French Bread

Sometimes the simplest habits could bring the real happiness. I know that sounds like a cliché, but it is true. I’m talking about waking up in the morning, prepare the table for the breakfast, put beautiful flowers at the center, sit with all your family together, and then… enjoy a fresh French bread recently baked and prepared by yourself. This is the perfect way to start a happy day!

Today, I got this happiness. I made the best French breads ever. Crunchy crust, golden brown, and the most important: they taste like French Bread! I’ve been tried a lot of recipes e finally I found the perfect one!

As the author of the recipe, Peter Reinhart, said “making a great loaf of French bread is both an art and a science”. Many factors can affect the chemical changes that occur during the fermentation process, but the secret is called slow rise. If the bread rises too fast, as Julie Child said, “the yeast has not had an opportunity to produce the slow aging and maturing that develops flavor”. That’s why it is very important to put the bread in the fridge overnight before you baked it.

For me, shape the dough proved to be the most difficult step and required a lot of practice. Despite this problem, the bread was perfect!

French Bread

(From Crust and Crumb, Peter Reinhart)

Makes 3 baguetes

3 1/2 unbleached all-purpose flour

31/2 cups unbleached bread flour

2 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon malt powder or brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

2 2/3 cups cool water (65 to 70 F)

Vegetable oil cooking spray

Combine the flours, salt, malt, and yeast in a mixing bowl. Add the water, and stir with a large wooden or metal spoon till the flour is gathered and the dough forms a ball.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead vigorously for about 10 minutes, until the dough is soft and pliable, tacky but not sticky. Knead in extra flour or water (just a few drops at a time) if necessary to achieve this consistency. The dough is fully kneaded when it passes the windowpane test and is between 77°F and 80°F.

Place the dough in a large, clean bowl that will hold it when it has doubled in bulk. Mist the dough lightly with cooking spray. Cover the bowl (not the dough) with plastic wrap or enclose it in a plastic bag, and let it rise for about 30 minutes. It should just begin swelling. Knead the dough for 30 seconds, form it into a ball, and re-cover the bowl with plastic. Allow it to rise for 90 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Scale, bench, and shape the dough into loaves or rolls. Place them on pans or in baskets. If using pans, line them with parchment paper and dust with cornmeal or semolina for texture; if using baskets, mist them with cooking spray and dust them with rice flour or bread flour to prevent sticking.

Lightly mist the top of the shaped dough with cooking spray to prevent sticking, and place the pans or baskets inside a large plastic bag. Let it rest for 15 minutes. Place the shaped dough in the refrigerator overnight, making sure the bag is loose but closed to prevent drying.

The next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator but leave it in the bag. The dough should be 50 percent to 75 percent larger than when in. If so, let the dough sit out for 1 hour to take off the chill. if not fully risen, let it sit at room temperature for 3 or 3 hours, until it completes its rise.

Prepare the oven for hearth baking, making sure to place the empty steam pan on a lower rack. Preheat the oven to 475°F (allow about 35 minutes for it to heat fully). Make sure your spritzer bottle is filed with water. Remove the pan of dough from the plastic 15 minutes before baking, to allow the surface of the  dough to dry slightly. Just before baking, score the bread. Put the loaves or rolls in the oven, either on sheet pans or by peel directly on the stone. Then pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the empty steam pan, quickly spritz the oven walls and the bread with water, and close the door.

After 2 minutes, quickly spray the oven walls and the bread again. Repeat in 1 minute. Then, lower the oven temperature to 450°F. Wait 10 minutes and check the bread. (Check rolls after 5 minutes.) Rotate the bread, front to back, if it seems to be baking unevenly. (If baking on more than one oven rack, rotate the bread top to bottom as well.)

When the bread has developed a rich, golden brown color -  this will take about 25 minutes for loaves and 15 minutes for rolls - turn off the oven (or lower it to 350° if you plan to bake again). Leave the bread in the oven an additional 5 to 10 minutes, until it seems on the verge of over browning.

Remove the bread to a cooling rack and allow it to cool throughly before eating, 60 to 90 minutes for loaves, 20 minutes for rolls.

Vegetable soup

In these cold days, there is nothing better than a warm and healthy soup plate. Vegetable soup is quite simple to prepare and have a lot of nutrients.

I’ve made this soup for years. This recipe was a suggestion from my nutritionist to help me lose weight. The main ingredients are pumpkins, zucchinis, tomatoes, onions and carrots. But if you want, you can add others vegetables to increase the taste, as celery, chayote and green beans. I like to top it with collard green, green onions and parsley, for example.

My husband likes to eat some protein source during the meal. For all this years, we have tried a lot of sources, like cottage cheese or quinoa flakes. Those are very light and you just have to mix them within your soup before eat. But definitely my favorite one is chicken (boneless breast, preferably). Instead of cooking the chicken in the soup, I like to prepare the chicken separately, braised with olive oil, onion, garlic, tomatoes and paprika. I don’t recommend turkey or beef. That combination is not good for this soup!

I love to dip some bread slices in the soup. The French bread is perfect for that. I made one to eat the soup, but this bread is very delicious and deserves its own post!

                                                                                  

Vegetable soup

2 acorn squash

4 tomatoes

2 carrots

2 zucchinis

1 onion

Salt

Black pepper

Green onions

Cut the acorn squash in half through the stem end and place, cut sides down, on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven until a skewer pierces the flesh, about 25 minutes. Scoop out the seeds, scrape the flesh from the skin and set aside.

In a stock pot, brown the onions in olive oil. Either simmer the vegetables, water, and salt together, partially covered, for 20 to 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Puree soup with a blender. Adjust seasonings to taste. Garnish each serving with sliced green onion tops and black pepper, if desired. 

Condensed Milk Flan

Condensed milk flan is one of the most delicious and easiest desserts to prepare. Just beat all the ingredients together and bake in water bath. Simple like that! The hardest part is to control yourself and not eat all at once.

I personally think that the condensed milk here is not too muck sweet, so I decided to add one more cup of sugar on the recipe. But this is up to you to decide it.

You can also substitute the whole milk for skin milk, if you want. The taste will change a little bit, but it will still delicious. Just be careful when you remove it from the pan, because it won’t be too much firm.

Condensed Milk Flan

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoon water

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 measures can of whole milk 

3 eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Place the sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepot over low heat. Let the sugar dissolve. When the sugar turns golden brown add 2 tablespoons of water and let dissolve. Remove from the heat and carefully divide the hot caramel among cake pan or ramekins. Let cool for at least 2 minutes.

In a blender, beat the condensed milk, eggs, sugar and milk about 5 minutes. Place the mixture in a pan or ramekins. Carefully pour boiling water into the baking dish until 2/3 of the way up the sides of the ramekins. (Be careful not to get any water on the mixture.) Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and very gently slide it towards the center of the rack. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the custard are almost fully set. Remove from the oven. Let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes, then refrigerate until well chilled.

To serve, dip the ramekin or pan in very hot water for 15 to 20 seconds. Run a sharp knife around the sides of the ramekin. Invert the custards onto serving plates. The caramel will pool around the inverted custards. Serve immediately.

Cream Biscuit - Bolachinha de Nata

I come from a Brazilian State named Minas Gerais. It is one of the major producer of coffee in Brazil and most of my relatives plant coffee. If you go to England, you will enjoy the tradition of having a cup of tea. But if you go to Minas Gerais, you will appreciate a delicious cup of coffee, made only with freshly harvested grains. This is an especial tradition that unites people around the table not only to drink coffee (which we prefer with milk, not cream), but also to have a “Quitanda”. “Quitanda” is a collection of divine treats like tapioca biscuit, polenta cake, Brazilian cheese bread and cream biscuit, which is my favorite and I will have the pleasure to share the recipe with you.

This recipe is in family for generations. I have great memories of my beloved grandma baking many biscuits in the firewood oven in the farm. But first, she boiled the fresh milk, which she got in the farm too, and then collected the fresh clotted cream formed on the surface after cooling it. That’s right, fresh clotted cream is the secret ingredient. My mother also usually made them as snacks for the break at school. My sister and I loved to help her. As we were not able to make a braid, we rolled like little shells. Our “shells” were a success in the school!

Many years later my husband, then boyfriend, ate for the first time the biscuit in my aunt’s house and he loved it! He ate so much that every time he comes back there, he is greeted with a lot of biscuits.

I made the cream biscuits for the first time by myself. I rolled them like my mother used to make, but also like the shells that I used to make when I was a child. This is a very easy recipe to prepare. If you don’t want to use clotted cream, you can substitute for butter or vegetable shortening. There is another ingredient in this recipe that is kind of different: ammonium carbonate. It is a classic leavener that makes extra-crisp texture. It has a very strong smell when baking, but it totally dissipates by the time the biscuits are done.

Here comes a tip for you: try to moist the biscuit on the coffee with milk before eating. I love to do this and it’s simply delicious. Enjoy it…

Cream Biscuit

500g cream

4 eggs

13 teaspoons of sugar

2 tablespoons ammonium carbonate sifted

about 1Kg of all purpose flour

In a bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, combine the cream, sugar and eggs. Beat until light and fluffy. Add the ammonium carbonate and stir. Then add all purpose flour until the point of rolling. Bake until golden on 360°F.

Panettone

The Christmas time is definitely my favorite holiday. How wonderful is the feeling that unites people to celebrate life, love and peace! And how delicious are the Christmas foods too. In Brazil, one of the most tradicional dessert is the Panettone. This unique holiday bread, originated in Italy, has a sweet aroma and vanila flavor. It is perfect to serve with a cup of coffee or tea.

The tradicional Panettones have candied fruits and raisins, and it’s also my favorite too. But you can find all sorts of alternatives flavoured Panettones, such as coffee, coconut, limoncello and chocolat. The chocolat panettone is so popular in Brazil that it is called “Chocottone”.

I took the recipe from the same book that I used to prepare the Brioches (Crust and Crumb, Peter Reinhart). As I like very much candied fruits and raisins, I doubled the amount written in the original recipe. The author gives two importante advices to intensify the flavor. The first one is to put the candied fruits and raisins in a vanilla extract and rum. This will keep them moist too. The other one is to use buttermilk instead of milk. This will give the best flavor.

    Merry Christmas!

Panettone

(From Crust and Crumb, Peter Reinhart)

Makes 1 very large loaf, several small loaves, or to 24 hot cross buns

Sponge

¾ cup unbleached bread flour

2 teaspoons instant yeast

1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

Dough

41/3 cups unbleached bread flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

5 large eggs, cold

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

Sponge

½ cup golden raisins

½ cup dark raisins

½ cup rum

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup sliced almonds or walnuts

½ cup candied fruit

1 large egg for egg wash (optional)

To make the sponge, stir together the flour and yeast in a mixing bowl. Stir in the buttermilk and mix till smooth. Cover the sponge with plastic wrap and allow it to ferment at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours, till very bubbly.

If using dried fruit, soak it in rum and/or vanilla in a bowl while the sponge is developing.

To make the dough, combine all the other dough ingredients and the sponge in a mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer with a dough hook.

Mix the dough on slow speed for 1 minute, then on medium speed for 5 minutes. Add the fruit and nut mixture and mix for an additional 2 minutes, or until the dough is soft and tacky, registers about 80°F on a probe thermometer, and passes the windowpane test. Pinch off a small piece and stretch it slowly apart, gently pulling and rotating it. You are trying to stretch the dough into a thin, translucent membrane or windowpane. Add water if the dough is too stiff or flour if it is too sticky. To make by hand, knead the dough on a well-floured counter with floured hands for about 15 minutes, adding the fruit and nuts during the final 3 minutes.

Mist the dough with cooking spray, cover it with plastic wrap, and allow it to rise at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, till it increases in size by 1 ½ times.

Use up to the full amount of dried and candied fruit and nuts, according to taste. For a single large loaf, grease a 9-inch round cake pan, and line the sides of it with a parchment collar that is about 2 inches taller than the pan. For smaller loaves, use smaller pans or simply make free-standing rounds. Form the finished dough into a ball and press it nearly to the edge of the prepared pan. Let it rise, brush with egg wash, and bake for about 60 minutes. When the loaves are baked, you may brush them with simple syrup made by boiling equal parts sugar and water for 1 minute. This will give the tops a shiny look.

Gluten-free Pistachio Cake with Pistachio Brigadeiro Filling

I love pistachio so much that I made a gluten-free pistachio cake to celebrate my 4^th month of marriage and all the good things that happened until now.

The cake was very moistly and fluffy. This is a recipe that my dear friend Layla made recently. I thought very interesting to use potatoes to get a gluten-free cake. But instead the almonds and lemon zests, I used rice flour and pistachio paste. There is some pistachio paste available on the market, but I prefer everything fresh. You can easily do it with a food processor. Or, if you want to workout a little bit, you can use a pestle and mortal.

You may also note I’m a “brigadeiro” addict. Well, guess what I used to fill the cake? Pistachio brigadeiro. So delicious! I got the idea of pistachio brigadeiro from here. I changed the ground pistachio for pistachio paste and I added one more tablespoon of butter. Wonderful!

Everything was going well until the marshmallow fondant. It was the first time I worked with it. I decided to prepare it by myself because most of the fondants commercially available are not tasty. My dear friend Carol sent to me a recipe from Le Cordon Bleu very easy to make. The cake that she prepared with this fondant was very beautiful and delicious. After finished it, I accidentally put in the fridge overnight. Unfortunately, the fondant became brittle and not able to model. Even that, I could do some little roses and balls for decoration.

Homemade Pistachio Paste
(adapted from here)

500 gr shelled pistachios

125 gr white almond powder

250 gr sugar

7 dl water

1 teaspoon  almond extract

Pound the pistachios in a heavy mortar. This is heavy work and it takes a very long time to obtain a fine powder. Using an electrical kitchen mixer can help. Mix in the ground almonds. Add the almond extract. In a saucepan mix 7 grams (0.7 dl) water with 250 gr sugar. Use a copper bowl or heavy bottomed saucepan or mix constantly to avoid sugar burning on hotspots. Heat until the temperature reaches 250°F. Pour the scalding hot sugar over the pistachio paste and mix in quickly to prevent crystallization. We are drawing near to completion when the paste starts to look like baklava offal. Carefully add one teaspoon water at a time and mix thoroughly until you obtain a marzipan-like texture. Do not use too much water. Knead well with both hands to get a smooth, homogeneous mixture. Store in a plastic bag and freeze for best preservation.

Gluten-free Pistachio Cake

200g butter, softened

200g golden caster sugar

4 eggs

100g rice flour 

250g mashed potatoes

200g pistachio paste

2 tsp gluten-free baking powder

How to prepare: 

Heat oven to 360°F/fan 320°F/gas. Butter and line a deep, 20cm round cake tin. Beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, then gradually add the egg, beating after each addition. Fold in the cold mashed potato (make sure it doesnt have any potato lump), pistachio paste and baking powder.

Tip into the tin, level the top, then bake for 40-45 mins or until golden and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Turn out onto a wire rack after 10 mins cooling. 

Pistachio Brigadeiro

100g pistachio paste
1 can (395g) sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoon unsalted butter

Mix the condensed milk, butter and pistachio paste in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly – when the bottom of the pan starts to show and the mixture is a bit thicker, remove from heat and fill the cake.

Petite Brioche with Cramberry Jam

"Let them eat brioche." Those famous words were supposedly said by Marie Antoinette on her death. It is difficult to know if this is true or not. But the only true on this story is this rich buttered bread is a fantastic delight.

I bought the book “Crust and Crum” from Peter Reinhart to improve my bread recipes. I was determined to make croissant but, to my disappointment, there wasn’t a croissant recipe. Well, to comfort me, that was only one thing that I should cook: something with a lot of butter. In other words, BRIOCHE!

He explains very well how to make a good Brioche. The quality is in the amount of butter.  In France they make two types: rich man’s and poor man’s brioche. The only difference is the proportion of butter. The poor man`s brioche has 33%, while the rich man`s has 75%. Of course I made the rich man`s…

The brioches can also be shaped in different forms. One of them is the petite brioche à tête, a small roll with a topknot, which is my favorite. Well, I didn’t have the appropriate mold, but my desire to brioche was so big that I decided to improvise with a cupcake pan. I got a golden color brioche and soft-as-satin feel that dissolved in the month. But if you are going to make petite brioche à tête, you can find the molds at most of gourmet kitchenware shops.

The question now is: what should I use for filling the brioches? I decided to make a cranberry jam. I have an attraction for these little red berries, not just for the jam but also for the juice, candies, cakes and drinks. The jam is very easy to do. You just need cranberry, sugar and orange juice.

Enjoy it…

 Brioche

(From Crust and Crumb, Peter Reinhart)

Makes 3 loaves, or 4 dozen small rolls, or Petites Brioches à Tête

Sponge

1 cup unbleached bread flour

1 tsp instant yeast

½ cup lukewarm milk (90F)

Dough

3 ½ cups unbleached bread flour

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

5 large eggs, cold, plus 1 large egg for egg wash

1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened

Directions

To make the sponge, stir the yeast into the milk in a mixing bowl. Add the flour and stir till smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the sponge to ferment at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours. It will become very bubbly.

In a mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, salt, 5 eggs, and sponge. If making the dough by machine, mix it on low speed for about 2 minutes, till smooth dough is formed. Cut the butter into 3 pieces and beat in 1 piece at time at medium-low speed till each is absorbed. Continue beating at the same speed till the dough is smooth, about 6 minutes, it will be very soft and sticky.

To make the dough by hand, gradually combine all the ingredients and beat vigorously with a wooden or metal spoon for about 10 minutes, to make a smooth, wet dough.

 Mist the top of the dough with spray oil, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and place the bowl in refrigerator overnight ( or for a minimum of 5 hours). The dough will firm up considerably as it retards.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and shape it, while it is still cold, into loaves, rolls, or molded petites brioches à tete. If making petites brioches à tete, grease the molds well with cooking spray or with melted butter and flour.

Mist the top of the shaped dough with cooking spray, cover it with plastic wrap or enclose it in a plastic bag, and let rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, or till nearly doubled in size.

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375°F for a large, full-size brioche, 400°F for smaller loaves. Beat the remaining egg till smooth and brush it on the tops of the brioche, taking care not to let it drip down the sides of the molds. Bake 35 to 45 minutes for loaves, 20 to 25 minutes for small rolls or petites brioches à tetê, until a rich, deep gold.

If using molds, remove the rolls 1 or 2 minutes after the come out of the oven, taking care not to tear them (use a small knife to loosen them from the side walls).

Cool the brioche on a rack for 20 to 40 minutes, depending on size, before eating.

Cranberry Jam

yield: Makes about 2 cups

active time: 15 min

total time: 1 hr

1 (12-oz) bag fresh cramberries (not thawed; 3 1/2 cups)

2cup sugar

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

1 cup water

Bring all ingredients to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 20 minutes (jam will continue to thicken as it cools).

Force jam through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, discarding skins and seeds. Cool, stirring occasionally.