Baguettes: Are They Really So Difficult To Make?

I was scared of making baguettes for a long time. For no apparent reason, just an eerie feeling of awe. Perhaps the whole reputation of the baguette got to me.

Until today. I decided that this is just another bread recipe and I am quite able to make bread. In fact, I have been researching and practicing the art for almost a year now. About time for the leap of faith, don't you think?

I already crossed the hurdle of having steam in the oven, so that would not be a problem. I also solved the problem of over-baking the loaves, which has to do with the fan in the oven and having a more even temperature gradient in the oven. I now use a temperature setting of 20-25 degrees C lower than what the recipe asks for. After the requisite baking time, I check the status of the loaves and may up the temperature or leave the loaves to bake a bit longer or both. The problem only arises when you already have too high a temperature and things happen faster than one anticipates. Perhaps there is another lesson there.

Be it as it may, I proceeded with my next experiment. This recipe is adapted from a recipe on the blog Take Back The Bread. I decided that I shall be treading the new path very carefully. The recipe asks for 4-5 cups of unbleached white flour. I used the same quantity but substituted 2 cups of stone ground, unbleached, whole wheat brown bread flour. The rest of the ingredients are very simple. Salt, two cups of water, instant yeast. That's it. Mix thoroughly, knead and leave to rise. Don't add more water but have a slightly soft dough. Use a dessert spoon or two of oil on the outside of the dough to prevent it from drying out.

Of course, in my world nothing happens with all the ease that the explanation would have. At first I used some leftover instant yeast stored in the original envelope, closed by folding over the open end and keeping it closed with a clothes-peg. This doesn't work for more than a day or two. My batch of dough did not rise and I had a problem. How do I get more yeast into the mix? After some deliberation I figured it out. Not too much of a problem. 

Spread the dough by patting or rolling into a thinnish sheet, then sprinkle some yeast on the surface. Then fold the sheet several times and flatten again. Repeat the process till all the yeast is in the dough. Hopefully it is now spread reasonably evenly throughout the dough. You also are left with some decent folding and kneading which is not bad for the intended baguette.

This lot I left to rise for another hour, after which it had risen properly. The dough was kneaded down and split into two halves for the shaping part of the process.

The shaping part is also quite easy. Roll out the dough into a rectangle roughly three times as long as it is wide. In my case I used baguette pans, so one of the dimensions was determined already. Once the dough is rolled out, start at one of the short ends and roll it up into a sausage. Make sure that the sausage is tightly rolled, otherwise you may end up with a loosely rolled thin loaf. The sausage now gets put down with the end joint at the bottom. Tuck the short ends in by pulling the top part over the end and tucking it under the end. This will tidy up the loaf. Repeat with the other loaf. Now roll each loaf in some dry flour, just for a small dusting.

Cover with a wet tea cloth and allow to rise for another hour. The loaves should double in volume again. Take a sharp knife and make three shallow diagonal cuts on top of each loaf to allow for oven spring. Leave the loaves to rest for another ten minutes before popping them into a pre-heated oven at 220ºC/425ºF. My oven has a fan that stirs the air inside around, so I use a setting of 200ºC/390ºF, else the oven is too hot. I also put a cup of water at the bottom of the oven to supply some steam for the baking process.

Bake the loaves for 22 minutes or until they are nice and light brown on top. Remove them from the oven and leave to rest for another fifteen minutes. This will allow the crumb to develop and get rid of the last steam inside the loaves.

This time I had real success. The loaves came out with a thin chewy crust and a light crumb. Of course, these were brown, so it looked a bit different from the normal white flour baguette.  Small holes, probably too little water. A lesson for next time.

But the taste was exquisite.

I wonder where my fear went. Probably evaporated when the dough did not rise as expected. Live a little, learn a little. We used the opportunity to have this with some cheese and wine for a light romantic dinner. Wonderful food.

This post also linked to Yeastspotting!

Authored by Johan Zietsman
Last updated on 2012-12-12

The Ribbed Skillet: Bane Or Boon?

Do you possess a ribbed skillet? Yes? Have you made friends with it yet?

I happen to have one. And it took me a while until I figured out how to use it properly. About three or four times, to be precise.

We bought such a ribbed skillet from Le Creuset after we relocated to the Western Cape. We were staying in a guest house until our new home was vacated and we could move in. The cookware at the guest house was of doubtful quality and buckled, so cooking became a drudgery. Also, all our cookware were stored with the rest of the furniture, so we simply couldn't get hold of it and had to make another plan. Luckily we found a Le Creuset outlet close to us and were able to at least make living bearable by cooking proper food.

One of the characteristics of this skillet is that it needs to be on the hot to very hot side to work properly. This we found out by trial and error. In addition, it is not necessary to use oil or a marinade with the meat. Marinade will burn or scorch at the temperatures required for the proper grilling of the cut.

I recently decided to grill some steaks as part of my continued competency in the use of the skillet. The specific cut I bought had bones in it. I like to think it is part of the thick rib meat just at the end of the rib cage, but my butcher sold it as club steak. I liked the idea of meat on the bone, as this makes for interesting side effects. The meat tends to receive less heat close to the bone, making the even grilling slightly more adventurous. The cuts I selected were of even thickness. This is important, as an uneven cut will always cook to well-done stage at the thin end before the rest is even medium rare. Something to bear in mind when shopping for a cut to barbecue or grill in the skillet.

The meat was taken out of the vacuum package and left to rest and breathe outside for ten minutes or so. These cuts are claimed to be matured and they certainly looked the part. The meat had a slight grey colour just out of the package, turning a more healthy red as it breathed.

The meat was accompanied by mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus and some sweet carrots.

The skillet was heated on the largest burner on the gas hob, the setting at about three-quarters full. You don't want to have hot spots in the skillet, you want an even heat distribution, slightly on the hot side. The meat was placed on the fat side first, standing the two steaks on end and leaning them against each other. This gets the fat in the pan and out of the meat. Also something to lubricate your skillet. Some will say that this is not very healthy, but it works and the only fat on the meat is on the outside. You may cut it off on your plate if you don't want it. You will ingest some fat due to the grilling in the skillet, but that little bit won't kill you, I believe.

When the fat has a nice brown colour the meat is turned down on the flat side for normal grilling. There should be a moderate amount of fat smoke around, so do use your cooker hood extractor, else you may get in trouble with the rest of the household. The meat may be turned every two minutes or so. If there is hardly any smoke from the fat, the skillet may be too cold and the gas flame needs to be turned up. Too much smoke and the gas gets turned lower. You may remove the skillet from the hob if it gets too hot. Mind the handle, it also gets hot. Use a dry towel or glove.

Give the skillet time to cool slightly, then put it back on the burner. The thickness of the cast iron skillet makes for a wonderful heat retention and it does not really play roller coaster with the temperature.

The test for the steaks being done is of course to make a small cut in the steak and pull it open to see what it looks like inside. I normally turn the steaks a couple of times until they are nice and brown on the outside, then make a small cut for inspection. This is where your expertise lies. You need to judge the state of cooking by the colour of the outside. Another sign would be that there is juice seeping out of the top of the meat. This is a clear indication that the meat is getting drier and that the inside is now past boiling point. Remove the meat from the skillet at that stage. It is always a good idea to then let the meat rest for at least ten minutes before serving. You may heat the meat again by briefly putting it back in the skillet. I seasoned these steaks with our standard braai salt, nothing very organic, just the normal braai stuff.

After the steaks were removed from the skillet, the fresh asparagus sprouts went in. These were fried in the juices left over from the steaks. They scorch a little where they touch the ribbing in the skillet, but otherwise they turn a very nice bright green. At this point they are removed from the skillet, else they overcook and go limp.

In the meantime I peeled the potatoes and cut them into medium thick slices. This helps to cook fast. A drip tray over the saucepan contained the julienne'd carrots for steaming. The lid of the saucepan went over it all. The saucepan is also a cast iron one from the Le Creuset series. Nice heat retention and a fast heat-up cycle. And you use the lowest setting on the smallest burner on the hob to do the job once the saucepan has heated up.

The carrots were removed from the steamer and transferred to another dish where I added some brown sugar. This was nuked in the microwave to melt the sugar and get it close to caramel.

The potatoes were mashed, along with some cream and a dollop of milk. Add salt and black pepper to taste and a finger bunch of chives as garnish, chopped coarsely, to round off the mash.

Add a glass of a full-bodied red wine and Voila!, you have a nice quick meal.

This is how I made friends with my skillet. You did you do?

Authored by Johan Zietsman
Last updated on 2012-12-12

The New Kitchen Work Top

Ever wanted a decent looking work top in the kitchen? For no specific reason but some itching? Rest assured you are not alone.

And the itch is not something to sneeze at, no pun intended. It is part of those things in life where you just know something is not quite right, but you can't put your finger on it. There are tomes written on this in the academia, with reference to businesses and so on. I like to think that this is part of your sixth sense telling you that, aesthetically, something is wrong.

Enough of philosophy, how does one get a new work top for very little money? The answer lies in doing it yourself. And with a little planning up front it becomes a relatively easy task.

The existing work top in our kitchen is a post-formed top made of chipboard covered in melamine. An ugly speckled one to boot. Small things lose themselves immediately on contact with the top. Like your car keys, as a prime example. After a short research effort on the internet, I decided on a wooden work top. My choice was confirmed when I saw such a top at our local kitchen cupboard supplier, where they have some examples of kitchen layouts.

The choice of wood versus other materials can be quite disconcerting, with lots of pros and cons each way. I made my choice on the basis of aesthetics, cost and the ability to do it myself, thereby saving much overheads in the form of labour cost. This project is something one can do in the span of a week's worth of evenings if you are a working person.

I visited my local exotic wood supplier, which is Rare Woods in the Cape Town area. In the Gauteng area Silverton Timber Merchants will stand a visit. The internet is a wonderful place, full of handy information right under your nose.

So, I duly rocked up at the shop, where the salesperson enquired after my needs. I replied that I was looking to buy a plank. Which raised no end of giggles, but he assured me that he would do his utmost to help. I actually made contact with another human being, forsooth!

After a short discussion, I settled on a 3.6m x 38mm x 320mm mahogany plank. We selected a reasonably straight one without cracks. The wood was then nicely planed and cut to my specifications for a small additional cost. Three days later I went to fetch my plank, which was now reduced to three pieces of the proper dimensions of 1.10m x 310mm x 32mm. The thickness corresponds with the thickness of the existing top, so I don't have to worry about filling the gap between the existing wall tiles and the new top. The length also corresponds with the existing work top.

All that remained for me to do was to glue the three planks together to complete the top. I had some fun and games with a clamping system, until I remembered that one can just bind the planks together by winding thick string around the two planks. I did this in two steps because I did not have clamps. You need ten or more windings and preferably one at each end of the planks to get good clamping. For the second gluing I went and hired long clamps, which of course made the work a lot easier.

Then the sanding started, which of course takes a lot more beer than one anticipates! Jokes aside, this is also something one can do by hand as I did. You don't need electric machines, although they reduce this job to one of an afternoon. I started with coarse sandpaper, around 120 grit, then worked down in two more steps to a 400 grit. After sanding the board, wipe it with a dry cloth to get rid of the dust, then wipe it with a wet cloth to make the grain stand up. When the wood's grain stands up, you give it the once over with your used sandpaper before going to the next finer grit.

The mahogany has a nice grain, but is a bit on the grey side to my tastes. Also, I could not afford a teak plank. So I bought some high quality wood stain. I chose a cherry wood stain, which gave me a nice dark hue with a red tint. The wood goes darker too with application of boiled linseed oil, which is my choice of oil for the initial finish.

The wood sucked up two coats of the stain, giving me a very nice dark auburn finish. This was topped with another two coats of boiled linseed oil, applied copiously on all sides and allowed to dry for two days between coats. The wood also absorbed all of this.

The top was now basically ready for installation.  Installation was a cinch because of my little bit of planning in the beginning. I had to screw out five screws to remove the old top, slide the new one in, then redo the five screws. It took me longer to refit the cupboard doors than to install the work top. There is a dirty part, which is the sealing of the top around the edges, using silicone sealant. My kitchen was in dire need of this anyway.

The new top still needs a light coat of oil once a week for the next four months or so. Until the oil starts to congeal on top. The wood will then be reasonably sealed.

On the topic of the use of wood and its finishes in a food-environment, there is much ado. I had a long conversation with my local pharmacist, which was quite enlightening. The wood in itself is not toxic, unless of course you choose a toxic wood. Bacteria may enter the pores, yes. They don't like the natural oils in the wood and probably will not survive. And the oils that you use to seal the wood has an added detrimental effect to their longevity.

Enter the next factor, which is the use of mineral oil. As far as I could find out, bacteria do not like mineral oils either and will die promptly in such an environment. Good news. Then I went in search of food grade mineral oil. I found it after a lengthy search, sitting pretty on the shelf at the upmarket furniture shop, complete with an upmarket price to match.
Getafix is a proper name for the character from the Asterix stories. My local pharmacist could have a nickname like that. I went to him with my lamentations and, lo and behold, I got a fix.

Food grade mineral oil comes with many names, not the least of which is liquid paraffin. Which is obtainable from your local pharmacy without a prescription, nogal. And in decent quantities as well. It is a by-product of the oil refinery process and is readily available. So I promptly bought half a litre of the stuff. End of hygiene and maintenance problems in the kitchen. This stuff also works for your favourite cutting board and butcher's block. It blocks odours as well as tastes .

Voila! Now my kitchen is aesthetically more pleasing. And the cost of all of this was just over R1000. The plank cost me R780 which included the planing and cutting to size. The stain was R89, the boiled linseed oil R80 and the glue R60. Add a few Rand for the sandpaper to complete the budget.

Well worth the effort, don't you think?


Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2013-06-26

The Cookout with Le Creuset at Silwood Kitchen

How is that for name dropping? Cooking at the oldest cookery school in the country as the guest of the famous Le Creuset brand cookware.

Well, it happened to me. I received an invitation from Gillian MacGregor, the marketing manager of Le Creuset, to attend one of their customer evenings at the Silwood Kitchen in the southern suburbs of Cape Town.

All of this because I use their cookware and flaunt it. I flaunt the cookware because it does really deliver the goods and makes for a pleasant cooking experience.

People following my blog will know that I like cooking. They will also understand that the cooking that we do on board a small yacht out at sea differs from your everyday cooking by being limited both in ingredients and equipment. So it was indeed a privilege and a welcome change to go and experience a smooth running kitchen. I was very exited when Gill called me with the invite. Almost danced a small gigue then.

We arrived at the school on a late Thursday afternoon, where we were greeted by Gary of the Silwood Cookery School and our instructor for the evening. This was actually quite an eye opener to arrive just before dusk and to see the garden at the school. The setting is quite idyllic, with large trees in the garden.

We were duly plied with wine to ease our nerves. The school staff made us chef's hats and we were issued with bright orange aprons to round off the looks.

The kitchen, of course, was immaculate and their were little packages of welcoming presents for all of us. A kind gesture from Le Creuset. Amongst other things, the package contained a mini fluted flan dish which we were going to use for the tarte tatin that we making later on.

The menu for the evening was pasta alla saffi with home-made pasta (asparagus, broad beans ham),

Thai chicken curry and banana and blueberry tarte tatin. All, except the curry being foreign terms to me. My pasta experience is limited to the spaghetti Bolognese version that we make on board. A far cry from what we were to experience.

We started off with making the tarte tatin, as these need baking and thus take a long time. The very famous upside-down French dessert. You make it upside down, then turn it over before serving it. The first part of it was making the caramel. I have never done this before, so it was nice doing it under supervision of a pro! A neat trick to get even consistency and colour in the caramel is to add a little fluid to the sugar. The caramel went into the flan dish first. Then, after letting the caramel cool somewhat, the banana and blueberries are added. Over this goes a piece of puff pastry slightly larger than the dish. The pastry gets tucked into the dish, as this will be the serving platform when the cooking is done and you turn it over. These went into the oven and the next item on the menu started.

Which was the curry. This was made by frying the onions, sweet pepper and garlic in oil, then adding the curry paste and, after frying all of this for a minute or two, the coconut milk. This sauce was then boiled over medium heat to reduce before the chicken was added. At the end some fresh basil and coriander leaves are added. A wonderful dish indeed.

I had a discussion about the recipe with Gary, our instructor. The discussion centred on the preparation time. Again, I learned something new. The difference between my procedure and the school's one is the order of proceedings in making the dish. This does make a difference. Of course, it is rather nice having all the spices ready as you need it. Very nice at the school. However, at home and on the boat I have to do it all by myself. A labour of love well worth the effort, given the results.

Lastly we made the pasta. Gary demonstrated the procedure for making the pasta from the basic raw ingredients. Not too difficult, but you need to pay attention. Certainly worth the effort as well. Fresh pasta is not to be sneezed at. And this one especially, made with fresh spinach. The tagliatelli came out a dark green colour. We had ready-mixed pasta to process, which was a lot of fun. I don't have a pasta mill at home, so I have to make do with an Indian rolling pin, and a cutting board. The Indian rolling pin is about as thick as a Tabasco bottle and tapers towards the ends. This gives a lot of leverage to get the dough thin. When the dough gets to large, simply cut it into long strips and roll these out to the desired thickness. The lesson here is to measure the quantities. 100 grams of flour makes a huge amount of pasta. I once made pasta a la Jamie Oliver by chucking the whole packet of flour onto the work surface, adding salt and three eggs and mixing the lot. We had pasta for the next week, after the missus threw away the rest. So, a proper lesson indeed.

The pasta alla Saffi tastes of heaven. The fresh spinach flavour goes very well with the asparagus and peas, the cream consolidates the flavours. Hmmmm!

I also had the opportuity of cooking with the triple layer stainless steel saucepans made by Le Creuset. A marvellous concept indeed. The pan heats up very quickly and keeps its heat. They are not too heavy and the handle lies comfortably in the hand. What a pleasure to use these. There is one on my shopping list, along with a round cast iron casserole to complement the buffet casserole and saucepan that we already own. Perhaps another smaller saucepan. These work a treat as well. Once these cast iron pots are up to heat you can turn the gas way down low, even on the smallest setting. We have been using our 32 cm buffet casserole extensively over the last year and this heat retention rings true. You use the lowest setting on the smallest burner of the gas stove to keep the pot boiling. Literally. Our gas usage runs to 9kg over six to eight months, cooking every day. The variation is attributable to having dinner guests over more than twice a month.

The food was delicious. The evening a pleasure. And all of us amateur, part time home chefs enjoyed ourselves to bits.

And we all learnt something.

Thanks again to Le Creuset and the Silwood Kitchen.

Authored by Johan Zietsman
Last updated on 2012-12-12

Sourdough Brown Loaf on Bricks: Part Two of the Experiment

My previous blog post documented my first affray into the world of baking on a stone. The experiment was successful in two parts.

Firstly, I tested a new method of baking. I used paving bricks as an oven stone to get more thermal mass in the oven to help keeping the temperature stable. Secondly I tested a new idea with the dough that I was using.

On both counts I learnt something.


On the subject of the oven stone, I probably had too many in the oven, thereby restricting airflow in the oven. Not good. So this time around I had just enough bricks in the oven to make a small floor for each bread pan. Instead of eight bricks, I used four. This made a huge difference in the air flow in the oven and there was a substantial flow of steam all around. I have an oven with a fan inside stirring the air around. This means that there is much less of a temperature gradient from top to bottom in the oven than without the fan. Needless to say, the bread developed a very nice crust.

The new brick layout to facilitate air flow in the oven.

I also had to make an adjustment to my baking regime in terms of baking time and the timing of when to put the loaf in the oven. For the moment, I use a thumb-suck of 15 minutes heat-up time for the oven. If it is not up to the correct temperature, the loaf will have some time for “oven spring” before the dough sets.
I also had to adjust the temperature part of the baking regime. The fan causes an even temperature throughout the oven, so one needs a lower temperature setting as a result. I now bake at a temperature of around 175ºC/350ºF, instead of 200ºC/400ºF.

Good fermentation bubbles in the starter

I also used to leave the loaves in the oven for another ten to fifteen minutes after switching off the heat. When using an oven stone or, in my case, bricks, the loaves will definitely over-bake, so be aware and take them out after the allotted cooking time.

In terms of the dough there is also some progress. The previous loaf used some milk and sugar, which was repeated here. The resulting dough seems to have smaller fermentation bubbles, giving almost a lighter character to the loaf in the end. I decided to stick with this mixture for the next few loaves.

For these loaves I used half a cup of the sourdough, one cup of rye flour, two cups of stone ground, whole wheat, brown bread flour and a cup of white bread flour for the kneading board. To this lot was added 1½ teaspoons of salt and two dessert spoons of brown sugar along with a ¼ cup of milk.

I made the starter by adding the rye flour to the quarter cup of sourdough. This was left for six hours to multiply and develop. There was good fermentation, as you can see in the picture. Next came the rest of the dry ingredients, using only half of the white bread flour, into a large mixing bowl in one fell swoop. Using a sturdy medium-sized spatula from the Le Creuset range, I mixed the dry ingredients well before adding the milk and the sourdough starter. This was mixed until the dough was too dry, then I added a little more water, about two dessert spoons' worth, still keeping the half cup of white bread flour in reserve for the kneading board.

Very good rising

The dough eventually turned into one big ball, which was then turned out onto the well floured kneading board for further manual treatment. The dough duly absorbed the rest of the white bread flour during the kneading, for which I was grateful. The mix appears to contain the correct quantities.

The dough was kneaded until it became satiny, at which stage I patted it into a flattened ball and covered it with some cooking oil. The cooking oil works well to prevent drying out during the rising phase. The dough was left overnight for twelve hours to rise. It almost tripled in volume, for which I was grateful again. It tells me that my wild yeast is healthy and lively. I then kneaded the dough back to the original volume, cut it in half, not tearing it, and then shaped it into two medium sized loaves for the baking tins. These were left for another four hours before I popped them into the pre-heated oven. The loaves were baked for forty minutes, after which I switched the heat off. This is where I think the next change in my baking regime should be to prevent over-baking. Remove the loaves from the oven immediately on completion of baking time. Turn them out of the tins onto a tray to cool. Allow cooling for at least twenty minutes. There is still some steam inside the loaves that needs to diffuse out of the loaves.

The new arrangement in the oven

My loaves had steam in them even after leaving them in the oven for another fifteen minutes after switching off the heat. That is courtesy of the little bowl of water in the bottom of the oven.

All's well that ends well and this experiment was no exception. The loaves came out better looking than the previous experiment and they had risen properly before the dough set into the crust.

Chalk up another successful baking experiment. Quite worth the effort, therapeutic to make and a joy to eat.



This post also linked to Yeastspotting! 



Authored by Johan Zietsman
Last updated on 2012-12-12