Wild Yeast

See this week’s yeast spottings…

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a pièce montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

We know I often find the Daring Bakers challenges true to their name. I think this is the first time, however, that I actually cried.

It started well enough. The mixing and piping of the pâte à choux was not hard, after all the practice I got in school. The little puffs did their thing and puffed. I filled them with a raspberry diplomat cream I was pretty happy with (diplomat cream is a blend of pastry cream and whipped cream; the recipe follows).

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See this week’s yeast spottings…

I made today’s ciabatta with a little more water than usual. I expected this would result in a more open texture, but it didn’t, perhaps because I mixed it a little too long. Take-home #1: all other thing being equal, higher hydration leads to a more open crumb. Take-home #2: all other things being equal, more mixing leads to a finer, more closed crumb. (You can see this effect dramatically in these baguettes.) Take-home #3: all other things are never equal.

I will say, however, that however open or not open the crumb, it made a pretty good sandwich with prosciutto, sopressata, mozzarella, basil, tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar.

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¡Hola! from the land of Daring Cooks. Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo. The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce, was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

I made mine beef instead of chicken, because that’s what my freezer presented me with. Other than that, everything was per the recipe, and it was quite good. I’m rather embarrassed to say that the homemade tortillas were the hardest part; mine turned out pretty dry but were saved by drenching in copious amounts of sauce. Served with roasted corn and black bean salad and flan for dessert, for the full “better-stay-the-hell-out-of-Arizona-with-this-dinner” effect.

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