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Focaccia with Tomatoes and Caramelized Onions
A tavola non si invecchia. (At the table one does not age.) – Italian proverb. How can you not love focaccia? While the dough makeup is similar to that of pizza – flour, water, sugar, yeast, oil and salt – it’s the baking process that makes focaccia unique. The basic recipe is considered to have originated either with the Etruscans, or in Ancient Greece, and its name is derived from the Latin “panis focacius”, with panis meaning bread, and focus meaning hearth or fireplace. As focaccia was cooked in the ashes of the fire, you could read this as ‘bread baked on the floor of the oven.’
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Homemade English Muffins
Do you know the muffin man, The muffin man, the muffin man? Do you know the muffin man, Who lives in Drury Lane? – Nursery Rhyme. So, are “English muffins” really English? Yes and no. It’s complicated. More complicated than a number of misinformed websites would have you believe.
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Ravishing Raspberry Jam
“The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam to-day.” – Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass. My homemade English muffins seemed to cry out for some rich red raspberry jam so I went for it – my first stab at canning. I didn’t have much to go on but I thought, This is jam – how hard can it be, right? Just mix equal parts sugar and fruit, with some lemon juice thrown in, and boil away.
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Proofing Yeast
I always proof my active dry yeast. As in always. Nothing worse than spending hours putting together a beautiful loaf only to find it won’t rise because your yeast was dead. It’s super easy. Just dissolve a teaspoon of sugar in 1/4 cup warm water – warm as in 105ºF to 110ºF – and stir in the active dry yeast, then let it sit for 5-10 minutes. (If my recipe calls for water I count this as part of the amount.)
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The Excellent Egg
“A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.” – One of Bilbo Baggins’ riddles for Gollum, The Hobbit. What can thicken a sauce, emulsify a custard, or leaven a cake? What can give a shiny glaze to a new loaf of bread, be whipped into sugary clouds of confection, or keep that mohawk sharp, beautiful, and pointing skyward? (Sorry, ’80s flashback there.) I am talking, of course, about the most excellent egg. Understanding the properties of the different parts of an egg, i.e. the whites and the yolks, can help make baking, especially pastry-making, a little less daunting.
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Ginger Aberffraw Cakes
…and he runs out intothe field where his mother is making welsh-cakes in the snow… – Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood. That’s pronounced Abber-frow because it’s Welsh, don’t you know. But you’ve binge-watched The Great British Bake Off so you already knew that, didn’t you? Speaking of GBBO, that’s where I first saw these beautiful little shell-shaped shortbread cookies.
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Eight-Strand Braided Bread
The art of bread making can become a consuming hobby, and no matter how often and how many kinds of bread one has made, there always seems to be something new to learn. – Julia Child. Boy, do I love making bread. It’s my favorite thing to bake, with pastry being a close second. The endless varieties of what you can make, the tactile joy of working with dough, the warm, feel-good aromas … it’s all beautiful and feels somehow essential. There’s a reason it’s called the staff of life, right? Speaking of which,
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Heavenly Honey Wheat Bread
“Smell this,” the baker said, breaking open a dark loaf. “It’s a heavy bread, but rich.” – Raymond Carver, “A Small Good Thing.” Really, is there any scent more enticing than baking bread? Cookies and cakes may smell amazing but there’s just something really special about bread. Beyond the visceral appeal of its aroma, there’s also something so humanizing about bread. Take the word “companion” for instance.
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Marvelous Macarons
HELMER: Not been nibbling sweets? NORA: No, certainly not. HELMER: Not even taken a bite at a macaroon or two? NORA: No, Torvald, I assure you really … I should not think of going against your wishes. – Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House.
