Bread Machine (158 page)

Arrange the grapes on the dough and press them in. Sprinkle lightly with the crystallized ginger, then with the anise sugar. Let rise until puffy, uncovered about 25 minutes.

Fifteen minutes before baking, place a baking stone on the middle rack of the oven and preheat it to 425°F.

Reduce the heat to 375°F and bake the coffee cake directly on the stone for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Slide the bread off the pan onto a rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into thick wedges.

The Toolbox: About Baking Stones

The baking stone, also called a pizza stone, is a heavy unglazed stone slab that goes on one of the racks inside the oven. The goal of using a pizza stone is to make your home oven simulate a wood-burning oven lined with bricks. When the pizza or flatbread is placed in the oven, the heat from the tiles is immediately transferred into the dough. The dough springs up under the intense heat, making the crust chewy and light, rather than soft like regular bread. My Sicilian baking friend gave me a good tip: use two stones, one on the lowest and one on the uppermost rack, to create a great mini-stone oven.

There are different types of baking stones. Some companies offer round or rectangular fired clay slabs. Others market terra-cotta baking tiles that fit conveniently into a baking sheet, which is then placed on the rack. Die-hard home pizza bakers swear by lining the rack with unglazed tiles, easily available from a tile outlet, since you can make the area covered by the tiles as large as you want. I use a large rectangular stone as I can fit more pans on it. The round ones are about the size of a pizza or focaccia.

Stones and tiles need to be seasoned before they are used for the first time. This usually requires that you rinse the stone or tiles with cool water, then place them in the oven and heat it to 250°F. Bake them without anything else in the oven for 1 hour, and then let them cool in the oven. But follow the instructions you receive from the manufacturer.

Always preheat a baking stone prior to baking, according to recipe directions, for anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes on an oven rack in any position. The stone needs to be good and hot. A baking stone requires no oiling, but should be sprinkled with cornmeal just before baking if you will be placing your pizza directly on it. This prevents sticking. You need a peel, a flat wooden or metal shovel, to slide a pizza directly onto a stone, which I find fun to use. But for the occasional baker, baking a pizza in a pan set on top of a baking stone works efficiently, and yields great results. Besides, peels are a bit tricky to use.

A pizza stone can be left in the oven all the time, but I have one that I use specifically for pizza, as the stones tend to blacken a lot with use. This is okay. The black color does not mean it is dirty, nor will it affect the taste of the pizza, but it is my preference, for this reason, not to leave the stone in the oven all the time. After baking, allow the stone to cool completely in the oven before removing it for storage. To avoid being burned, I don’t ever handle it while it is hot; the stone holds and retains a lot of heat. Never place even a slightly warm stone on a cold surface or it will crack immediately and you will have to piece it together or buy a new one.

Clean a baking stone by rinsing it with plain water and scrubbing off any accumulated bits with a brush. No soap, please, as it will affect the taste of the next pizza you bake.

WALNUT FOUGASSE       
Makes one 12-inch flatbread

I
n the south of France a focaccia-style flatbread is called a
fougasse.
This version is adapted from a recipe by baker Rose Levy Beranbaum, who was introduced to this bread by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse restaurant fame. It is a picnic bread or appetizer par excellence.

1
¹
/
₂
- OR 2-POUND-LOAF MACHINES

1
¹
/
₄
cups fat-free milk

¹
/
₃
cup walnut oil

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

³
/
₄
cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1
¹
/
₂
teaspoons salt

2
¹
/
₂
teaspoons SAF yeast
   or 1 tablespoon bread machine yeast

3 tablespoons walnut oil, for brushing

Place all the ingredients in the pan according to the order in the manufacturer’s instructions. Program for the Dough cycle; press Start.

Brush a 12-inch round pizza pan with 1 tablespoon of the walnut oil. When the machine beeps at the end of the cycle, press Stop and unplug the machine. Immediately remove the bread pan and turn the dough out directly onto the pan and press and flatten the dough with your fingers. Lift and gently pull the dough, stretching it to fit the round pan. Cover gently with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until puffy, about 20 minutes.

Twenty minutes before baking, place a baking stone on the lowest rack of a cold oven and preheat it to 425°F; if you are not using a baking stone, preheat the oven to 400°F.

Brush the top of the dough with 2 tablespoons of walnut oil. With a small, sharp knife, cut 7 short diagonal slashes, right through to the bottom of the pan, 3 inches long and a few inches apart, like the spokes of a wheel. With your fingers, push the slashes open. Bake until the
fougasse
is crisp and brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Slide the hot bread off the pan to cool on a rack. Eat warm or at room temperature.