Recipe: Great Bake-At-Home Baguettes

Good bread defies description. There's also something about tearing bread that has always felt honest and base to me. I guess bread is a food that makes me wax romantic.

Today, the world gives us a bread recipe that found its origins in the kitchens of Polish bakers working in Vienna. Sure, it is most identified with France, but much of the great bread of France can be traced back to Vienna. So, from Vienna to your kitchen.

Though this isn't a "sourdough" bread, I do use a sourdough kicker in the beginning, but it's just to add some oomph and character and well, I kind of had to improvise because of an oversight. More of that in a bit. That's what sets this recipe apart from the original I used. The original required making a conventional starter using some regular bakers yeast, a little flour, some water and about 20 hours resting time.

Well, the night before I originally made this bread I kind of had a little too much red wine and forgot to do the conventional starter. As I needed some fresh bread for dinner and I always have a sourdough starter going in the fridge, I decided I'd try that instead of the conventional starter and see what happened. Well, it was really good. It was good for dinner, good for sandwiches, good for freezing, GOOD! So I guess that overindulgence was a divine intervention, or at least that's what I'll tell myself when I forget things because of too much red wine.

I also made a few adjustment to the "punch down" process during the dough rise that seemed to help me get the kind of stick bread I was looking for.

Also, baking really is a pretty simple and easy process. It's not hard and when you tally up the actual active time the bread making requires it comes out to about 25 minutes. This recipe and my other bread recipes may seem really long and involved. That is only because I am trying to be a descriptive as possible if the processes and tricks involved. Don't be intimidated. Read the directions through a few times. Do a little research online of the techniques and you'll see that baking bread, no, baking GREAT BREAD in your home is EASY!

Great Bake-At-Home Baguettes

1 cup sourdough starter
1 tsp instant yeast
1 cup (8 ounces) lukewarm water
3 1/2 cups (14 3/4 ounces) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 egg white
1 cup of warm water

In a large bowl or your mixer bowl with the paddle attachment, add the sourdough starter, yeast, water, flour, and salt, and mix and knead them together until they become a solid cohesive mass. Then if you like you can use the bread hook on your mixer and knead it an additional 10-12 minutes. Or, you can do what I prefer to do and knead it by hand. Kneading bread by hand is more fun than it would seem and it really give you a great feeling for the dough. It'll teach you how to make better bread a lot faster than the machine. It's you choice.

How to knead by hand:

Turn the dough ball out onto a lightly floured surface and knead. (I've found the best way to knead dough is to push down and forward into the dough mass. Pick it up, return it to its original position and then repeat the entire action three times. Then turn the dough ball 1/4 of a turn and repeat the entire procedure. Continue doing this for 10 to 12 minutes. You're looking for a dough that is soft and pliable and tacky but NOT sticky. If you're not familiar with working with dough, be patient. Dough responds slowly to changes in moisture. Make small adjustments and give it time. If the dough seems a little dry, moisten your hand with a little water or milk and continue working it. If it seems wet and is sticking to the kneading surface, dust the surface and dough with a little flour and continue kneading. Again, the resulting dough after kneading should be smooth, pliable and tacky but not sticky. With this particular dough a little roughness on its surface is desirable.

After kneading, form the dough into a rough ball and cover with plastic wrap. Allow it to relax for 10 minutes.

While the dough relaxes find a suitable bowl or container that is large enough for the dough to easily double in size. Coat that container with a thin layer of oil. (I find a plastic food container of about 5 to 6 quart capacity with a cover is ideal).

Allow the dough to rise for one hour. Then take the dough out and GENTLY knead it down with your knuckles (don't push forward, just gently downward). Take one end of the dough and fold it midway over itself. Take the other end and fold it over that. Knead GENTLY down again. The dough should still be soft and spongey, it should form a rough rectangle. Repeat the folding and then knead gently one more time.

Place it back in the oiled container and allow it to rise again for one hour. Then again, take the dough out and repeat the gentle kneading process again.

Return the dough to the container and allow it to rise for one more hour.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Carefully divide the dough into three pieces. Shape each piece into a rough, slightly flattened oval, cover with greased plastic wrap, and let them rest for 15 minutes.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, fold the dough in half lengthwise, and seal the edges with the heel or edge of your hand. Don't flatten all the dough, just the outermost edge being sure to get a tight seal.

Then flatten it slightly again, and fold and seal again.

Then With the seam-side down, cup your fingers and GENTLY begin roll the dough out into a log shape. Remember when you were a kid and you would roll Play-Doh into a snake on the table. Well, just like that only VERY GENTLY and without flattening your log or making it dense. GENTLY!

You want them to get to about 15". I have found it is best to do this in 2 to 3 steps. Roll it out a little. Cover it and let it rest while you start another. Then come back and roll it some more.

When finished, place the logs onto a waiting baking tray that has been lined with parchment and then sprinkled with some cornmeal or semolina. Cover them again with some lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the loaves to rise until they have become quite puffy (about 60 to 90 minutes depending upon room temperature).

Preheat your oven to 475°F; if you're using a baking stone, place it on the second or third lowest shelf. On the lowest shelf, place an oven-proof NON-GLASS pan (A small cast iron fry pan is ideal,) on the bottom shelf.

When the baguettes have risen, brush them with an egg white mixture (1 egg white, one tablespoon of cool water).

Then using a very sharp knife held at about a 45° angle, make three 8” vertical slashes about 1/4" deep in each baguette.

Spritz them heavily with warm water, as this will help them develop a crackly-crisp crust.

Place the baguettes in the oven. Add the warm water to the heated pan on the bottom shelf. Spritz the sides of the oven with about 6-10 shots of water and close the oven door.

In two minutes, open the oven again and spritz the loaves and the sides of the oven again.

In two minutes repeat that same procedure. Then lower the oven to 450°F

Bake the baguettes for about 10 minutes, then take out them out and rotate them 180° and place them back in the oven for 15 minutes.

Bake them until they're a deep, golden brown.

Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack. Or, for the a very crispy crust, turn off the oven, crack it open about 2 inches, and allow the baguettes to cool in the oven.

Let them cool for about 30 minutes before eating.

Recipe: Great Bake-At-Home Baguettes from Chop Onions, Boil Water by Henry Krauzyk
http://www.choponionsboilwater.com

Recipe: Homemade Naan

I cook a lot of Indian food at home and while frozen naan is okay, I just wanted to be able to create my own delicious, hot-from-the-oven naan. That's where the problem starts because authentic naan is cooked in a clay beehive oven called a "tandor". The internal temperature of a tandor reaches 800°F! The bread is made using a very wet and sticky dough that is slapped and stuck on the inside wall of the oven. There it quickly cooks and is removed using a metal rod. As you've already imagined, you're just not going to get close to that kind of thing from your home oven. So, you do some research, improvise and modify. Sometimes you can even get lucky.

So, for some time now, I've been trying a number of recipes and techniques to make naan and roti so I can have a hot Indian bread with my homemade Indian food. All of these noble attempts met with limited success. While roti is easier to prepare, it's just not naan, and prior to the recipe below, the best I ever did was in creating naan that looked good, but it was a little dry, crispy and well-boring!

That all changed at 8:00 PM, Sunday, October 26th when I finally "mastered" naan in my home oven. The recipe and techniques below are the product of research, trial and error and some experimenting that culminated in my success on that evening. It produces an authentic naan, that looks great, is soft, slightly moist and delicious, the perfect accompaniment to homemade Indian food. You cannot imagine my satisfaction. No, really, you can't.

There are several differences in this recipe, and the technique I use, compared to the others recipes and techniques that I tried or read about.

I use unbleached bread flour to create a drier-than-normal-naan dough. Most recipes call for all-purpose flour. Bread flour is higher in gluten and lends itself better to the dough manipulation required to make naan at home. Also, real naan is going into an 800°F oven and it needs extra moisture to cook properly in there, so the resulting dough is wet and sticky. Not so on a pizza stone in a normal home oven. I've found that going with a normal dough moisture content makes it not only easier to handle, but it bakes perfectly in the home oven.

Many recipes call for rolling out the dough, I couldn't disagree more. When I rolled the dough during previous attempts, I always found the resulting naan would be flat, dry and crisp. So, I shape the dough balls into naan shapes by flipping it hand over hand. I then let it rest and rise a little more and then give it a few more flips before popping it onto the stone.

Finally, and thanks to Chef Sanjay Thummas' excellent suggestion in his recipe, I used the broiler to cook it. This helps it to cook a little more authentically by allowing it to brown quickly and nicely. I have a newer oven with the broiler in the same space as the regular oven, so it is easy to regulate the naan's exposure to the flame. You may need to adjust or improvise based on your oven.

So after a number of less-than-satisfactory results in my Indian flatbread cooking education, I offer you my recipe for GREAT homemade naan.

Homemade Naan

3 cups unbleached bread flour
1 TBS whole wheat flour
1 tsp instant yeast
1/2 cup water (75° to 85°F)
1/2 cup milk*
1 tsp peanut oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
pizza stone

*Maybe a little more or a little less

In a small bowl add the water, oil, sugar and yeast. Stir well and set aside for a few minutes.

Sift all the flour into a large bowl. Add the salt.

Add the water, oil, sugar and yeast to the flour and mix it in well.

Begin adding the milk a little at a time until the dough forms a single, solid mass.

Turn the dough ball out onto a lightly floured surface and knead. I've found the best way to knead this dough is to push down and forward into the dough mass. Pick it up, return it to its original position and then repeat three times. Then turn the dough ball 1/4 of a turn and repeat the entire procedure. Continue doing this for 10 to 12 minutes.

You're looking for a dough that is soft and pliable and tacky but NOT sticky. If you're not familiar with working with dough, be patient. Dough responds slowly to changes in moisture. Make small adjustments and give it time. If the dough seems a little dry, moisten your hand with a little water or milk and continue working it. If it seems wet and is sticking to the kneading surface, dust the surface and dough with a little flour and continue kneading. Again, the resulting dough after kneading should be smooth, pliable and tacky but not sticky.

After kneading, form the dough into a rough ball and cover with plastic wrap. Allow it to relax for 10 minutes.

While the dough relaxes find a suitable bowl or container that is large enough for the dough to easily double in size. Coat that container with a thin layer of oil.

When the dough is done resting place it in the oiled container and cover it with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place (not in the sun or too hot), and let it rise to twice it's original size. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours.

When the dough has doubled in size turn it back out onto the kneading surface.

Turn on your broiler and set your pizza stone on a rack midway in your oven. (If you have an older oven you may need to improvise here as old broilers place the food very close to the flames.)

Take the dough and GENTLY knead it down with your knuckles (don't push forward, just gently downward). Take one end of the dough and fold it midway over itself. Take the other end and fold it over that. Knead GENTLY down again. The dough should still be soft and spongey, it should form a rough rectangle. Repeat the folding and then knead gently one more time.

Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Place the pieces under plastic wrap so they don't dry out.

Gently shape each piece into a smooth round ball by lightly gathering it and tightening it by pinching it on the bottom over and over. (DO NOT roll it between your hands like clay). Again, the dough should remain soft and spongey. Place each ball under the plastic wrap to keep it moist. Keep the balls apart as they will rise a little bit and if they touch they'll stick. Let them rest for 10-15 minutes.

Shape each dough ball into the traditional naan shape by placing it between your thumb and fingers and quickly turning your hand over, slapping the dough into your other open hand then grabbing it similarly and repeating, (Kind of like holding a plate and turning it over). Do this over and over rotating the dough a little each time until it relaxes and begins to stretch into the naan shape. This is a two stage process you'll do it once and then place the flattened dough under the plastic wrap to allow it to rise a little and relax, and then do it briefly one more time just before you place it in the oven. By the time you've stretched your last ball for the first time, it is time to go back to your first one. See the video below for a demonstration.

Open the oven door. Grab your first naan, quickly flip it hand over hand to give it its final stretch and then CAREFULLY place it on the pizza stone. Watch and note the time it takes to bake the first one. Between one and two minutes it will start to get brown spots. Carefully turn it over until that side browns in spots. Remove from the oven, quickly brush both sides with butter or ghee (careful it is HOT) and then place in towels or a tortilla warmer to keep warm.

After the first one is done and you have a sense of the process and time involved, you may feel confident enough to cook them 2-3 at a time.

With a little practice making your own naan is kind of fun and it is certainly delicious!
Recipe: Homemade Naan from Chop Onions, Boil Water by Henry