All Rise! - Perfect Italian Bread Every Time

I know I have written quite a few posts about bread in general, but lately, we've been on an Italian bread kick here in my house. Why? Well because the boys love my Italian bread. We have it on Italian "Extravaganza" night and because I always make 2 giant loaves at a time, we usually have it for subs, as well. 

When we have the kids, everything is an "extravaganza"! That is because we usually do a whole theme and Italian night is no different. We don't just have lasagna, for instance. We will also have Italian salad or baked ziti or stuffed shells or giant meatballs, you name it.

Italian bread, I find, is the key when you have American kids who have grown up with soft white American bread. It's soft enough for their palate but with a nice chew and texture that can satisfy most adult palates at the same time. Probably why it never lasts long in the house and when we have guests over, as we did for Easter Sunday, everyone wants to take home some bread with their leftovers. 

Can't say as I blame them. 

So for all the Sunday dinners, holiday dinners and bread lovers out there, I've written a special post about Italian bread just for you. 

One of the secrets to my version and for the techno-geeks like myself who need to know the "why" of things, the key is the fat that gets added to the dough. If you prefer a more crispy, crunchy crust as in the French baguette style of bread, then omit the fat altogether. However, this is what will give your bread a couple more days of staying power, without going completely brick hard and stale within 24 hours.

No matter how many hungry critters you have in your house, a few extra storage days can make the difference and that's why we prefer the Italian version if we know we won't eat both loaves in one sitting.

My recipe below calls for 3 tbsp of fat and over the last several months I have used whatever fat I happen to have on hand. We go through copious amounts of bacon around here and I always save the drippings, as I do the chicken fat from making chicken soup, which adds such a lovely texture and flavor, that it has become my fat of choice over butter. If I don't have either or want a straight forward flavor, I will also use coconut oil, which again, is a staple in our house. Experiment. Either way, it makes for a lovely baguette.

Oh, and one other tip: I use a two-loaf baguette pan with a silpat. It isn't entirely necessary, but I don't like the bumps on the bread when the dough rests on the holed baguette pan. The bread won't stick, but I prefer the texture of "unholy" bread. lol!

The silpat fits perfectly on top of the baguette pan, draping over each channel nicely and ensures a no-stick situation. Just easy cleanup, too and it makes for a nice tender bottom crust too.

Italian Bread:

• 6 1/2 c flour
• 3 cups warm water, 1 1/2 tbsp of yeast
• 1 1/2 tbsp salt
• 3 tbsp of garlic butter, margarine, lard or bacon grease
• 3 tbsp sugar

1. In a stand mixer, put flour and salt into the bowl. Using the dough hook attachment, mix the two for a minute or so on the lowest speed.
2. Add your fat to the flour mixture and mix on lowest speed for another minute or two. Room temperature or cold, no matter. I've used both and if you bloom the yeast in warm water, it doesn't change the speed of the initial rise.
3. In a bowl or large 4 cup measuring cup, I bloom the yeast with the water and sugar. All that means is add the yeast to the warm water and it begins to activate the yeast immediately. It will start to dissolve and feed on the sugar and begin to bubble a little bit. A good sign your yeast is healthy and your bread will rise perfectly. 
4. While the mixer is still on the lowest speed, slowly pour in your yeast mixture until all of the water is incorporated. Don't worry about kneading for too long. You really just need to get everything incorporated and the dough will begin to clean the sides of the bowl as well as cling to the hook. This is perfect. 
5. Turn off the mixer and put the dough into a large 6 qt rising container or cover with a heavy dish towel and check on it after about a half hour to an hour. In a warmer kitchen this goes fast! That's why I use a proofing or rising container because I can easily see when the dough has risen and doubled in size. That's what you want.

**What I have found over the years, is that if you have cold ingredients or room temperature water, it takes longer for the yeast to activate. What does that mean for you? Well, it means it could take an hour for your first rise or it could take 3 hours, depending on the ambient temperature of your kitchen. Why fuss with that? Instead, if you start with warm water (not hot or boiling!) and add your sugar and yeast to the water, you can almost always have a very quick, very predictable rise. And as we all know, when entertaining guests or feeding hungry kids, timing is everything!

Shape and Rise again:

1. Divide the dough in half. I actually weigh it but you can eyeball it. Doesn't have to be perfect. At this point your dough will be so relaxed, it will be fairly easy to shape, if not a bit unwieldy. Don't fret, just hold one end and stretch it so it looks like a roll of sorts. You can stretch it and tuck it once on the baguette pan, if you have one. If not, just put it on a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat, no worries.
2. Once you've shaped two loaves (or one giant loaf), let it rest and rise again. This time, definitely keep any eye on it because the yeast is active and it will likely rise quickly unless your kitchen is on the cool side.
3. Optionally, cut slits either down the middle of each loaf for vents or diagonally across the loaf. I don't find this to be entirely necessary but it does give a nice place to put butter or garlic butter once it comes out of the oven. Again, optional. Do whatever appeals to you.

Bake:

Preheat your oven to 425 F during the second rise if your rise is moving along nicely. 

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, checking it just to make sure it doesn't get too brown. If it seems to be browning too quickly, lay a piece of tin foil or parchment over the top of the pan at about the 15 minute mark if you don't want your bread too brown.

Notes for friends and family (yes, that's you, too!): ***Oh my gosh, for me, this is one of the best behaving doughs. First of all I used the organic flour I mill myself so its fresh. But I also have on hand organic white flour from Hodgson Mill in 2 lb bags that I get delivered from Amazon, just in case I'm short on time. Fresh flour always makes a difference.

It takes one unopened 2 lb bag plus 1 c from a new bag to make this dough. This little tidbit is more for myself and Tsunami as we refer back to this blog all the time for our favorite recipes. :)

I also bloom the yeast in warm water, as I mentioned. This has made such a difference in a predictable rise time. Won’t do it differently from now on. 

My notes from the first time I made it and I apologize for the enthusiastic language, in advance...

"Holy shit. Don't change a thing! Perfect italian bread!!!!"

And that's because it was so fabulous, the boys ate the whole thing in one sitting and I noticed that someone had taken a few slices before it even made it to the table!

Hope you like it as much as we do!

French Macarons - a Study in Shells

image courtesy of Laduree - famous famous famous

Ah, this has probably been the most difficult thing I have ever made... Having said that, it was the actual reason I decided it was worth learning how to do: it was difficult. I am a sucker for a challenge!  An elusive cooking technique that would take time to understand, let alone master?  More than I could resist.

The French can make boiling water look difficult.  To watch videos from Pierre Hermé made this seem an impossible feat.  I researched on the internet, surfed blog after blog, bought numerous Kindle books on the topic and finally just decided that it was all hype.  Nothing but fluff about fluff...

What I came to realize is that while the technique is veiled in mystery and all kinds of ideas that seem more like superstition to me than anything else, the actual process of making macarons is all science. And while it is only a handful of simple ingredients, everything about the recipe depends on your environment.  Sound at all familiar?  

There was one recipe my mother and grandmothers used to make that really did depend on the weather and that was meringue.  As it turns out, macarons are actually just meringues mixed with ground almonds. No big deal, right? Right. No big deal.  

Let's attempt to demystify and simplify this hyped up little treasure...  I saw a u tube video of the daftest ding dong of a girl make these her first try and it validated all I already suspected: the Frenchies are on crack (just kidding Frenchies, I love you!). These are not only easy to make but they are truly fun and terribly addictive, so beware. The only thing you will have to work hard at is to not devour them before you have finished making your first batch. Seriously. Powerfully attractive little buggers but worth every bit of effort.

For this lesson, a Study in Shells, we will focus on just the cookie part and once we have that mastered, we can talk about filling. Trouble is, I can't keep them in the house long enough to need a filling... :)

Ingredients:

• 165 g of powdered sugar
• 165 g of  whole almonds or almond flour
• 115 g egg whites (room temperature) beaten to stiff peaks
• 150 g organic granulated sugar mixed well with 
• 1/2 tsp cream of tarter and pinch of salt

Process:

Resting shells, not quite ready for baking... still too shiny.

1. Process almonds and powdered sugar and set aside. **Don't let it process too long or the heat from the motor can turn this into almond butter. Instead, pulse the almonds and sugar until it is as fine as you can get it. If you want to use a sifter to catch the larger bits, that is a good idea, if you care about that. I don't bother.
2. Mix granulated sugar, pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar in a small bowl and set aside.
3. In a stand mixer or mixing bowl, beat room temperature egg whites to medium peaks.
4. Slowly sprinkle in the sugar/salt/cream of tartar mixture and continue to beat until stiff and shiny peaks form.
5. Turn mixer to the lowest speed and slowly sprinkle in the almond/sugar mixture.  This is also a good time to add your food  coloring gel, if you are coloring your shells. We will get into flavoring agents in a later post. Right now, let's just work on getting some good shells.
6. Turn off mixer and fill your piping bag with batter.
7. Pipe rounds about the size of a quarter to start. You can go bigger or smaller but we need a frame of reference and I find this size to be about perfect for me.  You will see what I mean. On your last sheet, try a couple of different sizes to see what works best for you.
8. Pipe everything at once so skins form on the shells. 

Hint: The shells go from very shiny to very dull and don't stick to your fingers if set.

Baking:

Bake at 275-280 degrees Fahrenheit for 14 minutes.  

This is my sweet spot for my particular oven. I have tried so many different temps and baking times and this was what 3 months of effort yielded for me. :) Try it first and alter it if you must. You may have no choice if your oven is at all finicky or unpredictable.

Lessons I had to learn because I was a non-believer:

1. To make almond "flour". I use whole almonds from Costco and don't worry one bit about the skins on the almonds. Makes not a bit of difference so save yourself some money and make your own "almond flour".  That's just another way of saying: finely ground almonds.
2. Egg whites should be at room temperature for best results.
3. To get properly formed "feet", you must let the shells rest for at least 10-15 minutes, maybe longer, if you have high humidity. The shells need to dry out a bit so they form a skin. This allows the shells to lift or rise properly during the baking.  If yours crack or look a tad volcanic, it is likely due to missing this minor, but important resting step.
4. Pipe them all at the same time. Sounds crazy but it is easier. I cut parchment paper to fit my pan and cut 4 or 5 more pieces the same size so I can line them all on the countertop or table and pipe them in one go.  They dry properly and your batter won't deflate in between pipings.  It's meringue, remember, so pipe it while it's fluffy.
5. Your oven is different than mine so temperature here is relative. Arggg.  I know. But here is the deal: Bake your first batch at 275 degrees. Then try 280 if those don't turn out the way you think they should. Suffer a cook's guilt and test one by eating one or twenty to see what the texture is like. Test again after they have cooled. My best macarons are done between 275-280 F.  I've tried starting low, rotating trays, turning it up high. Nonsense.  Unnecessary if you find the right temperature for your oven.
6. May sound like a pain, but bake only 1 sheet at a time, middle rack, until you get the hang of it. I can't seem to bake multiple sheets and still get good feet without a lot of fussing. I can't handle it so go one sheet at a time.
7. Parchment is actually better than silpats.  I love silpats but can't afford to buy 6 and parchment paper is divine. It can be reused until it can't... I know, they say it can't but it's another industry fib, like how some clothes can't be washed and have to be dry cleaned. Whatever.  Not only does it work fine for many batches of macarons but the shells leave marks which can help you learn to be consistent with your piping. Just pipe onto the same circles your first batch of macarons left behind.
8. Piping - do not get French fancy. Keep your piping bag and tip straight up and down and pipe directly then pull straight up. If you have a peak, just tap it down once the shells have rested.  In time, you can learn to pipe straight up and down the drag to the side to keep the tail or peak from forming but in the beginning, just do your best to keep the shell round and even; that will be hard enough if you've never used a piping bag before. My mother in law said my first ones looked like terds... Nice. But she was right. Don't worry about it. They don't taste like terds... LOL!
9. Piping bags - great but totally unnecessary. Load your batter into a gallon zip lock bag, zip the bag almost all the way to let air escape. Twist the end to keep it all compressed towards one of the bag corner-ends and snip the tip off the bag when you are ready to go. Just be sure you are ready... ;)
10. Weigh your ingredients exactly. I mean, exactly as if someone were grading you on it.  Exact measurements (don't groan :) is key to doing it right. Weighing is important because it is an exact ratio of ingredients and each ingredient weighs differently.  Do you know how many cups of almonds are equal to 165 g of almonds? EXACTLY. Neither the hell do I! :) Weigh it, my friend.
11. Save your egg yolks for making Zoku pudding pops, TexMex Valley Lemon Curd or Gelato. :)