Crescente al rosmarino (Mini Rosemary Buns)

Finally weekend and finally some rest. As every year the last week of school is so frenetic that it seems the most important one. 

Now I have three whole, long months to deal with three little monsters who start fighting as soon as they open their eyes in the morning. 

Maybe I should come up with some kind of bread baking program for them to teach them patience. Assign a piece of sourdough starter to each of them to take care of and to bake something with it. We could have fun, or at least try to have some.

And bake something to take with us on a picnic in a park. Like these cute little rosemary buns. They are just perfect for little hands. And they are really nice, aromatic, with thin crunchy crust and soft interior. You can use them to make sandwiches, serve them with pates or dips, or with soups once cold weather is back.
I've made them often over the past weeks, both with sourdough starter as with yeast, and they always work fine, it just depends  how much time I have or don't have.

Rosemary buns and Farinata/Cecina

Rosemary buns

* 500 g all purpose flour
* 1 TBspoon lard
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 150 g sourdough (or 15 g fresh yeast, or 4 g instant dry yeast)
* 2 rosemary twigs
* about 300 ml lukewarm water

       

       

Refresh your sourdough starter 4-6 hours before you start preparing the dough. Take the required quantity and put the rest back into the fridge.
Gently tear the sourdough starter into small pieces and dissolve it in 100 ml of water.
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and make a well in the middle.
Add the lard and finely chopped rosemary leaves.
Add the sourdough started dissolved in water (or if you are using yeast, same thing, dissolve it first), and start mixing ingredients with a fork or with your hand adding gradually the rest of water (approx. 200 ml more). Knead the dough until soft and elastic. Instead of by hand you can put all the ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer and mix it with a dough hook.
Add the salt in the end and knead shortly again.
Place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl, seal and let rise until it doubles in size (approx. 4 hours if using sourdough starter / 2 hours if using yeast).
Divide the dough into 2-3 parts and shape each in a flat (1,5 cm thick) loaf: flatten the dough with your hands to form a rectangle. Fold the upper third towards the middle and then the lower one over it. Place the loaf with the seam underneath. Flatten it a little with your hands and then cut into 2-3 cm wide pieces using a knife or a pizza cutter.
Place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Brush them with a little olive oil and sprinkle with a little coarse salt. Let them rest for 30 minutes and then bake them in an oven preheated to 200°C for about 20 minutes.

Crescente al rosmarino
(ricetta presa e adattata da Sale & Pepe)

* 500 g di farina 0
* 1 cucchiaio di strutto
* 1 cucchiaino di sale
* 150 g di PM rinfrescata (o 15 g di lievito di birra fresco)
* 2 rametti di rosmarino
* circa 300 ml di acqua tiepida

Rinfrescate la pasta madre 4-6 ore prima di impastare. Prendete il pezzo che vi serve e riponete in frigo il resto.
Spezzettate la PM e scioglierla in 100 ml di acqua. Setacciate la farina, formate una fontana, mettete al centro lo strutto e gli agi di rosmarino tritati finemente, la PM sciolta in acqua e cominciate ad impastare con la mano, aggiungendo man mano altra acqua (circa 200 ml o poco più) fino a ottenere un impasto omogeneo e elastico. Unite il sale e impastate ancora un po'.
Lasciare lievitare fino al raddoppio (circa 4 ore / 2 ore se usate il lievito di birra). Dividete l'impasto in 2-3 parti e formate dei filoncini alti 1,5 cm e larghi circa 5-6 cm.
Tagliate i filoncini con un coltello o rotellina per la pizza a tocchetti larghi 2-3 cm.
Trasferiteli in una teglia, spennellateli con l'olio e cospargeteli con un po' di sale. Lasciateli riposare ancora 30 minuti e poi infornateli.
Scaldate il forno a 200°C e cuoceteli per 20 minuti.

Peciva s ružmarinom

* 500 g brašna
* 1 žlica svinjske masti
* 1 žličica soli
* 150 g kvasa/kiselog tijesta, prethodno osvježenog (ili 15 g svježeg kvasca)
* 2 grančice ružmarina
* oko 300 ml mlačne vode

Kvas nahranite 4-6 sati prije nego ćete početi mijesiti peciva. Odvojite 150 g za recept, a ostatak vratite u hladnjak.
Nježno nakidajte kvas na komadiće i stavite ga u 100 ml vode. Neka odmekne u vodi 10-ak minuta a zatim ga izmiješajte pjenjačom dok se skoro potpuno ne istopi.
Prosijte brašno, napravite rupicu u sredini u koju dodajte što sitnije isjeckan ružmarin, svinjsku mast i otopljeni kvas. Počnite miješati vilicom ili rukom postepeno dodajući još oko 200 ml vode da bi na kraju dobili mekano i elastično tijesto. Dodajte na kraju sol i opet kratko izmijesite da je tijesto upije.
*Ako radite s (pivskim) kvascem, otopite ga u vodi, ostavite da nadođe 15-ak minuta pa zamijesite na isti način.
Stavite tijesto u malo nauljenu posudu i pokrijte (poklopac ili plastična folija) i ostavite da se diže dok se ne udvostruči (najmanje 4 sata za kiselo tijesto / oko 2 sata za kvasac).
Podijelite tijesto na 2 ili 3 jednaka dijela i od svakog oblikujte štrucu: rastanjite tijesto rukama, pritiskujući nježno, na pravokutnik. Preklopite gornju trećinu prema dolje, a zatim donju preko nje. Okrenite tijesto tako da je spoj dolje i lagano pritisnite štrucu da bude oko 1,5 cm debljine i 5-6 cm širine. Nožem ili rezačem za pizzu narežite štrucu na komadiće široke 2-3 cm.
Stavite peciva na pleh obložen papirom za pečenje, premažite ih uz pomoć kista maslinovim uljem i pospite s par zrna krupne morske soli.
Ostavite ih da odmore opet 30 minuta i u međuvremenu zagrijte pećnicu na 200°C.
Pecite peciva u dobro zagrijanoj pećnici oko 20 minuta.