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Thursday, April 21, 2011

FFwD Mustard Batons




This weeks recipe was mustard batons. I prepared these as part of a birthday celebration for Mr. Hobby. Inspired by the picture from the Around My French Table cookbook that you can see posted on the FFwD lyl I decided to recreate the apertifs tray Dorie put together. I prepared mustard batons, an olive fougasse, set out bowls of olives and manchego cheese, and served white wine. It was a great start to our celebration of his birthday. Our next stop was a local French restaurant, Vin de Set. The food at Vin de Set was excellent. It was chilly, so we didn't sit out on the patio this time. However, their rooftop patio has an amazing view of the St. Louis Arch. Located in the French Victorian styled neighborhood of Lafayette Square, I'd recommend this as a fancy dinner stop for those who may find themselves in St. Louis.

These mustard batons are a very simple party food to prepare. They remind me a lot of palmiers, but they're even easier to make than a palmier. Dorie has us use a high grade mustard, but I imagine that most paste-like sauces and condiments would work for these. A curry baton might be lovely.

For the olive fougasse I used a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking Thanks to my favorite baking supply company, King Arthur Flour, I learned about the no-knead bread, and this amazing book. When I want to make bread, I prepare the dough in a large bucket, and the entire loaf requires only a little work. If you'd like to try this technique yourself, I recommend this KAF blog post, it was what kicked off my original interest in no-knead breads, and I haven't looked back!

So for the fougasse I chopped up some high quality kalamata olives. The olives were mixed into the dough after it had been prepared. When I got to the part where I needed to roll the dough out and then cut it like the fougasse I found it easier to follow Dorie's directions from AMFT, so I did!

The fougasse was amazing, and I recommend it as a future FFwD recipe. The couple we had join us to celebrate Mr. Hobby's birthday enjoyed it so much, they asked me to make them sandwich bread that tasted like the olive fougasse. I had dough in the fridge, and with the Artisan Bread in 5 book, it wasn't too hard to figure out how to adapt it into a loaf of bread. I hope to make a sun-dried tomato fougasse this weekend for Easter.

Be sure to take a look at the other FFwD Mustard Batons.

20 comments:

  1. How fun to recreate that lovely photo from the book!
    (KAF is the best - love them, love them, love them. And I can't wait for the next book in the ABin5 series to come out this fall - pizzas and flatbreads, yeah!)

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  2. Wow! Your recreation looks amazing! Kudos for all the extra work!

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  3. Wow, you made the olive fougasse as well? Clearly the baton recipe didn't pose much of a challenge for you! It's a great idea to do your own version of the photo in AMFT, maybe I'll try that sometime :-).

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  4. Nice work! Sounds like you went over and above! :)

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  5. Lovely appetizer spread;-) I like the batons but am also intrigued by the olive fougasse, it's just such a cool shaped bread. I bet it was delicious with cheese and olives,yum;-) I'll have to give this recipe a try and recreate the photo too, thanks for your inspiration!

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  6. What a great idea! I bet Mr. Hobby was so excited to see it!

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  7. Isn't it fun to have a great photo idea to re-create and you are so creative. This all looks like a great way to celebrate Mr. Hobby's special day.

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  8. You went all out! What a gorgeous and delicious spread~ I want a slice of your fougasse! Belated birthday wishes to your hubby~

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  9. I love that you recreated the photo from the book! so fun

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  10. Mr. Hobby is lucky indeed! Great job!

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  11. Your batons look good, but I really like the look of the olive fougasse. Happy Birthday Mr Hobby!

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  12. What as lovely treat to celebrate the big day - awesome ! I very much enjoyed reading about your bread adventures and would like to try some of these as well. Nana and I love KAF and visited their headquarters in Norwich, Vt - boy we need to get back. Thanks so much for a fabulous post- I am very inspired.

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  13. Beautiful! Sounds like a wonderful celebration! Have a Happy Easter!

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  14. What an inspired and delicious post! I have never had an olive fougasse, but you have inspired me to try making one! A perfect way to start your husband's birthday celebration! I hope you have a wonderful Easter.

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  15. The fougasse looks great; I just love kalamata olives. I need to make that recipe soon. Great job on the mustard batons. I will be making those over and over again. Great post.

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  16. wow - what great appetizers. Great combination of things! Your batons are nice & puffy.

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  17. LOVE the fougasse. So pretty!

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  18. Great job on the batons and the fougasse. Thanks so much for the link to the KAF no knead recipe...I've got a bucket rising on my counter as I write! So cool!!

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  19. How did your bread turn out Steph?

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