“Cuochi d’artificio”: An easy peasy home baked bread / “Cuochi d’artificio”: Pane casereccio facile facile

Ready, steady, go! With a little delay on the start of the new “Cuochi d’artificio” season, but here I am. This year we start with a few changes. From now on the cooks on the show can be consulted directly by the public by writing an email. All of the show’s chefs are here to help you resolve problems in the kitchen, giving tips and providing you with the best recipes.

The first question that was sent to me concerns homemade bread in its simplest form. Thinking about it, I realized that this question often comes from people who haven’t got much experience in the kitchen, who might have tried over and over the same recipe without obtaining any satisfactory results but still want to be able to make a genuine bread in their own kitchen. Better if all the process is sort of fast, effortless, without messing the kitchen too much. Daunting task…Luckily a few months ago I came across this gadget, a rubber bowl which allows you to mix the dough, let it proof and bake it in the same container. Not bad for those who do not want to havee too many kitchen tool to clean (after baking the mold is basically clean and just needs a good rinse) and doesn’t have a great dexterity to engage in types and shapes of bread which are far too complicated. The proofing schedule is specifically meant for people who work. This bread just needs a little kneading, proofing a few hours and can be put to rest in the fridge during the day if you want to bake the bread in the evening to return from work, or overnight if you want to cook it the morning after a good night’s sleep. I added a bit of whole wheat flour and seeds to give a more rustic and authentic flavor to the bread, to make it more homely.

Here you will find the list of ingredients and step by step description of the recipe, and here you can see the video recipe to have a more accurate visual reference.

And what about you, do you have any questions?

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Sage and Mixed Seeds Grissini / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Grissini alla salvia e semi misti

Do you know what it takes to make me happy? Hand me a pack of proper grissinis and this will keep me good, quiet and happy for a good half an hour…just long enough for me to eat them all! There is nothing I can do, they are simply irresistible to em! It has been a while since I have baked a batch especially for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook so I came up with a new version, which have passed successfully my guinea pigs’ test. To add more crispiness and crunch I added some mixed seeds which Alessandro, production director at Maroggia’s Mill and my faithful miller, handed me over the last time I visited. I added some dried sage too. The result is fragrant, aromatic, crisp and extremely addictive. Try the recipe and let me know what you think about those ones!

Panissimo’s Ecole de boulangerie: Le Boulot / Panissimo e la sua Ecole de boulangerie: il Boulot/Baulotto

It has become a habit lately, to defer my post for Panissimo‘s École de Boulangerie. Between one thing and another posting the École bread of the current month has become more of a challenge, and in the end I decided to just let go! Overdoing it now is not an option, as it would mean saturate the blog on almost a daily basis. I’d rather stick to quality – both in the recipes and pictures – than rush for the next post. The chosen bread shape for the month of March was boulot, a loaf with a nice central slash. Bread slashing, my damnation!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Emmer Knacker Brot with mixed seeds / Il ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Crackers di farro tipo Knacker Brot con semi misti

Here we go with the usual “other Friday“ appointment with my Recipe for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook. More experiments, many mistakes and the more I work the more these flours talk to me asking to be used to their full potential. That I can say especially about a type of flour that I really like, even though sometimes in the preparation of bread dough it can give some difficulties. I am speaking of Emmer.

Spelt, Semi-Whole Wheat, Buckwheat flour, Wheat Germ Sourdough Bread / Pane al lievito madre con germe di grano, farina di farro, semi integrale, e farina di grano saraceno

Until a few years ago, when I baked my bread with yeast and used AP flour only, it didn’t occur to me that flours could be so different and serve different purposes. In Switzerland we do not have a thing such as AP flour, mostly because wheat flours found in the shops have all 11% protein content, unless semi-whole meal, wholemeal or other kind of grains flour. Yes, how distressing.