The recipe is Dorie’s. I am not going to post it here but show you my journey. Get a copy of “Around My French Table” for the recipe. I highly recommend it. The recipe is on page 78 and 79. I will give you a recipe below for my own Cuban Bread that you can have baked homemade by the time the soup is ready.

SO, I grew the squash and some leeks in my garden and then harvested them.

I prepared the squash and cut it up with the leeks.

Cooked them with milk, water, nutmeg, salt and pepper…

And cooked them all together until the vegetables were soft, then pureed them with an immersion blender.

Dorie tops hers with apples and nuts. I used an Ambrosia apple and some bacon-mmm (everything’s better with bacon) because I wanted a little smoky, salty contrast against the sweet apples and squashy pumpkin-chestnut backdrop of the soup. It was delicious!

Add a side of freshly baked bread and you have a heavenly cold weather meal. Voila!

Cuban Bread (two loaves ready in an hour and a half)

• 4 cups “00″ or bread flour
• 4-1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1-1/2 Tablespoons sea salt
• 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 cups hot water
• 1 to 2 more cups “00″ or bread flour

Mix the 4 cups of flour with the yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle. Mix to combine then dissolve the sugar and salt in the hot water and add to the flour and yeast whilst mixing slowly. Beat for 3 minutes until well combined. Add the remaining 1 to 2 cups flour whilst mixing until the dough is well mixed and elastic and just slightly tacky. Change to the dough hook and knead my machine for 6 minutes until smooth. Finish kneading for 2 minutes on a lightly floured work surface. Put in an oiled bowl and let raise in a warm place for 15 minutes until doubled. Divide into two round loaves. Place on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Cut and “x” on the top of each with a razor or sharp knife. Place another pan of hot water on the floor of your oven and the sheet pan with the loaves on the rack above it in the cold oven. Set your oven to 400F and bake for about 50 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when thumped on the bottom. Place on a rack and cool completely for best flavour. Or just a bit for warm bread with soup.

Enjoy!

Today there is a Pizza Party around the world that is being hosted by Zoë François and Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. , the authors of “Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day.”

For the last year or so, Rick and I have been working on a wood fired pizza oven in our back garden. So this was a fun event to unveil the (almost) completed oven and share this great book with you too. To family and friends who have been (patiently) waiting for a pizza party- it’s on its way- I promise.     We’ve just been working on the practical aspects of using the oven. The doughs in the book will be helpful because we can mix up different batches of dough without a lot of time or effort and have them on hand for when the time is right to fire up the oven.

I have a separate post planned for when the last bit is complete on the oven to show you how we made it  and the different stages of completion- so more on that later. Right now let’s party with some pizza!

First gather the book and a few ingredients. I used four litre buckets to mix each dough in,  instead of the 5 quarts recommended because it was either them or a 6 qt which takes up too much space in my fridge.  So here are the ingredients. I made the “00″ flour variation of the Ultimate Tender Neopolitan Crust from page 73- because I happen to have about 40 lbs of Caputo “00″ flour from Central Milling on hand. It’s in the 5 Gallon bucket with the red lid pictured. The blue crock is my salt cellar.

I also made the “Cornmeal Olive Oil dough” on page 86, although I substituted purple cornmeal for the yellow listed. I know- I’m a rebel. Plus I had some to use up.  :)

I like to use my King Arthur (thingamajig)  mixing tool that my sister, Tonya, gave to me a few years ago for mixing things up in the buckets. It works great! Funny note:It’s in a gift box on their site featured with Bread in 5′s book.

This is what the doughs look like after raising and being chilled overnight:

So fire up the oven…

Rick just finished the spire on top of the onion dome. There is more to do but it works and more on the pizza oven to come in a later post.

It makes a great fire.

Toppings:

San Marzano tomatoes that I bottled this Summer from our garden, whizzed in the blender with a little salt and then strained make a delicious sauce.

I make pesto during the summer and freeze it in flexible ice cube trays. Just thaw and use.

Cubed Turkey Breast, Goat cheese, Brie, Ricotta,  Fresh and shredded Mozzarella, BBQ sauce, San Marzanos, pesto, homemade Bechamel, Ambrosia Apple, artichoke hearts, cooked sweet Italian sausage and pepperoni, shallots, onions and red peppers.

Prepared Margherita, San Marzano tomato sauce and fresh Mozzarella on "00" dough

Margherita out of the oven and topped with fresh Basil from the windowsill

Prepared Apple, Bechamel and Brie on Cornmeal Olive Oil Crust

After the fire:Turkey Breast on BBQ Sauce Before and after:

An “Italian Flag” one third each Margherita, Pesto and Bechamel Ricotta Before and after firing:

This is an "Italian Flag" before cooking

I had another pizza and some wood fired Naan to show you but I’ve lost this post twice running out of room so I’ll save those for another day. Party on and check out the other parties over at the Artisan Bread in 5 site.

Enjoy!

After a busy few weeks I’m ready to get back to posting and I have quite a few recipes stored up to share with you.

Let’s start with this one for some lovely, light and airy dinner rolls made a bit more nutritious with the addition of pumpkin. They add a nice bit of colour to the dinner offerings with a turkey or ham dinner and they make a wonderful base for a sandwich for afters.

Here is a tip when rolling crescent rolls or croissants: make a small relief cut at the thick end of the wedge and that way you can roll them nicely and they will keep their shape a bit better.

And whilst they are raising cover them LOOSELY with plastic film so that it doesn’t adhere to the rolls and pull them out of shape…

Pumpkin Crescent Rolls (makes 16-18 rolls)

• 3-3/4 to 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 ounce (1 package) active dry yeast
• 1 cup milk (whole or 2%)
• 2 ounces (1/2 stick- 1/8 lb) butter
• 3/4 cup pureed pumpkin, fresh roasted or canned
• 1 egg
• melted butter to brush

Combine one cup of the flour along with the sugar, salt and yeast. Whisk to blend. Melt the butter and add the milk to warm to about 120F to 130F or very warm to the touch. Add the warmed milk- butter mixture to the flour mixture along with the pumpkin puree and the egg. Blend at low speed to mix then increase speed to medium and beat for a couple of minutes.  Lower speed and then add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft, somewhat sticky dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic- a couple of minutes.

Butter a large bowl and add the dough, turning to coat the top, cover loosely with plastic wrap and a clean dish towel and let rise in a warm place, free of drafts for about an hour or until doubled in size. Punch down the dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface into a large round. Brush the round with melted butter. Cut with a pizza wheel or sharp knife into 16 to 18 wedges. Make a relief cut at the thick end and roll from the thick end to the thin end to make a crescent shape. Curve the outer ends in a bit to complete the crescent shape.  Place at least 2″ apart on a parchment lined baking sheet and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Leave in a warm place to rise for  about 40 minutes or until light and doubled in size. Preheat oven during last 20 minutes to 375F. Uncover dough and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to racks to cool. Brush with melted butter. Serve warm or room temperature.

Have a wonderful day!

xo

Individual Kouign Amann aux amandes

“Bretagne Braid”

These are my own version of Kouign Amann. Kouign Amann (which is pronounced “Queen Ah-mahn”) means butter cake in the Breton language. They are the mouthwatering, buttery, salty, caramelized, sweet pastry from Bretagne- the region of Brittany in France.
With the addition of a bit of marzipan and toasted almonds they become a heavenly cross between traditional  Kouign Amann and our favourite almond croissants. They become “Kouign Amann aux amandes”. We think that they are the ultimate – the bomb- the “I’m having a transcendent moment here”  pastry!

I first learned of Kouign Amann through reading  Madeleine Kamman’s lovely book, “When French Women Cook- A Gastronomique Memoir”, written in 1976. Her book takes you through the dishes of several regions of France represented by women she knew growing up there- friends, family and friends of the family-from 1934 to the 1970s.  I wish I could duplicate her journey but sadly those days and places are lost to the march of time and history. She hosted the PBS series “Madeleine Cooks” in the mid 1980s and has contributed much to the interest in and teaching of French Cooking in the USA. I am not using her recipe here, it is an amalgamation of several others I’ve read with my own tweaks added here and there.

I’ve also mentioned before that our favourite local place to buy these if you don’t make them yourself is Les Madeleines Bakery. They are exquisitely made there- lovely, gooey and carmelized. If you live in Salt Lake or are passing through do give them a try- they are worth the trip. Rick and I got addicted to them at Les Madeleines and I remembered seeing them in “When French Women Cook” and several other French cookbooks I own- so I started making them at home.

Back to the pastry…laminating a not too rich dough (you can even start with plain white bread dough) with salted butter and sugar is the secret to making Kouign Amann. They are not difficult to do as long as you keep everything cold, chill between “turns” and are patient in your rolling.  They take a bit of time is what I am saying here- it is at least a two day process so make sure to plan ahead.    (BTW I have made a very good version using homemade quick puff pastry and laminating in sugar with a pinch of salt to make up for the unsalted butter in the puff pastry.)

A word about equipment first- you don’t need lots of special stuff to make these but I find these things helpful:  a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and also a paddle- a bowl, spoon and elbow grease will do if you don’t have one;  a flexible straight sided ruler 18″ to 24 ” is very helpful -I have a flat plastic graphics ruler that I have marked with black marker at 8″, 12″, 18″ and 24″ increments;  a soft pastry brush; a large french style rolling pin; english muffin rings (or a jumbo muffin pan), a flan ring if making a large version and heavy duty baking sheets lined with parchment or silpats, plus a sharp knife or pastry roller cutter.

Risen Dough

First and Third Turns Marked

Kouign Amann aux amandes

• 1 package active dried yeast = (1/4 ounce) or  1 level Tablespoon of Bob’s Redmill instant yeast
• 1-3/4 cups warm water about 105F
• 1 large pinch of granulated sugar, plus 1-2 cups more for laminating and rolling and for topping the pastries
• 5 -6 cups of all purpose flour (start with 5 add the other if needed -see below)
• 1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt, plus another  pinch  for the  topping
• 1/8 cup melted butter, cooled
• 1 pound best quality SALTED butter, cold (or use unsalted and mix in a little fleur de sel when forming the block)
• 7 ounces best quality home made or prepared marzipan
• slivered almonds- to top -about 1/3 cup total

Mix the yeast, warm water and a pinch of sugar together and let stand until foamy- a few minutes. Place the flour, salt and melted butter in the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and mix together, add the yeast mixture and mix until a smooth dough forms and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. This should only take a few minutes.  If you don’t have a stand mixer, use a bowl and a wooden spoon and then turn out to knead on a lightly floured counter until a smooth dough forms. Place the dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise to double- about an hour.  When doubled, punch down and chill for about an hour, meanwhile get the the butter block  ready.

Place the cold butter  in the clean bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment this time, or beat it with a rolling pin between two pieces of parchment paper until it is pliable but still cool. Form this into an  8″ square block (about 1/2″ thick) and cover with parchment or plastic wrap and place on a tray in your fridge to chill. Chill for 30 minutes.  So the dough will have been in the fridge for about one hour and 35 minutes and the butter block that was already cool has joined it in for about 30 minutes. This will make them approximately the same temperature. 

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it into a uniform 18″ square with the center a bit thicker than the edges. Remove the butter block from the fridge and place it catre-cornered on the dough square- in other words have the corners of the butter point at the center of the sides of the square.  Fold the corners of the dough over the butter to overlap on top and pinch to seal. Roll out to a 24″ by 8″ rectangle – use your ruler to keep the dough straight and squared off, then brush off any flour with a pastry brush. Sprinkle with  about 1/4 cup sugar and press with the pin to roll in. Fold the right edge over the middle third of the dough and the left edge over the whole right side edge you just folded over (as if you were folding a towel or book into thirds, so the 24″ becomes 8″ and the 8″ stays the same dimension.)  Dimple the dough with your finger once to mark this as your first “turn”. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place on a baking  tray that will fit in your fridge and chill for 30 minutes.  Remove and repeat the rolling and folding but roll the opposite way so the 8″ side of your folded “towel or book”  will become 24″ and the other side will become 8″ when rolled( thats why it’s called a turn- you are turning the dough package to roll and fold the opposite direction from the previous way.  Fold again the same as above, brushing off excess flour and rolling in sugar before folding, and marking two dimples for the second turn. Repeat 2 more times but chill an hour between these turns. When you have completed 4 turns in total (of course chilling between) wrap and chill the dough overnight or for at least 6 hours.  The next morning….

Place some sugar on your rolling surface and roll the dough out to 24″ x 18″, cut to the desired size- I usually make twelve 4″x 4″ Kouign Amann and one larger sized pastry with the remainder of the dough. Knead the marzipan and place in the center of whatever shape you choose, fold the edges over to meet in the center and pinch to seal. Top each pastry with sugar mixed witha tiny pinch of salt and some slivered almonds. Place each pastry into english muffin rings on a parchment or silpat lined heavy sheet pan or even a jumbo muffin pan (no need to grease them) for the 4×4″ size and use a flan ring for the larger size .To make a “Bretagne Braid ” such as the one shown here – make a rectangle and put the marzipan lengthwise down the middle, cut in from the long sides towards the filling  at 1/2″ even, intervals and alternate bringing the side strips over the filling to make a braided pattern, turn under the ends and pinch to seal, place on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet, cover the pastry with plastic wrap and (proof) place in warm place until slightly puffed- about 30 to 40 minutes. Preheat your oven to 425F. Bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes, rotating the trays about halfway through and bake until golden,   and puffed.  Remove to a cooling tray immediately.

They are good warm or cool but they do stale quickly so eat them or share them the same day- although we have nibbled them for up to four days they lose their stellar quality. I have frozen some, untopped, at the preproofed stage to pull them out proof them, top them and bake them as needed.

Proofing individual and large sized pastries

Finished Pastries

They make an awfully good breakfast!

Wow that was a long one! Hope you enjoyed the journey.

xo