Tag: bakery

Tokyo’s croissant ranking

My experience of making croissants was great but not perfect, so before I manage to make the best croissants in town, I am still looking for the best you can buy. You know, the one that are light and buttery, crispy outside and melty inside, well… THE perfect croissant. Hunting truly delicious croissants in Tokyo is as difficult as in Paris and I must admit. There are really a lot of bakeries that make croissants, and I’ve tried quite a lot of places already. In many places the taste of butter is not present, in others they top the croissant with some sirup making them too sweet, and sometimes they just have the appearance but nothing for the tate. Here is my list of bakeries in Tokyo making “real” croissants with hopefully a permanent address (a lot of shops move, open, close in a short time so it’s hard to track them):

1. Johan (in Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi, but there are some other places for sure) 

2. Le grenier a pain near Hanzomon

3. Kobeya kitchen at Hiroo crossing

4. Vie de France (pretty much everywhere near a train station) 

There might be some local stores I haven’t tried yet, so if you have a good address let me know!!!

There are a few big names in the bakery market but for croissant you can forget about Paul (never liked them, even in Paris), Viron (too dry and crispy, baked too long it seems), Kayser, Le pain quotidien (not fresh enough, and buttery enough)…

I’ll keep you updated if I find anything to add to that ranking, but you can send your addresses too and I’ll try! 

Vie de France
Vie de France

Boule bread Recipe

A few days ago you may have seen a picture of a boule bread that I prepared for our breakfast. Actually this bread itokyos one of the simplest bread to prepare.

Here is the recipe for a 20cm diameter bread: mix 250g of flour (T60), 125g of water, 12g of dry sourdough, 1g of yeast, 5g of salt. Mix all the ingredients together and malax until the dough is smooth and soft. Then keep under a humid cloth for 90 minutes. Then make a ball of the dough after flatening it and folding it. The folding marks on top. Wait an other 90 minutes. Pre-heat the oven at 230 degrees celsius. Return the dough (folding marks below) and incise the dough with the square pattern. Put in the oven, and bake for about 40 minutes. (If necessary you may need to add water to moist the air in the oven)

Looking for delicious local cheese in Japan?

I think I have finally found the spot!!! 

The other day I was introducing some locally produced cheese by Komagata cheese factory in Ohara, the problem is that it’s not easy to find and so far I’ve seen it only at one of the local product retailer Na no hana. So that’s quite limiting. 

Sunday morning we went to Ohara market on the harbour. I thought it would be fish-only market but in fact it is a quite big (for Japanese standards) farmers market, selling also fresh vegetables and many other things than fishes. That’s where I found the stand for Takahide cheese factory. A farm higher inland in Isumi, near Kuniyoshi. Their cheeses look a lot like the ones from Komagata, with a little variation. I picked the Isumi white moon (いすみの白い月) and did not regret that choice. It is perfect!!!

Takahide farm
Takahide farm

Very much pleased with that choice, we decided to go and check out the farm directly. It’s a short drive from our house and a nice one among rice paddies and traditional farms. The Takahide farm is up a hill in a kind of group of dairy farms. There is a little shop where they sell directly, but the stock is not big and I recommend giving them a call before if you are looking for something specific because it seems they don’t hold stock very long and depending on the time not every thing is ready yet. They also sell fresh milk and seems to organize some events.

Where it is interesting for you, if you live in Japan and looking for delicious cheeses is that you don’t necessarily have to go to a big department stores or an import stores to buy some cheese from France or Italy anymore! Takahide cheese factory has an online shop where they sell their cheeses and fromage blanc!!! It’s not cheap but it’s really worth the try and it’s local at least.

Since cheese cannot be dissociated from bread for me, at least the cheese that you eat, right not the one to top pastas etc… I prepared a plain fougasse with just a little of salt to eat with the Isumi no shiroi tsuki cheese, a very good match.  And I tried their reblochon style cheese: Makiba no taiyo まきばの太陽 with a whole wheat bread. It’s just insanely good!

Isumi no shiroi tsuki and fougasse (Plate from Kutani yaki)
Isumi no shiroi tsuki and fougasse (Plate from Kutani yaki)
Makiba no taiyo with whole wheat bread
Makiba no taiyo with whole wheat bread

Information:

Takahide farm in Isumi 高秀チーズ工房: http://www.takahide-cheese.com

Ohara farmers market 大原朝市: every first and third Sunday morning of the month, plus some extra days during holidays, on Ohara harbour. 

Kutani yaki 九谷焼: http://kaburaki.jp

Fougasse

The fougasse is one of my favourite bread. It goes back to when I was a little kid in Aix en Provence and a few days a week “le pere Richard” was making these delicious plain fougasse with little hearts to take off. Since then this olive oil base bread has gained popularity and now you can find fougasse of pretty much any taste pretty much everywhere. As part of my bread making “training” preparing some fougasse was an essential step and it’s surprisingly simple! Actually, olive oil based breads: foccacia, fougasse etc… Are extremely easy to make and to bake. 

For one large fougasse I use: 166g of flour (of your choice); 9g of dry sourdough; 2g of dry yeast; 4g of salt; 105g of water; 10g of olive oil; 75g of filing of your choice: olives, herbs, dry tomatoes, anchovies, cheese, ham… or just nothing. After stirring all the ingredients for about 10 to 15 minutes, keep in a warm place for 2h, then shape the dough, wait for an extra 1 to 2h before baking at 230 deg until goden. Finish with a thin layer of olive oil applied with a brush.

Thyme fougasse
Thyme fougasse

Chestnut and soya flour bread

Since I’m still trying a few cheese from the Komagata factory, I wanted some bread to eat with. The problem with bread is that it takes at least 3h30 to have something ready to eat assuming that you have a room heated at about 23deg… Knowing that Japanese houses are not well isolated not even well heated, and that it is freezing cold recently, making bread is more about 5 or 6h… Not something you improvise. But this chesnut and soya flour bread, since it is gluten free and don’t need to rise can be ready in 90min!!!! (Recipe from my bakery bible) Wonderful! And not even quick it’s super delicious. It’s quite compact and sweet, with a good taste of chesnuts. Perfect for the cheese I was trying this time!!!

Homemade pizza

I love pizza, all kind of dough, and simple toppings. So I’ve decided to make some, with a baker dough, slightly thick. The dough recipe is from my bakery book and was super easy to do, and for the topping I used the same tomato sauce as for the sardines, less spicy, fresh mushrooms and cheese for me, ham and fresh mushrooms for my husband who doesn’t like cheese!! Eaten just warm after the whole morning gardening!!

Chocolate and walnuts breads

A great day starts with a great breakfast. For this morning I prepared chocolate and walnuts little breads, just out from the oven. And a fresh smoothie with pineapple, cantaloupe melon and strawberries. How about you? How do you start your day? 

Have a nice week end!!
Have a nice week end!!

Sunday breakfast

For Sunday morning breakfast I like to eat homemade freshly baked bread, pancakes, crumpets, or anything alike, and fresh fruits in salad or smoothie. It’s a good start before spending the day out.
This weekend I prepared sugar bread, the recipe comes from Erik Kayser’s book, my reference for bread making (in French). 

It’s basically bread base in which a little sugar has been added, and the final shaping is slightly different. After baking it it is also finished with sugar sirup.
Perfect with butter, jam or just nothing.

Whole-wheat baguette viennoise

Still running out of regular white flour, I prepared a whole-wheat baguette viennoise for breakfast (regular recipe from Kayser’s book). Despite the granulous texture due to the whole-wheat it was perfectly soft and tender. I replaced the yolk egg batter with a whole egg batter and the color and crisp of the shell was much better too.

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