Breads and cheeses

[SomethingClever]

My wife and I make focaccia and french bread all the time using the following easy recipe:

3 cups flour
2 teaspoons yeast
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1.5 cups warm water

Combine ingredients, stir in water.

Knead lightly on floured surface and add flour as necessary until dough is no longer sticky to touch (2 mins).

Place dough in mixing bowl covered with saran wrap to rise, 2-3 hours. It's best if you put the bowl in a reasonably warm place.

For focaccia:

Remove dough, knead lightly for another minute or so, spread out flat (like a pizza) on a baking sheet with plenty of olive oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt and rosemary... then add dimples with your fingertips.

For french bread:

Remove dough, knead lightly (1 minute). Roll into two long strips and place on special bread pan (pictured)



Separate an egg white and beat until frothy. Brush frothy egg white on dough and make three shallow diagonal cuts in the surface of the bread.

For both breads: Bake at 450 degrees until golden in color. Usually 10 mins or so.

If the bread appears to be getting done on the bottom but not browned on the top, sometimes I switch the oven from bake to broil for a few minutes.

This is what it looks like when you're done (these were baked by my father in law using the same recipe)



Enjoy!

[El Diablo]

t,

I love pastrami, corned beef, and other rich/strong flavors on rye. Good rye bread is awesome. However, I generally just have it when getting sandwiches at a deli or something, because I overall find it less versatile than other breads and rarely end up finishing a whole loaf of it.

[suzzer99]

I'm a little confused at how that tubular bread pan creates those flat pizza things.

[SomethingClever]

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I'm a little confused at how that tubular bread pan creates those flat pizza things.

[/ QUOTE ]

It doesn't, it creates french bread. The dough can be used to make focaccia (pictured) or french bread. I have separate instructions for the two in my post.

[theghost]

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I've started making most of my own bread however, and tend to do three varities: an Italian style ciabatta, a whole wheat loaf and a whole wheat-white loaf that I infuse with spices.

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What spices? I bake all of my own bread too and I'm curious what you're using. My everyday sandwich bread is a 100% whole wheat, pretty much because it's tasty and healthy enough to eat everyday.

I also heve a good ryebread recipe that works for me (but I'm experimenting to find a better one) and I've done some experimentation with sourdough. I have a barm starter going from wild yeast (soaked from organic raisins). Great flavor but I'm hoping to get a bit more lift next time I use it - wound up with a bit of a brick last time. Still perfecting using the started rather than packet yeast.

[inside??]

If you are ever doing the wine tours in Temecula there is one vineyard which hollows out a sourdough loaf and fills it with Brie and garlic butter. Awesome!!!

[El Diablo]

All,

Acme Sweet Batard. I found this to be only so-so. Probably the least favorite of the Acme Breads I've tried (most of which I love). Recent loaves I've had are the Olive Loaf, Herb Slab, Pain Au Levain, and Walnut Levain, all of which are outstanding. This batard was good, but just sorta plain, not much flavor to it, nothing really remarkable about it.

Here's an article about Bay Area artisanal bread and various local bakeries. Whole Foods here carries bread from a bunch of the places listed.

[JaBlue]

For mother's day my girlfriend and I are going to be flying home to visit our moms and throw them a surprise wine/bread/cheese/chocolate party. I have no problem dropping $100-200 on a bunch of bread and cheese. This would probably be for 3 families, estimated 10 adult eaters. Would $20 per be enough? If not I'd probably be willing to spend a little more. Quantity probably isn't all that important, but quality is. Just want the moms to feel wined and dined and appreciated. You know, give them a chance to sit on their butts and just take it all in for once.

But where should I get the bread and cheese and chocolate (in or near SF)? And what should I get? I want to emphasize variety, but know nothing about cheese.

Girlfriend's dad will be in charge of wine so don't worry about that for expenses.

[El Diablo]

Ja,

You could get everything you need, including advice on what to get, at either Whole Foods or the Ferry Building.

At the Ferry Building, just go to Acme Bread to get some breads and Cowgirl Creamery to get cheese. There are other places, too, but I'd prob just go to those two. For chocolates go to Scharfen Berger and pick up some stuff and if you have extra $$$ left in your budget, stop by Recchuitti (these are great but very expensive) for some more chocolate.

Bread is like $3-4 a loaf.
Cheese is, I dunno? Something like $10 for a reasonable sized wedge of lots of stuff I think.

So say $20 for 5 loaves of bread.
$70 for some cheese
$30 for a 48 piece box of Scharfen Berger squares

That's $120, I bet that's plenty. If you want to spend some more money, you can pick up some chocolates or caramels or chocolate almonds at Recchuitti or some other chocolates at Scharfen Berger.

You could also accomplish this by going to Whole Foods, they have a great cheese selection and bakery with lots of local artisan breads like Acme.

And staff at all of these places will help you put together a good mix.

[beeyjay]

My dad introduced me to this bread because he knew I enjoyed Arbys MarketFresh sandwiches. This bread is similar to what they use and great as an everyday sandwich bread.

BrownBerry OatNut