lamination

It was a weekend where the heat index was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  

And I decided to work with laminated doughs.  Part of the reason was that I thought I was going to need to bake bread but the boyos brought bread back from their travels.  There were yeastie beasties to be used.  

I also have been watching a lot of Great British Bake Off and a cookie challenge was watched.  I had forgotten about arlettes.  I am not sure how I forgot about arlettes because they were so tasty last time.

But the heat!

The arlettes turned out tasty but they were pretty rough.  The butter was a bit soft for a couple of turns.  Then, for the last roll, the butter was much too cold.  The arlettes were very rough looking but lovely to eat.  Koda Bear likes how big they are!

With the extra yeastie beasties, I made a family style kouign amann.  I cut the size way back and used 41% butter to dough weight.  I just wanted a little bit of cake, not loads.

I was actually trying a new recipe from Bon Appetit and realized it had much too much sugar in it.  I like the European level of sweetness compared to the United States.  I went back to the French recipe I use.  But my laminations are getting much better!  I am so excited.  I think my coronetti should be getting better too.   I will need to try them again soon.  Maybe a very small batch.  I like working in tiny batches.  Who needs to feed an army when there is only one or two?

The 100 degree Fahrenheit heat index was a good test of patience.  Though I did keep thinking I was crazed.  Next time, I hope it is not so hot!

playing with lamination

Putting hands in dough is always a good place for me.  I really want to be able to make a nice naturally levained croissant and have in the past.  But people swear by the Tartine Bread book.  I am not sold.  But I thought to give it a try again.  In that book, yeast is used but the flavor should be right.  Part of the levaining is actually sourdough/levain.

The first try was disasterous.  Over baked and the kouign amman I made by using another recipe that said start with a croissant dough was awful.  My tastes have become less American.  I like salt and the American recipe I used was too salty.  I composted the end result.  Which I really do not do with bread.  But am I willing to just give up?  No.  So I tried again.

The croissants were not bad.  The end bits I faked into a kouign amman type pastry.  I think I will go looking for another starting point.  But then maybe that is really not fair.  I have never liked any recipe I have tried from the Tartine Bread book.

I am odd.  I need to buy more butter.  I thought I was going to be out of town last weekend but that did not happen so maybe this weekend more lamination can take place between stitching for the Maker's Market.

playing with technique

When I was helping my Mom finish her Christmas shopping, I bought myself a new cookbook.  I know, surprise!  It is called Bien Cuit:  the Art of Bread.  I will not say that the breads in this book are earth shattering but I will say that the attention to technique is fabulous.  I love Zachary Golpers attention to detail and explanations of technique.  I have not put this book away since I opened it about two weeks ago.  Yes, it took that long.

He weighs his ingredients, which I am really liking because it gives me the consistency of starters I like.  He does what he calls rolling and pulling which is exactly how I knead.  Do not know where I learned that especially since one of the people he trained with was a MOF.  He does folds the dough about three times for each type he makes.  And his dough is not like the Tartine bakeries cookbooks where the hydration is so high that it is a pain to work with.  It is a nice soft dough.

The only thing I have changed is that I only use levain or sourdough.  I have not active dry yeast in the house.  Every recipe has worked so far and turned out well.  I have a feeling even my every day sandwich bread will turn out better the next time I make it using his techniques.

The pane dolce in these pictures is just lovely.  I am making it again tonight.  Once I leave the computer I have dough to put in the refrigerator.  I will bake it tomorrow night.  I am going to have to twist his directions and shape when it comes out because  I do not have room in my refrigerator for shaped dough to rise.  I need a refrigerator just for baking.

I made a chocolate loaf and a walnut currant loaf using his techniques.  So good!  More bread to be made!  My overflow bread friends are waiting.

two red cakes

Today has been a day where I need to be on a board of some type and possibly living in a tent!  

But last weekend, I was given the request from Koda Bear that he would like a red cake for his birthday.  Red is his current favorite color.  The request was actually for a white inside and a red outside but I over achieved.  At six inches in diameter, I felt that I could make two.  One was vanilla and one was red velvet.

I used my vanilla cake from my blackberry buckle recipe.  I left off the blackberries and extra sugar.  I sliced the cake in thirds and then filled it with raspberry jam using Mary Berry's recipe from the Prinsesstarta recipe and Joanna Chung recipe for creme patiserrie.  I used Tessa Kiros' recipe for the butter cream on the outside.  Tessa Kiros' is where I got the original vanilla cake recipe.  I have a tendency to adapt it to what i have in the house and also add fruit!

I also made Koda Bear a all red cake using the red velvet cake recipe from Bakerella.  I made a mascarpone frosting for it.  Both the buttercream and the mascarpone frosting recipes needed tweaking because I used one ounce of red food coloring for each.  I sliced the red velvet in thirds as well and slather the mascarpone icing between.

And because I do not decorate yet, real small metal toys were used for decoration.  I got huge thank yous from Koda Bear for that.

Now here is the funny thing, Koda Bear asked for a red cake with a white inside.

That turned out to be Grandpa's favorite cake.  It has all the best flavors of the Prinsesstarta and a lovely butter cream on the outside.  There is so much butter in this cake that the outsides have almost a crust even when you bring it out when it is just baked.  It is why using it as a buckle is so nice.  But with the cream, jam, and frosting, that crust adds a nice almost carmelish flavor.  Quite lovely.

 

Koda Bear's favorite cake is the red velvet with mascarpone  frosting.  Most cakes, he just eat the frosting.  This cake, he all but licks the plate!  I would say it is a success.  He has not even asked for just frosting on a spoon.  I have leftover frosting.

I am not sure what I am going to do for next year but it will not be three cakes!

tried another technical challenge: arlettes

When I was watching the Great British Bake Off the arlettes looked very interesting to me.

They looked like a cinnamon palmier.  Palmier.  Cinnamon.  What not to like?

I followed the recipe and they turned out very well.  They really did not last the day.  Koda Bear did not even get a chance to try one.

What I learned and would do differently, because I will make them again.  I would make the roll that you slice to make the cookies much smaller and make more cookies.  The size of cookie the recipe calls for is very large.  A smaller cookie would be nicer.

Also, roll them out as thin as you possibly can.  You need a good sprinkling of icing sugar and you may even wish to sift it for the rolling.

The last thing was that the sheet of cookies that was in the high middle of the oven baked better.  One sheet of cookies at a time.

I will definitely make these again!  Maybe this weekend if I have time.