Learning to bake with daddyPrimate: Ciabatta be kidding me!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJqjGfBgs-S/?taken-by=daddyprimate

This week I decided to have another go at ciabatta. The last time I made it went alright, however I didn’t leave it in the oven long enough to get a nice golden brown crust, and the dough was so thin the bread was tiny once it baked up.

This time I divided the dough in 2 instead of 4, and took it out based on color, not time. It turned out beautifully. What a terribly wet dough, though. It’s difficult to work with without knocking out all of the air. I didn’t need it to be perfect, just good enough to thicken a ribollita for dinner. That’s what it did, and it did so beautifully.

I think the next time I bake it will have to be something a bit more ridiculous, like a charlotte russe, or a povitica. Perhaps that will inspire greatness.

Learning to bake with daddyPrimate: Baguettes

I’ve always thought there was something kinda noble about a plain old baguette. It’s super simple as far as ingredients go, but packs such a punch of flavor that it can stand up to your tastebuds without any help from butter or jam…and when you add butter and jam omg. But I always thought they would be super difficult to make.

So I got out my good old friend Paul Hollywood’s book and got to work. Flour, yeast, salt, water, mix mix mix, rise rise rise. Bake bake bake.

What I ended up with looked nothing like a baguette or even a demi-baguette (because let’s get real, you need a freaking HUGE oven for full sized baguettes. But it tasted like a baguette, and was just a few minutes away from the perfect crust.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BECq_hDH98F/?taken-by=daddyprimate

Next time I will nail it, because j’adore les baguettes!!!

 

 

Learning to Bake with daddyPrimate: Bacon cheddar gyeran bbang

Last week I made gyeran bbang, the delicious little egg muffins you can buy on the street in Korea. This week I wanted them again, but noticed that there was also bacon and cheese in the fridge, so I did what any responsible daddy would do, and decided to go off the rails.

I cooked the bacon and prepped up the gyeran-bbang batter (but with way less sugar this time), dumped my egg in the center of each loaf, sprinkled on the bacon, and then covered that shit with shredded cheddar cheese.

14 minutes in the oven at 400F, and out they came.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDI1QCvH9xm/?taken-by=daddyprimate

 

Guess what. DELICIOUS.

 

Learning to Bake with daddyPrimate: Gyeran-bbang – Korean Egg Muffins

https://www.instagram.com/p/TPh3_SH9wZ/?taken-by=daddyprimate

 

About a million years ago, mommyPrimate and I lived in Korea. I could go on and on about Korea, how it’s a giant clash of ancient and modern, industrial and traditional, etc and so on. What I’m really here to talk about today is something we discovered only a couple of days before we left Korea in 2013. Gyeran-bbang. Egg muffins.

It was a cold day, and we were making a last trip to Seoul to kinda say farewell to the country that hosted us so graciously for a couple of years and kept us employed through the worst recession the US had seen since the great freaking depression. We got to Seoul around noon, took the subway to the stop we wanted, and got out, heading towards the palace we wanted to take photos at. It was cold that day. It had been the coldest winter in Korea in something like 45 or 50 years, and we were hungry.

The little tented food stalls on the street in Korea always seemed like a good place to get out of the cold wind for a minute, and we saw one that looked interesting. I mean, there was a line, so we got in it. The man behind the little counter was making little loaves of bread. We got 2 of them, and when we bit into the sweet dough, there was a motherfucking EGG inside. It was delicious.

Fast forward five years. I’ve got a house, a kid, a career, and all sorts of other grown up shit. I click on a bookmark while I’m derping on the internet last night and I see that Maangchi has posted a recipe for Gyeran-bbang, the little egg muffins we discovered that last day in Seoul. I thought “that’s cool, I’ll try it one day.” Then fell asleep.

I woke up this morning, mommyPrimate was out for a run, and babyPrimate was still asleep, and I looked at the recipe again. I had everything I needed and it looked easy. So I did it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BC2y4ien90J/?taken-by=daddyprimate

When mommyPrimate got home from her run I pulled these puppies out of the oven and BAM. THEY WERE JUST LIKE THE ONES WE HAD IN KOREA. ANNYEONG HASEYO, BITCHES.

Anyhow, Maangchi’s blog is amazing, her recipes always work, and it made my day start out with some warm fuzzy feels from a long time ago in a country far, far away.

Learning to bake with daddyPrimate: Basic White Bread

Hey beautiful, how about we make some sammiches together. #bread #baking #bread

A photo posted by Charlie (@daddyprimate) on Feb 6, 2016 at 5:34pm PST

 

Basic white bread is supremely useful. I feel particularly proud of this loaf as it was a) aesthetically pleasing, and b) delicious for sandwiches this morning.

YAAAASSSSS! Breakfast sandwiches on homemade #bread. #food #foodporn #foodpics #instafood #breakfast

A photo posted by Charlie (@daddyprimate) on Feb 7, 2016 at 8:46am PST

I feel like I have this basic loaf down pretty well. It’s easy to make without the use of a mixer or any other special equipment (other than a baking scale), and the extra bit of effort that goes into kneading it by hand sure makes for a fluffy loaf.

This proves that anyone can learn to bake their own bread, and that flour isn’t actually evil.

Learning to bake with daddyPrimate: Ciabatta be kidding me!

For my second bake of our weekly bread this week I wanted to do something fancy. And artisanal. Frankly, I wanted to bake baguettes. They are probably my favorite bread. So crusty on the outside and yeasty delicious and soft on the inside. Yum. Plus, you know that line from Superbad is true, right?

 

Alas, we were planning on making veggie burgers, so we needed something a little less crusty and a little softer to cut into buns. So I flipped to the next page of the book and wham, bam, thank you Paul Hollywood, there was a recipe for ciabatta. So I made it.

I knead more slomo in my life #baking #bread

A video posted by Charlie (@daddyprimate) on Feb 2, 2016 at 6:23pm PST

I guess the main difference between ciabatta and other breads is the olive oil. The mixture is basically bread flour, olive oil, water, yeast, and salt. Pretty damn simple. Mr. Hollywood suggested using the stand mixer instead of kneading by hand because the dough would be very wet, and that is gratifying. There’s little in the world I enjoy more than the thump, thump, thump of dough slapping against the side of the mixer bowl while the dough hook kneads it.

After about 8 satisfying minutes of the mixer, the dough has to rise about 2 hours until it’s doubled or tripled in size. It’s recommended to do this in a square plastic bin, so we picked one up at the grocery store. I covered it with my favorite tea towel to rise, and holy shit it went from a drop in the bucket to overflowing! So I cut them into loaves and coated them with semolina and put them in the oven, and I ended up with this:

Homemade ciabatta fresh out of the oven #bread #baking #food

A photo posted by Charlie (@daddyprimate) on Feb 2, 2016 at 6:16pm PST

Four reasonably sized loaves, some more perfect than others, of delicate ciabatta perfect for sammiches and just generally enjoying. This will be a bread to really perfect, as the dough really is very delicate, but it wasn’t difficult in the least to get a good result.

And if you’re wondering, the burgers were delicious.

Learning to bake with daddyPrimate: Soda Bread

It probably took about 6 hours of work on Ancestry.com to find out that not only am I American AF, but I’m about as “American” as it gets without being Native American. My dad’s family was here before the United States, and before they were here they were in Scotland. Mom’s family showed up just in time to fight dad’s family in the Civil War, and they came from Prussia (Straslund, now Germany) and Ireland’s County Cork.

One of the reasons I wanted to start baking was to find some semblance of a cultural heritage (beyond being American AF), and I don’t think a loaf of bread could get more Irish than Soda Bread. Hell, one of my old coworkers from Korea who is IRISH AF has spent some time figuring out how to make soda bread without being able to buy buttermilk, so there must be something cultural about it. Basically, I’m assuming that Soda Bread is Irish AF. (There’s a theme going here with the AF. All the kids use it these days, so I will too.)

Anyhow, the recipe was basic, flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. Sift the dry ingredients together, add the buttermilk, stir until the dough comes together, form into a ball, plop on a baking sheet, bake for “30 minutes.” It wasn’t quite brown enough at 30 minutes, but I took it out and tapped it like a drum. It was hollow so I let it cool and cut into it. I could tell right away there was a raw spot as the knife got stuck. I stuck it back in the oven for five minutes more. Nope. Another five minutes. Nope. Finally giving up because we had already eaten the potato and leek soup I made to go with the bread, I pulled it out and cut out the raw spot.

My first try at soda bread. Sounds hollow. I guess we will see when we rip it open. #bread #baking #irish

A photo posted by Charlie (@daddyprimate) on Jan 31, 2016 at 3:25pm PST

Aside from the raw spot, it tasted pretty great. I think next time I’m just going to start checking for doneness at 30 minutes and let it brown a bit more, but what a great bread! You can have this lump of delicious on your table in about an hour, maybe less if your oven cooks faster…and it’s IRISH AF.

Learning to bake with daddyPrimate: A forgiving Brioche

 

My dough was in the mixer, it had just picked up all of the dry ingredients from the side of the bowl and begun to slap the sides. I had read the instructions ten times. This was the moment to add the butter. I dropped my carefully measured, perfectly soft butter into the bowl and it began to incorporate. Then I reread the instructions.

The dough was supposed to be kneaded for 6-8 minutes before the butter was added. I screwed up. It was going to be terrible. I was certain it wouldn’t rise. Certain it wouldn’t take color. Certain it wouldn’t taste good.

The feeling of "oh shit" that happens when you realize the brioche you're making for breakfast needs to prove for 3 hours. #bread #baking #food #lol #iguessitslunch

A photo posted by Charlie (@daddyprimate) on Jan 23, 2016 at 6:17am PST

But I pressed on. Let it finish in the mixer, refrigerated it overnight, and this morning when I woke up it had risen to the top of the bowl, the butter had hardened and it was easy to shape into little balls. I had planned to serve the brioche at breakfast, but alas, it needed to prove for 3 hours.

I had yogurt for breakfast, and mommyPrimate had oatmeal. We carried on like good soldiers fighting the good fight. She went for a run, I lifted, and whilst lifting I tossed my brioche in the oven, expecting a disaster. But a disaster never unfolded. It was like this:

For the last ten minutes I sat next to the oven, watching it, periodically poking it with a skewer to see if it was done, and after about 6 minutes longer than Mr. Hollywood said it would take, the skewer came out clean.

Brioche! #bread #baking #food

A photo posted by Charlie (@daddyprimate) on Jan 23, 2016 at 9:03am PST

Brioche!!! #bread #baking #food #foodporn

A photo posted by Charlie (@daddyprimate) on Jan 23, 2016 at 9:04am PST

 

So after such struggles, it came together. I think the dough may have been a bit glossier if I had added the butter at the correct time, but it still turned out very nicely. It’s velvety smooth on the inside, very rich and buttery, and golden brown on the outside. It rose so much in the oven that I had to raise the rack above it.

If you’re new to baking, I might suggest a brioche. It will forgive you when you sin.

I’m looking forward to trying it again, but in a different shape, and filled with chocolate. And again, with brie. And again, with nutella.

 

Learning to bake with daddyPrimate: Plain white loaf

Plain old loaf of white #bread so we can have sandwiches this week. #baking #food

A photo posted by Charlie (@daddyprimate) on Jan 17, 2016 at 7:11pm PST

After a week of cakes, it’s back to bread. I thought I’d go kinda no-frills and do the plain white loaf for sandwiches type of bread. So I opened up How to Bake by Paul Hollywood, got out my bread flour, butter, salt, yeast, and some water, and got to mixing, by hand. Once the dough came together I kneaded and kneaded until it had a silky outer skin, then let it rise for about 3 hours. After reshaping it, taking out all of the air, and forming it into a sausage shape I let it prove for about an hour in its tin, and popped it in the oven with some water for steam.

I haven’t cut it open yet, but it has risen. RISEN I TELL YOU. And it’s big enough for sandwich slices. I’m excited. SO EXCITED. I have made bread! TO MY OWN SATISFACTION!