Rosemary Bread (B&P40)

The beauty of a biga is the rich slightly fermented flavor they give a loaf of bread. The depth of flavor is intensely satisfying when you eat these loaves. The first time I made this loaf, I didn't allow the biga to mature to the full 18 hours. Instead I stopped it about 8 hours, because I really needed a loaf of bread for my dinner party.

The resulting bread looked and tasted good, but that extra something was missing. So, I made it again and allowed the biga to ferment for 24 hours. Wow! The biga had a heady wine-like aroma and gave the bread that little extra boost it needed.

I made an Italian style dinner for my guests and everyone loved the bread. It doesn't need anything extra to go with it, maybe some butter. However, it's simply wonderful to eat all on it's own.

Enjoy!

Recipe

Protein Content
Original: 40.3 g
Gluten Free: 39.72 g

Biga

10 g brown rice flour (0.9 g)
10 g sweet rice flour (0.6 g)
10 g arrowroot starch (0.03 g)
15 g white bean flour (3.225 g)
12 g almond meal (2.4 g)
1 g instant dry yeast
32 ml water (120 - 130 degrees F/48 - 54 degrees C)
10 ml agave syrup

Final Dough

50 g brown rice flour (4.5 g)
40 g sweet rice flour (2.4 g)
40 g arrowroot starch (0.12 g)
60 g almond meal (12 g)
63 g white bean flour (13.545 g)
12 g instant dry yeast
6 g chia seed meal
4 g agar agar powder
5 g sea salt
2 g rosemary, coarsely chopped
9 g olive oil
24 ml milk or alternative milk
132 ml water (120 - 130 degrees F/48 - 54 degrees C)
15 ml agave syrup

Biga Directions

In a medium sized bowl, combine the flours, water, agave syrup and yeast. Mix together, making sure the mixture is smooth. Cover the mixture or transfer to a container and allow to ferment at 75 degrees F/24 degrees C for 18 to 24 hours.  When the biga is ready to use, it will have risen and receded, yet also look bubbly.

Final Dough Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients with the exception of the salt and yeast.  Hold the salt out, so it can be added later in the mixing.  Place the yeast into a small container, add the water and a little bit of the agave syrup. Stir to ensure the water mixes through the yeast.  Allow the yeast to proof for 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Add the yeast mixture, biga, the rest of the agave syrup and blend together. Just before the dough comes together, sprinkle in the salt and then continue blending until a soft ball forms. Note: This dough should be a little wetter or looser than other types of doughs.

3. Since this dough is looser, I made a foil frame so the bread would turn out the right shape. Take a long strip of aluminum foil and fold it lengthwise until it is 2 inches/5 cm wide. Fold up 1/2 inch/1.3cm from one long edge, but don't make a hard crease in the foil.  Ease the foil around until the ends over lap and can rest one inside the other. Work the corners until the fold lays flat and you have a rounded edge rectangle. Let the sides ease out rather than be straight up and down. (See the picture above.)  Gently line this frame with parchment paper, so you can reuse the frame for the ciabatta (the next B&P recipe).

4. Place the dough in the center of a sheet of parchment paper that has been sprinkled with arrowroot starch. Gently pat the dough out into the frame, but don't press it into the sides or corners. The loaf should still have rounded sides. Take a sharp knife to one corner of the dough and score from that corner to each of the other 3 corners (see the photograph at the top of the post). Slide the frame onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet and place in a warm location to rise for 2 hours.

4. Place an oven proof bowl filled with water on the bottom shelf of the oven. Then place a baking stone on the top shelf. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F/232 degrees C. Place the loaf in the oven and spray water over the oven box and the top of the loaf. Bake the loaf for 20 minutes. Prop the oven door open and continue to cook the bread for another 10 minutes. Remove the loaf and allow it to cool before serving.


What's Going On?

I was a very lucky woman and received a copy of the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book along with their DVD's from my family for my birthday. After watching all the DVDs, I decided to work my way through the CIA's Baking and Pastry book - of course making it gluten free. There were so many skills that I wanted to develop and work on. I hope you will be interested in sharing my journey with me.


Want more?

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Other Baking & Pastry Project Posts

Baking & Pastry Week 20 - More Bigas
Baking & Pastry #39 - Cracked Rice & Potato Bread (Biga)
Baking & Pastry #38 - Almond & White Bean Batard (Biga)
Baking & Pastry Week 19 -  Bigas
Baking & Pastry #37 - Roasted Potato Basil Loaf (Poolish)
Baking & Pastry #36 - Almond & White Bead Epi Wreath (Poolish)
Baking & Pastry Week 18 - Poolishes

Rosemary Quinoa Black Bean Rolls (B&P-4)

Baking & Pastry Project #4 - Rosemary Quinoa Black Bean Rolls

My second challenge this week is the recipe for Durum Rosemary Dough (page 132) for the Baking & Pastry Project using the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book.

The beauty of baking gluten free is the infinite variety of options when it comes to selecting flours. Each one is unique in nutrition, flavor and texture. When I figure out which flours will work for the recipe, I make up little bowls the chosen mixture and start taste testing. For example, when I selected quinoa and black bean flour the flavor was strong and a little too much for the rosemary. I experimented with adding more rosemary or a touch of agave syrup and found that the sweetener was the perfect choice to mellow the mixture.

It is a high protein bread that calls for durum wheat flour that has 13 percent protein for 100 grams of flour, as compared to 12 percent protein for bread flour. This recipe contains both types of flour, the first series of gluten free flours are to replace the durum flour and the second set (after the line) are to replace the bread flour.

The protein amounts of each flour follow in parenthesis. The total amount of protein for the original durum rosemary bread was 33.02 grams (per 100 g flour) as compared to 33.41 grams of gluten free flour (per 100 g flour).

This bread has a great crust and holds together very well when you bite into it. The flavors blended together beautifully. It's great warm from the oven with a pat of butter, but it's also nice with a chunk of aged gouda. My daughter wouldn't give it a try, but her brother thought it was quite tasty. He decided to have it along with some left overs...pizza and chinese. This from the guy who believes there is really only one flavor of ice cream worth eating - vanilla. Go figure.


Recipe
Yield: 6 rolls

50 g brown rice flour (5.3 g)
40 g sweet rice flour (8.24 g)
48 g arrowroot starch (7.2 g)
50 g black bean flour (4 g)
-----
54 g quinoa flour (8.64 g)
12 g arrowroot starch (.03 g)
5 g instant dry yeast
5 g sea salt
2 g agar agar powder
5 g chia seed meal
1 g fresh rosemary, minced
5 ml agave syrup
180 - 200 ml water


1. In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients and stir making sure the ingredients are thoroughly blended. Pour in the agave syrup and the water mixing until combined.


2. On a sheet of parchment paper sprinkle some sweet rice flour and turn out the bread dough. Roll into a log shape and divide into 6 equal pieces. Then roll them gently between your palms to around them and place on the parchment paper. When all the rolls are shaped, take a sharp knife and score the center of each roll with a straight line. Cover the rolls and allow to rise until doubled, approximately 1 hour.


3. Preheat the oven to 460 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have a baking stone, place it in the oven at the same time on a shelf in the top third of the oven. Gather an oven proof bowl that can hold water, a stone or brick, and a squirt bottle filled with water for steaming your bread. Allow the stone or brick to warm in the oven.


4. Remove the stone or brick from the oven and slide the parchment paper with the rolls onto the baking stone. Place the water bowl on a shelf in the bottom third of the oven. Then place the brick or stone into the pan of water. Squirt the sides of the oven with water and the top of the bread. Bake for 3 minutes then squirt the sides of the oven and top of bread with water. Then continue to bake for another 17 minutes. Prop open the door of the oven and allow the bread to cook for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven, then let the bread cool about 1 ½ hours before cutting.



Notes:

1. All ingredients can be purchased from Barry Farm.

2. Kitchen tools or pans can be purchased from Amazon.com, Fantes, Sur La Table, and Williams Sonoma.



Other Baking & Pastry Project Posts:


Baking & Pastry Project #3 - Whole Grain Bread
Baking & Pastry Project - Week 2
Baking & Pastry Project #2 - Bagels
Baking & Pastry Project #1 - Lean White Bread
Baking & Pastry Project - Week 1

Sweet Potatoes With Onions & Rosemary

The humble sweet potato is a staple food at my house. They have many wonderful culinary uses, such as in bread, custard, pie, and as a vegetable. One of our favorite varieties, the Red Garnet, has a mellow sweetness when you eat it. Best of all, sweet potatoes are gluten-free.

I know, I know, it's a vegetable...but I still get a kick out of saying it. On certain days, I find that it's important to remember all the things I can eat, rather than focusing on the things I can't. It helps to remember these things when you begin to feel that shopping for food has become a gluten war zone. I start imagining that space ships are zooming through the air shooting gluten globules at my van trying to stop me keep me from goal of finding gluten-free food.

The holidays are particularly bad for creating this effect on me. For both my husband and myself our family tradition was for holiday meals to be a special family celebration. With the Easter holiday coming up, I've been thinking about menus that we can have and these thoughts were on my mind while we were in Virginia last week. Since we moved to New York a few years ago, living here has created an expectation that there will be a certain amount of gluten-free food available for the Jewish holiday, Passover. I thought of this while I was shopping with the kids in McLean and I saw a bakery with a sign out front stating that they had all the Passover bakery items that you need. Wow, could it mean that they would have gluten-free Passover foods? My kids and I decided to take the chance and scope out their food. When we didn't find anything, so I asked the young lady behind the counter if they had anything that was wheat or gluten-free. She looked at me rather confused and asked me, "What's that?" I guess they don't do anything gluten-free for Passover.

Which brings me back to my dusty pile of Red Garnet sweet potatoes and I remember they are gluten-free. They are versatile, nourishing and healthy. The tuber will yield a scrumptious sweetness that feeds my southern soul and make me forget the world of gluten.

Recipe

1 lb Red Garnet Sweet Potatoes, quartered
6 Tb Olive Oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
½ yellow onion, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon dried rosemary

Preheat oven to 425 deg. F. Pour olive oil into an oven proof baking dish (6 x 10). Then add the sweet potatoes, onions and sprinkle the spices over the top. Using your hands evenly coat the vegetables in the spices and olive oil. Place into the oven to roast for 1 hour. Stir every 15 minutes to ensure even browning. Serves 6.

My children would have preferred to have me leave the rosemary off the sweet potatoes, but my husband and I loved this recipe. It's a keeper.