September 2016

The Delicious Ciabatta

Ciabatta: A flattish, open-textured Italian bread with a floury crust, made with olive oil.

Ciabatta literally means ‘carpet slipper’. Which we think personally creates great imagery of placing a foot of filling into – prosciutto ham, the finest cheese and other savory delights!

An Italian white bread made from wheat flour, water, salt and yeast, many think that the ciabatta has a long history that stretches hundreds of years, but it’s actually origins stem from the year… 1982.

During this time the French baguette was very popular, making Italian bakers concerned as it endangered their businesses. In response, Francesco Favaron, a baker based in Verona, Veneto in Italy, collaborated with Molini Adriesi (who provided the flour to produce the bread) to create the ciabatta with it’s well-known features. Elongated, broad, flat and of course delicious.

Favaron named the bread ciabatta as he believed the bread reminded him of his wife’s slipper.

Ciabatta bread was introduced to the United Kingdom in 1985 by Marks & Spencer and has become a much loved bread recipe to this day.

Ciabatta tends to be used for sandwiches but is also great with olive oils and other dips due to the crumb’s easy absorption of dips and liquids. Dried ciabatta bread is also ideal for creating croutons. Like all artisan bread, ciabatta tastes its best when it is fresh.

Are you a cafe, venue or restaurant looking for a local supplier of fresh baked ciabatta, sourdough and other artisan breads? Dolce Forno delivers freshly baked artisan breads and pastries within Hertfordshire, St Albans, Surrey, Berkshire, London and Buckinghamshire.

Call our team at Dolce Forno Breads on 01727 762 456 or alternatively email contact@dolceforno-breads.co.uk to find out more about our craft artisan bakery and breads delivery services.

Let them eat brioche!

Brioche
A light sweet yeast bread typically in the form of a small round roll.

It wasn’t cake that Marie Antoinette wanted to feed to the French. Her instructions were actually, “Let them eat brioche.” Brioche is certainly as rich and buttery as cake, but that’s where the similarities end.

It is more of a bread than it is a cake. Yeast-risen with a chewy, bread-like interior. Traditionally, brioche is formed into loaf-sized or smaller dinner roll-sized “brioche à tête” (“tête” translates as “head” – perhaps in homage to the unfortunate Marie Antoinette…).

Brioche

Not exactly sweet and not exactly savoury – brioche is a fantastic bread for any meal of the day. Some prefer spreading their favourite jam or chocolate spread. Brioche burgers have become a major trend in the past few years with restaurants up and down the country taking advantage of the contrasting flavours and texture of the burger and bun. It’s also a great companion for a hot soup – especially as we approach the nippy Autumn evenings.

Let them eat brioche during your next breakfast meeting or corporate briefing! Dolce Forno delivers freshly baked artisan breads and pastries within Hertfordshire, St Albans, Surrey, Berkshire, North London or Buckinghamshire.

Call our team at Dolce Forno Breads on 01727 762 456 or alternatively email contact@dolceforno-breads.co.uk to find out more about our craft artisan bakery and breads.

hand crafted breads

Conversation and Croissants

Croissant
French crescent-shaped roll made of sweet flaky yeast dough, eaten for breakfast.

A cornerstone of French pastry – the croissant is known internationally. We know that everyone eats it differently depending on preferences.

Should you add butter, marmalade or strawberry jam or should you go for the savoury option with ham or cheese? Warm it up or keep cold? Cut in half or hold it all together?

Tasty, small packages of folded buttery dough that has been handcrafted into the shape of golden crescent smile to brighten up your day. How should you really eat a croissant?

How do you eat a croissant?

  • Go Savoury
    Whether it’s cooked, preserved meats such as pastrami, salami, Parma ham or perhaps Cheese whether it’s sliced, melted – soft or hard cheese. Eggs scrambled or fried. The options are endless and the croissant is as versatile as sliced bread.
  • Get Sweet
    If you have a sweet tooth – chocolate spread would make the croissant even more divine. Perhaps add jam (whether its homemade or bought from the supermarket) or Sevillian orange marmalade. Some argue you don’t have to add butter to an all-butter croissant. But if you’re like us – adding another level of luxury is a guilty pleasure! Spread it on! You can also purchase/order Almond Croissants or Pain au Chocolat if you’re looking for straightforward no-hassle divine sweetness!
  • Back to Basics
    Why add things to it when you can savor the croissant for all its golden glory and richness of life? Wrap one end with a napkin and tissue; eat from one end to the other. This ensures it maintains its form and prevents it breaking and falling apart! Some croissant lovers enjoy it simply with a creamy coffee, which adds a complimentary bitter flavor to intensify the sweet elements of the pastry. Some enjoy it with freshly squeezed orange juice.

Perfectly flaky and buttery pastry. Crispy and soft with a glorious flavour. Are we making you hungry?

Looking for freshly baked croissants for your conference, meeting or event? Dolce Forno delivers freshly baked artisan breads and pastries within Hertfordshire, St Albans, Surrey, Berkshire, London and Buckinghamshire.

Call our team at Dolce Forno Breads on 01727 762 456 or alternatively email contact@dolceforno-breads.co.uk to find out more about our craft artisan bakery and breads delivery services.

Viennoiserie - Dolce Forno Breads

What is Viennoiserie?

Viennoiserie
A baked product made in a similar manner to bread, but with ingredients giving them a sweeter, heavier quality closer to pastry.

Not many people are aware of term viennoiserie. Viennoiserie covers a range of pastries and baked goods including the delicious and irresistible pain au chocolat, cinnamon pain au raisin, small brioches (briochettes) and pastries with an apple/apricot filling. Invented the mid- 1800s, the art of viennoiserie is now widely well known across the world. This is mainly due to the undoubtedly popular and buttery, layered, rich and golden croissant – which we all love.

Now it’s been argued that the croissant isn’t actually French. Many emphasise the croissant’s ancestry to originate from Austria. The story goes that after a failed attack by the Turks during the Siege of Vienna in 1683, Viennese bakers produced pastries to celebrate, shaping it to in the form of the crescent they saw on the flags of the Ottoman Turks. With the German name for crescent ‘kipfel’ becoming popular in Vienna soon after…

The story continues on that in 1770, the Austrian Princess Marie Antoinette travelled to France to marry King Louis XVI. In her honor, Parisian bakers made similar pastries to Kipfel, coining the French term, croissant. Croissants became as popular as kipfel in Austria, perfected by artisans through the craft and technique.

This technique for producing viennese specialties is positioned between the craft of the Boulanger (baker) and the work of a patissier (pastry maker). Made with a yeast-leavened dough, which has similar qualities to bread making, butter, eggs, milk, sugar and cream are added to the dough to sweeten and bring them towards pastry making.

Popular within the range of viennoiserie are many of today’s favourites:

· Croissants

· Pain au chocolat

· Pain aux raisins

· Brioche

· Baguette viennoise

· Chausson aux pommes

Typically eaten at breakfast, but now eaten at any time of day. High quality viennoiserie goods from an artisan bakery combine great taste with excellent texture and aesthetics.

Now viennoiserie goods are available in corporate and company meetings, conferences, trade shows right through to hospitality, hotels and members clubs.

Looking for an artisan bakery? We deliver freshly baked and handcrafted breads, pastries and viennoiserie goods within Hertfordshire, St Albans, Surrey, Berkshire, North London or Buckinghamshire.

Bring a touch of Viennese and Parisian culture to your next corporate event or meeting. Call our team at Dolce Forno Breads on 01727 762 456 or alternatively email contact@dolceforno-breads.co.uk to find out more about our viennoiserie and craft baked goods.