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| Bread Talk (Photo credit: wynlok) |
When my peers asked me then where we would go for summer, I told them I'd be taking cooking lessons...not fully revealing that it would not be in the fancy schools which offered basic cooking and baking, but in my grandmother's cozy kitchen.
This summer meant Goodbye Baguio...Goodbye meeting new guys...Goodbye being with my cousins to summer outings. It was a consensus of our parents that with the greatest cooking teacher (my grandmother, of course) and her battery of well-trained and equally good cooking cooks wanting to teach their cooking secrets to us ladies of the clan, one summer had to be sacrificed. What women would have welcomed such a plan!
Cooking is my grandmother's daily ritual, not for the work but for the pleasure of cooking for everyone. In her kitchen is where my grandmother experimented on new ingredients, on new dishes, on dishes from foreign restaurants. From her, I not only learned practical techniques from her and her cooks, I also learned the value of hard work, but hard work that is turned to play because of the love of what you're doing. Cooking became play and play was cooking,
This summer, let us together give ourselves a cooking test by baking Chocolate Raisin Bread and even if will fail miserably the first time, we should never forget the art and common sense of cooking.
CHOCOLATE RAISIN BREAD
You will need:
Dough:
7 g instant dry yeast
70 g warm water (32 o C)
35 g sugar
70 g unsalted butter
115 g fresh milk
15 g honey
6 g salt
100 g eggs
20 g egg yolk
420 g bread flour
Filling:
100 g California raisins (soaked overnight in 30 ml brandy)
100 g dark chocolate chips
30 g walnuts (chopped)
50 g brown sugar
20 g soft butter
Egg wash (for brushing):
Beat together
1 pc egg
10 ml milk
Here's how:
1.) Whisk the yeast in water. Add a pinch of sugar and let rise until yeast dissolves (about 5 minutes)
2,) In a saucepan, warm milk and butter (do not exceed 38 degrees C). Remove from heat and stir in sugar, honey and salt until dissolved.
3.) In a mixer bowl, using the paddle attachment, mix yeast mixture, milk mixture and eggs.
4.) Add in bread flour and mix for 3-5 minutes at medium speed until there are no more traces of dry ingredients in the dough. Remove paddle attachment and transfer to a dough hook. Knead dough at medium speed until smooth and elastic for 10-15 minutes.
5.) Transfer dough in an oiled bowl and cover with cling wrap. Let rise until double in bulk at room temperature for about 1 hour.
6.) When dough has fully risen, punch down dough and bench rest for 5 minutes.
7.) Roll out dough into a rectangle, 15" x 10". Spread soft butter on the dough. Sprinkle sugar, chocolate chips, California raisins and nuts.
8.) Roll up the rectangle into a log, and pinch edges to seal. Place the sealed side down on a greased cookie sheet pan. Shape a log into a horseshoe or U-shape. Final rise or proof until double in bulk for another 1 hour.
9.) Before baking, slash the top of the dough. Brush with egg wash evenly on top and on the side.
10.) Bake oven (preheated 191 degrees C) for 45 minutes or until fully baked.
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