The Chapati Trials

My friend Sujit is responsible for introducing me to chapati. When we eat Indian food out, we always go for naan. The first time I made chapati, I wasn't sure what I would get. I followed the recipe making flat pancakes, not so unlike making tortillas. I couldn't get them thin enough with a tortilla press, so I rolled them out by hand. The dough is incredibly friendly. It's not very sticky and flattens without making your fingers or rolling pin goopy.

Once rolled, the chapati are cooked in a hot dry skillet, just like tortilla. After that the magic happens! I turned a burner to low on my gas stove and set a cooked chapati on the flame. Suddenly, it puffed - not unlike a pita bread. After that, I was hooked! I've made chapati 4 times in as many weeks. I'm not yet puffing consistently, so there will be multiple blog entries for the chapati.

I'm not yet certain if it's the initial cooking, the amount of burner heat, the thickness, the level of gluten that impact the puff. My best puff occured when I first tortilla pressed, then lightly hand rolled (suggesting less gluten = good). The burner was on a low-med heat. Other chapati in the same batch were only hand rolled and puffed less.

For the most recent batch, the chapati that puffed best were cooked slightly longer initially. I pressed, then rolled all of these. I used a lower burner heat and moved the chapati around for the puff.

Photos from round 4 (they have unpuffed already but have nice markings):

Next time I'll shoot right after puff for full effect!

Recipe:

1c whole wheat flour

1c all purpose flour

2/3c water

2t canola oil

fix flours together.

add oil.

add water.

mix until forms cohesive dough.

knead for a couple minutes.

rest for 20 minutes.

cut into 8. roll into balls.

roll out.

cook in dry skillet over med-high heat for about a minute per side.

turn burner to low.

put chapati one at a time over burner, moving around to prevent fire.

once one side has nice burn marks, flip over.

Superbowl Tortillas

I recently learned how easy it is to make corn tortillas. Even easier if you get a tortilla press instead of rolling them by hand!

For the superbowl, I made chili con queso WITHOUT velvetta, thanks to Homesick Texan: http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2008/04/more-natural-chile-con-queso.html

I LOVE queso and this was fantastic. We served it in a fondue pot to keep it warm and delicious.

I HAD to make tortillas to deliver this yumminess.


The recipe is on the bag of masa. You just mix masa and water and then roll into balls. Press between layers of parchment paper or saran in the press (or roll out with a pin). Then cook in a hot dry pan for about a minute each side.

tortilla balls pre-press

tortillas in the press

tortillas in the pan

David's Birthday Cake

For David's birthday, I made him a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake. The recipe can be found here: recipe. Peanut butter cake layers, filled with chocolate peanut butter ganache, covered in a whipped cream lightened cream cheese frosting and garnished with butterfinger.

Naked CakeThe recipe doesn't call for a crumb coat but it's a huge help for a smooth finished cake.

Frosted
Finished cake with candles and butterfinger decor

MLK Day Breads

I spent most of MLK's birthday baking bread.

Bread, to me, illustrates the complexity of simple things. Made of simple ingredients that come together as so much more than the addition of each component. The ideas of Martin Luther King, Jr were basic but we are still working to achieve them 41 years after his death. I believe tolerance and justice are about the process, about striving, about being better and bigger then our individual selves. For me, baking bread is this way too. Bread epitomizes basic sustenance throughout history. It exists as much as a concept as a physical, consumable object. Making great bread requires a commitment to baking, a repetition, an awareness.

Bread is alive, made up of living yeast and protein and sugar. it is the relationship of all these elements that create the bread. We each are our own individuals. Our relationship to other individuals illustrates tolerance or intolerance, hatred or love. Like bread, these things are in flux. Whereas environmental conditions will change the outcome of a bread formula (for example, cold temperatures slowing the yeasts' activity), humans have different moods, responses to our environment, our economy, our day. So we must focus on the process - make the same bread again, the same effort to be better - in life and in baking.

I made three breads on Monday: Ciabatta, Italian bread, Anadama. All were from Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice.

The Anadama bread was my motivation to bake. Course ground polenta is soaked overnight in water, then used to make a sponge. Molasses is added - imparting a beautiful brown to the loaf and vitamins. It turned into a delicious, soft sandwich bread with a subtle crunch from the polenta. I haven't formed a loaf shape in probably 6 years, so I was happing with the shaping. I held one loaf back in the refrigerator and will bake it off later this week.

I was most excited to eat ciabatta and most disappointed. If you didn't know what a ciabatta should look like, it did taste ok, but it wasn't a ciabatta. The holes were mostly small and evenly spaced. It was more puffy than flat. Where the bread had been folded on itself, a layer of raw flour remained in parts. Maybe it will become croutons... My guess is that it was drier than it should have been - a wetter dough would have absorbed the loose flour. I was probably too rough when I shaped it, degassing it in the process. I blame that for my small, consistent holes.



The Italian bread was fantastic! It was soft and lovely and comforting. It reminded me of east coast hoagie rolls but with more flavor. Again, I was really happy with the shape and the eye-shaped cuts on the loaf.