6/14/2023 0 Comments Nightingale bread![]() ![]() Temperature, humidity and altitude can all play a part in how long it takes bread dough to rise. ![]() This can potentially take around 60 minutes though, so be sure you plan enough time. My dough normally takes about 30-35 minutes to rise. Close the oven door and your dough will have a cozy, warm place to rise. Then turn off the oven and place the covered bowl (with the dough inside) on the oven rack. I like to set my oven to 170 degrees for a minute or two to let it warm. About rising bread dough: To allow the bread dough to rise until it is almost double in size.The more flour you add, the drier and harder your bread will be. I wouldn’t add more than an additional 1/2 cup flour. If you feel you need to add a little more flour (especially if kneading by hand), add the flour a tablespoon at a time. The dough should be slightly tacky when you touch it. The recipe calls for 4 1/2 cups of flour. If you want your bread softer in texture you can use all-purpose flour. About the flour: To make a rustic, chewy loaf of bread, you’ll want to use bread flour, which is a high gluten flour.Add the yeast to the warmed milk and then you’re immediately ready to add in the rest of the ingredients and mix. This yeast is an instant yeast so you don’t have to wait 5 minutes for the yeast to “proof”. It produces beautiful, tall loaves, every time. Our favorite yeast is Red Star Platinum Yeast. There’s nothing worse than getting part way through your homemade bread recipe and realize that the bread isn’t rising due to old yeast. About the yeast: The most important thing to remember about yeast is to make sure it is fresh.About the milk: You want the milk to be warm, about 110-115 degrees so that the yeast can start to activate.But don’t worry…if you don’t have either of those appliances you can still make this bread! Simply mix the dough up in a large bowl and then knead the dough by hand for about 5-6 minutes. If you happen to have a bread maker, you could use the dough setting and knead the dough that way. On a recent Sunday morning, at least a dozen people stood outside Nightingale Breads waiting for the tiny bakery to open its doors so they could be among the first to choose from freshly baked scones, sourdoughs and sweet baguettes.When I mix up yeast breads I prefer to use my stand mixer to knead the dough. Lines at the Forestville bakery, which is open less than 20 hours a week, are often steady, filled with locals who are regular customers, tourists, runners and bikers using the nearby West County trail and curious coastbound travelers who make a pit stop to see what all the fuss is about. One of those local regulars is Chenoa Montiel. She visits this fixture of Forestville’s food scene weekly, sometimes more. “It’s one of the only food outlets that we have that’s lasted.” “We’re lucky to have had Nightingale this long,” she said. The bakery is a cornerstone of the food renaissance taking place along a three-block stretch of the town’s main thoroughfare. Through the closures of favorites like Twist Eatery and Backyard to the newly opened Sonoma Pizza Co. and A La Heart Catering, not to mention fires, floods and the pandemic, Nightingale has been a constant, comforting presence. Owner Jessie Frost has weathered all that since buying the bakery in 2018 from Beth Thorp, a retired nurse who opened Nightingale in 2008. ![]() Frost, a graduate of Santa Rosa Junior College’s baking program, had worked at the bakery for about two years before she took over. Thorp was a well-loved member of the community. ![]() Frost wanted to nurture those established relationships, so changes have come slowly. “I fiddled with some recipes to get them to my liking. “Customers were excited about more variation.” We added new products, more pastries, different varieties of bread,” Frost said. More recently, Frost leaned on the community with a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to refresh the store and also buy a new generator so the bakery can operate during power shut-offs. She’s spruced up the store front and counter to welcome customers back after doing pick-up orders from the doorway during the height of the pandemic. “COVID was hard, and we’re coming back from that. I don’t think we’re back to pre-COVID numbers as far as production goes. What hasn’t changed is that the bakery remains a point of pride for Forestville. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |