Rustic Crusty French Bread - Fun, Funky & Fabulous

I'm not a big bread baker (not sweet enough for this cake loving gal), but I was intrigued by the simple Rustic Crusty French Bread recipe I found in my newest cookbook: Fun, Funky & Fabulous - New Orleans' Casual Restaurant Recipes.

He is the bread just coming out of the oven.  Doesn't it look fabulous.  (It does look a little overcooked, but hey, that is my trademark.)

The recipe has just four ingredients: flour, salt, yeast, and water.

And best of all the dough just takes a few minutes to mix with a wooden spoon.  No kneading, no bread hook, just stir it a few times and place it someplace warm to rise.  Easy-peasy.   But I have to admit that my first batch didn't turn out so fabulous.  The recipe calls for All-Purpose flour, but the AP flour I keep in the house is a soft flour (Martha White).  While the Martha White is great for tender cakes and cookies, it is not so good for bread.  The Martha White just doesn't have enough gluten to allow bread dough to get a good rise.  The second loaf, which was made with Gold Medal Bread Flour, came out much nicer.

 

The only bummer about the bread recipe is that you can't whip it up at the last minute.  Because after mixing you need to let it rise for at least 12 hours.  I usually make the dough at night, allow it to rise overnight, and bake it in the morning.

After rising, you form the dough into a ball and cut a hash pattern in the top.

Next it goes into a Dutch Oven.  I'm using this nifty Cast Aluminum Dutch Oven by CorningWare.  The pot is a little finicky to use (long list of do's and don'ts associated with the pot) but it works great and cleanup is a breeze.

 

With the cover on the Dutch Oven bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. 

 

Then remove the cover and bake for another 20 minutes until golden brown.

Slice and enjoy.  But be aware, they call this stuff Rustic Crusty French Bread for a reason -- it is very, very, very crusty.  It is so crusty I had to use an electric knife to cut it into slices. But once sliced, the crust was crunch and chewy and oh-so delicious.

(Below is the first loaf I baked using the Martha White AP flour.  You can tell that it is much flatter than the Gold Medal Bread Flour used above. So the type and brand of flour do make a difference when baking bread.)

  

So if you are new to bread baking, or just want to try a new technique/recipe, then give this Simple Rustic Crusty French Bread a try.  It is really worth the time. 

Happy Baking,

Carol

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Ovenly’s Vegan Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

The newest addition to my baking bookshelf is Ovenly  by  Agatha Kulagr and Erin Patinkin, and my first test subject from the book is the Vegan Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Don’t you just love chocolate chip cookies? Here, have one…

Now what makes this recipe different is the fact that it is Vegan, and pretty tasty to boot. It uses the standard dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt . . .

but it substitutes all the traditional dairy products (milk, butter, eggs) with canola oil and water.

I was a little skeptical that oil and water would combine, but after a minute of brisk whisking a smooth mixture was formed.

The chefs/owners of Ovenly Bakery stress that after mixing the dough you must let it chill for at least 12 hours before you bake it.  I'm not sure why it needs to be chilled.  Normally you chill to re-solidify the butter in the cookie recipe which helps it hold its shape, but this recipe just has oil.  Does oil solidify when it gets cold?  Where is Alton Brown when you need him!  I also found (unsurprisingly) that the dough was on the oily side.  When you form theses cookies make sure you have a towel handy, because your hands will get very slick.

But of course I was too impatient to wait more than an hour or two before baking up a few test subjects. Here are the little gems hot out of the oven. Golden brown and dotted with molten chocolate bliss.  I didn't have any coarse salt to sprinkle on them, so these are the unsalted version.

I actually managed to let them cool a bit before I popped one into my mouth. Hummm.... They were good, very tasty in fact, but I found them, how can I describe this … I found the texture of the cookie a tad oily and a little "loose".   The oily I can understand (the recipe called for 1/2 cup of canola oil), but it seemed that without the dairy the cookie didn't have anything to bind it together. The cookie just seemed to melt in your mouth without any chewing required. Melt in your mouth is not necessarily a bad thing, but I do like a little chew in my chocolate chip cookie. I wonder if chilling the dough for 24 hours will have any impact on the texture of the cookie...

 ~ 23 hours later ~

This time I followed the instructions to the letter.  I formed the dough into little pucks, popped them in the freezer for 10 minutes, and sprinkled them with coarse salt.

And the results were about the same.  I didn't see much difference between the cookies I chilled for 2 hours compared to the ones chilled for 23.  Same loose, melt in your mouth texture.  BUT much to my surprise I DID like the addition of the salt to the cookie.  With each bite I got this hint of salt mixed with the sweet of the cookie and chocolate.  It was like a brain teaser.  My mind didn't know whether to focus on the salt or the sweet.  The confusion kept me wanting more.  Very interesting phenomena.

So the final verdict from my family and myself...  Good cookies, very, very good cookies, but not the absolute best.  My favorite chocolate chip cookie is still the Mock Mrs. Field's also known as the Neiman-Marcus $250 Chocolate Chip Cookie that has ground oats and grated chocolate in the mix.

The next time I try this recipe I will throw in a some ground oats and some grated chocolate. That might dethrone the Mock Mrs. Field's cookie as my all time favorite!

Here is a link to the Ovenly Vegan Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies as published in Vogue Magazine.

Happy Baking,

Carol

Update (10-5-2014):  I baked a batch for a Saints Game Day Party, and these cookies were a huge, huge hit.  Everyone loved them!  There were no vegans at the party but there were who were several lactose intolerant.  The LI people now want these cookies baked for every sporting event.   And thankfully the Saints did win the game in OT what a nail biter.

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