Posts Tagged ‘schiacciata’

Brioche, Polenta Roulade’s and Chorizo Meatballs; Jan. 12th Baking

 

Even though this global warming is scary, it’s nice to get a warm Saturday to take hundreds of loaves of bread, pizza and gluten-variants from my pizzeria, Avalanche, to the Athens Farmers Market to sell to my neighbors. One of my favorite items to make is my banana brioche with Nutella and almond pudding with roasted almonds, (above.)

             

Once I knew that it was going to be a warm day, I kicked my preparation into overdrive. First was the chorizo meatballs made from 10 pounds of King Family Pork, which is local, free of chemicals and raised humanely. On tuesday, I mixed a batch of 70 percent pre-ferment made from natural yeast to 30 percent high-protein flour with a pinch of diatatic malt and salt to a 70 percent hydrated dough and it sat in cold fermentation for four days to achieve a great bread.

                              

To this stellar fresh ground pork, I added smoked paprika, garlic, onion, cilantro, basil, pepper, salt, lemon zest, little gems of La Quercia lardo, some cut-up Caputo tipo “00” pizza cornicione, (crust) soaked in paprika and egg. (above left.) I then combined the crust with mozzarella and manchego cheese, toasted almonds, fresh spinach, Stanislaus Valorosso tomatoes and cilantro for a wonderful spanish pizza, (above right.)

I also had some ancho chilies from Patterson Organics here in Athens and whipped up a tikka masala sauce to roast with onions and those chilies. I used this mix on some great schiacciata topped with green beans and cheddar with cilantro made with some ciabatta dough with high hydration, (above.)

                                 

For the breads, along with the usual suspects like Italian sausage ladder bread and “Leek-a-choke,” with leeks, artichoke and parmesan, I made use of local spelt from Shagbark Seed and Mill for a Lebanese Barbari, (above left,) with ground coriander, sesame and sea-salt and some French style couronne with dried cherry and walnut, (above right.)

            

I also made use of several pounds of local parsnips, combining them with King Family bacon, roasted garlic, lemon zest for a knotted fougasse topped with fresh cumin seed and sea salt, (above left.) The other couronne and my personal favorite is packed with kalamata olives, rosemary and roasted garlic, (above right.)

                             

Some other pizza variants are the Turkish-style pide, (Pi-DAY) with mozzarella, provolone, basil pesto, fresh spinach and cherry tomato, (above left.) I also made a really cool schiacciata with two types of swiss cheeses and pork to boot. On one half is imported pancetta, (Italian cured bacon,) and French Emmenthal and the other is Finlandia swiss and King family ham.

Now, if none of those float your boat, then get a load of this honkin’ hunk of flavor- My  mushroom pizza with porcini, portobello, shiitake, oyster and button mushrooms, Parmigiano-Reggiano, thyme, fontina, provolone and teleggio cheeses with a sprinkle of white truffle oil and some cherry tomatoes.

Okay, here is a quick video of most of my baked stuff before the rush. It lasted about two hours before selling out…then I took a nap.

Oops almost forgot this great roulade of Shagbark polenta with ricotta and mascarpone with Reggiano, cilantro and sun-dried tomato topped with Gruyere cheese. yum.

See ya next week!

 

 

Spinach Schiacciata with Crust of Jeruselem Artichoke, Bacon, Cilantro and Ancho Chili

Last week I made a batch of bread and filled the dough with King Family Farms Bacon, Patterson ancho chili’s, fresh cilantro and some gnarly Jeruselem artichokes, (sunchokes,) that one of my favorite organic farmers, Ed Perkins dug up for me. I was proud to create a bread like this with such stellar local ingredients grown by great people.

              

I cut the ancho peppers and added them to a pan with whole strips of bacon and passed them through my 475 degree pizza oven for nine minutes, then I added the sunchokes for another nine minutes after cutting them in large chunks and holding them in lemon water so they wouldn’t turn brown. I had to be careful to not cook the chokes too much or they would turn to mush.

Photo: 3 am and the first of many stellar Jerusalem artichoke, ancho chili, cilantro and bacon fougasse are poppin'  see ya tomorrow!

The fougasse I made after letting this dough mature for 26 hours. I then egg washed the dough, cut and formed the dough and let it proof for another hour before firing it up in my conveyor pizza ovens while smiling my fleshy, old man smile as these beauties came out,  (above.)

                                              

For my pizza lunch, I cut a nine-ounce piece of the dough right after mixing and let it proof in a ball for two hours, (really not enough time for a great dough, but I had mixed 30 pecent flour with a 70 percent pre-ferment so it was maturing fast.) I pressed the dough out gently into a a football shaped schiacciata, (literally means, “flattened” in Italian) then topped it with a light coating of San Marzano tomato sauce, baby spinach and extra virgin olive oil. I baked it in a 475 degree oven for 12 minutes and…

                

This is what the leapording looked like on the bottom. The cell structure in the dough is small but irregular and because it is so young, the gluten has yet to wrap around the incorporated ingredients.

The oil from the bacon and chilies takes more than twenty four hours to get integrated into the dough, otherwise it looks like this, (above.) Although it wasn’t an “Epic Fail,” it could have been a much more mature integrated pizza dough.

I gobbled it up with glee nonetheless. The feeling of expectation when I bite into a pizza crust that is filled with chilies, sunchokes, cilantro and bacon is enough to make me happy for at least a few hours until the next small business crisis occurs.