Category Archives: Breads

Rustic Rosemary Bread Recipe

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A loaf of rustic rosemary bread
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Two-Bit Story:

My elementary school was two houses and one side street away from my home, which meant I walked home from school  each day and, if school was out at 3:05,  I was often home by 3:10.

One of my strongest “getting home from school” memories was my hand on the screen door handle, waiting to pull it open, and smelling the yeasty goodness of fresh bread wafting from the kitchen and down the hallway to my nose.

The best outcome would be opening the door,  tumbling down the hallway into the kitchen, and finding my mother slicing a thick piece, loading it up with lashings of softened salted butter before she handed it to me.

In contrast, some days my mom would tell me I needed to wait.  The bread was baked,  the smell just as alluring, but the loaf hadn’t yet had enough time to cool.  Couldn’t she slice it hot?  Wouldn’t that make the butter melt even better?  Couldn’t I blow on the slice to cool it down enough for eating? Why was she torturing me? Whatdya mean I  have to wait another 45 minutes?!

With my baker’s mind,  I understand now.  Slicing freshly-baked warm bread is okay,  but slicing it hot from the oven is not.

When a loaf first comes out, the crumb is still setting. The starches have gelatinized in the oven, but they need time to firm up as they cool.  Slicing too soon can sometimes make the interior  gummy or doughy because the structure hasn’t stabilized.

Steam is still moving through the loaf. A fresh loaf is full of trapped moisture. If you slice it early, that steam escapes unevenly, which can make the crumb sticky in places and dry in others. Slicing while hot can compress those delicate air pockets you worked so hard to create.

And flavor is still developing. The malt, toasted crust notes, and grain flavors become clearer as the loaf cools.

When I cooled this particular loaf, it began to sing and continued its song for an hour.  Bread “singing” is when the loaf cracks and pings as it cools and it’s a characteristic of a crisp, thin crust. It’s caused by the crust cooling and contracting while moisture and heat are still escaping from the interior. A thin crust can fracture into tiny cracks as it contracts, producing those little tick, ping, crackle sounds, resulting in a crust that has crazed.

I don’t often achieve “singing” because my typical dough is enriched in some way, usually with butter or milk.  Hearing the pings and cracks for sixty minutes was so satisfying that I didn’t mind having to wait an hour before cutting in (shards of crisp crust flying in all directions), slathering it with butter, and sprinkling it with French sea salt.  It was worth the wait.

Two-Bit Recipe:

Rustic Rosemary Bread

This recipe produces a flavorful, rosemary-scented loaf with a thin, crisp crust.


Ingredients

  • 4 cups (500 g) bread flour
  • 1⅓ cups (325 g) warm water (105°- 110°)
  • 2 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary

Directions

  1. In a stand mixer, using a dough hook, mix all ingredients together on low until a shaggy dough forms. Increase speed to high and mix 5-7 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic and you can perform the window pane test. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
  2. Gently punch down and shape into a loaf or boule. Cover and let rise again for about 45 minutes. During this second rise, preheat oven to 425°F. Place a baking stone or sheetpan in the center of the oven during the preheat as well as a cast iron skillet on the lowest rack.
  3. Just before baking, using a sharp knife or bread lame, slash the top of the loaf. Place loaf in oven on the baking stone or sheetpan, add hot water to the skillet and quickly shut the oven door so the steam doesn’t escape. Bake undisturbed for 15 minutes, open the oven door and carefully remove the skillet.
  4. Bake an additional 30-40 minutes until the loaf is deep golden brown and the internal temperatures reaches 200 to 210°F. You can also test doneness by tapping the bottom of the loaf. It should sound hollow. Place on a cooling rack and cool at least an hour before slicing.

Almond-Filled New Orleans King Cake

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New Orleans style King Cake with Almond filling.
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Today’s Musings:

Happy Fat Tuesday, Mes Chers!

There were a bunch of unforgettable moments during my culinary school days – executing live lobsters, boning an entire leg of lamb, deveining fresh foie gras, and my very first triumph with butter-block puff pastry. One of the desserts we made with that puff was a buttery, flaky Galette des Rois (aka French King Cake) filled with rich almond crème – no frozen puff pastry shortcuts, no tubes of almond paste. The flavor of that galette still haunts my dreams. We crafted each one painstakingly, and you could taste the love in every bite.

But when someone says “King Cake,” my mind jumps to the early 2000s, back when I worked for a New Orleans-based energy company. Around Mardi Gras, my co-worker Mike – who had spent years living in New Orleans – would have New Orleans King Cakes overnighted straight to our office in Irvine, California.

If Galette des Rois is refined Parisian patisserie, this version is pure Bourbon Street. These celebratory rings are garishly decorated in green, purple, and gold, flavored with cinnamon, and more like a yeasted breakfast bread than puff pastry. Their arrival around Fat Tuesday would spark a full-on office celebration, usually accompanied by a Crockpot of Mike’s famous jambalaya.

This year, I decided to try my hand at a New Orleans-style King Cake…with a filling that’s a little nod to my beloved Galette des Rois: Almond.

And the baby?
Don’t be surprised if you bite into a tiny plastic one. It’s all about luck and prosperity – whoever finds the baby is “king” or “queen” for the day. But don’t get too excited: that person also has to bring the cake to the next party. In our cheapskate office, coworkers would carefully strategize their slice cuts to avoid the baby entirely.

And those colors?
Traditional Mardi Gras green, gold, and purple. If you’ve never seen a king cake, you might think it was decorated by a color-blind 4-year-old. Just tell yourself that the wild explosion of color is “festive,” even if it looks like it survived a paintball fight.

Today’s Recipe:

Almond-Filled New Orleans King Cake

This New Orleans–style king cake features a soft, pillowy dough wrapped around a rich almond filling that’s lightly sweet with a hint of orange. Brushed with butter and finished with a simple sugar glaze and festive purple, green, and gold sugar, it’s a flavorful twist on the traditional Mardi Gras treat.


Ingredients

    DOUGH
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 packet(2 ¼ teaspoons) instant yeast
  • 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • ½ cup half & half
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
    • ALMOND FILLING
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 cups almond flour, lightly toasted in a skillet and cooled
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 large egg white
  • 2 teaspoon almond extract
  • ½ teaspoon orange zest
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
    • DECORATION
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 plastic baby or uncooked bean
  • 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • Purple, green, and gold colored sugar

Directions

  1. Using paddle attachment, combine all dough ingredients to form a shaggy dough. Switch to dough hook and begin kneading dough on low speed. Increase to medium and continue kneading dough until it comes together in a ball and feels smooth and elastic, 9-11 minutes. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl, cover and let proof in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
  2. Meanwhile, using paddle attachment, stir filling ingredients in bowl until the ingredients come together. Roll almond paste in plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out. Set aside.
  3. Transfer dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat into a rough rectangular shape, then, with a rolling pin, roll dough into a rectangle 16 inches wide by 12 inches tall. Spread filling in a thin layer over dough, leaving a ½-inch border at the top of rectangle. Using rolling pin, lightly roll filling into dough so that it sticks. Starting at long end closest to you, roll dough into a log. Do not roll too tight, allowing yeast room to expand during the second proof. If dough sticks to the floured surface, use a pastry scraper to help roll dough. Pinch the log of dough closed at the seam. Seam side down, stretch log to 18 inches and shape log into a ring, cut off jagged ends, and pinch the dough together where the ends meet to form a seal. (Tip: roll a piece of jagged end super thin and patch area where the ends meet like a bandage. The patch will be covered with icing). Transfer the ring to a parchment-lined baking sheet and cover. Let ring proof until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
  4. Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake about 25-35 minutes until golden and internal temperature reaches 190°F. Tent with foil if browning too quickly. Remove from oven, brush with melted butter, let cool for 10-minutes on the baking sheet, and then transfer to a wire rack. After 30 minutes, loosely cover with a clean, dry towel to keep king cake soft. Let cool to room temperature.
  5. If using a plastic baby or bean, gently push it into the underside of cake so that it’s hidden. Place the powdered sugar and milk in a small bowl and whisk together to create a thick, but pourable, icing. Add a little more milk if needed. Drizzle frosting over the cake and sprinkle colored sugar in patches. Let the icing dry completely before serving.