Baguette Pane Integrale

We both love baguettes but also like whole wheat bread, so why not attempt to combine the two? 

For the first attempt, I used 1/3 whole wheat flour to 2/3 bread flour (high protein).   We used the Kitchen Aid dough hook for the first time and it worked beautifully.   The dough was so perfect that I hardly used any flour to knead it.   One important note is that I needed a bit more liquid to form the dough due to whole wheat flour and bread flour absorbing more water.

The most challenging part was managing the three risings.  

For our next attempt, I will slightly increase the amount of yeast and monitor the temperature of the room where the dough is resting.  Also, I would recommend closely watching the oven temperature.  While the recipe I used stated to bake the baguette at 425 F for 10 minutes, then drop the temperature and bake at 325 degrees.  I will try limiting the initial baking to more like 7 minutes and then dropping to 350 for another 20-30 minutes.   Also, we need a longer baking sheet for the baguettes, but for now we’ll settle for shorter loaves.  It is important to brush the bread with cold water just before baking and every time minutes during baking to ensure you have that classic crisp, crunchy crust. 

Our bread turned out beautiful and tastes wonderful, so we look forward to fine-tuning our results.  

Ingredients:

¼ cup + ¾ cup lukewarm water

1 package dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup white bread flour

1 ½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon melted butter

2-4 tablespoons of milk

In a 2-cup bowl, mix ¼ lukewarm water, dry yeast and sugar.  Stir gently and let sit for 15 mins

Melt the butter and look cool.  When cool to the touch, add the melted butter and remaining water to the yeast mixture.

Add the flour to the bowl with the dough hook.   Turn the mixer on low and begin adding yeast/water mixture slowly making sure you get liquid to the bottom of the mixing bowl.   Add a few tablespoons of milk if needed to moisten the last bit of flour on the bottom of the mixing bowl. 

Once your dough is formed, remove and knead until smooth and elastic and no longer sticky.  For first rise, let the dough double, punch down and reform into ball.  Let dough double in size again, form into a baguette and place on lightly greased baking sheet.  Make a ¼ inch deep x 1 inch slashes at 2 inch intervals along the length of the baguette.  Let rise 1.5 hours, brush with cool water and bake. 

Poivrons à la Grecque

Green bell peppers are (how do I put this?) kind of... unappetizing. Here in America, green bell peppers are part of a standard green salad, but other than that, I cannot think of anything else (off the top of my head) where we eat them. In Italy, green peppers are considered un-ripe, and are not used for anything until turning red. It is a similar situation in Spain. After living there, I can honestly say that red peppers are a standard (like Italy), and green... well... you kind of don't see them. Ever. They go in part of the flavor base of a paella, but it is strictly for the bitterness, nothing more. Red peppers (roasted in olive oil and served cold) were a popular beach-side tapa.

What to do with green bell peppers? For some reason we had bought some, and they just sat there in the fridge. Tonight, fed up with seeing our bizarre purchase on the shelf, I began to sift through our cookbooks on how to use them.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking is always a favorite "go-to" standard. The only downfall to any Julia Child recipe is that you need time. A precious item for a New Yorker. It is a Sunday, I had time, so let's embrace our inner Parisian, shall we? I was shocked to find a recipe in her Vegetable section for Green Bell Peppers! And would you believe ... it is vegan? Like Spain, the peppers are taken cold (or room-temperature). Julia recommends you enjoy them as part of a cold buffet. Um, sure! You simmer them (de-seeded and chopped) in an aromatic broth for 10 minutes. Following this, you remove the vegetable, and reduce the broth until it becomes a syrup-like consistency. I removed the liquid until I had about a 1/4 of a cup. Spoon this (cooled) over the peppers (also cooled). We popped open a bottle of White Bordeaux (Julia would have wanted that) and took her advice of having our Poivrons à la Grecque with a salad. We dressed a bowl of rocket greens with oil, vinegar, and Ile de France peppercorn-crusted goat cheese. Our Poivrons were served on the side, tossed with our syrup-ed reduction. Add a protein of your choice, a slice of crusty bread, and wow! You have a meal!

Serving Green Peppers this way was so delicious. I had no intention of buying them again, but if we do, I know how we are going to prepare them! Check out the recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking... Bon Appetit!

Baking in Small Portions

New Year, new diet, right? Are you having trouble suppressing that sweet tooth? If so, we have a fantastic solution: Individual-sized pie pans. These little beauties are the ideal answer to portion control. You can have an incredible dessert, enjoy every morsel, and not worry if it is "too much" or "splurging" because it is an individual portion. It takes much more effort to reach for a second pan-full than cutting a second "sliver" of cake. Charlie baked  Cinnamon Coffee cake this morning, and what a treat it was! Buttery. Light. Brown-sugar sweet. But (more or less) guilt free, because I only had one helping. And one is just right. Go look for a set of individual pie pans or ramekins and enjoy an individual-sized dessert. You'd be surprised at how it can help control "over-doing it".

Green Salad with Roasted Squash and Apples

Sweet. Spicy. Fresh. For an entree salad, and to achieve your new years resolution of eating more vegetables...try this. Both sophisticated and contemporary, this combination of flavors and textures bids adieu to boring salads. Trust us.

At our supermarket, we have a bin of acorn squash overflowing at the brim. Stemming from a recipe from one of our favorite winter cookbooks, gently tossing our squash in a coating of beet-molasses and salt, we roasted strips of acorn squash under the broiler. These caramelized golden strips get set over a plate heaping with salad greens, tart Braeburn apple slices, and salty grated cheese. Sounds delicious? It is. What brings it together is a Dijon mustard vinaigrette.

Slice:
1 peeled, deseeded Acorn Squash
1 small Braeburn apple
A small wedge of cheese of your choice (Parmesan, Sharp Cheddar, or Feta)

Whisk together:
A tablespoon of good, spicy Dijon mustard
3-to-2 ratio of Olive Oil and Vinegar (We used Spanish sherry vinegar)
Sea Salt
Freshly Cracked Pepper

Other materials
Honey, Molasses, or Maple Syrup
Salad Greens

(This serves 2.)
1. ROAST the squash slices at 400 for 20 minutes, coated in a dash of oil, sweetener of your choice, and  salt.

2. Make dressing

3. Toss the salad greens with the vinaigrette. Add the apple slices and toss again. Slice or grate the cheese on top of the dressed greens and plate on two plates. Top the salad with the warm, roasted slices of squash. And while you are at it, pour yourself a nice, cold glass of white wine. It goes great with this salad, and heck, you're eating a salad right? What's a little glass of wine as a treat?

"Rice" with Spanish-style Peppers

Cauliflower "rice" is ferociously popular in low carb cookbooks, blogs, and recipes. It is a great alternative to real rice, a fantastic option for diabetics, and a way to add even more vegetables to your diet. Heck, you might even fool the kids into thinking it was real rice. So, why all the hype? It's delicious. Really. And seriously folks, you do not miss "the real thing". If done properly, it will make dieters jump for joy, and it could not be easier.

1. Chop 1 head of cauliflower in a food processor (raw, and cut into pieces). What you are looking for is a sand-like texture. Pulse until desired texture is achieved. 

2. Microwave for 4-5 minutes, covered. (Do not add water. Let nature do its trick. The moisture already present in the cauliflower is what steams it.)

3. Fluff with a fork. Add a touch of olive oil, or butter, and a pinch of salt. Yummers.

I wondered how this would transfer into a Spanish context. This recipe was extremely difficult, as we kept on having power outages, but the result was delightful, and you shockingly did not miss the "real" rice. The texture, Charlie pointed out, is closer to a couscous than a rice. Either way, it works.

I caramelized the following:

3 red peppers

1/2 onion

with …

Olive OIl

2 cloves garlic

Handful of chickpeas

…and deglazed the pan with some white wine and a touch of sherry.

Add some chopped olives, a hefty shake of smoked paprika, a dash of salt, and you are done. Serve alongside the cauliflower rice / couscous. 

Recent Projects

Creamed Chicken in Pinched-Pastry Crust Shells

Three Vinegar Salad Dressing

Paella

Cazuela al Horno de Espinaca con Queso

Baked Banana Pudding topped with Sweet Meringue

Cauliflower Gruyère Soufflé

Mini Cinnamon Pinwheels

Parsley-Ricotta Agnolotti

Sweet Potato Agnolotti

These projects will be further written about, but we wanted to post something to halt our over-extended hiatus. The Piccolo Gourmet has had quite the autumn schedule, but we are back, and happy to start posting again!  As you can see above, yes, we have been busy (and in a new kitchen!). We will expand further on these projects in the future, though today, we are posting tips that we have discovered during our blogging pause.

TIP ONE: As you know (we have posted this in the past), we save our cheese rinds for making vegetarian broth. This is a great alternative to using chicken bones or ham hocks. What we discovered is that when you throw in your saved cheese rinds, keep a fair amount of the cheese on the ends. We recently made a new batch and I had noted that (this time) I had kept a greater amount on the ends as a test. Yes! It makes an enormous difference in flavor. Just keep an eye on it. The rinds (this is experience talking) can stick and burn to the bottom of the pot. You cannot see this because they are covered in broth, so keep a mindful watch on the pot. 

TIP TWO: When making salad dressing, add more than one vinegar and you will be blown away. This sounds simple, but what a surprise in the taste. Try it. We combined the following: balsamic, red wine, and sherry. Wow.

TIP THREE: Try your pie before you bake it. Again, sounds simple, but one can easily loose track of sweetness when you combine other ingredients that contain sugar (i.e. crushed cookies). Now I hear you, can something being TOO sweet be a PROBLEM? Well...yes. We did not know until I had a taste... AFTER baking.

TIP FOUR: Scraps from your pastries ... save them. You can roll out almost anything and make tiny versions of big things you crave, and you know what? Not only are they adorable creations, but two or three are "just enough" when you want something homemade and sweet.

TIP FIVE: Learn to love your broiler. Not only can your broiler save you time in roasting and caramelizing vegetables, if the rack is placed close enough to the top, cheese can get those "restaurant-looking" spots on melted cheese. Patience and practice. Try it.