On this years Rosh Hashanah 5772 one of my friends made me a very nice Honey Cake. It was very moist, fluffy, sticky like honey on the outside and it had a nice crunch to the bite from the roasted sliced almonds.

A good honey can be the best kind of coffee cake.

Honey cake can be also eaten during the week of Rosh Hashana on Shabbos night. 

10 steps for bread making. October 2011

Today was a random day at school, we received a mystery basket with some vegetables, meats, starches and dairies and decided on some recipes upon those ingredients.

One of the things we decided to make was bread. I will explain how we make most of our breads in  school.

Before you begin, you will need to make your starter, let's call him Boris. 

You will use:

• Bread Flour (10oz)
• Active Dried Yeast (1tsp)
• Warm Water (6.5 floz, about 90 F)
• Salt (1 1/4 tsp)

If you don't want to use these exact measurements that is fine. As long as your dough looks like a bread dough.

Combine the first three ingredients in a bowl and knead on medium speed. Let it sit for about 15 minutes, now add the salt and knead about 10 more minutes, until it develops gluten. You can test it by punching it with your finger. It should bounce back, not holding an indentation.

Ps: You should add the salt after a break of 15 min. because salt inhibits gluten development and yeast growth. 

Now put the dough, Boris, in a lightly oiled big aluminum bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, leave it in a relatively warm spot of the kitchen (about 90 F) and let it double in size. It will take about 4-6 hrs.

Once it has doubled, punch it down to give the yeast new feed. You may use Boris immediately or retard it in the cooler.

Remove Boris from the cooler about 1 hour before use so that it warms up to room temperature.

Once you have used the amount of Boris needed, you must feed it with a minimum of 1 cup of water (room temp 70-90 F) and 1 cup of Bread Flour. This is a daily measurement.

• If you are using it in a constant basis, feed it with a ratio of more water than bread flour, such as 1 to 0.5 since water will accelerate its growth.

• If you are not using it in a daily basis, feed it with more flour than water, such as 0.5 to 1. This will give it structure and not let it grow to much.

• If you are using it a lot and you feel it is diminishing in size, feed it a bigger quantity of food, such as 2 to 2. 
• You can also feed it with some new starter from the new bread you are making that day.
• That would be a portion of your flour, yeast, water, salt and Boris. After it has been fermented twice and before you are about to form it and proof it. That is the moment when you would take a portion of it and feed it to Boris.

10 Steps in Bread Production:

• Preheat oven at 550 F.
• Scale ingredients:
• 12 oz Boris (starter)
• 24 oz Bread flour
• 1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 15.25 floz water (90 F)
• 0.5 oz Kosher salt
• Bread flour as needed
• In a mixer, with a bread hook attached, mix the flour, water and yest in medium speed for 1 minute. The water and yeast should be mixed together before so that yeast does not lump.    Now add Boris and mix for 2 minutes. Now stop and let the dough rest for 15-30 minutes. This is called Autolyse. This allows the starch of the flour to absorb the water. Resume mixing and add the salt at the end of the process. If needed add a touch of more bread flour. Mix well until resistance is felt when the dough is tugged on. At this point the dough should feel sticky but elastic.

• 1st Bulk Fermentation: put the dough in an oiled container and cover it with plastic wrap. Outline the the outside of the dough with a marker on the plastic wrap. This way you will notice when it doubles in size. Place it in a warm spot of the kitchen (90F) and let it ferment.
• Once it has doubled, punch it down to even out the temperature of the dough and give the yeast new feed.
• 2nd Bulk Fermentation: This will help develop structure and flavor development, especially at high altitudes.
• Once it has doubled in size again, scale and weight your dough. Give it an extra 13% weight since it will evaporate once baked.
• Shape your dough to the desired shape, such as a Baguette or a Miche shape. Hint: When making Baguette, if you want it to have bigger air bubbles and a crunchier and darker crust shape them initially only to half their length size and let it proof. After 30 minutes gently stretch it out to its final shape and let it proof until done. This way you are stretching out the initially-formed bubbles length wise (horizontally), making them bigger and giving the a bigger shape to grow taller).

• Place your bread on a Couche (your "Bread Bed" can be made by placing a clean and folded in 6 parts table cloth on the under part of a baking sheet and covering it with flour). place a small container with steaming water next to your dough that is about to ferment and cover it without touching it, such as with a plastic box. This is called Proofing. It should double in size. You can test for doneness when you punch it with your finger and it holds its shape. Place it on a Bread Peel covered with a little bit of flour and corn meal (so that the bread slides easily from the peel) and Score your bread at a sharp 45 degree angle. this will break the surface tension of your bread and allow it to expand correctly during the baking process. Obs: you place your Couche on the back of a baking sheet because when you transfer it to the bread peel it will slide downwards, more easily without hurting the delicate risen dough.
• Immediately after scoring place it on the bread stone of the hot oven. Now put a sheet pan with about 1 cup of ice water on the bottom of the oven. This steam will retard the crust formation of the bread, making it grow taller. The combination of the steam, hot air and carbohydrates will also give the bread a caramel color as it bakes.
• Once ready (it should have an internal temperature of 190 F), remove it from the oven and let it sit for 15 minutes before cutting. This will allow the gluten strends to cool and reconnect.

We had our dough rising in a basket called Willow Banneton. That is how it got this shape.

The Beurre Rouge that I made that turned out very nicely. We ate it with our Pan Seared Striped Bass.

Also, I roasted the Delicata Squash seeds from the Squash that was used to make our soup.

It was a nice Garnish for our Soup, thrown in right before serving time. This way they kept crunchy.

Above you can see the Beurre Rouge and the Roasted and Salted Squash Seeds.

Making Beurre Rouge:

Beurre Blanc (made with white wine)/Beurre Rouge (made with red wine) evolved from the practice of enriching cooking liquids with butter. 

It is made by preparing a flavorful reduction of vinegar or (and) wine then whisking very rapidly pieces of butter into it while it is still hot and on the stove.

Each piece of butter carries all the ingredients necessary for a new portion of sauce, so it's up to the you to decide how much butter you want to use in your sauce. 

The consistency of the Beurre Rouge should be similar to the consistency of thick cream. If you wish to make it thicker you can do so by using clarified butter (which does not contain water particles) once the initial emulsion with butter has been formed.

Detail: You need to use normal butter to form an initial emulsion between the fat and the acidic liquid in Beurre Blanc (Rouge) because the complete butter contains protein particles that make this emulsion happen.

Once you create an emulsion and get it to the consistency and adjusted flavor that you desire, you should keep you Beurre Rouge warm but not hot. 

If it gets over 135 F it will begin to separate and leak butter fat. 

If it gets below 86 F (body temperature) the fat crystals will solidify and separate from the liquid as well.

An overheated Beurre Blanc that has been broken can be restored by adding a bit of cool water while whisking. 

The addition of a bit of cream at the end process of making your Beurre Blanc provides the sauce with more emulsifying materials. This makes the Beurre Rouge more stable.

Above you can see a Striped Bass en Papillote. It is fairly easy to make, but since it does not get any Maillard browning flavor, I advice you to use flavorful vegetables that are well seasoned so that the steamed final product tastes interesting. 

You can fill the fish and vegetable Papillote with fresh seasoned Bell Peppers, seasoned Red Onions and Fresh Herbs. This combination will create a more intense Papillote "surprise".

Delicata Squash Soup Ingredients.

Third S.O.C. Day. October 2011

This is our third S.O.C. (System Of Creation) day at the culinary school. For those who are not familiar with the term, instead of having a day with certain cooking methods we have to follow and certain recipes we have to make, we are given a list of random ingredients with which we can create our own recipes, present and taste as the end of our cooking day. The ingredients mainly include products that are in season and from our local farmers.

Here goes the list of ingredients that were given to us today:

Vegetables, Fruits and Grains:

• Green apples (below)
• Green Bell Peppers
• Peaches
• Red Onions
• White Onions
• Tomatoes
• Carrots
• Lemons
• Yellow Bell Peppers
• Turnip (bellow)
• Patty Pan Squash (bellow)
• Winter Squash or Delicata (bellow)
• Shallots

Dairy:

• Milk
• Butter
• Heavy Cream
• Cheddar Cheese
• Chevre (Fresh Goat Cheese)

Meats:

• Chicken parts (except for the breast)
• Bacon/Fat Belly

I chose to make Baked Spiced Apple topped with Cream Cheese, Roasted Sliced Almonds, Petit Mixed Green Salad, finally finished with some Dried Cranberries. 

From the ingredients that I used below, I decided to make my own "Cream Cheese" since we did not have any in storage.

Here goes the process:

Get a good quantity of Heavy Cream and in medium heat bring your cream that is in the pan to a boil and lower your heat. Keep it simmering. It will bubble and want to spread out from time to time, just mix it and "quiet" it back down. Reduce it until it gets to a thick cream like consistency. Season it accordingly ( I just used sea salt) pour it in a proper container and refrigerate it.

Hint: in certain food productions, such as pastry applications, dough applications or even cheeses, you may want to use a Sea Salt instead do Kosher salt, since it is a bit finer and will spread more easily and evenly in your product.

Remember that once the cheese cools the flavor and seasoning will be a bit masked and become more quiet, so you might want to over season it just a bit.

I also roasted my own almonds when making my appetizer, since fresh roasted almonds have a flavor that is a lot more intense than store bought roasted almonds that most probable have been roasted a some looong time before the day you purchased it.

Attention: it is very easy to burn your nuts while roasting them. That is why I suggest you roast them at a medium low oven temperature, such as 300 or 350 degrees F. so that you have an easier time controlling their browning. 

Below are the Green Apples that were cooked and cooled before use. Their fresh sour flavor was very delicious, but the chili spice that I used together with the other spices was a bit overpowering and the texture of the apples became a bit mushy.

One step I will do different next time I repeat this Canape or a similar one is add my spices together with my onions, sweat them in low heat, so that the spices, including the chili powder, have time to extract their flavors while the onions are cooking in a high smoke point oil, such as Grape Seed Oil. I would also add my garlic a few seconds before adding my apples, since garlic cooks faster than onions and spices. This way they would not over-brown. 

I will also only lightly brown my apples in both sides, so that they maintain a crunchy bite at the end.

One more tip: crush your garlic instead of chopping it and then used this paste when cooking this canape, this way they would not be so noticeable and strong flavored when you bite into the apple.

Also, this is an Hors d'oeuvres that should be done right before service so that the ingredients taste fresh and unique in the combination.

A Cream Cheese Hint: I also would have seasoned my cheese paste a bit more strongly. It became a bit to quiet on my final mix of flavors.

Finally, my original idea was to use dried figs as a final topping for this appetizer, but since we had none, I got dried cranberries instead. Since they are sweetened with refined sugar, I felt that their sweetness ended up being too dominating in the bite. 

When I have a choice I always prefer using dried fruits that are naturally sweetened, they just taste I guess, more "natural".

My second canape was a Roasted Winter Squash, or Delicata Squash (another name for it) filled with Caramelized Onions on its middle hole and topped with Melted Cheddar Cheese. 

Below is the are the two sheet pans with my two different canape bases that are being chilled before being combined with the rest of the ingredients. The top sheet pan has the cooked spiced apples and the bottom one has the roasted Delicata squash. 

Again, on this hors d'oeuvres the caramelized onions were a bit too sweet for the "savory" flavor I was expecting. Maybe I just don't have a "sweet tooth day"  today, but I do believe I will enjoy this same canape with sauteed seasoned onions on my next preparation.

This week my partner and I were also responsible for the "Bread Making" of the week. I think this is one of the most exciting and fun areas of working with food, since I feel like I am dealing with a very alive creature, the yeast, that is one of the four main ingredients always present in Bread I can think of.

From my relationship with yeast, I feel that when working with it, I have to be present and caring towards it. It's a very nice feeling.

4 Main ingredients in Bread and their main function:

Active Yeast: makes it leaven, gives it flavor

Flour: gives it structure

Water: helps it leaven, creates gluten

salt: adds roundness, controls the yeast.

Below you will see Boris, our starter, finally showing his face. At this point he had already done this job, which was provide us some of his dough.

 At this point he had been fed 1 cup of water and 1 cup of Bread Flour barely mixed, keeping lumps of flour in the batter. This is usually the amount we feed him when using him moderately.

If you are using a starter a lot, it is advisable to fee your starter with more water (room temp) than flour, since water activates the fermentation.

If you are using your starter very little, it is recommended that you feed him with more flour than water, to slow down its fermentation. 

After feeding your starter it will need time to digest its food (when it bubbles) at room temperature and with it's lid slightly open.

After a few hours out, 4 or 5 you can close him and put him back in the cooler to sleep.

Today, Boris is about 2 months old. He is already starting to show some nice personality flavor in our bread.

One small mistake that happened when making our breads was that our Couche Bed, which is where the bread rests and Proofs (at a last fermentation before being baked) was a bit moist, so after our breads (that were shaped into one Miche and a batch of four Baguettes) finished growing we tried lifting them from the Couche and parts of them, especially the Miche, stuck to the bed and puffed down, so we decided to roll them flat in pieces and grill them on med. high heat.

For our surprise, now we not only got the delicious flavor of Boris, but we also got the browning flavor from the dough on the grill (Maillard Reaction).

A very nice miss fortune after all.

A Barley Risotto appetizer done by a group in class, the wholesomeness of the grain tasted a bit flat for me.

Here is a Peach, Chevre (Fresh Goat Cheese) and Bacon Bruschetta.

In my oppinion, one of the first steps in making a Bruschetta is seasoning your bread with a nice Extra Virgin Olive Oil and some raw Garlic, or if making a big quantity of them, brush both sides of them with a strong garlic flavored olive oil.

This one was not seasoned, so I thought it turned out to be a simple Cheese and Peach Toast instead. With the first step of Olive Oil and Garlic flavoring and moist, this product could have acquired a whole different flavor and charm.

This was a Corn Bread that was served with the appetizer that you will see below. Since Corn Bread is naturally dry, you gotta be very careful not to over bake it. It will become too dry very easily.

Another hearty "stay home sick" rice soup with vegetables. 

The Corn Bread was served with nice crispy pieces of Breaded Chicken Legs and Thighs and some Roasted Peaches. A very interesting combination.

Here is the final production of my Apple, Cheese and Cranberry Canapes.

My Delicata Squash Canape.

Hint: When cleaning the Winter Squash save the seeds that are inside. Clean them, lightly salt them and toast them in a low heat oven. Use the as a garnish for your food or eat them as a side nibble while preparing the rest of your meal.

Besides being delicious they are very nutritious.

Feeling. October 2011.

Every other day, as I take a break from my work and step outside, I feel very fortunate do be alive in such a beautiful place where I just want to breathe the fresh crisp air and feel the mountains, the sky behind it and these amazing creatures that are part of it.

Vibrant, pure, the meaning of joy...