Sunday, May 13, 2001


as promised, i have a report on the coffee from the vinegar factory, and it's the day to finish up the bread.

beginning with the step two starter, it's time to take it on to step three "levain" and step four, full dough. for this you'll need:

5 oz. flour ( i used clear flour for its springiness and great taste)
5 oz. water

as before dissolve the step two starter in the water, stirring gently. add the flour and stir to combine. cover with plastic wrap and return to the levain to its rising place. generally, the levain should develop for 10 hours; however, with the continuing warm weather here, i had to check after just 4. and the levain was about to overflow its bowl! i very gently folded in a teaspoon of salt so as not to deflate the levain, thinking this would be enough to slow the dough down and keep it out through the night -- but when i started out of my sleep at 4 am, i knew something was up, and rushed to the bowl. that's right -- it was about to overflow again.

i had to accept that the warm humid weather was ahead of me, so i placed the levain in the fridge and went back to bed.

i awoke the next morning ready to discover the charms of the fresh-roasted coffee at the vinegar factory.

what a treat! as you promised, they had fresh-roasted coffee in resealable clear plastic 1 lb. one-way valve bags -- almost all varieties between $6 and $9.

naturally i nabbed the coffee roaster and we had a long chat. they use a beautiful new fully electronic gas-fired roaster, made by diedrich in sandpoint, idaho. it has some fancy venting so it can sit proudly out on the main floor.

the place has a restaurant on the second floor, which dictates their roasting schedule: on friday afternoon, and on saturday and sunday, they roast coffee for the restaurant. the rest of the week they roast for the store. since they let the coffee rest 24 hours before they sell it, the roastmaster said, the turnover works out so that you pretty much *can't* buy coffee more than 36 hours old there.

it's hot in nyc today, so i wanted a variety for iced coffee. the roastmaster indicated that the tanzanian peaberry and the mexican altura were the freshest varieties, having been roasted late on thurs. evening. since i was there on saturday morning, i felt that that was pretty great -- fresh coffee! some of the coffee is sold from bins, and they do have grinders there. i asked him how often they sharpened the burrs, and he said he didn't know off-hand.

i must say that the customer service is excellent and even the regular staff who just weigh and bag the coffee seemed to me to have a fair level of coffee knowledge.

i bought a half-pound of the altura, ground it at home, made it in the vac pot, then iced it. it was delicious, bright and with a caramel aftertaste. i don't normally drink this kind of coffee, so i was pleasantly surprised.

i returned home and removed the levain from the fridge so it could return to room temperature while i enjoyed my iced coffee. then i moved on to step four, full dough:

13-1/2 oz flour (again, i used clear flour)
8 oz. water
1 teaspoon salt (because, see above, i had already added 1 teaspoon earlier)

i gently poured the step three levain in the 5qt bowl of my stand mixer. it was gassy and tenacious, with long sticky strands of gluten that required a spatula to help out of the bowl. the scent was light and yogurty, think mild ocean breeze. i attached the paddle beater to my mixer, and again gently dissolved the levain into the water, setting the mixer on speed 1. then i added the flour to the bowl, and mixed at speed 2 until a rough, wet, sticky ball had formed. i sprinkled the remainng 1 teaspoon salt over this, and swapped out the paddle beater for the dough hook, which i quickly lubed with a brief shot of cooking spray.

i kneaded the dough on speed 2 for 6 minutes. the dough is very soft, and will climb the hook, so it's necessary to stop the mixer a couple of times and push the dough back down into the bowl. as the dough kneads, it changes to a glossy pool whose long gluten strands adhere to the sides of the bowl, stretching out and the dough hook moves through. the dough will be soft and tacky after kneading. just perfect!

when the kneading's finished, i simply cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in its usual place for 2 hours or until double. due this weather, it was nearly triple at 1 hour and 45 minutes! the dough remains quite soft. to give it extra springiness, i took a spatula and folded the bottom edge of the dough up into the center. then i gave the bowl a quarter turn, and repeated the procedure. i did this about 12 times. the effect on the dough was obvious right away -- it had more bounce even though it was still very soft and wet.

since i have a 14-inch pizza peel, i cut a large piece of baking parchment to cover the blade, and set that on the peel. if you don't have a peel, you can use a cutting board or sheet pan. sprinkling the parchment liberally with flour, i poured the dough onto the parchment. the first time you make bread with this method, you might be amazed, because the dough seems to puddle out. "how," you ask yourself," will this ever turn into a loaf?" but it will -- don't be afraid!

after letting the dough rest for 5 minutes, i sprinkled it with more flour and grabbed an edge of the dough, to repeat the folding procedure above. now the dough looks more like the tight ball you might expect! then i turned the dough over, folding seam side down, and covered it with lightly oiled plastic wrap. normally i would let it rise until not quite double, about 1-1/2 hours. but of course due to the weather, the dough was ready in just 45 minutes!

30 minutes before i expected the loaf to be ready, i preheated my oven to 500 degrees. i like to use a baking stone, but a bread cloche, quarry tiles, or even a normal baking sheet will do. by the time the dough was ready, it had slumped back into puddle. but i wasn't worried -- because i know that in the oven it will spring into a gracious free-form loaf.

i quickly slashed the loaf with four cuts to form a square -- the dough was so liquid, they nearly filled in immediately. but i knew the design would remain in the final loaf as a nice decoration. then i carefully slid the loaf, still on the parchment, into the oven and immediately reduced the heat to 450 degrees. if you're not using a cloche, at this time you can quickly mist the sides of your oven with a little water. i use your average plant mister to give a few fast squirts. . .

this loaf normally take 30-40 minutes to bake, until an instant read thermometer thrust into the center shows 195 to 200 degrees. don't overbake, and don't peek! set your timer for 30 minutes and be patient! looking at your loaf you will find that it will have transformed from a lake of dough into a cookbook-picture-perfect rustic-looking loaf.

it's important to set this bread on a rack to cool for at least 2 hours before slicing. the center is still firming up, and the flavors developing. slicing too early will give disappointing results. the reward for your patience? a nice-sized peasant loaf, with a crunchy, thin crust; a moist, resilient crumb filled with large, airy holes; a tender flavor bursting with the taste of grain.

i settled down to a lunch of my new loaf with slices of an artisanal sweet sopresetta, an herbed goat cheese, and moroccan carrot salad, all washed down with the iced coffee. wait, you ask, where did the sopresetta and cheese come from? tomorrow i'll tell you about some other treasures i found at the vinegar factory. . .

posted by fortune | 9:58 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments