Sourdough Tomato Basil Bread

I wanted to try something different with the sourdough loaf this weekend. I had a lot of cherry tomatoes and some basil that needed to be used up. This tomato basil bread was an experiment that turned out great. I baked this bread the weekend spring break started. My daughter left for a sleep over and I wanted a simple lunch. Flavored bread seemed perfect. Besides I had not used the sourdough starter for a few weeks and it needed to be fed. I used a third of the fed starter for this recipe and the rest to make buns for lunch the next day.

With sourdough I prefer to go by feel rather than a recipe. I used to go with exact weight measurements for all the ingredients when I first started with sourdough bread. I now rely more on feel than measurements.

I mixed the whole wheat flour with the sourdough starter and added the salt. I then mixed in the diced basil along with the sliced cherry tomatoes with the juice. I started with 40% water and felt I needed to go up to 60%. That along with the juice from the tomatoes brought up the hydration to 80%. That is just about where I like it. I followed the process for any other boule except that I did not bake it in a dutch oven. I baked it on an sheet in a 500 F oven. I then spread about a fourth of a teaspoon of ghee over the top and put it back in the oven for about 6 minutes. I lowered the oven temperature to 425 F. Perfect loaf with nice crumb and great taste. I call that a successful experiment.

You will need
12 cherry tomatoes
5-6 leaves basil
100 gm freshly fed starter
100 gm whole wheat flour
60 gm water
4 gm salt
1 tsp. cayenne pepper powder (adjust to taste)

1/4 tsp ghee or butter

Feed the starter and keep aside for 20-30 minutes. I usually keep 50 gm of starter in the refrigerator. I add equal parts flour and water to feed it. I add as much as I need to make the bread and have 50 gm left over to return to the refrigerator. Since I had not used the starter for a while, I first fed it 50 gm of water and 50 gm of flour. I kept that on the counter top for about an hour until it got bubbly. I then added 100 gm of water and 100 gm of flour to it. After another 20-30 minutes it was ready to use. 50 gm went back to the refrigerator, 100 gm went into this recipe, the rest went into making rolls.

Slice the cherry tomatoes and dice the basil. Keep aside. In a bowl combine the starter, the flour and salt. Let it sit for half an hour. Add the tomatoes and basil and fold them into the dough. Keep aside covered.

Over the next hour stretch and fold the dough to strengthen it. Cover and keep aside for about 5 hours. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and gently fold the sides in. Flip and form a round ball with the seam underneath.

Place in a floured bowl, cover and keep overnight in the refrigerator. The next day preheat the oven to 500 F. Place a sheet in the oven when the temperature is 400 F. Alternately, place a baking stone in the oven. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and transfer to a floured work surface. Score the top with a sharp razor blade. I scored it like a pie making 6 portions.

Transfer the scored loaf to the sheet in the oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Turn down the heat to 475 F and bake for another 10 minutes or until the bread is cooked through. Remove from oven and spread a little ghee or butter over the top. Lower the heat to 425 F and return the bread to the oven for another 5-6 minutes. The top should brown. Remove from heat.

Allow it to cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy!

Savory Pesto Rose Kringle

I love the shape of the Kringle, one that resembles a ring with multiple layers peeking through. Usually made with a sweet filling I have already tried one version of a savory Kringle. But then I saw the rose Kringle and I knew I had to come up with another savory filling to try this lovely shape.

I decided on a pesto filling as it is thick and savory. In the last couple weeks I have had a problem sourcing basil, one of the main ingredients in pesto. The plant in the garden has dried up and I could not find any basil in the grocery store. So I had to find alternatives. I used roasted almonds, cherry tomatoes, mixed salad leaves and some garlic. The aroma was amazing and the taste awesome.

I made the pesto the night before and kept it refrigerated until I needed it. I had a little left over dough after I had made some bread. I used it to make this kringle.

You will need (for 1 large)
1 1/4 cups whole white wheat flour
3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Instant yeast
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. water
1/2 cup milk

For the pesto
a large handful of mixed salad leaves
8-10 cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup almond slivers
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 pods garlic
salt and black pepper to taste
3 tbsp. olive oil

Sift the flours in a mixing bowl. Add the salt and yeast. Now add the wet ingredients and combine to form a soft dough. Knead well until it is elastic and smooth. Cover and keep aside until doubles in volume, about an hour and a half.

Meanwhile, heat the almond slivers in a pan until well roasted. Keep aside to cool. Add the cooled almonds and the other ingredients except the oil to a food processor and pulse until you have the fine desired consistency. I do not like it pureed so I leave very small chunks. Drizzle the oil over the pesto and pulse a few times. The pesto is ready. Keep aside until needed.

Preheat oven to 400 F. When the dough has risen transfer it to a flat, floured working surface. Using a rolling pin roll it into a long narrow rectangle. Spread the pesto all over the surface leaving an inch edge on all sides.

Fold in the edge on one of the long sides and continue rolling into a long roll. Using a sharp knife cut through the center along the length leaving the two sides attached at one end.

Now place one side over the other repeatedly to form a two strand braid.

Starting at one end roll the braid to form a rose. Elevate the center a little to give it more dimension. Transfer to a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until it is cooked through and brown.

Enjoy as a snack or a side with a meal.

Margherita Pizza

Pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil is a simple and delicious dinner. When the pizza crust is made with sourdough it adds a lot of flavor to the pizza. I do not make pizza often but when I do it is truly loved. I did have a little crisis with the basil leaves. There is no basil in the garden yet so I have to rely on store bought basil. The week I made this pizza I checked 2-3 grocery stores and they were all out of basil. I used dried basil on the pizza.

You will need
Pizza dough made as per this recipe
Pizza sauce 
Mozzarella cheese sliced (I get lowfat cheese made with vegetarian rennet)
Fresh basil leaves

Prepare the pizza dough and keep it refrigerated at least 24 hours for the flavor to develop. Preheat oven to 500 F. If you have a pizza stone heat it with the oven. If you use a baking sheet like me put it in the oven when the temperature reaches 400 F. Ensure you place the sheet / stone in the top rack. When the oven is preheated and the baking sheet / stone is heated through take the dough out of the refrigerator and shape it. Follow instructions in my original sourdough pizza recipe. Make sure you shape the crust as thin as you can for a thin crust pizza.

When done shaping the dough remove the heated baking sheet. If working with a stone assemble the pizza on a floured pizza peel. Place the pizza carefully on the sheet / peel. The dough is sticky and will stick together if it folds on itself. Spread a ladle of pizza sauce. Place the sliced cheese and sprinkle the dried basil over the top.

Place the baking sheet in the oven. Alternately if using a baking stone slide the pizza from the peel to the stone. Bake for 5-8 minutes. Switch to oven from bake to broil. Let the top brown for 1-2 minutes. If using fresh basil add it before you broil. Do not let the cheese solid separate from the liquid. Remove from the oven and serve it hot.

Enjoy!

Salsa Verde Vegetable Lasagna / Pasta Bake

Under pressure from my daughter I bought tomatillos for salsa verde sauce. A couple of days later I realized I was not going to have time to make enchiladas. But I did not want the tomatillos to go to waste so I made the salsa verde sauce, put it in the refrigerator and bought myself another day. The next day I had to use it up. I happened to have colored bell peppers and zucchini in the refrigerator. I also had some left over paneer.  So I whipped up this lasagna with the ingredients I had.

The taste was great. All the vegetables made it filling too. The paneer added the protein and the salsa added the taste. Next time I make it I will make a thicker salsa. There was some liquid left over on the bottom. I like all the liquid to be completely absorbed. An alternative to this recipe would be using penne or a fusilli pasta instead of the lasagna.



My daughter was not happy when she saw me use up her favorite salsa for something other than enchiladas. But once she tasted the dish she was fine.

You will need
6-7 lasagna sheets or 1 cup dry pasta (penne or fusilli)
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 tsp red chilli pepper powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
4 oz. paneer, cubed
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow red pepper, sliced
2 zucchini, sliced in rounds
2 carrots, sliced in rounds
1 serving salsa verde sauce
1/4 cup cotijo or mozzarella cheese, shredded
salt to taste

In a bowl mix the yogurt, red chili pepper powder, black pepper and salt. Add the cubed paneer and keep aside for 15 minutes or a few hours. I kept this overnight because I had prepped the paneer for another dish.

Dice and slice the vegetables.

Put it all together. Preheat the oven to 375 F. In a oven proof casserole dish start building the layers. Heat some water and place it in a wide pan. Take it off heat. Place the lasagna noodle in the pan until it is just soft. Do not cook it. You just want it to be flexible so that it does not break. Ladle a little salsa on the bottom of the casserole dish. Place a few sheets of lasagna to cover the bottom. Add half the sliced vegetables.

Over the vegetables add the marinated paneer pieces. If desired you can add a layer of cheese. I added cheese only to the top. Pour half the remaining salsa over the paneer.

Place a layer of the softened lasagna sheets over the salsa.

Then repeat all the layers, the vegetables, the paneer and the remaining salsa. Shred the cheese over the top.

Cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes. Then uncover and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and is starting to brown,

Enjoy!

Savory Galette

Visual appeal and color contrasts make food appetizing. I am one of those people who eats with my eyes as much as with my mouth. I like colorful food and especially when the outdoors is full of color I like the food to match too.

This was the idea behind this colorful galette. A couple months back I posted a Tomato and goat cheese galette. It was delicious but I wanted to try one with vegetables. And so I carefully picked the vegetables to create a colorful palatte. By the time I was done everyone was waiting for dinner. I barely had time to click pictures before it was all gone.

This month is all about baked recipes and this week I will post main course recipes. Those that can be served as a meal.

You will need
For the pastry shell
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cold butter
~ 1/4 - 1/2 cup cold water
1 tbsp. Parmesan cheese
Black pepper to taste

For the filling
2 large carrots
2 zucchini
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 oz. goat cheese
2 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp fresh thyme
5-6 leaves basil
black pepper to taste
salt to taste
1 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

Follow the recipe for the pastry in the tomato and goat cheese galette.. Keep the rolled out pastry shell refrigerated. Meanwhile prepare the vegetables. Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut the zucchini and carrot in circles. Chop the red and yellow bell peppers. Spread all the vegetables on a baking sheet. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are browned but not fully cooked.

Let the vegetables cool. Change the temperature on the oven to 425 F. Then take the pastry shell out of the refrigerator. Place half the feta cheese in a layer on the shell. Place the vegetables in whatever order you like. I started with the zucchini.

Then the carrots.

Finally the bell peppers. Sprinkle the remaining feta over the top along with the parmesan cheese.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the galette is fully cooked and starting to brown. The vegetables should be cooked as well. Cool on a rack for a few minutes before digging in.

Slice like a pie to serve.

Enjoy!

Croissant

Croissants are made with a super enriched dough. This is one bread I wanted to try for a very long time but never felt like I was ready. It takes a long time to prep, took me 24 hours from time I fed the starter to the time they were baked and ready. The outer crust is crisp but the inner layers are soft. It is this sinful soft flaky goodness that made me want to try the croissants.

The bread dough is enriched using a lamination technique. A layer of butter is sandwiched in the layers of dough. The dough is rolled and folded over and over again. The resultant dough has very thin alternating layers of dough and butter. This process converts the bread dough into a flaky pastry dough.

Lamination, done right, results in a soft mesh on the inside of the croissant. While I was able to get some of that effect towards the ends of the croissant the middle is far from perfect. But given how rich the dough for this recipe is I will give it a few months before I attempt the croissant again.

I used the Tartine recipe from the book Tartine bread by Chad Roberston. I had heard from fellow artisan bakers that his formula results in a very flavorful croissant. I have to say the flavor of the bread was awesome. My daughter had it for breakfast over several days and the flavor did not diminish at all. For the exact recipe refer to the book. The recipe is heavy on butter but I rarely bake dishes that are rich. And I wanted to try to replicate the authentic recipe so I went all out. My daughter sure thought it was worth it. For about a 1000 gm of dry and wet ingredients I used about 200 gm of butter. Here is how I did it.

In a large mixing bowl put together all the wet ingredients - fed starter, the poolish and milk.

Add the dry ingredients - flour, yeast, salt and sugar.

Combine to form a soft dough. Stretch and fold over an hour and a half. Keep aside for the bulk fermentation for a few hours.

Using a pastry cutter combine the cold butter with the remaining flour. Until it has the consistency of the flour. Refrigerate.

Roll the dough on a floured working surface.

Place the chilled butter / flour slab over the dough.

Fold the dough over the butter on both sides.

You will have a long rectangle.

Roll it out into a long rectangle in the opposite direction as the folds.

Fold one side over the top.

Then fold the other side. Place it on a parchment paper in a baking sheet and refrigerate for an hour.

Take it out of the refrigerator and roll it out into a rectangle in a floured work surface.

Fold one side over the top.

Fold the other side.

Refrigerate overnight.

Transfer the dough to a floured working surface.

Roll it out thin to about a half inch. Cut into triangles as shown below.

Roll up the triangles starting from the wide end.

Repeat for all the triangles.

Let then rest for another two hours to almost double in size. Brush with cream and egg wash. I skipped the eggs and used just the cream.

Bake in a 425 F preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until brown and flaky.

Enjoy!