Brie-Stuffed Crescent Rolls

On days like Minnesota todays, the light at the end of the wintery tunnel appears to be snowed in. One foot of snow and still going. Izzy is going stir crazy, pulling socks out of the laundry and gnawing on hollow toes. I jumped off my front step this morning, slipped on the permafrost ice layer underneath the deceptive powder, and fell flat on my back on ice-slicked cobblestones, where I laid for a minute before Izzy came to lick my face and check for vitals—a fallen snow angel. March really is more a verb than a noun for us up in here the Midwest north.

Brie-Stuffed Crescent Rolls

Adapted from Baking Illustrated

Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole milk
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into sixteen pieces at room temperature
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup granulated sugar
4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon table salt

Directions:
1) Heat milk and butter and sugar in the microwave (or over stove) to 110 degrees. Beat eggs into the lukewarm milk mixture, whisking to combine.
2) Combine flour and yeast in a standing mixer. Add salt. Add the milk and egg mixture in a steady stream, mix at a low speed until satiny webs form. Mix vigorously until dough is smooth and elastic, about 3 minutes on medium speed.
3) Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Continue kneading by hand until it is smooth.
4) Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a towel or plastic wrap and set aside until it has doubled in size, about 3 hours.

5) Line a rimmed baking sheet with plastic wrap.
6) Turn dough onto a well-floured surface, roll into a big rectangle. Transfer the dough rectangle onto the plastic wrap and cover. Let rest overnight in the refrigerator.

7) Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Turn dough rectangle onto a lightly floured surface and roll and shape like in the pictures.

Roll edges up, beginning at the wide end, to form crescents, tucking a square of brie cheese in the middle.

7) Place rolls on prepared sheets, leaving 2-inches between them and arranging them with tips tucked underneath. Cover rolls with a kitchen towel and let rise until they have doubled in size, or in the refrigerator overnight.
8) If you have chosen the refrigerator option, be sure to let them come to room temperature before you bake. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Brush the crescent rolls with an egg white wash, and pour hot steaming water into a hot baking pan on the bottom rack for the steam effect. Close the over door and immediately turn the temp down to 350 degrees.
9) Bake rolls in center of oven until they are golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove, transfer to a wire rack to cool for five minutes, and then serve immediately with jam or some other such spread.

KP and I brought these to our friendship dinner at the lovely home of Sue and PG Arnold. In my rush to make it to dinner on time, I decided to crowd the rolls onto the baking pan instead of using two pans and spreading them two inches apart. What I ended up with was a plate that looked like a dense occupation by a snail army. Tasted great, though.

Abbey Altar Bread

Calvary Episcopal Church is the best church community in town. We are so grateful to enjoy fellowship with the Friendship Dinner series, Beer Church on Mondays, and last night, Cruise Night to welcome a tropical breeze into Rochester in time for Spring. They put out a call during Lent for Communion Bakers, and if I didn’t sign up for that, what kind of bread baking blogging hypocrite would I be?

Abbey Altar Bread

From St. Gregory’s Abbey

Three Rivers, Michigan

7/8 cup lukewarm water

3 tbsp honey

1 ½ tbsp olive oil

¾ tsp salt

1 packet dry yeast (sourdough starter for me)

2 2/3 cups of whole wheat flour

Mix water and yeast, then add the honey, oil and salt. Add unsifted flour and mix with your hands completely. Turn the dough out on a work surface and knead for five minutes. Return it to the bowl and let rise until doubled.

Now turn the dough onto a floured work surface and roll out to a quarter inch thickness. Cut into rounds with a biscuit cutter (I used a margarita glass).

Press a line across the dough with the blade of a knife so that the loaf may be divided into quarters.

Transfer to a baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Obviously, the body of Christ always gets 5 stars. And KP does too for dressing up as a banana at the church luau.

Challah Bread

I grew up with Challah Bread, not because I grew up Jewish (although everyone thought I was with the name Rachel, the way I look, and a younger brother named David), but because we adopted grandparents who had connections at the Jewish Community Center. It’s a long story, worth the telling, and in homage to this grand couple, this Sabbath the bread is dedicated to Barbara and Stanley Smith of Portland, Oregon.

Also to my mother, whose birthday we celebrate TODAY! Happy 40^th, MA!

Challah Bread

Ingredients:
3-3¼ cups (15-16¼ oz.) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sourdough starter
¼ cup sugar
1¼ tsp. salt
2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk (white reserved for egg wash)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
½ cup water, at room temperature

For the egg wash:
1 large egg white
1 tbsp. water

For topping:
1 tsp. poppy or sesame seeds (optional)

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the eggs, egg yolk, melted butter, and ½ cup of the water. Stir to combine. Mix in the flour, yeast, sugar and salt just until the dough comes together. Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed for about 5 minutes until the dough forms a ball and is tacky but not sticky (adding the remaining ¼ cup of flour gradually if needed.)

In a small bowl, whisk together the reserved egg white for the egg wash with the water. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled large bowl, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1½-2 hours. Gently press down the dough to deflate it, re-cover, and let rise again until doubled in size, about 40-60 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide into two pieces, with one roughly half the size of the other (9 and 18 oz. by weight.) Divide the large piece into three equal pieces and roll each into a 16-inch long rope.

Line all three pieces up alongside each other and pinch the pieces together at one end. From the closed end, braid the pieces together and pinch together at the opposite end. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Divide the remaining smaller piece of dough into three equal pieces and roll each into a 16-inch long rope. Line them up and braid as before, pinching the ends together. Brush some of the egg wash onto the top of the larger braid, and then set the smaller braid on top. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30-45 minutes, or until the loaf has puffed up and increased in size by about a third.

With an oven rack in lower-middle position, preheat the oven to 375˚ F. Brush the loaf with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle lightly with poppy or sesame seeds (if using).

Bake the loaf for 30-40 minutes, or until it is golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the side of the loaf reads 190˚ F. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before slicing.

Source: adapted from Baking Illustrated

Obviously 5 stars. Here’s the story about Stan and Barb:

I once thought that one became a grandparent by growing large. The Grand Canyon is a large canyon. A grandparent is a large parent.

“No, a grandparent is a parent of your parent, and you can only have four, at the most. Ever. Do the math.” the spoiled girl next door said.

At the time she said this, I only had three out of the four, and then went down to two when Grandpa Florus died a few days before my eleventh birthday. It wasn’t fair, we decided, my brother Dave and I. And it would probably disrupt our proper development, not having a full set. We had already lost several pets: the kindergarten class hamster, Flower, choked to death on a Barbie shoe on my watch; Dave’s bird, Fred, crushed its skull at full speed against our television screen, a false window. We didn’t have many more chances to be normal as it was.

Scanning our lives for possible replacements, we decided that Stanley and Barbara Smith were the best candidates. Church-going folk, they came to family camp every year with their Skyline Nomad trailer, had two miniature schnauzers, Heidi and Lily, well-groomed, grew their own vegetables, and made their own honey. Stanley carved baseball players in balsa wood and went to the shooting range, Barbara did crossword puzzles to completion and knit blue sweaters. There weren’t any children in their lawn chairs on the Astroturf outside the Nomad.

It seemed like a fitting question at the time. “Hello, Stanley Smith. You see, two of our grandparents are dead, the others live far away, and you and Barbara don’t have any kids. You got interesting projects going on at your house, like riding motorcycles and charming bees, and we were hoping, maybe you’d consider adopting me and Rachel for grandchildren?”

Stanley, with his red round face, Navy tattoos on leathered arms, and gold capped front teeth, gleamed like a shaft of sun.

“Of course, David! Ha ha! What a thing to ask!”

Later, he told the whole church what my brother had said, and though my face turned red, I was happy and pig-tailed. Stanley had tears in his eyes as he choked on his words, and everyone seemed to understand more about it than we did. They mm-hmmed and clapped. Barbara was a quiet woman, but she smiled from the pew, and nodded, her eyes glistening too.

Stanley and Barbara were grand to us. Better than their word, they sat through soccer games and school plays, took us on bike rides and motorcycle rides; we spent hours warming ourselves in front of their woodstove with plates of cookies. Kids brag about their old people like the middle aged boast of their children. Stanley flew planes and raced street bikes, Barbara knew how to program computers. We always had the one up. Our hearts burned with pride.

David and I grew up. We moved away. Stanley and Barbara sent their love, from afar, and we carried with us the grand lesson that it was Okay to ask for love and adoption when you feel yourself coming up short. We love you, Stan and Barb, and I just had to challah it from the rooftops.

Crockpot Chicken Enchilada Soup

Well, it was a sad story that ended happily. My Valentine package from my mother was stolen, we thought, off our front porch while we were in Louisiana. The mailman said he remembered delivering it. Nothing was there when we got home. My first mature instinct after the mail robbery was to offer the thief another package, my own, self-addressed and stuffed with Izzy poop including a less than professional note about what the thief might consider doing with his stolen excrement, in case he or she lacked imagination. The dog poop boobie trap package remained on my porch for a week, lamentably unstolen, until Mom called to tell me the Valentine had returned to her in Portland, beaten and ravaged but alive. Hurray! So thank you, thief, for having a change of heart and throwing the package back into the Post Office. I’ve got better things for repentant ole’ you to eat than what I put in Package #2. Like this soup KP cooked up for the Academy Award party!

Crockpot Chicken Enchilada Soup

Barns and Noodles (greatest name ever)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup onions, diced
3 teaspoons garlic, minced
16 ounces enchilada sauce
6 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoon cholula hot sauce (or your favorite hot sauce)
1½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon fresh cilantro
2 cup frozen corn
2 cup canned black beans
2 chicken breasts

Instructions

Heat up the olive oil in a large pan, then saute the onions until soft.
Add garlic and saute for one additional minute.
Add enchilada sauce, chicken broth, hot sauce, cumin, and cilantro.
Mix over medium heat for 2 minutes.
Pour the mixture into the crockpot.
Add chicken (I use frozen).
Cook on low for 4-6 hours.
Remove the chicken breast and shred with 2 forks.
Return to crockpot and add corn and black beans.
Cook for 30 more minutes.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of grated cheese.

Always a fan of spicy soup. Fun fact from book The Blue Zones which summarizes research from studies of populations who have the longest lifespans: they all eat nuts at least four times a week, and beans on the regular. Get thee to a legume and a bean!

Also, let’s have a round of applause for belated Valentines.

Babas Au Rhum

These little muffin dealies are named after Ali Baba because the guy who came up with them liked Ali Baba as a personal hero. Basically, a lazy dude took his stale bread and dipped it in rum and sugar to make it taste better and then lazily named it after his favorite folk character. Lame story. If I dipped my stale Cheerios in rum, I’m sure I could find a better name for them than Anne of Green Gables in Rum.

They deserve better. Not because they taste great (Babas au Rhum are supposed to be dessert, but no, I’d say they are more in the realm of breakfast pastry in sugar-high America), they deserve better because they have such a romantic name. They also deserve a pop-over pan so they look right. Alas, my kitchen is not complete. I made over twenty squat Babas.

Babas Au Rhum

For the batter

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 envelope rapid dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water, room temperature
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons grated zest from 1 lemon or orange
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces and softened

Syrup
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark rum

Glaze
1/2 cup apple jelly, heated

Have all ingredients for the batter at room temperature. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. In a mixer bowl, combine the water, eggs and lemon zest and mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix at low speed until well mixed, scraping the sides of the mixer bowl. With mixer running, add butter a tablespoon at a time until batter is smooth.

Pour the batter into 2 lightly greased popover pans, filling each about halfway and let rise at room temperature about two hours. When ready to bake, place in a preheated 375 degree oven on the middle rack. Bake 15 minutes, rotating pans at halfway point. Babas should be a golden brown. Transfer pans to a wire cooling rack. After about 5 minutes, remove babas from pan and continue to cool.

Combine the water and sugar in a pan, stirring to dissolve sugar and bring to a simmer. Remove pan from heat and add the rum.

Using tongs, take a cooled baba and dip into the rum syrup, turning to coat, leaving the baba in the syrup no more that 5 seconds. Repeat with remaining babas. Brush the melted apple jelly on top of the babas. Serve with sweetened whipped cream.

Meh, 3 stars. I had never dared put currants in anything before, because they seemed too close to raisins, and I detest raisins. But they taste great! They are but mini-raisins and not at all offensive in texture or flavor. Mom, you could probably sit with them for fifteen minutes in your mindfulness-based stress reduction sessions and have just as riveting a conversation as with the famous, or was it infamous, Raisin.

As for a better Ali Baba story, I challenged myself to come up with something better in two minutes. Because of the way the famous story title is written “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” people think that Ali Baba is the leader of forty thieves, a villain. Actually, he’s just a lucky dolt who follows a band of thieves around and eavesdrops on their magical cave treasure passwords (fyi: always Open Sesame) and by other such flukes of fate he just happens to benefit from the spoils of the thieves’ sloppiness. So, perhaps Babas au Rhum should be so named because Open Sesame is what the little muffin will whisper to your lips on its way toward your face.

Brioche

What better to serve at a decadent Academy Awards party than a decadent loaf of buttery brioche? I barely tasted the brioche, so quickly it disappeared from the party platter. Janelle and Lorraine were especially fond of the bread—rumor has it they had a little shoving match next to the oven over a slice. Nothing pleases me more than shoving matches in my kitchen over the products of experimental recipes. The clear winner: Janelle, starring as Bradley Cooper.

Brioche

Baking Illustrated

3 1/4 cups unbleached bread flour

1 tablespoon package yeast (or sourdough starter)

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoons salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened and cut into 16 tablespoon sized pieces

3 large eggs

½ cup ice water

1 egg, whisked until frothy, for egg wash

Directions:

Add the flour and salt to the yeast and set aside. Chill a standing mixer in the freezer for 15 minutes. To make the dough, add the eggs to the water and the sugar and whisk (or beat on medium speed with the paddle attachment) until smooth. Add this mixture to the sponge and eggs and stir (or continue to mix with the paddle attachment on low speed for about 2 minutes) until all the ingredients are hydrated and evenly distributed. Let this mixture rest for about 5 minutes so that the gluten can begin to develop. Then, while mixing with a large spoon (or on medium speed with the paddle), gradually work in the butter, about one-quarter at a time, waiting until each addition of butter assimilates before adding more. This will take a few minutes. Continue mixing for about 6 more minutes, or until the dough is very well mixed. You will have to scrape down the bowl from time to time as the dough will cling to it. The dough will be very smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator overnight.

Line a pan with baking parchment and mist lightly with spray oil. Flatten the dough into an 8-inch square about 1 inch thick and roll it into a log and place in the parchment-lined pan. Let rise at room temperature at least 4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Brush the loaf with egg wash right before it goes in.

Place the loaf pan in the oven and immediately turn the oven down to 350 degrees and bake until the internal temperature is 190 degrees, about 55-60 minutes.

Cool on wire rack completely before slicing. Or don’t, if the wolves are hungry.

5 stars. I endured a rather lengthy lecture on brioche from fellow Beer Church member, Sebastian. He quizzed me on the brioche ingredients, an examination I seem to have failed. Sebastian, you’ll just have to sample my brioche. I know you say there should be 3 sticks of butter in a proper brioche…well, prove it. Being French counts for nothing. Show me your brioche (gauntlet thrown)!

Whole-Wheat Mocha Chiffon Cake

Happy Fourth Birthday to Izzy the Tooth! We celebrate today the joy Izzy has brought to our lives since she became a part of our family in August. I feel like Izzy has already had a birthday since more than half of my birthday cards from this year feature bulldog photographs. Also, Izzy made three new penpals over the holidays: Freddie, a stout and strapping gentleman bulldog in Mountain View, California, and Stanley and Larry, French bulldog and pug, in Sylvan Lake, Michigan. Izzy is always happy to receive correspondence, and is quite prompt in response.

To celebrate the occasion, I skipped ahead in Baking Illustrated and started the cake series in her honor. Obviously, we did not feed this chocolate cake to Izzy, but I gave her plenty of extra treats and a chew toy and extra cuddling. Beer Church toasted to Izzy and lapped up her commemorative chiffon.

Whole-Wheat Mocha Chiffon Cake

Baking Illustrated

7 eggs, 5 separated
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/3 cups cake flour (whole-wheat pastry flour is what I used)
1 cup and 6 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil (I used olive)
3/4 cup brewed espresso (cool it down, of course)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ounce grated unsweetened bakers chocolate

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place egg whites along with cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Whip with the whisk attachment on medium-high speed until it reaches soft peaks. Continuing on medium-high, whip the whites until they are just stiff and glossy. WHIP WHIP WHIP—the recipe says they should be borderline dry.
In a large bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt with a whisk. In a medium bowl, whisk together the two whole eggs, the five yolks, oil, water, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix (with the whisk) until just smooth. Add the baker’s chocolate at the end.

Whisk 1/3 of the whipped egg whites into the batter to lighten it up. Then add the remaining whites, a few spoonfuls at a time, and gently fold in. Avoid over-folding so do not fully incorporate one installment of whites before adding the next.

When all the whites have been folded in, pour the batter into the untreated angel food cake pan. Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Turn the cake upside down (over a bottle if your pan does not have “legs”) and cool for about 3 hours. Remove the cake by running a knife around the pan, angling the knife towards the pan to try and get the full crust on the cake.

4 stars. My advice for this cake? Whip it good.

I read a couple of blogged warnings about this particular recipe, some claiming there to be a typo regarding the flour. Older recipes say there should be more than two cups of flour, and some people had posted some chiffon disaster photographs that looked like little rubbery brown innertubes on the plate. I panicked about whether to trust Baking Illustrated or whether to trust the blogosphere. I had never whipped egg whites before (which is INCREDIBLE! I was shocked by the beautiful cloud formations!), I had never made chiffon cake before, I had no cake instincts being previously a Betty Crocker Box Mix kinda gal. I am so glad I trusted America’s Test Kitchen. Turned out great! The only amendment is one should grease the pan—I mangled the top trying to wrest the spongy cake from the pan. It was SO tasty, and the whole wheat flour didn’t weigh it down.

Happy Birthday to Izzy—the best bulldog in the universe.

Southwest Quinoa

While the Oscars rolled out the red carpet, KP and I rolled out the red table cloth. I’ll be posting all week from the Academy Award Party feast. To start, as it is the International Year of Quinoa (I love making the proclamation over and over), make this tonight and it will last all week. It has the classic casserole look which I detest and am particularly sensitive to living in the Midwest, but amp up the chili powder (I used well over a tablespoon) and pure spiciness will officially knock it from the casserole category.

Southwest Quinoa

Serves 6 (about 1 cup each)

Hy-Vee Seasons Health 2013.

Ingredients

2 1/2 c. 33%-less-sodium chicken broth, divided

3/4 c. dry quinoa

2 tbsp Grand Selections olive oil

1 c. diced onion

1 c. diced carrot

1 c. diced red bell pepper

1/2 c. diced celery

1 (4 oz) can diced chilies, drained

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained

2 c. diced cooked chicken

1 c. finely shredded 2%-milk Mexican cheese blend

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bring 1-1/2 cups chicken broth to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan. Add quinoa; return to a boil, cover and cook over medium heat 12 minutes or until quinoa has absorbed all the broth. Remove from heat, fluff, cover and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, red bell pepper, celery and diced chilies; sauté until tender, about 3 minutes. Add black pepper, chili powder, cumin and coriander and sauté 2 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Add remaining 1 cup chicken broth, diced tomatoes, chicken and prepared quinoa. Stir to combine.

Pour mixture into a greased 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Top with shredded cheese. Bake 30 minutes or until heated through.

5 stars! We even had a guest from Peru who raved over the dish and reminded me more than once that quinoa originates from the region of the Andes. Quinoa is a species of goosefoot, a “chenopod” which means it is more related to beets and spinach than it is to wheat. Quinoa is a grain look-alike only, it has no gluten. I love the way it absorbs the flavor of whatever it cooks with. It tastes like pumpkin pie in my Pumpkin Quinoa, like spicy chili enchilada with this dish. Quinoa is protean and extremely good for you!

Also protean, here’s me as an Academy Award, photo courtesy of Bradley Cooper (ahem, Janelle):

Rosemary and Olive Bread

I love rosemary; it makes me think of Rosemary Clooney torch songs and It’s a Wonderful Life, for some reason, in particular, this famous exchange:

George Bailey: What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon, Mary.

Mary: I’ll take it. Then what?

George Bailey: Well, then you can swallow it, and it’ll all dissolve, see… and the moonbeams would shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair… am I talking too much?

When I am cooking with Rosemary, it might as well be spring. And this loaf might as well be a dissolving moon. Dissolving in my mouth, that is—we’ll see if it shoots out my fingers and toes. I know there is a man in the moon, but a bulldog? Izzy claims there is one.

Olive and Rosemary Bread
From Baking Illustrated

Sponge

1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 cup water, at room temperature
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour

Dough

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface, hands, and dough
1 1/3 cups water
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup chopped fresh rosemary leaves (1/8 cup dried)
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil-cured black olives, pitted and coarsely chopped

For the sponge: stir the yeast into the water in a medium bowl until dissolved. Mix in the flours to create a stiff, wet dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for at least 5 hours, preferably overnight.
For the dough: mix the sponge, flour, water, honey, and rosemary until smooth, about 15 minutes, adding the salt in the last 3 minutes. Add more water as needed – the dough should be smooth but sticky.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and gently knead in the chopped olives until incorporated. Return to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let double until tripled in size, at least 2 hours.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and dust dough with flour. Lightly press the dough into a round and transfer the dough, smooth side down, to a baking sheet. Let rise for another hour.
While dough is rising, set oven to 450F. Place a small baking pan, filled halfway with water, on the lowest rack.
Once dough has risen, cut a large X into the top of the dough. Bake at 450F for 30 to 40 minutes. Bread will be dark brown and a thermometer inserted into it will register 210F.
Store bread at room temperature and reheat at 450F.

So very tasty, 5 stars. The weird moon crater pattern in the flour dust is from the bowl in which I let it rise—a plastic colander with circular holes. Where the recipe said to let the dough rise 45 minutes, I stretched it into several hours thanks to the languor of Lincoln (during which I fell asleep for 30 minutes and grievously offended the history buff stranger to my right in the theater). I was happy to come home and rouse my attention with the scent of fresh olives and rosemary. Sprinkling the sea salt into the X is key.

Rustic Italian Bread

When Karl-Peter told me we were going to some friends’ house for pizza last night, I had no idea I was bringing my Rustic Italian bread under scrutiny of an authentic bread baking guru. Straight from the oven I delivered this gigantic Italian loaf to our hosts and the party guests, and it was with some panic, after the tour of the bread science book library, that the bread guru himself cut into the proffered loaf.

Magnifique.

RUSTIC ITALIAN BREAD

From: Baking Illustrated

Ingredients:

Biga (Sponge)

11 ounces bread flour (2 cups)
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
8 ounces water (1 cup), room temperature

Dough

16 1/2 ounces bread flour (3 cups)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
10.7 ounces water (1 1/3 cups), room temperature
2 teaspoons table salt

Directions:

Biga:

Combine flour, yeast, and water in bowl of standing mixer fitted with dough hook. Knead on lowest speed (stir on KitchenAid) until it forms a shaggy dough, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer biga to medium bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let stand at room temperature until beginning to bubble and rise, about 3 hours. Refrigerate biga at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours.

Dough:

Remove the biga from refrigerator and it let stand at room temperature while making dough.
To make the dough, combine flour, yeast, and water in bowl of the standing mixer fitted with dough hook. Knead the dough on lowest speed until rough dough is formed, about 3 minutes.
Turn the mixer off and, without removing the dough hook or bowl from the mixer, cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes. (This allows protein in the dough to relax, making for a stronger dough that can rise higher, with a better crust)
Remove the plastic wrap over the dough, and add the biga and salt to bowl. Continue to knead on the lowest speed until ingredients are incorporated (dough should clear the sides of the bowl but should stick to the very bottom), about 4 minutes.
Increase the mixer speed to low (speed 2 on a KitchenAid) and continue until the dough forms a more cohesive ball, about 1 minute.
Transfer the dough to a large bowl (at least 3 times the size of the dough) and cover it tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a cool, draft-free spot away from direct sunlight, until slightly risen and puffy, about 1 hour.
Remove the plastic wrap and turn the dough. Replace the plastic wrap and let the dough rise 1 hour. Turn dough again, replace plastic wrap, and let dough rise 1 hour longer.
Dust the work surface liberally with flour. Hold the bowl with the dough at an angle over the floured surface. Gently scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto the work surface (the side of the dough that was against bowl should now be facing up).
If you want two smaller loaves, split the dough into two equal halves. Use a knife or bench scraper.
Dust the dough and your hands liberally with flour and, using minimal pressure, push dough into a rough 8- to 10-inch square. If you are making two loaves, shape each piece into a smaller rectangle.
Shaping the loaf—watch this video (minute 6:39 they show how to shape a batard, do the folding and then just don’t roll it into the long slug, keep it more square—I love the fiddle-y music in the video, yes?)– transfer it to a large sheet parchment paper. Dust loaf liberally with flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap; let loaf rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Meanwhile, adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position, and place a baking stone on the rack. Pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees.
Using a single-edged razor blade, or sharp chef’s knife, cut a slit 1/2 inch deep lengthwise along top of loaf, starting and stopping about 1 1/2 inches from the ends.
Lightly spray the loaf with water. Slide parchment sheet with loaf onto baker’s peel or upside-down baking sheet, then slide parchment with loaf onto hot baking stone in oven. If you are not using a baking stone or tile, simply place the baking sheet in the oven.
Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees and quickly spin loaf around half way using the edges of the parchment paper.
Continue to bake until deep golden brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center of loaf registers 210 degrees. For one large loaf this will be about 35 minutes longer. For two smaller loaves this will be closer to 30 minutes.
When the bread is done, transfer it to a wire rack and discard the parchment paper. Now the toughest part, cool the loaf to room temperature, about 2 hours.

Definitely 5 stars. I dedicate this loaf to Dick and Nola Christiana, Italian people to the core and wonderful friends to us. Nola here advised KP on how to make a proper pizza.

We had such a wonderful time, perhaps most wonderful all, discovering that I have a new bread baking master/mentor right here in Rochester. Thanks Ed and Lucy for a fantastic evening, and I look forward to the many loaves to come!