Health Nut

As I sit here in Barcelona summer, trying not to stick to the leather chair, or my clothes, or myself, I think back on a day a few months ago where it was pleasantly sunny day, not too hot, not too cold, just Goldilocks. It wasn’t a normal spring here, there was actually no spring present. We went from a long, cold winter that ended with a couple months of rain, and finally came to a halt mid-June, when we were smothered immediately with summer. Thanks Barcelona. Global Warming, El Niño or something, I don’t know. Anyways, it was on this beautiful day that I decided to celebrate with a little picnic in a very green, tiny park in the middle of the city. It’s a university park, so only open to the public on the weekends, but it’s never too crowded and really nicely landscaped.

I had already been planning on trying some banana nut bread, which we all know are best friends, the banana and the walnut. What we don’t all know is that they’re quite chummy with whole wheat, oats, and honey too. I had an urge to go to a health store here and make something with whole wheat, and while I was there I found oats too (sorry, no Quaker oats in every grocery store you go in Spain). I’m also used to having fruit for breakfast and having my heavier stuff later, so I did some quick searching on the internet for some ‘healthy’ recipes. I came up with my own version, and I like it because it doesn’t have any sugar in it, and uses honey instead to sweeten it. And it almost seems like whole wheat is necessary; you want a good, dark bread to balance the nuts and banana. And it wasn’t dry because I threw in some yogurt. So then I felt really good about myself after I baked this pure, wholesome bread, and even better about myself when we slapped a couple pats of butter on it and enjoyed ourselves a lovely picnic.

It must be said that there were some lovely drinks at this brunch picnic, these were a mixture of cava (Spanish champagne), grapefruit juice and a touch of casis. Quite refreshing and slightly intoxicating, in a good way.
It must also be said that after taking pictures of the pretty drinks, my camera decided to do it’s favorite thing and become exhausted. Literally ‘battery exhausted,’ and it just cant’ go on anymore. So I don’t have pictures of pretty bread in the park, but instead of a later re-enactment with some sidewalk in the background. Not as nice, I know, but it was exhausted.


Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread

3 really ripe bananas, mushed
1 container plain yogurt (about ½ cup)
½ c honey
1 egg
¼ c vegetable oil
¾ c oats
1 ½ - 2 c whole wheat flour
1 c chopped walnuts, toasted
pinch of salt (but don’t skimp)
1 tsp baking soda

To start make sure your banana is well mushed, and then stir in the yogurt, honey, egg, and vegetable oil. Now pour on the flour, salt, baking soda, oats, and walnuts and stir everything well together. If you see the batter’s a little too runny, add more flour. Remember, this is a pretty dense batter/bread, and it’s pretty chocked full of oats. I like to taste it and make sure it’s sweet enough, because if it’s not, add more honey, don’t be shy. That’s all you gotta do. Now pour it into a loaf tin or some sort of baking dish (mine ended up being in an oval soufflé like glass thing) and bake at 350F/180C for 45 minutes to 1 hour, when the center is almost dry. It seems like the edges are going to get too dry and overbake, but they turned out just fine even though they formed a nice crust.

Focaccia, molto bene

I’ve stepped into the wonderful world of baking. Breads, that is. I’m a baker of desserts at heart. This is one term that’s always been a bit ambiguous to me, because baker implies breads, but there’s also a baker of desserts. And I don’t think that’s always the same as pastry chef, which to me means fancy desserts, we’ll call them. Something that has multiple components, and all must be assembled perfectly, and it would be topped of with some-flavor-or-other foam, etc. You get the point. I don’t feel like a pastry chef. I’m a baker. Of desserts. Down-home desserts. But I’m starting to break that boundary, and am crossing over to breads. My first feat? Foccacia.

Who doesn’t love focaccia, and being so close to Italy (in Spain) yet still so far from Italian food, it was an obvious choice for me. You really can’t find many products that aren’t Spanish here. Same goes for Italian products outside of Italy. And I’m sure it’s similar for other countries here. They’re not like America where you have your pick of all kinds of products. They’re very proud of their local specialties and that’s the majority of what’s on the market. So it was time for focaccia.

Fanny at Foodbeam has been a good source for lots of recipes for me, namely the plaisir sucre and now her focaccia. I found another one I thought I liked, but they had me refrigerating the dough overnight, and you know what cold can do to yeast. The recipe I used was very detailed with lots of pictures, so I thought it was great. My Italian roommate even approved. He said it was like being in an Italian home (he also said that this morning when he smelled coffee). His one suggestion? Make more air bubbles in it, so I guess that would be a bit more kneading and folding, for next time. But there will definitely be a next time, as this was a keeper.

Oh and p.s. this was my first time to use fresh yeast, as in the States it’s much more common to find the dry stuff. It was a weird little sandy-colored chunky, moist substance. But it worked great. A good experiment would be to see how it would turn out with dry yeast.


Rosemary Focaccia
Adapted from Foodbeam

starter
200 g warm water
150 g bread flour
7 g fresh yeast, crumbled up

then
150 g warm water
15 ml olive oil (and lots extra for kneading and folding and sprinkling)
375 bread flour
10 g salt (plus some for sprinkling)
rosemary (fresh or dried, fresh is probably a stronger taste)

First mix the first three ingredients (the starter) together in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with a cloth and leave at warm room temperature (or if you don’t have warm room temperature, heat the oven up just a tiny bit, then turn off and put your starter in there) for 2 hours, stirring the mixture after about an hour. The mixture should be a bit bubbly.
Now whisk in the water and oil, then the flour and salt until everything is roughly combined. Cover again and let rest for 10 minutes. Now is where it gets a little bit messy. Find a nice smooth table or something large where you can knead your dough, and cover it with oil, then put the dough on it, splash some oil on the dough and your hands. Now pull the dough with one hand while the other hand holds it in place, fold it back onto itself and turn (ya know, knead it…just pull it apart and put back together, turning every now and then). It’ll start sticking to the surface, so when it does, stop. You should only be kneading for less than a minute. Do this two more times at 10-minute intervals, covering with a cloth in between kneading. After the third time, cover with the cloth and leave for 40 minutes (make sure everything is well oiled, the surface and the dough, otherwise it will stick to everything). Now you stretch and fold the dough (this is apparently what makes the air bubbles in the final product). So pull it out into a big rectangle, it doesn’t have to be perfect, and fold into thirds, and then fold that new smaller rectangle into thirds also. You’ll do this two more times also, but at 40-minute intervals. And remember to splash on a bit of oil and cover with a cloth between stretching/folding. After the last time, you let it rest for 30 more minutes, and then you’re almost ready to bake. Put olive oil in the bottom and sides of a baking tray, then stretch the dough out into the shape of the tray so you get a rectangle, then using your fingers punch into it and pull apart, so you get those indents from your finger tips. Cover with a cloth (I know, again) and let rest for 20 minutes in a warm place (yes, last time). Now pull the corners of the dough to edges of the tray if they’ve pulled in a bit, and sprinkle some olive oil, a nice helping of salt, rosemary, and a tiny bit of water all over the top. Bake at 220 C for 15 minutes, then turn down the heat to 200 C and cook 15 more minutes. Let cool a bit and enjoy. And remember, the leftovers are great the next day for a sandwich of prosciutto, sundried tomatoes, goat cheese, and basil or arugula.