Pamela Toman

Bread

Pan de Cristal

Very similar to the ciabatta recipe -- but this recipe does not require preparation the day before, and it uses a slightly different folding method.

Between starting and being able to cut into the bread, you're probably looking at about 8 hours, with the first 2 hours of that period requiring regular but brief attention. You'll need to be home to pay a few minutes of attention to this bread every 20 minutes, so it fits into a Pomodoro workday best (just like the ciabatta).

This bread goes well with broccoli sandwiches and with basically any soup.

If the bread goes stale (it is such high hydration that it is likely to go stale easily), reheat at 400 for about 10 minutes to recover it.

Ingredients Step
500 g. bread flour
500 g. warm water
¾ t. yeast
2 t. (10 g.) salt		 Mix until homogenous. You want the (extremely slack, pourable) dough to have an internal temperature of 72 degrees.
olive oil
2 rectangular baking dishes		 Oil a rectangular baking dish. (It does not need to be oven safe.) Pour dough into the oiled pan and cover it with the other pan. If it seems cooler than 72 degrees Fahrenheit, put it in the oven with the light on. Let it rest 20 minutes.
Bowl fold: Using wet hands, fold the dough from the edges to the center repeatedly, until it can't take it anymore (8-12 times). Cover and let rest 20 minutes.
First coil fold: Using wet hands, reach under the middle of the dough and lift it until it no longer touches the dish. Fold it in thirds (there's a video on the KAF site). Rotate 90 degrees and repeat, until the dough won't take it anymore. Cover and let rest 20 minutes.
Second coil fold. Cover and let rest 20 minutes.
Third coil fold. Cover and let rest 20 minutes. (Or, if it's already extremely tight, skip the fourth fold and move directly into resting for 80 minutes.)
Fourth coil fold. Cover and let rest 80 minutes.
Flour the surface, and very gently turn the dough out onto it, trying to not deflate it and trying to maintain the rectangular shape. Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Place each piece of parchment. Let rest at room temperature, uncovered, for 2 hours. (You can rush this, but if you can wait 2 hours, you'll get the most open crumb.)
At least an hour before baking, place two cast iron skillets on the bottom rack of the oven and place the other rack toward the top of the oven. Then preheat to 475 degrees.
After about 2 hours, when the loaves are light and airy and you can see some large bubbles on the surface, transfer 1 loaf to each cast iron skillet. Bake them for 15 minutes, ignoring the other 2 loaves for the moment. They should see some nice oven spring! After 15 minutes, transfer the loaves to the top rack to bake for another ~10 minutes (this lets the cast iron heat up again for the next round).
Repeat with the last two loaves.

Source: Martin Philip at KAF

Pan de Cristal was published on 10 November 2024.

Pretzel Bites

From nothing to pretzel bites in under 90 minutes.

Some people think these deserve beer cheese....

Ingredients Step
300 g flour (2½ c.)
6 g salt (1 t.)
1 t. sugar
7 g yeast (2¼ t.)
up to 1 c. warm water, depending on ambient humidity		 Combine all ingredients. Knead until normal bread dough texture (sticky like a post-it, soft like a marshmallow). Cover the mixing bowl and let rest for 30 minutes.
3 c. water
2 T. baking soda		 While resting, prepare the baking soda bath. In a very large saucepan, heat and stir until the soda is totally dissolved. Set pan aside to cool to room temperature (no warmer than lukewarm).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a work surface.
Prepare a baking sheet. Because of the baking soda bath, the pretzel bites really like to stick and to overcook on their bottoms. I've had the best luck with a well-oiled silpat mat on a light-colored air-gap baking sheet. Ungreased parchment paper produces papery bites.
Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Roll ropes and cut pieces. Drop the pieces into the baking soda solution, swish them around, and let them sit for a few minutes. The longer they sit, the more they'll lose their integrity and the darker and more "pretzel-ly" they'll cook up.
coarse salt Transfer the bites to the baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt.
Bake 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
3 T. butter, melted Brush with melted butter, then flip the bites and brush their bottoms too. Transfer to rack to cool.

Source: Charlotte Rutledge (KAF)

Pretzel Bites was published on 3 May 2024.

Wool Roll

I keep making this one. It's so pretty...

It takes 4-5 hours start-to-finish.

Sometimes the bread filling gets a chemical flavor, and I suspect it's the cream cheese. Next time I make this bread, I want to try a savory filling that I know will bake well to check this flavor source hypothesis. Getting a higher end cream cheese that isn't stretched with filler might also help.

Other filling ideas: use jam instead of freeze-dried fruit; cinnamon/sugar/butter/raisin; coconut/cream cheese/chocolate chip; Nutella/cream cheese; garlic butter; onion/garlic/sundried tomato; basil/garlic/parmesan; hatch chilis/Colby Jack

Ingredients Step
3 T. water
3 T. milk, whole preferred
2 T. bread flour		 Combine in a small saucepan. Whisk until lump-free. Then cook over medium heat, stirring, until thickened and paste-like (~2-4 minutes).
tangzhong
½ c. milk		 Transfer tangzhong to the bowl of the stand mixer. Stir milk on top to help cool it.
2½ c. (300 g) bread flour (often I need to add more)
1 egg
4 T. butter, softened
1 T. (9 g) yeast
¼ c. (50 g) sugar
1 t. (6 g) salt		 Mix to combine, then knead until soft & smooth (tackier than a post-it, sticking somewhat to the walls of the mixing bowl, but not a batter and not sticking to oiled hands).
lightly greased bowl Shape the dough into a ball. Let it rest in a lightly greased bowl, covered, for 1-1½ hours, until puffy. It won't necessarily double.
4 oz. cream cheese (half package), at warm room temperature
2 T. sugar
zest of 2 lemons
pinch of salt		 Mix until smooth.
2 T. freeze-dried fruit
2 T. flour		 Mix until berries are completely crushed and evenly distributed.
On a lightly floured surface, gently deflate the dough. Divide it into 4 pieces (~170 g. each). Shape each into a ball. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.
9" springform or round pan Line with parchment. Lightly grease the parchment and sides of pan.
Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it into a 6"x12" rectangle. Portion ¼ of the filling (2 heaping tablespoons) onto the top half of the rectangle. Spread it down, leaving the last 5"-6" bare. Cut the uncovered dough into very thin strips. Fold the long edges in so the filling can't seep out; pat gently to flatten. Roll toward the uncovered strips, lightly press the strips into the log, then place the log (seam-side down) into the pan along the outside edge. Repeat.
Cover and let rise 60-75 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
milk Brush the roll with milk (be careful not to deflate it). Bake 28-32 minutes, rotating partway through, until 190 degrees and golden. Remove and cool on rack.

Source: Molly Marzalek-Kelly from King Arthur Flour

Wool Roll was published on 2 May 2024.

Recipe uses: bread-flour, sundried-tomato, jam, milk

No-Knead Focaccia

Two focaccias that live in the fridge until you're ready to bake them. It seems to actually work better with generic flour.

Ingredients Step
380 g. water (1.5 c + 2 T.)
27 g. (1/8 c.) olive oil
1.5 t. yeast
16 g. (2.25 t.) salt
1 T. sugar
510 g. all-purpose flour		 Stir together. Partially cover and let rest 2 hours. Then chill fully covered (if possible).
olive oil
toppings		 Preheat oven to 450. Pour 1/8 c. olive oil into a 9" pan. Take half the dough ball from the fridge, place it face-down in the oil, flip it, and then stretch it to fill the pan (you'll likely need to let it rest 15 minutes and re-stretch, possibly repeatedly). Once it fills the pan, top it with whatever you'd like (make sure to use relatively dry ingredients and to use large chunks of items that can burn). Cover it and let it rise 20 minutes (don't rush it). Bake 20-25 minutes.

Source: Washington Post

No-Knead Focaccia was published on 29 September 2023.

Ciabatta

This recipe fits well into a workday of pomodoros. It requires a small amount of preparation the night before.

A variant of this recipe is pan de cristal.

Ingredients Step
250 g. bread flour
250 g. water
1/4 t. yeast		 Mix. Cover. Let sit overnight.
500 g. bread flour
313 g. water
2 t. yeast
18 g. salt
35 g. olive oil (add second)		 Combine, adding olive oil after mostly combined. "Knead" by lifting the same direction repeatedly for 8 min, until smooth and stretchier.
Oil a rectangular pan with a tall lid well (two glass 9x13s work for this). Transfer dough to this pan; cover and let sit 25 minutes.
Fold the dough each direction toward the middle, and cover (first fold). Let sit 25 minutes.
Fold the dough each direction toward the middle, and cover (second fold). Let sit 25 minutes.
Fold the dough each direction toward the middle, and cover (third fold). Let sit 25 minutes.
Flour your surface. Turn out dough and stretch it into a rectangle. Make 7 loaves by: (1) Cut off dough, (2) Pull ends toward middle, (3) Press together, (4) Fold long edge together, (5) Press to seal. Let sit 25 minutes.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment.
Stretch slightly and bake for 20 minutes.

Source: Will

Ciabatta was published on 17 August 2023.