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(Italian linen from La FABBRICA del LINO)
Point Reyes Sheriff's Calls by Susanna Solomon1 is a collection of short stories set in West Marin, one of the most beautiful areas of California. The title of the book comes from the Sheriff's Calls section of the local newspaper, the Point Reyes Light2. Each story starts with an entry from that section. For example, the story that inspired me, "Dressed Only in Jeans," starts with this:
From the Sheriff's Calls Section in The Point Reyes Light, November 1, 2012
Stinson Beach: At 9:09 a.m. a frizzy-haired man dressed only in jeans was found locked in the library at Audubon Canyon Ranch.
I heard the author read one of the stories at an event before the book was published and from that day on I looked forward to reading the collection. When it came out, I purchased the version for my iPad and carried it around with me, reading a couple of stories at a time, like nibbling a special piece of chocolate. I dreaded getting to the last story, to the last page.
The stories are miniatures. They ask the reader to pay attention to the details of place and dialog. With precise and lively language, the author gives life to a delightful set of characters. Soon I cared about aging Mildred and Fred, young Alice and Thomas, and Police Officer Linda Kettleman. The reader is drawn into conversations, discussions and standoffs.
I like that the stories show the characters at their best, their worst and all the shades in between: they can be selfish and insensitive, but also generous and even heroic; they can be silly or stubborn, but also thoughtful and selfless. They deal with daily occurrences (shopping, cooking, doing laundry, watching a baseball game) and with life's challenges: growing up, growing old, being homeless.
A homeless man, Anson Baker, is the protagonist of "Dressed Only in Jeans." Linda is called by the library's staff when they find him locked inside. She sees through the lies he answers to her questions, but the librarians decide not to press charges, so Linda lets Anson go and leaves:
Anson watched her drive off. It was a nice day, clearing up and all, and the mist was rising off of Inverness Ridge... he could hitch into town, bum a meal, but there were too many people there. Still, the thought of eggs and bacon and sausage and sourdough bread made him crazy.
Making sourdough bread is one of my passions. For Anson, I baked a boule enriched with Asian pears from Neukom Family Farm. I tried a few different variations (including one with oven-roasted pears and one with toasted cashews) and finally settled on one that uses pears of the variety Nijisseiki (a.k.a., 20th Century) and fresh rosemary (rosmarino) from my herb garden.3 I used basically the same ingredients of my recent Carrot sourdough bread4, because I love the flavor and texture of the result.
Printer-friendly version of briciole's recipe for Pear sourdough bread
Important: this bread uses sourdough starter (lievito naturale or pasta madre) that requires a bit of advanced planning.
Ingredients:
For the preferment
- 50 g sourdough starter, refreshed previously, if stored in the refrigerator
- 100 g water
- 100 g King Arthur Flour all-purpose flour (this is the flour I always use to make bread)
For the pears
- 180 g Asian pears Nijisseiki (a.k.a., 20th Century), possibly organic
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary needles
For the dough
- 220 g preferment (sourdough starter) prepared in advance with the ingredients listed above
- 220 ml water at 85 F / 30 C
- 0.4 g / 1/8 teaspoon instant yeast
- 40 g stone-ground whole-wheat flour + 35 g sprouted whole-wheat flour OR 75 g stone-ground whole-wheat flour
- 295 g King Arthur Flour all-purpose flour
- 5 ml extra-virgin olive oil
- 8 g fine sea salt
Prepare the preferment
10-12 hours before starting to make the bread, prepare the preferment: weigh the ingredients in a container, stir well with a fork, cover and let ferment at room temperature in a draft-free place. (Adjust the timing as needed for your starter and your room temperature so that by the time you start making bread the preferment is bubbly active, as in the photo above.)
Prepare the pears
Shortly before starting the dough preparation, rinse pears well, quarter, core and cut into small dice, about 1/4-3/8 inch / 0.5-1 cm. You should end up with 160 g diced pears.
Add the chopped rosemary to the pears.
Prepare the dough
I start making the bread early in the morning, so I am sure the bread will be baked and thoroughly cooled by dinner time.
In a bowl, mix preferment (sourdough starter), water and instant yeast. The small amount of yeast I use helps keep the leavening process within a predictable time frame in the cool environment of our house.
Add the flours and stir with a wooden spoon or a dough whisk.
Add pears, rosemary and olive oil and stir until a shaggy dough forms. Sprinkle salt on the surface.
Cover the bowl and let the dough rest 5 minutes. In the meantime, oil well a plastic tub with lid where you will transfer the dough when fully mixed.
Wet the spoon (if using it) and mix dough until it is homogeneous.
Transfer the dough to the oiled tub. With wet hands, letter-fold the dough and then flip it to oil the surface. This is your time 0. Cover the tub and let rest for 45 minutes.
This very nice video on The SF Baking Institute website describes and shows a couple of important techniques I apply to bread dough.
- Stretching and folding: as Mac says in the video, the stretching part is of fundamental importance in gluten development
- Pre-shaping and shaping rounds (useful for later)
The video is not long, but if you don't have time to watch it in its entirety, you can start at 4':30" and watch about 8 minutes until Mac shows how to shape a boule.
- A) Stretch and letter-fold the dough in the tub, rotate 90 degrees then stretch and letter-fold again. Flip the dough so it is seam side down.
- B) Cover and let rest for 45 minutes.
Repeat A and B two more times, at which point you will be at time 3 hours.
Check gluten development by stretching a corner of the dough to make a windowpane. If you don't get a windowpane, let dough ferment a little longer.
Shape the bread
Lightly flour your working surface and transfer dough onto it. Use a bench scraper to help you move and turn the dough.
Gently pat dough to flatten it into a thick circle and degas. Fold corners of dough towards the center, flip (so it is seam side down) and pre-shape into a boule on an unfloured section of your working surface, which offers some resistance (see video at 8'). Move the round towards you, then back with a slight rotation, all the while tucking dough underneath. Bring a bit of tension to the dough, but not as much as you will later, during shaping.
Let pre-shaped round rest for 20 minutes, covered (I leave it on the kneading board and cover it with the plastic tub turned upside down).
In the meantime, cut a square of parchment paper (approx. 14-inch / 36 cm long). Lightly oil the bottom of a lidded cast-iron Dutch oven so that the parchment paper does not stick to it. I used my 5-Qt one; a 4.5-Qt one should work as well.
Flip the dough (so it is seam side up) and flatten lightly, then fold corners of dough towards the center. Flip (so it is seam side down) and shape into a boule on an unfloured section of your working surface, which offers some resistance (see video at 12'). Move the round towards you then back with a slight rotation, all the while tucking dough underneath. Bring tension to the dough, but do not overdo or the surface will tear.
Gently transfer the shaped dough to the center of the prepared parchment paper. Pick up the paper by the corners and transfer to the Dutch oven. Cover (a clean shower cap works well for this) and let dough rest until doubled in size (also, until a dimple made on the dough with your fingertip persists), in my case about 3 hours, depending on the room temperature.
Prepare the oven and bake the bread
When the dough is 1/2 hour or so from being ready, preheat the oven to 500 F / 260 C.5
Uncover the dough, score the surface according to your preference, lightly mist the dough's surface, place the lid on the Dutch oven and place in the hot oven.
Lower the oven temperature to 475 F / 245 C. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid from the Dutch oven and lower the temperature to 450 F / 230 C.
Bake for an additional 15 minutes. At this point, check the bread's internal temperature: if it is 210 F / 99 C, it is ready. Otherwise, continue baking for another 2 minutes, then check again.
Carefully extract the bread out of the Dutch oven using the parchment paper flaps to lift it up. Place on a rack to cool. Restrain your desire to go at the bread with your knife: let it cool completely, at least two hours, but possibly longer. Slice and feast on it with all your senses.
(Italian linen from La FABBRICA del LINO)
Lightly sweet pears and lightly tangy sourdough alternate in each bite and rosemary adds an aromatic note. Warning: it is hard to stop eating it, especially when paired with cheese or fruit preserves.
We like to visit Point Reyes National Seashore6 (one of the most precious jewels of our National Park system) and stay in Point Reyes Station. The photo above is from last December and shows one of the places mentioned in the book.
1 Point Reyes Sheriff’s Calls web page, which includes maps, excerpts and photos of the places mentioned in the stories.
2 Point Reyes Light website
3 Bread baker extraordinaire Barbara of Bread and companatico has recently baked a traditional Italian pane con le pere (which includes rye flour, hazelnuts and butter). Reading her post also nudged me towards trying using pears in my sourdough.
4 Carrot Sourdough Bread on briciole
5 Baking in a cast-iron pan without preheat
6 Point Reyes National Seashore
FTC disclosure: I have received the linens free of charge from the manufacturer, la FABBRICA del LINO. I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting them on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.
This is my second contribution to the 25th edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I started some time ago and that I continue to host.
I am sending this bread to the September edition of Panissimo, a monthly event created by Barbara of Bread & Companatico and Sandra of Indovina chi viene a cena?.
Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:
pane al lievito naturale con pere
or launch the pane al lievito naturale con pere audio file [mp3].
[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]
bread, homemade bread, sourdough, pears, Asian pears
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pane al lievito naturale con le pere
(tovaglietta di lino de La FABBRICA del LINO)
Fare il pane al lievito naturale è una delle mie passioni. E in questo periodo consumiamo molte pere asiatiche, succose e dal sapore aromatico.1
Importante: per questo pane utilizzo della pasta madre quindi occorre pianificare in anticipo.
Ingredienti:
Per la pasta fermentata
- 50 g pasta madre, rinfrescata in precedenza, se conservata in frigorifero
- 100 g acqua
- 100 g farina di grano forte
Per le pere
- 180 g pere nashi o altro tipo di pere a polpa soda, possibilmente bio
- 1 cucchiaio di aghi di rosmarino tritati
Per l'impasto
- 220 g pasta fermentata preparata in anticipo con gli ingredienti di cui sopra
- 220 ml acqua at 30 C
- 0.4 g / 1/8 cucchiaino lievito di birra secco istantaneo
- 75 g farina integrale per pane
- 295 g farina di grano forte
- 5 ml olio extra-virgine di oliva
- 8 g sale marino fino
Preparare la pasta fermentata
10-12 ore prima di impastare il pane, pesare gli ingredienti per la pasta fermentata in un contenitore, mescolare bene con una forchetta, coprire e far fermentare a temperatura ambiente. Al momento dell'uso la pasta presenta una superficie cosparsa di bollicine.
Preparare le pere
Poco prima di cominciare a impastare, lavare le pere, tagliarle in quarti, rimuovere il torsolo e tagliarle a dadini di 0.5-1 cm di lato. Dovreste avere 160 di pere a dadini.
Aggiungere il rosmarino alle pere.
Preparare l'impasto
In una ciotola capiente mescolare la pasta fermentata, l'acqua e il lievito di birra secco istantaneo.
Incorporare le farine. Aggiungere le pere, il rosmarino e l'olio d'oliva e mescolare fino a formare un impasto grossolano. Spargere il sale sulla superficie.
Coprire la ciotola e far riposare l'impasto per 5 minuti. Nel frattempo, oliare un capiente contenitore di plastica con coperchio che userete per la fermentazione.
Mescolare fino ad ottenere un impasto omogeneo. (Se usate un cucchiaio di legno, bagnatelo prima.)
Trasferire l'impasto nel contenitore oliato. Con le mani bagnate, tirare delicatamente l'impasto da un lato e piegarlo verso il lato opposto. Ripetere dall'altra parte, come se piegaste un foglio di carta in terzi per metterlo in una busta. Voltare l'impasto piegato sottosopra. Coprire il contenitore con il suo coperchio e lasciar riposare per 45 minuti.
Questo video sull sito del SF Baking Institute mostra un paio di tecniche importanti:
- Tiratura e piegamento
- Preformazione e formazione di una boule, o pane rotondo (utile in seguito)
Il video non è lungo ma se non avete tempo di guardarlo tutto, potete cominciare a 4':30" e guardare circa 8 minuti fino a quando Mac forma la boule.
- A) Con le mani umide, tirare l'impasto da un lato e piegarlo verso il lato opposto. Ripetere dall'altra parte, come se piegaste un foglio di carta in terzi per metterlo in una busta. Ruotare l'impasto di 90 gradi e ripetere tiratura e piegamento. Rivoltare l'impasto in modo che la piega sia in basso.
- B) Coprire e lasciar riposare per 45 minuti.
Ripetere A e B altre due volte. A questo punto il glutine dovrebbe essere ben sviluppato.
Formare il pane
Infarinare leggermente il piano di lavoro e rovesciarci sopra l'impasto.
Spianare leggermente l'impasto a formare un quadrato spesso. Piegare verso il centro gli angoli, rovesciare e su un pezzo di piano senza farina far roteare l'impasto in modo da creare un pochino di tensione in superficie (vedi video a 8').
Corprire con il contenitore rovesciata e far riposare 20 minuti.
Nel frattempo, tagliare un quadrato di carta da forno lungo almeno 36 cm. Ungere leggermente il fondo di una pentola di ghisa tipo Dutch oven . La mia è da 5 quarti (4,75 litri); una da 4,5 quarti (4,25 litri) dovrebbe anche andare bene.
Rovesciare l'impasto e spianarlo leggermente, poi piegare verso il centro gli angoli. Rovesciare su un pezzo di piano senza farina e far roteare l'impasto in modo da creare tensione in superficie (vedi video a 12'), ma senza lacerarla. Muovere l'impasto verso di voi con una leggera rotazione e allo stesso tempo rimboccarlo sotto.
Trasferire l'impasto formato al centro del pezzo di carta da forno, poi raccogliere gli angoli e trasferire il tutto dentro la pentola di ghisa. Coprire e lasciar riposare fino a quando l'impasto sia raddoppiato di volume e una fossetta fatta sulla pasta colla punta del dito persiste. Il tempo necessario dipende dalla temperatura ambiente: nel mio caso, circa 3 ore.
Preparare il forno e cuocere il pane
Quando l'impasto è quasi pronto, preriscaldare il forno a 260 C.3
Scoprire l'impasto, tagliare la superficie a piacere, spruzzarla leggermente di acqua, mettere il coperchio alla pentola di ghisa e infornare.
Abbassare la temperatura a 245 C. Cuocere per 20 minuti. Scoperchiare la pentola di ghisa ed abbassare ulteriormente la temperatura a 230 C.
Cuocere per altri 15 minuti. A questo punto controllare la temperatura interna del pane: se è 99 C, il pane è pronto. Altrimenti, continuare la cottura per altri 2 minuti e controllare di nuovo.
Estrarre il pane dalla pentola di ghisa tirando su gli angoli della carta da forno. Trasferire il pane su una griglia e far raffreddare senza disturbarlo, almeno due ore, poi affettare e gustare.
(tovaglietta di lino de La FABBRICA del LINO)
In questo gustoso pane pere dolci e pasta acida si alternano in ciascun boccone e il rosmarino aggiunge una nota aromatica. Attenzione: è difficile smettere di mangiarlo, soprattutto quando è accompagnato da del buon formaggio o conserva di frutta.
1 Di recente Barbara di Bread and companatico ha preparato un pane con le pere italiano tradizionale (la cui ricetta comprende farina di segale, nocciole e burro). Il post ha contribuito a farmi decidere di fare il pane utilizzando le pere.
2 Pane al lievito naturale con carote su briciole
3 Baking in a cast-iron pan without preheat
FTC disclosure: Ho ricevuto gli articoli di lino gratuitamente dall'azienda produttrice (la FABBRICA del LINO). Non ho ricevuto e non riceverò alcun compenso per presentarli sul mio blog. Le opinioni espresse nel post sono interamente personali.
Mando questo pane anche all'edizione di Settembre di Panissimo un evento mensile creato da Barbara di Bread & Companatico e Sandra di Indovina chi viene a cena?
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