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Overview
Acclaimed professional baker Suzanne Dunaway reveals her truly revolutionary technique for baking unforgettable breads that require no fuss and no special equipment. The crusts are lighter, chewier, and the crumb is moist, stays fresh longer, and has more intense flavor than most breads. Her ingredients are simply flour, water, yeast, salt—and passion. She uses no preservatives or additives of any kind. The recipes are her own creations, developed over years of trial and error.
You will find focaccia, ciabatta, pane rustico, and pizza as well as breads from around the world such as baguette, sourdough flapjacks, blini, muffins, corn bread, brioche, African Spiced bread, kulich, and kolaches. In addition many of the basic bread doughs are fat-free, sugar-free, and dairy-free making then perfect for people on strict dietary or allergy regimes. There are also dozens of recipes for dishes you can make with bread: soufflés, soups, salads, and even desserts such as chocolate bread pudding. Plus, fun recipes to make with children.
Suzanne Dunaway was the owner and head baker of Buona Forchetta Handmade Breads in Los Angeles, hailed as one of the seven best bakeries in the world by W Magazine. Gourmet called her breads “addictive.”
“If kneading makes you need a sit down and need a rest, then this book will encourage you back into the kitchen. A great bread making class for all of us lazy bread makers.” —Foodepedia
“Fabulous.” —The Telegraph
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781909808737 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Grub Street |
| Publication date: | 02/20/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 270 |
| Sales rank: | 383,435 |
| File size: | 17 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Daily Breads
When I lived in Rome, my mornings began with a stop at the Local panificio, the bakery, where I could gather the latest gossip, gaze upon the Caravaggio countenances of my neighbour's children, and flirt wantonly with the handsome bakers, their beautiful faces dusted with flour and looking like medieval actors on a fragrant stage. The six-foot-long pizza bianca (page 85) would first be placed on a wooden paddle, carefully pleated, like a piece of fabric, liberally brushed with olive oil and then quickly pulled to its full length over the stone floor of the oven. The owner would hack off great chunks of pane casereccio for the housewives' lunches, and children would inevitably be munching on fresh little anise-flavoured biscotti or pieces of just-baked pizza bianca, a morning favourite of every Italian, young and old.
How different from shopping at our supermarkets, where the shelves are lined with packaged breads, soft, cottony, and most inedible (except for the whole-grain speciality breads that every now and then make a good piece of toast). We have been known for years as the country of wonder bread, Twinkies, and doughnuts, and it is no wonder that there are national rampages against the presence of some of our junk-food restaurants in countries such as France and Italy. Our culture has never been one to embrace artisan bread. Not, at least, until now.
In existence for only a mere 250 or so years, we have the daunting but exciting task of creating our own food history, and we are fast catching up in the realm of daily breads. We have marvellous bakers who can hold their own among the world's masters, while ironically the French, after hundreds of years, lament the loss of their crusty, dense and flavourful baguettes, the backbone of any French meal. The French baguette is probably the most influential bread in modern bread-making. Everyone wants to make a baguette like the lovely crisp artisan ones found nowadays only in small, village bakeries in France, and occasionally in select city bakeries. And if the rustic country breads of Italy were more prevalent here, I am sure that they, too, would be the breads we would emulate more often; it is these breads that I want to eat on a daily basis. It is a formidable challenge, however, to encourage education about bread to a country of people who grew up with sliced, white, tasteless loaves. Now, when you watch someone bite into your own handmade Rosemary Focaccia or Olive Filoncino, you will, I believe, find a willing convert and student.
Education begins, of course, with children. For heaven's sake, give children a great-tasting bread in their lunch boxes instead of calorie-rich, sugar-filled snacks or sliced commercial breads. I often do demonstrations in supermarkets or at events to acquaint the public with breads from Buona Forchetta, and I am struck by one thing that happens over and over again: mothers with children are very open to having their babies taste new flavours, but it is the children themselves who surprise me. They take a piece of rosemary focaccia or olive bread and almost always ask for more, proving themselves to be much more adventuresome than many adults. Some will come back to my table time after time (in fact, sometimes I'm not sure their mothers know they are there!), grab a handful of samples (I pretend to be not looking) and run.
Daily breads, for me, are those which you can eat with all foods or which become the meal itself. A simple, well-baked loaf is far more satisfying to me than all the honey-wheat-berry-walnut-raisin-and-garlic breads in the world, although I have my favourites with flavours, such as the Hazelnut-Sage Filoncino in this chapter or the spiced African bread in "Special Breads". But what I want to eat daily is a very chewy, tasty, and simple loaf such as the Pane Trattoria or the Pane Osso we make at the bakery: no fat, no sugar, no nonsense, just bread with a great flavour and substantial texture, or a simple focaccia with olive oil, fresh rosemary and salt.
A perfect example of how I created one of my own daily breads is the evolution of Fougasse de Collioure, a wondrous chewy ladder-shaped bread which I first tasted in the south of France near the Spanish border. When I returned home, my heart had unfortunately stayed behind, and I began work on a recipe for my beloved fougasse so as not to die from nostalgia. Just as the air, water, and flour of Italy are different from ours in Los Angeles, so are they in France, but one of our clients is a chef from Perpignan, near Collioure and he has put his stamp of approval on our fougasse. It is much chewier, with a rich, nutty, almost buttery taste from the fermented dough. Other fougasses contain herbs or olives, which you can always add to the basic recipe, and sometimes, for parties, I lay salted anchovies on the fougasse before baking, but the thing itself, without enhancement, is one of our best sellers.
Upon returning to Collioure after several summers away, we found that the fougasse was not the same, or that our tastes had changed; the crusty, rich fougasse we were making had spoiled us for others, probably because our flour is substantially different from theirs or perhaps because we begin with a different sponge and develop a little more flavour. I also discovered that the only baker who could make the original fougasse had sold out and left the area; his bakery was for sale and the whole town was in turmoil over the loss of its beloved bread. My husband had to tie me down to keep me from becoming an ex-patriot, fougasse-baking, American-interloper in Collioure. The beaches aren't bad, either.
Fortunately, I can now bake my own ladder bread at home, and so can you, along with many other delightful breads that have taken shape in my kitchen after years of travel and tasting.
Having daily bread on the table does not mean meticulous, precise measurements, days and days of ripening starters, temperature-controlled environments and closets of equipment, all of which have their place, but not particularly in your home kitchen. A more than memorable loaf may be yours in one and a half hours, start to finish without effort. Of course you may choose to have a longer rising time or simply put your dough on hold overnight until you are ready to bake and yes, you will get a more complex and richer taste, but let me say to all cooks who feel intimidated by lengthy processes, complicated instructions and the seemingly arcane language of the baking world: plunge in! Have no fear! Making bread is a piece of cake. With the recipes that follow, making your own simple, daily bread will be as much a part of your day as making the morning coffee.
FOCACCIA
Basic Dough For Loaves Or Flatbreads
This user-friendly dough is about as basic as you can get. It was the dough that inspired me to start my bakery in Los Angeles and was the dough that everyone seems to like. One morning at the Farmer's Market in Santa Monica, when I was setting up my bread concession, I dropped a focaccetta (sandwich sized) in the street and watched with horror (as did several customers) as a pickup truck, Mercedes, and large van rolled over the just-baked bun. We could actually see its shape spring back, resilient and just as fresh as ever, much like the Samsonite luggage which, dropped from 30 stories, bounces back without a scratch! This is very hardy dough.
With it you can make loaves of bread, flatbreads, crisp breads, little rolls (focaccette), the French ladder bread fougasse, exotic hamburger buns, breadsticks, and more. You can also forget it in the refrigerator or leave it to rise a little too long and it will bounce back very easily even after the Mack truck is gone. Like a good sailboat in a storm, it is very forgiving, and I have witnesses to prove it.
Measure the water into a large bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and stir until dissolved. Stir in 300 g/2 cups of the flour and the salt and stir briskly until smooth, about 2 minutes. With a strong wooden spoon or one of those rare mixing spoons with a big hole in the middle, stir in the remaining 260 g/2 cups of flour for about 2 minutes longer, just until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and the flour is incorporated. The dough will be fairly wet and tacky (sticky), but when it pulls away from the sides of the bowl and forms a loose ball, you'll know the dough has been stirred sufficiently. If necessary, stir in an additional 30-65 g/¼-½ cup of flour.
SAME DAY METHOD: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, 30 to 40 minutes. Proceed with the shaping instructions.
OVERNIGHT METHOD: Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight. The dough will rise in the refrigerator and acquire flavour from the slower yeast action. Remove the dough 2 hours before shaping and let stand, covered, in a warm place. The dough will rise for the second time. Proceed with the shaping instructions.
TO SHAPE INTO LOAVES: Preheat the oven to 260ºC/500ºF/gas 10. Oil 1 seasoned non-stick, oven-proof 23 cm/9-inch tin or two 13 cm/5-inch tins.
Pour the dough into the large tin or divide it between the smaller tins by loosening the dough with a spatula and then carefully scraping it from the sides of the bowl, keeping the dough as inflated as possible. With the spatula, cut the dough off at the edge of the bowl as it falls into the tin. The shape that the dough takes on as it falls into the tin is fine. Brush the tops of loaves with olive oil, sprinkle with rosemary and sea salt and set aside to rise until doubled, about 15 to 20 minutes.
TO BAKE LOAVES: Place the bread in the preheated oven and reduce the oven temperature to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until nicely browned and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped with your finger. Remove loaf from tin and cool on a rack.
TO SHAPE INTO FOCACCIA: Preheat the oven to 260ºC/500ºF/gas 10. Oil 1 or 2 non-stick 33 x 46 cm/13 x 18-inch baking sheets.
Pour the dough onto the sheet(s), carefully scraping it from the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Brush the dough with 10 ml/2 teaspoons of olive oil. To make the traditional focaccia with indentations, dip your fingers into cold water and insert them straight down into the dough. Make holes in the dough by pulling it to the sides about 2.5 cm/1 inch at a time. Pull the holes at random to form little craters all over with the tin showing through where you have put your fingers. As you work, stretch the dough into a 2.5cm/1inch thick oval. (If you are using just 1 baking sheet, the focaccia will cover almost the entire sheet.) Brush the loaf with another teaspoon of olive oil and sprinkle with the rosemary and sea salt. Focaccia does not need to rise, but if you forget it for a few minutes, don't worry. It will bake beautifully despite a little neglect.
TO SHAPE INTO DINNER ROLLS: This is the easiest way to make rolls with any dough. Follow the instructions for the Overnight Method. Preheat the oven to 260ºC/500ºF/gas 10. Spray a French bread tin with non-stick spray or rub with olive oil. A 3-section tin will yield 9 or 12 rolls, depending on the size you choose to cut off.
Take a good handful of the chilled dough and gently stretch it out into a rectangle approximately 5 cm/2 inches wide and 20 cm/8 inches long. Snip off 5 cm/2-inch pieces of dough and drop them into the grooves in the tin, using 3 to a groove. You may shape them after cutting if you like, but I prefer the free-form look of the unshaped rolls. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with fresh rosemary. Let rise until doubled in volume. (If you wish to make rolls from room-temperature dough, pour the dough into the grooves of the tin, cutting off the dough with a scraper after a 7.5 cm/3-inch piece of dough has "fallen" into the groove. Proceed again down the groove, letting the dough fall into its roll shape (see illustration). Rolls made like this need only to rise for about 15 minutes before baking. They will have a good spring and be very tender with crisp crust.
TO BAKE THE FOCACCIA AND ROLLS: Place the tin(s) in the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 230ºC/450ºF/gas 8. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the focaccia has a nice, golden brown colour mixed with a little darker brown around the indented area. Bake the rolls for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Cool on a wire rack. Cut focaccia into wedges or rectangles and serve warm.
BAKER'S NOTE: For a breakfast focaccia, mix 5 ml/1 teaspoon cinnamon with 225 g/1 cup coarse brown sugar and sprinkle over the focaccia in place of rosemary.
FOUGASSE DE COLLIOURE
This is a moist, chewy ladder bread which I discovered and enjoyed for the several summers I spent in the little French medieval town of Collioure, near the Spanish border. There, in an apartment looking out over not one but three beaches, I grilled local sardines and made thick ratatouille with luscious red peppers, sweet onions and rich black aubergine of the Rousillon region and then piled the food onto fresh split fougasse from the local baker (when he was still there!).
The Fauves (in French, fauve means wild animal), so named because of their wild and sensual colours and shapes, painted the magical evening light in Collioure as it illuminated the red, blue and yellow Latine-rigged boats that rested in the harbour. I imagine that they might have munched on fougasse during breaks from the canvas. The exquisite food of the region incorporated lovely vegetables and fish, and the daily bread was always fougasse, as well as the usual baguettes. For eight years, I did not go back, and then in July of 1997, I returned with children and grandchildren and found that every one of our friends was still there on the beach, in practically the same place where I had bid them au revoir, with their children and grandchildren, and still enjoying the warm fougasses and bunyettes (little round, flat sugar breads) from the local boulangerie. My fougasse has a little more body and texture than the French one, because our flour is made from a harder wheat with more elasticity than the flour milled in France. Since this is a bread that is mostly crust, it does not keep as long as larger loaves do, but the flavour is incomparable. My husband calls its unusual shape a "figure 12", a figure eight with a circle added. Stud it with anchovies before baking for an unusual appetizer.
Follow the recipe for Focaccia throughout the first rise. Punch down the dough and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough overnight so it can rise again.
TO SHAPE THE FOUGASSE: Preheat the oven to 260ºC/500ºF/gas 10.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and, using a scraper, carefully scoop the dough out onto a clean surface. Cut it into 3 pieces. Let it rest for 10 minutes. Rub another baking sheet with olive oil.
With your hands, grasp one of the pieces in each hand and stretch it to form a fairly flat 30 cm x 15 cm/12 x 6-inch oblong or rectangle. Pull it gently so as not to break it. Lay this on the oiled baking sheet. With kitchen shears, cut the dough into 3 equal lengths, approximately 5 cm/2 inches wide and 30 cm/12 inches long. Make 3 vertical slashes with scissors along each piece of dough (see illustration). With your fingers, stretch the slashes open to form a kind of ladder shape (a figure 12). Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
TO BAKE THE FOUGASSE: Brush the loaf with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place in the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 230ºC/450ºF/gas 8. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
BAKING NOTES: Watch that the fougasse does not brown too quickly. Fougasse needs high heat because there is so much crust and so little crumb. If it does not brown in 20 minutes, increase the oven temperature to 260ºC/500ºF/gas 10 and check that it browns quickly without burning.
ROSEMARY FILONCINO
There is nothing like the fragrance of rosemary. Rosemary is one of the few herbs used in cooking to which I am addicted! It calms and soothes me – and just a whiff can take you on a little private vacation to Italy, where the smell of rosemarino, as it is called, permeates the air near almost any trattoria. You can imagine yourself watching the cook turning quail or little flattened chickens on the grill or tossing new potatoes in rosemary and olive oil, ready for the roasting tin along with sea bass called bronzino.
I use it in many foods: breads, chicken, lamb, veal, and even in sorbet. I make a fragrant rinse for my hair (great for brunettes) from crushed rosemary leaves. When breads are brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with fresh, chopped rosemary, the rich flavour is often mistaken for that of sweet butter.
This baguette is made from the same dough as the focaccia, but because the taste of a bread changes when its shape changes, you will find that this long, cylindrical loaf has a bit more crumb, a slightly more buttery taste, and is useful for slicing into small rounds for canapés or little toasts. This bread also makes a great long sandwich, bruschetta, or breakfast tartine split lengthwise, toasted, and served with jam.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "No Need to Knead"
by .
Copyright © 2012 Suzanne Dunaway.
Excerpted by permission of Grub Street.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION,
DAILY BREADS,
TRADITIONAL BREADS,
PIZZA,
SWEET LOAVES AND OTHERS,
SPECIAL BREADS AND BREADSTICKS,
LEFTOVERS,
Bruschette,
Bruschettine,
Bread Soufflés,
Bread in Pasta and Rice,
Bread Soups,
Bread for Dessert,
Exotic Croutons and Breadcrumbs,
BREAD FOR CHILDREN,
Acknowledgements,
Index,
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