Sesame Seed Breadsticks

Welcoming, comfort-food cooking is what we all need right now. The new book from Joey Campanaro of Little Owl in New York, Big Love Cooking: 75 Recipes for Satisfying, Shareable Comfort Food, delivers just that. I recently received a review copy. He writes in the introduction: “There is nothing fragile or careful about these recipes. They are not a peck on the cheek. They are a warm embrace.” How timely is that? I was intrigued to see that Calvin Trillin had written the Foreward. I finally, after having the book for ages, actually read his The Tummy Trilogy earlier this year. Little Owl opened in 2006 half a block from Trilin’s home in Greenwich Village, and it was a dream come true for him. He sings the praises of the gravy meatball sliders and how despite Campanaro’s experience at fine dining restaurants he chose to put this dish served to him by his grandmother in South Philly on the menu. His mother and grandmother are two sources of inspiration for the Little Owl menu and for the recipes in this book. The chapters cover Brunch, Soups and Salads, Pasta, Meat and Poultry, Fish and Seafood, Sunday Supper, and Desserts. And, it’s not all strictly Italian-American food. You’ll find Cinnamon Sugar Beignets, Sesame Green Beans, and Citrus and Palm Hearts Salad among other chosen dishes. Campanaro didn’t want to be restricted to solely Italian-American fare at the restaurant, and the name of the business allows room to offer a broader array. The Baked Ricotta Crespelle caught my eye as soon as I opened the book. I can’t wait to attempt making the crepes and filling them. Next, I made the quick and easy Monday Baked Ziti, but since I didn’t have Sunday gravy handy I made a simple marinara for the sauce. And, the Sesame Seed Breadsticks looked irresistible. I had to try them next. 

One other book I want to mention today is Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It by Tom Philpott whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting here in Austin. I received a review copy of this book as well. This is a critical look at American agriculture and how reliant we are on California’s Central Valley and the Midwest. The vast majority of our vegetables, fruits, and nuts come from California where water sources and weather generally have a frighteningly uncertain future. The Midwest is now wall-to-wall monocrops of corn and soybeans with a variety of problems related to soil, seed sourcing, chemicals, federal policies, and demand for these crops. A large part of the harvests from Midwestern fields is fed to factory-farmed cattle and hogs, and the meat industry brings a plethora of its own problems to the mix. The book presents some grim realities but also ideas for positive changes in agriculture processes in both regions. And, one very actionable way forward is to start relying more on other regions of the country for food supply whenever possible. Buying from local and regional farms and ranches takes some burden off those over-worked areas of the country. I’m always happy to support our local food system however I can. For instance, for these breadsticks, I used locally-milled flour from Texas wheat growers. 

A few pages before this recipe in the book, there’s a recipe for the meatball slider buns. For that bread dough, roasted garlic is mashed and mixed into it. I loved that idea and added it to the breadsticks recipe. Mixing the dough and letting is rise is a straightforward process. Then, the dough was rolled into a large rectangle and transferred to a baking sheet. The breadsticks were cut from the rectangle and moved apart. The baking sheet was very full, and I think next time I might split the dough in half and use two sheets for more space to separate them. They were brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with sesame seeds before baking. And, they were as delicious as expected. We couldn’t stop eating them. I’m looking forward to cooking a lot more comforting foods during this holiday season. Wishing you all very happy holidays! 

Sesame Seed Breadsticks 

Reprinted from Big Love Cooking: 75 Recipes for Satisfying, Shareable Comfort Food by Joey Campanaro with permission by Chronicle Books, 2020 

The place to be for bread on Sundays in South Philly was Sarcone’s Bakery on South Ninth Street—a fifth-generation Italian bakery that is still as great today as when I was a kid. Our family’s Sunday supper table wasn’t complete without their sesame seed bread that my grandmother would pick up and tote home in a paper bag. If I was with her, that bread never made it home intact—it was just too good to resist eating off the heel (or more) before we’d reach the door. My mother would have some things to say about it that I can’t repeat. The slider bun recipe makes terrific Sarcone’s Bakery– inspired breadsticks, just eliminate the garlic and the second rise. 

Makes 18 Breadsticks 

1 Tbsp olive oil 

1 Tbsp molasses 

1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast 

2 1/4 cups [315 g] all-purpose flour 

1 tsp kosher salt 

1 egg white, beaten 

1/4 cup [35 g] toasted sesame seeds 

Prepare a large baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper. Brush the inside of a medium mixing bowl with olive oil and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine 1 cup [240 ml] of warm water, the olive oil, molasses, and yeast. Mix on low speed to incorporate. Slowly add the flour and salt and mix at low speed first, so that the flour doesn’t fly everywhere, then increase to medium speed, mixing until it comes together as a sticky dough mixture, 2 minutes. Transfer the dough ball to the prepared bowl and double wrap it all around like a tight package (so tight that you can bounce a quarter off the top) and set in a warm place or at room temperature until the dough is doubled in size and becomes soft and elastic, about 1 hour. 

Midway through the 1 hour rise, preheat the oven to 400°F [200°C]. Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out. Using a rolling pin, roll it out to a ¼ in [6 mm] thick rectangle or oblong shape roughly 9 in by 13 in [23 cm by 33 cm] in size. The beauty of an oblong shape is that the sticks on the end are shorter than the ones in the middle—a little something for everyone. 

Transfer to the prepared baking sheet and use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into about 18 breadsticks that are about the width of your pointer finger (just eyeball the width as best you can so that they bake evenly). Be sure to separate the sticks a bit so that they don’t stick together when they expand in the oven. Use a pastry brush or a flat rubber spatula to lightly brush the tops of the breadsticks with the egg wash and sprinkle the sesame seeds over them to coat them completely. Bake until golden brown and crispy, 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.

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Benne-Buttermilk Rolls

“I believe that both professional chefs and home cooks can move their cuisine forward by understanding the past and knowing where their food comes from. I hope that my experiences will move more people to research their heritage and find inspiration from the food and traditions they grew up with.” In a nutshell, that’s what Sean Brock’s new book Heritage is about, and I received a review copy. He finds inspiration in the foods from southwest Virginia where he was born as well as those from the South Carolina Lowcountry where he has lived and worked more recently. He writes: “Cook as if every day you were cooking for your grandmother. If your grandmother is still alive, cook with her as much as possible, and write everything down.” The book includes dishes from his restaurants, Husk and McCrady’s, as well as family favorites like some of his grandmother’s recipes. It offers an interesting spectrum from simple, comforting options like Chicken Simply Roasted in a Skillet to Grouper with Pan-Roasted and Pickled Butternut Squash, Nasturtium Jus, and Hazelnuts. But, regardless of the level of difficulty, each dish is part of a story about a local producer or a discovery in the garden or a traditional technique. I want to try the Grilled Chicken Wings with Burnt-Scallion Barbeque Sauce and the Husk BBQ Sauce that’s used to make it and the Cornmeal-Dusted Snapper with Bread-and-Butter Courgettes and Red Pepper Butter Sauce. There are also great-looking vegetable dishes like the Beet and Strawberry Salad with Sorrel and Rhubarb Vinaigrette as well as recipes for pickles, jams, and sauces. In the desserts chapter, the Buttermilk Pie with Cornmeal Crust keeps catching my eye. But, I couldn’t get through the chapter about grains without trying the Benne-Buttermilk Rolls. 

After reading Dan Barber’s The Third Plate, I was informed about what Glenn Roberts and his company Anson Mills are doing to preserve or rediscover heirloom grains. In Heritage, he’s mentioned regarding his work with the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation and his preservation of other antebellum crops. I previously knew that benne is another name for sesame seeds. What I didn’t know was that older varieties of West African benne have a slightly different flavor than our contemporary sesame seeds. I ordered some of these traditional benne seeds and two varieties of bread flour from Anson Mills for these rolls. The rolls are made with bread flour and all-purpose flour, and the Ble Marquis flour from Anson Mills is suggested for the all-purpose. That one is currently only available for wholesale purchases, so I ordered two different varieties of bread flour instead. I used a little of the red fife whole wheat bread flour in addition to white bread flour which is an “organic new crop 18th-century style heirloom wheat French Mediterranean, hand bolted” flour. To start, a paste was made with sugar, local honey, and salt. The bread flour and some all-purpose flour were added to the paste. Fresh yeast was called for in the recipe, but it isn’t easy to find here so I used active dried yeast instead. Two teaspoons of dried yeast was substituted for the quarter cup of fresh yeast. The yeast was mixed with buttermilk and added to the flour mixture. The dough was stirred together and then kneaded before being left to rise for an hour. It was punched down and folded and left to rise for an additional 45 minutes. Then, the rolls were formed and placed in a cast-iron skillet. I used a larger skillet than the nine-inch size suggest, so mine fit more than half the rolls. I baked the remaining rolls in a smaller baking dish. The rolls were left to rise for a couple of hours, and then were brushed with an egg wash and sprinkled with fleur de sel and benne seeds before baking. 

These little rolls were tender and nutty tasting, and they’re fun to pull apart from the skillet. The benne seeds taste like amped up sesame seeds. The flavor is more pronounced with a little bitterness that makes them get noticed. The flours added more subtle flavor of toasty wheat, and I look forward to baking more things with them. This book has been an inspiration to preserve, to keep traditions alive, and to maybe make a few jars of pickles before the fall vegetables disappear for the winter.

Benne-Buttermilk Rolls 
Excerpted with publisher's permission from Heritage by Sean Brock (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2014. 
Makes 44 rolls 

I could eat my weight in these tasty little rolls. We serve them every day at Husk. They are the first things that hit the table when guests arrive, so they have to be special. Bread should make everyone feel comfortable before a meal starts, whether it’s in a restaurant or at home. I like the food at Husk to tell a story, so we make these using Blé Marquis flour, which is a specialty wheat flour from Anson Mills. I want our guests to taste how older varieties of wheat pack so much more flavor. You can substitute all-purpose flour, if you must. A sprinkling of crunchy salt and benne seeds at the end makes the rolls irresistible. 

1/4 cup sugar 
1/4 cup local honey 
1 teaspoon kosher salt 
3 cups all-purpose bread flour 
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, preferably Ble Marquis flour 
1/4 cup crumbled fresh yeast 
2 cups whole-milk buttermilk 
1 large egg 
1 tablespoon water 
2 tablespoons Anson Mills Antebellum Benne Seeds 
Fleur de sel 

1. Make a paste with the sugar, honey, and salt in a large bowl. Add both the flours and stir them in with a wooden spoon. In a small bowl, mix the yeast with the buttermilk, then add this to the flour mixture all at once and stir in. 

2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead it until smooth, 5 to 6 minutes. 

3. Lightly spray a large bowl with a nonstick spray and place the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and put it in a warm place. Let the dough rise until it has doubled in size, about 1 hour. 

4. Remove the towel and gently punch the dough down. Cover the bowl again with the kitchen towel and let the dough rise again until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. 

5. Spray two round 9-inch cast-iron skillets with nonstick spray. Portion the dough into 1-ounce rolls: divide the dough in half and then in half again, and divide each portion into 11 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and carefully place 22 rolls in each pan; they should fit snugly. Cover the pans lightly with kitchen towels, put them in a warm place, and let the rolls rise until they have doubled in size, about 2 hours. 

6. About 20 minutes before the rolls have finished rising, preheat the oven to 400°F. 

7. Whisk together the egg and water to make an egg wash. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the tops of the rolls with the wash. Sprinkle the rolls with the benne seeds and lightly with fleur de sel. Bake the rolls for about 25 minutes, rotating the pans once halfway through. Test the rolls using a thermometer: the internal temperature should read 195°F. Cool the rolls in the pans on a rack. 

8. The rolls are best served as soon as they have cooled, but they can be kept covered in the pans for up to 1 day and reheated in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes. 

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Grilled Sesame-Ginger Asparagus and Portobello Salad

I’ve gotten used to and enjoy the surprise of what we receive from our CSA. There was a time when I dreaded one more bunch of greens, but now I look forward to using every last leaf when they’re in season. Another item that I previously found challenging to use was red cabbage. I prefer it raw rather than cooked, and I’ve finally amassed enough salad and slaw options that I love finding a dark purple head of it sitting our Farmhouse Delivery box. Lately, I’ve come to especially like Asian flavors mixed into a salad or slaw with red cabbage. I usually just wing it and start mixing ginger, garlic, lime juice, sesame oil, and a little vegetable oil for dressing the chopped cabbage. But, for this most recent salad, I turned to The Fresh and Green Table by Susie Middleton. I always find great ideas for all seasons in that book, and it has yet to disappoint. In the book, this salad is shown with grilled asparagus and portobello slices on top of a salad made with Napa cabbage and spinach. I switched it up by using red cabbage with spinach instead and loved the mix of dark purpley reds, several shades of green, the whites of the green onions, and the dark browns and blacks of the mushrooms. 

The marinade for the mushrooms was made first. Peanut oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, minced garlic, and minced ginger were whisked together. A few tablespoons of the dressing were set aside, and the rest was poured over the mushroom caps in a baking dish. They were left to marinate for about 30 minutes. Just before cooking, the asparagus spears were added to the baking dish and turned in the marinade. I used a grill pan inside to grill the vegetables, and the portobellos were sliced after coming off the grill pan. In a big mixing bowl, thinly sliced red cabbage, torn spinach leaves, some sliced green onions, and cilantro leaves were combined. The spinach and green onions were also from our CSA, and the cilantro was from my herb garden. To the bit of reserved marinade, lime juice and some soy sauce were added, and most of that was poured over the raw vegetables. It was tossed with the cabbage and spinach mixture before transferring the salad to a serving platter. The grilled asparagus was set on top followed by slices of the grilled portobellos. The remaining dressing was drizzled over top, and more cilantro leaves, sliced green onions, and sesame seeds were added for garnish. 

The flavors were as good as I knew they would be, and I loved that the mushrooms and asparagus made this a meal of a salad. There was a great mix of textures and temperatures between the crunchy, cool, raw vegetables at the base and the warm, grilled top layer. I’m not sure if we’ll see another head of red cabbage in our CSA box this season, but if we do, I’ll be delighted. 

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Sesame-Crusted Miso Salmon with Cilantro Sauce

This year’s wild salmon season is coming to an end, but you can still get freshly caught Coho salmon through September. I just received some from the Copper River/Prince William Sound Marketing Association. Coho, sometimes called Silver salmon, is slightly lighter in color than Sockeye, and its flavor is milder as well. I had an idea about using the Coho for an hors d’oeuvre, and combined two different recipes. First, I remembered a crusted salmon dish from Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook. In that recipe, salmon was cut into small chunks, and each piece was pressed into a mix of spices and then seared. The flavors were Moroccan, and there was a citrus dipping sauce made with yogurt. That sounded lovely, but I also had my eye on a salmon recipe from Power Foods. That one is a recipe for a main dish, but I was interested in the miso marinade and used it for small chunks of salmon rather than full servings. It's served with a cilantro, lime, ginger, and chile sauce. So for my version, I marinated chunks of salmon in a miso sauce and then pressed each chunk into a mix of black and white sesame seeds. The chunks were seared and then served with little picks for dipping into the cilantro sauce. They looked a lot like Martha’s spice-crusted hors d’oeuvre but had different flavors.

Step one was to make the marinade. A cup of white miso, a third of a cup of rice vinegar, a quarter cup of brown sugar, and a third cup of water were cooked in a saucepan just to dissolve the miso and brown sugar. Miso should not be brought to a boil. The mixture was left to cool to room temperature, and the salmon was skinned and cut into bite-size chunks. The salmon chunks were covered with the cooled marinade and then refrigerated for an hour. Next, the cilantro sauce was by pureeing cilantro, lime juice, shallot, jalapeno, garlic, fresh ginger, and vegetable oil. After an hour, the salmon chunks were removed from the marinade, excess marinade was shaken off each piece, and the pieces were pressed into a mix of black and white sesame seeds. I seared the pieces, seed side down, in a saute pan with a little oil, and then briefly flipped each piece to brown the miso marinade lingering on the top side. I served the salmon with a cocktail pick in each piece and the cilantro sauce on the side.

The cilantro sauce was a bright-tasting and lively match to the miso and sesame on the salmon. And, the miso marinade coated the salmon well to give each bite sweet-savory flavor and color from being caramelized in the pan. The little salmon chunks were hard to resist, but the marinated and seed-crusted idea would be just as good with full-sized fillets.

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Peanut Chile Bread

It had been months, actually almost two years, since I saw Dan Lepard’s Peanut Chile Bread, and it was high time I tried making it. But, every time I set out to make a bread with commercial yeast, my sourdough starter feels neglected, overlooked, like I’m cheating on it. I couldn’t have that. It had been too long since my starter and I had spent time together, so I took Dan’s recipe and combined it with the sourdough bread recipe that I use more than any other. That is the Norwich Sourdough that came from Susan at Wild Yeast. From Dan’s recipe, there are roasted, spicy, red chiles, cumin seeds, peanuts, chunky peanut butter, and tahini. I mixed all of those ingredients into the Norwich sourdough right after the autolyse, and it worked like a charm. I got to try this bread without breaking my starter’s heart. The result was sesame-crusted loaves with a rosy-hued crumb from the chiles. It was nutty and a little spicy and perfect with some olive oil for dipping.

I used fresno chiles, but whichever red chile you prefer is fine. They were roasted under the broiler and left to cool. Stems and seeds were removed, and the chiles were chopped. Tahini, peanut butter, cumin seeds, and salt were placed in a bowl, and hot water was poured over them. The chopped chiles were added along with some cold water and the peanuts. Since I was turning this into a sourdough, I used one-third of the total water for the recipe at this stage. The other two-thirds was used to begin the dough by combining it with starter, bread flour, and rye flour. That was mixed in a stand mixer with a dough hook for a few minutes and then left to sit for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, the chile and peanut butter mixture was added to the dough, and it was mixed until well incorporated. The dough was then left to rise in a wide bowl in which it could be turned without removing it to a work surface. The dough was turned at 50 minutes and then at 100 minutes while fermenting for a total of two and a half hours. After fermentation, the dough was turned onto a work surface and divided. It was allowed to rest before being shaped into long loaves. The loaves could have proofed at room temperature until ready to bake, but I proofed them partially at room temperature and then overnight in the refrigerator. The next morning, as the oven pre-heated, the loaves were brushed with water, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and slashed down the middle. They baked until golden and crisp-crusted.

This flavorful bread was great alongside a salad and with soup, but my favorite use of it was for spicy carrot sandwiches. Those sandwiches were mentioned in the March issue of Food and Wine. After toasting the bread, hummus was spread on it and then topped with grated carrots that had been briefly cooked with sliced garlic, crushed red pepper, and I used cumin seeds instead of caraway. A spoonful of Greek yogurt finished the sandwich. The nutty bread and spicy carrots made a great match.

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

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Breakfast Biscotti

Last week, I mentioned that I was baking for the Austin Bakes for Japan bake sale which was held on Saturday. As I wrote about that, I hoped there would be a good turnout, I hoped we’d have a lot to offer at each sale location, and I really hoped the fundraising would be a success. All of those things happened and exceeded our highest hopes. There were beautiful baked goods overflowing the tables at all five locations of the sale, and people kept coming to visit the sales, choose treats to take home with them, and leave behind donations. The positive response and generosity of the community were stunning. Kathryn was our leader of the efforts to organize this event, and all of her hard work resulted in the bake sale going perfectly. The other team leaders who helped with planning as well as overseeing bake sale locations were Carly, Rachelle, Shelley, and Stephanie. As of the end of Saturday, the fund raising total was over $11,400, and because the online giving page is still active, the total is now over $11,700. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this event and for all the wonderful generosity.

So, this being a bake sale, I had a perfect excuse to pull out some recipes and bake several things in a couple of days. Timing was an issue since I couldn’t bake everything at the very last minute, and that’s how I decided on biscotti for one item. They’re cookies that last well, so I baked them two days before the sale. I remembered there were several good biscotti versions in Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies, and that’s where I found this recipe. As with all the recipes in this book, this one included an upgrade option for tweaking the main ingredients. It’s a kind of healthy type of biscotti with whole wheat pastry flour, oats, walnuts, and dried fruit, and the upgrade was the addition of sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, hemp seeds, and flaxseed meal. There were also additionl tips and an overview of biscotti making. For instance, in the US we have adopted biscotti and made it our own. So while the traditional Italian biscotti or cantucci are very dry and crunchy and usually flavored with anise, our American biscotti are slightly cakey in comparison with lots of additional flavors.

This breakfast biscotti recipe is of the American style, and this was an easy cookie dough to prepare since everything was just whisked and then stirred together. All purpose flour was combined with whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, brown sugar and oats were mixed. Then, milk and butter were heated until the butter melted, and that was added to the oat mixture and left to stand for a few minutes. Eggs and vanilla were added followed by the flour mixture, and then I added toasted chopped walnuts, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, hemp seeds, and flaxseed meal. The dough was transferred to a silpat-lined baking sheet, and using wet hands, I formed it into a long, rectangular shape, not too wide. By using wet hands to shape the dough, it will become shiny as it bakes. I needed the biscotti to fit into the cellophane bags I had already bought, so I made the shape about four inches wide. The first baking was at 325 degrees F for about 35 minutes. The pan was removed from the oven and left to cool, and the oven was turned down to 300 degrees F. Once cool enough to handle, the baked dough was transferred to a cutting board and cut into half inch or so slices. The slices were set on a baking sheet, on their edges, and the second baking was for 25 minutes. I always worry biscotti might not be completely crunchy, so I moved the cookies around on the sheet and gave them five more minutes in the oven just to be sure.

My biscotti anxiety exists because I’ve tried a few recipes in the past that just didn’t work quite right, but there was no need to worry here since this came from Alice Medrich. Her tips such as using wet hands to shape the dough and standing the cookies on their edges for the second baking as well as the timing and ingredients all worked very well. The biscotti were deliciously crunchy and the nuts and seeds added to that effect. Since I packed them all up for the bake sale, I’m going to have to make another batch just to enjoy at home.

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Benne Seed Cookies

I didn’t know that bene means sesame in Gambia and Senegal. It’s spelled benne in the southeastern area of the US, and it’s pronounced ‘bennie.’ I learned those facts and several others from The Food, Folklore, and Art of Lowcountry Cooking by Joseph Dabney. I received a review copy of this book which describes the culinary, agricultural, hunting and gathering, and social traditions of the southeastern coastal plain region from South Carolina’s northern coast to Darien, Georgia also known as the Lowcountry. In addition to historical information, the book includes recipes for classic dishes like boiled peanuts and peanut soup, country captain with chicken and shrimp, Vidalia onion and tomato pie, and a few different versions of grits. In the benne seed chapter, it's explained that the seeds were brought to the US by African slaves during the colonial period and are now a legacy Lowcountry plant. Over time, the seeds came to be used in candies, cakes, cookies, breads, salads, and seafood dishes. The cookie recipe shown here is from Clementa “Ment” Florio from Charleston, and it was also featured in Southern Living magazine in 2005. The cookies are made from little, teaspoon-sized balls of dough packed with toasted sesame seeds. Because they’re so small, the recipe makes a lot of cookies, but their small size also makes them very snack-worthy.

To start, a half cup of sesame seeds were toasted in a dry skillet. Then, softened butter was mixed until creamy, and sugar was slowly added. The toasted sesame seeds, an egg, and vanilla were incorporated. In a separate bowl, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt were sifted together and then stirred into the butter mixture. The dough was chilled for an hour before being rolled into half-inch wide balls and placed on a baking sheet. The dough balls were flattened with a floured, flat-bottomed glass before baking for about ten minutes.

These simple butter cookies are light in texture with some crunch from the sesame seeds, and their innocent, little size makes you want to grab one after another. It’s nice to learn a bit about the history of a place while enjoying a time-honored recipe. In fact, I look forward to more of this style of learning with Carolina gold rice and a seafood stew.

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Sourdough Starter and Bread Adventure: 6 George’s Seeded Sour

It had been a month since I’d last used my starter. Is it weird that I’ve gotten to where I worry about it and whether or not it might be getting bored? To make sure it would have a lot of fun for this round of baking, I chose a bread that relies entirely on the starter for its leavening. No additional commercial yeast was added as it sometimes is with the other breads I’ve been baking. Once again from the Breads from the La Brea Bakery book, this seeded sourdough was named for the head baker who developed it. It’s a multigrain bread but isn’t dense or heavy, and it’s crusted on top with a combination of seeds. The use of quinoa, millet, and amaranth is what made me want to try this. It sounded like a delicious and healthy mix of grains, but I began this recipe, as I do all bread recipes, with uncertainty, fear, and hope.

This was a two-day preparation. At the end of day one, the dough was to rest for seven hours, so I planned for that refrigerated resting time to begin just before I went to bed. First, a sponge was made with starter, milk, whole-wheat flour, rye flour, and white bread flour. That was left for three hours. The sponge was then combined with quinoa, millet, amaranth, poppy seeds, and more bread flour. All of that was mixed in a stand mixer with a dough hook, and then sea salt was incorporated. The dough was a little sticky, as it was supposed to be, but it was easy enough to knead it on a floured surface. After kneading for a few minutes, it began its seven hour chilled resting time.

The next morning, the dough was removed from the refrigerator and allowed to come to room temperature. It was then cut into two pieces which were left to rest for 15 minutes. A combination of amaranth, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, anise seeds, and fennel seeds was spread on a baking sheet. Each piece of dough was to have been formed into a football shape. Yes, I know what a football ball is. However, I failed a little at this shaping step, and I’m going to blame this on the fact that I have no interest in the sport of football. Maybe in my mind, the shape of a football is a little longer and thinner than regulation size. The shaped or mis-shaped loaves were then spritzed with water from a water bottle and rolled in the seeds, and I had no problem with with that step. The seeded loaves then sat, top-side down, on a baking sheet topped with a floured cloth with some of the cloth pinched up between the loaves to keep them separated. They were covered with another floured cloth, and then all was slid into a plastic trash bag where they proofed for three to four hours. I really hoped this would be the only time these loaves would see the inside of a trash bag.

The usual oven technique was used again here. It was heated to 500 degrees F, spritzed with water, the loaves were removed from their trash bag shroud and slashed on top, they were slid onto a baking stone with a peel, and the oven was turned down to 450 degrees F. In the next five minutes, the oven was water spritzed two more times, and then the loaves were left to bake for 20 minutes. They had become well-browned on the bottom in that time, so I moved them up to a middle rack for the final 10 minutes of baking.

My finished bread was nicely burnished and well-crusted. As I mentioned, they were longer than a football and therefore not as tall as they might have been. I fretted for a couple of hours, with a complete lack of confidence that the inside would seem right, while they cooled. Then, finally, I picked up my bread knife and with a here goes nothing, I cut into a loaf and was pleasantly surprised. Just as the bread had been described in the recipe’s intro, it was lighter than most multigrains. The inside was moist with a fairly open texture. I tasted a slice and understood right away why Silverton raved about using this bread for a turkey sandwich. The flavor of the grains and the sourdough with the crunchy crust would make this a fantastic sandwich bread. I was so proud of my starter and what it had achieved, and I’m curious what wonders it will produce next.

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

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Sourdough Starter and Bread Adventure: 4 Sesame-Semolina Sandwich Rolls

I had an idea about a grilled salmon sandwich I wanted to make, and at the same time, I was itching to use my starter again. Lucky for me, these sandwich rolls appear in the Bread from the La Brea Bakery book so I could continue my adventures in baking with it. Silverton explains in the book that she loves the pale, yellow color of these rolls’ interiors, and that color comes from the durum wheat. The recipe calls for both semolina flour, which is made from durum wheat, and durum flour. The difference between the two is that semolina flour is usually of a coarser grind than durum flour, but that depends on where and how it was made. The semolina flour I found was finer in texture than cornmeal, and I didn’t find durum flour locally. I located some information online explaining that semolina flour can be processed in a food processor to make it finer, and then it can be used as durum flour. That’s what I did here.

This was a one-day bread, and the dough came together easily and was a nice one. Water, fresh yeast, white starter, bread flour, semolina flour, and (my version of) durum flour were first combined in the bowl of a stand mixer and mixed with a dough hook. Salt was added, and the dough was mixed until smooth and then kneaded by hand briefly. It was placed in a large bowl, covered with plastic wrap, and left to ferment for about two hours. At that point, it was divided into 12 pieces which were then covered with a towel and left to rest for 15 minutes. Then, the instructions got a little cloudy, but I think it all worked out ok. A process of flattening each piece of dough and then folding this way and that and sealing and folding again and sealing that seam and tucking in loose dough and ta-da. I would have loved some photos to follow for that, so I just did what seemed about right. In the end I had 12 roll-shaped items that were each about seven inches long.

The next step was pretty fun. Each roll was sprayed with water from a spray bottle and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Then each back side was dipped in a plate of water and then pressed into a plate of semolina flour. So, the rolls ended up topped with sesame seeds and crusted with semolina on the bottom. They were placed on a floured towel with the towel pinched up between each roll to keep them separated. They were then covered and left to snuggle for about one hour while the oven heated. The rolls were placed on a parchment lined baking sheet and each received a couple of slashes on top. The instructions for how to do those slashes also left me wanting a photo, so again, I did something that seemed like what was described. The oven was spritzed with water, and in went the rolls. The oven was spritzed two more times in the first five minutes of baking, and the total baking time was about 30 minutes.

I’d love to find out what I was really supposed to be doing with the folding and seam sealing to form the rolls and how that affects the outcome. If there are any expert sesame-semolina sandwich roll bakers out there, please advise. I’m not sure if the interior texture I achieved on these was exactly what it should have been, but I was happy with the result for a first attempt.

I’m submitting this to Yeastspotting where you’ll find some seriously well-made bread. The guest host this week is Zorra.


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