Normandy Apple Bread for World Bread Day 2013

It seems that every day at our house is World Bread Day, mainly because I am so fond of baking our own daily bread because it really is that much better. I  have a very appreciative and voracious bread monster that I am married to and we live up aways from town, so it just makes more sense to not have to run into town for what is one of our most essential foods. We love to offer what we think is a superior loaf for our bed and breakfast guests as well. Annually, on October 16, there has been an official designation for celebrating our beloved partaking of  the "staff of life" that we call bread. Eight years ago a tradition of celebrating this annual event was initiated by food blogger  Zorra of the "1x umrühren bitte aka kochtopf' blog. I have participated before, but not annually. When I looked to see what I had submitted before, I laughed to see that it was an apple bread as well.  That delicious loaf had chestnuts in it. I love that loaf, but was looking to improve on the apple themed  bread as apple season is well under way and we had many wind fall apples that were begging to be used up and I wanted a more pronounced apple presence.  I went to one of most favorite bread books, simply named Bread by Jeffery Hamelman and found his reicipe to be exactly what I was looking for. His version called for dried apples and apple cider. I had some dried apple slices from last years batch and some local apple juice. I have to say that in the US apple cider where I grew up meant fresh unprocessed apple juice made form a mixture of apple varieties for a delicious beverage. It never was alcoholic unless you left it too long before drinking it. The rest of the world enjoys a bit of a kick to their cider. I didn't have any cider with a kick, but the apple juice pumped up the apple flavor and I imagine if it had been alcoholic it would have made the bread just a little bit lighter. No matter what you use, the loaves are exceptional. They are great toasted and wonderful slathered with jam or honey butter, or savory additions like goats cheese, ham and turkey. It was tempting to eat the whole loaf straight out of the oven, but we refrained. I did make it second batch shortly after the first when we fired up the wood oven and turned out an even more outstanding loaf. I dried more apples for the second batch and found that the apples cubed gave more of a flavor burst than the slices, which tended to melt into the loaf.  A combination of the two turned out just fine. Do try this recipe and if you are serious about bread baking do consider buying this book. The recipes are aimed at the serious production bakers but he does have them scaled down for 2 loaves for home baking. Sadly though he didn't give the weights in grams, which for me is a much easier way to go, but fortunately I have a scale that weighs in both versions. Do have a go with making some bread at home. You will find it so satisfying on so many levels.

 Happy World  Bread Day 2013!

Apple bread inside

Normandy Apple Bread
Adapted from Bread:A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes 
by Jeffrey Hamelman 

Makes: 2 large loaves

Directions: 
The day before you plan to make this bread, make sure your starter has been fed.


Drying the Apples:
A couple of days before you plan to make the bread, dry the apples in the oven. Or, if you have dried apples, you can use them. I used some dried slices and also baked some cubed apples  baked at 250 F /120 C. or in a dehydrator until they feet leathery. Drying the apples intensifies the flavor and prevents them from releasing excess moisture into the dough.

Day One:
Stiff Levain Build:
5.8 oz  Bread flour (1 3/8 c)3.5 oz  
Water- room temp  ( 3.5.oz)
1.2 oz  Mature starter  (2T+1 tsp)

Approximately 12 -14 hours (more if cool in the kitchen) before you start the dough, mix up this stiff levain. Mix all together and cover. 
Leave to rise over night. 

Day Two:

Final Dough Ingredients:
1 lb 7 oz cups Bread flour- ( 5 1/4 c)
3.2 oz rye four - (1 cup)
7.4 oz Water - (3/4 cup)
10.9 oz Apple cider- (1 1/3 cup) 
.6 oz Salt- 1 T
 .2 oz Instant yeast- (1 tsp)
9.3 oz (all) Stiff Levain- (from the night before) 
4.8 oz Dried apples- (1 1/2 cup)

Mix everything together, except the apples, in your stand mixer with the dough hook. 3 minutes on low to combine, then 3 minutes on medium.
Turn out onto a table and add the apples. 
Knead until they are evenly distributed.
Cover dough and let rise 2 hours.
Stretch and fold in thirds over each other like a letter after one hour.
When your 2 hours have passed and your dough has risen well, divide the dough into 2 pieces and shape into loaves. Place loaves in proofing baskets or bannetons and cover. 
Let rise, covered, 1½ hours or until well risen.
Meanwhile, preheat oven, with a baking stone, to 450°F.
Mist and slash loaves.
Bake for 15 minutes at that temperature, 
Turn down to 420°F and bake for about another 25 minutes. 
Total baking time of about 40 minutes. 
Let cool on racks. 

One of two normandy apple loaves

Pane alla Zucca or Pumpkin Bread for Easter 2013

Officially, according to the calendar, spring is here, but it seems that winter has made a comeback with plans to stick around.  Easter is early this year and it seems that the real color, aside from a few primula and purple phlox,  comes from Easter decorations.  Store window dressings are colorfully extravagant, while colorfully wrapped Easter eggs festoon the grocery stores and market. I guess that will just have to do till spring blooming gets fully underway. 

 Colorful Italian chocolate Easter eggs on display at the Pinerolo market

This year in addition to that bread and other I am going to make Pumpkin bread or Pane alla zucca. It is  not a sweet quick bread like most of us from the US think of, but a yeasted bread that replaces the water in the recipe with pumpkin puree.  It's a colorful and flavorful bread that will help me use up the last pumpkin of last season that is need off being used before nature has it's way with it.  When I saw this being made on our local cooking show they hollowed out the center and filled it with some cooked broccoli and pancetta. If made into small loaves, it could be a soup or dip holder, but that is not what I am going to do. I'm looking forward to thick slabs of colorful bread. This year I decided to make and bake a full load of various breads the night before Easter in our wood fired oven. Not only will we have plenty of bread for the Easter feast, I 'll have some loaves to send home with our cousins.  I'll make some normal daily sourdough bread and add in some specialty breads for Easter. I am going to do a Casatiello Napoletano, because not only is it delicious it looks great with the whole eggs in their shell baked on top. You can find my recipe to it here.

My home made Casatiello Napoletano

This bread is best made with dense fleshed pumpkins or squash.  I made this loaf in the photo with butternut squash. So not really a pumpkin bread the winter squash varieties are so mixed up and interchangeable, suffice it say that a dense orange fleshed squash or pumpkin is what you are looking for. I will be using what is called here a Mantua squash, but as best as I can place it, it is some variety of kabocha squash, probably of the delica variety.  It is a smaller but dense squash that keeps well all winter, but now, it's time to use it and I think it will be a welcome addition to the bread basket.  

Pane alla Zuccca

It's pretty easy to make if you know what you are looking for in the way of rising. If you use the commercial yeast, it should be a one day bread if you start in the morning. If using sour dough it may take longer. I don't mind the longer rises, as I think it develops the flavor of the bread, so take you pick, but do try making this bread. It has a delicate flavor and beautiful color that is sure to please. 

Butternut squash chunks being steamed

Pane alla Zucca 

 My adapted recipe of Gabriele Bonci recipe

Ingredients:  

• 10c /2.2 # / 1 kg flour I used a high gluten flour that is called manitoba here in Italy
• 3/4c / 7 oz / 200g sour dough or livieto madre -- I refreshed mine the night before so that it was quite active  
• or for secure results use some commercial yeast
• 7 g yeast, dry instant
• 3 3/4c / 1 1/2 # / 700g pumpkin/ winter squash pulp, cleaned*
• 2 tsp Salt (q.b.)
• Poppy seeds, optional for topping

Method:

• If you are using a dense squash and are going to steam it, then peel and deseed your pumpkin or squash. Weigh it to make sure you still have enough . Cut the squash into chunks and steam it till soft.  Run the pulp through a food mill, ricer, or food processor.
• If you are baking your squash, weigh your pumpkin to know what amount you have and cut the squash into slabs with the peel still on. Bake in the oven till soft. Scrape flesh off the peel and run the pulp through a food mill, ricer, or food processor.
• Add the salt to the pumpkin either when cooking or when turning it in to a puree.
• Measure or weigh out your flour into a large bowl.
• Add the cooked prepared pumpkin pulp to the flour.
• Add the dry yeast or sour dough
• Mix together first with a spoon or spatula till a rough dough forms. You can continue to mix it in the bowl with your hands in till smooth adjusting the flour or liquid if needed. I like to finish mixing and kneading on the generously floured table. Mix and gingerly knead till the dough is smooth and pliable.
• Lightly oil your bowl add the dough turning to oil the entire dough, cover with plastic wrap ,and set in a warm place to rise for about 5-6 hours.
• Once the dough has risen well and is full of air and feels well risen, turn out of the bowl onto the table. Cut into two pieces. Lightly form the bread into to loaf rounds, tucking your ends underneath, being careful not to deflate the bread too much.
• Dip the smooth top of each loaf into a bowl of water and then lightly press the wet dough into a bowl of poppy seeds.
• Place the seeded side up on a baking tray. I usually use a silicon pad or baking paper to keep the bread from sticking to the tray. Let the loaves rise a little longer if you think they need it. Otherwise, with a pair of kitchen scissor, cut four gashes in the top in a circle to form a top knot. And if you like make 4 cuts with the scissors around the outside and through the sides top to bottom to make large petals.
• Bake in a very hot oven. I usually start my oven at the highest temperature. Once it comes up to temperature. I spray the oven with water to form some steam and then quickly put the loaves in. I turn the heat down to 375*F (190*C) and bake the loaves for about 30-40 minutes. I have a convection oven and it does;t always take that long. Sometimes it is only 25 minutes. When the bread looks a golden brown and has a hollow sound when thumped, the bread should be done.
• Let cool a while before slicing so the texture is not crushed. Breath deep and enjoy the bready wonderfulness before devouring.

* Cooks Notes

• This recipe is originally in metric measures, so when adapting to cups it sometimes takes a little adjusting to get the right amount for your ingredients.

• If I am using dense fleshed winter squash or pumpkins I will cut up it up into chunks and  steam them till soft and then puree them by using a ricer or food mill. 

• If I have some of the larger varieties of pumpkins or squash that are sometimes stringy and very watery, I might consider baking them in the oven to reduce the liquid and intensify the flavor. Either way if you find your dough too stiff you can always add a bit of water or if the dough is too wet, then add a tad more flour. Bread is like that, so don't be afraid. Knead on.

Pumpkin or Squash Bread

Promise of Spring and a Casatiello Napoletano Bread

Traditional Italian chocolate Easter egg given to us by our butcher

It's springtime and Easter is just around the corner this Sunday, April 8th. What better way to add some zippety-do-dah to your Easter table than with a dramatic Italian Easter bread, Casatiello Napoletana. Easter  seems to focus on eggs and chocolate so it seems that my last years offering of a chocolate cake and this savory Casatiello added enough of both that I have been asked by the family to make them again this year. I'll see what I can do. 

Chocolate always tries to steal the show

Casatiello is a traditional celebratory special bread of Naples. This  light savory brioche type bread is laced with abundant salami and cheese to make it irresistible and then dolled up with whole eggs on top held in place with crosses of dough to make it a conversation piece for sure. It is often made quite simply with the salami and cheese being adding to the dough and may be varied with all sorts of various cheeses and meats. This Napolitano Easter bread is rich with religious symbolism from the various ingredients to the presentation. Every bite tells of the celebration of the rebirth of Christ and earth. The use of milk, eggs and sheep cheese recalls the birth of Christ in the manger amongst the farm animals. The ring itself  representing Christ's crown of thorns embedded with eggs like jewels held in place with crosses like the one he was put upon and yet there is rebirth with this bread. Rich indeed. 

My photo of a photo in Sapori di Pasqua magazine

I want to make this again this year to work on my presentation as my dough was not entirely cooperative. The dough seemed to want to engulf the eggs and keep them out of sight. Tasted great and we make quick work of it even if the eggs weren't as distinctive as I would have liked. It was enjoyed by all anyway. I saw an interesting variation of it yesterday by a popular Sicilian chef who chopped the cooked eggs up and put all of the salami, cheese and egg on the rectangle of dough before rolling it up and baking it off in a tube pan, making it more of a appertivo treat. I will be trying that as well.  I hope you will enjoy making this bread and sharing it for years to come as I think you will find it a worthy treat for all of your senses.  

Buona Pasqua!

My own Casatiello Napoletana

Casatiello Napoletano per Pasqua

Recipe based on Peter Reinhart's version with some traditional twists

1 large round or 2 smaller loaves

Ingredients:

Preferment:

• 1T/.33 oz (18-20 g) yeast, dry instant traditionally in Italy they will use 25g fresh yeast
• 1T /.33oz (15 g) sugar
• 1/2c/2.25 oz (70 g)  flour, here a "00" is used you can use a bread flour and all purpose flour combination to get a somewhat similar result or all of one or the other
• 1 c/ 8 oz (236 g)  milk, luke warm 

Main addition

• 3 1/2 c (16oz)  (450 g)"00" flour, same as above, bread or combo with all purpose
• 1 t (5 g) salt
• 1/4c / 2 oz (50 g) pecorino finely grated or parmigiano if you can't find pecorino
• 1/2 c/ 3.5 oz (100g)butter, room temperature, although lard is the traditional fat used here

Additions 

• 3/4c /6 oz (170-200) provolone, cubed or caciocavallo or other firm but easy melting cheese with some flavor, even swiss would be tasty
• 4 oz  (100g) Italian style salami, here usually thin sliced, cut into strips or diced, your preference

Topping

• 5 eggs raw in their shell, washed and dried
• egg wash

Method:

Mix the flour, instant yeast, sugar and milk together in a medium bowl. Mix till smooth, cover and let rise for an hour.

Mix the other flour together in a large bowl or on the table of you prefer, with the salt, the pecorino cheese and add the fat into the middle of the flour working it into the flour till it is crumbly. 

Add the risen preferment to the middle of the flour mixture and work it all together to get a workable dough adjusting flour or liquid if needed. If mixing by hand be generous with keeping your hands and fingers floured. Work the dough till it is soft and pliable. 

Cover with a plastic cover in a bowl and let it rise for about an hour and half or till it has risen till almost double. 

Sprinkle some flour on the table, and turn the dough onto the table.

Gently work your dough our into a rectangular shape with your finger tips, gingerly pulling the dough trying to not lose all the air bubbles and lightness. 

Cut a few lengths of dough from one end to make crosses for securing your eggs on top later. 

Cut your strips into 10 even lengths.

Sprinkle all the salami and cheese over the rectangle and roll up the dough into a roll.

Grease a tube style pan with removable bottom for ease of removing after baking. 

Place the dough roll into the tube pan with the seam side down. Press down gently and make 5 indentations, even distance around the ring.

Place one egg into each indentation, pointy tip up. 

Place two strips of dough in a cross over the egg, pressing the dough cross ends into the dough ring.

Cover and let rise for an hour and maybe a half more or until the dough has risen till light.

Brush egg wash all over the top of the dough ring and crosses.

Bake in a preheated 330*F/ 170*C oven for about an hour till evenly brown and cooked through.

Remove the bread to a cooling rack and allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing the sides of the pan.

Wait another half an hour before removing the bottom pand and allow to full cool om the rack. 

Cut after a full hour of cooling. The eggs will be full cooked as well. 

Enjoy with friends and family.

Anise and Dried Fig Bread..... and a small tribute to my mother

Spring Orchids and Lily of the Valley from our garden

Today people are celebrating their mothers by many varieties of tributes, thoughtful gifts and gestures. My mother has been gone a long time now, but never far away in my thoughts and always carried closely in my heart. She was a great lady, poised and graceful. One of her most enduring qualities, that many people remember her for, was as a wonderful home maker, cook and hostess. No, she never worked outside of our home, but she never stopped working to keep all four of us, her children and my father too, clothed, fed and educated in so many ways other than just what one learns in school. As a partner to my father, she was tireless with her support of his work as a minister, ever the wife looking after many details and leading the way with so many church projects and endlessly opening our home to many people along the way that found a nights rest or an outstanding meal and a kind word of support when it was needed. She was usually over shadowed by my father, whose personality and profession kept him in the spotlight, but naturally she could hold her own and did regularly. I'm fairly confident my love of cooking and cuisine is directly related to my mothers determination to have the best fried chicken and apple pie on the over burdened potluck tables at the church dinners of my youth. And it probably didn't hurt that my father was her best sampler and always sang her praises when it came to her cooking. His waistline was proof of that. But I think back to when she started to make bread on a regular basis and I think it really struck a chord for me, as she began with refrigerator rolls, like angel biscuits, that her mother gave me the recipe for and I still like to make on occasion, and whole wheat loaves. It really caught my interest because, well, because, it just plain tasted good. Store bought bread growing up was no treat and I had always felt indifferent to bread unless it was home made. When she got going on the whole wheat bread I was hooked. I soon was out of the house and on my own and started to make bread too, as I found that it really satisfied some basic yearning within me. I love the feel of the different textures of flours and the smell of the levito madre, or sour dough as we call it in the states, and the feel of the liveliness of the dough when it comes together. I always have a catch in my breath when the dough just has a feel of life to it. I don't know how else to explain it. Then there is the satisfaction when it comes out of the oven all brown, aromatic, and crackling as it cools and the crust starts to soften a little. The pride of a well made loaf is second only to eating it fresh or even better when given away to an appreciative receiver.

Mom and me with her 70th birthday cake I made her

This mothers day I made a couple of Fig and Anise loaves to great approval. We almost devoured one loaf this morning with a thick slathering of my apricot and rosemary jam on it. I was fearful that the other loaf wasn't going to make it to my mother in law, but it did. I think my in laws enjoyed it almost as much as we did. It's always a delight to see their eyes light up when I come over with a fresh loaf of bread. They are appreciative bread eaters and that makes a bakers heart dance. All these years later, it's still an endless journey and even though I have made thousands of loaves of bread over the years, there are still so many flavors and combinations  yet to discover. I have a few bread books that although I seem to use them frequently I never seem to exhaust all the possibilities. I find that I will use one book relentlessly for awhile, sometimes repeating the recipe several times in a row to try and get it to my satisfaction and then will move on to one of my other bread bibles and keep jumping around and some times just keep making my simple "daily bread" version endlessly.  This bread is Nancy Silverton's recipe and is really just about perfect. I might increase the anise slightly next time and if I had read the directions a little more closely I wouldn't have pureed all of the figs and would have left a few for a bit of flavor spikes here and there, but it is a delicious bread that would go great with prosciutto crudo and goat cheese as well as for breakfast with jam. Anyway you slice it, I think you will like it and do your mom proud. Thanks Mom for teaching me to be fearless in the kitchen and many other valuable lessons that have come in handy over the years. I wish I could share a slice with you right now, but will enjoy sharing it with some of the people that I love.

Anise Fig bread,
with an olive loaf on the right side

This is Nancy Silverton's recipe. I highly recommend buying the book for complete instructions and a full understanding of baking with a natural starter. I will give you the basic instructions and it helps if you are familiar baking with a sour dough starter. 

Anise Fig Bread

2 smallish loaves approximately 1 pound or 500g

10 oz (1 1/2c ) dried figs

4 T hot water

4 oz (1/2c cool water 70*F

2 tsp instant dry yeast (.6oz /or 1 cake fresh yeast)

9 oz (1c) white sour dough starter (mine does not have a sour taste to it)

12 oz (3 c) white bread four

3 3/4 (6T) sugar, I used brown Demerara

1 1/2 tsp  sea salt

1/2 tsp anise seed, I think I would go 1 tsp next time

2 T polenta or corn meal

oil, I used olive

Cut up the dried figs into small pieces, placing about  1/3- 1/2 of the figs in a small food processor with the hot water and blend till smooth. ( I actually didn't really read this correctly and blended all of the figs and the bread turned out fine)

You can mix the bread up in a stan mixer, but I did it by hand with good results.

Place the flour, yeast, sugar in a bowl and lightly mix together. Then add the cool water, white starter and mix till smooth and pliable.

Add the salt, and mix till fully incorporated and smooth again.

Add the pureed figs, the fig pieces, anise seeds, and polenta. MIxing until it is smooth and very pliable. 

Lightly oil the dough, place in a covered plastic container and let rise for a couple of hours before putting it into the refrigerator overnight.

The next day remove fromt he refrigerator and divide into 2 equal pieces. Lightly pull the sides down and into the middle of the dough. Lay the dough rough side up on a lightly floured surface and shape the dough into either a round boule or a slightly oblong loaf. I have a variety of baskets that I used lined with   canvas/ light cotton muslin that I line the baskets with, then sprinkle it generously with flour and place the bread in the baskets to let them rise. I turn them completely around on all edges to lightly cover them with flour so they don't stick to the material while rising. The top of the loaf is down in the bottom of the basket, the rough bottom is facing toward you and then I fold the extra material loosely over the dough and place both of the loaves in a roomy plastic bag and leave them in a warm room to rise.  It can take 3-4 ours to rise till there is a light feel to the dough when you poke it with a finger to see if it has risen. 

Preheat your oven to as high as it will go and just before putting your loaves in pour some water in the bottom to create steam. Close the door and let the temperature rise again. Bring the dial down to 200*C or 450* F. 

Flip your dough out onto a sheet pan. I usually use a silicon pad or baking paper to insure it doesn't stick to the pan.  Slash the tops of your with a razor if you have it or a very sharp knife with an x for rounds and long slashes for oblong loaves or any way that you like and put in the oven. Take another bit of water and throw it int the bottom to create some steam and then leave it shut for at least 20 minutes before checking it again to insure a good rise.  Check on it rotating the loaves if necessary for an even browning and cook for at least 35 minutes. This loaf gets quite dark but that is a good thing. I used regular light colored dried figs and it was quite dark due to the sugar and natural sugar of the figs. If you use black figs, it will get even darker, so don't be afraid that you are burning it. It will taste great really.

Anise Fig Bread

Focaccia Ripiena and Shaved Fennel Lemon Salad

Bread in all it's many forms is one of my enduring passions.  I am so completely fascinated by the fact there are so few ingredients and yet endless possibilities. I generally keep  a back up of bread dough in the fridge for unexpected times when the need arises to have fresh bread on the table. As a general rule, the longer a dough ferments, the tastier the bread is as it has time for al the natural sugars and proteins to break down and develop flavor. That is not to say that bread doughs will last indefinitely, but most people don't realize that you can hold a variety of bread doughs in the fridge and bring it out and bake fresh bread a lot m ore easily and frequently than you would think.  It can be challenging at times with refrigerator space and varying room temperatures, but eating the results are so worth it. If you are new to making bread or the concept of holding dough in the refrigerator to use as needed, I would recommend the very delicious book, "Artisan Bread in Five minutes a Day", by Jeffery Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. The premise being that you mix up a batch of dough, usually two loaves, and bake them off on the day you want to eat them after arriving home from work and have them ready to consume in time for dinner. The recipes work beautifully and there are enough basic dough formulas that can be easily varied, that it really is a good starting point for busy people that appreciate fresh quality bread. Your bread is a good as the ingredients that you use. I have made quite a few recipes out the book and find them accurate and  delicious. They scale up well if you are cooking for a crowd and have the refrigerator space to hold the dough.  I do however have two personal cautions as a general rule for all the recipes. The salt content is way beyond my taste and I systematically cut the amount by about half and the amount of yeast for me is excessive as well. You are able to bring the dough from the refrigerator to the oven in about 20 minutes, so they have boosted the amount of yeast that, for me, it has a too yeasty of a flavor to it. I consistently either cut way back on the amount of yeast, use a combination of my natural sourdough starter and commercial yeast or leave it out completely and  use my sour dough starter only. I am not usually in that big of a hurry that I need to use that amount of yeast and the result, with less yeast, is full flavor bread without  the delicate notes of the bread being overwhelmed by the yeast.  

I didn't start out to do a book review here, but I do think this is a solid starter bread book worth adding to your library and helping novice and more experienced bakers get into the routine of making your own daily loaf.  I see that they have a new book out called "Healthy Breads in Five Minutes a Day" with 100 new recipes, whole grain and  some non gluten ones as well. I imagine it is an excellent one as well.  I found their recipes to be tried, true and delicious, noting my aforementioned personal preferences in regards to adjusting the yeast and salt.  I vary most of these recipes with whole grains and variations as the spirit moves me. I would encourage you to do the same after making their basic formula a few times to get a feel for them.
I said all of that to get to my filled focaccia recipe.  I adapted the "Olive Oil Bread" recipe from "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day? for this focaccia as a starting point. I had already made the dough a few days previous for rosemary focaccia for an impromptu dinner with friends and knew I need to get this dough out of the refrigerator and on to our table. I rummaged around and found that we had some Cima di Rapa, also known as broccoli rabe, and some fresh pecorina ricotta that was begging to be used. It didn't take long to have this greens and ricotta filled focaccia on the table rising and baked off in time for  lunch. I added an incredibly easy shaved fennel and lemon salad that I found over at Val's "More than Burnt Toast" blog and we were feasting like royals in nothing flat. Ok, maybe more like the royals contadini (farmers), but very happy contadini.

For the
Focaccia
This is the original amount for 4- 1 pound loaves. (4 - 500g loaves, more or less)
I used a little less than half of the dough for a 25cm/10" round, with a removable ring.
It will work  with just about any kind of pan.
Oil your pan generously. I use olive oil.
I have adjusted the salt and yeast. I used instant granulated Saf yeast

6 c flour, bread or all purpose variety
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1T yeast, dry instant, a light tablespoon, 1 package
2 tsp sugar
1T salt
1/4 c olive oil
 2 3/4 c tepid water

Mix the flours, yeast, sugar, salt together in a large bowl. Add the olive oil and water, mixing till a a rough dough is formed. Knead lightly till smooth and return to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
I mix by hand, but you could use a stand mixer with the dough hook or a food processor. Mix till it just comes together ad finish with a few light kneads till smooth.  Don't over mix or knead the dough too vigorously.  A light hand is good.  Let rise in a warmish spot for a couple of hours  or until the dough has risen to about double and begins to flatten or collapse on itself.
You can use the dough immediately or refrigerate in a lidded container. It is easier to handle when cold. I tend to use some immediately and then use the rest of the dough a few days later. I made this from the dough after several days in the refrigerator.
Use half of the dough, making sure that comes to room temperature. After the initial rise, I usually try not to handle it too much and don't knead it again. I cut the dough in half again with  one half being slightly larger than the other. The larger half I use for the bottom. I flour the table and gently coax the dough in to a circle to fit the bottom going up on the sides slightly. I flatten the top part the same using my fingertips to dimple the dough and stretching it to the right diameter to cover the bottom half.

For the filling

1/2 onion, sliced in to lengths
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1# (400-500g) cima di rapa, washed and chopped into 1 inch lengths
You can use whatever greens or combination that you prefer. Broccoli rabe, is similar to mustard greens in that they have a bit of a bite, so consider using them or a mix of your favorite combo of greens.
Olive oil to saute the vegetables
200 g ricotta, a pecorino with a bit more flavor is good, you could use cottage cheese too
100 g parmesan or ricotta salata
These are the cheeses I had on hand. A combination of a soft mild cheese with a more potent salty style cheese is what you are looking for.
Salt and Pepper
pinch of peperoncino or hot pepper

Saute the onions in a small amount of oil till the soft. Add the garlic and  continue to cook adding your clean chopped greens. Add some water after the greens have wilted, cover and cook until the greens are soft but not all the way cooked. Season with salt and pepper.  let cool enough to handle.
Prepare your baking pan with oil and stretching your dough to cover and up the sides.
Spread your cooled greens around on the dough. Sprinkle with a pinch of hot pepper.
Distribute the ricotta cheese around the disk of greens and generously sprinkle your grated parmesan cheese over all.
Cover the top with the other piece of dough.
I let it rise about 1/2 hour, more if it seems like the dough hasn't really risen enough. You want the dough to be light, so let it rise as long as you think is necessary.
Drizzle some olive oil on top  of the dough.
Bake in the bottom shelf of a preheated 350*F/180- 190*C oven till the dough reaches a golden brown.
I have a convection oven so it only takes about 25-30 minutes.
In a conventional oven I think it will take 40- 50 minutes to get the bottom of the crust done.
Cool slightly, remove ring around the dough or flip out of your pan and serve warm.

I served it with this simple

Shaved Fennel Lemon salad

2 bulbs of fennel, the rounder bulb variety are less stringy and good for salads
1 lemon, organic is good as you will be eating the peel. Plump and firm, not one that is tired from languishing around waiting to be used.
4 tsp lemon juice, optional for me. I found it didn't really need it as my shaved lemon made it zippy enough, your call
Olive oil 
Salt 
Pepper if you like, I didn't bother

Use a mandoline or slicer on the thinnest setting that you can.
Shave the fennel and then the lemon into a bowl big enough to be able to toss the salad
Sprinkle a bit of good sea salt to season
Dress with enough olive to lightly coat the salad but not drown it.
Serve immediately.
You could shave the fennel and lemon and refrigerate until just before serving and then dress with oil and serve.

Finalmente..La Notte della Pizza e´del Pane!

I'll tell you what, it's an exciting time in the Roncaglia household these days.
Finally, pizza night arrived, much to my and my in laws delight, and, Fabrizio's relief. At last he can have some peace, that is until we start pestering him for when the next pizza party is slated to take place.
It all started about two years ago in the spring when my father in law decided that we needed a wood burning oven on the premises for me to ply my bread baking trade to a different means of bringing the bread to the table and kicking up my baking skills a notch or two.  Papa also wanted to have a decent pizza as our attempts in our regular and convection oven, weren't too bad, but just not quite pizzeria style quality and he had faith in me. I think it didn't hurt that when my in laws had their friends over for one of their famous big dinners, one or two of them always brought some of their home baked, oven fired bread along for the sampling. Again, my in laws have never failed to praise my bread and secretly hope that I will make a loaf or two of my black olive bread for any of those big dinners, so they had bragging rights expanded as well. It almost goes without saying that the rest of the feast is always memorable, thanks to their tireless effort to "put on the dog" as my parents use to quaintly state, and the fact that they had all those years to perfect the art of entertaining with good food and drink from their "La Baita" restaurant days. Their commercial gelato maker is always prominently featured as well in these feasts as my father in law has perfected the art of a banana gelato, that is rich tasting without all those cholesterol inducing ingredients. He won't say exactly what is in it either, but, I can tell you that it is a very brief list.
 Enough said.

After much discussion about which oven to purchase and and why, naturally, with some disagreements over the details, the day arrived, just before Italians go on holiday for the month of August, when we became the proud owners of a wood fired oven and it was actually in our possession. You can read about it's arrival here. 

Now, if you think that it would be a straight forward proposition to install it, test, tinker around with it, adjust and go into full blown use of it, like I did, then, you would be wrong. Like so many things that seem straightforward  in Italy, it is a long serpentine route to the destination and even a bump or two along the way, a bit of back draft, too much snow on the roof,  too little dry wood of the particular kind you need, or just too hot, just too, too, tooooo long in coming.  But, what do you know, the time arrived last night. Arrived indeed and enjoyed by all it was. 

The second most asked question of me from acquaintances, right after how Fabrizio and I met is, "Do you miss America?"  I always reply, that aside from easy access to my family and friends, other than virtually, I miss the direct and often expedient way that things get done in America, the directness, the convenience, the immediateness, that is, at least for me, quintessentially American. Yes, I do sometimes miss that very much indeed and occasionally a movie in English at the movie theater.

Fabrizio's parents digging in at last 

on Davide's naturally leaven pizza pies

Definitely worth the wait!

Luckily for us, Fabrizio's old friend Davide, a former colleague and one of the local kids that hung around the Villar Perosa Hotel in the days when Fabrizio worked for the Agnelli family, and currently the maestro of the pizza department in our Pinerolo Eataly, came over to help us get off on a positive start to our wood fired pizza and bread adventure. You can see Davide hand tossing pizza dough here, as I got a much better photo of him in action over at Eataly than I did last night. I was too busy trying to ask questions and absorb his techniques to get too many decent photos.  Big thank you Davide!

These are our leftover pizzas ready to warm up and top fresh today in the oven that is still warm enough to heat them through..mmm, mmm good!

If you're looking for a pizza dough that performs well, a good one to try is from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Peter's book is a great resource of accessible yeasted dough information and will have you making great pizza, foccacia and artisan breads in no time. It has a lot of instruction, but I think you will find the info invaluable. You can find a copy of the recipe here in it's entirety, but I do recommend buying the book as it is well worth every penny if you love to make great bread.

We all ate ourselves silly and there seemed to be as much enthusiasm for my pizza dough as there was for  Davide's. That bodes well for my future of making pizzas for my in laws! 

It was a fab evening with the fab folks that work over at Eataly.  When you're in Pinerolo, you just have to stop in and try Davide's pizza as well as Chef Roberto's delicious cuisine. If you're lucky their wives, Michelle and Monica just might be taking your order and serving you some of Eataly's high quality food. Naturally, a meal isn't complete without a digestivo from our friend Enrico's line of Genepy and Barathier. Those of you familiar with it will savor the flavor and those of you unfamiliar will just have to come and try some whilst you're here, as you won't find Genepy outside the Italian and French alps.

I must say though the biggest thrill came this morning at 6 am when we came back to the oven upon Davide's instruction and loaded it up with my naturally leavened loaves of bread that had been languishing in the refrigerator waiting for the oven to cool down enough. We returned in an hour and some later, to discover these bronzed beauties awaiting our return.

It was so exciting to see them puffed up and browned to a hue sometimes difficult to accomplish.

Naturally, there is some tweaking to do and I look forward to it, but when we pulled open the door and found all these lovelies inside, my heart skipped a beat. I love cooking and baking has always fed my soul, making fruit and chocolate desserts rich in cream and butter is always a thrill, but baking bread speaks to me in a way that seems to satisfy a very basic instinct of mine, making our daily bread. Firing up the wood oven stirred my connection to the  weekly town bake that used to be so common over a good portion of Europe and the wood stoves I cooked on in the states many moons back as well.  Then I think of the Egyptians who are credited with being the first bread bakers, burying their terra cotta pots in a fire pit and when I feasted my eyes on these, I  felt transported back and then some.

 Be still my beating heart.

Naturally,....

 Fabrizio steals the show and my heart as well!

 I love that even though my bread is still the same recipe that I have make hundreds of times over the years, it seems to now have a new personality and that, is so very exciting. I look forward to this next phase of the journey. I think we will be looking toward offering some special weekends perhaps dedicated to the wood fired oven classes, coming up in the near future. Stay tuned.