Almost Gibassier...ALMOST.

On a recent tour in the city of roses, I was introduced to a french "pastry" called Gibassier. I say "pastry" as it doesn't meet the American standard of it. When we think of a pastry - we think a danish, or maybe a croissant. Certainly not a bread based, faintly sweet, roll.

Oh, how we miss out.

Well, upon trying the Pearl Bakery's creation - I went on a mission to find a recipe. And I DID! However, in the absence of orange water, I have delayed the re-creation. Until, that is, I found the Artisan Bread book.

In surfing through, I found a recipe for Sweet Provencal Flat bread with Anise Seeds. It contained Anise and Orange - two of the central ingredients in my beloved Gibassier. It didn't look EXACTLY the same (it lacked the candied orange peel) but it did look close...so I bought the rest of the ingredients and gave it a whirl.

It wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but with a little tweaking it could be. I just adore the licorice flavor of the anise, but I would like more complementary orange flavor. I think next time, I will up the sugar a little and add the candied orange peel. Hopefully then I will be able to mimic the flavor of the amazingness that is Gibassier.

Sweet Provencal Flat bread with Anise Seeds (makes 4 1 - lb loaves or 8 + smaller loaves)

2.25 cups water
1/2 cups orange juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1.5 tablespoons granulated yeast
1.5 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon whole anise seeds
1.3 cup sugar
Zest from an orange
6.5 cups all purpose flour.

Mix the wet ingredients with a spoon, add in the flour. Use hands if necessary, and let rise and fall over the course of two hours (or more if necessary).

Use immediately, or chill for up to 14 days. I let it chill over night, which made it easier to shape.

Roll about 1/4 of it into a ball, then roll that out onto a well floured surface, about 1/2 inch in thickness.

Now, this is where my instructions differ from theirs. They require a pizza peel and a bread stone. I have neither, so here is what I did.

I greased a pan, cut the above loaf into 4 triangular pieces, and placed them on a greased sheet. Then I dusted the top of each loaf with a hefty amount of table sugar, and let rise for about 15 minutes.

I placed in a pre-heated 450 degree oven for 18 minutes each, until they turned golden brown. The pan was on the middle rack, but below it was a broiler pan. Before putting the bread in, I added 1 cup (plus a little) water to the broiling pan. The steam gave the bread a nice sheen.

When done, I lightly buttered the top of each loaf, and then sprinkled more sugar on the top. Then I let it cool on a rack.

The result is something apropos for a brunch or breakfast.

Heck, I'd eat Gibassier all day long given half a chance.

Homemade Filled Doughnuts. With Chocolate.

So, the Queen has mentioned the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day in her posts. Consequently, I had it in my "cue" of books to purchase. A couple of weeks back, I decided to pursue some "retail therapy." Well, like any other good foodie...I didn't find myself a good pair of shoes, or great purse. Instead, I went ahead and grabbed two cookbooks I had been eying. The bread cookbook being one of them.

I dutifully surfed through them searching for the first two items to sample. I will post about the OTHER item in the coming days, but I have to tell you - both turned out wonderfully! I am so excited to sample all the other great recipes.

Today's item is a pastry, and I think I was attracted to this "different" sort of bread. They are similar to something I make on New Years called an Okinawan Doughnut. The only difference is those are made with Soda and Powder as leavening agents, while this recipe is made with yeast.

Oh, and these have chocolate. Therefore, these are FAR superior.

Homemade filled Doughnuts, From Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Brioche Dough, as written in the book. I would half this (makes 4 1 lb loaves as written):

1.5 cups lukewarm water
1.5 tablespoons granulated yeast
1.5 tablespoons salt
8 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup honey
1.5 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
7.5 cups flour.

With a spoon, mix all wet ingredients together. Then follow with the flour. The dough is REALLY wet (like you did something wrong) because as it chills it sets up better. I actually added another half cup of flour to make myself feel better. I would probably (in hindsight) add another half cup to make it easier to work with later.

Let rise until it falls on itself. Over two hours. Then chill for awhile. Overnight is probably best, but you can let it sit in the fridge for 5 days.

When you're ready to rock, take a pound of the dough (a quarter of it, if made as written), and roll out on a well floured surface in a rectangle. Make 2 by 2 inch squares with a pizza cutter, place 5 or 6 chocolate chips in the middle of each piece, and gather the sides up. Pinch away, use some water if you need it to close everything up.

Let sit while you heat your oil to 360 or 370 (I kept it sort of low to make sure it didn't get too hot too quick). You're deep frying, so fill the pan accordingly.

Drop in as many as your pan can comfortably hold. I used a dutch oven, and added 6 or 7 at a time. Don't overcrowd! Let them turn golden brown, flip, and let them get golden on the other side. I actually found that they flipped themselves...which was sort of cool.

When they're done, let them dry on paper towels. Then I heavily dusted them in powdered sugar.

Great brunch or afternoon tea treat.

My bread, in use.

If you scroll down to yesterday's post, you will see that I successfully modified a French Bread recipe for sandwich bread. However, how can I measure the success of a recipe until I use it? Sure it TASTED good, but what kind of sandwich did it make?

The first effort was the most important - Peanut Butter and Honey sandwich for my young (picky) children. I got this great set of cookie cutters that has about a zillion shapes. I wanted to try a larger one and a smaller one. My batch cut up as easily (if not a little easier than the sore bought bread). Moreover, from the bite that I grabbed, I thought it tasted better. The spongy nature of the bread gave lots of places for the honey and peanut butter to hide!
How did it go for the real judges - my children? Well, my son (who usually only picks at his PBJ's) DEVOURED it. My daughter ate it as quickly as she normally does.

Verdict: The sandwich bread works for the kiddos.

Now, onto a more "grown up" sandwich:
Chickpea Salad:
Mash up a scant 1/3 cup of chickpeas
add: 1/8 - 1/4 of a diced onion.
1 clove of ultra mashed/minced/grated garlic
1 teaspoon of DILL relish (or chopped up dill pickle)
1 teaspoon yellow mustard (or Dijon, if you prefer).
1 Tablespoon of mayo or mayo alternative.
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together in bowl. It should clump together, but not be over done with mayo.

Spread over bread, put the other slice on top, cut, enjoy!

Verdict: The best chickpea salad sandwich, EVER.

If you're avoiding extra carbs, I have been known to put this salad over a bed of greens and enjoy that way too. It's really very versatile. But then again, why would one want to avoid carbs with this kind of bread hanging around?

French Bread Variation.

At the beginning of the summer, I stated that I was going to learn a "sustainable recipe" for homemade bread. As in, one that didn't take several hours or a lot of effort to make. One that I could use for PBJ's and other like meals. I thought I had hit the jackpot with my French Bread recipe, but I was discouraged by the first couple of efforts to modify it into traditional sandwich bread. First, I discovered that my load pan was just too small. Traditional pans a great for banana bread, no so much for a good hearty sandwich. With such a small loaf, it is difficult to cut the bread into thin slices. The next try (with larger pans) made me fully aware of the importance of a sharp bread knife. My bread was mangled, and the good slices I could get out were far too thick to eat as a sandwich. Moreover, half the batch (which makes a free form loaf beautifully) was too little for the big pan. The whole batch was too much.

But THIS time...well...I will let the results speak for themselves.
French Bread modified to sandwich bread:

(1) Go buy yourself some big 'ole loaf pans.

(2) You need to "half again" my French Bread. For you non math peeps - that means take each amount, and multiply by 1.5. That makes:
3.75 cups of warm water
3 Tablespoons of yeast
3 Tablespoons of sugar
1 Tablespoon of salt
8 1/4 cups of Bread Flour (you definitely want a heartier bread, so don't use all purpose unless that's all you have)

When I use bread flour, I've noticed I have to knead the bread a few times to get the flour incorporated correctly. The extra gluten in the bread flour just requires a bit more coaxing. Sprinkle a quarter cup or so of flour over the top before the first rise, it will allow you to to get it out easier.

(3) Let rise 15 minutes, as the original calls for. Cut in half with a knife, and mold into lightly greased loaf pan. Because this is such a wet dough - you don't need to worry about getting it into the pan all nice and neat. In fact, if you realize you "misjudged" what half was - go ahead and pinch the excess off of one loaf and sort of pat it into the other one. It will incorporate during the second rise. This is really a forgiving recipe (hence the sustainability).

(4) Rise 15 or so more minutes. Until you've got a nice dome going over the top.

(5) I baked at 375 for I would say around 30. You want a nice pretty golden color, like my first picture, on the top. If you like a crispier crust, bake a little longer. Keep an eye on it until you get a feel for your oven.

(6) Wait until it is cool before slicing to get the best slices. Oh, and make sure that knife is SHARP!

This makes a really spongy, soft, bread - which I love (all the spreads go into the little holes). If you like a denser bread - this might not work for you.

If you like the idea of making all of your family's bread - I would suggest buying yeast in bulk. Amazon has it for a great price, and I saw it at my local Sam's Club as well.

One tortilla, two tortilla, three tortilla...

At my son's last birthday, I realized that his cake was the last that I intended on buying. I could not believe that it cost me $26 for some flour and sugar - and I vowed to make my own from then on. I have a book that I plan on using for decorating help. I might also take a cake decorating class if the nearby Michaels offers them.

I felt similarly when I started making my own pancakes. I couldn't believe that I - and many others like me - had been suckered into buying mixes. It was so easy, and so much better, to make my own!

Well, I had heard the raves about homemade tortillas. Little Mexican Grandmas have been doing it for eons, so why couldn't I? Surely, women in Mexico in the early 1900's - without any of the conveniences of today - were able to make the tortilla work. With my fully stocked kitchen I shouldn't have a problem. My only concern was calories and fat, so I went ahead and looked up a recipe for those that are reduced fat.

What I discovered was that tortillas are absurdly simple. You have some sort of fat (in my case, light, organic, vegan margarine), flour, salt, and a leavening agent (in my case, baking powder - although some called for soda). Fat free tortillas actually call for fat free mayo instead of fat. You mix the dry, cut in the fat, and then stir in HOT water until a dough forms. Divide up the dough, let sit for 15 minutes, roll out, and cook. Simple.

Except not. Well, the mixing was simple, the cooking was not.

First, as I said, you toss in the dry and stir together.

2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups unbleached flour

Next, you must "cut in" the fat. Enter, pastry cutter. 4 Tblsp margarine or butterYou're basically looking to press the butter into the flour, over and over, turning the bowl, in order to make the dry ingredients look sort of crumbly. The "official" baking term is course cornmeal.

Next, add in the water until the dough is together and sticky.

1 1/4 cups water. Plop the dough onto a WELL FLOURED surface and knead for just a couple of minutes, until it's velvety and soft. Then the instructions say to "tear" the dough into 12 pieces. Yeah, right. I'd end up with 13 tortillas of all different shapes and sizes. I made a mound and got a knife. I cut in half, and shaped each half into a mound. Then I cut each mound in half again (now I have four halves). I then cut each half into thirds. That makes my yield of 12.

How's THAT for a math lesson.

Roll each piece into little balls and sprinkle with flour.

I just think this little dough ball picture is cool. Now comes the part that is going to take practice. You need to let the dough "rest" for 10-15 minutes. This is something consistent across all recipes. Just like you have to let bread rise, you must let the dough rest.

Then, one by one, you need to roll it out. Now, the outside of the tortilla gets sort of crispy/crusty. So, you don't want to roll it so thick that it won't "roll." You also don't want to make it so thin that it gets crunchy (think tortilla chips) too quickly. You want to find Baby Bear's bed - just right.

You also want the temperature pretty high - between 375 and 400. I had mine too low, which dried out the tortillas before I got the pretty golden spots I was going for. I cooked mine on a griddle, I am thinking a pan would have worked better. They have these fancy tortilla cookers, but we just don't eat them enough for me to invest in such a thing. You cook them just like you would a pancake

I got a "thought it was pretty good, it's a tortilla, I don't know what you expect," from the husband. So, passable to say the least. I know the dough is fine, so getting the cooking down will take me a few tries. This is true for many of these kinds of things - pizza took me a few tries too.

The beautiful thing about tortillas is you don't have to fill them with Mexican food. I filled the husband's tortilla with chickpeas and couscous (leftover) seasoned with curry powder. Again, passable. I love the idea that if the mood for wraps, or fajitas, or burritos hits - I don't have to give up just because I don't have tortillas. I almost always have the ingredients around, so it's just a matter of making them.

As an aside, I made my French bread recipe into a loaf bread. It worked pretty well, and made the best PBJs. In my original recipe, I divided the dough in half to get two loaves. In the bread pan, the whole thing went into one (I've got jumbo sized pans for sandwiches). Nice big pieces, with spongy crevices where the peanut butter and honey soaked into. The slices were too thick for the kids - I need a better bread knife. Also, I think I need to half again the recipe and put half of THAT batch in each loaf pan (so, we're looking at 2/3 and 2/3 in each of the pans). I will try that after my knew bread knife shows up. And post with a simple conversion if that works out better. I have a couple of other bread recipes to try too.

Happy tortilla making!

Bread and butter, baby.

So, I've been making some progress on my summer cooking goals.

It turns out that Panna Cotta is milk jello. I used a recipe from the joy of baking website, and my husband loved it. I accidentally ran out of vanilla (ooops), and had to substitute coconut extract. The result was excellent regardless, as the flavor did not change the velvety texture. However, the flavor was remarkably similar to Haupia (pronounced How-pee-ah), which is a Hawaiian Coconut custard. So, while it was good, it was sort of a "familar" flavor. Which made it nothing to write home about, at least for me. Oh well, my husband was happy.

I've also managed a couple of bread recipes. The kids seemed happy enough with the latest Oatmeal Bread attempt. What I don't love about it is the size. We'll be ordering some larger loaf pans from Amazon soon. Other than that - the kids seem to love it. It's about the first thing I've made homemade that they've eaten up happily! It IS a wonderful little bread. Out of the recipe you get two loaves. When finished, it's delicately sweet. Definitely a bread that you could just eat - no butter. Just straight.

I've found an AMAZING French Bread recipe. Given to me by the creative Mommy I've mentioned THREE times now on this blog, it's fast an easy.

2.5 cups warm water
2 TABLESPOONS of yeast (a lot, I know, but that's what makes it so fast)
2 TABLESPOONS of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
5.5 cups of flour.

Just stir together and let sit for 15 minutes. Then, with heavily floured hands (this is a very sticky dough) cut and divide in half. Lay out in two "logs" on a large cookie sheet and let rise for another 15. Then bake at 450 for 15.

This makes a flatter "Artisan" like bread. Leftovers are great for garlic and cheese bread. Today I piled it high with leftover bruschetta, sprinkled some fresh mozzarella over the top, and nuked it. Wonderful! I also plan on making panini sandwiches with it this summer. I have this idea for pesto, mozzarella, and maybe some mushrooms? Yum.

Finally, for Father's Day, I did try the balsamic reduction. I was disappointed. This will be harder than I thought. First of all, heating and boiling vinegar is pretty rough on the lungs. Secondly, it takes a while to get the reduction reduced, it's touchy and difficult to get it "just right," and to adjust the spices you pretty much have to make entirely different batches for trial and error. Jeff liked it, but it wasn't quite as good as I remember. I might have to get back to that restaurant to sample it again.

Anyhow, I'm feeling pretty confident about some of my bread recipes. The French bread is a new family favorite. Now it's just a matter of finding a good sandwich recipe. The Oatmeal Bread is great, but what about for grilled cheese?