Ingredient 911: Yeast

Before I started culinary school, if someone had asked me if there was an ingredient that I felt uncomfortable with or really wanted to learn about, I probably would have said yeast. I've always loved the smell and taste of freshly baked bread but the thought of making homemade bread always intimidated me. But the truth is that once you learn the basic dos and don'ts of using yeast, you can use it to create the most delicious freshly baked goods that will surely impress your friends and family.


Yeast is alive and it is because of the activity of millions of individual yeast cells that we are able to make risen breads. It is technically not a plant nor animal, but a fungus. Although leavened bread has been around for centuries, it wasn't until the nineteenth century that Louis Pasteur identified yeast as the cause of fermentation- the process central to not only bread-making, but also brewing and wine-making. Originally, a single strain of the species Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used by both bakers and brewers, but later, various genetic strains were developed to better suit the different uses (1). Today, the major strains of bakers' yeast are all different strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.


In the fermentation process, yeast feeds on sugar and converts it to carbon dioxide, also producing smaller amounts of other substances like alcohols, ketones, and aldehydes. The carbon dioxide bubbles are caught in the gluten network, the protein mesh which is formed when flour and water are mixed together. This causes dough to rise as it rests on the counter (a process called proofing) as well as in the heat of the oven. The chemicals also contribute to the complex flavor of yeasted breads.

(Yeasted dough before and after proofing- note how it has doubled in size)

Yeast comes in a few different forms- fresh/compressed yeast, active dry yeast, instant active dry yeast, and osmotolerant instant active dry yeast. Fresh yeast is the most traditional form used by bakers and produces the greatest leavening effect. It has a shorter shelf life than dry yeast and requires no hydration time (it dissolves instantly in water). Active dry yeast, the variety more commonly found in grocery stores, must be hydrated in warm water, ideally 110 degrees, for 5-10 minutes (this is called lag time). The temperature of the water is important because if the water is too hot or too cold, the yeast will die (yeast is killed instantly at 140 degrees). It should be warm to the touch. Instant active dry yeast works faster by eliminating the rehydration or lag time, and in most cases can be mixed directly with the flour. Osmotolerant instant active dry yeast is primarily used in low-moisture, high-sugar dough. Be careful if a recipe calls for one type of yeast and you want to use the other. The basic conversion is: 2/3 oz. fresh yeast is equivalent to 1/4 oz. dry yeast.



References:
(1). Amendola, J and Rees, N. Understanding Baking: The Art and Science of Baking, 3rd edition. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2003.

The recipe below is for focaccia- an oven-baked Italian bread that can be topped with a wide variety of ingredients. It is a popular snack food in Italy and can also be used as a side dish, as a base for pizza, or as a bread for sandwiches. Traditional focaccia just has olive oil, fresh herbs like rosemary, and coarse salt sprinkled on top. But the toppings you can use are limited only by your imagination- try it with sliced vegetables, cheese, caramelized onions or anything else you can think of. The easiest way to make focaccia dough is in a stand mixer, but if you are sans mixer like myself, you can use a hand mixer on the lowest speed setting.



Focaccia
Makes 36 pieces


Focaccia Dough:
4 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups warm water
½ oz. active dried yeast
3 tablespoons olive oil plus extra for brushing the pan and dough

Toppings:
2 cloves garlic, minced
8-10 campari (or any variety) tomatoes, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
1 potato, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
Coarse salt for garnish



Whisk the flour and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer. In a separate bowl, whisk together the warm water and the yeast and let sit for 5-10 minutes (if using instant active dry yeast, you can eliminate the resting time). Whisk the oil into the water/yeast mixture and then pour the liquid into the dry ingredients.

Mix on low speed until the ingredients are combined and the dough is smooth, about 2-3 minutes. It will be very soft and sticky. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set it aside on the counter to ferment until the dough doubles in size, about 30 minutes.

Spread a generous amount of olive oil on a half-sheet pan (12x16-inch) and turn the dough out onto the pan. Coat your hands with some oil to prevent sticking, and stretch the dough to the edges of the pan. Pierce the dough all over with your fingertips, making deep indentations. This process is called dotting the dough. Brush the surface with olive oil and add your desired toppings. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to proof until doubled.

I decided to make half of my focaccia with tomato, basil, and garlic and the other half with potatoes, rosemary, and garlic. I spread the minced garlic over the entire surface of the dough. Then on one half, I arranged thinly sliced Campari tomatoes over the top (you can use any variety tomato). On the other half, I sprinkled minced, fresh rosemary leaves, arranged thinly sliced potatoes over the top, and then sprinkled more rosemary on top. I used regular Idaho potatoes because that is what I had at home, but other varieties such as Yukon Gold or Red Bliss would be delicious as well. The important thing is to slice the potatoes paper thin (I used my handy mandolin) so that they cook all the way through.

Bake the focaccia in the oven at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes, until it is a light golden color and cooked through. If using fresh basil like I did, sprinkle the basil on about a minute before you take the focaccia out of the oven so that it doesn't burn. Slide the focaccia onto a wire rack and cool before cutting into pieces and serving.

Umami Food and Art Festival 2010

I recently had the opportunity to participate in the New York City Umami Food and Art Festival http://www.umamifestival2010.com/, an event meant to "foster collaborations between artists and food professionals."  The Cooking & Art competition pairs culinary students with high school art students and professional artists, and I was chosen to participate with a few of my classmates from ICE.  Our mission- to explore the secret ingredient and transform it from ordinary to extraordinary.   

A few days before the festival, we learned what the secret ingredient would be (drumroll please)...spaghetti!  We found out that we would have to prepare two dishes- an appetizer and entree incorporating spaghetti, and then on the day of the competition we would receive a second mystery ingredient which we would then have to use in a dessert.  Unfortunately we also received a few other surprises during the week- my classmates and I were split up into two separate teams, our professional artist cancelled, and because of a huge snowstorm, we would not have the opportunity to meet at all before the day of the competition.  Things were not going well and I wasn't sure we would be able to pull it all off in the end. 

On the day of the competition, my classmate and I made an early morning run to Whole Foods to pick up our ingredients, then we met our high school student Zack about an hour before the competition started to go over our gameplan.  Fortunately, Zack had brought his friend Will so we had an additional set of hands.  We then learned what our second mystery ingredient would be- Jolly Rancher candies.  We knew we had a big challenge ahead of us!


The next couple of hours went by in a blur.  Our first dish: a crispy Asian spaghetti cake with a pan seared scallop, red curry sauce, cilantro oil, and fresh pineapple salsa. 

We mixed cooked spaghetti with eggs, milk, ginger, garlic, scallions, and a little soy sauce, then fried it in a saute pan for a couple of minutes on each side.  It's actually a delicious way to use leftover spaghetti and has a nice crunchy exterior with a soft center.  For the spicy red curry sauce, we used Thai red curry paste as a base to which we added coconut milk, fish sauce, brown sugar, and lime juice.  The cilantro oil was made by quickly blanching fresh cilantro leaves and stems in boiling water, then pureeing it in a high speed blender with canola oil and straining it.  And for the pineapple salsa we mixed diced pineapple, red bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, cilantro, lime juice, and canola oil. 


As soon as we were done presenting our appetizer, we had to get back in the kitchen to finish up our entrees.  For our second dish, we wanted to do a play on our favorite spaghetti dishes- spaghetti carbonara and spaghetti with meatballs, and use the ingredients in different and creative ways.  Our dish was a duo of spaghetti- spaghetti carbonara with a poached quail egg and spaghetti squash marinara with lamb meatballs and fried spaghetti sticks.  In the middle are spaghetti breadcrumbs which were meant to be eaten with either dish.

  
For the spaghetti carbonara we wanted to make homemade pasta but unfortunately our dough did not come out as we had hoped so we used the dry pasta that was provided to us.  We incorporated bacon, eggs, and chives in the sauce and poached quail eggs on top which oozed delicious, runny yolk when the judges broke into them.  For the spaghetti squash marinara, we roasted spaghetti squash instead of using actual pasta.  When you run a fork through the flesh of the cooked squash, it looks like strands of spaghetti.  For the  sauce we used onions, garlic, tomato paste, San Marzano crushed tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and basil.  And for the mini meatballs we mixed ground lamb with onions, garlic, and parmesan cheese.

To make the spaghetti sticks, we fried cooked strands of spaghetti in hot oil.  Each stick ended up having a unique shape which added a lot of visual appeal when we pushed them into the meatballs.  They're actually quite easy to make and really fun if you're ever looking for a cute, crunchy garnish.  And finally, the spaghetti breadcrumbs were made by finely chopping up cooked spaghetti and sauteeing the pieces in a pan with butter, dried breadcrumbs and herbs. 


For our final dish, we had to incorporate Jolly Rancher candies, not exactly an easy ingredient to use.  We decided to go all out and try to make a baked dessert, knowing that it was a risk.  We made our version of a red velvet cupcake.  The cupcake is topped with fresh whipped cream that has crushed Jolly Ranchers mixed in.  We were very happy with the colorful, tasty end product. 

The judging panel consisted of Chef Sam Mason (formerly of WD50), Iron Chef Judge Akiko Katayama, and Martha Wilson, Director of Franklin Furnace.  Overall they really liked our presentation and balance of flavors as well as our creative use of the mystery ingredients.   After a long, exhausting day in the kitchen, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that our team had won the competition!  It was a close competition and many of the other dishes (especially those made by my other ICE classmates) looked absolutely delicious.  Our prize was a bag of goodies including cookbooks and chocolates.  Overall it was a good experience and one thing is for sure- I'll never look at spaghetti the same way again!

  My team: Zack, Will, Lamont, and me