Saturday, February 13, 2010

Baguettes

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2010

One of the gifts I received at Christmas was a copy of the book Julie & Julia. I had seen the movie (which was the inspiration for this blog) but had never read the book. It is really entertaining. Unlike this blog, it contains many amusing anecdotes from her life. Well, my decision to keep this anonymous means that you’ll never read any dirt about my life – at least not here, from me. Sorry about that. I’m going to stick to food and recipes.

I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from Lydie-cooking. I was visiting my sister and although I took “Lydie” with me, I never cracked the cover. We were too busy with other things to spend a leisurely day delving into a recipe. Instead we ate out, ordered in, or cooked very simple food.

I did want to get back to telling you about that wonderful potato dough from my previous blog. Not only is it good for making pissaladières, but one can make a baguette from it! A baguette from potato dough? I was dubious. I have to tell you that it turned out to be very delicious! I am a bit of a baguette aficionado. The best ones I’ve found are at the Chilmark Store on Martha’s Vineyard – even better than the ones I’ve had in Paris, at least to my taste. The potato dough baguette is not like a Chilmark or Paris baguette. The inside is not quite as light and the exterior is not as crusty. However….it is delicious! It has a more substantial taste to it and is almost a little sweet. I liked it very much. And so easy to make!

After two pissaladières and a baguette I still had some dough left, which I froze. Yesterday I defrosted the remaining dough to use for another baguette. My first clue that something was wrong was that it did not rise during the 30 minutes that you’re supposed to let it rise. I popped it in the oven, never-the-less. Result: something like an unleavened pita in baguette shape. I have to say, though, that it still was mighty tasty, if you got past the expectation of an airy texture. The photo is of the previous, successful baguette.

(p.s. I've finally figured out how to write French characters on my computer: as delighting an accomplishment as any recipe!)