Wild Yeast

Notes from my kitchen, in which I bake bread and raise a few other matters

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Stollen (With Just a Few Sour Grapes)

stollen

Today’s post was supposed to be about this year’s panettone, but we’re not going to talk about that right now. If you must have panettone, fine, go, get out! And don’t bother coming back!

Stollen is much easier than panettone. None of this fussy sweet Italian levain business, none of this persnickety adding of the sugar in stages so you don’t overhwhelm your poor fragile gluten, none of this namby-pamby hanging upside down after baking so the sissy little bread doesn’t collapse under its own weight.

No, with stollen you just throw everything into the mixer and mix the hell out of it. The hardest part is shaping the loaf so it looks like the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger. (I think I did a pretty good job with that. I mean, I really see the resemblance there, don’t you?) And you won’t catch our little Lord collapsing under his own weight any time soon, now, will you?

sliced stollen

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Holiday Pocky

Pocky - chocolate dipped breadsticks

Quick, for 10 points: Pocky is/are:

  1. a quintessentially Japanese snack
  2. a thin sweet bread stick coated with chocolate and optionally topped with something else delicious
  3. a fun alternative to traditional holiday cookies
  4. easy to make at home
  5. all of the above

(Hint: it’s E.)

I got the idea from Not Quite Nigella’s enchanting Pocky Christmas Forest, and used her recipe. Finely diced candied orange peel, shredded coconut, chopped pistachios, and crushed peppermint candy make fine toppings, but the possibilities are limitless.

pistachio-peppermint

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Teff Trials

teff poolish bread

To anyone wondering: YES, I am still in baking school. YES, I am a little behind in writing about it.

Does six or seven weeks count as a little behind? Because here’s what we did six or seven weeks ago: We raised bread with sourdough starters made from several ancient grains: amaranth, sorghum, quinoa, millet, and teff.

My favorite of these was teff. It’s best known for the Ethiopian staple flatbread injera, but it makes a wonderful addition to loaf breads as well (although it contains little or no gluten, so a 100%-teff bread would require some of that gluten-free expertise that I don’t have yet). I’ve heard the flavor variously described as chocolate-y coffee-y, nutty, earthy. You could just call it tasty and leave it at that. And it imparts a lovely reddish crust color in the bargain.

teff poolish baguettes

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Pumpkin Brioche Apple Tart

pumpkin brioche apple tart

Bon Appétit has invited food bloggers (including me, wow!) to participate in their Blog Envy Bake-Off, which features a lineup of holiday treats, mostly gorgeous and mostly from people who know how to bake dessert. Now, we know I don’t do a lot in the way of desserts, but an invitation from Bon Appétit cannot be taken lightly. There are, however, certain requirements to consider.

Bon Appétit’s requirement:

  • Must be a holiday dessert.

My requirements:

  • Must have yeast (either that or change my name to Wild Chemical Leavening).
  • Must have fruit (hello, is it dessert without fruit?).
  • Must be a dough I love (so when I screw up the first pass on the tart — did I mention I don’t do desserts? — I don’t mind mixing the dough again).
  • Must be rustic (the culinary equivalent of “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature”).

This tart, made with a soft spiced pumpkin brioche crust, pumpkin seed (pepita) cream, and sweet-tart fall apples, fits the requirements, but is it worthy? I’ll leave that up to you. If you think so, I’d love it if you would vote for it here.

Note that the pumpkin brioche dough and pepita cream recipes make more than what you need for the tart. I used the extra of both to make cinnamon rolls — coming soon!

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Focaccia

focaccia

I don’t usually bake on request — I’m just curmudgeonly that way — but there are exceptions to everything.

Last weekend I visited North Carolina for a family meeting and was treated to fall leaf color and some wonderful Southern hospitality from my cousin P and her husband J. Grits, creamed home-grown corn, and barbecue complete with Southern-style cole slaw were just a few reasons why my palate was very happy I made that cross-country trip. When P mentioned that they were looking for a good focaccia recipe, I thought it was the least I could do.

I think I got the better end of that deal — thank you, thank you! — but the focaccia is still pretty good.

Focaccia can be crisp or soft, plain or topped, or even sweet. This one is soft, and delicious with a sprinkling of salt and fresh herbs.

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Whole Wheat – Semolina Crowns

whole wheat semolina crown

If I had to choose one word to describe this bread, it would be “wheaty.” Now that may seem odd, because isn’t most bread made with wheat flour, so isn’t all bread wheaty? Well sure, but but the four different wheat flours — “regular” white flour, whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour, and semolina (coarsely ground from durum wheat) — and two preferments (sponge and poolish) give the bread an extra wheaty flavor. (OK, so it’s late at night and I’m not feeling very imaginative. It’s still good.)

I used white (hulled) sesame seeds, which lend a delicate sesame flavor and are not visually prominent in the bread, just because I had some on hand that needed to be used up. Regular sesame seeds, and toasted if you like, would also be lovely. You could also leave them out altogether. We’re nothing if not flexible.

ww-semolina slice

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