Holiday Bread: Panettone & Stollen
Richard Bourdon's Berkshire Mountain Bakery has been baking breads for 25 years, and recently, press has been very good: Earlier this year, Bon Appetit Magazine named the bakery as among the "Top Ten Bread Bakeries" in the U.S.; and the Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" featured his Bread and Chocolate loaf.
PANETTONE
For the holiday season, Richard bakes and giftwraps the traditional Italian holiday bread Panettone.
He begins by creating his own mix of raisins, candied orange and lemon peels, vanilla and honey.
Making Panettone is labor-intensive because the Italian levain (starter) is cultivated every 4 hours over several days prior to the final dough mix. This slow-staged fermentation creates a delicate flavor with an airy, light bread interior. Richard's attention to detail creates an exceptional Panettone.
His staff weighs out measured portions of the dough and places them in large paper rounds for baking. A stick pierces each of the rounds so the Panettone can be hung upside down after baking.
Once the bread has risen, it's coated with a cocoa and almond topping.
Powdered sugar is shaken over each Panettone prior to baking.
As soon as it's removed from the oven, the Panettone is hung upside down to keep it from collapsing on itself. Richard has developed a unique process for hanging the bread, and the image below shows staff hanging the Panettone upside down to cool.
Below is a photo of the Panettone hanging upside-down, shot looking up at the bread.
Once cool, the Panettone is wrapped and sent to market. For a list of markets see the Berkshire Mountain Bakery Web site to order online or by phone from the bakery. (Notice in the sliced Panettone below that the cocoa moved to the bottom when it was poured over the bread early on in the process.)
STOLLEN
Richard also bakes Stollen in November and December - a Dutch holiday bread with a candied fruit mix of raisins, apricots, chrystallized ginger, candied orange peel, orange and lemon zest, spices and rum. His Stollen also has almond paste inside it, and the photo below shows Richard preparing the almond paste for dividing and inserting in the dough.
The fruit mix is folded by hand into the Stollen dough until it's evenly distributed. After a rest, the dough is divided into portions, rounded into a boule shape and left to rise. Almost fully risen, a crease is pressed into the dough ball and a portion of almond paste is folded into the loaf.
Once baked inside the Stollen, the almond paste is rich, so it's often spread across a slice of the bread.
Dashing Star Farm
Starting in 1994, Lynn Mordas, owner of Dashing Star Farm, began developing a unique cross breed of sheep (mainly using the English Romney and Border Leicester breeds), creating an absolutely gorgeous palette of natural colors for wool.
The Romney x Border Leicester or Coopworth fleece sometimes has a crimp to it, and Lynn sells one-ply, two-ply and three-ply yarns. She sells the yarn in skeins by the ounce and
Dashing Star Farms’ sheepskins are also very beautiful, with extraordinary natural shades of white/cream and brown.
Dashing Star has recently introduced a line or pure-bred Coopworth sheep, developed originally in New Zealand, and Finnsheep, known for the tenderest meat (Dashing Star Farm also sells lamb.) The livestock is raised organically, free-ranged on rotated pastures, with a diet supplemented with locally grown whole grains.
In addition to her work as a fiber farmer, Lynn is also heavily involved in historic preservation in the region and serves as Executive Director of the Friends of Coleman Station. Dashing Star Farm is located in the Coleman Station Historic District in the town of North East, which is an agriculturally-based historic district. The barn is on the historic register – built in 1840, it had restoration work done in 1925, then again in 1994.
To read more about Dashing Star Farm’s edible products in Real Eats Magazine, link to http://nomadeditions.com/real-eats/2011-09-16/index.html
Dashing Star Farm contact information:
Where you can find Dashing Star Farm products:
Chancellor’s Sheep and Wool Showcase –
Amenia Farmers Market
Millerton Farmers Market
Silamar Farm,
DeCicco’s Family Markets, Brewster and
Various events in the
Wool resources in the region:
Foraging in the Berkshires
Wild foods enthusiast Russ Cohen leads a walk organized by Berkshire Farm & Table.
Windy Hill Farm
Windy Hill Farm in Great Barrington is owned and operated by Dennis and Judy Mareb. www.WindyHillFarmInc.com 686 Stockbridge Road, Great Barrington, MA 413.298.3217
Interview with Amy Cotler
Amy Cotler is a longtime advocate of seasonal cooking and local eating. She is the founding director of Berkshire Grown, which became an early model for local farm and food advocacy. Her new book, The Locavore Way, Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Food, brings together her culinary and local food advocacy experience.
The INTERVIEW posted above contains the following segments:
Segment 1: Local Food Movement (5:26-4:44)
Segment 2: Food Is All About Relationships (4:41-3:11)
Segment 3: Challenges Facing Small Farmers (3:14-1:20)
Segment 4: Shopping & Cooking Locally (1:18-:34)
Segment 5: Meals That Have Life in Them (:33-end)
For more information on Amy, see http://www.AmyCotler.com
Castle Street Cafe
The Castle Street Cafe in Great Barrington, MA, is owned and operated by Michael Ballon. (www.castlestreetcafe.com)
Left Field Farm
Maureen Sullivan and Mitch Feldmesser own Left Field Farm, located in Middlefield, MA.
Cafe Adam
Located in Great Barrington, MA, Cafe Adam is owned and operated by Adam Zieminski … www.cafeadam.org
Share the Bounty
A project of Berkshire Grown to support Farm-to-Pantry partnerships. Funding for this production is made possible by Berkshire Bank. (www.berkshiregrown.org)
The Old Inn on the Green
The Old Inn on the Green in New Marlborough, MA, is owned and operated by Peter Platt and Meredith Kennard. (www.oldinn.com)
