One thing I wanted to add about this week’s bread recipe is that you can make it “quick” or “slow” according to your pleasure. This really applies to any yeast bread. I’ve diatribed before about how time translates to flavor, and even though most focaccia is considered nothing more than a vehicle for good olive […]
READ ONFocaccia is one of those foods whose true origins are completely lost to us. Have a look at some of the typical food reference books, and they’ll talk about focaccia and the Greeks, the Etruscans, maybe the Minoans, yadda yadda. But then pretty much everybody likes to trace pretty much everything back to the Greeks, […]
READ ONThis week’s pastry is a surprisingly versatile little number that can be reinterpreted as breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert, according to your fancy: Waffles Next, I thought since it’s prime salad season (the greens available here in Kentucky are astounding), a flat, “compliment” bread would be nice: Focaccia And while I tend not to value […]
READ ONI praised natural leavening (sourdough) the other day for its slow, deliberate rising. Having made quite bit of sourdough bread over the last week, I found the pace gave me time to implement some dough-stretching techniques I’ve long heard about but never tried. What’s dough stretching? It’s pretty much as it sounds, a process by […]
READ ONI have to say that the weekend’s drive over the Blue Ridge Mountains was spectacular. It rained quite a bit on the way home, but on the way out the endless vistas of tree-covered mountains rolling off into the distance like waves, well they were awe-inspiring. Being a history buff (in Virginia no less) I […]
READ ONI like to blog a lot on Fridays when I can, but this week I can’t. I’m off to Virginia for a wedding. Thanks for visiting all you newcomers, I’ll see you bright and early on Monday.
READ ONIn the world of bread there are two main periods of dough rising. There’s the period right after the dough is mixed, which is usually just called “rising”, though some fancy-pants baking types call it “primary fermentation” or “bulk fermentation”. “Proofing” is the period of rising that happens after your dough is shaped into a […]
READ ONI understand my good friend from down under, the Old Foodie, put up a link to me on eGullet. So…welcome all eGulleteers! (And please forgive the many fluctuating visuals that will be occurring in the next few days…I’m getting a site-lift).
READ ON…is cinnamon. A scant 1/2 teaspoon per quart of blueberries (half that amount if it’s a very fresh cassia cinnamon) gives blueberry jam amazing, subtle complexity. It’s a flavor that’s hard for people (even a lot of experienced cooks) to define exactly, which makes it a great trick for secret ingredient recipe warriors (What, that? […]
READ ONNot at all. Especially if your fruit haul happens to be just a few handfulls of wild berries, it might not even be worth you time. Just scale down whatever jam recipe suits your fancy and pour it into a jar without a canning lid. Cooled, it’ll keep in the fridge for weeks. The ubiquity […]
READ ON