Basic Sourdough Bread: BBAC#30 Plus 5 More

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge #30: Basic Sourdough Bread

For this challenge I used wild yeast mother starter (mistakenly referred to as BARM in the book) to prepare the sourdough starter. I didn't use commercial yeast for the final dough and fermented at a shorter period so the bread doesn't become too tangy. The sourdough refers to the starter which is acidic but depending on individual taste, the breads made with sourdough starters can be very sour or not at all. I prefer the latter because I never liked breads that are very sour.

I added a very small amount of rye flour to the dough and I really love the flavor of the bread which has a hint of sweetness. I made a free standing loaf and a small pain d'epi with half of the dough and into the second half I kneaded crumbled blue cheese then baked them in three 5 x 2 inch loaf pans. The mini loaves are incredibly yummy and the aroma is just wonderful. The crumb is chewy and the crust is very crispy. I love these tiny loaves. I started eating a large piece that I tore off from one of the loaves right after photographing them and ended up devouring the whole loaf while uploading the photos into my laptop. Yes, the bread is thaaat good. Mini sourdough loaf with blue cheese rocks!

shaping pain d'epi needs more practice

the middle part of the mini loaves had an enormous oven spring; they look like toy cars, don't they

mmmmm

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 30
Average: 5

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I continued baking while on "vacation" from this blog and here are the photos and ratings:

#29 Pugliese

another flavorful bread from the book although crumb is not as open as I would have liked; the slices make very nice appetizer toasted and drizzled with black truffle-flavored olive oil, then topped with lemon zest and chiffonade of mint

Rating:

flavor 5
texture 3
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5

performance 4

worth 5

Total: 27

Average: 4.5

#28 Potato Rosemary Bread

I love everything about this bread: the flavor, the texture, and aroma

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5

performance 5

worth 5
Total: 30

Average: 5

#27 Portuguese Sweet Bread

sweet and soft, delicious just with butter; an instant favorite

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5

performance 5

worth 5
Total: 30

Average: 5

#26 Poolish Baguettes

bread is tasty but crumb is not open

Rating:
flavor 4
texture 2
visual appeal 4
ease of preparation 5

performance 3

worth 3
Total: 18
Average: 3

#25 Pizza Napoletana

the best tasting pizza ever; the bread is sweetish, its edges are crispy and the rest of the thin crust with its almost charred bottom is chewy, just the way I like it; it's also perfect for sweet dessert pizzas with berries, apples, or pears drizzled with chocolate sauce or ribbons of Nutella

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5

performance 5

worth 5
Total: 30
Average: 5

Apple Marzipan Tart

Fall means apples either for snacking or for making apple pies and tarts. For my first apple tart of the season I put a thin layer of marzipan on the bottom before adding the sliced apple halves. For extra crunch and sweetness I drizzled a little almond flavored caramelized sugar all over the baked tart. Very very yummy.

For this recipe, I suggest to use only sweet apples because there is very little sugar sprinkled on top. I used Honey Crisp, they're sweet and don't become soggy.

Apple Marzipan Tart
crust
1¾ cups pastry flour
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, diced and chilled
6 tablespoons ice water

filling
1 cup marzipan, homemade or store-bought
6 medium Honey Crisp or Fuji apples
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons coarse raw sugar
1 tablespoon butter, shaved

topping (optional)
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon pure almond extract

• Prepare crust: Put flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor, pulse to combine. Add the chilled butter and pulse for a few seconds. Add ice water 2 tablespoons at a time. Gather into a ball, wrap in plastic film, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

• Preheat oven to 425°F.

• Roll dough into a 14-inch round and ease into a tart pan with removable bottom. Press the dough gently onto the sides of the pan; there should be a 2-inch overhang.

• Flatten and roll the marzipan to fit the bottom of the pan and place on the crust.

• Peel, halve, and core the apples. Slice the apple halves, leaving the slices in place and with a knife or offset spatula, transfer halves onto the marzipan, arranging to fit the pan. Dot with the shaved butter. Fold the crust overhang over the apples. Sprinkle all over with both sugars.

• Place the tart on a sheet pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Remove tart from sheet pan and transfer to a wire rack. Let cool for 30 minutes before removing the sides of the pan.

• For the caramel: In a small skillet, heat the sugar until melted and golden in color. Turn the heat off and stir in the almond extract. Immediately drizzle all over the apple tart.

If you have the patience to make it yourself, marzipan will cost just a fraction of the price of the ones from the store. You will need a food processor to make marzipan.

Marzipan
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
½ cup water
8 ounces blanched almonds
8 ounces icing sugar
1 tablespoon pure almond extract or rosewater
extra icing sugar

• In a small pan, heat the sugar, light corn syrup, and water until sugar has dissolved. Boil until candy thermometer registers 235°F. Let cool slightly then transfer into a measuring cup.
• Place the nuts and icing sugar into the bowl of a food processor and process until nuts are super fine. With the processor running, slowly add the syrup and almond extract until it gathers into a ball.
• Dust work surface with icing sugar. Transfer almond paste on the work surface and knead, adding more icing sugar as needed, until smooth and pliable. Wrap in plastic film and refrigerate until needed.

homemade marzipan

Panettone: BBAC #24

One word to describe Panettone, The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge #24 : meh. I didn't care much for this bread. I have never liked panettone (the store-bought variety); I find it dry and blah. I was hoping that homemade will be better but my taste buds can't be wrong, this panettone like the ones from the stores is dry as bone and not tasty at all. Good thing I only made half a recipe.

IMHO this bread recipe needs MORE sugar and eggs. I prefer fruity breads moist and sweet and rich. I didn't want to waste all the candied peels, citron, dried fruits, almonds, and liqueur so I made it into bread pudding with lots of sugar, milk, eggs, and melted butter.

Rating:
flavor 1
texture 1
visual appeal 3
ease of preparation 3

performance 4

worth 0
Total: 12
Average: 2

Strawberry Flan

Lasang Pinoy Sundays is a weekly gallery of food photography is hosted by SpiCes. The Iron Chef inspired theme for this week is Strawberries.

If you like flan and strawberries, here is an easy and delicious recipe.

Strawberry Flan
1 cup sugar for caramel
1 pint strawberries, hulled and washed
½ cup sugar, more or less to taste
6 eggs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
fanned strawberries for garnish, optional

• Caramelize the 1 cup sugar and pour into the bottom of molds or ramekins. Set aside.
• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Place the strawberries, sugar, eggs, and condensed milk in a blender and blend until strawberries are minced and all ingredients are mixed thoroughly. Pour the strawberry mixture into the prepared ramekins. Cover each ramekin with aluminum foil. Bake in a bain marie for 1 hour. Refrigerate overnight before unmolding.
• Garnish flans with fanned whole strawberries if preferred.

Pane Siciliano BBAC#23

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge #23: Pane Siciliano

Pane Siciliano is tasty and has a fantastic aroma coming out of the oven. Its slightly sweet soft yet chewy crumb is open with irregular large and medium holes similar to French bread. The golden brown crust is just thin enough to get a good crunch when toasted. I like it a lot.

Although this is a 3-day bread, it's very easy to make as most of the time spent is for fermention/refrigeration. I shaped a third of the dough into the S pictured in the book and the rest I plopped into a loaf pan. After an overnight stay in the refrigerator, they were made to rest for half an hour before baking and had good oven spring. The only thing I didn't like is the sesame seed topping. I love sesame seeds, they add a wonderful flavor to this bread but they fly all over the kitchen when slicing and more than half of the seeds just go to waste. This bread is a keeper and I won't mind baking it again, perhaps I'll use a bit of sourdough starter next time and shape them into baguettes.

So far, 3 Italian breads are in my favorites list, including this one. The next two recipes are also Italian, Panettone which I occasionally bought a long time ago during the Christmas season, and Pizza Napoletana. Will they become favorites too? Stay tuned.;-)

a bit "plump-in-the-middle" S bread

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5

performance 5

worth 5
Total: 30
Average: 5

Maja Blanca

Maja Blanca is the Philippine version of white pudding made of cornstarch, milk, sugar, and vanilla extract. Maybe I am biased but IMHO our white pudding tastes way better because it has coconut milk and sweet corn kernels. I'm loving the recipe from KULINARYA guidebook which uses buco (young coconut) water and powdered milk and served with strips of buco meat on top. Really delicious!

Maja Blanca
adapted from KULINARYA guidebook
1 cup thick coconut cream
350 ml buco water
2 ears of sweet corn
2 tablespoons water
2 cups coconut milk
½ cup powdered milk
¾ cup sugar
½ cup cornstarch mixed with ½ cup water
buco meat, cut into strips

• In a small skillet, heat the thick coconut cream over medium heat. When it starts to boil, lower the heat and continue cooking, uncovered, for 30 minutes. The milk should separate into oil and solid curd (latik). Remove the latik and set aside.
  
• Cut the corn and scrape the cob on a large glass bowl. Add 2 tablespoons water, cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 1½ minutes.
  
• In a medium non-stick saucepan, mix together the buco water, coconut milk, powdered milk, sugar, cornstarch mixture, and corn. Bring to a boil then lower heat. Simmer, uncovered, over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn off heat when mixture thickens.
  
• Transfer into individual bowls or a serving dish. Allow to cool and set. Top each serving with buco strips and latik.

coconut overload maja blanca

Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day

chocolate babka that everybody will love

Good news! PETER REINHART'S ARTISAN BREADS EVERY DAY will be published October 27, 2009 and is now available to pre-order at amazon. If anybody is interested in attending one of his classes or events here is the link to his blog.

Read more »

Prawn Sinigang

It's definitely fall already. The past few days have been cold and windy that I started bringing my plants inside the house. First to come in are the calamansi tree which has hundreds of tiny fruits growing right now, and the Spanish pimiento which I want to try to continue growing indoors. We've had several consecutive 40°F nights and my tomato plants are now starting to die. The plants still have plenty of unripe fruits, some I already made into green tomato jam which is yummy, btw.

Thinking of ways to use the green tomatoes aside from frying them, sinigang (soup) came to mind. Yes, since green tomatoes are a little bit more acidic than the ripe ones, they are definitely perfect as additional souring agent for sinigang. I used a packet of frozen young tamarind leaves and together with some vegetables from my garden I made prawn sinigang, very yummy.

homegrown vegetables: tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, sitaw

Prawn Sinigang

4 cups rice water or water
souring agent such as fresh tamarind, young tamarind leaves, or kamias
4 large ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges
4 green tomatoes, cut into wedges
yardlong beans, cut into 1½-inch pieces
2 small Asian eggplants, sliced
1 cup edamame or lima beans
2 green medium-hot peppers (siling haba)
2 teaspoons sea salt or to taste
½ pound prawns

• Place water and souring agent in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, turn heat down to medium, cover, and let boil for 10 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients except prawns. Simmer, covered, for 3 to 5 minutes or until eggplants are soft.
• Add the prawns and cook uncovered until they turn pink or red and completely cooked. Transfer into a serving container and serve immediately with steamed rice and fish sauce.

Me Want Cookie!

It's been a looong time, probably 2 years, since I last had chocolate chip cookies. I haven't baked them because there are no longer small children in my house to appreciate these treats. I'm also too busy baking other goodies like meringue, macarons, and silvanas, and tons of bread.

Last week, I suddenly had a craving for chocolate chip cookies after reading Snickers Bar Chocolate Chip cookies at Joelen's blog. I didn't have Snickers candy bars but I did have toffee brickle chips and peanut chips. I adapted the recipes on the packages adding chocolate chips in both doughs. Both cookies are very good and will surely bring out your inner Cookie Monster.

Toffee Brickles And Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 stick butter, softened
6 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons dark brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
¾ cup toffee brickle chips
½ cup milk chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350° F.
• In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until fully incorporated.
• Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, and cream of tartar. With mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Stir in both chips.
• Using a small ice cream scoop, drop dough on parchment lined cookie sheets 1½ inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown.
• Cool on wire racks for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies on a flat surface or on wire racks and let cool completely. Store in an airtight jar.

Chewy Chocolate And Peanut Chip Cookies

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup peanut chips
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350° F.
• Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, set aside.
• In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until fully incorporated. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the peanut and chocolate chips.
• Using a small ice cream scoop, drop dough on 2 parchment lined cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on wire racks for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies on a flat surface or wire rack and let cool completely. Store in an airtight jar.

Pain de Campagne: BBAC #22

I had so much high hopes for The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge # 22: Pain de Campagne but wasn't too thrilled with the result. It is not as tasty as Pain a l'Ancienne. The tight crumb is soft-ish although chewy, which is good. The book doesn't have any photo of the crumb so I can't really tell if it is supposed to be open or tight. I don't really care because I won't be baking this bread anytime soon. The flavor is so-so and there's nothing to rave and write about it. I decided to substitute photos for a lengthy write-up instead.

The only thing I enjoyed the most in making this bread is the shaping. The couronne Bordelaise looks so pretty but the book does not have the instructions which I found here. It's really fun to make and you don't really need a lined banneton to be able to shape it. A 10-inch pie plate or skillet and a smooth kitchen towel will do the job.

I improvised a couronne basket by taping a small plastic container in the middle of a wicker banneton with removable liner

the lining was dusted with lots of flour before laying on top of basket and plastic container

proofing

proofed dough inverted on a piece of parchment and ready for baking

the bread up close

Rating:
flavor 3
texture 3
visual appeal 4
ease of preparation 5

performance 3

worth 2
Total: 20
Average: 3.3

Vinegar And Chili Dipping Sauce

chili infused vinegar is great with breakfast favorite longaniza patty topped with fried egg, or with grilled fish, meat, and chicken, and with fried lumpia taugeh

One of the most popular Filipino dipping sauces (sawsawan) is vinegar and birds-eye chili peppers. The dipping sauce enhances the flavor of any meal of the day including breakfast. It can be prepared fresh just before eating or already bottled, homemade or store-bought. Seasonings such as sea salt, fish extract, soy sauce, caramelized sugar syrup, or bagoong are added according to individual preference.

Chili In A Bottle (of Vinegar)
fresh red and green hot peppers
2 peeled whole garlic cloves
1-inch piece peeled and sliced ginger
palm vinegar (sukang paombong)

• Fill a clean bottle half-full with chili, add the garlic and ginger. Fill with vinegar. Put the lid on and leave on the kitchen counter for 3 to 5 days for the flavors to meld. Pour a few tablespoons of the chili-infused vinegar in a dipping dish, add the preferred seasoning and a few sliced or crushed chili peppers from the bottle.

a weekly gallery of food photography, Filipino style, is hosted by SpiCes.

Pandan Crêpe Layer Cake

I found a year-old [home canned] jar of mangoes in syrup in my pantry. They aren't spoiled and still very good so I sliced them really thin to fill the pandan crêpes I had been planning to make. I stacked the crêpes and mango and cream filling instead of fill/roll individually. It is not such a brilliant idea because they went slipping and sliding when I cut the "cake" into slices. It's okay, though, because it is so good and with chocolate sauce is extra yummy. I just pushed them back together to make it look tidy. I'll make a proper pandan chiffon layer cake with similar filling next time.

Pandan Crêpe Layer Cake
crêpes
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
½ cup pandan water (blend 6 pandan leaves with ½ cup water and strain)
2 eggs
¼ teaspoon sea salt
4 tablespoons light olive oil
3 drops green food dye gel
butter

filling
thin slices of ripe mangoes
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons condensed milk

• Mix crêpe ingredients except butter in a blender until smooth. Heat a 7-inch skillet, rub with butter and pour about a quarter cup of batter, rotating the pan quickly to spread evenly. Cook on medium-low heat until edges are dry, lift, and flip to cook the other side. Stack on a plate and let cool completely.
• Prepare the cream filling: Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Add condensed milk and whip for 30 seconds until blended.
• Fill individually with mangoes and cream, roll and place on a plate seam side down. Drizzle with chocolate sauce. Or, if you prefer the layered look: place one crêpe on a platter, arrange sliced mangoes on top, spread 2 tablespoons of cream and repeat with the rest of the crêpes and filling, and a crêpe on top. Cut into 6 slices. Drizzle with chocolate sauce.

all my favorites in one yummy dessert: pandan, mangoes, cream, condensed milk, chocolate

BBAC #21: Pain à l'Ancienne

After baking 20 bread recipes in The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge, I can honestly say Peter Reinhart is absolutely spot on when he says bread Number 21, Pain à l'Ancienne is one of the easiest doughs in the book to make. There is very little kneading involved, no shaping, no proofing, and scoring, which IMHO is almost futile anyway, is just an option. All you do is mix, refrigerate overnight, cut the dough into equal portions, elongate the pieces a little bit which is not hard to do, bake, and 20 minutes later, you will be enjoying a crispy [crust] sweetish light and airy most delicious bread you will ever have, at least to me it is. It is so good I can't stop eating it. This is currently my favorite bread from the book. Wait, didn't I just say that last week, and the week before last? Aack, I am starting to sound like a broken record! And there is a possibility that I will say the same thing the next 22 weeks.^__^

The slack dough uses ice-cold 40°F water and after mixing with flour, yeast, and salt, the dough is immediately stored in the refrigerator overnight. Peter explains that the delayed fermentation using ice-cold water produces a bread that "has a natural sweetness and nutlike character that is distinct from breads made from the same ingredients but fermented by the standard method, even with large percentages of pre-ferment". It has something to do with the natural sugars in flour but I won't go into details of the chemical reactions going on in this dough. The bread is delicious and it's all that matters.

Some of the loaves came out nice and straight but some are crooked and uneven which I like even better because of their rustic appearance. Adding to my delight are the irregular large holes in the crumb. Once again I am grateful to Nicole for this nifty idea of becoming Peter Reinhart's virtual apprentice and being able to bake great tasting loaves of bread. This is one recipe that I will be baking over and over. I actually baked a second batch the very next day and the result is consistent in flavor and texture, light airy crispy flavorful bread.

We didn't wait for the bread to cool because the loaves finished baking just in time for dinner. We spread aioli on the slices and had them with Green Bouillabaisse for a most satisfying vegetarian meal. This dough can also be shaped into ciabatta or focaccia which I will be making very soon.

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5

performance 5

worth 5
Total: 30
Average: 5

Green Bouillabaisse

delicious meatless dinner: all-vegetable bouillabaisse, crusty bread, and aioli

After weeks of having chicken and meat, we usually crave for vegetarian dishes to sort of "cleanse the palate". And Michel Richard's fishless bouillabaisse recipe is the perfect dish to satisfy an all-vegetable craving. The preparation is a bit involved so I cut it down by using frozen baby artichokes. I also used very young rainbow chard from my garden in place of baby spinach and the white parts of green onions because we don't care much for leeks. The combination of flavors is fantastic and a large bowl of this healthy and delicious green bouillabaisse is extremely satisfying specially with aioli-topped fresh out of the oven Pain à l'Ancienne.

Green Bouillabaisse With Aioli
adapted from Michel Richard's Green Bouillabaisse

4 large ripe tomatoes
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 sweet onion, chopped
3 green onions, white parts only, sliced
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
orange
½ pound frozen baby artichokes
a pinch of saffron
½ tablespoon sugar
a quarter of a star anise
½ cup dry white wine
1½ tablespoons Pernod (anise liqueur)
1 sprig thyme
salt and ground black pepper
1 zucchini, cut in half lengthwise then sliced
1 fennel bulb, cored and julienned
2 celery sticks, sliced
2 cups baby spinach

• Cut the tomatoes in half. Remove seeds over a strainer on top of a bowl. Set aside the strainer. Grate the tomato halves directly on the bowl. Discard tomato skins. Strain to measure 1½ cups tomato water. Set aside. Discard tomato pulp or keep for another use.
• Using a peeler, remove a quarter of the orange zest. Set aside.
• In a saucepan, heat the oil and saute onion until soft. Add the green onions and minced garlic and stir fry for 3 minutes. Add sugar, star anise, saffron, and orange zest. Cook for another 3 minutes. Add artichokes, wine, Pernod, thyme, and tomato water. Season with salt and ground black pepper to taste. Let mixture come to a boil and simmer, uncovered, until artichokes are tender, about 10 minutes.
• Add zucchini, celery, and fennel. Simmer until fennel is tender crisp. Turn heat off and add spinach or chard.
• Remove and discard the sprig of thyme. Transfer bouillabaisse into a serving dish and serve with slices of crusty bread and aioli.

Aioli
one 4-ounce Yukon Gold potato, peeled, diced, and steamed
4 garlic cloves, finely minced or grated
1 egg yolk
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup grapeseed oil
fine sea salt
ground cayenne pepper
a few drops of lemon juice

• Put potato, garlic, egg yolk, and 1 tablespoon oil in a blender. Blend until potato is fully mashed. With blender running on high, slowly drizzle the oil, stopping to scrape down the sides when necessary, until mixture has thickened.
• Season aioli with cayenne, lemon juice, and sea salt to taste. Transfer into a jar and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Fruits And Vegetables

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


For this week's [freestyle] theme, here are a few of my favorite fruits and vegetables. Oh, how I wish I could have atis and green mangoes all year round.

atis

manggang hilaw

ampalaya, patola, sitaw, puso ng saging

Malaysian Laksa

One of the dishes I had in Singapore over 30 years ago was a delicious mix of egg noodles and fried tofu chunks in red spicy broth garnished with prawns, mungbean sprouts, and sliced boiled eggs. I didn't remember the name of the dish and have forgotten about it. A few Top Chef seasons ago I recognized the dish when a cheftestant prepared something similar which she called Laksa (the judges deemed her version of the dish awful BTW). I immediately looked for a recipe in my ancient Singaporean cookbook but didn't find one. Thankfully ready made spice pastes from Malaysia are now available at the Asian groceries and the paste makes superb Laksa just like the one I had in Singapore.

If you want to make the spice paste from scratch, here is a recipe I adapted from one I found online. I made it once and it is very good but I prefer the convenience of the prepared spice paste.

Laksa
spice paste
10 fresh long red hot chili pepper, chopped
8 purple shallots, chopped
5 candlenuts
1-inch piece fresh galangal, peeled and chopped
1-inch piece ginger, chopped
2 stalks lemongrass, white part only, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil
1 teaspoon belacan or gapi (shrimp paste)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

• Place ingredients in a food processor and process until finely chopped. Set aside ½ cup and keep the rest in a jar in the refrigerator or freezer.

Laksa soup
1 tablespoon oil
½ cup spice paste
1 can coconut milk, or low-fat yogurt
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
fried tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 pound cooked peeled prawns
cooked fresh egg noodles
mungbean sprouts, blanched
boiled eggs, quartered
Vietnamese mint leaves
chopped red hot chili, optional

• In a wok or saucepan, heat the oil and stir fry the paste until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add the coconut milk and broth and bring to a boil. Add the tofu and let simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.
• Divide (warm) noodles into 4 serving bowls. Ladle the soup on top of noodles, arrange pieces of tofu, cooked prawns, eggs, bean sprouts, mint leaves, and chopped chili.

Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge week 20: Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire.

If you are like me who loves hearty chewy bread with a bit of crunch, then this is the loaf for you. The slices are very good as they are and utterly delicious toasted for sandwiches. I spread mayonnaise on the toasted slices, piled thick slices of heirloom tomatoes sprinkled with sea salt, and had the best and satisfying sandwich ever! Seriously. This bread is just perfect, in my honest opinion. I also love it for open-faced cucumber sandwich and with the slightly sour-sweet caramelly cheese mysost.

The bread I made is loaded with a soaker combination of polenta, millet, quinoa, rolled oats, and wheat bran, plus the cooked brown rice in the dough. There was too much dough for my loaf pan so I shaped the extra into 2.5-ounce buns. I then rolled the tops of the shaped loaf and buns in white poppy seeds.

The bread is chewy from all the various grains and high-gluten flour but the extra chew comes from the brown rice; and the crunch is from polenta, quinoa, and poppy seeds. The honey and dark brown sugar, which might be too much for some but for me it is just about right, and buttermilk contribute to the bread's overall flavor and yummyness. I love soft white milky breads but this easy to make extraordinary multigrain bread is an absolute keeper; another winning formula from Mr. Reinhart. Can you tell I have a new number one favorite bread recipe from the book?

to make the seeds stick on the unbaked dough, I spread them on the counter and pressing slightly, roll the tops of the shaped dough on the seeds

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5

performance 5

worth 5
Total: 30
Average: 5

Piaya

filled with ube paste and muscovado (raw sugar)

One of the Philippine treats we truly love is the highly addicting piaya, sweet flaky flat bread snacks from the Negros province. These are best eaten when freshly baked and importing them from the Philippines is not possible, unless there are friends and family who are willing to hand carry them as pasalubong. I make them whenever I get the craving which is way too often.:-)

a weekly gallery of food photography, Filipino style, is hosted by SpiCes.