Bread Recipes
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[Bread Baking Class]
Hi, my name is Clotilde, and I have conquered my fear of yeast.
For years and years, everytime a recipe called for yeast -- dry, instant, fresh, whatever -- I would write it off with a resigned sigh, like the plain teenaged girl writes off the popular unkempt boy, thinking, "He's not for me."
I didn't know the moves, I didn't know where to begin, I didn't know how things ...
[Cheater's Poppyseed Roll]
In September of last year, when Maxence and I were spending some time in Alsace, we went shopping once in a supermarket in Munster. Yes, we did, can you imagine that? I mean -- what fun! Actually, I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that on vacation, I'm always happy to browse the aisles of local grocery stores, studying the selection of regional products or just stuff ...
I attended the Omnivore Food Festival in Deauville last week, a three-day event during which chefs from France and way beyond hop on stage and do live demos. This was the sixth edition and I've only missed one since it started, but this year was extra special for me because I'd been asked to host the pastry chefs' demos in the sucré auditorium.
I had a blast meeting such talented individuals, ...
[Chocolate Orange Bread]
I bought this loaf of bread at the BoulangEpicier the other day. I've mentioned that store before, and it continues to be a favorite of mine : whenever I'm in the area I make sure to stop there, to buy some bread or grab one of their pricy but mind-blowing sandwiches.
I have also adroitly albeit heavily hinted at my neighbor Patricia, who works close by, that it was r...
Rue des Martyrs, which shoots up from the 9th into the 18th arrondissement, is one of those typical Paris market streets that seems to defy business logic by offering no fewer than seven bread bakeries, some of them but a block from one another.
Because I live in the neighborhood, I've had the opportunity to sample the goods from (almost*) all of them, and I've been particularly impressed with ...
Dans la famille Coquelicot, je voudrais le pain!
[In the Poppy family, I would like the bread!*]
Coquelicot is the name of a bakery on Place des Abbesses, a couple of blocks away from our apartment. Their baguettes are fabulous and hold a special place in our hearts and our bread rotation. In addition to baguettes, Coquelicot makes a variety of specialty breads over the course of the week. And because they're thoughtful and know how vital bre...
In the midst of the August heatwave, Maxence and I sat at a dappled table of a restaurant in Urdax, a pretty village in the Spanish Basque country, and ordered gazpacho.
It was brought to us in white ceramic bowls, with a side plate of toppings to sprinkle in -- cucumbers, green bell peppers, and onions, all of them finely diced, flakes of serano ham, and tiny croutons -- and we slurped it all ...
I love a good bagel: what's not to like? Big, chewy, yeasty, and so generously sprinkled with interesting stuff for textural contrast. I like the top as much as the bottom, but the hole in the middle has to be the best part.
I first discovered bagels when we moved to the US, in the form of pre-sliced blueberry bagels from the grocery store -- I know, I know. We were addicted to them for a whi...
Consider the baguette.
Or rather, consider the tartine de baguette, a popular breakfast item in which a piece of baguette -- preferably fresh and bought moments before, still warm, from the corner boulangerie, but if nobody really feels up to going out before breakfast day-old baguette will do fine, "freshened up" on top of the toaster -- is sliced in two, each half spread with your choice of ...
La Baguette, par Jean-Paul Gaultier
[The Baguette, by Jean-Paul Gaultier]
What you see here is a baguette created by Jean-Paul Gaultier, as indicated by the signature navy blue stripes. Well, see, I can't just eat any old baguette, it has to have some style, you know?
I bought it at an art show that just opened at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, a beautiful exhibition hall on the Boulevard Raspail. The show is called "Pain Cout...
I first heard about this bread last spring, when I had lunch at Alain Passard's temporary Végétable restaurant and a leaflet at the register piqued my curiosity.
La Paume (which means palm, as in "the palm of your hand") is a naturally leavened bread created by Alain Passard, the chef from L'Arpège, and a family-owned flour mill just outside of Paris called Les Moulins Bourgeois. Passard sha...
[Pain au levain naturel]
If you keep an eye on my Twitter feed or subscribe to the C&Z newsletter, you already know that I've been trying my hand at natural starter bread for the past two months.
A natural starter, also called a sourdough starter, is a culture of wild yeasts and friendly bacteria that the baker keeps alive and thriving by feeding it water and flour on a regular basis. When mix...
[No-Knead Bread]
Complete fiascoes are few and far between in my kitchen. I'm not sure whom to thank for this -- my lucky star, my karma, my mom? -- but the fact is that the things I cook or bake very rarely end up in the trash. I have disappointments of course, dishes that turn out a bit meh despite my high hopes, but nothing quite as débâcle-like as when I tried my hand at the recipe everyo...
When I step into a boulangerie, or admittedly when I simply walk by one, I always give the bread shelves a quick once-over, to see if anything looks particularly good and/or unusual. It is sometimes a bit of a challenge to glance behind the boulangère, her counter, and the other customers (some of whom seem to think I'm trying to skip the line and keep a hawklike eye on me), but I have years of...
I can hear you thinking: "Hm, could this be a pain au chocolat? Is that a bit of ganache coming out from the side? ...then again it looks a bit like black olives, no?"
You have a point. They are indeed black olives, and the little guy on the picture is an olive and tomato pain spécial, purchased at Pain de Sucre, a previously mentioned pastry store in the 3rd.
It is made from a rectangular st...
Authenticity can be a fine line to tread when it comes to cooking. Dishes and recipes originate in certain parts of the world and are often deeply rooted in local traditions. But then people emigrate, they travel, they adopt, they adapt, they improvise, and the same dish gets recreated in a different kitchen at a different time, with the same name but a completely different face.
Naturally, foo...
I have told you about the Boulangépicier on a few occasions before, and I continue to wildly enjoy the bread, sandwiches and pastries that they make. "Be" happens to be just a couple of blocks away from where my grandmother lives, and is thus conveniently on my way from and back to the metro when I visit her.
Just a few weeks ago (before they closed for the month of August, quite cruelly), I n...
When Maxence and I were in San Francisco late last summer, we had bagels for breakfast every single day. There were a couple of bagel shops not far from where we were staying, so we alternated between the two, and on those mornings that we went for a run through the Golden Gate Park, bagels awaited at a busy coffee shop by the ocean.
I like mine dotted with poppy seeds or sesame seeds, and spre...
Due to my ever-widening enthusiasm for breadmaking, I have become a close follower of the Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge, wherein a group of bakers bakes its way through Peter Reinhart's revered opus and blogs about the results, with numerous details and step-by-step photos. This makes for fascinating posts if you're into that sort of thing, and reading about others' well-documented hurdles ...
[The Best Baguette in Paris]
...and it's not even me saying it, but the good members of the jury in the 2006 edition of the yearly Grand Prix de la Baguette Parisienne. The winner is Jean-Pierre Cohier, whose bakery is just off the Place des Ternes: this was his fourth time competing, and he received the distinction for his baguette called Tradition. He's been making that baguette for twenty ye...
[Violet Pineapple Bread Roll]
"Dear Ms. Clotilde,
In our continued effort to keep you bread-happy and entertained, we have just added a new variety to our collection of little bread rolls.
This one is flavored with violet essence, which may remind you of those candies you and your father like to eat in the car, and it has tiny chunks of pineapple inside, like edible gold nuggets.
We try to...
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