Bread Bakers Apprentice(s) – Polaine style Miche

ב''ה

This is the cover-bread of Peter Reinhart's book, the Bread Bakers Apprentice.

First you have to build a starter. I had to start from the beginning again. I used high gluten wheat flour.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

It had some funky bubbles and it smelled pretty bad. Nope, not ready yet.

Day 4 - Smells funky

Day 5 - still smells funky

Day 6 - starting to smell better. Acrid, yet with a tinge of sour.

Day 7. That's better. Still a tinge of acrid, but rip-roaring to go. Lets stick it in the fridge until we are ready.

After a week in the fridge. No more acrid smell. Just a lovely sour. I really tried to keep this starter on the  dryer side so that I would get more sour notes.

This recipe calls for 9 cups of high-extraction flour. You sift your good whole wheat flour and get out the large bran-flakes!

Make a firm starter the night before.

Oops, I forgot to stick it in the fridge after 6 hours (I was at work.) No biggy, I hope.

Mix with high-extraction flour.

Coming together...

Once in a boul you are supposed to give it 4 hours to rise. It was already 11:30 pm so I decided to just stick it in the fridge.

Oh, shoot! I forgot to take a picture of it after it had risen. I left it out 5 hours in the morning and then carefully transfered it to the baking sheet and baked it.

Thump! Thump!

Here is the texture. Soury smell, Crunchy crust, soft tangy-sour-y interior. The high extraction flour really adds something. Very flavorful. Scrumptious.

The "Ez Man" also wants to be a Bread Bakers Apprentice!

Heavenly Cake - Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cake

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I do not usually like strawberry flavored things. This was one of those "Rose Moments," where you discover that the nominal can become extraordinary because of the personal touch of someone who has gone the extra mile to make it so.

Mis en Place:

White chocolate for the cake.

Melted in a pot that was sitting on top of the toaster that was warming up.

I could not bring my self to put the full amount of baking powder. I cut out 1/2 a teaspoon. 

Mix mix.

Add the white chocolate.

Smooth out batter.

The indentation is from where my finger pressed it down. It was actually a little tunnel. I wonder if it was from over mixing or from the large amount of baking powder...

Egg whites and whipped butter. As usual, I cut the amount of butter in half for more flavor.

Meringue. I poured straight from the pot.

Substitute for strawberry butter. I could not find it and I did not feel like going to the store again to look for the preserves when I had the ingredients for the substitute at hand. It really did turn out lovely though.

There was not enough liqued to get it going so I added some of the meringue. I realize now that I could have added some lemon juice to help as well. It would have added that extra tang but the kids probably would not have liked it as much.

Mix it in.

This had a strawberry flavor that I can't say no to!

Construction...

Pour on the chocolate.

Add some pink pearls to delight the little girls (even if they did spill half the bottle...)

 It really was a delicious cake and I will definitely make this again.

BBA - PAIN a l'ACIENNE Pizza

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On of the choices in the liner notes of Bread Baker's Apprentice Pain a l'acienne recipe. The other is    Pain a l'acienne focaccia, which I will have to try soon, as well as, conversely, the focaccia pizza. Top with some basil, oregano, garlic, zaatar, aleppo pepper. :)

Heavenly Cake - Chocolate Butter Hiccups

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I was not so impressed with these cup cakes. At least the way they turned out for me. The Hershey's cocoa I used seemed a bit off in terms of flavor for this and the texture was almost like hard-boiled egg yolk. It could have also used some sort of frosting or buttercream. It was still yummy however, and got eaten up. You can not go too wrong with chocolate and butter. ;)

This is the best pic I have of them, the others did not come out for some reason. Must be that virtual darkroom in my digital camera having hiccups...

Mis en Place:

These were fairly simple to make. Not to many steps. I added two table spoons of water to the cocoa to help the texture. It may not have helped in this case. At least it was not dry.

This is before I smoothed them.

The missus and the "Ez Man" enjoyed them, Ken'ayna Hora. :)

Later:
O.K. Finally got one of the pics!