Butternut Squash Bisque; No-Knead Foccacia Tiles

During the past few weeks we’ve been very busy, and I haven’t had the opportunity to cook nearly as much as I would like. Plans to get together with friends this past weekend gave me a perfect, much needed, “excuse” to plan and cook a special fall menu at the lake house. Unfortunately they cancelled, but since I had already packed and lugged everything down from the farm, I went ahead and made it all just for Jack and me. Good thing, though, because we enjoyed the leftovers very much!

Both the soup and the bread recipe came from the October issue of Better Homes & Gardens. I’ve been enjoying their recipes in the past several months, and they seem to be publishing ones which are more to my taste than any other magazine does at this point.

On the menu was butternut squash bisque, no-knead foccacia tiles, mixed green salad, and apple crumb pie.

I prepared everything but the dessert. I gave up on the pie since I don’t want to make a whole one when it’s only the two of us to eat it! However, I didn’t want to carry all of the apples back home, so I made a quick apple crisp for dessert and some applesauce for the freezer. And now I have a pie crust in the freezer, all ready for Thanksgiving and a pumpkin filling.

First, the Butternut Squash Bisque. Since my garden produced such a bumper crop of butternut squash this past summer, I have become particularly adept at peeling the little buggers. The soup was, otherwise, very simple. Basically I sautéed chunks of squash and onion along with celery and carrot (I used only one half of the amount of butter and added some mild olive oil as well), added vegetable broth, chunks of apple, apple cider, and chopped chipotle pepper. These were cooked until the veggies were very tender, then I ran my hand-blender through it to make smooth. Light sour cream was whisked in and the result was a satin-y smooth, thick soup with an incredibly delicious flavor. The apple added an undertone to the taste of the butternut squash which was quite pleasant. Adding the chipotle was a stroke of genius on the part of the person who developed this recipe, because an underlying hint of smoky fire was nice as well. The only addition I would make next time is to add some thyme. Or maybe sprinkle some chopped fresh sage with the garnishes.

Of course, a soup is naked until the garnishes are added. I thinned a little sour cream with skim milk, drizzled that on top of the bisque then sprinkled smoked Gouda, minced parsley, and chopped turkey bacon. The smokiness of the Gouda and bacon complimented the butternut squash perfectly, and added a nice texture.

Next, the No-Knead Foccacia Tiles. I was intrigued by the name “foccacia tiles”, a no-knead dough that is stretched out to fit in a large baking pan, the dough scored into 6 sections, and each section topped with a variety of items. In the recipe, they suggested a pretty odd topping (thin slices of lime) but also sun-dried tomato, thinly sliced Roma tomato, and pumpkin seeds. I decided on chopped Kalamata olives, roasted red and yellow bell pepper, and thinly-sliced garlic and herbs for on the different sections of my foccacia. Sun-dried tomatoes would have been wonderful, but I couldn’t find the package which I was certain was in the pantry. That happens way too often.

Because it is a no-knead bread, you have to start it a day ahead (in order for the yeast to do its thing), but this is just such an easy method. And although I am a huge fan of carbs, especially in the form of thick, chewy bread, I think that next time I will reduce the dough recipe by 1/3. It seemed to both Jack and me that there was too much bread for the amount of toppings. Although I could certainly have increased the topping quantity, it would have still been a large ratio of bread-to-toppings. But, oh, what a flavor! We ate way too much of this, probably more than twice what we should have, but you just can’t beat fresh-from-the-oven bread. And we both love the no-knead breads since the flavor is so much more developed and complex that those that are done with a quick rise, or even a regular-length rise.

Next up, the salad. This is hands-down Jack’s favorite type of salad—greens, fruit, nuts. I could have added cheese and made him even happier, but there was smoked Gouda on the soup. :)

I have been buying Tanimura & Antle brand of artesian lettuces at Sam’s Club. 25 ounces for about $3.50, which beats the cost of plain bagged spinach in the grocery store. And these are so flavorful and pretty, a mixture of dark red and dark green baby Oak Leaf, Tango, and Gem. I added sliced carrots, dried cranberries, and toasted walnuts, and then a simple Italian vinaigrette. I know that it’s a good salad when Jack eats it without a single “ew, we’re having salad” remark!

As for the apple crisp, I’m not going to post the recipe since I made it on the fly and there are recipes galore for this type of dessert. I did reduce the butter in the topping by half, and added a little canola oil to make it crumbly, because we all know that liquid fats are so much healthier than solid fats, don’t we?!?!

The final gold star on our dinner was, the next day, Jack said (totally out of the blue, as he was supposed to be working on his bank statements): “There was not one part of that meal that was not super-excellent.”

Super-excellent! Even after of 26+ years of cooking for him, I still bask in that kind of praise. :)

Rosemary Olive Oil Boule

A gloomier Monday morning could not exist. Well, perhaps if it were cold out, say 40 degrees instead of our current 55. But the rain has been pouring since early this morning. And the grass is growing, much to Jack’s dismay.

I hadn’t done any baking for a month, and yesterday felt well enough to give it a try. The problem is, we needed everything. Sandwich bread, bread for French toast, an herb bread, muffins for breakfast, and because I had 2 large very ripe bananas, something made from bananas. No, not the muffins because I had my heart set on lemon-blueberry muffins (to me, banana muffins are a “winter” muffin).

Seven hours later, not including the time I had to spend later slicing and wrapping for the freezer, the tally was:

2 loaves four-grain sandwich bread

2 rosemary-olive oil boulés

1 loaf no-knead wheat

24 lemon-blueberry muffins

banana-coconut rum cake with chocolate glaze

and 2 whole wheat pizza crusts, one for the freezer and one for dinner

I was utterly exhausted by the time I got everything cleaned and put away. But now the freezer is full of bread again, and all is right with my happy carb-laden world.

Alas, although the cake is wonderful I have no recipe to post. Actually, it started out to be a banana bread, but I had already used my larger loaf pans for the 4-grain bread and I knew that the batter would rise and flow out of a the smaller 1-pound pan. I altered the original recipe a lot, then when the batter seemed to be too dry, I added several glugs of coconut rum. So I made it into a cake, then when it came out of the oven I scattered bittersweet chocolate chips over the top, smoothing them after they melted. Maybe some day I will give it another try, because the coconut-rum-banana-chocolate flavor (and only 1/4 cup of oil plus whole wheat flour) made this a relatively healthy and delicious snack.

The new bread recipe that I made is from Cuisine At Home, Rosemary Olive Oil Boule. Of course, I made two (I always double these recipes because breads freeze so nicely).

I ran out of both whole wheat and white whole wheat flours (!) so I used only 1 1-2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour in the boules. They are very good, moist with a nice tender crumb and a good, though not overpowering, rosemary scent and flavor. Perfect to serve with pasta!

Because this bread uses a poolish (or biga) as a starter, it must be started several hours ahead. But it is a nice dough to work with, though a tad sticky, and the results are well worth the time.

Rosemary–Olive Oil Boulé

Makes: 1 boulé

Total Time: 4 1/2 hours + cooling

FOR THE POOLISH STARTER—
1 1/4	cups bread flour
3/4	cup room-temperature water (70°–90°)
1/4	tsp. room-temperature active dry or instant yeast
FOR THE DOUGH—
2	cups all-purpose flour
2	tsp. chopped fresh rosemary
1 1/2	tsp. table salt
1/2	tsp. room-temperature active dry or instant yeast
1/4	cup room-temperature water (70°–90°)
1/4	cup extra-virgin olive oil

Combine bread flour, water, and yeast (rehydrated with 1 Tbsp. water from the 3/4 cup) for the poolish starter in a measuring cup or bowl until the mixture looks like lumpy pancake batter. Cover poolish with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 3–4 hours. Surface will be bubbly. Refrigerate poolish overnight, then let poolish come to room temperature (about 1 hour) before using it in bread dough.

Whisk together 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, rosemary, and salt for the dough in a large bowl. Add yeast (rehydrated with 1 Tbsp. water from the 1/4 cup). Stir remaining water into poolish starter. (It will be very thin.) Using a wooden spoon, stir poolish and olive oil into flour mixture until blended. (Dough will be very wet.) Scrape dough onto well-floured surface and turn with bench knife, adding more flour (from remaining 1/2 cup) sparingly, just until dough can be worked with hands. Turn a bowl upside down over dough and let dough rest for 10–15 minutes to develop gluten.

Knead dough until smooth but still slightly sticky. (Do not add more flour to work surface; if needed, flour hands.) Knead 10–15 minutes more by hand (or 8 minutes by stand mixer on medium speed with a dough hook),.

Place dough in an oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover dough with plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Degas dough slightly by tri-folding and flipping it over in the bowl; cover dough again and let it rise for 1 more hour.

Shape dough into boulé. Transfer to a parchment-lined inverted baking sheet. Cover boulé with plastic wrap coated with nonstick spray and let rise 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 475°, with baking stone (or another inverted baking sheet) placed on middle rack. Slash boulé 1/4- to 1/2-inch deep several times across top in design of choice, using a straight-edge razor or serrated knife.

Mist boulé heavily with hot water. Immediately slide boule and parchment onto preheated baking stone (or hot inverted baking sheet). Mist inside of oven with 10 sprays of water; close oven door. Wait 30 seconds and repeat. Reduce heat to 450° and bake boulé 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 425°; bake boulé an additional 10 minutes. Finally, reduce heat to 375° and bake boulé 20 more minutes. Remove boulé from oven; cool bread on rack 45 minutes.

My note: baking took only 30 minutes total, rather than the 40 minutes the recipe specifies. As I use an oven thermometer, I just don't know what happened, so check yours about 10 minutes before it is to be done.