Greetings everyone, it's a pleasure to be here on the FCS forums. (This is my first post.)
So I'll get right down to it. This week I had a freezer that was packed full of stuff and a wife who decided to buy groceries. It just so happened that I ended up with an abundance of frozen fruit that we use for smoothies in the morning. In an effort to fit all of the shiny new perishables into the itty bitty freezer that came with our rental home, I found myself using the already opened frozen fruit in very interesting (I think, anyhow) ways.
I'm not going to post the entire recipes, but I'll refer to the techniques and recipes I used as bases and then detail the modifications I made to those recipes (that you can go look up at your own convenience).
Blackberry French Bread:
For this, I used basic baguette ratios, which can be found in just about any bread book.
I used the sponge method for getting some flavor into this dough early, as I am using active dry yeast, not a sourdough strain. The modification to this recipe came after the first rise. I mixed about 1.5 cups of frozen blackberries into the sponge to provide some extra moisture and sugars for the yeast to feed on, and then allowed the sponge to rise, covered at room temperature, until doubled in volume and punched down. I repeated this with the sponge over the course of 2 whole days, punching down and spritzing with a tiny bit of water to keep the sponge very wet. Day 3, I added the salt and the remainder of the flour, and allowed it to rise one more time before shaping into a baguette, and 2 round loaves as shown in Chef Jacob's video. There was also enough dough to make a standard loaf, so I did that in order to see the effect of different forms on this dough. After shaping and proofing (again, as shown in the baguette video) and sprinkling with the tiniest bit of sea salt for sparkle, I baked it to 190F, spraying distilled water into the oven every 5 minutes to create a pseudo-steam injection process.
The result was a bread that had a very nice crumb and a classic chewy texture and a great crust. It was a classic french bread in every sense, except for 2 important variations: It was bright purple, and it had an aroma and taste of a dry red wine. Understated, but definitely present. The texture of the sea salt sprinkles turned out well, as the salt dissolved to a degree due to the spritzing in the oven. I'll try to get a picture of the round loaves, crust and crumb, but the baguette is gone already.
I think that this bread has some serious potential as is, but am considering using the same fermentation method with a more standard loaf or brioche or something. Purple novelties abound. It also should be noted that a sourdough yeast would have made this bread absolutely superlative, and probably with much less rising time as well.
Blackberry-Ginger Wing Sauce:
The exact formulation of this recipe is classified for now, but I think I can speak to the procedure a bit, and if you read the back of a hot wing sauce bottle, you can probably come really close pretty easily.
Hot wing sauce base - salt, vinegar, chile peppers of your choice - think ubiquitous little red bottles.
Ingredient 2: Frozen blackberries and sugar and candied ginger , though I think perhaps preserves would work better,
Ingredient 3: Butter, and perhaps a bit of xanthan gum or cornstarch.
Ingredient 4: Your very own blend of secret spices. Standard Stuff.
Ok, so the vinegar and the peppers go into the blender, along with the salt, and are pureed until smooth. Totally liquefied. Transfer mixture to a saucepan, and bring to a bare simmer for 5 minutes. We're melting flavors together, not trying to reduce the liquid too much, or the vinegar will become overpowering in the final sauce. Go ahead and add your secret spices and the blackberry/sugar and ginger right at the beginning of this to give them as much time to hydrate and integrate as possible. Keep the sugar to a minimum, let the sweet balance the vinegar, but not so much that it covers the tartness of the berries.
When your 5 minutes is up, remove from the heat, and mount the sauce with a few pats of butter. This is for flavor and texture. There is no decent substitute.
Return this stuff to the blender, and liquefy again. Check the taste, balance the sour with a little more sugar as needed, salt to taste. It is at this point, while the liquid is still hot, that you may want to add a teeny bit of cornstarch or xanthan gum to the sauce to give it a texture that will really cling to the wings like a thin bbq sauce. Not so thick that it globs, but it really needs to coat. Think just a bit past nappe. (sic)
It is imperative that you allow this sauce to sit for at least 30 minutes so that the flavors can get to know each other a little bit better, but overnight is better. I'm convinced that there are fat-soluble flavor and aroma molecules in the ginger/berries and peppers for that matter that just need to sit in there with the butter. When you've gotten your wings ready, pour some into a large mixing bowl and toss with the wings until coated. And eat the snot out of them.
Hope you enjoy.
