2008 June « Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives

O Canada Yummy Canada!

June 27, 2008 at 3:46 am | In Brownies/Blondies, Cookies, Dessert | 10 Comments
Tags: Canada, candied walnut, chocolate chips, coconut, graham cracker crust, maple syrup, mousse, Nanaimo Bars, Sugar High Fridays, white chocolate

OK..I’ve only been to Canada once in my life..Montreal. The only problem is, I never got to see or experience it, since I was literally still attached to my mother’s umbilical cord. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to visit Canada yet, so I’ll have to go by what I read, see and hear about our friendly neighboring country to the North. This is my first time participating in Sugar High Fridays, and the theme is..well, you can guess from the title and everything I’ve written above.

When I think of Canada, several things come to mind. Nanaimo Bars (obviously), maple syrup (obviously), this very cute hockey player from Windsor, Ontario, who I dated briefly in college (NOT obvious), who explained the ‘Nanaimo Bar’ to me, and a really entertaining show I used to watch as a kid in the 80’s, on PBS, called the Polka Dot Door.

Add Degrassi High to the Canadian shows I used to watch, but I couldn’t extract anything from that in a culinary sense, no matter how hard I tried, although the name of Joey’s band, ‘The ZIT Remedy’, does refer to the ‘DOTS’ that pepper many an adolescent face. OK, I better stop there, as I want to make you hungry, NOT ill!

One thing I wanted to avoid, was making Nanaimo bars, since I figured there would be quite a few Nanaimo bar entries in this edition of Sugar High Fridays, and I wanted to be different. Not to mention, I’ve never made OR tasted Nanaimo Bars before, so I knew I’d be seriously winging it, flavor wise and aesthtetically. However, after mulling it over, thinking ‘maple’, and ‘mousse’, I decided to wing it, and create my own version of it.

A friend gave me this fantastic Sortilege Maple Liqueur, which is a blend of Canadian whiskey and maple syrup, last Christmas, knowing I like to have every flavor liqueur I can get my hands on, for use in cooking, baking, AND the occasional guest who enjoys a cocktail or four.

With all of the above in mind, I set out to create my ’strange’ but yummy, NON-AUTHENTIC Nanaimo bars. An authentic Nanaimo bar is unbaked, and consists of a buttery, chocolate-graham cracker crust, with an egg, nuts and coconut mixed in, topped with a buttercream layer that contains custard powder, (which is hard to find here in the USA, so most people substitute vanilla pudding powder), and glazed with a melted amalgamation of chocolate and butter – not quite ganache, since we’re missing the cream here.

I decided to forgo the buttercream custard/vanilla powder filling, and instead, in honor of Canada, fill it with a white chocolate-maple (using Canada’s finest maple syrup) mousse, napped with a little Sortliege, and stabilized with gelatin and mascarpone cheese. For the crust, I remained partially true to the original Nanaimo Bar, but eliminated the nuts, as I wanted to make a maple-walnut nougatine or maple candied walnuts to either top each bar, or just serve along with the bars. Instead, I added chopped white chocolate to the base, and THIS is the kicker — I decided on a polka dot Nanaimo bar, as an homage to the Polka Dot Door, which provided me with hours of enjoyment as a child. By folding miniature semisweet chocolate chips into the white chocolate-maple mousse, and piping large dots of melted white chocolate on top of the chocolate topping, I ended up with a variety of polka dots. from top to bottom.

These bars, like the original Nanaimo, are very rich, but the light and fluffy mousse seems to counter that a little bit, although it’s ‘rich’ in ingredients.

In summary, using some of what I know when it comes to our friendly neighbors up north, I decided to take the same route that I’m sure many will be taking, but make it in a way that’s not completely traditional, which is how I came up with my Polka Dot White-Maple Mousse Nanaimo Bars.

Chocolate Graham Cracker Base

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 egg, well beaten
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chunks or chips

Directions

1. Line a *9-inch square pan with lightly greased aluminum foil, making sure you leave a decent amount of overhang on two sides (this aids in lifting out the bars when they’re set).

2. Beat the egg in a small bowl or cup. Place butter, light brown sugar and cocoa in a bowl set over hot, simmering water, then stir until melted and uniform. Temper the beaten egg with a little of the hot butter mixture, then add it all back to the main bowl and let simmer, whisking or stirring constantly, until slightly thickened.. Remove from heat. Add graham cracker crumbs, coconut, and vanilla extract. Let cool a few minutes, then add white chocolate chunks or chips. Press firmly into the bottom of the foil lined 9-inch square pan. Place in the refrigerator while preparing the mousse.

* Most Nanaimo Bar recipes use an 8-inch sqaure pan, resulting in a very high chocolate-graham cracker base, but..since I’m trying to be different here, a 9-inch square pan results in a lot less ‘height’, with the filling being the main component.. Let’s just call them ‘Bizzaro’ Nanaimo’s!

White Chocolate-Maple Mousse:

7 ounces high-quality white chocolate (such as Lindt, Valrhona Ivoire), finely chopped
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2T maple liqueur*
2T water
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 8- to 8.8 ounce container mascarpone cheese**
1/4 oz package of powdered gelatin
1/4 cup water
1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cups miniature chocolate chips

Directions

1. Combine the white chocolate, maple syrup, maple liqueur and water in a bowl set over simmering, hot water. Stir and cook until the chocolate is melted and everything is uniform and hot (mixture will be very liquidy). Add vanilla extract. Transfer the white chocolate-maple mixture to a large bowl and gradually add mascarpone, whisking until mixture is smooth. Cool mascarpone mixture until barely lukewarm.

2. Sprinkle the gelatin over1/4 cup water in a small bowl. Let sit until the gelatin is softened, then heat the bowl over hot water to dissolve it, or dissolve it in the microwave for 10 – 40 seconds. Keep checking every 10 seconds until it’s liquid and smooth. Whisk dissolved gelatin into the lukewarm mousse base until thoroughly combined, making sure it’s uniform and smooth..no lumps or bits of anything should remain. Pour it through a fine mesh strainer to be sure, if you’d like.

2. Using an electric mixer or whisk, beat the 1 cup of cream in a medium bowl until peaks form. Fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture in 4 additions. Fold in miniature chocolate chips. Pour over chocolate graham cracker base, and let chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

*You can substitute 1 tsp pure maple extract plus 1 1/2 Tablspoons of water if you can’t find the liqueur, or would prefer not to use it.

**Cream cheese can be substituted for the mascarpone, although it’s not as smooth, creamy and mild as mascarpone. If you do use cream cheese, make sure it’s at room temperature and soft, before incorporating it into the hot maple-white chocolate base.

Chocolate Topping

6 oz semisweet chocolate (you can use milk or bittersweet chocolate, depending on your preference), chopped.*
3 T unsalted butter

Melt chocolate and butter together in a bowl set over simmering, hot water. Mix well until melted and uniform. Remove from heat and let cool until it’s lukewarm. Pour over the top of the set mousse and spread quickly. Chill in refrigerator until ready to pipe white chocolate polka dots.

* Use 8 oz of chopped chocolate and 1/4 cup (half a stick) of unsalted butter if you want a thicker topping.

White Chocolate Polka Dots

8 oz good quality chopped white chocolate, chopped

Directions

1. Place chopped white chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan with simmering, hoi water. Be careful not to let the bowl with the chocolate in it touch the water as it could seize up and/or burn (I like to remove the chocolate from the heat before it’s fully melted and stir, letting the residual heat melt it completely until smooth). Pour the melted chocolate it another bowl, and let it cool a little before continuing.

2. Pour the melted chocolate into a cornet (parchment cone), snip off the end, and pipe large (or a variety of sizes) ‘heaping’ polka dots over the ’set’ chocolate topping. You can also use a plastic or ziplock bag, just snip off one end. Let chill in the refrigerator until set, but about an hour before serving, take it out, and let it come to room temperature, as the chocolate coating will crack if cut into while cold. You could cut into them immediately, using a knife dipped in very hot water, or run over a gas flame, wiping the knife in between each cut, and dipping it into the hot water or running it over the gas flame again. Personally, I prefer to let it come to room temperature. As the old gem of wisdom goes, patience is virtue!

The amount of bars you get depends on how small or large you cut them. These are rich, so medium to small squares or rectangles, would be perfect. I cut mine into medium rectangles, as you can see below

Maple Candied Walnuts

1 cup pure maple syrup
2/3 cup of walnut halves, toasted
Coarse sea salt, such as Fleur de sel (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spread the walnut halves out on a baking sheet. Toast for about 5-8 minutes, stirring occcasionally, until you can smell them and they’ve turned a little darker. Split one open to make sure it’s toasted through before removing from the oven. You can also do this in a dry skillet, stirring until toasted. Place the toasted nuts on another sheet pan lined with a silpat or parchment paper or lightly greased. Let cool.

2. Pour maple syrup into a small to medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until it reaches the hard crack stage (about 300-310 degrees F). Add nuts to syrup and coat well. Working quickly. Immediately remove them from the saucepan, using a slotted spoon, to the lined baking sheet and separate them as best you can (using anything but your fingers, unless you have asbestos hands!). Using a spoon, drizzle any leftover syrup over each nut and sprinkle lightly with sea salt, if using. Do NOT touch until the candy coating has set and cooled. Scatter a few over individual bars, and/or around the plate you serve them on.

The finished product…after many experimentations and tastings. It’s a little busy, but subtract the liqueur, and this would make a great party sweet for kids. OH, and adults too, of course!

By the way, still ‘learning’ this new camera, as I have very little experience with the correct way to shoot still and stylish food photos, Plus there are a lot of settings on this camera that are currently Japanese to me..and quite daunting to say the least..so bear with me. Only the bottom photo was taken with the G9, but by the looks of it, I have quite a ways to go!

Finally, click on the Mmm…Canada logo at the top left of this entry, which will take you to The Domestic Goddess’ Sweet Canadian roundup.
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Lime is KEY here

June 9, 2008 at 7:23 am | In Dessert, Pastry, Pies and Tarts | 7 Comments
Tags: graham cracker crust, key lime, key lime pie, key lime tart, macadamia nuts, raspberries, simple syrup, strawberries, white chocolate mousse

The first time I ever had Key Lime Pie, was when I was about 11, on school vacation in West Palm Beach, Fla with my family. I remember thinking ‘Wow, this is even better than Lemon Meringue Pie..I think I’m going to invent a Lime Meringue Pie with this cool key lime.. (not yet privvy, or shall I say, innocently ignorant to the fact that thousands of chefs and home cooks had already nailed that one, along with ‘name ANY citrus fruit curd’ meringue pies)..SO, when we get back home, the first thing I want is key limes.

Me : “WHAT?? There’s no key limes at the local supermarket? What about the fruit stands, Mom?? OMG, I really want to ‘invent’ this pie, and NO, I’m not using regular limes!”

Mom: “Oh, honey, you can’t really tell the difference, trust me”

Actually, there IS a difference, and quite a discernible one at that. Not only does it look different (thinner rind, and ‘mostly’ more yellow green, unlike the deep green limes you see at your supermarket) but the key lime is more tart, and has a slightly bitter undertone to it.

Although most associate it with the Florida Keys, Hemingway, and all that jazz..surprisingly, it’s native to Southeast Asia, and made it’s way to the tropical climates of North America via the Middle East, then on to Italy, Africa, finally ending up in the West Indies, where it made it’s way throughout the Caribbean, and is now also grown in places like Mexico and California.

Having said all that, as the weather has gotten warmer, my craving for anything key lime has started to increase, so, on to my dessert..Individual Key Lime Tartlets with White Chocolate Mousse, raspberry, candied macadamia nuts, and a simple syrup doused with some of the oils accumuluated from macadamia nuts being ground into a paste.

I started by using *Claudia Fleming’s recipe for graham cracker tart shell dough from her book The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern . I decided to make 4-inch tarts (incorporating ground macadamia nuts into the dough) which gave me 6 filled to the top tarts total. Since I had some leftover dough, I eventually used it for what else? Graham crackers! Not your ‘usual’ graham crackers, but round, lumpy ones with cocoa nibs and other toppings, like chile flakes and fleur de sel. That’s another blog, though.

These are the tart shells after being docked, and baked blind…ready to be filled and baked again. I used a basic key lime/condensed milk filling for these,which you’ll see in the full recipe at the end.

Once they’re baked and filled, they go back into the oven for another 15-20 minutes. They firm up rather quickly, but still need to be refrigerated for a while before plating and serving.

And here they are out of the oven. Now, there’s a ton of ways you can plate and serve these babies. Below, are three examples, (one with a whole lot of meringue)…with the recipe following.

Other ways include whipped cream, mint, lots of other kinds of fruits and/or chocolates (like a dark chocolate drizzle across the top of the tart) or toasted coconut. Fleur de Sel makes a nice crunchy contrast, whether it be on the tart itself, the fruits, or the mousse, as does a pinch or three of dried chile flakes or cayenne, for a little extra kick. The sky is pretty much the limit here, as these tarts are your ‘blank canvas’, and a tasty one at that!

Key Lime Tartlets with White Chocolate Mousse, Raspberry, Candied Macadamia Nuts, and Macadamia Simple Syrup

*Graham Cracker Tart Shells

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup ground macadamia nuts
6-12 tsps of raspberry preserves or jam (optional)

Directions

1. To prepare the graham cracker shells, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the buter and sugars until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the honey and beat until well combined.2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, macadamia nuts, salt, and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in two batches, scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions. Mix until the dough is well combined. Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and form it into a disc. Chill until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
2. Preheat the oven to 325. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thick, about a 13×16 rectangle. Using a 6-inch cookie cutter or glass, cut out 6 circles of dough and press them into lightly greased 4 to 4 1/2-inch tart pans, preferably with removeable bottoms (you can use smaller tart pans if you like, just cut out smaller circles of dough and adjust the baking time. Obviously, the smaller the tart pan, the more tarts you’ll get out of this recipe. On the flip side, you can make TWO 9-inch tarts, just double the key lime filling and, again, adjust the baking time) , trimming away excess dough. Prick the dough in each tart pan all over with a fork and chill on a baking sheet for 20 minutes or more.

3. Bake until golden brown, 15-18 mins. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. When they’re cool, I like to lightly spread the bottom of each tart with about 1-2 tsps of raspberry preserves or seedless jam.
*Alternatively, you can use a basic graham cracker crust, using ground graham crackers. sugar and melted butter. To be honest, although Claudia’s tart dough is nice, I’m probably going to use the basic crust next time, as it’s a personal preference of mine when it comes to key lime tarts or tartlets.

Alternative Graham Cracker Crust, loosely adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons granulated white sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 325F

Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar. Evenly divide the mixture and press onto the bottom and up the sides of the 6 – 4 inch tart pans with removable bottoms. (Each tart will use about 1/4 cup of the graham cracker crumb mixture.) Place the tart shells in the refrigerator to chill for 10-15 minutes Bake at 325 for 10-15 minutes, let cool, then fill and bake as directed.

Key Lime Filling

Ingredients

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup bottled or fresh key lime juice
1-2 tsps grated key lime or lime zest (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Directions

Raise the oven temperature to 350. Whisk together the milk, juice, eggs, zest and vanilla. Pour the mixture into the baked tart shells and bake for 15 minutes, or until barely set. Let come to room temperature, then chill in the fridge for about an hour.

White Chocolate Mousse (courtesy of my friend, Dennis, chef extraordinaire. I’ve been using this one on and off for years. It’s always my ’standby’)

Ingredients

9 ounces white chocolate
5 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
2 leaves gelatin soaked in cold water, then squeezed dry prior to adding to mousse mixture (or one half of a 1/4 oz package of granulated gelatin dissolved in 2 T of cold water)
2 cups heavy cream
3 large egg whites
pinch sea salt

Directions

1. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate. Meanwhile, combine the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and stir until the sugar crystals are no longer visible. Add the chocolate to the egg mixture and blend. Add gelatin.

2. Either in a mixer fitted with a wire whisk attachment or by hand, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, do the same with the egg whites and the salt. Set aside both.

3. Slowly fold the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. Carefully fold the egg white mixture into the chocolate-whipped cream mixture. Chill at least 2 hours prior to serving.

Macadamia simple syrup

Ingredients

1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole macadamia nuts

Directions

In small saucepan, combine sugar and water. Bring to a boil, stirring, until sugar has dissolved and you have a slightly thick, but clear syrup.

In a food processor, grind the macadamia nuts until they reach a paste consistency (you’ll be able to see the oil in that paste). Gather up the paste and oil into some cheesecloth, and squeeze some of the oil into the simple syrup. Add some of the paste too, if desired. Save the paste in a sealed container in the fridge, for any recipe you’d like to add it too, or just mix it with some cocoa and cream, for a ‘macadamia’ nutella.

Candied Macadamia Nuts

Ingredients

1 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup of water
1 cup whole macadamia nuts
A favorite spice or two, like cayenne pepper, or coriander (optional)

Directions

In a skillet or pan, melt down the sugar and water and let it cook until it’s golden brown, or reaches the hard ball to hard crack stage. Quickly add the nuts, coating them in the caramel, then remove to a parchment lined sheet pan, making sure you separate them before they stick together. Add spices (if using) while the caramel is still hot, and roll the nuts around in them using a silicone spatula or spoon. Chop coarsely when cool.

Assemble

Place the tart in the center of your serving plate. Pipe or scoop a quenelle of the white chocolate mousse onto one side of the tart. Garnish with a slice or two of lime, some raspberries, the candied nuts, and a light drizzle of the macadamia syrup all over everything, so it glistens. Additional garnishes could include white and dark chocolate dipped raspberries or strawberries. Be creative!

‘HOLEY’ Ciabatta!

June 4, 2008 at 7:29 am | In Breads | 4 Comments
Tags: Biga, Breads, Ciabatta, Craig Ponsford's Ciabatta, Italian Slipper Bread

After fiddling around with many a ciabatta recipe, and getting mediocre or shall I say, less than impressive results, (the crumb was never good enough..too tight) I had finally resigned myself to the fact that I just lacked what it took to create that perfect, airy, chewy, riddled with beautiful holes, italian slipper bread. Well, after reading through some books on bread baking at my local bookstore, I came across a recipe for ciabatta by Craig Ponsford. This is BY FAR, the best recipe for ciabatta out there. Now, this is not only because it worked for me, but after perusing through several bread forums, the consensus seems to be the same. His ciabatta is simply the best.

As usual, I’ll run you through what got me to such a beautiful, perfectly crumbed ’slipper bread’ – (which is called that, because the finished loaf usually looks similar to a slipper) — complete with my inability to take a decent picture with my awful digital camera!

Ciabatta starts with a biga (A more liquid version is called a poolish). What’s a biga? To make it simple and eliminate the need to type it out, I’m using Wikipedia’s definition.

Biga is a type of pre-fermentation used in Italian baking. Many popular Italian breads, including ciabatta, are made using a biga. Using a biga adds complexity to the bread’s flavor and is often used in breads that need a light, open texture with holes. Apart from adding to flavor and texture, a biga also helps to preserve bread by making it less perishable.

Ponsford’s Biga uses a combination of AP, Whole Wheat, Rye and Bread Flours. However, this is the kicker..it calls for 1/384 tsp of yeast. How do you get 1/384 tsp of yeast? Well, he makes it easy. In the recipe.. you take 1/2 tsp yeast and dissolve it in 1 cup of water. You then use only 1/2 tsp of the yeasted water in the biga. I’m amazed at how much the biga rose, considering it was such a teeny amount of yeast to about 3 or so cups of a mix of AP, Bread, Whole Wheat and Rye flours. This biga needed to ferment for 18-24 hours. I started with a fist size lump of dough and I honestly didn’t think it would work with such a small amount of diluted yeast, but lo and behold..we’ve got bubbles and a doubling in size after 12 hours. Unfortunately, I never got to see the full rise, as I slept, and once I woke up, it was at the stage it was supposed to be..lumpy, slightly less bubbly, oatmeal ‘like’.

This is the biga after 12 hours. BTW..the yellow liquid is not hooch. It’s the tiny bit of canola oil I used to grease the container. It somehow doubled itself during the first fermentation. Love how the biga steered clear of it, though.

Next on the agenda was mixing the dough. First the Biga goes into the mixer bowl. Notice the bubbles and elasticity? Good sign.

Next comes, in order, the flour and salt, yeast, then water.

Let this come together using a dough hook (hand kneading would be impossible at this point, since it’s such a wet dough, and the addition of flour to make it manageable would result in a ciabatta with a tight crumb, which defeats the purpose), and let it run for about 5 minutes, until you get what you see in the photo below. See how wet this dough is? Almost like a thick pancake batter. This is the starting point to a light, airy ciabatta with lots of holes. Hydration is SO key here.

Now it’s time to let it ferment for a while, so pour it into a lightly greased container to let it work it’s magic.

You’d never think this dough will actually come together, enough so that it’s more manageable to work with..but it does, with proper stretchings, folds and turns, which you will see below. After an initial 20 minute ferment, the dough is poured onto a lightly floured bench, where it’s gently folded letter style, then put back into the container to ferment for another 20 minutes. This is done at 20, 40, 60 and 80 minutes. The photo below is ready for it’s fourth turn, and you can see how much it has changed. Although still extremely soft (which is how you want it to remain), it’s easier to work with now.

Last fold, bringing in all 4 sides, then put back into the container to rise for 70 to 100 minutes.

I forgot to take a photo of the next rise. However, trust me when I say it doubled in size. Now we can finally prepare and shape the loaves for their final rise. I’ll show you one loaf here. Very gently scraping the dough onto the bench, then folding it again like a letter, only two sides. As with Sourdough, you don’t want to lose any of those bubbles, not to mention this dough is a lot more delicate than sourdough. When folded, lightly seal, pinching the seams closed, gently.

The shaped dough is placed on a floured linen towel or couche (a heavier canvas cloth used to hold the shape of the bread), seam side up. Cover lightly with the floured towel, and let rise for about 45 minutes. During this time, place or move your **baking stone to the middle rack and preheat the oven to 450 F. Ponsford prefers baking his ciabatta on the middle rack, as opposed to other artisan breads, which are usually baked on the bottom rack since that’s where it’s the hottest. Below is the risen loaf.

Now comes the tricky part. You need to flip the dough, seam side down, onto the peel. In the case of a dough this delicate, you need to use parchment paper on the peel since you don’t want to add anymore flour or cornmeal, semolina..etc..not to mention (as I’ve already mentioned 20 times already), it’s such a soft, delicate dough..so it’s much easier to slide onto the stone with the parchment. The ‘flip’ has to be quick, so you don’t degas the dough too much.

Now, the next step kind contradicts everything I mentioned above about handling the dough as to not lose the bubbles and airy texture, but this actually helps the bread’s texture. A bunch of quick. deep dimples all over the loaf. It doesn’t deflate it that much, and oven spring will pop it right back up. The dimpling actually GIVES you more chewy, airy holes in your final loaf. Dimple to the bottom as much as you can, trying to keep the surrounding dough ‘poofy’.

Into the oven, along with a few ice cubes or water into a preheated pan I always keep on the bottom of my oven when bread baking. This adds steam, which you want, for a crispy, final crust. A few sprays of the walls with a water bottle a few times the first 10 minutes, is something you can do too, just to keep that steam going. The below is an awful photo, but if you’ve read my ‘About’ page, you know I’m on a mission to purchase a much better camera.

After about 40 minutes, it’s ‘photo gallery’ time. Some of these photos were taken in a flourescent lit room, the last two, in the kitchen with the flash. I have to try every setting and room to try and get a decent photo with this joke of a camera!!

** If you don’t own a baking stone, get one. If you don’t want to get one, place the shaped bread seam side down on a lightly greased sheet pan, or one covered with parchment paper or a silpat. Cover and let rise, dimple, and bake as above, on the sheet pan. No flipping onto the peel required.

The recipe for Craig Ponsford’s ciabatta can be found in Maggie Glezer’s Artisan Baking Across America, but if prodded, I’ve been known to send it to those who are really interested. An even better option would be to check out the full recipe here, at Lindsey’s Luscious blog. While you’re at it, check out her whole blog! Great recipes, blogging and photos!