Daily Archives: December 22, 2018

Brazilian Cheese puffs ( Pao de Queijo)

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It’s always tricky to bake something you have never actually eaten before. If you don’t like it, is it because you did a terrible job or because the taste is so new to you.

Luckily, there is no such conundrum with this recipe, it combines the best qualities of gougeres with mochi. Imagine a crisp crust with a glutinous but airy center. This is what the British call a “moreish” recipe, you cannot stop at one.

I looked up several recipes online and settled on this one from the NYT . It starts like a choux pastry recipe but with tapioca flour and then the cheese is folded in.  I always weigh all my ingredients- especially in a brand new recipe. Also- a stand mixer seems essential for this recipe, this is just a super tacky dough.

Ingredients:

  • 335 grams tapioca starch (about 3 cups)
  • 2 tsp kosher salt 
  • ¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • ⅔ cup whole milk
  • 2/3 cup water
  • ½ cup canola oil
  • 1 ½ tablespoons butter, softened
  • 2 large eggs
  • 94 grams grated Pecorino Romano cheese (about ¾ cup)
  • 94 grams grated Parmesan cheese (about ¾ cup)

Boil the water, milk, butter and oil together.

Add to the starch, baking powder and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. Dump the liquids in and using a paddle attachment, mix at low speed till the ingredients come together (4 minutes for me).

Add the eggs- mix on low for 4 minutes, scrape the bottom and paddle and mix again for 4–6 minutes till the dough gets tacky and forms strands with the edges.

Add the cheese and mix for another  minute. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Divide the dough using a bench scraper into 8ths and then into 32s. Make 32 small balls using tapioca flour to dust your hands.

Bake at 375 for 20-23 minutes till pale golden brown. Bake only as many as will be immediately consumed. Apparently these get hard as they cool. We did not test this hypothesis since all the puffs were consumed within 10 minutes.

 

No Knead Rye Bread

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My life changed when I read Mark Bittman’s column on no-knead bread.  I found out that professional baking ovens had steam injectors which injected steam at the start of the baking process. This is what led to the shatteringly thin crust and soft centers of the artisan boules I loved. Jim Lahey said- just start the baking in a dutch oven- bake your loaf covered for 30 minutes and then uncovered. Brilliant in its simplicity!

The no-knead recipe not only saves time but allows complex sourdough flavors to develop with regular active dry yeast. 5 minute artisan bread a day by Jeff Hertzberg is my favorite bread cookbook. This recipe is inspired from his book.

Ingredients:

3 cups lukewarm water (680 gm)

Active dry yeast – 1 tbsp

Caraway seeds- 1.5 tbsp

Kosher salt- 1 tbsp

Rye flour 1 cup (120 g)

All purpose flour 5.5 cups ( 780 gm)

Cornstarch wash: Boil 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 tsp of cornflour in the microwave till glassy (1-2 minutes).  Cool

Add the yeast, salt and caraway seeds to the water and stir till they dissolve. Dump in all the flour and mix without kneading. I use a danish whisk and mix it till all the flour is hydrated. This will form a goopy, wet dough and the whole process shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes.

Rest covered till doubled in size (2-4 hours)

Refrigerate for at least 24 hours. The dough will undergo a second slow rise in the refrigerator and can be stored for 14 days.

Baking day! Remove 1 lb of dough. Dust your bench and your hands and fold the dough onto itself till it forms a smooth ball. This is the trickiest and most important step and should be quick (less than 2 minutes) . The flour dusted smooth surface is critical for the final rise and texture of the bread. There should be no crags or cracks on the surface. Rest for 40 min- 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 F. Heat a cast iron dutch oven or a baking cloche for 30 minutes.

Just before baking , brush boule with cornstarch wash, sprinkle with caraway seeds. I place it with the parchment in the cloche and bake covered for 30 minutes and then uncovered for 5-10 minutes till top is brown and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.

Rest the bread for 10 minutes before slicing.