Vanilla bean paste is made by infusing vanilla beans in a thick sugar syrup into which the vanilla beans are then scraped. It has a more intense vanilla flavor and aroma than extract because it is not diluted by alcohol and you get the beautiful flecks of the vanilla beans in your baked goods or desserts. Look for it at specialty food stores or online.
Author: Chef M
Quince, which tastes like a cross between an apple and a pear, must be peeled and cooked to bring out its best flavor. Apples make a wonderful substitute in this tart, but it won’t have the same golden caramel color you’ll get if you use quince. This unusual tart is not overly sweet you could actually serve it as an appetizer or first course as well as dessert.
Chilled almond butter with caper seeds and fresh coconut with herbs.
Black paste made with Kalamata type olives and walnuts or pecan.
Soft, buttery homemade dinner rolls are the perfect complement to just about any meal, and they don’t have to be hard to make. Using our Dutch oven to bake the rolls offered two benefits: First, we could easily fit enough rolls in the pot to feed a crowd; second, the Dutch oven’s high sides were able to support the dough as it rose into beautifully dramatic, tall rolls. We were surprised to find that a combination of butter and vegetable shortening in the dough offered good buttery flavor without making the rolls greasy; because shortening coats the gluten strands in…
This bread, flavored with oatmeal, sweet raisins, and just a touch of brown sugar, is great toasted up for breakfast or perfect with coffee for an afternoon snack. As with our Fig and Fennel Bread, we found that baking the bread in a preheated Dutch oven created a beautifully even crumb and a bronzed crust without the need for specialty equipment. Since this bread was a bit sweeter than the Fig and Fennel, a prefermented sponge was unnecessary; we focused instead on getting the oat flavor to really shine. Mixing the oatmeal into the dough toward the end of kneading…
This sophisticated loaf calls on the elegant combination of sweet figs and earthy fennel seeds for a bread that’s perfect with cheese and charcuterie plates. We wanted our loaf to have the rustic and open crumb of great bakery breads, so we turned to our Dutch oven. Often, artisanal-style breads are baked on preheated baking stones and lava rocks are placed in the oven to create a moist environment; together, the hot stone and the steam produce an open, airy crumb, a good lift, and a nicely browned, crisp crust. We found that we could do away with both of…
In pursuit of the ideal artisanal sandwich bread, perfect for a piquant Italian salumi sandwich, we turned to olives, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Because we intended this bread to be a vehicle for sandwiches, we wanted a tight crumb rather than an open one. To get there, we minimized air pockets by pressing the risen dough into a 10-inch round and deflating any large bubbles. Beyond folding the dough into a taut ball, we didn’t incorporate additional folds, a technique often used in artisanal breads to add more air to the loaf. Slashing a shallow X in the top…
This hearty loaf is chock-full of whole grains and seeds that give it an appealingly rustic flavor and texture. We used our Dutch oven to give this loaf a crackly crust and even crumb. First, we focused on the dough itself: Rather than call for a laundry list of grains to get the right flavor, we turned to seven-grain hot cereal mix. Pepitas, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds, both incorporated into to the dough and sprinkled on top, offered a range of textures. To encourage the loaf to rise high, we used a hot oven to aid “oven…