May 17, 2009

LaPiS: Slice It Up!

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A favorite holiday or fiesta food in the Philippines is Chicken Relleno (stuffed whole boneless chicken). It is good either warm or at room temperature.

More photos of our Christmas 2008 lunch, all sliced up.

baked ham, queso de bola (aged Edam cheese)
challah with cranberries, fruit cake


Lasang Pinoy Sundays, a weekly gallery of food photography is hosted by SpiCes.

May 13, 2009

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge: Anadama Bread

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Anadama
crunchy and chewy, excellent with just butter or Meyer lemon curd


I joined a baking group, The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge created by Pinch My Salt. The group will attempt to bake all the recipes in Peter Reinhart's cookbook, from the first one to the last, arranged alphabetically. I have been a fan of Peter Reinhart after reading and baking several recipes from THE BREAD BAKER'S APPRENTICE and learned a ton from it. I recommend this book to anyone who is just starting to bake breads or has been baking and wants to learn some more. The recipes are easy to follow and there are a lot of pictures to guide the home baker. I love all the breads I made from this book and as a result I volunteered as a recipe tester for his new book Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Everyday to be published in the fall of 2009. I had a lot of fun baking and eating all the different breads I baked (and still baking) as a recipe tester specially the croissants and I'm eagerly anticipating the issue of his book. While waiting for it to come out, the BBA Challenge will keep me occupied and happily baking for the next 40+ weeks. Thanks to Pinch My Salt for this brilliant idea.

The challenge starts off this week with Anadama Bread which is in almost all of my baking books but somehow I have never tried making it, I'm not sure why. It's a shame because this bread turns out flavorful, chewy, and has a crunchy bite that I like. The bread is good by itself, toasted or untoasted, or with butter. I do believe soaking the cornmeal makes a big difference in its taste and texture. I'm surprised that I like this bread because I am not a big fan of molasses. The taste of the molasses, I used a light colored one, is subtle and does not overpower the overall flavor of this pleasantly sweetish bread. And the aroma in my kitchen while the bread was baking was just wonderful.

I followed the recipe as written although I halved it because I thought no one in my house will like it. The dough performed exactly as the book says. When I saw that the bread was rising taller than expected I got worried it will have large air pockets but thankfully the bread came out fine. My only regret is I did not bake the full recipe. I wouldn't mind baking Anadama bread again.

Anadama Bread
the bread had an oven spring of almost 1½ inches

Anadama Bread
I love its rich golden brown crust, very crisp and crunchy when toasted

Now, let's have some fun and rate the recipe/bread from 1 to 5, 5 being the highest:

flavor 4
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 4
Total: 28
Average: 4.66

May 11, 2009

KULINARYA Pan de Sal

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As requested by a reader here is the Pan de Sal recipe adapted from KULINARYA. The original recipe has very short rising periods both before shaping (30 minutes) and after (20 minutes) probably because it is warm and humid in the Philippines where the recipe was developed and tested. Please note that not all kitchens have the same temperatures and conditions. The recipe here is just a guide and you may need to adjust the rising periods and amount of flour. It took longer for my rolls to rise because my kitchen is always cool. For the first rising I let the dough sit in the oven with the light bulb on for about 30 minutes then turned it off until the dough has risen sufficiently, about 1 and a quarter hours total rising time. The second rising took about 50 minutes.

The sweetish rolls have soft tight crumbs and slightly crispy crust when reheated in the oven. I doubled the amount of salt which I think IMO is too little for the number of cups of bread flour. If you are using all-purpose flour, you might need 8 US cups, again adjust as needed.

Pan de Sal
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons lukewarm water
6 tablespoons sugar
1 kilo bread flour (about 7 1/3 US cups)
1 teaspoon salt
1½ cups warm water
6 tablespoons soft butter, Crisco, or extra light olive oil
1 cup very fine breadcrumbs
  • Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar to the yeast mixture. Set aside.
  • Measure 1 cup of the flour, set aside to be used later for dusting.
  • In a large bowl (or standing mixer bowl), combine the remaining flour, salt, sugar, butter, and water. Add the yeast mixture and mix well. Knead the mixture into a smooth, elastic dough. Dust with the reserved flour as needed.
  • Transfer into a lightly greased bowl, cover with a plastic film, and let rise until doubled.
  • Remove dough from bowl and knead to remove bubbles. Shape into a 2-inch thick baton and roll on breadcrumbs.
  • Using a dough cutter, cut the log into 1-inch thick slices, about 30 grams each. Place the dough, cut side up, 2 inches apart on baking pans lined with parchment. Sprinkle tops with breadcrumbs. Cover with plastic film and let rise for 40 minutes to 1 hour.
  • Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until light brown.


pan de sal filled with coconut jam, yummy

Here is my previous Pan de Sal post with recipes for both soft and crusty variations.

May 10, 2009

LaPiS: Over The Top

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diced chicken with peppers and salted black beans

breakfast or brunch: corned beef rice topped with rolled omelet




Lasang Pinoy Sundays, a weekly gallery of food photography Pinoy style, is hosted by SpiCes.
Over The Top is this week's LaPiS theme.

 
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