[recipe review] simple, crusty bread from the NY Times

I got a chance to make Jeff Hertzberg's simple bread recipe from his book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day that was shared on the NY Times website. It is billed as being even quicker than Jim Lahey's "No-Knead" recipe that appeared in the NY Times about a year ago and it lives up to that billing -- you can follow this recipe and have a decent loaf of bread in about 3 hours.

But that's just it -- the bread is only passable. I can make very good sandwich bread in three hours. This, however, is supposed to be "artisan" bread. It isn't artisan bread by any stretch of the imagination.

When I think of artisan bread, I imagine a slightly sour, very crusty, open-holed bread with wonderfully chewy insides. This bread is more related to white sandwich bread in texture -- maybe slightly chewier due to the wetness of the dough. The flavor was almost too "yeasty," as the recipe requires quite a bit of yeast (1 1/2 TB) to raise 6 cups of flour in two hours.

I prefer doughs (and the breads that come from them) that use less yeast and more time -- the flavor of bread made in this way is tangy and wheaty instead of having an overly fermented taste and smell. Also, time is necessary in order to truly accomplish the "no-knead" trick.

Kneading bread develops gluten, a protein matrix which acts like sheets of rubber than can be blown up like balloons. Gluten can also be developed by the metabolic byproducts of yeast (gas), which slooooooowly stretches the proteins in the dough. Trying to accomplish this quickly leaves one with an under-developed dough. This, in turn, produces small, dense loaves -- exactly what I got when I followed the recipe precisely.

It seems we are still left with two options for bread -- kneaded sandwich-style bread (which can be quite good) or lightly kneaded, long-rising artisan-style bread. Quick artisanal breads still live in the realm of unicorns and ogres -- fantasy.

One more note -- the recipe says that you can make the dough and keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks. This option probably produces a bread that is closer to artisan-style in texture. But I imagine the flavor would still be very "yeasty."

Overall, if you have never baked bread before and don't own a stand mixer, give the original no-knead bread recipe a try. If you're also in a pinch and rushed for time, try the Hertzberg variation just for kicks. You'll quickly be swept up in the joyful meditation of baking your own bread and will summarily graduate to recipes where a little (happy) effort is required!

the ny times loves simple bread recipes

This is the second "simple" bread recipe I've seen in the NY Times food section in a year. I've made Bittman's no-knead bread dough with success and look forward to trying this one, too. Both require a bit of special equipment -- Bittman's needs a dutch oven and Dr. Hertzberg's needs a pizza or quarry stone. Anyway, bread can be daunting for some. These recipes help to bring good, simple, home-baked bread to the table of anyone who has five minutes here and there...

Adapted from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007)

Time: About 45 minutes plus about 3 hours’ resting and rising

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough
Cornmeal

1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).

2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.

3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.

4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

Yield: 4 loaves.

Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased, nonstick loaf pan. Let rest 40 minutes if fresh, an extra hour if refrigerated. Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Place pan on middle rack.

drying the turkey (but not "dry" turkey)

The turkey, she's a beaut -- 18 pounds of heritage-bred fowl, she's safely tucked away in the refrigerator, air drying in order to ensure crisp skin along with the juicy, flavorful meat that will occur as a result of a day-long soak in brine.

The plan is to slather her in butter and use the roasting method called for by Cook's Illustrated magazine.

We traditionally roast our bird early and let it come to room temperature before we eat dinner. This frees up the oven and gives my mom and I a chance to finish all of the sides. We'll probably have to go that route again, as we don't have two ovens to play around with...

the turkey is in the brine...

I know it's Monday. I know that Thanksgiving is on Thursday. I know you think I'm crazy when I tell you that my turkey, pictured at right, is already submerged in a flavorful brine.

You might ask, "Won't it be too salty?"

No sir, this bird is going to get pulled out tomorrow night, after 24 hours in the drink. Following that, she'll spend a day-and-a-half air-drying in the refrigerator. You see, brining does such a damned fine job of plumping up all of the turkey's protein cells with flavor-infused water that it could make it next-to-impossible to end up with the beautiful, mahogany-colored skin that all of us seek to unveil on Turkey Day. The air-dry enables the skin to dessicate a bit so that it will be beautifully burnished upon roasting.

The long, drawn-out process that I'm willing to go through for my turkey and my family (in that order) requires nothing other than proper planning and the ability to make a lot of space in your fridge.

The brine is easy -- I adapted it from Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food. His original recipe called for a quicker soak, but I reduced the salt in my version to allow me to extend the time-in-brine to 24 hours. This was purely for scheduling reasons -- I don't think there is any benefit to the extra-long brine as opposed to say, the 6 hours that Alton calls for. I just knew when I'd be available to pull it out of the giant Ziploc bag.

turkey brine
3/4 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
handful of herbs (your choice -- I went traditional and used sage, thyme, and fresh bay)
1 gallon of water
8 pounds of ice

Dissolve the salt and sugar in 1 qt boiling water. Bruise the herbs with your hands, add to the water, and allow to steep for a few minutes. Cool this solution with the remaining 3 quarts of water and then add the ice, bringing the brine to a very chilly temperature (hopefully sub-40 degrees F).

At this point, you can put the turkey and brine in whatever will hold them. I find the XL "Big Bags" by Ziploc can handle an 18 pound turkey and the 2 gallons of brine just fine, but you can get creative, as long as it's clean and capable of some way maintaining temperatures under 40 degrees.

In order to maintain full contact, I assembled everything inside the largest stock pot I own and then tied up the zip-top part of the bag (see the photo). This fully immersed the turkey in the brine and it will stay just like that in my refrigerator until tomorrow night.

Continue on for (cue Paul Harvey voice) "the rest of the story..."

fruitcake for people who hate fruitcake

Fruitcake for people who hate fruitcake? It's possible! Most people hate the candied peel (citron) and fake green cherries. This recipe forgoes those for dried real fruit. You can use whatever dried fruits you want -- just use a variety, chop them to roughly the same size, and don't skimp! It really can handle 2 3/4 pounds of fruit.

Fruit
You'll need a total of about 2 to 2 3/4 pounds dried fruit.
1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 ounces) dried pineapple
1 1/2 cups (9 ounces) raisins
1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) dried apricots, diced
1 1/2 cups (7 7/8 ounces) chopped dates
6 ounces dried cherries
1/3 cup 2 1/4 ounces) diced crystallized ginger (optional)
3/4 cup (6 ounces) dark rum or brandy

Batter
1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter
2 cups (15 ounces) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 large eggs
3 cups (12 3/4 ounces) All-Purpose Flour
2 tablespoons (3/8 ounce) black cocoa (optional - for a darker fruitcake)
1/2 cup (5 1/2 ounces) light corn syrup (or dark if you want a darker fruitcake)
1/2 cup (4 ounces) apple juice, cranberry juice or water
2 cups (8 ounces) chopped, toasted nuts (pecans or walnuts)
rum, brandy, or vanilla syrup, for topping

The Fruit: Combine all of the fruit ingredients in a non-reactive bowl and soak overnight. Alternatively, cover with plastic wrap and zap them in the microwave on 50% power for about 3 minutes and allow to cool to room temperature.

The Batter: Cream the butter until soft, then add the sugar, spices and baking powder. Beat in the eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour and cocoa (if using). Add about half of the flour mixture and all the syrup to the batter. Then add the remaining flour and the juice or water and mix well. Fold in the fruits, any remaining liquid, and the nuts.

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Grease the bottom and sides of the pans or line them with parchment paper. I use disposable aluminum so that I can store the cakes in them and then just give them away. This recipe makes enough for 8 mini-loaf pans or two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans. Spoon the batter into the pans, filling them about 3/4 full.

Bake the cakes on the middle shelf of a preheated 300°F oven -- about 65 minutes for the mini-loaves and 2 hours, 15 minutes for the large loaves. The cakes are done when a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove the cakes from the oven, and brush them with rum or brandy. Let them cool, then remove them from the pans. Brush all surfaces with rum, brandy or vanilla syrup. (If you like just a hint of rum or brandy flavor, add 1 tablespoon of liquor to 3/4 cup vanilla syrup and brush this mixture on the cakes.)

Wrap the cakes in parchment paper, then in aluminum foil or plastic wrap, and store them in a cool, dry place. Unwrap the cakes every week (for up to 5 weeks) and brush them with more syrup. By the fifth week the cakes will have absorbed as much liquid as they're able. They'll keep for several months this way, as long as they're tightly wrapped. The flavor improves and mellows over time. Yield: a possible plethora of fruitcakes.