MY KITCHEN IN SPAIN: yeast

Showing posts with label yeast. Show all posts

Saturday, May 2, 2020

WHEN THE BREAD IS GONE—MAKE MOLLETES

Baking bread in an emergency. These are molletes, soft sandwich buns, typical of Andalusia.

It’s finally happened—we’ve run out of bread. I bought two big country loaves when I shopped last week and stashed them in the freezer. But two guys (Ben and grandson Leo) making sandwiches quickly finished the supply. It will be several days before one of us goes out to shop. Looks like it’s time to make bread.

When my kids were growing up (in the 1970s), I baked bread once a week. We had a buying cooperative to purchase wheat in quantity, taking turns to take it to a small mill in a nearby town. The fresh, whole-grain flour was divided between several families. I got masa madre (sourdough starter) or fresh yeast from a local panadería (bread bakery). I rarely make bread anymore. But here we go!

Luckily, I have both yeast and bread flour in the pantry. There’s no shortage of yeast in my locality, so I´m not joining the sourdough brigade just yet.

Since the kids are into sandwiches, I decided to make molletes, sandwich buns. Yes, Spain has marvelous crusty rolls, but these are not them. Molletes have a soft crust and spongy crumb. And pale. They are not golden-toasty. They’re floury-white. Molletes just beg to be toasted or grilled, whole or split.

Traditional breakfast: mollete with olive oil.

A bread made traditionally in the inland Málaga town of Antequera, the mollete has become popular throughout Andalusia. Stop at a roadside venta for breakfast (oh, wait, I’m forgetting that you’re not allowed to be out on the carretera, nor are restaurants open yet), and an option is toasted mollete served with olive oil, tomato and thinly sliced serrano (or ibérico) ham.

Top the mollete with tomato or ham or both.

But molletes lend themselves to any sort of filling. They are perfect hamburger buns. They are a traditional bun for spreading pringá, the fatty meats and sausage left from puchero.

Store molletes in a cloth bag. They don’t keep more than a couple of days but can be resuscitated by toasting. Toast them, split, in a toaster or on a ridged grill pan.

Variations on the theme: Substitute whole wheat flour for some of the white bread flour. Add sesame seed or cumin to the dough. Make black buns by mixing squid ink into the dough. (Yes, I have sampled such a thing.) I'm supposing that all-purpose flour would work for these buns, if you don't have bread flour.

A perfect breakfast, lunch or snack--split and toasted mollete with olive oil, tomatoes and ibérico ham.

Or, serve the mollete with semi-cured goat cheese. Raw onions, if you like.

Molletes are the perfect burger buns. Toast them in the toaster or on a ridged grill pan.

Sandwich Buns
Molletes

About yeast: Fresh yeast comes in a cake and is easy to crumble. Keep it refrigerated up to 2 weeks or in the freezer. To activate the yeast, use water hot from the tap or heated so that you can comfortably stick your fingers into it—about 110ºF. To substitute active dry yeast, use 1/3 of the amount of fresh yeast or, in this recipe, about 1 teaspoon dry (about half of an envelope of dry yeast) for 1 tablespoon of fresh.

Flatten balls of dough to oval or circle.

To bake: Roll dough into balls and flatten them into ovals or rounds. Place them on baking sheets lined with parchment and sprinkled with a little flour or fine semolina. Dust the tops of the buns with additional flour. Spray them lightly with water. Bake the buns on a single rack in the lower part of a preheated oven. (Use a pizza stone if you have one.)

Makes 8 buns.

½ ounce fresh yeast (approx. 1 tablespoon, packed)
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1 1/3 cups hand-hot water (about 110ºF)
4 ¼ cups bread flour + additional for board and pans
2 teaspoons salt
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Flour or fine semolina for baking sheets
Water to spray buns

Crumble yeast into a small bowl. Add the sugar and 1/3 cup of warm water. Stir to dissolve the yeast. Allow to set 5 minutes.

Mix yeast and flour.

Place the flour in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the salt. Make a well in the center and add the remaining 1 cup of warm water and the yeast-water. Use a wooden spoon or paddle to combine the flour and liquid. Mix until it comes together in a ball and all of the flour is combined. Allow the dough to rest 15 minutes.

No flour to knead. Dip hands in oil to prevent sticking.

Place the oil in a shallow bowl alongside the work surface. Scrape the dough onto the board. Dip palms in oil and knead the dough for 3 minutes. As dough becomes sticky, use more oil on the hands. Don’t add additional flour on the board. Gather the dough again into a ball and allow it to rest 15 minutes.

Again, dip hands in oil and knead the dough until smooth and glossy, using more oil as needed. Rest the dough 15 minutes. Repeat the kneading one more time.

Use the oil to grease the mixing bowl. Gather the dough into a ball and place it in the bowl, turning it once to coat the dough with oil. Cover with a clean cloth and place in a warm, draft-free place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

Dough rises 2 hours.

Dough before rising.

Line two baking sheets with parchment. Sprinkle them lightly with flour or semolina.

Buns are ready for the oven. Traditional molletes are oval; round ones are fine too.

Punch the dough down. Lightly flour the board. Turn the dough out. Knead once more until smooth. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions and roll them into balls. Press the balls to flatten them into ovals approximately 4 ½ X 3 inches. Place them 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Dust the tops lightly with flour and cover with cloth. Let them rise 15 minutes while oven heats.

Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Remove cloth from one baking sheet. Spray or sprinkle the tops of the buns very lightly with water. Place the sheet in the lower part of the oven. Bake 5 minutes.

Repeat with the second tray, raising the oven temperature again to 425ºF before baking the buns.

Baked buns are pale, not browned, and crust stays soft.

Freshly baked molletes.

More ways to use mollete buns:

Kale and Walnut Sandwiches.

Serrano Ham, Pork Loin, Green Pepper Sandwich (Serranito)

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Lockdown update: Starting today, I get to go outside of the house! Mayores (persons over 70) can now go for a walk—from 10 am-12, or from 7 pm-8. Ben can, supposedly, go surfing (from 6 am-10 or from 8 pm- 11), but he’s not allowed to get in a car to get to the coast. (Travel to purchase food or medicine has been permitted all along. In fact, I'm not cooped up in an apartment, but can range around my olive grove and garden.) Lockdown—with gradual easing of restrictions—is to be extended for another two-week period.

The incidence of new cases of coronavirus in Spain peaked on March 26. Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha have had the highest rate of mortality up until now (125 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants). The region where I live, Andalucía, has one of the lowest mortality rates due to the virus, 15 per 100,000 persons.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

OH, LARDY, LARDY

Counting down to Lent, now it’s time for Carnaval and feasting on fat. You’ve certainly heard of Mardi Gras—“fat Tuesday,” the last day before Lent. In Spain, it’s jueves lardero, or “fatty Thursday,” celebrated at the beginning of Carnaval. This year jueves lardero is February 23.

Carnaval celebrates Don Carnal, Mister Flesh-pot, a last pig-out before Lenten austerity. Besides raucous parades, ribald ditties, flamboyant costumes and plenty of partying, there’s food, in particular fatty food—sausages, lard, ham—before the fasting of Lent begins.

Ensaïmadas are sweet rolls made with lard, typical of the island of Mallorca.

In Mallorca (Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean) a favorite for Carnaval is ensaïmada, a spiral sweet roll traditionally made with lard. In fact, saïm means “lard” in the Catalan usage.

Ensaimadas are popular year-round and now can be found, not just in the Mediterranean archipelago, but in every corner of Spain. Small ones are perfect breakfast sweet rolls paired with café con leche. Big ones, split crosswise and filled with pastry cream, chocolate or whipped cream, might become dessert. Leave off the topping of powdered sugar and they make great sandwich buns. Are ensaimadas the next Cronut?

For Carnaval, the spiral roll is studded with slices of sobrasada, typical Mallorcan soft sausage, and slices of candied pumpkin.

The perfect breakfast sweet roll!

Split the rolls and serve with marmalade.

Rolled cords of yeasted dough form the spiral rolls.

Sweet Rolls with Lard
Ensaimadas

Melt pork fat to make lard.

Buy rendered lard from a good butcher or buy the fresh pork fat (leaf lard) and render it yourself. Heat it in a heavy pan until fat is melted. Strain the lard, cool and refrigerate. The solid bits that are strained out can be fried crisp and salted as a snack--cracklings. Freeze lard that you do not intend to use immediately.

Fresh yeast.

Use fresh pressed yeast, levadura prensada, if you can get it. I buy it from a panadería, bread bakery. Kept in the freezer, it lasts up to a year. If substituting dry yeast, use 1 (¼ ounce-) envelope of active dry yeast.

Use harina de fuerza—bread flour—for this recipe.

Allow the dough to rise slowly—overnight—in a draft-free space such as a turned-off oven. Use a deep enough bowl so the dough doesn’t reach the top. Cover with a clean dampened cloth. To speed up the second rising, after the rolls are shaped, place them in a warm place. Don’t cover the rolls, as the cloth will stick to the dough, but put the pans in a draft-free place.

Make either small, individual rolls or two large ones. You’ll need space (big table is good) for rolling out large pieces of dough.

Makes 12 (5-inch) rolls or 2 (10-inch) rounds.

Softened pork lard.

½ cup warm water
1 ounce fresh pressed yeast
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (4 ¼ ounces) softened lard
4 cups bread flour
Olive oil for rolling out
Slices of sobrasada and candied fruit (optional)
Confectioners’ sugar

Place the warm water in a small bowl. Crumble the yeast into it. Add 1 teaspoon of the sugar. Stir. Allow the yeast to activate for 15 minutes.

Beat the sugar and eggs together in a large bowl. Add the salt, 1 tablespoon of lard and half of the flour. Use a wooden spoon to mix well. Add the dissolved yeast.

Gradually work in remaining flour. Turn the dough out on a work surface and knead it (or use a mixer with dough hook) for 25 minutes. At first it will be crumbly and shaggy, gradually becoming shiny and very stretchy. If dough tends to stick to work surface, oil the surface lightly. (Don’t add additional flour.) To test the dough for elasticity, take a marble-sized ball and stretch it—it should become thin and transparent.

Gather the dough into a compact ball and place it in a large, oiled bowl. Turn the dough to coat it on all sides with oil. Place it in a draft-free place (such as a cupboard or turned-off oven) until doubled in size (6 hours or overnight).

Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment.

Punch down the dough and divide it in half. If making small rolls, divide the halves into 12 pieces (each about 2 ½ ounces) and roll them into balls.

Roll out dough, smear it with soft lard.

Lightly oil the work top and rolling pin. Place a ball on the surface, pat it to flatten and roll it out to a long rectangle (about 12 inches for a small roll; 25 inches for a big one). With the fingers, smear the surface of the dough generously with lard.

Lift and stretch edges of dough.

Working on the long sides, lift the dough and gently stretch it until very thin and transparent.

Cut a strip of dough off of one long side. Place it on the edge of the other long side and use it as a “core” to roll the dough around. Roll the dough into a long cord. Pick it up in the center and gently squeeze and stretch the cord towards the ends.

Roll the dough into a long cord.

Coil the cord of dough into a spiral, leaving gaps between the loops, as the dough will expand as it rises. Place the rolls at least 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. (If making two large ensaimadas, place each one on a separate baking sheet.