Posts Tagged ‘cheese’

I make bread frequently enough that I now have a small collection of books solely focused on bread alone. There’s something about the smell of bread baking in the oven and having a slice while still warm slathered with butter.

This isn’t the healthiest bread I’ve made, but it’s also one of the tastiest breads I’ve made (bread and cheese — can you even go wrong there?). This recipe is from Peter Reinhart’s new book Artisan Breads Every Day. It was nice to be able to mix the dough and have it sit in the fridge for a few days before baking. This makes it easy to fit into your schedule. There’s a lot of cheese involved so it’s a good way to use up any leftover cheeses. I did a mix of cheddar and cambozola and I think next time I’ll make one entirely of cambozola. My huge stand mixer had severe issues handling this dough. In the recipe it says to knead at medium-low which is a 4 on the KitchenAid. I can usually knead doughs at the speed required, but my mixer was struggling so much that I was afraid it’d break. Even at speed 2 it struggled.

After rolling up the dough and placing it in the loaf pans, I recommend having a baking sheet below to catch any cheese drippings. One of my loaves oozed cheese out onto my baking stone which was a terrible mess to clean.

I put one loaf in the freezer and one to eat. The one that wasn’t frozen was very fluffy and soft, the frozen one being more dense. I’m not sure if that had to do with me freezing it or how I rolled up the dough.

Despite some set backs, this bread is definitely repeat worthy. I scarfed almost a whole loaf of bread in no time.

Recipe can be found here.

When we got to our hotel in Paris it was around 11am. Check in was at 2pm so after a night of not being able to sleep on the plane, we explored the neighbourhood a bit. Which really involved checking off 2 things on my foodie list: Eric Kayser and Laurent Dubois.

First stop was Eric Kayser. This place was minutes away from our hotel and there always seems to be a line. There is a large assortment of breads and pastries available. I would have to live in Paris for awhile to try out all the different varieties. Prices were conveniently listed on a sheet of paper near the entrance so I could see what they had to offer instead of gawking at the glass case for 10 minutes. I took David Lebovitz’s advice and tried the pain aux cereales. I lined up (one thing I learned about Paris if it’s anything good Parisians will line up for it) and observed how other people were ordering. I didn’t hear a single person order in English which made me feel intimidated to speak it so I made an effort to speak French.

“Je voudrais un pain aux cereales, sil vous plait.”

The lady retrieved it and handed it to me. Success! I was understood and didn’t get laughed at. When I got to the register I was asked what I had ordered.

“Cereales aux pain, err….pain aux cereales.” This fumble elicited a giggle from the staff. Maybe my ordering wasn’t a total success.

We found a place to sit and I started ripping pieces off. The crust was nice and crunchy and a good chewy crumb. It was very good bread. I had my eye on the cookbook they were selling, but I’m not skilled enough to translate French when all I can do is pick out one or two words out of a sentence.

During busier hours at Eric Kayser they have someone outside to sell baguettes.

Next stop was Laurent Dubois which was a short walk away. They had all sorts of really neat cheeses that I’d love to try but there’s only so much cheese you can consume in a short period.

I picked up a small round of goat cheese (chevre).

You can bring cheese back to Canada from France. You just have to make sure it’s vacuum sealed (“sous-vide”). If you don’t buy a lot of cheese, you get charges 1 euro for the bag. Not a bad deal considering I get to bring back a little piece of Paris.

Surprisingly, there isn’t a dedicated cheese shop in this area. Queen West has all sorts of stores dedicated to specialty food products such as The Healthy Butcher for organic meat, Tealish has over 130 different kinds of tea, The Spice Trader which has made me re-think my spice storage solution as I have so many spices from them, and the Olive Pit below with some of the most amazing oils and balsamic vinegars I have ever tasted.

Finally Leslieville Cheese Market opens up a new store in the area (it opened on the 15th). You can find them at 541 Queen Street West. They are West of Spadina, before the Healthy Butcher. The other day I went in “just to look” and caved when I bought sourdough bread (if I can’t make it, I’ll have to buy it). Then I went back again to have some cheese to go with it — I just couldn’t resist. I’m a total cheese newbie and the staff were very helpful. I got to try a couple of soft cheeses and a couple of blue cheeses. I’m glad they label the cheeses when you buy them because usually I end up forgetting the name of that great tasting cheese I had and can never buy it again. I bought La Sauvagine and Le Ciel de Charlevoix. La Sauvagine is my absolute favourite! I love blue cheeses (which is probably funny because I have super sensitive taste buds), but this cheese is so soft and creamy I could slather the entire cheese on one slice of bread. It’s kind of buttery with a bit of a tang to it, it’s definitely not flavourless. This place also gets bonus points for giving me a free baguette! I’m up to my eyeballs in bread from buying sourdough AND making a ciabatta the same day so I gave most of it to my neighbour who was very happy to accept it. The baguette had a crunchy crust with a soft and chewy interior. I was happy that I wasn’t given a stale baguette since they were going to be closing up shop for the day.

They label the cheeses so you don’t forget the name.

Delicious, delicious cheese is found within the wrapper.

My teeny offset spatula works great for spreading.

This isn’t butter on bread, it just looks like that. Yum!

This is the other cheese, Le Ciel de Charlevoix:

It’s a firmer cheese.

This would be an excellent cheese to crumble onto salads or pasta. It’s actually making me want a salad right now. And I hardly ever want to eat a salad.

They’ll be offering classes at this location too, but no dates have been set. I’m looking forward to the beer and cheese tasting. For $30 per person it’s an excellent foodie date.

Website here.

I’m a big fan of cheese now. Good cheese is pricey, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay. Blue cheese, asiago, cheddar, and provolone are sitting in the fridge. Goat cheese is also another of my favourites. I love the tangy and creaminess of blue cheese and will put it in everything.

I made a big batch of pasta and I ate an obscene amount of it. It’s meals like these where it makes me want to go to the gym later so I can feel like I’m doing something “healthy”.

Recipe here.