my discovery of Bread: July 2011

Friday, July 29, 2011

Gibassier Pomelo

Host for this months Bread Baking Day is Palmira of Come Con Migo El Blog de Palmira Palmira asked us to bake Bread for a Picnic.

We gave it some thought, and came up with this sweet bread. This bread is so delicious you can eat it all day and especially when you are having a picnic.

Normally we buy some Thai food and have our picnic in the National Park near our village. There is a nice river floating through the park and you can sit on the grass. The trees provide a nice shade during the hot weather. They even have a nice hot spring.

Next time we will bring our Gibassier too. It’s nice to have something sweet after a spicy meal.

Ciril Hitz wrote about these Gibassier in Baking Artisan Pastries & Breads; ‘in my wife's opinion, one of the best breakfast breads ever’. We agree!

As soon as I saw these, I knew I had to make them. Don’t they look absolutely delicious! Gibassier is a sweet bread from the Provence. In the original Gibassier there is orange flower water, candied orange peel and anise. I didn’t have all these ingredients. But we just bought candied pomelo. I agree the color is very green, but it tastes good. And, instead of orange flower water and anise, I used vanilla essence. Because of the different ingredients I call it Gibassier Pomelo. For us this is a perfect Picnic Bread.

These Gibassier are fun to shape. I used a credit card to make the cuts in the dough, a handy tool. The dough is sweet, light and with a little fresh bite from the Pomelo. I followed the recipe and made 12 Gibassier. The next day we met some friends and I knew they would love them too. You can keep them in the refrigerator or, like I did, in a covered plastic bowl. I kept them fresh for 3 days, until they were all gone.

The Bread Baking Babes are making Hamburger Buns. And we will have them too, I thought. But, I wasn't paying attention enough. I made nice Sourdough Italian Buns and not the Hamburger Buns the Babes made. Next month I will follow the recipe and join the BBB as a Buddy.

I used this dough before, I made Sourdough Italian Rolls. They are delicious. At first I thought of making my buns with nigella seed, but during the process I made these nice buns; plain with a cross and others with white sesame seed on top.

We loved these shaped as Rolls and we love them shaped as Buns. That evening Peter made some great Hamburgers; filled with fried onions and delicious herbs. Even dough I didn't joined them, thanks to the Babes we had a nice dinner with home made hamburgers and buns.

Tartine's Quiche

I love Tartine country bread and found a recipe of Tartine’s Quiche and thought; ‘this probably will taste great’. It has been a long time since we had Quiche. The last one had a delicious filling with caramelized onions, the same I use for my French Onion soup. But that tart shell was not good, and with a Quiche the shell is an important part.

I had a good feeling with this Tartine Quiche and went for it. I'm happy I did, it’s great! The secret ingredient is crème fraîche and a small amount of flour. I used home made yoghurt and this worked too. The crème fraîche is what makes the filling smoother.

The taste of the tart shell was creamy and it had a nice crust. The next day we eat the remaining piece with a salad. It is worth the wait; eat this Quiche the next day!

For filling you can use everything you like. The recipe called for Swish Chart; we didn’t have. So we made up our own filling. Next time I will make a Quiche with French Onions, it will be delicious too. I know for sure, because this tart shell is great.

Pita Bread with Shawarma and sauce

It has been 6 years since we had Pita bread with shawarma and those delicious sauces. In Holland you can find a lot of restaurants from the middle East. When we were younger we would go to eat a pita bread with shawarma after a night out. Peter loved his pita bread full of garlic sauce and I would mix the garlic sauce with the red hot sauce; yummy.

It took me a few minutes on The Fresh Loaf to find this recipe of Pita Bread and a few more minutes to find recipes on Shawarma and sauces.

Vermont Sourdough with Increased Whole Grains

We LOVE this bread. It has a thick crunchy crust and a moist, chewy crumb. The taste is full of flavor; rye, whole wheat and roasted wheat germs. Healthy can be delicious too.

There is a difference in taste between baking the loaf the same day and after retard proofing it in the refrigerator. Proofing in the refrigerator gives a little more sour taste. But, when I also added whole wheat and wheat germs this blended the sour taste. The smell of roasted wheat germs is delicious; it really adds, besides being healthy, something to the bread.

For some months I’m baking all kind of bread. Mostly I bake sourdough bread. I started my discovery of .... Here I collect my learning experiences with Tartine. I will also add my experiences with this Vermont Bread. At this moment Vermont Bread with Increased Whole Grains is no. 1 of our favorites.

Roundup Bread Baking Day #41; the 4th Anniversary.

Here is the roundup of BBD#41. It's the fourth anniversary of this Blog event. Many delicious breads, recipes and idea's were shared in these past four year.

First of all we all like to thank Zorra for this great event; it brings artisan home bakers together and helps to experiment even more. What is more fun than sharing and learning from each other. Personally I like to thank Zorra for letting me host this event; It is fun and I hope I can do it again one day.
The next person I would like to thank is Peter, my husband. Just when all the entries were filling my mailbox and with the round up in sight, I had an infection in my right hand. The doctor advised to choose between baking and using the computer. Peter suggested he would do the typing for the roundup so I could keep on baking.
And of course we like to thank all artisan bakers who joined this event.

This month there are 20 breads with herb. Nowadays you can find rosemary, thyme and basil everywhere in the world. These became local herbs all around our globe. The bakers made great combinations; beside delicious herbs some used beer, another one made a delicious pizza, there is mustard, lemon, curry leaves and tomatoes and bread snacks, and.... many more

Do have a look at all entries. Please leave a comment at your visit; all artisan bread bakers love comments especially when they are nice or helpful!