Ciao Ling

Like Robirdstx, no artisan bread this weekend. My kids wanted the comfort of cinnamon raisin swirl bread. I haven't made a loaf style bread for some time. This recipe was from the instruction booklet of a long lost hand cranked bread maker and includes 1.5 cups of rolled oats. I also substituted a cup of whole wheat white flour for AP. Not the prettiest as you can see. I didn't get much cinnamon swirl as I did not roll the dough out flat enough before putting on the cinnamon sugar and then rolling it up. I also didn't insure that the roll seams were at the bottom. Nevertheless, it has a nice crumb and toasted up nicely for a late winter morning.

APOLOGIZE TO ALL- used the wrong link symbol when composing. Clear Flour Bakery link is here. Chowhound discussion of Clear Flour morning buns is here.

Kerry: Thanks so much. The recipes are similar to how I have made them and after seeing the pics, it is probably what I will be making this weekend! This made me start thinking about the best sticky bun I have ever had. When I used to live in Boston about 20 years ago, I used to get "morning buns" from the Clear Flour Bakery. To me, absolutely incredible and I have never had a bun similar to them. Apparently the bakery is still in business as I found their website. The texture was very different from the typical sweet dough. A chowhound discussion said they used their brioche or croissant dough. I couldn't find a recipe for their buns. Does anyone else know of a recipe that might come close to what is described?

Andiesenji: I am impressed at your neat organization! No pictures of my cupboard.....

This weekend's efforts. I have Maggie Glezer's Artisan Bread book. I saw Kerry's very nice Tom Cat Semolina Filone in an earlier post. I have never made a semolina bread so gave that a whirl (except no sesame seed coating as my kids hate it). My market did not have any durum flour so I made do with Arrowhead Mills pasta flour which is a mix of fine Semolina and durum flour. Also from Maggie Glezer's book, I made Thom Leonard's Country White Bread which I split into two forms. They all came out nicely. My slashes were not great as my razor blade is dull. I have no lame, but will head out to the market for some new razor blades. There is definitely something uniquely satisfying about bread baking, especially trying something new.

Restimulated by eGullet, for the last several weeks I have been on a bread baking binge. I have multiple flours, adding to the standard KA AP white I always stocked, unfortuntely adding flours almost like a collection trying different breads and trying to improve the results. I have to take a step back and ask whether I really need that many. Currently I have organic white and whole wheat from Bread Alone, KA French Style, KA European Style, KA Bread, Gold Medal Bread, KA white whole wheat, Arrowhead Mills Rye, Arrowhead Pasta (semolina and Durum flour), Bob's whole wheat, Bob's whole wheat pastry, Bob's Spelt, and Caputo 00 (for pizza), not to mention vital wheat gluten and wheat bran. As long as I continue to bake all the time, they will for the most part be used, but I might not. I heard of people trying to increase the freshness of flour by freezing, but that's a lot of freezer space. I don't do it, but people who grind their own flour will tell you that the nutrient flour drops immediately after grinding. How many flours do you have and how do you store yours? When do you consider throwing it away short of the obvious insect?

Here is the crumb of the Daniel Leader Boule leavened only with a liquid levain that I was worried about as I thought the starter was not very active. It was pretty good. Goes to show you how an amateur can misread sourdough starters.

On a baguette obsession. Wanted to try a baguette au levain compared to the Acme baguette I made before. There is a recipe online by Samuel Fromartz of his amateur best baguette in Washington D.C., blog post here. I also made a boule using levain from Daniel Leader's Local Bread. The results are good, but I don't think my starter was fully active and thus less of a dough rise and oven spring. It was more obvious with the boule than the baguettes as the leavener in the baguette recipe is not all levain but also uses some commercial yeast. I mixed the starter about a week ago and it wasn't as active as previous starters I have made, but I didn't have any mature starters and didn't want to wait. This is a wetter dough. The overnight retardation certainly led to great natural sugars, thus the great caramelization of the crust which was also shattered nicely. The crumb was also good. I used King Arthur French Style flour to come closer to the Type 55 softer wheat they use in France. I put the baguettes a little too closely together and some touched so those don't have a full circumferential dark crust. I haven't cut into the boule yet as it just came out of the oven. Here is a good bread equipment buying tip. I used a brotform I just bought and wanted to see how it worked as it was from a discount wholesaler that I read about from The Fresh Loaf. The round brotform is only $6.00. They also picture it with King Arthur products making me wonder if they have supplied King Arthur at some time. The 9" on KA is $29.95. You do have to order $50 worth of products before the order can be placed. I bought several brotform and bannetons and will split if with a friend.

I generally agree with not having a restaurant designed for noise, but as the WSJ article points out, sometimes "too noisy" is an unwanted byproduct of the design aesthetic that some owners then try to overcome using various techniques. As I mentioned, I am a regular at one such open plan restaurant in my town, website with the sound is here. When it opened, some complained of the noise and acoustic tiling was reportedly applied to the ceiling, but to me it has not changed much. That said, going there often enough for its other fine points seems to have outweighed the noise factor. By the way Chris, I was born in 1960, and haven't been to a club since college! I would be interested in any chef or owners' opinions, especially those that opened up in a space that they liked aesthetically, but had noise issues.

A recent article in the WSJ describes a trend in restaurant design leading to high noise levels. Many of the comments are negative about noisy restaurants. I personally understand the need for an intimate fine dining experience in a quiet romantic setting, but in practice in my town, my one "regular" restaurant is the high ceiling, no carpet, open kitchen, large bar restaurant set in an old factory building. It's website audio in fact features the background din of people talking and plates and glasses clinking. It has great food and great drink. I like the vibe. I go to quieter restaurants for business or romantic occasions, but they are not my "regular" stops. Opinions?

A great thread. It stimulated to get my hands into some dough again. For convenience, I tried the master boule from Artisan Bread in 5 mins for the first time. It was OK but I did not like the crumb. I then moved back to the Lahey no-knead which I have done many times. That was much better, but like anything else, sometimes it doesn't get you what you crave. I cracked open Maggie Glezer's Artisan Baking and made the Acme baguettes which add both a poolish and scrap dough into the recipe. Now I am getting somewhere.

Here is the Viet World kitchen recipe.

A friend who is the girlfriend of someone of Greek descent asked me if I knew of any good Greek restaurants in Rochester (or drivable from Rochester) for a surprise birthday. I personally don't know of anything great. Does anyone have any suggestions? The old Olive Tree is now Rocco's. I do like Olive's in Schoen Place in Pittsford but I am not sure how it would rate for someone Greek. I think this is the same for a lot of ethnic food restaurants in Rochester for people of that ethnic group. For someone of Chinese descent, I find that there really is no great Chinese restaurant in Rochester because you have Toronto or NYC to compare with. From Gordon's posts in the past, I guess the same holds true for Korean food. That said, is there any truly good Greek place that the Greek locals go to? It doesn't have to be fancy- just good food.

Last night, my wife and I had our usual fine time at Good Luck. All of the seasonal dishes and cocktails were expertly made (I'm a fan of their concoction, the Kentucky East India Company). I just felt compelled to write about one of the summer specials offered that night amongst the squash blossoms, marlin with citrus, watermelon and cucumber salads: Pork Belly. Pork belly is like bacon- hard for anyone except for a vegan to dislike. The pork belly was roasted such that the crackling was like that of Chinese or Cuban roast pork, the fat rendered from the seasoned skin such that it was perfectly crisp without being greasy. The meat below the skin was both unctuous and silky with a flavor that can only be called "porky" goodness that you don't find from lean supermarket pork. The two portions were served in a sizzling hot pan over creamy garlicky white beans and greens that had a subtle kick of red pepper heat. This "seasonal" special might seem to heavy and more suited to fall or winter, but for me as the Rochester summer heats up, I loved it, but hell I love pork belly. Below is a poor quality iPhone picture after one portion was already devoured.

I haven't and won't. Rochester is full of mom & pop sauce joints, the prices they're charging for food and wines are laughable. ← Gordon: What about Pier 45? I don't know anyone who has tried it yet. Menu on the web is not very adventurous, but if well prepared... and there is always the lake (while it's still summer).

Has anyone tried Henry B's since it moved to Rochester's East End from Seneca Falls or the more casual Sagamore Grille adjacent to it?

I have never used, experienced the Caja China, but would love to, but I can't get myself to buy such a big roasting box and prep a huge pig no less just for the short summer in Western NY. This makes a meal for the entire neighborhod. It seems to be prevalent in the Cuban communities in the US to make Lechon Asado. It was featured on a Bobby Flay Throwdown episode and also on an After Hours with Daniel episode at Michy's in Miami. Who can resist crispy pork cracklings? There are several threads on egullet mentioning it. Not quite outdoor only equipment, I just got a Thermapen, instant read thermometer. I took advantage of a discount deal (now expired) reported on a thread of my favorite forum. All I can say- I love it for the instantaneous read!

I can imagine! Gotta be frustrating for someone operating a coal oven. I would have been fine with a touch more char, but it's pretty close to perfect in my book. I certainly wouldn't have wanted it any lighter. The clams, well, those could have been in for a little less time... ← I finally tried Tony D's pizza. I got two for takeout. One Margherita and one Bianca. The Margherita was superb. Top notch ingredients. The mozzarella had that great fresh dairy flavor that only fresh can offer. But in the end pizza for me is all about the crust. The Margherita had one of the best crusts in Rochester for artisan type pizza for flavor and chew (I ate a slice or two in the car while driving home to avoid the pizza box steam effect). Crust was done perfectly with nice blisters and the black leopard spot charring that a coal fired high heat oven can provide. That said, the pizzaiola who tended the Bianca left it in too long. My Bianca did not have any really wet components and would be more prone to problems with inattention. At least half of the crust was carbon- by that I mean a slice could have a bottom that was a pure black triangle, no brown too be seen. I didn't check the pies until I got home, or else I would have showed them. Even so, the carbon layer was thin enough that I ate the pie happily anyway- I do like my high heat pies. I visit my sister in Connecticut once a year and always go to Frank Pepe's. I can understand, however, if others have complained about too much char. It may not be just be naive Rochesterians. I've got to try more pies, but I think a little more quality control to achieve consistency and they might very well earn the top spot in my book.

This post is for Rochester chocolate lovers. I attended the 3rd Annual Slow Food Chocolate Dinner last night at Max of Eastman Place. Tony Gullace in his typical superb fashion came up with an inventive menu incorporating chocolate/cocoa into each course. The main reason for the post is that there was a chocolate tasting following the dinner featuring the chocolates of Renee Suzette Chocolates. Renee Suzette, a local choclatier, was in attendance and served and described an incredible selection of dark chocolate treats that she had made that day for the event. One incredible truffle "bite" was a rasberry truffle consisting of 64% dark chocolate dusted with bittersweet Scharffenberger cocoa. There was also candied fresh mandarin orange peels dipped in dark chocolate as well as a truffle incorporating Glenora vineyards wine. She tries to use as many local prducts as she can, including cream from the Pittsford Dairy and butter from Byrne dairy. I had an opportunity to chat with Renee. She has been a pastry chef for 21 years since high school first gaining practical experience and also attending Johnson and Wales and the CIA. She had a stint in NYC helping Jacques Torres open his own chocolate shop in Brooklyn but returned to upstate NY where she grew up. She has been the pastry chef at the NY Wine & Culinary Center in Canandaigua and still teaches courses there but now has placed more focus on her chocolate business based in Waterloo, now open for about 1.5 years. She has several wholesale accounts and many of the Fingerlakes wineries have asked her to incorporate their wines into chocolates. She recently won the silver medal for her creation for the recent Chocolate Ball charity event at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center. She has no retail shop yet, but tells me that she would like to open one in Rochester. For now, you can visit her website, RSChocolate.com, and shop on-line for some of her creamy creations.

Gordon, great info as always. Any first impressions? ← It's a winner. The food at Rocco's was as expected - top notch. The pizza oven needs a few cycles to cure the bricks so they were less than enthusiastic due the fact it was fired for the first time that day. A salad of roasted beets, oranges, pistachios, house made ricotta, a salad of grilled potatoes, roasted red peppers, sopressata, arugula, meatballs, arancini, marinated olives, red wine risotto, grilled lamb over mushroom panzanella, cannoli, pistachio gelato with fennel seed brittle, etc. Pizzas and pastas next time. ← Went last night and thoroughly enjoyed the meal, atmosphere, and service. We had the roasted beet salad and the grilled octopus as starters. The grilled octopus was the standout. Perfectly cooked- tender not rubbery but also with a sweetish char that was nicely offset by the piquant salsa verde. We wanted to try the pizzas and tried two, a tomato, anchovy, olive, and chili and a white pizza with mushroom and white truffle oil. Both were quite good. The crust was not crisp like a Neopolitan with a little bit of chew and able to fold it but not as leathery as a classic NYC crust (Joe's Brooklyn In Henrietta seems to come closest for that). Apparently they use a starter for their dough. I would have to say the crust is more similar to the New Haven types although not as charred. Espresso to end the meal- that needs a little work. No crema at all. Will certainly come back, perhaps on a regular basis. Its atmosphere and price points are certainly conducive to that (similarly to Good Luck). More so with the current economic climate, opening any new restaurant can be a hazardous undertaking. We should always stick up for our good local restaurants amongst the big box chains.

Philadining- nice find and as always, great pics. Here's to more authentic taquerias in Rochester. I had a late night at work and on the drive home stopped at El Dorado at 8:30PM. It was near closing and the place was empty with no activity in the kitchen, but the two "young guys" fired it up for my takeout order of chicken tacos and tacos al pastor, which were superb, none of that Tex Mex stuff so prevalent in our area. I have liked Mexican at El Rincon Dos (now Rio Tomatlan) in Canandaigua and will also go to Paola's locally. Now I have another place for a decent taco. I'll work my way through the rest of their menu, but unfortunately the young guys tell me that they are taking the tamales off the menu. Apparently there is not enough interest from the local Rochester populace. When I asked them to reconsider, they said they might carry a smaller number, but they would definitely make them for you if called in advance.

Gordon, great info as always. Any first impressions? ← It's a winner. The food at Rocco's was as expected - top notch. The pizza oven needs a few cycles to cure the bricks so they were less than enthusiastic due the fact it was fired for the first time that day. A salad of roasted beets, oranges, pistachios, house made ricotta, a salad of grilled potatoes, roasted red peppers, sopressata, arugula, meatballs, arancini, marinated olives, red wine risotto, grilled lamb over mushroom panzanella, cannoli, pistachio gelato with fennel seed brittle, etc. Pizzas and pastas next time. ← Thanks- can't wait to try it. Always looking for true artisanal pizza. I have recently salivated over the pizza porn images coming out of NYC of late at the baker Jim Lahey of no knead bread fame's new place Co.

Gordon, great info as always. Any first impressions?

There is a small restaurant supply store in Henrietta called Innovative Catering & Restaurant Supply that you might try. Batavia Restaurant Supply is in Batavia which is about 45 minutes west.

Not the same as direct steam injection into an oven- but a similar low cost concept is the Steam Maker Bread Baker. It was reviewed on The Fresh Loaf.