Rise

TOP 10 BAKERIES NY p.32

The guide to a perfect French-style pastry

FLOUR FUNDAMENTALS p.56

Learn about what makes the wheat flour so special

HERITAGE OF BREAD p.94

Take a peek into the history of bread

The home of good bread FALL 2016

ciabatta

polesano OR

italian slipper The story behind the fabulous bread with the unusual name p.62

p.9

KNOW HOW TO‌ SPOT A GOOD LOAF You can tell a lot about bread just by looking at it.

FEBRUARY 1, 2016

p.108

PHIL AGNEW Meet a young talented baker from the sunny city Brisbane, Australia.

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RISE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2016

PHOTO BY: BARBARA BOND

56 Flour Fundamentals Learn about what makes the wheat flour so special

62 Italian Slipper The story behind the the fabulous bread with the unusual name

94 Heritage of Bread Take a peek into history of the

Contents 4 9

most principal forms of food

16 32 108

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FEBRUARY 2016 | RISE MAGAZINE

THE BASICS The Bread Science As you delve into the wonderful world of breads, you may run into new baking terms that are good to know.

TIPS&NOTES Know How to…Spot a Good Loaf You can tell a lot about bread just by looking at it.

SERVED The perfect pair: Bread & Wine When you’re getting your wine lineup ready, don’t forget about the bread.

VISIT Top 10 Bakeries of New York The guide to the finest French-style pastry shops in the city.

MEET THE BAKER Phil Agnew Meet a 35 year old home baker from the mostly sunny city of Brisbane, Australia.

THE BASICS

The Bread

SCIENCE

atolysis explained

Making bread is simple, but professional bakers use a lot of complicated terminology. These terms, however, help explain the scientific processes at work when making artisan bread.

STARTER First, there’s the starter, often called a levain (in French), a lievito madre (in Italian), or a mother, starter seed, or sourdough starter in English. Starters are made by mixing flour in water to form a pasty mixture; over time the mixture will sour by the process of fermentation as it picks up natural yeasts from the air. As with any fermented food time, temperature, and humidity can greatly affect how a starter looks on any given day or how a finished loaf turns out.

50% Bagels traditional have a dense

tight crumb creating a chewy texture. They are made with the same ingredients as crusty loaves of artisan bread but a different baking process and the low hydration give

by Alice Bilow

bread will be dense. The yeast will not have produced enough bubbles, or air pockets, the result of yeast emitting carbon dioxide and alcohol as it metabolizes the sugars in the flour.

AUTOLYSIS There is also a stage before kneading dough when you let the just–mixed ingredients rest for 20 minutes to let the flour hydrate in the wet ingredients; this is called autolysis and it’s helpful in producing a smooth, evenly crumbed final SOURDOUGH CULTURE product. This rest period allows for betWhen you’re ready to bake, a portion of ter absorption of water and allows the your starter is mixed with some fresh gluten and starches to expand and align. flour and water to form a sourdough cul- Breads made with autolysed dough are ture that further ferments, thereby deep- easier to form into shapes and have more ening the flavor, for up to 24 hours. This volume and improved structure. If you sourdough culture is then combined don’t let the flour fully hydrate before with more flour and water to make your kneading, there can be small pockets of dough. It’s this two–step process of fer- raw flour in your dough. mentation that’s responsible for artisan bread’s characteristic, and pleasant, tang. WINDOWPANE An ideal temperature for feeding your The windowpane is a test to see if you’ve starters and fermenting the sourdough kneaded the dough long enough to is about 75°, but since home kitchens develop the gluten strands adequatevary wildly in temperature, we advise let- ly. Simply grab a small chunk of the ting the starters, sourdoughs, and bread dough and stretch it out so you have a doughs ferment and rise in a cold oven, very, very thin sheet that, if held up to which keeps a constant temperature light, is nearly translucent with visible that’s slightly above room temperature. gluten webbing. If you can stretch the dough this thin without having it breakPROOFING ing or getting holes, your dough is well The stage where you let a dough rise developed. If you get holes before you is called proofing, and it’s so named can get the sheet translucent, you need because you’re allowing the yeast to a little more kneading or stretching time. “prove” it’s alive by raising the dough. If Check again after another 5 minutes of dough doesn’t rise long enough, your kneading or after another stretch.

bagels their distinct texture.

60% As hydration increases, the hole structure of the crumb gets larger and more

irregular in appearance. Artisan breads generally have at least a 60% hydration level or more. You will notice that with the lower hydrations it is easier to see the swirl formed from the shaping process.

70% Artisan baguette has 70% hydration. A typical formula for a French baguette dough would be 60% water. This is due to the difference in the rate of water absorbtion between French and American flours.

85% The extra large hole structure of

this ciabatta is caused by very high hydration levels and long fermentation times. Holes this large are considered difficult to achieve in the craft of baking. Mistakenly, a bread with holes this big is not considered a good sandwich bread because the filling might leak out the holes and be messy. But if the bread is sliced lengthwise, the large cells fill up with juices and the top and bottom crusts keep the juices in. There is not a better bread for making a sandwich.

RISE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2016

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PHOTO BY: BARBARA BOND

ciabatta

polesano BY Harley A. Sherman

The story behind the taste.

One glance at the short, stubby bread will make it clear how it was named. Ciabatta bread is a remarkable combination of rustic, country texture and elegant, tantalizing taste.

RISE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2016

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Venice

Genoa

Florence

Rome

History EST.1982

The bread was first produced by Arnaldo Cavallari, a baker

The Italians are among the world's most experimental cooks. Ciabatta (Italian chah-baht-tah) is an old bread that grows in popularity among today’s gourmets. Like focaccia, it is a rustic bread that is now featured in many restaurants and bakeries. Today, ciabatta is often the “bread of choice” when constructing upscale Italian sandwiches, such as grilled panini.

There are many variations of ciabatta. The very first ciabatta made by Cavallari was called ciabatta Polesano after Polesine, the area he lived in, and registered it as a trademark. The recipe was subsequently licensed by Cavallari's company, Molini Adriesi, to bakers in 11 countries by 1999. When made with whole wheat flour, it is known as ciabatta integrale. In Rome, it is often seasoned with olive oil, salt, and marjoram. When milk is added to the dough, it becomes ciabatta al latte.

Ciabatta is a light and crusty bread.

The bread got its name because its flattened oval form resembles a well-worn slipper. It is a borrowing, via Turkish, of Persian ciabat. The bread is so popular that at least one type of ciabatta can be found in nearly every region of Italy.

Each regional version of the bread is a little different The ciabatta from the

64 FEBRUARY 2016

| RISE MAGAZINE

area encompassing Lake Como has a crisp crust, a somewhat soft, porous texture, and is light to the touch. The ciabatta found in Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche varies from bread that has a firm crust and dense crumb, to bread that has a crisper crust and more open texture. The more open-crumbed form, which is usual in the United States, is made from a very wet dough, often requiring machine-kneading instead of hand kneading, and a biga or sourdough starter.

The crust encloses a simple porous texture making for an unusually inviting combination of chewiness and lightness. Ciabatta is not an elegant slipper, but the kind of old slipper you slouch around in. The loaf made from a dough that includes olive oil as one of its ingredients.

Meet Sarah Black, who owns a baking company called Campanio and makes ciabatta at the Tom Cat Bakery in Long Island City, Queens in a large domed oval (it would be a slipper only for Big Foot) instead of the traditional flattened slipper shape. It is richly browned outside and full of holes within. She has never been to Italy, but said she became intrigued with the bread about a year ago after reading about it in “The Italian Baker,” by Carol Field. “I’m fascinated with breads made with very wet doughs,” she said. The dough for ciabatta is so wet and sticky that it is “utterly unfamiliar and probably a bit scary.” The shaped loaves look flat and definitely unpromising, but urges the baker on, because the recipe produces an excellent result. Ciabatta,

and miller from Adria, a small town close to Venice in Veneto and called it ciabatta Polesano. like other old-fashioned country breads with moist, gummy doughs, is slow-rising and calls for relatively little yeast.

The recipe calls for making a starter or “sponge,” a mixture of yeast, flour and water that first must be allowed to rise.

A little more yeast, plus flour, salt, water and olive oil are combined with the starter to make the dough, which is best mixed in an electric mixer. Instead of merely dumping the sticky mass of dough onto a baking sheet, shape the dough into loaves and wait for it to rise again. Most of the effort in this recipe involves waiting for the dough to rise, not attending to the ingredients. These are not recipes for people with a microwave mentality. The rising times are long and slow, a factor that contributes to the flavor of ciabatta. It’s the kind of cooking, as in making a good baked potato or a tender pot roast, that requires the passage of time, but no effort, to produce its reward.

Recipe

Yield: 4 small rectangular loaves, 4" × " 16 oz 1 ¾ oz 13 oz 1½ tsp 2 tsp

unbleached bread flour hot to the touch water room temperature water active dry yeast iodized salt

Vegetable oil for coating the bowls Cornmeal for sprinkling

2

1

Prepare the stand mixer. Stir the yeast into the milk in a mixer bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Add the water, oil, and biga (be sure to weigh the biga) and mix with the paddle attachment until blended.

2

Measure and mix the flour and salt, add to the bowl, and mix for 2–3 minutes. Change to the dough hook and knead for 2 minutes at low speed, then 2 minutes at medium speed.

3

The dough will be very sticky. Knead briefly on a well-floured surface, adding as little flour as possible, until the dough is still sticky but beginning to show evidence of being velvety, supple, springy, and moist.

4

Place the ciabatta dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise at room temperature until doubled, about 1¼

3

hours. The dough should be full of air bubbles.

5

Turn the ciabatta dough onto a generously floured surface and cut it into 4 equal portions. Roll each portion into a cylinder, then stretch each cylinder into a rectangle about 10 X 4 inches, pulling with your fingers to get each portion of dough long and wide enough.

6

Generously flour 4 pieces of parchment paper placed on peels or upside-down baking sheets. Place each loaf, seam side up, on a piece of parchment. Dimple the loaves vigorously with your fingertips or knuckles so that they won’t rise too much.

The dough will look heavily pockmarked, but it is very resilient, so don’t be concerned. Cover the loaves loosely with damp

4

towels and let rise until puffy but not doubled in size, 1½ to 2 hours. The loaves will look flat and definitely unpromising, but rest assured that they will rise more in the oven.

7

About 30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 425ºF (218ºC) and slide 2 baking stones on the center rack to heat.

Just before baking the bread, sprinkle the stones with cornmeal. Carefully invert each loaf onto a stone. If the dough sticks a bit to the parchment, just gently work it free from the paper. If you need to, you can leave the paper and remove it 10 minutes

7

later. Bake for a total of 20–25 minutes, spraying the oven three times with water in the first 10 minutes. Transfer the loaves of ciabatta to wire racks to cool.

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65

WHO MADE THAT? p.56

The history of the first presliced bread

PEACHY BREAD PUDDING p.94

The sweet treat for a perfect entertaining

The home of good bread SPRING 2016

p.32

Lavash Armenian flat bread, which recipe has not changed over several thousand years p.18

DO YOU SPEAK...

BREAD? Today’s bakery lexicon can be downright baffling. But we’re here to get you up to speed.

p.46

THE FLOUR HAS POWER Three ways bread’s main ingredient is changing for the better.

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