Shout out to home baking enthusiasts posting in our Preheated Facebook group – we’ve had Olympics cookies, king cakes, bouchons, maple cinnamon rolls, cupcakes, and even a listener who is rendering her own leaf lard. Thanks for answering our ongoing group question, “What’s in your oven?”
Book lovers, join us in March with our Preheated Book Club. We’re reading Sourdough by Robin Sloane and we hope you’ll read along with us.
March is bread month! Listeners, you picked our theme, and we’re so excited to jump in and bake some bread this month. We’re starting off with a No-Knead Peasant Bread by Alexandra Stafford, coined “the bread that broke the Internet.” Since the recipe has over 3,000 comments, it appears to have many fans spread across the globe. Stefin will be scaling the recipe up by 1.5x, and baking the bread in two loaf pans, while Andrea is so excited to be baking with her one-quart Pyrex bowls from her 50’s kitchenware collection. Make sure you use “oven safe” Pyrex bowls if you decide to bake in the Pyrex bowls. Andrea noted some options at the end of the recipe for mixing in some whole-wheat flour, so feel free to try those variations, or the original recipe, and let us know how it turns out!
When it comes to bread baking, one of the essential tools that both Stefin and Andrea use is a plastic bench scraper. They both find this tool so handy for folding dough and getting every last bit from the bowl. Stefin rises her dough by boiling a cup of water and placing it in an enclosed space like a microwave or oven (that is not on) with her dough. The heat from the water provides the perfect temp for the dough to rise. Andrea places her dough in the oven with her oven light turned on to get the temperature up. Added bonus of the oven light: it makes Andrea pause before preheating her oven for another dish and accidentally cooking her dough as it rises. Another tool Andrea likes is a proofing basket, allowing her dough rise in a traditional beehive shape. Finally, Stefin reminds us that weather can affect your bread baking, making it more difficult in rainy and humid weather. Keep in mind it will not be odd to make the same recipe on two different days and have it use different amounts of flour, depending upon the weather.
Listeners, what are you essential bread tools and tips?
Next up is a Cooking with Class segment as Andrea reports back from her most recent Galette de Rois class at The Bakehouse in New Orleans, taught by the acclaimed cookbook author and food blogger Joy the Baker. Joy demonstrated the methods to make this traditional king cake, and Andrea especially enjoyed how “normal” Joy is. Even though her kitchen is absolutely stunning and she is an accomplished baker, she is not at all intimidating or trying to teach complicated recipes. Joy also introduced the class to Old New Orleans Cajun Spice Rum, which Andrea loved so much she dragged her parents to the distillery to purchase some to bring back home to Washington. Stefin thinks Andrea should save a bit of rum for her holiday eggnog, which sounds like a pretty good idea. We’d love to see any pictures from cooking classes you attend; share them with us by tagging them #cookingwithclass.
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