and goose fat on numerous occasions. Bacon fat alone would be too strong and overpowering, but if you want the additional flavor cut 1 part bacon fat with 2 parts butter or oil.

There are many ways I know my wife really loves me.  Not the least of which is she occasionally makes me Eggs Benedict for breakfast.  I love breakfast foods, but hate getting up early enough to make them, something I need to overcome as one of my life long goals is to own a Bed & Breakfast.  Luckily I have a wife who is a morning person.  I remember the first time she made them for me.  The thing that scared her the most was making the hollandaise.  There seems to be a mystique about hollandaise.  Most people think that it is this extremely difficult operation that should only be attempted by a “trained professional.”  While it isn’t one of the easiest sauces to make, it sure doesn’t deserve its reputation as being too difficult for a regular home cook.

I am going to walk you through making hollandaise, showing you the few areas where things can go wrong and, hopefully, at the same time dispelling its mystique.  These instructions are going to look long, but don’t worry, it really is quite simple.  The instructions are long because I want to make sure I have explained everything there you need to know.  So here we go.

Hollandaise Sauce

2 each Egg Yolks
1 oz. White Wine (water can be used if you don’t have or use wine)
6 oz. Butter, clarified (more on that in a minute), warm but not hot
1/2 each Lemon
1 pinch Salt
1 dash Cayenne

First a note on the butter. Most chefs prefer to use clarified butter over plain melted butter for various reasons. One of the main reasons though is that non-clarified butter contains a lot moisture. When making larger batches of hollandaise this can thin the sauce more than a chef wants it to be. Taking the moisture out of the butter allows the chef to thin the hollandaise as he/she sees fit, and they can do it with liquids more flavorful than water. If you find yourself pressed for time, melted butter usually works quite well though so don’t freak if you don’t have time to clarify it. And now, back to the recipe. (continue reading…)