Bread Machine (78 page)

Beat the eggs in a medium bowl. Add the breadcrumbs and stir to moisten evenly. Add the vegetable mixture and season with the salt and pepper or herb blend to taste. Form into patties, 12 small ones for appetizers or 8 larger ones for a side dish. Place on a plate and refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, for at least 30 minutes, or until close to serving, up to 4 hours.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat until a drop of water skates over the surface. Add olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan, and allow it to heat. Add the pancakes and cook until the edges are dry and the bottoms are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Turn and cook the opposite sides until golden, about 2 minutes more. Serve immediately or keep warm in a 200°F oven, covered with foil, until ready to serve. Garnish with sour cream and chopped tomato and chives. Serve immediately.

PANINO BRUSCHETTA           
Makes 9 round rolls

I
talian sandwich eaters head to
paninotecas,
the equivalent of our delis.
Panino
means sandwich, but it is also the word for the little breads used to make them. There are many types of bread doughs used in making
panini
(the plural of
panino
), and each region has a specialty.
Panini
can be round, square, or elongated. In Venice there are
rosettas,
which remind me of Kaiser rolls with a top knob; in Milan there are
michetta,
which have a hole in the middle; and in Piedmont there are butterfly-like
biovettes
; in Genoa
focaccia
flatbread is cut into portions. Panino Bruschetta are good fresh from the oven or split and grilled to make fresh-sliced tomato and arugula sandwiches. They are reminiscent of bruschetta with their topping of garlic and olive oil.

1
¹
/
₂
- OR 2-POUND-LOAF MACHINES

For the dough:

¹
/
₂
cup water

¹
/
₂
cup milk

   1 large egg

1 tablespoon olive oil

   3
¹
/
₄
cups bread flour

   1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal or polenta

   1 tablespoon whole wheat flour

   1
¹
/
₂
teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2
¹
/
₄
teaspoons SAF yeast or 2
³
/
₄
teaspoons bread machine yeast

For the garlic oil:

¹
/
₄
cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, pressed

   Coarse sea salt or kosher salt, for sprinkling

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

When the machine beeps at the end of the cycle, open the lid and poke the dough with your fingers to deflate. Close the lid, unplug the machine, and let the dough stand in the machine for 45 minutes longer.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and dust with flour. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a 10-by-6-inch rectangle that is 1 inch thick. Cut out circles of dough with a 3-inch biscuit cutter or drinking glass. Reroll scraps and cut out more circles. Place the circles on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart; 3 across and 4 down. Cover loosely with a clean tea towel and let rest for 25 minutes.

Twenty minutes before baking, place a baking stone on the lower third rack and preheat the oven to 400°F.

To make the garlic oil, combine the olive oil and garlic in a small saucepan or microwave-proof bowl. Heat until just warm.

Brush the tops of the rolls with the garlic oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Remove the rolls from the baking sheet and cool on racks.

The Toolbox: Equipment for Oven-Baked Country Breads

Country bread doughs can be fully baked in the bread machine, but they are fantastic doughs for bakers who want to shape their loaves by hand and bake their breads in a conventional oven. For this reason, some of the recipes in this chapter are executed totally in the machine and some require your hands to shape the loaves into the proper traditional shapes they are known for in the baking world. Hand-shaping techniques give each type of loaf its own character, texture, and crumb-to-crust proportion, despite the fact that most of the breads are made from exactly the same simple ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast. The following
batterie de cuisine
is an important list for a baker who wishes to master the array of country breads.