Pan d’Epi or Épis de Blé Wreath (Wheat Stalk Bread/ Ears of Wheat) With Caramelized Onions #BreadBakers

   Epi is the French word used to describe the flower of a wheat stalk. So the Pan d’Epi or Épis de Blé is the name given to bread that looks like a wheat stalk or the ears of wheat. 

     The Pan d’Epi is a classic and commonly made French artisan bread. When made for special holidays and celebrations, this bread is often made more decorative by shaping it into a wreath.

    The Pan d’Epi is easy enough to make and really just one step up from the French baguette. It is made the same way but then cut to resemble a wheat stalk. It is eaten just a baguette and can be served with soup, or used to make sandwiches. 

     This bread is best eaten fresh, the day it is made. It is best stores wrapped in paper until it is used. If the bread starts to go stale, revive it by sprinkling it with water and briefly baking it. Otherwise, use it to make croutons or breadcrumbs.    

    A Pan d’Epi is a plain bread but I decided to add some caramelized onions to mine just to add some flavour. You may omit this if you want to stay authentic with the bread. I also chose to make a round Pan d’Epi wreath because my baking sheet and oven would hold this shape better.

For this month's Bread Bakers Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm of choose to make  International Breads . I made this french bread......

Requirements  :

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp oil

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/2  tsp instant yeast

1 tbsp oil

3/4 to 1 cup warm water

Method:

        Heat the oil and add the chopped onions to it. Sauté over medium heat till they turn a nice deep brown. Take it off the heat and let it cool.

      Put the remaining ingredients, except the water, in a bowl (or processor bowl) and mix well. Add enough warm water and knead until you have a soft and elastic dough, almost sticky dough.

      Add the caramelized onions and knead it into the dough till distributed uniformly. Shape into a smooth ball and place it in an oiled bowl, turning it to coat it well with oil. 

      Cover loosely and let it rise for about an hour to an hour and a half till it has doubled in volume. 

      Dust your working surface lightly with flour. If you’re going to shape it as a long wheat stalk (or two if your oven or baking sheets aren’t large enough to take one long one), then press out the dough into a rough rectangle. 

     Fold the long edge away from you towards the center. Fold the long edge near you towards the centre. Now fold over in half, like a letter fold and pinch the seam together neatly and tightly. See this tutorial for a better idea on shaping a baguette. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmu1rg4CPgk )

      Sprinkle flour generously over the baguette. Starting with one end of the baguette, make equidistant cuts in the dough (about three inches apart) holding a pair of scissors so they are parallel to the bread, and then tilting them so they are at a 45-degree angle. 

       Make the cuts in the dough almost as if you were going to snip that bit off but it will still be attached, then take that piece and move it to the left. Make another snip about 3 inches down from the bottom of the last one and move that piece to the right. Keep on doing this until you reach the end of the bread. See this video for a better understanding of this process. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN5QL_kaowQ )

        If you want to make a wreath like I did, then take a look at this tutorial (http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/2008/12/08/holiday-wreath-bread ) first. Place the risen dough on a floured surface. 

       Gently poke a hole through the dough in the centre with your fingers and stretch out the dough into a round ring. Place this on the parchment lined baking sheet and then generously dust the top of the dough with flour. 

       As described above for the baguette, make cuts about 2 inches apart and move each portion outward forming a wreath. Once the Epi has been shaped, loosely cover the dough and let it rise again for about 15 minutes. 

       In the meanwhile, preheat your oven to 240*C (470*F) with a baking tray upside down on the rack and an empty pan at the bottom of the oven.  

      When ready place the Epi in the oven and pour a cup of water into the pan at the bottom to create steam.I didn't use steam .

      Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes till the Pan d’Epi is done and golden brown in colour. Let it cool completely before cutting.

  Enjoy the onion flavoured Pan d'Epi..........

We Knead To Bake #42

Apfelpfannkuchen (Apple Pancake)from A Day in the Life on the Farm 

Auvergne Crown from Karen's Kitchen Stories 

Bauerbrot from All That's Left Are The Crumbs

Bialys from Spill the Spices 

Boule from Bread Therapy 

Chilli and Coriander Scones from Sizzling Tastebuds 

Dallas Pulla from The Schizo Chef 

Dutch Tiger Bread (Tijgerbrood)from Baking Sense 

Eggless brioche bread from I camp in my Kitchen 

Epi di Pan from Sara's Tasty Buds 

Franzbrotchen from Gayathri's Cook Spot 

German Soft Pretzels (Laugenbrezel) from Hostess At Heart 

German Soft Pretzels from Herbivore Cucina 

Kardemummabullar from Ambrosia 

Pita Bread from Sneha's Recipe

Pletzel from Cook's Hideout 

Pretzel bites from  My Cooking Journey 

Savoury Kugelhopf from The Mad Scientist's Kitchen 

Slovak Bread Rolls(Rozky) from Mayuri's Jikoni 

Whole wheat Pitta bread from Sonlicious 

Yemeni Kubaneh from Food Lust People Love

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

Apple Galette - Eggless version of French Pastry

 Apple Galette has became a favourite recipe of our family ever since I first made it. As I don’t have a rectangular pan to bake this I just shaped.

 I first made it along with Samosa Galette , my mom and Niece Akshara liked it over the spicy version.

The aroma of apple with the cinnamon flavor was so fantastic…

My partner for this month’s ssshhhhh secretly cooking was Prathima Shivaraj of . She gave me flour and ingredient of my choice. So I choose to make this healthy apple galette.

Cinnamon helps in controlling blood sugar levels and apple rich in soluble fiber , Vitamin C and pectin.

  The word  Galette  in French means round flat crusty cake.

I sliced the apple and marinated in brown sugar and cinnamon powder for ten minutes before arranging in the pastry.

Requirements :

Crust :

1 ½  cup flour

¼ tsp salt

1½  tbs sugar

6 tbs unsalted butter

1/3 cup of ice water

1/8 tsp baking powder

Filling :

3 Red apple thinly sliced

¼ cup brown sugar

1 tsp sugar

1½ tsp cinnamon powder

1 tbs honey

Juice of lemon

1 tbs unsalted Butter

Glaze :

1/3 cup Sugar

2 tbs water / milk

Method :

 Crust Making :

In a bowl mix the flour , salt and baking powder in a bowl .

Cut the butter into pieces and mix in to the flour with finger.

Sprinkle ice water little at a time and mix. The dough must have formed by the time.

Cover the bowl and let it rest in fridge for 30 minutes.

Filling :

Wash the apples and pat dry.

Remove the Core and slice thinly.

Place the apple slices in a bowl and sprinkle lemon juice, this prevents browning reaction.

 Add brown sugar and cinnamon , toss to coat on all slices. Let it rest for 20 minutes.

Making of Galette :

Take the dough out of refrigerator.

Dust the working space and roll the dough into rectangle shape of 12 X 11.

As I don’t have a rectangular tart pan , I shaped and baked in my round pizza pan. The rectangular shape retained.

Place the rectangle rolled dough on the greased baking tray.

Place the apple slices on the rolled dough in an overlapping pattern leaving a inch border on all sides.

Now , roll up the sides creating a border on all sides.

Pour in the sugary liquid let out by the apples. Drizzle honey over the apple and dot with butter pieces.

Mix the sugar and milk together and brush on the pastry for glaze.

Sprinkle the remaining sugar on pastry and on apple slices , it gives a nice golden colour.

Bake in a preheated oven @ 200*C for 35 – 40 minutes  or till the pastry is brown and crisp .

Let the galette cool and slice and serve with vanilla icecream.

Spinach Peas and Potato Quiche with Homemade Ricotta

    For this month’s Baking partner challenge the recipe chosen was Quiche. I made my own Ricotta cheese to make this quiche. I wanted to make eggless quiche so didn’t use the custard filling- skipped the egg.

  Quiche is a savoury open – faced pastry crust with a filling of savoury custard with cheese , meat , seafood and / or vegetables. Quiche can be served hot or cold. It is part of French cuisine but is also popular in other countries , particularly as party food.

  Quiche originated in France , it is considered a classic French dish. Quiche has a pastry crust and a filling of  eggs and milk or cream which when baked becomes a custard.. It can be made with vegetables , meat and seafood.

   The flavour is derived from the filling and the type of cheese used. They can be had both cold or warm, though I found them best when warmed.

       Pie pan is first lined with pastry crust, that is blind‐baked, and then followed by cheese, filling, custard and finally topped by cheese. The custard filling is heavy cream whisked with eggs. Ratio of cream and eggs is 2:1 (ie for every 1⁄2 cup of cream, you should add 1⁄4 cup of whisked egg). After baking, quiche gives out an aromatic smell throughout the place and was very light and fluffy when tasted.

  I made the ricotta cheese four days before and made the quiche day before yesterday.

For pastry crust :

This buttery dough needs to be refrigerated for at least two hours or overnight, so better to prepare them the day before baking.

         150 grams of all purpose flour 


          Half tsp of salt 


         85 grams of unsalted butter, cut into tiny cubes 


         2 tbsp of cold water


First, cut the butter into tiny cubes and refrigerate them. 


In an dry bowl, combine flour and salt.

Mix them. Add in butter cubes and rub through the butter so that it is dispersed in flour. Alternatively, you can do this in food processor also

Now add in cold water, little by little. Slowly, start combining the dough along with water.

An soft dough should be formed. There might be few clumps around here and there

But each clump, should hold its shape when pressed, and not fall together. This is an passing test for an crust dough.

Cling wrap and refrigerate for minimum of two hours or overnight. This will help in moisture getting evenly distributed throughout the dough. If kept frozen, they can be used till an month.

BLIND BAKING WITH PIE CRUST

Next day, remove the dough from refrigerator and let them sit under room temperature for 15‐20 minutes.

Either you can roll them by dusting the surface with flour, or by sandwiching them in between two baking sheets. I sandwiched them with my silicon mat and baking sheet and rolled into an 9 inch circle.

   After rolling, remove the baking sheet and turn the silicon mat upside down over the greased pie pan.

   

Adjust the dough and press them down the pie pan, so that they cover the base and sides.

Prick them throughout the base and sides with an fork. Pricking will help in non‐raising of the dough during baking. Refrigerate this set up for fifteen to twenty minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven for 200 degree Celsius.

After refrigeration , cover them with baking sheet and add some dried pulses, I used  Black chickpea . These weights push down the crust and prevents uneven rising. You can use raw rice as weight also, but these baking weights are inedible after blind bake, since they are exposed to such an higher temperature. But, of course you can stock them up and reuse for blind baking.

Bake these for twenty minutes, later on remove the chickpea and sheet and bake for another fifteen minutes till the base turns brown. You should be able to see the crust has left the edges of the ring.

Now our crust is ready for filling to go ☺

For filling :

Spinach leaves – 10

Green Peas  -  3 tbs

Potato – 1

Butter – 1 tsp

Garlic – 2 cloves

Onion - 1

Cumin seeds – a pinch

Chilli powder – ½ tsp

Coriander powder – ¼ tsp

Salt to taste

For Custard :

Ricotta Cheese -  75 g

Fresh cream – ½ cup

Corn flour – 2 tbs

All purpose flour – ½ tsp

  Chop the spinach and potato.

 Chop the garlic and onion.

Melt butter in a pan , add the cumin and let it splutter.

Add in the chopped onion and garlic , sauté for a minute.

Add the chopped potatoes and spinach sauté for five minutes.

Add in the green peas and required salt.

Add the chilli and coriander powder and sauté till raw smell leaves and the potato are half done.

Let it cool.

 As I homemade the ricotta cheese , I just crumbled it.

For the custard filling as I skipped egg , instead I dry roasted the corn flour and  all purpose flour separately till the colour of the flour turns lightly.

 In a bowl , add the cream and whisk , to this add the corn flour and all purpose flour  , half of the cheese and whisk again.

 If needed can add extra salt and chilli powder to this mixture.

For assembly, take the blind baked pastry crust, and first sprinkle the ricotta cheese at the base.

This is followed by adding the spinach peas and potato  filling.

Pour in the whisked flour cream mixture , and finally top with remaining Ricotta cheese.

Bake them for thirty five minutes @ 200 * C or till the filling is firm.

It takes about two hours to cool down. 

    If you want to serve warm can serve . we had after two hours.