After reading Michael Ruhlman’s The Making of a Chef there were two things I wanted to make. Sauce Robert (and the demi-glace that it requires) and Frito Diablo bread. I had made a bastardized version of Sauce Robert in culinary school, but I wanted to make my own from scratch. I made some veal stock, but it all disappeared into delicious food before I had a chance to make demi-glace. Oh well, there will be more. I did some searching on the internet and of Michael’s other books for a recipe for Frito Diablo, but I came up short. In the book he describes it has being a lean dough recipe with red pepper flakes, raisins, and pine nuts. I would have to work with that and make my own. While searching for recipes, I found an excerpt from Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio, the book on books.google.com. Since there was a limited preview, I was able to read almost the entire section on lean bread dough.
Around the same time, I became aware of the Ratio App for the iPhone/iPod touch. I bought the app and realized I suddenly had the power to make a whole number of things using this handy little app. It gives you base recipes and procedures and an easy way to scale any of them. It lets you add notes and save specific recipes. Unfortunately the ‘share’ feature of the app just posts a general link on twitter, it doesn’t actually let you share the recipes that you’ve created. Anyhow, I now own the app and the book. I highly suggest both of them, then again, I’ve been a Michael Ruhlman junkie lately. Pick them up: Ratio App or Ratio, the book.
On to the bread. I used the Ratio app on my iPod touch and adapted from there. I started with 600 grams of flour, because Michael suggests that as a good basic loaf size.
In the bowl of my stand mixer I put:
600grams flour: I used about 1/3 multigrain bread flour and the rest all-purpose. You could get away with just about any mix of bread and AP flour.
3 grams dry instant yeast,
1-1/2 cups warm water,
12 grams salt. You want to use water that is around 90 degrees, but I wouldn’t suggest getting hot water from the tap, I’ve always been a believer that hot tap water has a tendency to pull weird flavors from the pipes in your house. I would suggest heating it up on the stove, this has the added benefit of removing some of the additives that your local tap water might have in it. In a bowl I mixed together
1/2 cup raisins,
1/4 cup pine nuts, and
2 Tablespoons red pepper flakes. Put the dough hook on the mixer and start it on low. Just as the stuff in the mixer is starting to come together, add the ingredients from the bowl. Mix all this stuff with your dough hook until a dough forms and pulls away from the bowl. Remove the dough hook from the dough and knead it a bit with your hands. I used this step to make sure all of the raisins and things are evenly distributed in the dough and none of them are on the outside of the dough. That being said, if some of the raisins or pine nuts don’t make it in the bread, it won’t be a tragedy.
Put this back in the bowl and cover with plastic. Let this sit in a warm spot until it has doubled in size. A turned-off oven is a good place for this. It will take longer the cooler it is, warm spots are good, but not much warmer than 75F. Take the dough out of the bowl and punch it down, knead it a bit by folding and pressing and rotating it. You want to redistribute the gasses and yeast in the dough. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes just to loosen up. Then shape the dough into a dome shape. I do this by making big pinches on one side of the dough to pull the other side taught, making a round shape. I put my formed dough on to a large sheet of parchment paper. Let this sit for an hour.
About 40 minutes into this hour, I turn my oven on to 475. I put our enameled dutch oven in the oven to pre-heat, with its lid. Once the oven has preheated, I make 3 very shallow slits in the top of the bread, this helps prevent cracking and makes it look pretty. Place the dough in the dutch oven, parchment paper and all. Put the lid on the pot. Bake 25 minutes and then remove the dutch oven lid. Bake another 30 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the bread has reached 200 degrees. Take the bread out of the dutch oven using the parchment paper and let cool on a rack for an hour or more.
This was my first attempt at guessing the proportions of these ingredients and I think it worked out really well. The bread was sweet and spicy and everything I could wish for. I’d definitely make this again, if I didn’t get distracted by other inspiration. I also used this almost exact same recipe to make a cheddar chipotle bread using 2 minced chipotle peppers and a full cup of shredded cheddar cheese. It was also delicious.
Update: The Ratio App for the iPod lost my saved recipes! I think it was due to an update it had recently. It is still a great app, but don’t let the app store the only copy of your notes or recipes.
Debby Palmer are discussing. 
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Debby Palmer 8:07 pm on June 30, 2010 Permalink
OMG! My daughter – Megan Palmer – sent this to me. We’ve been making the Fleetwood Diner Hippy Hash for years – for swim teams, neighbors and friends. I am excited about trying this. We’ve learned to semi-cook potatoes in boiling water, and then draining and cooling them. We store them in the fridge, and then we are ready for hash-browns at the drop of a mandolin. I’m looking forward to trying this recipe!
Vivienne Armentrout 9:53 pm on July 1, 2010 Permalink
This is a wonderful treatment, partly because it is so adaptable.
You might like to know the rice griddlecakes recipe that I frequently adapt for current available bits of this and that. See http://myfoodtribe.blogspot.com/2009/12/rice-griddlecakes-for-leftovers.html
Your site has lots of good stuff!