Not getting enough butternut in your risotto? Has this ever happened to you? (Warning: video contains choice words from British chef)

This basic butternut squash risotto recipe comes from a less disgruntled (gruntled?) British chef whose cooking style I really admire. The dish may be simple, but the garnish makes it a bit more interesting.

In addition to the chopped sage cooked slowly with the rice, whole sage leaves are quickly pan-fried and used as a seemingly out-of-place topping. Resist the urge to push the browned herbs to the side of the plate in favor of the bright orange morsels. The crispy sage leaves crumble and release a mellow smokiness that nicely complements the sweet butternut squash and creamy rice.

View Butternut Squash Risotto Recipe with Crispy Sage »

This is, without a doubt, the best recipe for pizza dough I’ve ever tried. Chilled flour, ice-cold water, salt, and a small amount of yeast are mixed together and immediately refrigerated in this unique method that draws out the complex flavors locked inside the flour. This delayed fermentation process is arguably the most important, and thankfully, also the easiest, technique in Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

When flour is hydrated, starch is slowly broken down into simpler sugars. Since the dough is kept very cold and immediately refrigerated, the yeast falls asleep and doesn’t snack on these carbohydrates until removed from cold storage. Compared to dough developed using conventional methods, the result is a naturally sweeter dough courtesy of the larger reserve of fermentable sugars.

More carbs for the yeast. More carbs for you. Everybody’s happy. Until the yeast meets its end on a 600ºF baking stone, that is.

View Pizza Napoletana Margherita - Neapolitan-Style Pizza Recipe »

Pane Francese is the bastard lovechild of the baguette and the ciabatta, melding the best qualities of each iconic bread into rustic loaves. Shaped into long sticks like its French archetype, the crust-to-crumb ratio is maximized, making it a great accompaniment to rich soups and stews. The high hydration characteristic of the ciabatta, at 76% for all you bread nerds, gives pane Francese an airy crumb and irregular holes even with the addition of whole wheat flour.

While the pane Francese procedure of cutting dough into strips and stretching is less fussy than shaping traditional baguettes, the wet dough presents its own set of problems with handling and gluten development. Dough strength is achieved through a long fermentation time interspersed with stretching and folding, arguably the best technique to use for developing slack dough. Use small amounts of flour when stretching the dough on a counter, or better yet, watch Susan of Wild Yeast Blog do the same thing with less mess in a rectangular container.

View Pane Francese Recipe - The Italian take on French Bread »

No, I didn’t confuse my (non-existent) French and Italian. This formula for Italian ciabatta uses French terminology because it’s from Eric Kayser, well-renowned in Paris for his breads and pastries. In a city saturated with driven artisans dedicated to their craft, Maison Kayser still manages to consistently rank high among the best Parisian bakeries.

Even more impressive, for bread nerds like me at least, are his somewhat accessible bread formulas that share a common thread in liquid levain, wild yeast starter fed with equal weights water and flour. Used with commercial yeast to bring dough to life, the liquid starter also adds a very subtle acidity, a quality lacking in bread raised exclusively with commercial yeast.

After trying several ciabatta formulas, I can’t quite pinpoint why this method produces results better than the rest. All of the ciabatta formulas I tried had an airy interior but the most noticeable difference is the crust. It not so much crunches but shatters audibly as bitten, as opposed to the other formulas that yielded a slightly thicker and chewier crust.

View Eric Kayser's Ciabatta au Levain Liquide Recipe »

I grinned like an idiot as I lifted the dark brown loaves from the charred baking stone with bare hands. The soft crust smiled back with its wide open slashes, a sight that every bread maker hopes for upon opening the oven door. It didn’t matter that my calloused fingertips started to burn or that hot air threatened to singe my eyebrows into an unnatural curl; the scent of steaming mugs of hot chocolate made the pain strangely comforting.

Half melted chocolate morsels that clung perilously to the crust instead of being safely nestled inside the warm loaf tempted me to pick on it. I decided to wait until the following morning, a cup of freshly brewed coffee in hand.

More importantly, I decided to wait until after taking photos.

If you read this far, two things may seem obvious: the coffee I’m having as I write this is really strong and this semisweet chocolate bread is pure bliss.

View Pane al Cioccolato - Italian Chocolate Bread recipe »