Wild Yeast

As embarrassing as it is to have nothing to contribute to my own event this week, something tells me I won’t be missed at all.

See this week’s yeast spottings…

First off, here’s the requisite fine print, so I don’t get kicked off the Daring Bakers’ books, especially after failing to do last month’s challenge:

“This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.” The challenge also ordered us to pair the tuiles with “something light,” leaving the whole thing well open to creativity and interpretation.

Now I realize there may be a few questions at this point:

1. Karen and Zorra are bread bakers extraordinaire. Why didn’t they pick a bread recipe?
   • Karen and Zorra are complex women of many talents. We should all be so gifted.
2. What’s that stuff on top?
   • Crab salsa.
3. You put crab salsa on top of a cookie. What have you been smoking?
   • Actually, we had a secret savory option as well: cornets from Thomas Keller’s French Laundry Cookbook.

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Have questions about how yeast do their thing? Wonder no more. The Rooster in the kitchen of Oh The Joys utterly nails a succinct explanation of these martyred fungi.

(Thanks to Barbara of Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers for sending this my way.)

See this week’s yeast spottings…

What makes you cry?

For me it’s some of the usual suspects: onions, weddings, funerals, my son’s music, my daughter’s dancing.

As of yesterday, it’s also Presidential inaugurations. Congratulations, Mr. President. We are with you.

The judges for Well Fed Network’s 2008 Food Blog Awards have announced their finalist picks, and I’m delighted and honored that Wild Yeast is among five in the running for Best Food Blog – Theme. Thank you to Well Fed, and to Margie (CoffeeGrounded), who nominated me.

If you’d like to cast a vote for Wild Yeast or one of the other excellent theme blogs — Lunch In a Box, Karina’s Kitchen, Prudence Pennywise, and Hunter Angler Gardener Cook — the polls are open until 8PM EST on January 24.

Also, be sure to take a look at the 13 other categories, where you’ll no doubt find some of your already-favorite blogs as well as some new gems to whet your appetite.

Thank you for voting, for reading, and for making this blog so much fun to write!

I took this photo at the Marché Saxe-Breteuil in Paris, in April of 2007. Per the sign, the Pain de Campagne was 8.86 euros per kilo (that’s $5.36 a pound).

I’m sending this one to Bee and Jai (jugalbandi) for their Red-themed January Click! photo event.

See more photos from the market…

Once again it is my pleasure to present so many spectacular examples of why I love yeast. Thanks so much to everyone who sent breads this week!

See this week’s yeast spottings…

Fougasse, the French version of focaccia, is a flat bread that is cut to resemble a tree, leaf, or ladder. Because the cuts maximize surface area, this is yet another type of loaf that is wonderful for crust lovers like my husband. The dough usually contains olive oil, and may have additions or fillings such as fresh herbs, cheese, nuts, olives, or anchovies.

I chose to make mine really cheesy with Gorgonzola, and added some pecans and figs to make it extra decadent. I know it’s not much to look at, but please take my word for it — it it tastes a lot better than it looks. Just to be clear, it’s really cheesy.

Since I was going for crispy as well as cheesy, I flattened the dough to about 1/4-inch thick. If you want it a little softer in the middle, you could make it thicker. Also, depending on the size and shape of your stone, you may need to make the fougasse a little more square or circular rather than elongated like mine. For more options on how to shape and cut a fougasse, take a look at these from Mon Blog Loisirs and Living in the Kitchen With Puppies.

I have found that it’s much easier to make clean cuts by exerting straight downward pressure on the dough (guillotine-style), rather than dragging a blade through it. I use a small rigid plastic dough scraper, but the end of a square metal spatula would work as well.

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The folds of a couche (a piece of stiff linen) are ideal for cradling and supporting proofing baguettes and batards. But how do you transfer the proofed loaves onto a peel so you can get them into the oven?

Flipping board to the rescue. A flipping board is nothing more than a narrow piece of wood onto which the loaf is gently rolled off the couche, and from which the loaf is then either rolled or slid onto the peel.

In the video below, I use a 27 x 4-inch board to transfer baguettes onto a piece of parchment on my plywood board “peel.” (I will slide the parchment, loaded with three baguettes, onto the baking stone in the oven.)

These baguettes have been proofing seam-side-down in the couche, and I want them to wind up seam-side-down on the parchment. To do this, I lift the edge of the couche to roll the baguette onto the flipping board, so it’s now seam-side-up. Then I roll the baguette off the edge of the flipping board onto the parchment, so it’s seam-side-down again.

(If you can’t see the video here, view it on YouTube.)

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