Pita Bread

2 1/2 cups bread flour, plus more for sprinkling while kneading & rolling out dough
2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 Tablespoons good olive oil
1 cup warm water (105-110 degrees)

Makes 8

1. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour with the salt, sugar, and yeast. Add the oil and water. Beat vigorously with a wooden spoon for three minutes, then stir in the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time. The dough should be a rough, shaggy mass that will clean the sides of the bowl. If the dough is moist, add a small amount of additional flour.

2. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 6 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

4. Divide the dough into 8 pieces. I patted the dough into a circle and used my metal dough scraper to quickly and evenly cut it into eighths (as if cutting up a pie).

5. Roll into balls, dust lightly with flour, and cover with a damp tea towel. Let rest for 30 minutes.

6. Use the palm of your hand to flatten each ball into a disk. Finish with a rolling pin, flattening the dough into a disk about 6″ in diameter and 3/16″ thick. Their thinness is more important than making them perfectly round. Irregularity adds charm, says Bernard.

7. Place each round on a square of foil, and carefully place 3 or 4 of the rounds directly on the oven rack. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes, or until they are puffed.

8. Repeat with the remaining disks.

9. When you remove the breads from the oven, stack them up and wrap them in a large piece of foil. This will keep the dough soft while the tops fall, leaving a pocket in the center. Cut them in half (so you can fill the pocket) and serve warm or at room temperature, or let cool, wrap tightly in aluminum foil, place in a zipper bag, and freeze. Thaw frozen pitas before using (this only takes about 5 minutes at room temperature). To reheat, stack several in a pile, wrap with foil, and place in a 375 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Source http://www.foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/2005/09/pita-pita-i-too-much-eata.html

Canadian Bacon

After the success of standard bacon, I get try my hand at making Canadian Bacon. I wanted to place this is the smoker at the same time as the Homemade Bacon I posted earlier, but the cost of pork loin was up to $4.75 or better. So I waited for the cost to drop to $1.95/lb.

Today is day two, the pork loin is now Canadian Bacon, and will be pulled out of the brine and allowed to dry.

Bouillabaisse

The trick is to look for the freshest local fish you can find and not to be afraid of improvising. That’s what I’ve done here. The fish remains firm, the broth clear, the flavor sublime.

Active time: 1 1/4 hr
Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

Servings: Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Fresh Bacon

Pork belly and pink salt are the two items you need to make bacon, every thing else you usually have on hand. I have begone my first attempt at making my own bacon.

The first results are in, and making homemade bacon is well worth the small effort it requires.

Sourdough Waffles

Again, I found myself with extra sourdough starter. So my answer was to make Sourdough Waffles. Not being preparing the batter the night before, I decided to make these anyway. I must say these still turned out wonderful.

4 oz. butter 1/2 cup
8 oz. milk 1 cup
9 oz. white Sourdough Starter 1 cup
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 TBS brown sugar
6 oz. all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups.

Combine, all but the salt, baking soda, and baking powder, and let sit as long as you can. Add the salt, baking powder and baking soda, just before cooking.

Keep the early waffles in a 250 degree oven unti l all the waffles are done.

Sourdough Pancakes

This was an excellent way to use extra starter that I did not get to use because of the long drive home in spring snow storm. Tangier than buttermilk, these made our Saturday pancakes more delicious.

Recipe for Sourdough Pancakes

Pumpernickel Rye

Pumpernickel bread is really just a variety of rye bread. what darkens the loaf is powdered cocoa, molasses, and coffee, not the flour.

Deli-Style Rye

Last night I made the Deli-Style Rye from Artisan Bread in five Minutes a Day.

The results where fantastic! There was just the right amount of caraway seeds, and even though the dough was not allowed to age, it had a good crumb, and nice crust. This will be a routine bread for me I’ sure.

March Home Brew – Red Ale

We cooked the wort for 60 minutes, while maintaining a temperature of 150 degrees; consentient stirring is required to prevent boil-over. After cooking the wort and pitching the yeast, this brew is being allowed ferment to 10-14 days.

Sour Dough Bread

Nancy Silverton’s Breads from the La Brea Bakery: Recipes for the Connoisseur.

The starter is the essential element of sourdough. This reference call for a full 14 days to raise a starter from scratch – nine to grow the culture and five to build it’s strength needed to bake bread. My starter here is 9 days old, and will being it’s routing feedings tomorrow.

Routine Feeding:

1 Cup Starter

1 Cup Cool Water

2 Cups Flour

baking is a juggling act. You want the inside and outside done at the same time. Temperature cooks the crust. Time cooks the crumb.

If the crust is too dark, reduce the temperature next time. (You can cover it with foil to slow further browning). If the crust is too light, increase the temperature. (You can kick up the oven temperature and put the loaves in to brown a bit as a recovery step.) A key element is in knowing what your oven temperature really is. Over the years, I’ve had lots of inaccurate ovens, so I always put an oven thermometer in the oven. Monitoring the oven may surprise you with how much, or little, time it takes to heat your oven, how far off your thermostat is, and how much variation there is in your oven temperature during your bake.

If the crumb is too done, bake the bread for a shorter period of time next time around (you can’t unbake bread). If the bread is underdone, leave it in longer.

The trick is the two are related. So, it may take a time or two to get the time and temperature to the point where both are done at the same time. In general, I try not to do the “put the bread in at 500 for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 350″ sort of thing. It is a lot of trouble, and it causes delays between batches if you’re baking more than one batch. Juggling the time and temperature lets you almost always avoid that sort of thing.