Feels like a Sunday

Yesterday was holiday, and when Monday is holiday I get lost in the days of the week we are, so I have the impression there was two Sundays this week! Not bad!

Spending one more day in the country, swimming in the ocean in the morning and fixing things in the house at the hottest hours didn’t give me to much time for cooking. So I fixed a rapid one-plate lunch with raw tomatoes and sweet peppers, boiled eggs, soft bread that I made for breakfast and that leftover, for the dressing drip-yogurt (I’ll explain in a later post), salt and pepper. It made a super delicious “open sandwich”.

July 21, 2015

French baguette

Well, there is no week-end in the country without a proper Sunday morning breakfast with freshly baked bread or equivalent and fresh fruits. This Sunday is not different, and for the breakfast I prepared French baguette. French baguette requires 1h of autolysis before you can start kneading, so it’s not often I have the time to prepare it, because usually I am to busy outside gardening. This week-end it’s a little bit different since we’re having some workers at home for the reform of our entrance hall I’m not gardening much. Preparing baguette is not more difficult than any other bread but as French there is something special about it, something sentimental when you eat it.

So to prepare one baguette I use 166g of flour; 107g of water; 4g of salt; 8g of dry sourdough; 3g of yeast.

First mix the flour with 2/3 of the water and wait for 1h for the autolysis. Then add all the rest of the ingredients, knead until soft and smooth, and let rest 1h30 for proving. Then lay the dough flat for 15min; finally shape the bread and wait an other 1h30; flour and incise before baking at 230 degrees for 20min. And here you have a freshly baked baguette!

Actually because I love freshly baked bread in the morning, I prepare the bread and replace the last 1h30 by a whole night in the fridge. In the morning just have to bake it.

July 11, 2015

Sunday morning breakfast

The week-end was supposed to be all rainy so I had in mind to do a lot of cooking but in the end it’s a beautiful sunny day ahead!
For breakfast I wanted something new to try, and since I bought nice ham and free range eggs, I’ve been thinking about English muffins. I love English muffins, but until now I’ve only bought processed ones. So it was time to give it a try. When cooking British (scones, crumpets…) the BBC website is always my best resource and I found there a recipe for English muffins. It is incredibly simple and the result is just stunning!

Of course I had to adjust a bit the recipe to my taste and the available ingredients in my cupboard. So I changed the white flour for whole wheat flour, and prepared without the finish with semolina. The recipe is vegetarian: milk-egg-butter are needed. I love the fact that it is baked on a hot plate or in a pan, in summer I like not to have to lit the oven. The preparation is also quite quick because it needs only 1h proving and 30min rest. So basically in 2h you can have your muffins ready. For breakfast I served them with egg and ham, or butter and jam but there are so many ways to serve them! And to complete a fresh fruit salad with seasonal fruits. The perfect start for a Sunday in the garden trimming trees.

Recipe:
– 300g of whole wheat flour
– 6g of instant yeast
– 6g of salt
-1 egg
– 15g of butter
– 15g of brown sugar
– 150ml of milk
– a little bit of oil
In a bowl set the flour, and in the middle the yeast, the sugar, the milk, the egg, the salt and the butter. Knead until soft and smooth. Move the dough in an oiled bowl and leave for prove for 1h. When the dough has doubled volume, of a dusted surface roll-out the dough on a 2cm thick rectangle. with a 8cm to 11cm circle cut-out the muffins and leave for prove an other 30 min. Pre-heat a hot plate or a pan at very low heat and set the muffin, bake until golden (5~7min) and flip on the other side and bake again until golden. It’s ready to eat!

June 28, 2015

Bagels

For lunch I eat quite often bagels that I buy in supermarket nearby my work. They have one brand that I like quite much but not always. It’s been a long time I’ve been thinking about making some bagels myself but I imagined that making them with a good shape and the boiling+baking kind of stopped me from trying: it’s gonna take too much time I was thinking. How stupid!!!

But recently the itch of trying got more and more important and I finally did. First, it was much shorter and simpler than I thought and quite fun; second, shaping them was easy and fun; third, they are the best bagels I’ve eaten so far, except maybe in NY, but I don’t remember well, it was quite some time ago!! I made only very few, rather small (the proportions were for 4 or 5 bagels, I made 6), plain and multigrain types.

As for the recipe, since it was my first time and it was too perfect, I want to try again with more variety before giving you a recipe. I’m thinking there was a lot of beginners/first timers luck there!!!

June 18, 2015

Gâche bread and Italian cheese

On Saturday evening I often prepare bread to have something fresh and delicious for breakfast on Sunday morning. This time it’s a bread called gâche. I used half whole wheat flour (83g) half white flour (83g) to prepare it, then the usual 8g of sourdough, 2g of yeast, 3g of salt, 100g of water. It takes about 90min for the first rise, 60 for the second, and in between plan about 45min. Baking time is about 18min. If you’r in Japan I would recommend to prepare your bread right before being eaten because the weather is so humid that the crust gets soft very quickly, and originaly the crust of that bread is quite soft.

Well, if this bread was just perfect for breakfast, I then went to Eataly (I mentioned it in an earlier post) . Eataly is my best provider for delicious fresh Italian products, in particular San Daniele ham, pancetta and fresh cheese. They use to have fresh ravioli, but it didn’t last long. This gâche bread with a little La Tur cheese was just stunning!

June 15, 2015

Basilic bread

This bread looks a lot like foccacia but is shaped in a ball shape and is thus less oily and more fluffy. The recipe is basically the same, but a little less olive oil and fresh chopped basil leaves are mixed in the dough. Delicious with a summer salad, grilled vegetables, or just olive oil…

June 11, 2015

More bread

I can’t stop making bread and trying new recipes each time. And each time being delighted by the result, yet the other day I bought some bread at Viron (the top place for me to buy bread in Tokyo) and I realized that I need much more practice to attain such a stability in the result.

Anyway, it just mean more fun!

Here is a recipe of a delicious meslin bread. For a large bread you need: 250g of flour, 250 of rye floor, 25g of sry sourdough, 2g of yeast, 10g of salt, 350g of warm water. As usual start by mixing well the ingredients, then stirr until soft. Wait for 90min, shape the bread, wait an other 90min. Spread flour on top of the bread and cut in a cross. Bake for 25min at 230C.

June 2, 2015

Focaccia

When summer starts I love a good piece of bread with fresh vegetables and why not a barbecue. My favorite bread for that time is focaccia, and even better rosemary focaccia. It’s so easy to make and with a delicious olive oil it’s just too good!!!

To make a focaccia you just need fresh rosemary roughly cut, a fruity olive oil, flour, yeast, water and salt just like for gbe fougasse. But the preparation of the bread when shaping it is slightly different (just as on the picture). And the final touch is to fill the finger holes with olive oil before baking for 20 minutes.

May 22, 2015

A good start!

Of all meals breakfast is my favorite and I like all of its variations. I also like that my breakfast changes everyday, even if there are some common ingredients. Bread or similar and fresh fruits in salad, smoothy, or just plain are on the menu everyday.

I baked this wholewheat soft bread that accomodates perfectly with jam, honey, butter or cheese. It’s very similar to wholewheat pain de mie but because my covered pie dish was too big the bread occupied only half of it and the result was really delicious with a thin crispy layer covering the soft and tender center.

For the bread it’s really simple. I used 250g of T150 flour, 180g of water, 13g of sordough, 1g of yeast, 5g of salt.

May 18, 2015