Monday, January 24, 2011

Another Great Loaf

Ale Bread
I thought I'd share with all of you my latest bread obsession. For the past couple of weeks, I've been baking a country loaf that starts with an ale and yeast poolish. The recipe for this bread can be found in Crust: Bread to Get Your Teeth Into by Richard Bertinet. The preparation is fairly start forward but the results are absolutely amazing.

Fresh Yeast
I'd bought Crust several years ago but never got around to trying any recipes from the book. Mr. Bertinet makes he breads using fresh yeast - something I've read a great deal about but have never been able to find at the grocery store. As a result, his book had been gathering a mighty layer of dust for quite sometime. That is until my next door neighbor mentioned that she had an extra block of fresh yeast in her fridge that I could have. (Score!) Apparently she gets it from a European market in Boston. Finally, I was in business.

Ale Bread 2
What I love about the recipes in Crust is that they all utilize a relatively small amount of yeast. (Mr. Bertinet also has an interesting way of kneading dough, which he demonstrates on a CD that comes with the book.) While the resting times are generally longer compared to many recipes that call for active dry or rapid rise yeast, I've been making bread long enough to know that you usually end up with a superior loaf in turns of flavor, structure and shelf life by allowing the dough to rise slowly. This particular country loaf is a prime example of that. I start the ferment just before I head to bed, then mix and knead the dough when I wake up and by noon it's on our lunch plates. It's fantastic straight out of the oven but also stores well in the freezer and makes for excellent toast.

Banh Mi
This weekend, I made some Vietnamese sandwiches (banh mi) using this bread. (I'm salivating just thinking about them.) While there are countless variations on the type of meat to use inside a banh mi, most call for a light smear of homemade mayonnaise, sliced cucumber, jalapeno and cilantro and some pickled carrots. You can also spread a layer of pate and add some pickled daikon radish if you like, but most importantly, the bread has to be fresh (and preferably French). This time around, I stuffed our sandwiches with some homemade Chinese roast pork (char siu), which I'll have to post a recipe for along with the pickled carrots one of these days. Until then, borrow Crust from the library and make this bread!

19 comments:

  1. Love banh mi, you're a good baker!

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  2. Have you been thinking about opening a bakery? All this looks so good and you are always so ready to try new bread recipes.
    I have just discovered Tangzhong starter for bread. And I'm experimenting with it.

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  3. Thomas,

    Great job! Those look amazing. I'm going to look for the book just so I can try the recipe.

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  4. That thing you thought was a wolf howling from the frozen wastes? It was me, howling for your banh miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

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  5. Hi Thomas,
    Since bread is one of my favorite things to bake (and eat!), I certainly appreciate your reviews of bread recipes and the books in which they can be found.
    Those loaves are perfection!
    Yeast cakes used to be available in the grocery store at one time, but then I'm OLD so I remember using it. I may try a local health food store.
    I don't know much about making beer, but is it used for fermenting, or is dry yeast used??? We have several beer making suppliers in the area.

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  6. Oh my Thomas, you have done it again. Here I sit drooling over my keyboard.

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  7. I love banh mi! Must make a sandwich!

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  8. Seriously, Thomas! These are amazing!

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  9. Oh, please do post your recipe for char siu. I love banh mi but never make it at home, with a good recipe for char siu that might change.

    Your breads look fantastic. Do you think the fresh yeast makes a difference in the flavor or texture of the bread? I've never bothered to track down fresh yeast, I've always substituted regular old dry yeast.

    I've been bitten with the bread baking bug lately also. For years I've been trying to get a good natural yeast starter going and have finally accomplished that. My new favorite bread baking book is Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman and I've been baking my way through his section on levain breads. His book and another one, Tartine Bread, have totally changed the way I make bread - it's the best I've ever made. Homemade bread has become a serious addiction, right up there with home grown veggies!

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  10. It looks so nice and crusty...it looks like it would have a great tang as well!

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  11. Thomas.. you're a baker too???? Wow! That bread looks incredible!

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  12. I should not be reading this right before dinner. It all looks so good.

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  13. Oh that bread looks just superb, I've not seen better! And it's a far cry from my humble beer bread!

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  14. Oh Thomas, you are inspiring me to branch out in bread making. I’ve been experimenting in different flours lately. These loaves look heavenly.

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  15. oh my wow! Those loves look amazing!

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  16. Those loaves look simply heavenly. I adore good bread and enjoy making it but tend to be rather unadventurous in trying new recipes. I realy must go to the library and track down this book (and some fresh cake yeast).

    As always - very inspiring post!

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  17. Wow, the loaves look so delicious, and those sandwiches??? Yum!

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  18. Oh, My. I believe you just made me week in the knees. I think I can actually smell it! :-D

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  19. We bake a lot of bread, but it never occurs to me to make Vietnamese sandwiches, even though I often buy them for lunch. Silly me!

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