cornetti

Obviously, I have been on a search for a croissant I like making at home.  I was browing though pinterest and came across a picture of something that looked like a croissant but was not.  A cornetti.  An Italian pastry similar to a croissant.  With the description of the pastry and reading through the recipe, my thought was I needed to try this.  One of those that I really did not wish to wait until the weekend because I did not wish to wait that long but it would makes sense for timing.  So I did.

And why have I not found this before?  I am not going back to French croissant recipes.  This had vanilla and orange in it with a lightness that was not dry.  Just lovely.  I talked about them to Mr. Bert while I was making them.  He grew up for part of his childhood in a neighborhood in New York City that was full of Italian grandmothers.  He said to add a bit of cinnamon.  I will have to try that at some point.  Might even do that with the vanilla and orange.  

I was thinking about making more this weekend even though I have not finished all I made last week.  That is telling too.  More butter and flour for the grocery budget.  Oh well!  That is just part of my life.

cornetti

Note:  This has other names as well if you search Italian croissant.  All similar.  I modified Milk and Honey's recipe to use sourdough as the yeast.

sourdough starter

1 cup flour

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup milk

5 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

finely grated zest of one orange

1 tablespoon vanilla

about 5 cups flour

8 ounces butter

1 egg, beaten

sugar for sprinkling

The night or morning before, mix sourdough with 1 cup flour and 3/4 cup water in a large bowl.  Cover and let get bubbly.  When bubbling nicely, remove a couple tablespoons of starter for next time.  This is what is known as a bigas in Italian baking.

To the bigas, add milk, 5 tablespoons sugar, 2 1/2 tablespoons butter, 2 eggs, orange zest, vanilla, and two cups flour.  Cover and let get bubbly.  An hour or two.

To the sponge, add the salt and two cups flour.  You should have a stiff soft dough.  It will be very rough.  Turn out onto a counter and knead.  You wish a smooth dough like a baby's bottom and adding as little flour as possible.  I find keeping my hands clean helps.  Place in a clean bowl (clean out the one you have been using, big chunks gone is okay) and cover.  Let rise about three hours or put in the refrigerator for overnight.

About 20 minutes before you wish to start working with the dough again, take out the 8 ounces of butter to soften slightly.  Flour a clean surface and pull out your dough.  Make a square and start rolling.  Smush the butter into a similar square and put in the center of the dough.  Pull the corners of the dough into the center, covering the butter.  Seal the edges of the dough.  Roll out into a large rectangle.  Fold into thirds the long way.  And then, turn and fold into thirds again.  Put into a large plastic bag and put in the refrigerator and let rest for 30 minutes.  

You wish to do this four times total.

After the fourth chilling, bring the dough back out onto a floured surface.  Cover two baking sheets with silpats or parchment paper.  Roll the dough out to about a 1/4 inch thick rectangle.  Long and thin is what you are going for so you can cut sixteen triangles.  I had to roll out a rectangle I actually cut in half and then triangles due to Koda Bear's help and the size of my counter.

With each triangle, stretch the long edge and roll to the point.  Place on a baking sheet.  Due this to all the triangles.  Cover and let rise about an hour or until puffy.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take then beaten egg and brush on all the cornetti.  Sprinkle with sugar.  I used a Mexican sugar that is not completely refined but not raw either.  Just pretty.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

Grab a cup of tea or coffee.  Enjoy.

I need to make these again.

Easter Bread

When I was a small person, I started baking bread.  I actually started baking the Easter Bread.  I think I was about eight.  I actually do not make it very often any more.  I usually make hot cross uns because I like those.  Small Mister calls them cookies which tells you how often we have them around here.  I sent off a box for Easter for him but did not get any "cookies" in there.  Maybe next year.

This year, we went camping with my Beloved's sister's family.  I decided to make the Easter Bread that I grew up with, with a few modifications, for everyone.  I would say it was a hit since this was the only picture I got of it.  It is based on the Parker House roll recipe.  The modification I make is sourdough and I do not scald the milk.  I knead the butter in instead of melt.  If you have any left over, it does make a very good sandwich too!

Easter Bread

sourdough starter

1 cup flour

3/4 cup water

1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 large egg

3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups flour

In a large bowl, the night before, mix the starter, 1 cup flour, and 3/4 cup water.  Cover and let sit until bubbly.  Save out a couple of tablespoons for the next baking.

Mix in the milk, butter, sugar, egg, and 2 cups flour.  Stir well.  Let sit about 1 1/2 hours.  You want a really fluffy sponge, much like pancake batter.

Mix in the salt and 1 1/2 cups flour.  It works best if this dough is on the soft side so go gentle on adding extra flour.  Start kneading.  If it is too sticky, add flour slowly.  Knead the dough until soft and smooth.  

Cover and let rise until double.  It could take 1 1/2 hours or more depending on how cold your house is.  Ours is cold.  If you need to, you can punch it down and let it rise to double again, or shape it.  If you let it rise more, the keeping ability of the bread is better and the sourdough can become a stronger flavor.  I find it is the warmer rise that makes the sourdough strong.  Or very cold and long.

Shape the bread into a braid.  I braid my hair every day so this to me is just common knowledge but here is what you wish to do.  Divide the dough into three equal portions or as close as you can make them.  On a floured surface, roll out each portion into a snake.  I find it is easier to start in the middle and work my way to the ends.  It makes a smoother snake.  Each snake should be about the same length.  

Here is the tricky bit.  Lay the snakes next to each other.  You will actually get a smoother bread braid if you start from the middle.  I am better at showing someone how to do it then write it out so try the diagrams in the Tassajara bread book or look on youtube.  When you have finished one end, do the other.

Put the braid on a baking sheet covered with a silpat or parchment paper.  Cover and let rise again.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bake for one hour.

To make the bread fancy for Easter, I drizzle it with a glaze made of a powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla.  Just so good.

calligraphy

I am trying to learn calligraphy.  I have a workshop in a box and some books on hold at the library.  I might get there.

I have been trying to do some designing for printing.  I really like the idea of script but I have not found anything that I really like.  The thought had been in the back of my head that I should learn calligraphy and create a script I like.  Then print what I wish too.  I have started that process.

I have mentioned that the energy levels are very low.  I am doing one letter at a time right now until those levels increase.  But I am spending energy on making bread.  I have croissant dough rising in the refrigerator.  I keep thinking I should bake and sell.  That way I could put my hands in dough more often.  I just need a few customers who wish a basket each week.  Similar to a CSA but homemade bread.  Maybe someday.

not a failure but....

I tried making pretzel balls.  Karen over at Oxheart makes lovely ones but we do not go out to eat very often.  i thought I would give it a go.  I used the Zingerman's recipe except I used sourdough instead of yeast, brown sugar instead of barley malt.  

I did let them over rise in the refrigerator.  Life got away from me.  But basically, they were not to my taste.  Much to salty!  They are not bad in soup that needs salt or when Small Mister needs to gnaw on something with his seven teeth.  

Back to the drawing board.

VERY fussy bread

I have been baking bread since I was eight (?).  Amost forty years.  I know what I like in an everyday bread and I usually make that.  Sometimes I try something new.  

Usually something that is artisanal.  I picked up Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson from the library because the pictures are lovely and is is an artisanal bread book that uses a starter.  A sourdough.  I find most bakers who write cooks usually make sourdough or a desem much too hard.  I am not saying it is easy but it is yeastie beasties.  You treat them with kindness and you will get a lovely bread.  I use them every bake now and my bread does not usually taste too sour, to my Beloved's regret.

And I am not saying you do not make a lovely loaf with this book, but the flavor is just not worth all the extra fuss.  My Beloved was watching me bake (knowing what I do normally) and kept saying "fussy bread.  fussy bread."  The flavor is good so I would use the porportions again:

700 grams water

200 grams leaven (soudough)

900 grams white flour

100 grams whole wheat flour (1000 grams flour total)

20 grams salt

But I am going to work on the fussiness.

Bread is not fussy.  

But the people work with at work are looking forward to my rejections.  Butter will be brought tommorrow for one of the loaves because I am going to try again with much less fussiness.  I will let you know how it goes.