Pan

Whole Kitchen in their Savory Challenge for the month of November invites us to prepare an Italian classic: “Ciabatta”. I had been really wanting to make this recipe but I never thought it would turn out well, and… it turned out so well, yes indeed! It even looked like a real ciabatta. The recipe is slow because of the rising times, but it’s simple to make and the result is incredibly good.

What do we need?

(For two loaves)

For the starter:

• 2.5 g fresh yeast

• 150 ml (2/3 cup) water

• 3 tablespoons warm milk

• 1/4 teaspoon honey or granulated sugar

• 150 g (1.25 cups) bread flour

For the dough:

• 2.5 g fresh yeast

• 250 ml (1 cup) water

• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

• 350 g (2.75 cups) bread flour

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt

How do we make it?

• First, we prepare the starter. Sprinkle the yeast into a large bowl with the water and milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then add the honey or sugar and stir to dissolve.

• Add the flour and mix to form a loose dough. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let it ferment for 12 hours or overnight.

• Once the wait is over, we move on to the dough. Sprinkle the yeast into a small bowl with the water. Let it sit for 5 minutes; stir to dissolve. Add the yeast water and the olive oil to the starter and mix well.

• Into the bowl, add the flour with the salt and mix to form a wet, sticky dough. Beat continuously with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes; the dough will turn fluffy and start to pull away from the sides, but it will still be too soft to knead.

• Cover the dough with a kitchen towel. Let it ferment for about 3 hours, until the dough has tripled in size and is full of air bubbles. Generously flour two baking sheets and have extra flour ready to dust your hands.

• Divide the dough in half while it’s still in the bowl. Tip half of the dough onto one of the sheets.

• With your hands well coated in flour, shape it into a rectangular loaf about 30 cm (12 inches) long. Dust the loaf and your hands again with flour. Tidy and thicken it by running your fingers along the sides and gently tucking under the bottom of the dough. Repeat the same with the other half.

• Uncovered, let the loaves rise for about 20 minutes; they will spread out and grow in volume.

• Put them in the oven, preheated to 220°C (430°F), and bake for 30 minutes until the loaves have risen, are golden brown, and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Let cool on a wire rack.

Tips:

• It’s a very sticky dough that you barely have to work with your hands. That’s why, in the final steps, it’s important to keep your hands well covered in flour and not handle the dough too much, since otherwise half of it will end up stuck to you.

• I use the pressed baker’s yeast you can find in cubes in the supermarket in the bakery/pastry section, always refrigerated. I buy a bunch and freeze them, so I always have some on hand whenever I need it. That said, it’s important to keep in mind that frozen yeast loses a bit of its “power”, so you’ll need to add a little more than what the recipe calls for.

• When baking, I put both sheets in at the same time and after 20 minutes I swapped them so that both loaves cooked evenly on both sides.

Comments

Marisa (2012-11-22 12:51:05):

She brought a piece home for me and it’s awesome, delicious, amazing… mmm, I want more!

tía pi (2012-11-22 18:13:13):

It’s a pleasure how well you explain everything and the tips you give. I promise to make it and tell you how it turns out.

Angeles (2012-11-22 22:35:32):

It looks fantastic, just like an authentic Italian ciabatta.

marmota zampona (2012-11-24 19:27:46):

I’m going to give it a try right now.

Not too long ago we showed you how to make some delicious milk bread buns. They’re the perfect base for these tasty little roast beef sandwiches with arugula and honey mustard. It might sound fancy, but it really isn’t. Roast beef, originally from English cuisine, has become so common in Spain that even the word has been adapted into Spanish — our Royal Academy now accepts “rosbif” without any objections.

What do we need?

To make 16 little buns, check here.

For the filling:

• 800 g (1.75 lb) veal loin

• Dried rosemary

• Oregano

• Salt and pepper

• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 bag of arugula

• Honey mustard sauce

How do we make it?

• Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F).

• In a bowl, mix the rosemary, oregano, pepper, and salt with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and the Worcestershire sauce.

• Brush the meat with the mixture and sear it in a hot pan so the outside browns.

• Place the loin on a baking tray and put another tray underneath filled with water.

• Bake for about 30 minutes.

• Once the time is up, wrap the meat in aluminum foil and let it cool.

• Meanwhile, wash the arugula and set aside.

• When the meat is cold, cut it into thin slices.

• Assemble the little sandwich by slicing the bun in half and adding the roast beef, arugula, and honey mustard sauce.

Tips:

• Following the milk bread recipe, you can change the final shape. We went for round buns instead of making small cuts in the dough to give them the classic milk bread look.

• We bought veal loin, but to make a roast (to roast) beef, any other cut works as long as it’s big enough to brown on the outside while staying rare on the inside.

[English version] SANDWICHES OF ROASTBEEF, ROCKET SALAD AND HONEY-MUSTARD* *For the milk bread buns follow this previous recipe. Ingredients:

• 800 g veal loin

• Rosemary

• Oregano

• Salt and pepper

• 1 tsp Perrins sauce

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 bag of rocket salad

• Honey-mustard sauce

• Preheat oven at 200º C.

• *In a bowl mix the rosemary, oregano, salt, pepper, olive oil and Perrins sauce. *

• Brush the meat with this mixture and place it on a very hot pan and sear it.

• Place the prepared meat into a baking tray and place another tray (or any other container) full of water.

• Roast for 30 minutes.

• Take it out from the oven and wrap the whole piece into aluminium foil. Let it cool.

• Wash rocket salad and set aside.

• When the roastbeef is cold, cut into thin slices.

• Prepare the sandwich: open the bread, place roastbeef, rocket salad and honey-mustard sauce.

• Tips:- You can choose the size and shape of your bread buns when making them.- We have used veal loin but you can use any big piece of meat that you can roast and the result is golden brown in the outside and tender in the inside. *

We were putting together a surprise afternoon snack where we wanted everything to be absolutely homemade, so we couldn’t even allow ourselves to buy the bread. One of the things we wanted to make was little savory sandwiches and, once again, we turned to the La Receta de la Felicidad blog to follow their steps and make some great milk bread buns. Honestly, we thought it would be pretty complicated, but how wrong we were…

What do we need?

(16 buns)

•   500 g (about 4 cups) bread flour
  

•   25 g (about 1 oz) fresh yeast (or two sachets of dry baker's yeast)
  

•   250 ml (1 cup) milk
  

•   70 g (about 5 tbsp) butter, softened (i.e. nice and soft)
  

•   40 g (about 3 tbsp) sugar
  

•   1 egg
  

•   2 tablespoons of honey
  

•   A pinch of salt
  

How do we do it?

• Mix the flour and yeast in a large bowl and add the egg and milk.

• Add the sugar, honey and salt, and mix well using a spoon or fork.

• Add the butter, and knead for 10-15 minutes, until you get a soft, pliable, slightly shiny dough.

• Form the dough into a ball by turning it and folding it inwards, and let it rest in a lightly floured bowl, covered with a cloth, for about two hours so it doubles in volume.

• Take the dough out of the bowl and lightly press it down with your fingers to ‘deflate’ it.

• Cut the dough into 16 portions, and shape them into buns.

• To do this, we have two methods. The first one is to take each piece of dough and roll it on itself, as if the bun were swallowing itself up. (Since my explanation leaves a lot to be desired, you can watch it in this video). The second method is to roll out each piece of dough into a rectangular shape. On one of the ends, make three or four cuts with a sharp knife to create some fringes. Finally, roll up the dough starting from the side opposite the fringes, so that when you finish, the fringes end up on the outside and give that distinctive look of milk buns.

• Brush the buns with a little milk, let them rest on a baking tray lined with parchment paper for about 20 minutes, and meanwhile preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F).

• Bake the buns for 10-12 minutes, and let them cool to room temperature on a wire rack.

Tips:

• If you let the dough rest longer, nothing happens except that it might grow out of control (like what happened to us, when we discovered a mutant dough trying to escape from the bowl).
• To shape the buns, we used the two methods we found at La Receta de la Felicidad, since we made two batches of dough and one of them (despite following the same steps) came out stickier, so the first method was easier for us.
• The flavor in my opinion isn’t exactly the same as store-bought milk buns, but they are delicious, very fluffy, and you can fill them with both sweet and savory fillings.

*[English version] MILK BREAD BUNS ** *Ingredients:

- 500 g strong bread flour - 25 g fresh yeast (or two sachets dry yeast) - 250 ml milk - 70 g butter, room temperature - 40 g sugar - 1 egg - 2 tbs honey - A pinch of salt

• Combine flour and yeast in a bowl. Add the egg, honey, milk, sugar and salt and mix well.

• Add butter and use a large spoon or fork to mix everything together.

• Take the dough out of the bowl and knead. You will feel the dough become elastic after kneading for about 5 minutes. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes more or until the dough is soft, pliable, smooth and slightly shiny-

• Put the dough into a lightly floured bowl and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise in a warm place until its size doubles (aprox. two hours)

• Take the dough out of the bowl, deflate it by touching lightly.

• Cut the dough into 16 pieces, and roll each of them into an oval shape. Or alternatively, roll out each piece of dough forming a rectangle 1 cm thick. Cut 1/3 the length of the rectangle into 4/5 strips of equal width and roll up the dough similar to a Swiss roll.

• Preheat oven to 180ºC and let the milk buns rest for 20 minutes.

• Glaze the buns with some milk, and bake them for 10-12 minutes. Let them cool on a wire rack

• Tips:**- Nothing wrong if you leave the dough more time covered with a cloth, it will just rise even more! * - We made the bun shape following the two different methods. For sticky doughs is easier the first method (just forming the oval shape). *- You won’t achieve exactly the same flavor than the milk buns of the supermarket but it is absolutely delicious, spongy and can be filled with sweet or savory ingredients. *

Comments

marmota zampona (2012-09-12 08:16:25):

we’ll make them. thanks