Rye Loaf with Currants

My memory is fuzzy on when I became a fan of Poilane. I remember seeing the shop in Paris on a TV show and immediately becoming enamored with the breads and the bakery’s process, but I don’t recall what show that was or when I saw it. I’ve read a lot about this famous bakery over the years, and I recently read more in Apollonia Poilane’s own words. I received a review copy of her new book, Poilane: The Secrets of the World-Famous Bread Bakery. She writes about her grandfather who opened the bakery in 1932 and began making the large sourdough loaves, how her father took the reins in the 1970s and expanded capacity by building La Manufacture Poilane outside of Paris, and the tragic loss of both of her parents in 2002 when she found herself in charge of the business. At the age of eighteen, she was running Poilane while attending college at Harvard. The book explains the changes the bakery has made from one generation to the next and the things that have never changed. The starter is maintained the same way it always has been, the bakers know by feel when the dough is mixed correctly and when it has risen enough, and the ovens are wood-fired as they always have been. The book includes all the information for creating and maintaining a starter just as they do and for baking sourdough loaves, and there are lots of other recipes too. There are other breads like the Black Pepper Pain de Mie and the Rye Loaf with Currants shown here. There are recipes for using bread including one for toast. Of course, Apollonia Poilane has a preferred way of making toast! And, she shares it. She pairs two pieces of bread and toasts them in one toaster slot so one side stays untoasted for texture variation. There are also croissants and brioche and jams for topping them all. One chapter is for main dishes that include bread or croutons or breadcrumbs, and the Savory Pain Perdu topped with chopped tomatoes looks like a great summer lunch. It was interesting to learn more about the Punitions. Those are the little butter cookies left in baskets for customers to nibble while waiting and are also sold by the box. In the bakery, they range in color from just golden to darker brown so each person can choose his/her preference. A generous, fellow food blogger once sent me a box of these cookies from Poilane as a gift. In the box, they were all light golden, and I didn’t know they’re usually intentionally baked to varying degrees of doneness. The recipes also include tarts, quick breads, crepes, and even an oat milk used in a rice pudding that I have to try. But first, let’s get back to the Rye Loaf with Currants. 

This loaf is made with some sourdough starter in addition to commercial yeast. The publisher was not able to provide the recipe and instructions for the sourdough starter, but I can tell you that my starter that I’ve used for ages and maintain at 100% hydration worked fine here. To begin, the currants were soaked in hot water before being strained while reserving that soaking liquid. The starter was mixed with rye flour, and I was fortunate to get some locally-milled rye flour from Barton Springs Mill. Yeast was added, and some of the currant soaking liquid was mixed in a separate bowl with salt before it was added to the flour mixture. The dough was shaped into a ball and left to rest before being shaped again and left to rise. After rising, it went into a loaf pan to proof for about two hours. Just before baking, the top of the loaf was brushed with the remaining currant soaking liquid. 

This is a delightfully easy bread to make once the timing is planned. The slices are delicious toasted and topped with butter, and all those currants make it taste like a sweet treat. I was surprised to read that Apollonia became interested in cornbread while living in the US and went on to develop a Corn-Flour Bread with hazelnuts that’s gluten-free and vegan with corn sourced from the Basque region. I’m looking forward to trying a Texas version of this with local cornmeal and pecans. I think she’d approve. 

Rye Loaf with Currants 
Recipe excerpted from Poilane Copyright 2019 by Apollonia Poilane. Photography Copyright 2019 by Philippe Vaures Santamaria. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved. 

Makes one 9-by-5-inch (23-by-13-cM) loaf 

My father regularly ran home from the bakery before we went to school to drop off a small version of this loaf for our morning snack. He would cut it in half, add a generous pat of butter, and pack it for us to enjoy in his car. Today I still love to have a few slices—buttered or not—for breakfast or as a midmorning treat. We make this in metal loaf pans, but you can also shape it freeform. 

1 1/2 cups (240 g) dried currants 
2 1/2 cups (595 ml) hot water 
230 g (1 1/4 cups) starter  
435 g (3 cups plus 2 tablespoons) rye flour 
3/4 teaspoon (2 g) active dry yeast 
1 1/2 teaspoons (9 g) fine sea salt 
Neutral oil, such as canola or sunflower seed, for the pan 

Put the currants in a medium bowl, add the hot water, and let soak for 10 minutes. 

Set a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl and drain the currants; reserve the soaking liquid. Pat the currants dry with a paper towel and reserve. 

Put the starter in a large bowl. Add the rye flour and yeast. In a small bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups (355 ml) of the reserved soaking liquid (save the rest for brushing the loaf) and the salt, stir to dissolve the salt, and add to the flour mixture, along with the currants. With wet hands, mix and knead the dough in the bowl until it comes together in a smooth, homogeneous mass. Transfer the dough to a work surface and shape into a ball. Return it to the bowl and let rest for 15 minutes. 

Reshape the dough into a round, return to the bowl, cover with a cloth, and let rise for 1 1/2 hours. Brush a 9-by-5-inch (23-by-13-cm)pan with oil. Turn the dough out and, using wet hands to prevent sticking, shape it into a 9-by-4-inch (23-by-10-cm) log. Transfer to the oiled pan. 

Brush a piece of plastic wrap with oil, drape it over the loaf, and let it rise in a warm (72°F to 77°F/22°C to 25°C), draft-free place until it rises about 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) above the sides of the pan, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. 

Meanwhile, about 25 minutes before baking, position a rack in the lower third and preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). 

Use a pastry brush to brush the top of the loaf with the reserved currant-soaking liquid. Bake until the loaf is golden and firm, 45 to 50 minutes; if you carefully remove it from the pan, it should feel hollow when you knock on it. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 1 hour. 

Remove the loaf from the pan, return to the rack, and let cool completely before slicing. Stored in a paper bag or wrapped in linen at room temperature, the loaf will keep for up to 1 week. 

NOTE: As with our sourdough, you will either need to have the starter on hand or plan ahead to make it, which takes a couple of days.

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Three-Cheese Rye Biscuits

The new book Huckleberry, from the Bakery and Cafe in Santa Monica of the same name, by Zoe Nathan is easy for me to like. As I read my review copy, page after page held something I wanted to try baking, flavors I wanted to taste, and breakfasts I knew would be delicious. I’m easily entertained by the thought of baking lots of different types of breakfast treats, but seriously, I wanted to grab the mixing bowls and bake every single muffin recipe in the first chapter. It starts with Cooca Nib Muffins with Dark Chocolate Glaze and goes on to include Lemon Cornmeal Muffins with Lemon Glaze, Gluten-Free Vegan Banana Chocolate Muffins, Fig-Brown Sugar Muffins, and more. It’s not just the baked goods and breakfast dishes in the book that appealed to me either. There’s also a nice mix of various flours and whole grains that appear in several recipes. But, those wholesome, whole grains aren’t there just to be healthy ingredients. They’re added for flavor and texture, and there’s no lack of decadence in these recipes. There are Brown Rice Quinoa Pancakes, Multigrain Pancakes, and Ricotta Griddlecakes. Then, there are chapters for Sandwiches, Hearty plates with an Egg on Top, and Coffee and Other Beverages. In deciding where to start, I put my sweet tooth on hold for just a moment while I mixed up the Three-Cheese Rye Biscuits. Despite the rye flour and whole wheat flour, these are anything but a health-food kind of biscuit. They’re buttery and tender with cream cheese and grated cheddar and parmesan. 

Step one was to combine the dry ingredients which include rye flour, all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt, black pepper, and cayenne. Next, cold pieces of butter were worked into the flours followed by cream cheese that was worked in in the same way. Then, the grated cheddar and parmesan were added with buttermilk. The dough was transferred to a work surface and briefly kneaded to bring it together. To form the biscuits, an ice cream scoop was used. After scooping each biscuit onto a baking sheet, I flattened them a little to prevent domed tops. The sheets pans with biscuits were placed in the freezer for a couple of hours before baking. I only baked half of them at first since, once frozen, the raw biscuits can remain in the freezer for up to a month. They went straight from the freezer to the oven with a quick stop for an application of an egg wash and a sprinkling of fleur de sel. 

If someone offered me a whole grain rye biscuit, this is not what I would expect to receive. These biscuits were as indulgent as any I’ve tasted previously. The cheeses and crunchy salt sprinkled on top add savory flavor. They were perfect with a vegetable scramble for brunch. Some breakfast or brunch dishes in our not-too-distant future will probably include Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Parmesan and Eggs, Vegetarian Croque, Lentils with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Sunny-Side-Up Eggs, and lots of muffins. I think I need to get back to the kitchen now. 

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Radish Rye Flatbread

I grew up in Illinois, the very center of the Midwest US, where we used to say that every recipe had a can of soup in it. Yes, despite being the agricultural mecca of the country, the Midwest was known as a land of casseroles more so than one of fresh, fabulous food, but all of that might have changed in the last few years. I received a review copy of the new book Heartland the Cookbook and learned of several new things about the food scene there. The number of artisan food purveyors has drastically increased. There's now La Quercia in Iowa which makes prosciutto from heritage Berkshire pigs, foraged foods are showing up on high-end restaurant menus, microbreweries and microdistilleries are making small batch products, and Prairie Fruits Farm in Champaign, Illinois and other small dairies are making chevre. Years ago, I attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and I don't recall any local cheese purveyors in town back then. I was thrilled to read about this change and the growing focus on local foods. I also learned that the Midwest now has thirty-three Slow Food chapters making it second only to the California Oregon Washington region. In addition to delivering all of that great news, the book is also full of beautiful photos of rural landscapes and, of course, food.

The recipes include breakfast dishes, breads, nibbles and drinks, salads and soups, main courses, and desserts. Several of the dishes recommend locally made items like that chevre from Champaign, Illinois or Chicago-made Vosges chocolate that's used in a hot fudge sundae with salted caramel sauce. I haven't made it back to the Midwest for a visit lately, so instead of using specific products from there, I cooked with the spirit of the book by using what I could get locally in Austin. There's a recipe for four seasons flatbread which showcases seasonal items in different toppings. The flatbreads themselves are made from no-knead recipes also in the book. I chose the no-knead sour caraway rye dough topped with a fresh herb cheese, sliced radishes, and chives. I used a feta, spinach, and herb spread made by Full Quiver Farm, and I found pretty, Easter egg radishes, and some green garlic which I added to the toppings, at the farmers' market last weekend. The no-knead dough was as simple as dough gets. Bread flour, rye flour, instant yeast, salt, cocoa powder for color, caraway seeds, molasses, yogurt, and water were mixed in a large bowl. Since there's no kneading, you do need to mix thoroughly with a spoon, but then the dough just sits to rise for a couple of hours and that's it. The dough was patted into an oval on a baking sheet, and it baked until browned and crisp on the surface. Once cool, the cheese was spread on top, and it was covered with sliced radishes and green garlic and chopped chives.

Fresh, early spring flavors of radish and green garlic and a thin layer of rich cheese were complemented nicely by the rye flatbread with caraway, cocoa, and molasses. As soon as local heirloom tomatoes appear, I'll use them for the flatbread version made with clover honey dough. The other recipes I'm looking forward to trying are prairie panzanella made with cornbread, an heirloom bean ragout in an acorn squash, and the next time we use the grill, I'm making the smoked goat cheese. Mostly, I'm looking forward to my next visit to the Midwest where I'll be seeking out some of the food artisans I learned about in the book.

I’m submitting this to Yeastspotting where you’ll find some seriously well-made bread.

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Norwich Sourdough

I had a disappointing bread experience a couple of weeks ago, and that’s not the bread I’m showing here today. That particular bread was the result of a time-consuming, all-day kind of baking project even though it wasn’t a sourdough bread. It required several folds and turns of the dough, and a nice, long proofing time. It did have a delicious, if tedious to prepare, filling of whole garlic cloves and balsamic syrup. Three heads worth of garlic were separated into cloves, boiled, and peeled, and then the garlic simmered in thick balsamic syrup. That syrup and the garlic were layered into the dough before the final folds. The bread smelled amazing as it baked. And, after all of that, it tasted, well, just alright. The crumb wasn’t what I’d hoped it would be, and while the flavor of the garlic was great, that of the bread itself wasn’t. That left me wanting to bake a really, really good loaf of bread, and that’s when I found this one on the Wild Yeast blog. Susan said this continues to be her favorite sourdough, and now I know why. There was of course some time involved in making it, but that was mostly fermenting or proofing, waiting, time. The active steps were actually very straightforward and quick compared to other sourdough bread recipes I’ve made. Outside, this bread was golden and crisp with a good, deep, crust taste, and inside, the crumb was flecked with color from rye flour, nicely chewy, and flavorful from the sourdough. Yes, this was a bread that was worth the wait.

The dough was made with only white starter, no commercial yeast, and I used bread flour and rye flour. The flours, starter, and water were mixed and left to rest before salt was added and the dough was mixed again. Then, it was transferred to a wide, oiled bowl. A wide bowl is a good choice so that the dough can be folded without removing it. The dough fermented for two and a half hours and was folded at 50 and 100 minutes, and this was so easy. Leaving the dough in a wide bowl and just coming back to fold twice was a breeze. After the two and a half hours, the dough was divided into four parts which were shaped into balls and left to rest for 15 minutes. Batard loaves were formed from the balls, and they were covered with plastic. The loaves could have spent the night in the refrigerator, but I left them at room temperature for a couple of hours and then baked them. I baked the loaves on a stone and sprayed water to produce steam during the first twelve minutes of baking time. Then, for the last five minutes, they baked with the oven door propped open, and last, the oven was turned off while the loaves sat in it for five more minutes. I love the crackling sounds you hear when the loaves have just come out of the oven. They sat on a cooling rack and made their noises, and I waited not so patiently to have a taste.

The crust was the deep, brown color that it was supposed to be, but I thought the surface was a little smooth. There’s a note in the recipe stating that if the formed loaves were refrigerated before being baked, the crust would be more blistered. I would have liked that, so I’ll plan for it next time. There will definitely be a next time. I timed it so the bread came out of the oven and cooled just before dinner. As dinner was being prepped, we cut into a loaf and dipped a few slices into seasoned olive oil. Then, we cut a few more slices. This delicious bread could easily become our favorite too. I’ve already almost forgotten that other experience, but I won’t rule out the possibility of one day layering some cooked garlic and balsamic syrup into this sourdough recipe.

I’m submitting this to Yeastspotting where you’ll find some seriously well-made bread.

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