Baking by Hand (18 page)
Authors: Andy King
Once your dough is ready to cut, turn it out onto your floured work surface. Using your bench knife and scale, divide into three 1 pound 8 ounce/700-g pieces. Gently shape the dough into rounds (see
here
), being careful not to compress the dough too much, and place seam side down on your work surface. Cover and rest for 20 minutes to build a bit more strength into the loaf before the final shaping. Find your couche and proofing board, and dust the couche lightly with flour.
Take your rested rounds and gently but firmly shape them into 15-inch/40-cm tapered batards (see
here
). Pinch the seam shut if necessary, but the dough’s moisture should be enough to seal the loaf closed. Place your shaped loaves seam side up on your couche, and pleat snugly. Place the board in your warm spot until they’re ready to bake.
While your dough is proofing, place your baking stone on the lowest rack in your oven, and your cast-iron pan on the highest rack. Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C. Check in on your bread periodically; if the surface feels dried out, spray it with a bit of water to allow for maximum expansion. If it feels cold, make it warmer. This may take over an hour, depending on the conditions of your kitchen. The loaf is ready to go in when it feels very airy and holds a fingerprint when pressed into the surface.
Flip the loaves over onto your peel. It might take a couple of batches to bake all your bread, depending on your oven size. Slash the surface of the loaves in your desired pattern. Now, grab three ice cubes from the freezer. Being careful to not keep the oven door open too long and let the heat out, open the oven, slide your loaf onto the stone, throw the three ice cubes into the cast-iron pan and close the door. After 5 minutes, quickly open the door and spray the interior of the oven with water. Continue baking until the loaf is evenly browned, about 25 minutes, and has a nice hollow thump when you tap it on the bottom. Let cool for at least 1 hour before cutting.
We’ve found that the easiest way to cook bacon is to roast it—and it ensures that you don’t mistakenly burn bits of bacon in the fat and ruin the taste. You’ll need about 10 pieces of the thickest-cut bacon you can find. Arrange it in a single layer on a sheet pan, and roast at 400°F/200°C for about 15 minutes, or until golden and crispy. Drain on paper towels and cool before dicing, and don’t forget to save the fat for the mix!
LUNCH
SANDWICHES AND DELICIOUS FROM-SCRATCH FILLINGS
We put things on bread because it’s the perfect canvas to feature well-prepared ingredients. It’s the unsung hero of the sandwich world, which is ironic because it’s what makes those slices of cheese and meat a sandwich to begin with. Yet so many delis out there pay so much attention to the stuffing and skimp on the bread. And there’s no fancy deli-sliced meat or expensive cheese that won’t be sandbagged by the spongy, dry crust of a mass-produced sandwich roll. I’d rather just have fillings on a plate than suffer through crappy bread.
At the bakery, we serve an assortment of predesigned sandwiches that are pretty much based on what we like to eat. Almost every selection is one we ate at the bakery long before we offered sandwiches for sale. We’d bring in leftovers from dinner, throw them on a baguette and eat while working. The term
baker’s lunch
arose from the wide variety of items (usually brought from home) that a busy baker can chuck in between two pieces of well-crafted artisan bread and have it serve as a meal. Some of our favorites are so simple they don’t even warrant recipes here: A pickle and Sriracha sauce. A smooshed banana and Nutella. A fried egg and cilantro.
Any of the sandwiches we offer here can be made with any type of bread. We’ve noted which breads we serve them on at the bakery, though our customers like to switch things up. We tend to put softer or more delicate fillings, like smoked salmon, on stirato, and sturdier fillings on baguette. And we put turkey on Multigrain. Turkey just works best with that grainy crunch.
In addition to the bread, we look for bold flavors that complement each other—something rich, something acidic, something fresh. And, whenever possible, make your ingredients from scratch. It makes your creation all the more delicious, not to mention unique. We’ve included recipes for easily made ingredients and, as an added bonus, recipes for five of our favorite in-house pickles. These recipes are our favorites and serve as guides (delicious, delicious guides), but after you’ve warmed up a bit, feel free to experiment with the ingredients. Make a sandwich that’s your very own.
It’s so simple that it’s almost not worth having a recipe for it. But it’s this type of sandwich that most often satisfies the baker midshift. Nothing beats the simplicity of good cheese and good meat on good bread; the French know that all too well. That’s why we call this the French Ham. It’s worth repeating one of the bakery’s mantras: If you’re going to go simple, you have to go high-quality. Go to a real cheese counter, and get your ham at a high-end market.
YIELD: 1 sandwich
½ of a baguette (about 7 inches/18 cm; see
here
, 84 or 89)
3 or 4 thick slices Brie cheese, room temperature
3 oz/75 g thinly sliced smoked ham
Slice the baguette lengthwise, layer the cheese and ham in the middle, close your eyes and pretend you’re in the Latin Quarter of Paris.
When I lived in San Francisco, almost every day for lunch I would grab this fantastic sandwich on crispy bread from the local Asian grocer, made with all sorts of rich meats, pickled vegetables and fresh cilantro. That was my first experience with the banh mi, and when we decided to serve sandwiches at the bakery, it was an obvious choice. We make our pickled vegetables and mayonnaise in-house and use smoked ham instead of the traditional pâté or head cheese (no one would let me boil a pig’s head at the bakery). We don’t serve it with hot sauce, but a few squirts of sriracha put this sandwich over the top.
YIELD: 1 sandwich
HOMEMADE MAYONNAISE
Yield: About 2 ½ cups/550 g
2 cups/470 ml canola oil
2.4 oz/70 g pasteurized egg yolks (or fresh, if you’re sure of their quality)
¾ tsp/5 g fine sea salt
¾ tsp/2 g dry mustard
1 ½ tbsp/20 ml white wine vinegar
PICKLED VEGETABLES
Yield: Enough for about 8 sandwiches
1 medium daikon radish, peeled and thinly sliced
2 large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 hot chile pepper of your choice, thinly sliced (optional)
2 cups/500 ml hot water
3 cups/710 ml white wine vinegar
⅓ cup/60 g granulated sugar
½ of a baguette (about 7 inches/18 cm; see
here
, 84 or 89)
3 oz/85 g smoked ham, thinly sliced
3 or 4 pieces thinly sliced cucumber
Fresh cilantro leaves
To make the mayonnaise, in a large metal bowl, whisk together everything but the canola oil until well combined. Add the oil in a very slow, steady stream, while still whisking, until the emulsification begins (it helps to hold the bowl still with a couple of damp kitchen towels on the counter, rolled to form a little doughnut-shaped stand). Once the mixture begins to thicken, you can add the oil a little faster, but be careful—when mayonnaise “breaks” (or separates), it can’t be fixed. You have to start over, which is a huge bummer. Refrigerate for up to 1 week.
To make the pickles, dissolve the sugar in the hot water and add the vinegar. Cover the sliced vegetables with the brine. Store in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours before using.
To assemble the banh mi, slice the baguette lengthwise and spread on the mayonnaise. Layer on the ham, pickled vegetables, cucumber and cilantro.
With its smoky aroma and soft texture, smoked salmon can tend to dominate. We find that the composition of this sandwich works quite well in terms of tempering its taste and texture without hiding it. The spicy, crisp daikon sprouts add a refreshing touch, as does the cool, acidic crème fraiche. The onions are another strong component that can stand up to the salmon and help keep it humble. Don’t worry, though: The salmon finds an ally in the briny capers. Use leftover crème fraîche anywhere you might use sour cream.
YIELD: 1 sandwich
CRÈME FRAÎCHE
Yield: 2 ¼ cups/530 ml
2 cups/480 ml heavy cream
¼ cup/60 ml cultured buttermilk
½ of a stirato (about 7 inches/18 cm; see
here
)
Capers
3 oz/85 g smoked salmon
Daikon sprouts
Red onion, thinly sliced
To make the crème fraîche, combine the cream and buttermilk, and leave in a warm place for 24 hours to culture. It should smell pleasingly sour and nutty when finished and have thickened noticeably. Refrigerate until set; it will keep for about 1 week.
To assemble the sandwich, slice the stirato lengthwise and spread on the crème fraîche. Stick the capers to this layer to prevent them from rolling all over your counter. Layer on the salmon, daikon sprouts and red onion.
The North Shore of Massachusetts feels like the roast beef capital of the world. You can’t drive for 10 minutes up here without passing a Kelly’s, Sammy’s, Nick’s, Bill and Bob’s or another first-name drive-through roast beef joint. We pass four on the way home every day. So we tried our hand at a unique roast beef sandwich, and although you can’t get it “with au jus,” as they say, it is Jackie’s favorite of all the sandwiches we serve at the bakery. The key to getting that pink through-and-through look to your beef is to cook it “slow and low,” and we’ve included an easy recipe to do just that.
YIELD: 1 sandwich
PICKLED RED ONIONS
Yield: About 1 pint/260 g
2 large red onions, peeled, halved and sliced into ¼-inch/5-mm strips
3 cups/710 ml white wine vinegar
1 tbsp/12 g granulated sugar
SUPER-SLOW ROAST BEEF
Yield: Enough for 10 to 12 sandwiches
1 top round roast, about 5 lbs/2 kg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
OVEN-DRIED TOMATOES
Yield: Enough for 10 to 12 sandwiches
10 roma tomatoes
Kosher salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
½ of a baguette (about 7 inches/18 cm; see
here
, 84 or 89)
2 pieces sliced sharp cheddar cheese
To make the pickled onions, dissolve the sugar in the vinegar, and pour over the onions. Refrigerate for 24 hours or until the onions take on a neon-pink hue; that’s how you know they’re ready. They’ll keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.
To make the roast beef, heat the oven to 200°F/90°C. Generously salt the exterior of the roast beef, and add pepper to your taste. Place on a rack on a sheet pan, and cook until the internal temperature reaches 125°F/50°C. This may take 4 hours depending on the size of the roast. Let cool completely before slicing.
To make the tomatoes, trim the stem ends off the tomatoes, and slice ¼ inch/5-mm thick. Lay the pieces flat on a parchment-lined sheet pan, and sprinkle with kosher salt. Roast for 1 hour in the 200°F/90°C oven, or until significantly dried but not crispy. To store, arrange the tomatoes flat in an airtight container, cover with olive oil and refrigerate. They’ll keep for about 1 week.
To assemble the sandwich, layer the roast beef, cheddar slices, tomatoes and pickled red onion onto the sliced baguette.
We like salad, but it never satisfied us as a lunch item. A salad thrown between a couple of slices of fancy bread, however, fills me up every time. The fresher and more in season your vegetables are, the better. If you can grab the tomatoes, cucumbers and greens out of your backyard garden, well then, that’s the best way to enjoy it. Toss the greens in a respectable amount of vinaigrette (use more for hearty greens, less for delicate ones), and let the feta add the rest of the salt.
YIELD: 1 sandwich