kamut and barleycorn

After the big success with the pain a l'ancienne yesterday, i can't stop baking!. So after work today I wanted to try other type of bread so I check in Bertinet's book and I decided to follow his recipe for baguettes and already the white flour when I decided to experiment...very risky I'd say as I am kind of a beginner.

So looking in my flours I mixed kamut and bareycorn, both that I never use and decided to make the baguettes. Here is the recipe I used:

- 280g organic kamut flour
- 280g mix grain barleycorn flour
- 10g dried yeast
- 10g sea salt
- 350g water

I mixed the yeast with the flour and then added the rest of the ingredients with the scraper until the dough was firm enough to work with it in the table. I kneaded for about 20min and the left it resting for an hour in a bowl cover with a towel. After this hour the dough doubled and then I cut it in four and rolled it in baguettes, left them again another hour resting, where they doubled again.

This time I baked them at home, so no steam oven so I put a tray with water and spray water before put the bread: max oven at 240 degrees during approximately 12 min. The result was a compact bread but lots of nutty flavors, great smell.



Next day the bread was ok (actually I still have one baguette left and after 4 days it's quite good) so I took it to work to make my lunch: the bread won lots of flavors and textures when I toasted, so I put it back in the oven with some steam for a few minutes. I filled it up with some ginger pork, rocket, tomato and caramelized red onion, having spread olive oil in the bread. I have to say It was a really lovely lunch.

and now my turn: pain a l'ancienne

Finally I made my own pain a l'ancienne...and I loved it! Everything was by the book and that made me very happy and proud of me. I understood all that things that bread makers say about the feeling of baking your own home made bread, especially the first ones. I watched it, touched, smelled, showed it to everybody and of course ate, but sharing with friends and family. All is gone by now and I think this is a good sign. Now I can't wait to bake more, have to have a little bit of patience or I will spend all my free time (and some of my work too) kneading, mixing and baking. I wouldn't mind thou ;-)

So the bread I decided to make today it was pain a l'ancienne, very interesting and I was looking forward because Lidia was telling lots of things about it: a primitive bread, not need to knead just mainly mix well to have a good consistency. But the long rest in the fridge over night it will bring loads and amazing flavors. Outside it is very crunchy and the inside soft with big alveolus.



Lidia posted here a recipe that she adapted from a spanish blog about bread called madrid tiene miga (madrid has cramb) to used with sourdough instead of dried yeast. press here to check the recipe in this blog, as it is the one I used for my bread. As I said before here in the blog, I had a small accident with my sourdough and I am now in the second day of making another.

So this is the recipe I used:

380g of organic strong white wheat flour (from doves farm)
7g of salt
2.5g of dried yeast
300ml of iced cold water

I mixed the water with the water with 300g of flour using my scraper and leave it resting for 30 min as they said that the autolysis helps to work with the dough and you get a better result. After that time, I added the rest 80g of flour, the yeast and the salt, mix it well and leave it resting in the fridge for another 30 min, after that mixed it again with the scrapr and put it in the fridge all the night to slow the fermentation. This will make the bread more crunchy outside and with lauds of flavors (that's why we use iced cold water, to slow as much as possible the fermentation).

Next day, in my case 8 hours, I took the dough out of the fridge and brought it to work, so I left it outside for around 2.5 hours, so it doubled its size. I put the dough on a greaseproof paper and cut it with the scratcher in three part, giving them a baguette-ish size, not easy as the dough is very soft and you can really work with it. You have to put flour underneath and on top. I pre-heated the oven at 260ºC and put the doughs into it for 10 min at 250ºC and 20% of steam. I work in a restaurant and we have a good combi oven so you can play with temperatures and % of steam (from 10% to 100%) so I decided to try with 20%. After this 10 min I took out the steam and baked them for another 8 min with just 250ºC.

The result was a very good and crunchy breads, with bigs alveolus inside and an amazing flavor. Maybe the color was a little big dark for me, but it wasn't at all burn.



I can tell you that the bread is perfect for dipping, we ate most of them just dipping in olive oil. Perfect. Looking forward to bake more pain a l'ancienne, and use lidia's one with the sourdough.

One last thing. On july it was my birthday but as I spent 4 weeks working in dublin in a new restaurant opening I couldn't see some of my friends, so this weekend, Philippe, Gianmaria and Alessandro gave me a present: as they know I am baking bread now (and really enjoying it) they bought for me a book about breads and baking, bread matters, by Andrew Whitley. I took a look to the book last night before I went to bed, it seems to be very interesting, as it is not only about baking, recipes and techniques but it has a big first part about why to bake your own bread and not to buy industrial ones; then of course it has a very good selection of all types of breads and recipes. Thanks guys, I appreciate and be sure I will use it and bake some bread for you.

Pain a l'ancienne

Supongo que el nombre de pain a l'ancienne tiene que ver con que se trata de un pan muy básico; un tanto, digamos, primitivo. La manipulación es mínima, no se amasa, apenas se forma porque no se deja y los ingredientes son elementales. Lo descubrí en el blog Madrid tiene miga que, a su vez, citaba como fuente de inspiración para la receta a uno de los gurús de esto de la panadería artesanal casera, Peter Reinhart. Pero la receta empleaba levadura fresca y yo hice una adaptación para usar masa madre.

Prometí a Juan colgar esta receta, con la que también podrá empezar a darle trabajo a su masa madre. Los ingredientes para un kilo de masa al 70% de hidratación son estos:

475 gr. de harina blanca de trigo
300 gr. de agua muy fría
225 gr. de masa madre de trigo blanco
16 gr. de sal

Sólo hay que mezclar la harina con la masa madre, el agua (importante que esté casi helada) y la sal. Este pan no se amasa, se mezcla lo justo para que los ingredientes formen un engrudo de aspecto poco prometedor que se guarda convenientemente protegido en la nevera durante toda la noche. Mantener esta masa a una baja temperatura es muy importante, porque el frío retardará la acción de las levaduras y la fermentación será muy lenta, lo que desarrollará más matices de sabor en el pan. Yo incluso uso una cuchara de madera o la rasqueta de plástico para mezclar, y lo hago muy rápido, para evitar tocar la masa y que se caliente.

A la mañana siguiente, se saca el pan del frigorífico y se deja un par de horas más o menos para que coja temperatura ambiente. Después toca el momentazo de pasarlo a la bandeja de hornear muy enharinada. Esta cantidad de masa da para un par de piezas o tres y podréis encontrar métodos que hablan de cortarla en el número de piezas que queráis y formarla antes de pasar al horno. Yo confieso aquí y ahora mi incapacidad para ambas cosas. La masa queda inmanejable, así que lo que hago es verterla sobre la bandeja en un par de vuelcos, intentar que quede alargada y aceptar con humildad mis limitaciones panaderas. Si ponéis un poco de harina por encima, el aspecto final será más rústico. Y si esa harina es de maíz, además quedará más crujiente.

Diez minutos de horno a 250 grados y unos 35 minutos más a 190 grados. El resultado visual, al menos que el que yo consigo, no es espectacular, pero es uno de los panes más ricos de sabor que hago.

Dos hogacitas recién salidas del horno

La miga es densa y esponjosa. En contra de lo que uno espera cuando mira con aprensión ese engrudo pastoso, el pan sube en el horno y tiene alveolos.

La cosa tiene miga

He hecho alguna vez variedades añadiendo hierbas a la masa (romero, tomillo, orégano...), que también da muy buen resultado. Probadlo en un bocata de jamón o con algún plato de los de mojar en la salsa. Pero no hagáis planes para después, porque seguramente no seréis capaces de comer sólo un poco.

dan on tv

I know that japanese food is not really much relative with bread and this blog, but dan was this morning in a tv show, Ireland am, cooking a great dish, stir fry rice. I was with him in the studios, great experience. press here to watch the video. and try to do it at home! it's very easy and taste.

Un mundo de harinas

Los que saben de cocina insisten siempre en que la calidad de los productos es esencial para conseguir un buen resultado en un plato. Y acceder a una buena calidad en la materia prima está muy relacionado con la existencia de variedad en el mercado, es decir, con la posibilidad de que el consumidor pueda elegir. A mayor competecia, mayor esfuerzo por parte de los productores para hacerse un hueco en el mercado aportando mejoras en sus productos. Una obviedad, vaya.

Para hacer pan, la madre del cordero está, cómo no, en la harina.. En el año y medio que llevo haciéndolo en casa, he tenido ocasión de comprobar que hay grandes diferencias en cuanto a la oferta harinera que existe en distintos países. Y, me duele en el orgullo patrio reconocerlo, en España no salimos muy bien parados de la comparación. Acceder a harinas de distintos cereales y cultivo orgánico es una tarea que requiere un cierto esfuerzo en Madrid capital, es ardua en su cinturón metropolitano (experiencia personal), y me imagino que próxima al imposible en otras provincias o pueblos, por lo que leo en los blogs panaderos que sigo.

Por eso, durante mi viaje a Cork literalmente aluciné con la oferta de harina disponible. En cualquier supermercado a la vuelta de la esquina era posible encontrar harinas para panificar, de trigo blanco, integral, con grano partido, espelta... Pero mi gran momento harinero tuvo lugar en el English Market que, además de ser un sitio estupendo para la vista y el gusto, tiene su hueco para harinas de lo más variadas: trigo blanco, trigo integral, trigo sarraceno, kamut, garbanzos, espelta, centeno, cebada, semolina, arroz, maíz en varios tipos de molienda...Muchas de ellas de cultivo orgánico. Un gran momento.

Los ha habido similares en París y Londres, pero éstas son grandes capitales en todos los sentidos y me parece lógico que se pueda encontrar prácticamente cualquier cosa de manera relativamente sencilla. Pero Cork es una ciudad mucho más recogida, así que su situación me parece envidiable.

Mi margen de maniobra con el peso de la maleta no era muy amplio, así que tuve que contenerme. Me he traído de Irlanda tres kilos y medio de harina (y medio de azúcar mascabado, pero ésa es otra historia): extra coarse wholemeal, rye y semolina. Os las enseño en la foto. Por cierto, el paño tan mono también es irlandés.

Bertinet and Stevens

All day raining in dublin, summer is over in Ireland and autumn and winter is ideal to stay at home reading and making breads. After work I spent some time in a bookshop near the restaurant in city center and of course I bought two books: temptation is too big inside there. One of the books is a well know but I didn't have it: Dough - Simple Contemporary Bread by Richard Bertinet , nice book with very good pictures and a good introduction about how to make bread. Then a quite few recipes. Very interesting with simple explanations. There is a dvd enclose with the book where bertinet explains in a 30 min video how to make bread. Very useful specially for those, like me, who are very visual.





The second one I bought today is Bread by Daniel Stevens, from the River Cottage. I have to confess that I had no idea about this book, the author or the River Cottage, but they very interesting. River Cottage have different projects, courses, a local produce store of food and drinks, books and dvd, a canteen, all with a philosophy of self-sufficiency, food integrity, and consumption of local, seasonal produce.Take a look at their website. The book is impregnated with these principles. It has a good and big introduction about how to make bread, lots of practical information, including how to make a clay oven and a good selection of different recipes. All in a beautiful and very handy handbook.


Looking forward to read the books and practice some of the recipes but as I said before, now it's the time to do it as the cold and rainy seasons are coming.

lo prometido es deuda

Como dije en el comentario al post de lidia sobre la masa madre, pongo aqui la foto que hice de la masa madre después de volver a alimentarla otra vez durante dos días con harina de trigo integral. Después de añadir 70g de harina y otros 70g de agua sobre los 50g de masa madre que tenía, me quedo el bote por la mitad, y cuando volví de trabajar este fue el resultado: se había más que doblado como ocurrió al segundo día de hacerla.

Así y como conclusión sólo para este caso, a la masa madre no le gustó un pelo que la intentáramos "blanquear" con harina de trigo blanca, porque las demás condiciones fueron iguales, quizás como dice lidia quizás por crecer demasiado necesitaba mas alimento. Ahora ya esta descansando en el frigorífico esperando a que vuelva de Dublín, donde estoy dando unas clases de cocina a jugadores de rugby, y pueda hacer un pan con ella. Deseadme suerte.

Cuitas con masa madre primeriza

Juan ha contado en su entrada del viernes 13 de agosto nuestra experiencia con su primera masa madre. Partimos de harina integral y agua a partes iguales y mucho antes de lo que esperábamos (seguíamos las indicaciones del tutorial de Iban Yarza), la masa se puso como una moto al segundo día. Sin embargo, como queríamos ir transformándola en una masa madre blanca, cambiamos su alimentación a harina de trigo blanco.

lidia bread

lidia was here in cork for a week with eva and paula. we had a great time, visiting the island, lovely places like cobh, kinsale, killarney, etc, but we had time to cook and bake and to create this blog. So our main aim was and is to share recipe in the distance as we three live in different cities and myself in a different country, so we can put here attempts and doubts and discoveries and questions mainly about bread but also you will find some baking. And while sharing between us we can share with everybody else and enrich this blog with people who want to participate too. so do not be shy.

we made my sourdough, starting with strong wholemeal flour, and after 2 days the sourdough was crazy: double every 12 hours, millions of bubbles and overflowing the glass jar. So we decided to made a white sourdough so we fed it with strong organic white flour. i think this change didn't like it, didn't die but its activity is very slow since then. i m going to feed it today with strong wholemeal flour and put it finally in the fridge. and let's pray it is ok.

so as we said before, while waiting for the sourdough we made a couple of breads, using fresh yeast. the first one, the one i called lidia bread, was a strong flavour wholemeal bread. here is the recipe:

500g organic spelt flour
150g organic wholemeal rye flour
150 strong wholemeal flour
30g fresh yeast
17g salt
400g water

the bread has two fermentation of around 3 hours and then oven for 50 min, first 15 min at maximum temperature (in my oven it's around 140 celsius degrees) and the at 190 degrees. we put some water in a tray underneath the bread, and we wasn't able to spray the bread with water basically because we forgot to buy the spray bottle :-) but it came finally crispy enough.



so the result was a lovely and rich brown bread, during the fermentation the dough grew quiet well but in the oven we didn't get many alveolus, maybe because of the yeast, maybe because it has a high proportion of wholemeal flour or even because of the oven, as it was too close to the top inside of it. Nevertheless the texture and the flavour was unique. lidia promised she is going to try to make it again using this time her sourdough so i am really looking forward for her to make it and share with us. i am sure she will improve it.



and as the bread has only one destiny to fulfill, we all had dinner with it that night, and our food was enhanced with this powerful homemade bread. here you can see a sample with tapenade, semi sun dry tomatoes and feta cheese. it s true as well as lidia said the this bread get even better if you toast it. i m getting hungry again ;-)

And Sourdough was born

And sourdough was born. It happened suddenly and unexpectedly. Yes, we had all the conditions and tools but we didn't expect such a quick result. We were prepared to be feeding our mix of flour and water  for four days, but after the first one it was already there. Bubbling, growing and spreading that incredible flavour. It was almost ready but it was too soon, we had to have patience and not try to make bread from the very first moment. Our head was finally stronger than our feelings: deadlines must be respected. This is something that making sourdough bread teaches you and it's one of the best gifts this experience brings to you.

Sourdough Connection. Three friends in three different parts of the world, Madrid and Granada in Spain, and Cork in Ireland, linked not only by friendship but also by willing to share breads, and bread recipes and experiences and even more (don't worry, everything will be about cooking). We have to say sorry to Almudena, one of the three, because she doesn't know yet. But she will.

Next step will be the birth of the first bread. While waiting for the sourdough to be ready, we tried baking some breads using fresh yeast (Polish, by the way) and mixing different flours: first one, spelt, wholemeal and rye.

we used polish fresh yeast this time, good one