Math Party

So, one of the perks of living at the new place is that I was folded into a group of fantastic people who have just begun getting together for dinner parties. All of them are grad students except me; most of them are involved in heartier fields than mine--math and health care--so in my head I've started calling them math parties.

So, we are hosting the math party tonight and in honor of said party, I made bread and pie.





The bread is from our dear friend Jim Lahey. It's the recipe for Stirato, or essentially, an Italian baguette.

I love baking bread, and my fall-back method for the last year has been the five-minutes a day way, but I just don't have space in the fridge, or the stomach, to keep around six loaves worth of dough. Those recipes make a LOT of (perfect, beautiful, artisan) dough.

Enter Jim Lahey, who uses the overnight rise method as well, but only one or two loaves' worth. And this fancy "bake in a pot" idea.

I don't have a cast iron pot, so I had to make a few adjustments, but I'd have to say that I am quite pleased with the results.

Stirato
Loosely adapted from Jim Lahey's recipe

3 cups all purpose flour plus extra flour for dusting (the Lahey recipe calls for bread flour, but alas, I am out)
1 1/4 tsp. table salt
1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups of cool water

Stir together the flour, salt, and yeast. Add water and mix with a wooden spoon until a wet, sticky dough comes together. Cover and refrigerate for 12 hours. Remove from the fridge and let rise for an additional 2 to 3 hours, until the dough is room temp and the surface is dotted with bubbles. The dough should have doubled.

Dust a work surface with flour. Scrape the dough out with your wet hand or a spatula. Dust the dough with flour and nudge it into a rectangle, roughly 8 by 10 inches. Lift one long side of the rectangle and fold it over to the center. Then fold in the other side (like folding a letter to go into an envelope). Cut this "envelope" into two equal pieces.

This is incredibly difficult, because the dough is extra sticky and wet, still. I kept adding more and more flour to the work surface, but I didn't want to really knead any into the dough. Because it might break the gluten strands? Or something? I don't know. Just note that this step is quite messy.

Dust the two loaves with a little more flour and then cover with a tea towel to rise for 30 more minutes. You know they're done when you can poke a finger into the dough and the impression stays. If the dough bounces back, let the bread rise 15 more minutes.

Half an hour before the end of the second rise (aka, right after you cover the loaves), preheat the oven to 475 degrees and put the pizza stone on the middle rack.

After 30 minutes (I suppose you should check the oven temp to make sure it's exact--I don't have an oven thermometer yet, so I don't do that. But you should.), carefully transfer ONE loaf to the pizza stone. Stretch it out so that it vaguely resembles a baguette shape. From the photos, you can tell how well that didn't work for me the first time. Whatever.

Cover it with an inverted 9 x 13 METAL pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the pan from the bread and let it bake for 5 to 10 more minutes. Repeat with the other loaf. Cool on a wire rack before serving.


Pretty. Ugly. Or at least, one is distinctly more baguette-looking.

Pie recipe to come. Happy party.