William Penn Life, 2011 (46. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2011-06-01 / 6. szám
rf\l& Kttch^D, with Főszakács Béla Artisan Breads, Part FÁRADJON BE A MAGYAR KONYHÁBA! Now that delegate elections are over, final details are underway for WPA's 37th General Convention. We will also celebrate the 125th Anniversary of William Penn Association that same weekend. The celebratory feast will be the first order of business for the Labor Day weekend. Further details will appear soon in William Penn Life. Before those events, we will be holding the 28th Annual Golf Tournament and Scholarship Days at Quicksilver Golf Course in Midway, Pa., on July 15 and 16. Quicksilver is one of my favorite courses to play in western Pennsylvania. If you have the time and enjoy golf, make the effort to join us in the fun. I would also like to remind you of an event at Scenic View on August 9,10 and 11— our first-ever Youth Camp at Scenic View. A great program all young members should consider attending. Once again, Chef Vilmos and I are asking for recipes that will be added to the WPA cookbook, "A Taste of Hungarian Heaven." Instead of publishing a new edition of the cookbook, we will be creating categorized supplements which will fit into the current hardcover publication. We are in the gathering stage and hope to have supplements ready in 2012. That gives us plenty of time to work on this great project. Remember, all funds generated by the cookbook go directly toward scholarships for our student members. Last item to mention is The Hungarian Kitchen website. Vilmos and I continue to work on that project and thank you all for your concern. We will have a grand announcement when the site finally goes online again. Monthly Trivia: What do kenyér, zsemle, and lángos have in common ? The hot, fresh-from-the oven answer is waiting on the recipe page. ONE GOAL as a chef is to produce the best product you can with what you have to work with. Sometimes you do not have a plethora of ingredients, and the products you produce are very limited. However, there is a field of endeavor that uses minimal ingredients yet produces a vast amount of superior culinary products. Welcome to the world of artisan breads! Artisan breads-handcrafted in small batches with natural healthy ingredients—are very simple to produce. While some recipes are time consuming, it is worth waiting for the finished product. Artisan breads have great flavor that comes from starter dough prepared by fermentation and multiple rises before baking. They contain no preservatives and last about three days before going stale. If you cannot eat it all, make croutons, slice it thin for Bruschetta or slice it thick for French toast. Or, you can make breadcrumbs for other culinary projects. Most artisan breads use four ingredients: water, yeast, flour and salt. Your basic recipe has five steps: mixing, first rise, shaping, second rise and baking. Heating the water to a temperature between 90 and 110 F will speed up the reaction with the yeast. Using tap water, which is between 50 and 60 F makes the reaction happen slower. One point to remember: do not mix the yeast and salt directly together; doing so will kill the yeast. Let the salt completely dissolve in the water, then pour the water into the flour/ yeast bowl. Continue mixing by hand or by machine with dough hook as per the recipe. Breads may be leavened or unleavened, depending on the recipe. Adding yeast makes the bread rise. Yeast is a friendly fungus that feeds on sugar, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. The gas forms bubbles in the dough, giving it temporary shape in the rising stage. As the bread bakes, alcohol burns off and the yeast dies. The bubbles left behind give structure and softness to the loaf. Try using a standard 1:1 ratio when measuring sugar to yeast. If you use too much sugar, the yeast will react slower or not at all. After you bake enough bread, you will find the perfect ratio that might be lower than the 1:1 recommended. Working the bread-or "kneading"—stretches, presses, and folds dough to make it smooth and elastic. By kneading dough, the gluten network relaxes and lets the dough be scaled, shaped or formed before baking. Gluten is a protein consisting of glutelin and gliadin present in cereal grains, such as wheat. Notice that dough, when first formed, is very elastic; when stretched, it pulls itself back into a blob. Until the dough relaxes, using it to make bread is pointless. If you have a problem mixing the dough by hand, follow this simple method. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, except the salt. Let the salt dissolve in
