Category Archives: the basics

Boule and camembert (aka the best starter ever)

29 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in bread, cheese, french, party bites, quick and awesome, snacks, Vegetarian

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pain au siegle

fresh pain au siegle bread from the bakery

baked camembert and boule

score the camembert and place inside the boule

baked camembert and boule

top with caramelized onions

baked camembert and boule

slice into the warm crusty bread, drenched in rich cheese and sweet onions

I’ve felt so guilty about not being on my blog here for a while and so relieved to be back. I have so much to share and can’t wait to get it all down. My absence wasn’t the Thanksgiving madness but my new passion for artisan bread. Oh yes, I have been bread baking like a… a bread fiend, I guess. But more on that later.

So it’s the day after a lovely Thanksgiving. Everything went miraculously well, minus a single smashed champagne glass. And, assessing the food and drink, my favorite dish of all was hands down this simple but oh-so-fabulous starter of wine, bread and cheese.

Camembert baked in a fresh boule with caramelized onions. Oh. My. God. We ate almost the whole thing and polished off a bottle of dry Riesling along with it. I may try this again at Christmas, perhaps with some other toppings such as figs, garlic and rosemary, sun dried tomatoes or chili jam. In the meantime, this is highly recommended.

Ingredients
1 smallish boule, such as pain au levain, from a good bakery
1 wheel camembert
2 onions, sliced thinly
1 tbs butter
1 tbs brown sugar
splash white wine
olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Heat up some olive oil and add the sliced onions, the brown sugar, salt and pepper and splash of white wine. Fry on a medium heat, stirring occasionally and turning down the heat if they start to burn. It will take about 20 minutes to cook them until soft, sweet and a nice caramelized brown. Taste as you go and add more salt and pepper if needed.

2. Carve out a lid from the boule and scoop out enough of the bread to fit a wheel of camembert inside. This leftover bread can be fried into croutons. I added it to a mushroom, leek and gruyere bread pudding.

3. Butter the inside of the bread and the bottom of the bread lid. Score the camembert all over so it doesn’t explode when it bakes. Tuck it inside the bread and spoon all the caramelized onions on top. Place the bread lid back on top.

4. Bake at 325 or 350 for about 30 minutes. You can pull it out and check inside whenever you like. It is done when the cheese is melted and gooey inside.

The bread will be hot and crispy on the outside, but light as air on the inside. Be careful cutting this as the cheese will seep out. Just dip the chunks of bread in it. We used a spoon to slather the cheese and onions over the pieces of warm bread. I find this superior to the brie or camembert baked in puff pastry. That is heavenly too, but on the greasy and heavy side. Camembert baked in the fresh rustic bread is lighter and more delicate. As for the cheese, choose camembert over brie for this. I picked up a pain au seigle from Balthazar Bakery in NYC, which was made with rye and whole wheat flour and needed a good strong tasting (and super gooey) cheese like camembert. If using brie, I would recommend a triple creme.

*inspired by the lovely farine blog

The best pizza toppings. Ever.

17 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by in cheese, gluten free, healthy, homemade cheese, italian, Vegetarian

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Brie, Thai sweet chili sauce, caramelized onions and garlic rosemary mushrooms.

If someone has a better idea. Please let me know!

I made a large buckwheat pizza and split it between this combination and homemade ricotta and red pepper. The pic of the pizza above is one my husband took. He’d already eaten half the pizza and thought it was so dang good he had to take a picture for my blog. You can of course use normal pizza dough if you like. Here is a good recipe for that. Buckwheat flour makes a thin and crispy flatbread-style pizza.

Buckwheat pizza dough
makes one large pizza
2 cups of buckwheat flour
2 tsp dried active yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup hand hot water
1 tbs olive oil
cornmeal for dusting

1) In a large bowl, mix the yeast, sugar and 1/4 cup of water gently. Leave to sit for 5 minutes.
2) Add in the flour, salt, olive oil, remaining water and mix together.
3) Mix until all combined. If it is too wet, add more flour as needed until you can work the dough.
4) Knead for a few minutes–this is more like molding clay than kneading dough.
5) Form into a ball, put into an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and something heavy and keep in a slightly warm oven (heat off!) for 1 1/2 hours to rise. It may not rise much–that’s ok!
6) Roll out on a clean, oiled counter. It is a sticky dough and may need to be rolled out again on the baking tray or even pressed into place with your fingers. Sprinkle the baking tray with corn meal first to prevent sticking.
7) Top with whatever you like, or the recommended best toppings ever.

Best toppings ever

To make a cheat batch of caramelized onions
the real stuff takes AGES
2 onions, sliced thinly
2 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
tsp brown sugar
olive oil
salt and pepper
splash of white wine

1) Heat up olive oil in a small frying pan, then add all the ingredients except the white wine.
2) Fry on a medium high heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Don’t let the onions burn. Turn the heat down a bit if they start to.
3) When the onions are browning and sticking to the frying pan, add in the splash of wine and cook a few more minutes. Taste and add a bit more salt and pepper if needed. Set aside

Rosemary garlic Mushrooms
6-8 small mushrooms, sliced
1 garlic clove
1 sprig fresh rosemary
salt and pepper
splash of wine or beer (optional)
olive oil

1) Heat up the olive oil in the same frying pan used for the onions. Add all the ingredients except the splash of wine.
2) Cook on a high heat until the mushrooms are browning. Add in the wine or beer if desired and continue cooking on a high heat until the mushrooms have absorbed all the juices. Remove the rosemary sprig before using the mushrooms on the pizza.

Putting the pizza together

Start with a layer of caramelized onions, then the mushrooms and chunks of brie. I used a double creme brie this time but I’d love to try a real gooey triple creme brie or camembert next pizza time. Top with drizzle of Thai sweet chili sauce (not too much). I wouldn’t use a straight up hot chili sauce as a replacement. The sweet chili complements the cheese perfectly. Bake in the oven on a high heat (about 420 F) for 10 minutes or so.

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buckwheat pizza dough
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