Author: jeff

Marco’s Heirloom Tomato Bruschetta (and, how to hear about new recipes on Twitter)

jeff 4 Comments

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Years ago, my friend Marco (from Livorno in Italy) made my family a beautiful and simple dinner of buttered pasta with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and this gorgeous bruschetta with fresh tomato.  The cheese was brought from his mother’s kitchen in Livorno, but the fruit were perfect locally grown heirloom tomatoes.  Someone recently gave my wife and me some heirloom Brandywine tomatoes, vine-ripened, and we thought of Marco.  This dish is really just tomatoes on toast, but it manages to approach the sublime — that’s why it went into our book.  To hear about new recipes when they’re posted here, follow me on Twitter if you’re already signed up, or join Twitter today.  For more about our bruschetta recipe, from page 49, read on… Read More

The world’s freshest watercress for savory watercress flatbread

jeff 9 Comments

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I picked the world’s freshest watercress from a chilly Minnesota river last week, and baked it into fantastic savory flatbread, all out in the wild (everything tastes better outdoors).  This camping-trip method blends two favorite techniques from our book:  rolling in something that wasn’t originally mixed in the dough, like our raisin challah on page 183, and baking in a skillet on the stovetop (like our naan on page 173).  Read More

Door County Sour Cherry Preserves for Brioche

jeff 14 Comments

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Yes, I did bake some brioche on the outdoor gas grill, and it works quite well, but more on that in a minute.  My family just got back from Door County, Wisconsin, home of the famous Montmorency sour cherry.  It has an indescribable, almost spicy flavor that can be perfectly heightened by adding sugar in jams and sauces (they’re not for eating out of hand).  For jams, you’re pretty limited to a sweet version (for canning safety), and that’s what’s pictured above.  It’s what we gave you in the book (page 335 of Artisan Bread in Five).  When my family goes to the Door peninsula, we make a bunch of different versions, some that we can and store; but some that we just eat immediately.  This time around, we put the cherry preserve on top of luscious brioche (yes, done on the grill).  Then we gilded the lily with a little fresh whipped cream:

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We ate very, very well, and everyone was in a good mood–no one was voted off the peninsula.  Cherries and brioche didn’t hurt–  Read More

Contest and Giveaway Rules (don’t post your entry here!)

jeff

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From time to time we run giveaways here on the website.  Sometimes it’s one of our books or baking equipment, other times, it’s been ingredients.  We randomly select from entrants who respond to the post using the Comments field in the post where the contest announcement appeared (don’t post your entry anywhere else or we won’t see it).  Here are contest rules:

  1. We will only ship to U.S. addresses in the 50 states.  If you’re a winner, you must respond to our e-mail within 24 hours to win (winners will not be notified by surface mail).
  2. You must type  your “Comment” entry under the post announcing the contest.
  3. Only one entry in any single contest is allowed. If you post more than one comment on the contest post, you will be disqualified.  But you can enter in any or all of our contests over time.
  4. If selected, you will be notified electronically. You must respond electronically, with a U.S. mailing address, within 24 hours to claim your prize, otherwise we’ll repeat the drawing for an alternative winner.

Good luck!

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Rustic Fruit Tart On The Gas Grill (from brioche dough!)

jeff 19 Comments

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A fruit pizza: The fruit sat on top of our basic non-enriched white dough (Master Recipe in the book, page 25), but I’ve been wondering whether we could get away with using brioche dough on a stone placed in the gas grill.  I wasn’t so sure, because brioche dough is a bit finicky and prone to scorching or drying if the temperature isn’t quite right or the heat isn’t quite even.  So today’s recipe is very similar to the fruit pizza, but it’s made with rich brioche dough (page 300 in the book or here on the website), and it’s folded into a rustic tart.

For me, it’s the Holy Grail:  the entire meal done outside in the summer, including a delicious dessert.  It works beautifully, so long as you have a gas grill with a reasonably controllable heat source.  If you do, you can bake brioche dough outside, at least when it’s rolled out for tarts and other thin creations.  Read More

Smoked salmon on pumpernickel on the lawn

jeff 26 Comments

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I admit it, I’m becoming obsessed with outdoor dining.  We’re at the perfect summer moment up here Minnesota– not too buggy, and perfect temperature for dining al fresco.  So I’ve been doing everything on the grill.  The pizzas and flatbreads are no surprise, but the loaf breads are more challenging.  I did a pumpernickel on the gas grill and topped thin slices with butter, smoked salmon, fresh dill, and capers.  But you need to know the new twist for trapping steam to crisp the crust, which usually doesn’t work well on the well-ventilated gas grill. Read More

Garlic-parsley roll for one!

jeff 15 Comments

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I’m pretty lucky about lunch.  My wife and I both work at home, and most days, we have lunch together.  Not yesterday; I was on my own, so there was no need for a whole loaf of bread.  I took a cue from Zoe’s mom and made myself a single roll (it’s basically still winter here in Minnesota so it’s not so bad to turn on the oven.  I’m afraid I’m not kidding).

I took a peach-sized chunk of four-day old Light Whole Wheat dough (page 74), and stretched it, knotted it, and shaped it a bit (a round lump would have worked well too).  It turned out more like a Kaiser roll than I’d intended, and I can’t say it was intentional.  More about what I did for shaping in Book #2 (for which we’re busily writing/testing/eating!).  But it was the roll’s toppings that made my leftovers special (see the roasted salmon with red onion compote just north of the roll).  The topping was simple but it elevated the bread to a different level—nothing more than garlic and parsley sauted in olive-oil, with the whole mixture drizzled over the roll before baking for about 25 minutes at 450 (with steam; see page 30).  When there’s a lot of oil or butter in the picture (like here), don’t bake directly on a stone or the fat will smoke– use a greased cookie sheet or silicone pad.  After the roll was drizzled, I sprinked a bit of coarse salt all over the roll, which you can see in the picture.  Salt can be a pretty photogenic mineral.

Master Recipe for White-Flour dough: Great coverage in “The Week” Magazine, but there was one little problem…

jeff 192 Comments

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My book had great coverage in “The Week” magazine on April 18, 2008 (page 30 in the paper version).  But their version of the recipe has you throwing in 4 cups of water, rather than the correct 3 cups (see the fine print on the right, above).  Please use 3 cups, or you’ll have pancake batter!  The correct version of the basic recipe from The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day can be found here (click to view).

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