Chris Hennes

Ottolenghi's recipe has an enormous amount of tahini in it compared to other recipes I've got, I've always shied away from it for fear that it had metric-to-imperial conversion issues. Is there really over a cup of tahini to 1.25 cups dried chickpeas?

I take it you did not build their 55-gallon-drum tandoor -- what temp did you use? I was thinking of trying the naan next week since the pita turned out so well.

also, pizza...

Are you looking for any particular information? Also, keep in mind that they are using "bread flour" here as a shorthand for a particular protein content, and their bread flour does not correspond directly (necessarily) to the consumer product labeled "bread flour". For example, I use King Arthur All Purpose where they call for "Bread Flour" and King Arthur Bread Flour when they call for "HIgh Gluten Bread Flour."

The relaxant is optional in the pizza dough -- I left it out and still ended up with pizza . The theory is that it makes the dough easier to form when you are just learning, I think. Sort of "training wheels" for fledgling pizza makers.

I mean it passed the window pane test for full gluten development.

The cornstarch isn't the relaxant, the bromelain is -- but you use very very small quantities of bromelain so she is "diluting" it in starch. I've got a scale that's accurate to 1/1000th of a gram, which is what I use for the bromelain, cysteine, and yeast (when such small quantities are called for). @Kerry Beal, did you try to scale it normally before resorting you resorted to diluting it? What method did you use in your first go at using it, where you wound up with liquified dough?

Sealing the bag is not necessary when using a Foodsaver-type system. I simply interrupt the machine at that point and rerun the cycle. Five cycles is enough for full gluten development.

I made the pita again tonight, from the same batch of dough as last night. They had a distinct fermented tang to them: not objectionable, but unusual in a pita. I'll definitely add these to my regular weeknight dinner rotation. With the oven programmed to preheat itself on my drive home from work, dinner was on the table in very short order tonight.

Good idea - are you at all concerned about getting the bromelain evenly mixed into the starch? It's starting to feel very homeopathic!

Yeah, straight from the finished temp to the pan to the plate, no waiting. I get results that pretty much look like the other photos you see online: rare interior with a very thin seared layer on the outside. I have never timed my sear stage, but I think it's under a minute per side. Is that about where you were at, or do you think you were going longer?

Tonight I baked off half of the pita dough. The recipe has a 24-hour cold proof built into it, so I made the dough yesterday evening, but I'm hoping to get two days in the fridge for the second half... Fresh pita is delicious, and one of the breads you don't have to wait long for after it comes out of the oven. These were on the table within five minutes, and gone in about two more. If the dough will indeed keep for another day this is definitely making it into the regular rotation.

I have definitely done that! My last loaves of the day often fall victim to it.

How long did the sear take, per side? The way you're doing it right now I don't see any point to the SV at all, but it also sounds like your sear is too slow. I agree that the Searzall is too much work for multiple steaks, I only use it for touch-up work (and melting cheese!).

Looks under-proofed, no?

Oh, I understand now, it's really completely a searing problem. As far as I am concerned it's not even possible to have the surface temperature too hot when you are searing. How are you doing it?

I can't understand why you've got any internal temperature gradation at all -- are you cooking in a bath hotter than your desired final temperature? What temp are you using?

@Kerry Beal, did you bake that in the CSO? I wanted to make them, but I don't have a convection oven and reading the recipe it looked like that's a no-go.

Got it. There are lots of different brands selling sprouted flours now, maybe I'll give one of them a shot (I don't have a mill).

Hmm, I get .47% (0.473%, actually). Maybe I'm doing it wrong. If it's 14% hydration in the US, then only 86% is dry weight. 0.86 * 0.55 is 0.473. Am I thinking about it wrong? It's getting late here...

Ah! Right, I forgot about that difference. Sounds like I might still have to call!

I take it back, actually their website is quite clear: So, if you are OK with only .50% ash, they think this is the closest. If you really want to get up near .55% ash, they offer:

No, I don't know. If I have time maybe I'll give them a call this week.

One of the more fascinating (to me) ideas for inclusions is nixtamalized grains. I've made a lot of Mexican food over the years and have been to Mexico several times, so am reasonably familiar with nixtamalized corn. I have always assumed that the flavor of masa was mostly due to the corn, not the nixtamalization. It turns out that's not the case. In the one non-leavened bread recipe in the books, in the section on nixtamalization, they present a recipe for tortillas made from nixtamalized rye. I have both rye and cal (lime), so I had a go at it this afternoon: Here's the nixtamalized rye: It gets ground in a food processor per the recipe, but I think that obviously a real wet grinder (like an Ultra Pride) would be better. As it was, I actually switched to my Blendtec with the dry foods jar when my food processor didn't seem to make much headway. It's got 2% salt in it, which I think was quite a bit too much: personally I suggest something more like 1% would be better. This was a bit stickier than the corn masa I've worked with so it was difficult to roll onto the griddle, so I went with a sort of "slap" motion. It got the job done. They don't puff up much, presumably due to the size of the grain particles, but the overall texture is quite similar to a corn tortilla. So, along the same lines as what they present in the book, lunch today was pastrami, sauerkraut, swiss cheese, and mustard... on a rye tortilla. Alas, no homemade pastrami in the house at the moment, so that's Boar's Head. Still it was a delicious take on the classic pastrami on rye. The tortilla smelled and tasted quite a lot like a corn tortilla -- I was surprised to discover how much of that flavor turns out to be due to the process, not the grain. You could still taste the rye, so it wasn't a drop-in replacement for corn, but it's definitely interesting to play with.

Very nice. Have you ever made a more conventional brioche? If so, how would you say the texture compares?