Tag Archives: French

Pain à l’Ancienne

Please welcome the very first guest post on my blog, written by none other than my much loved and much blogged about sister Erica. Feel free to refer to her as ‘blondie pants,’ ‘spankeroo,’ or ‘schmantypants.’ I’m so excited to have her share this recipe. It makes the best bread I’ve ever tasted, and I’ve been bugging her to write about it ever since June 8th, the day I started this blog in the first place. And though I’ve destroyed our relationship by my consummate nagging, at least I squeezed this out of her before she decided never to talk to me again.

Just kidding! She gave it over to my blog willingly–that’s how a well-trained younger sister behaves. Without further ado, I hand things over to this extremely kitchen-competent wonderwoman.

Pain à l’Ancienne means “Old style bread.” It’s also known as: Bread So Good You Will Never Go Back To The Bread Machine.

I discovered this bread while working at the IU Opera and Ballet Theatre’s costume shop as a seamstress with just about the most wonderful ladies ever. It showed up at most of our (frequent) potlucks, and we all looked forward to its appearance with much eagerness and salivation.  When I moved on to grad school and no longer had time to say my own name, much less work at the shop, I finally wheedled the recipe out of the woman who made it, to my great delight. After whipping up lots and lots of batches and making some slight modifications to the recipe, I give you The Best Bread You Can Easily Make At Home Which Will Win You Many Friends And Followers–And Possibly A Nobel Prize.

The bread is incredibly simple to make; all it requires is a tiny bit of forethought, since you will start it the day before you wish to bake it. I tried par-baking it once, then freezing it, so that I could pop it into the oven without delay whenever the need arose, but I like it fresh much, much better. To par-bake it (if you choose to follow that dark and crunchy path), simply bake it for about half the time you usually would, let it cool, wrap tightly in plastic wrap or a ziploc, and freeze it.  Then all you have to do is let it thaw for a bit before resuming the baking process whenever you are in need of really awesome bread at the drop of a hat. I found that the crust was much thicker and less delicious than when made fresh, but it’s till darn good.

So, what does it take to make this bread, you ask? Not much, sez I.

Ingredients

6 c. (i.e. 27 oz.) unbleached bread flour (MUST be bread flour- I like to use Gold Medal’s Better for Bread, but any flour specifically meant for bread will work)

1 ¾ tsp yeast (about one package, the dry active kind, not the instant or bread machine kind)

1 TBS  vital wheat gluten

2 ¼ tsp salt

2 ½ to 3 c ICE COLD water

Let’s begin!

First, measure all your dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. I like to give ‘em a nice whisk about to blend them well before adding the water. This way we don’t end up with unfortunate salty lumps. However, the great thing about this bread is that you don’t have to be über precise. Pile it all in. Mix it around. Call it a day. Then add the water. It does need to be ice cold- I always end up putting cold tap water in a bowl with a bunch of ice cubes and measure out the quantity I need, but I suppose you can use cold water from your fridge, too.  That would be way easier. Once it’s been added, stir it with a spoon until it’s fairly uniform. The dough will be very sticky, so I tend to add a little less than the maximum 3 cup amount, and if it’s too dry, add a little more. Anyway, this is floppy, sticky dough that will get your hands all gummy. Last time I made this bread a week or two ago, I used my Kitchen Aid mixer with the paddle attachment to mix it and the dough hook to knead it. It worked really well, but I’ve been making this bread without fancy equipment for several years and it doesn’t make a difference what you use. The Kitchen Aid just makes your hands less gross.

So.  Once mixed, put a generous quantity of your bread flour on the counter top and plop the squishy dough onto it. Then, begin to knead. You’ll probably find yourself using quite a bit more flour so that 90% of it doesn’t end up on your hands, but try to keep the excess flour to a minimum. Once the dough is smooth and elastic, and still quite sticky (or after 6-8 minutes of hand-kneading), lightly grease another clean mixing bowl and put the dough into it. Cover your bowl with plastic wrap and pop it all into the fridge. Leave it there overnight. The longest I’ve left it in the fridge is about a day and a half, but if you leave it in a little longer it can only increase the goodness. I wouldn’t abandon it for more than two days, though.

When you take it out of the fridge, you’ll notice that big, beautiful bubbles have formed in the dough. Yummmmmm. Don’t do anything to it yet, just set it in a warm place and let it rise. Since the dough is cold, it will take quite a bit longer than your average rising time since it first has to warm up. But that’s ok because it’s totally worth it. Mine usually rises for a good 3 hours. Last time I turned my oven on the lowest setting, put the bowl in, plastic wrap and all, and turned the oven off after 2 or 3 minutes. This works well because the small space retains the heat nicely.

Once your dough has doubled in size and is smelling all yeasty and glorious, take it out of the oven (if that’s where you were letting it rise). Don’t punch it down!  Now, fill a cast iron or sturdy metal baking pan with water, and put it in your oven. We’ll put the bread on the lower rack, so it’s ok to put the rack with the water on it fairly high in the oven. We want the steam from the evaporating water, as this will make the crust crunchy and beautiful. Preheat to about 475 Fahrenheit, and while the oven preheats, we’ll prep the loaves.

Personally, I like generously sized wider loaves rather than baguettes with this bread.  You can do whatever you like, though. If doing baguettes, you can get about 5 shorter loaves from this recipe; otherwise, divide the dough into three lumps. It will be quite squishy and floppy, and won’t hold its shape too well. What we REALLY DON’T want is to squeeze or squash the dough too much. We want to keep those big air bubbles that have formed overnight, so be gentle with it. If you have a holey pizza pan, this is the time to use it. Otherwise a cookie sheet with some cornmeal sprinkled on it will do just fine. I bet a pizza stone would be great too, so use yours if you have one- just put the pizza stone in the oven with a light dusting of cornmeal when you put the water in, and slip the loaves onto it when the oven is ready. Otherwise, gently place the loaves onto your cornmealed pan and pop it in the oven.

A word about the baking: these loaves will rise a lot, and expand slightly sideways too. I always have to bake them in several rounds–they don’t usually fit on a single pan. As the loaves bake (judge the doneness by color), usually 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the loaf, you’ll need to use a water spritzer to spray the loaves 4-5 times throughout the baking time. You can find one in the laundry aisle of most stores, near the ironing stuff. The steam from the pan is great, but we need a little extra. Plus, it’s fun. Don’t be afraid to aim directly at the bread. A word of caution: it is very hot, so be careful as the steam might cloud up on you when you spray. The loaves will become a lovely deep golden or light brown color. Let them cool slightly if you can- a true test of your self-control- and then….devour!

That’s about it. It sounds way more complicated from my instructions than it really is, but once you try it out you’ll see not only how easy it is to make, but how incredibly delicious the bread is. I mean, the tastiness-to-difficulty ratio is totally in your favor. Oh my, just you wait! The smell is divine, and the bread has the perfect slight crunch to the crust and beautiful texture to the inside . . . mmmm . . . Plus, I find bread making to be a wonderful, peaceful thing that is utterly satisfying, especially when shared. You can’t beat the homey and intoxicating smell of homemade bread that fills you house (and your soul!).

So make it! Tomorrow! (start it tonight!!) You won’t regret it. I promise.

And I won’t even TELL you how awesome it is with little pat of butter melting on it, still hot from the oven……

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Bananas Foster Crêpes

 

I spent Memorial Day weekend in Virginia with my Paris girls, Sarah and Vessie. We met while studying abroad in Paris, and . . . well, we just love each other. More on that in another post. We went to a little café where they served crêpes . . . but opted for the chocolate fondue instead. It was the right thing to do at the time. However, this engendered a longing in my heart for some amazing crêpes. So the next morning, we made ‘em for breakfast! We used a simple batter recipe that you can make in the blender (from tastykitchen.com), and did a little imitation of bananas foster with some liqueur modifications. Sarah even lit the pan on fire. We folded the bananas inside the crêpes, and topped it all with whipped cream and sugared pecans. Oh my!!!!! Definitely eat these with coffee to cut the sweetness—but they are spectacular! Plus, I learned how to flip a crêpe, which I can tell is going to be one of the major achievements of my life. I’m sure those skills will come in handy in the heavenly realms as well.

CRÊPE BATTER

4 eggs

1 cup flour

½ cup milk

½ cups water

½ teaspoons salt

2 TBS sugar

2 TBS melted butter

Toss ingredients in a blender or bowl. Blend for around 30 seconds, or hand mix for a minute or two (that’s what we did after discovering the blender was broken). Let the batter sit for a while on the counter (covered)—ideally an hour, but we were impatient and only waited 20 minutes.

Now I always mess up the first crêpe, so please don’t be discouraged if that happens to you.

Messing up the first crêpe

It’s important to get the heat just right, and that might mean one sacrificial lamb/crêpe. But don’t worry! Let’s forge ahead.

Get out a medium sized non-stick skillet (or a crêpe pan if you’re too cool for school) with a flat bottom.  If your pan is warped at all, it’s really going to mess up your game. Start the heat on medium to medium high, and melt some butter in the bottom as if you were making pancakes. You want a thin coating of butter all over the pan. Now it’s time to pour in the batter. I think I used somewhat less than ¼ cup batter for each crêpe, but depending on the size of your pan that could vary—the idea is to coat the bottom of the pan with the thinnest layer possible of batter. So as soon as you pour some batter in, immediately tilt the pan back and forth so that the batter runs all about. Then, let it sit. After a few minutes, I try to put my spatula under a side and lift the whole little pancake up—if you can do this, you can flip it at this point. Don’t be jealous of Sarah’s skills:

Master crêpe flipper!

She’s airborne, folks!

You want a few brown spots on each side of the crêpe (in my opinion), and I flipped each one back and forth a couple times to get it where I wanted it (probably breaking 15 French cooking rules while I was at it). Does this sound complicated? If so, please just think of it as making pancakes. It’s exactly the same thing! Except these are really thin. And French.

SPECIAL FOSTER-ESQUE BANANA FILLING

¼ cup (½ stick) butter

1 cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ cup Grand Marnier (orange flavored liqueur)

4 bananas (cut lengthwise and then in half)

¼ cup rum

Whipped cream

Sugared pecans

Combine butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a non-stick skillet. Stir over low heat until it’s all melty and bubbly. Add the Grand Marnier (or get creative and switch up the liqueur flavor!) and stir; immediately, add the bananas flat side down. Cook over low heat until the bananas start to get a little soft.

Getting bubbly

Then, add the rum. If you’re brave like Sarah, ignite the rum … if not, let the alcohol burn off for a few minutes.

Lighting up

And the flames leap higher . . .

Now it’s time to assemble! Lay a crêpe on a plate. Spoon a banana and some sauce inside, and fold. Top with whipped cream, more sauce, and sugared pecans. Don’t skimp on the pecans! The contrast of the soft crêpe with the crunchy pecans is amazing.

Have fun with crêpes—the things you can put in them are only as limited as your imagination (or your grocery budget as some of us may have it). Piles of fresh strawberries … the traditional butter and sugar … and all sorts of savory goodness! I’m envisioning something with blue cheese. And spinach. Sarah and I ate a couple with bacon and melted cheese inside. Make them this weekend and you’ll be thanking yourself.

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