Fresh home-made food every day
Instead of the traditional strawberry tart for A.’s birthday, I decided to make choux. It’s not something I’m very found of because ot often goes with cream or filling Idon’t like too much, but A. likes them very much. It’s actually very simple to make and with just an ice-sugar frosting it’s really delicious. It was my first time making some so they were a bit too big to my taste but taste-wise it was perfect! Recipe soon to come!
With the temperature increasing slightly it’s becoming much easier for me to make breads. Normal people living in normal houses don’t have this kind of problem of course, but if your house is a Japanese traditional old house made roughthly of paper, that matters! Now I can knead and I know the result is gonna be nice, so it was high time for a brioche. Usually I cook them in a rectangular pie dish, but this time I wanted them round and golden all over, so I made them smaller and round.
kneading brioche requires a bit more time than bread and your hands get really nasty, but it’s too delicious!!! So for 6 of these beauties, you need, 250g of hard white flour; 40g of brown caster sugar; 6g of salt; 10g of sourdough; 7g of yeast; 3eggs; 120g of butter at room temperature; vanilla. Mix all the dry ingredients, add the eggs and finish with the butter. Knead until smooth and soft. It can take more than 30min. Then keep in a warm place until it has taken a bit of volume (it does not double or whatsoever). Then keep refrigirated for about an hour. On cooking paper, cut in 6, and shape the brioches the way you want; wait an extra 2h; you can then use an egg yolk for a golden finish, and bake at 170 for 25min.
Well, an other rainy Sunday to test some madeleine recipe and I think this time it’s the right one. At first I was a bit reluctant in trying it because it has a lot more butter in it, but so far it’s the one that guarantees the best bumps and the perfect consistency. So, too bad for the butter outage that we still have in Japan, this is the recipe I will adopt as a base for my madeleines from now on!
I found it on the blog Piroulie (http://piroulie.canalblog.com/archives/2008/12/03/10442707.html) and it’s a Lenotre recipe. I always do smaller amounts so I used: 100g of flour, 85g of butter, 40g of brown caster sugar, 2 eggs, 3g of baking powder, a pinch of salt, a large table spoon of honey, then whatever you want for flavoring. This time I used neroli. I first melt the butter in a little pan. Then in a bowl I mix the eggs, the sugar, the salt and the honey, and batter well until a foam starts forming. Then I add the flour, the baking powder and continue to mix. Finally I add the butter and the flavoring and refrigirated for 30min. The oven is preheated at 230deg and as soon as I insert the madeleines I drop the temperature to 200deg as Piroulie recommended. After about 5-7min I again lower to 180deg, then the bumps appear nice and big! I bake until almost all golden, and remove from the mold as soon as I take it out. Quite simple and really delicious!!
There is one thing that I really love in the end of summer it’s figs. It is relatively easy to find beautiful purple figs in Japan and I usually cook them in tart. I use a very traditional and simple recipe with a classic dough sable and an almond powder base with very little sugar. It is always delicious with the crispiness of the dough and the sofness of the figs and the almond powder. I top it with a little of brown caster sugar for the perfect balance.
Long time no baking recipe because I’ve prepared us a lot of pancakes, crepes and similar in the past days for breakfast, but with the hot days baking bread has been so much easier than in winter that it would be a shame not to enjoy the warm weather.
This time I prepared a rye Vivarais bread. It’s a French traditional large bread, delicious anytime of the day. For one large bread I used 250g of rye flour, 250g of white flour, 155g of water, 13g of dry sourdough, 2g of yeast, 5g of salt. The process for manual kneading is always the same. Only shaping the bread differs. Here it gets a little more tricky, because after shaping the bread you need to cut it quite deeply, turn it on a floured clothe for 90 minutes and then bake it the floured face up, 10min at 230deg, and then 15min at 210deg. My nread was delicious but I’m not 100% sure I got it all right!
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.
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.
The dough is a “pate brisee”, so just flour, butter and water. The pudding part is vanila flavoured milk, eggs and sugar like for a regular pudding. And it is baked 45min in an oven at 180.
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