With just three days to visit two separate organic tastings (VinNatur and ViniVeri), in addition to the main show (VinItaly), not a second could be taken for granted. Each day, I drafted up a list of growers that we aimed to visit — usually, we were able to get through a good 80% of them. With each winemaker, our goal was to introduce Jess, taste new wines, and come to an agreement on which cuvées we preferred. With some growers, we organized some exclusives that will hopefully hit our shelves as our next round of orders are placed.

Jess Tasting with I Clivi

We want our selection to be personalized yet accessible in a way that offers an overall appeal of deliciousness rather than eccentricity. The eccentricity is always there in Italian wine if you choose to delve into it but most of our Italian wines are solid go-tos that we select to pair well with food. Producers usually have a few wines that they do not showcase to importers – often due to limited production and their frequent need to be hand sold. Taking advantage of the close bonds that we share with not only our producers but also our suppliers, tasting for these hidden gems was another goal of this trip.

With I Clivi, one of our favorite organic growers with vineyards in Friuli’s Collio and Colli Orientali DOC’s, the exclusives in our shop almost outnumber the wines that we share with other retailers and restaurants. We love offering their non-current, limited vintages to our clients such as their ’97 Galea Bianco (Colli Orientali) that blew our minds as we tasted it at VinItaly. It just arrived in our most recent I Clivi shipment – close your eyes and you’ll think you’re a drinking a vintage Pouilly Fuissé. It almost goes without saying that their 2012 lineup was as precise and elegant as ever – as was grower Mario Zanusso’s VinItaly attire! We can’t wait to share I Clivi’s wines with you this summer.

Our tasting with Dora Forzoni in the Tuscan pavilion gave us an “ah ha” moment with regard to her Sanguineto Rosso which is kept in large barrels for at least a year before bottling and release. She explained that it is essentially declassified Vino Nobile, a wine that she makes from the same sixty-year old Prugnolo Gentile vines. The main difference is that she gives the Nobile two years in barrel and six months in bottle before release. Unlike her peers that have uprooted their Prugnolo Gentile for one of the 120 strains of Sangiovese, Cabernet, or Merlot, Dora chooses to adhere to tradition. In 2009, the governing body of the appellation abolished the requirement for Vino Nobile to be (at minimum) 80% composed of Prugnolo Gentile. Dora says that Prugnolo is similar to Sangiovese Grosso (the strain of Sangiovese that is used in Brunello), in that it has a clasped bunch that is noticeably more compact than other types. Not only do Sanguineto’s wines communicate Dora’s inherent authenticity and belief in their work and tradition but her energy and body language do the same. She was thrilled when Jessica tasted the venison salami that she had made and an aged pecorino made by one of her family members (pictured at right) – needless to say, they paired beautifully with her wines. She was clearly appreciative of the work that we do to share her wines and embraced our visit whole-heatedly; she knows that tasting with her is a priority for us every year. Dora’s 2011 Sanguineto Rosso and Vino Nobile will hit our shelves this summer – don’t miss out on these wines as we have been allocated a very small amount!

Tasting with Cascina Roera

Our tasting with Cascina Roera was memorable as we had an opportunity to speak with both Piero and Claudio (childhood friends and now co-winemakers) for half an hour, tasting through their impressive line-up of wines. Our conversation with Claudio was especially informative as he dug into some of the details of the vineyard and cellar work. He explained that their steep, south and southwesterly exposed vineyards enjoyed a softer, less intense sunlight in the afternoons that helps account for a greater variation in temperature throughout the day. The greater range in the daily high and low temps translates into more pronounced aroma development. Cascina Roera also lets their grapes age on the vines usually until late October and only pick when the pips have matured. This often means wines of greater extract, color, and alcohol content because of elevated ripeness. Though I usually prefer Piedmont wines from more classic, cooler vintages (that were typical of about a decade ago, we learned) there is definitely something just delicious about Roera’s rich, silky, quaffable wines that are a clear product of the thoughtful work behind them.

Madame Tarlant of Tarlant Champagne – made with grapes from ungrafted vines.

One trend that we noted at the organic conferences – VinNatur and ViniVeri – is that they are getting busier and busier and more inclusive of growers from outside of Italy. At ViniVeri, we saw producers from Georgia, Greece, Latvia, and Yugoslavia. VinNatur had a stronger showing of French producers than ever, with well over 25 out of the 150 that exhibited. Interestingly, many of the Italian producers that once had tables at the “off” shows had migrated back to Verona to VinItaly’s Vivit, a small exhibition space dedicated to organic and biodynamic growers. We weren’t surprised to see how thronged it was after navigating crowded stands at VinNatur and ViniVeri the two previous days. However, it is clear that VinItaly itself is trying to understand how to encompass organics and biodynamics within the scope of the Italian wine scene in which all producers are competing to distinguish themselves. Just as Formaggio Kitchen has slowly expanded its organic and biodynamic selection over the past decade, it might be time for VinItaly to broaden the space and exposure for this enclave of talented, steadfast individuals.

Formaggio Kitchen offers a unique experience to its buyers – we are afforded the opportunity to work directly with the producers behind the products we sell. This connection informs our work and the passion that we ultimately share with our customers. This annual trip to Italy’s premiere wine conferences is a rare whirlwind of wine, people, language, and travel that gets better every time. We work hard to bring you a unique, yet accessible selection of wines made by hand, expressing terroir and tradition. Jess and I look forward to sharing these wines with you in the near future!

Gemma Iannoni is the Wine Buyer and a cheesemonger at Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge.

The bad news is we only received six bottles of this luscious stuff. The good news is the bottles are huge! There are 10 glasses worth of wine in each bottle, making it a great choice for a beach weekend or an al fresco dinner party. As an aperitif, pair with fresh goat milk cheeses and classic Provençal snacks like anchöade or vegetables with aïoli. For a main course, pair with white fish, crab or shrimp dishes or simple grilled chicken drizzled with extra virgin Provençal olive oil like Jean-Marie Cornille or Nicholas Alziari. We also have magnums of Château de Pibarnon’s rosé and regular-sized bottles of their wonderful old-school red Bandol.

If you’re interested in a magnum-sized bottle of Château de Pibarnon’s lovely white, please give us a call at our South End location at (617) 350-6996 or send me an email and we’ll set one aside for you. Cheers!

Julie Cappellano is the General Manager and wine buyer at Formaggio Kitchen South End, Boston.

Last week, Ihsan shared with us a few memories from one of his early cheese sourcing trips – a 1993 trip to the Castelmagno region of Italy. In that post, he described one of his revelatory food experiences: Gnocchi al Castelmagno. Since that trip, he has been working on recreating the dish at home. Here is the current permutation of that recipe, one he says gets pretty close to that amazing, first taste!

Gnocchi al Castelmagno
Serves: 2 people

1lb fingerling or Yukon potatoes
7- 8 oz Castelmagno, grated
5oz Arneis or Gavi di Gavi white wine from Piedmont (substitute dry white)
10 oz Mulino Marino flour (0 or 00) or any all-purpose white flour
2 oz butter
Salt and pepper, to taste

To make the gnocchi:
Wash, boil and peel the potatoes until tender. Mash them thoroughly or pass them through a ricer – you do not want any lumps left. Let cool. Combine the mashed potatoes with the flour. Knead on a floured surface just until you achieve a soft/silky texture – don’t overdo it or your gnocchi will be tough.

Cover the dough with a clean, slightly damp towel (so the dough doesn’t dry out). Clean your work surface of any dough bits and reflour. Pull off a piece of dough about the size of a tennis ball (re-covering the remainder of the dough) and roll out into the shape of a cylinder about ¾-inches in diameter. Using a bench scraper or a knife, cut the cylinder at ¾-inch intervals. Place gnocchi on parchment paper – don’t allow them to touch. Repeat until you run out of dough.

Put a pot of salted water on the stove and bring to a gentle boil. Drop in the gnocchi in small batches and cook until they float.

For the sauce:
Combine the cheese, butter and wine and simmer for 5 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste.

Finally – mix everything together while hot for a taste of northern Italy!

Note: Before you cook the gnocchi, prepare the sauce so everything is ready to be combined immediately after the gnocchi are cooked.

Santuario di San Magno in Castelmagno

One of the most memorable trips my wife, Valerie, and I have taken in pursuit of new cheeses was in 1993. We traveled to Castelmagno, home to the famous Italian cheese of the same name. Located on the very northwest fringes of Italy, Castelmagno is a small commune or municipality, consisting of several hamlets. We were invited to visit the region by our friend and mentor, Matteo Ascheri. The hamlet we visited had only one albergo (inn) and a total population of 56. Eleven of those inhabitants made Castelmagno.

Matteo, a Piedmontese food and wine authority, is a winemaker and knew everyone in town. On our first day, he organized a lunch for us with several local food producers, including a fellow who crafted hard candies and exotic elixirs. We all ended up having the most amazing lunch in the local albergo’s lunch room. For our first course, we were served lake trout cured in vinegar with mountain bread. The bread was made with flour from our friends at Mulino Marino and ice cold water from a nearby brook. In that one course, we enjoyed flavors and textures we had never experienced before – and it wasn’t even the highlight of the meal.

Ristoro del Pellegrino – the entrance to the albergo’s cave.

The trout and bread was followed by the dish of my dreams: Gnocchi al Castelmagno. The air light gnocchi was served with shavings of Castelmagno on top that melted as the dish was brought to the table. This was paired with Matteo’s Pelaverga wine and was truly a one-of-a-kind introduction to Piedmont cuisine. I have since tried to recreate the dish at home with acceptable success – unfortunately, it’s a little more challenging to simulate the stunning mountain top setting and the table surrounded by our Italian friends.

After this most memorable lunch, we visited the cheese cellar (or cave) of the albergo. Five of the town’s Castelmagno-makers use the inn’s cave, aging their cheeses on shelves made of fir or spruce. The owner of the albergo, also a friend of Matteo’s, plugged several wheels of Castelmagno for us to taste – wheels of varying ages made by different cheesemakers. We were surprised to find such nuances of flavor, starting with very delicate notes in the younger cheeses and ranging to sharper and slightly blue-like notes in the more aged wheels. On top of this, Castelmagno has the most unusual texture that I have ever encountered in a cheese – slightly granular and almost sandy.

Castelmagno cheese in the albergo’s cave – notice the taped wheel in the bottom right.

In this rustic setting, Matteo shared several colorful stories about the townspeople. One story dealt with the extreme competitiveness that surrounds their cheesemaking, something that is further aggravated by a shortage of stagionaturas (cheese agers) in town. Another story was told of a priest who had been run out of town – images of him with devil’s horns were graffitied on the church walls. The only churchman for miles, he left behind an empty but picturesque church – Santuario di San Magno – that is still perched high in the mountains, overlooking stunning valleys that lead into France. It has since been scrubbed clean of the graffiti.

Needless to say, after all we had tasted and heard, we began importing limited quantities of Castelmagno immediately upon our return to the States. We have been buying it ever since.

Ihsan Gurdal is the owner of Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge.

Port was a byproduct of the ongoing wars between France and England. Without wines from France, the English were forced to look elsewhere to satisfy demand. Portugal provided a good alternative, but the long boat trip from Portugal often resulted in spoiled wine. To combat spoilage, winemakers began adding high-alcohol aguardente to their wines to stop fermentation, leaving a more sturdy, higher alcohol wine with some residual sugar. These new fortified wines could make the trip no problem!

While there are numerous varieties of port being made today, the styles most commonly found in the US include vintage ports, ruby ports and tawny ports. Vintage ports are bottled from a single production year, while Ruby ports can be made by blending various vintages together. Ruby also has the added quality of using younger wines which offer deeper ruby color and rich fruity flavors. Tawny ports can also use blends of vintages, and are also aged in wooden barrels, exposing the wine to air which slowly oxidizes the wine, turning the color more of a coppery-brown, and adding a delicious nutty flavor.

Of the many producers available in the US, we’ve found Quinta do Infantado to offer some of the most interesting ports at the most attractive prices. Quinta do Infantado is unusual in that they are a small estate that bottles their own ports. The brother and sister team of João and Catherine Roseira are famous for making their ports a bit drier than average, but with a marvelous richness of fruit. Their medium-dry Tawny, is a blend of 2 to 3 vintages and is wonderfully silky and elegant, with notes of golden raisins, toffee and roasted hazelnuts.

Typically a port like this would be served after dinner, but not with a very sweet dessert. Instead, it would pair well with a rich and salty assortment of cheeses (especially sweet blues), fresh dates, dried fruits like figs and crunchy walnuts or hazelnuts. (Try Quinta do Infantado’s Ruby Port in this tasty Smoking Bishop recipe during Seville orange season!)

Julie Cappellano is the General Manager and wine buyer at Formaggio Kitchen South End, Boston.

Flor is naturally occurring, unpredictable, and can’t be induced or controlled once it occurs! When it does form, the wine ages underneath without oxidizing, resulting in what is known as a fino Sherry. If the flor forms, but then dies off or doesn’t develop, the wine, if deemed rich and robust enough, is fortified a bit more and then allowed to slowly oxidize and become an amontillado. If a flor does not form at all, the wine will be fortified further and will be aged in wooden barrels to become a richer and darker oloroso Sherry. In the case of amontillado and oloroso styles of Sherry, exposure to oxygen turns the wine a coppery color, and encourages the development of toasty, nutty aromas. Yum.

El Maestro Sierra is a small Sherry house, founded in 1832 by a master barrel-maker named José Antonio Sierra. The current owner, Pilar Pla Pechovierto, is the widow of one of Sierra’s direct descendants. The current cellar master or capataz is Juan Clarijo. He grew up around the winery and has lived there his whole life. As the capataz, Juan decides which wines will become finos and which amontillados. Because they can see the Atlantic Ocean from their property, there is an uninterrupted path for the winds from the sea to reach their cellar, ensuring that the flor develops easily all year round.

There are two major flavors you can’t escape when you taste this lovely 12-year aged Sherry: almonds and sea salt. Our domestic cheese buyer, Sarah, has been steadily tasting through all of our Sherry offerings, and this amontillado from El Maestro Sierra is her favorite.  It makes a lovely aperitif (especially in the afternoon) with a simple plate of salty cheese, almonds and olives. It’s also a traditional pairing with a soup course.  For all of you film buffs – in Isak Dinesen’s Babette’s Feast, an amontillado Sherry is served with the turtle soup!

Illustration for Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Harry Clarke, published in 1919.

A side note about “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe:

“The Cask of Amontillado” is the story of Montresor’s revenge on his former friend Fortunato, in which Fortunato is lured into the catacombs by the promise of a rare amontillado. The story takes place in an unnamed Italian town, but Poe’s inspiration for the tale came from right here in Boston. Poe heard of a similar event that had taken place in the dungeons under the fort on Castle Island in South Boston while he was stationed there during his stint in the army in 1827. Sherry was not specifically involved in the original scenario, but we think it makes a nice touch!

Julie Cappellano is the General Manager and wine buyer at Formaggio Kitchen South End, Boston.

Postscript:

Following our post, we received this message from a reader:

I enjoyed reading your story on sherry.

When growing up in Chicago many years ago, we would occasionally go to the Cape Cod Room in the Drake Hotel for a very special dinner.

They served their version of Bookbinder soup along with some (fino?) sherry on the side. The link below takes you to the recipe.

http://www.food.com/recipe/bookbinder-red-snapper-soup-75333

• The Truth on Olive Oil Health - a post from Tom Mueller about Dr. Mary Flynn and her work to “…start separating the wheat from the chaff in olive oil health, by building a canon of solid scientific information, and debugging a number of widespread olive oil misconceptions.”
  
• How to Eat a Porcupine - not only one of the best post titles but a beautifully written travelogue about the emotional progression of eating bushmeat in a foreign land.
• E.Dehillerin – The Ultimate Kitchen Store  - one of our favorite stops when in Paris.
• The Future of Chocolate - a critique of the modern cacao industry and its  impact on cacao production.
• Arsenic in Beer May Come from Widely Used Filtering Process –  is any amount of arsenic in beer or wine acceptable?
• Beer and cheese pairings are certainly very trendy these days (and with good reason) Janet Fletcher has a new book on the topic coming out  - look for it April 16.

Enjoy!

Growing up, my favorite waffles were, of course, Eggos. Flavorless, with a fun catch-phrase, they were the perfect vehicle for syrup and butter. It’s no wonder that I always preferred pancakes at renowned breakfast restaurants, like IHOP and Denny’s. In college, our cafeteria was equipped with a flip-waffle iron and a bowl of batter. You could make waffles at any time of day. But, after eyeing the thin batter and tasting the outcome, it was clear that these were merely pancakes posing as waffles.

Then, I moved to Massachusetts, where I learned a lot about food (Aunt Jemima’s isn’t real maple syrup!?). I worked at a creperie as a barista who didn’t drink coffee. The crepes were filled with strange, exotic ingredients I had never heard of, like arugula and Brie. I also learned that the owner actually specialized in a variety of waffle called “Liège waffles” (also sometimes known as Belgian waffles). I had no interest in trying one – I knew what waffles were all about. But an extremely enthusiastic coworker convinced me to give it a go. She took the deep-pocketed rectangle, toasted it, got out the whipped cream and strawberries and impatiently watched as I took my first bite. And then my taste-buds exploded (with flavor, not literally exploded). Sweet, dense, yeasted, chewy, filled with sweet crunchy pockets of sugar that also caramelized on the surface of the waffle – why ruin this with whipped cream and strawberries? Eggos were no competition – in fact, I wasn’t even sure if they were really waffles at this point – these were the best waffles I had ever had!

That brings us up to date. This past holiday season at Formaggio Kitchen, I had numerous customers ask if we had something called Belgian Pearl Sugar. I looked into it and learned that this was the secret sweet crunch in the Liège waffles I remembered so fondly! I was thrilled and stocked the shop with it as quickly as possible, eager to try it out and spread the word about this magical stuff. This is where the journey for making the perfect waffle began.

Belgian Pearl Sugar

Pearl Sugar: crushed blocks of sugar; coarse, hard clumps of sugar that don’t melt at normal baking temperatures but will caramelize on the outside of waffles and create crunchy sweet spots on the inside.

Failing to find any recipes in my cookbooks, I began searching on the internet. After hours of research and reading through dozens of recipes, I narrowed my test recipes down to two candidates. Unfortunately, these waffles require patience – you need to start them a day in advance, or wake up before dawn to have them ready for breakfast. The first time I made them, I ate them with chicken (a classic pairing), collard greens and mashed sweet potatoes (props to the fiancé!) for a late dinner. That was the first two pounds of the eight I’ve gained on this waffle journey.

Chicken and Belgian waffles – a classic combo.

Another requirement in waffle-making is a waffle iron. Mine is a CuisinArt Belgian Waffle Maker. Belgian waffle makers are typically square and have deeper pockets than those used for batter based waffles. It took a few test waffles to find the ideal temperature and cook-time, but I found that setting the heat just below 3 (the scale system is 1-5, 5 being hottest) for about 5 minutes allowed the waffles to fully cook through while also caramelizing a bit on the exterior.

The first batch of waffles I made were too dense and chewy. I also left the pearl sugar whole, and the caramelizing effect on the outside wasn’t nearly as intense as I’d hoped.

For the second batch, I tried cutting the bread flour with all-purpose flour (50/50 ratio), and although they weren’t as dense, they still weren’t light enough. The pearl sugar was an easy fix: I spread it out and crushed it with a rolling-pin. I also tried using a mortar and pestle and spice grinder, but both options made the sugar too fine. The rolling-pin created some powder and smaller nuggets of sugar that caramelized beautifully on the outside of the waffles – inside, there were still the sought-after crunchy sugar pockets.

After several more experiments in which I tested different flour ratios, I settled on a ratio of 1/2 bread flour and 1/2 pastry flour as the winning combination. However, if you want a very soft waffle, 1/3 bread flour and 2/3 pastry flour works well too. Personally, I thought it was a bit too soft to support the caramelized coating, falling apart easily – however, my fiancé was partial to this batch. I must admit – the pastry flour also adds a nice golden cream color.

3 different Belgian waffle doughs in progress: to the left, more yeast – top right, buttermilk – at bottom, a higher ratio pastry flour to bread flour and maple syrup.

There was one batch I added double the amount of yeast to, hoping to create an airier texture. I do not recommend that anyone follow in my footsteps! The finished dough tasted almost sour. The waffles also had layers (almost like a biscuit) when cut open, but the texture was far too doughy.

Buttermilk (in lieu of milk) didn’t seem to make much of a difference, other than curdling quickly when heated (this didn’t have any adverse effect on the dough). And, replacing the brown sugar and honey with maple syrup seemed like a great idea, but it lacked the hoped-for sweetness – instead, the almost burnt-like aspect of maple syrup flavor was what seemed to prevail – not particularly pleasant.

It has been a long (but tasty!) road to developing my go-to waffle – here is the recipe!

Liège Waffles

Yields about 6 waffles (can be doubled, tripled, even quadrupled!)

1 ½ tsps active dry yeast
¼ cup whole milk or buttermilk
2 tbsp + 2 tsps water
1 cup pastry flour
1 cup bread flour
1 egg (room temperature, lightly beaten)
1 tbsp + 1 tsp light brown sugar
¾ tsp salt
8 tbsp or 1 stick of room temperature butter
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 more tsp. extract…I just like the way the beans look in the dough)
¾ heaping cup pearl sugar, chopped

Whisk together the flours. Put the yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer with the dough hook attachment, or a large mixing bowl. Heat the milk and water to about 110-115°F. Mix in with the yeast. Add egg and 2/3 cup flour (or 1/3 the total amount of flour).

Incorporating the butter, bit by bit.

Mix together just until combined. Then, gently sprinkle the rest of the flour on top of the mixture. Cover with cling wrap and let sit out for 1 hour to 1 ½ hours, until the yeast is bubbling up over the top.

With the electric mixer on low-speed, add the brown sugar and salt. Add vanilla and honey. Then add the butter, 2 tbsps at a time.

At this point, the dough will be pretty sticky and hard to handle. After all the butter is added, let the dough rest for a minute. Then continue kneading (by mixer or by hand) for another 4-5 minutes. Let the dough rest, and repeat. Eventually the dough will cling together and form a large ball, coming away from the sides of the bowl. Be patient, it will happen!

The dough coming away from the sides of the bowl to form a ball.

When the dough is ready, cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature (between 64-70°F is best) until about doubled in size. This can take up to 4 hours, and probably won’t take less than 3 hours.

(Note: you can also retard the dough by putting it in the fridge after letting it rise for 2-3 hours, taking it out the following day to finish. However, the dough becomes stiffer and takes much longer to get to room temperature. After trying it both ways, I found that letting the dough fully rise creates a fluffier waffle.)

When the dough has fully risen, punch it down and mix in the pearl sugar by hand. You will get extremely buttery, but this is the best way to ensure the sugar gets evenly distributed – plus the dough feels really nice. Let it rest for 15 minutes.

Risen and ready for the waffle iron!

In the meantime, heat up your waffle iron. On my waffle iron, I like the setting at about 2¾ (i.e. just shy of the 3), but change the temperature in accordance with your waffle preference and your equipment – this may take some experimenting. If you have a kitchen scale, start dividing the dough into 112 gram pieces. If not, make balls of dough that are 3 heaping tablespoons each in size.

The dough portioned out.

When the iron is heated, press a ball into the middle of each waffle square. Close the iron and let cook for about 5 minutes, depending on how well-done you like your waffles.

Et, voilà! You have made the amazing Liège waffles!

Hot off the waffle iron.

Now, the trickiest part is cleaning the iron. I’ve tried using a rag to wash away the sticky sugar while it’s still warm; a knife to chip away at the solid pieces after they have cooled; scrubbing with a sponge. Nothing seems to work well, so I’d love some suggestions!

A waffle spread!

You can freeze the waffles by wrapping them tightly in plastic wrap and either putting them in ziplock bags or plastic bags. Or, best of all – eat as is, warm off the waffle iron! No toppings are necessary but you can go all out (as we did at staff tastings!) with whipped cream, fresh berries, candied kumquats, blood orange marmalade, lemon curd and/or cinnamon sugar.

Stay tuned for a gluten-free waffle recipe, a sourdough waffle recipe, and a bacon and waffle recipe…

Alyssa Persinger is the Bakery Manager at Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge.

If you love good bread, chances are you will be familiar with the name Poilâne. We started working with Lionel Poilâne in the mid-90s, flying his bread in each week to supply a small, but growing group of customers who had developed a taste for his dense and flavorful bread while traveling abroad. Since the  ”Ici Pain Poilâne” sign went up in our shop, the demand for this famed French bread has steadily increased.

Poilâne was founded in 1932 by Pierre Poilâne, Lionel’s father. Originally from Normandy, he opened his bakery in the 6th Arrondissement in Paris. In 1978, at the age of 28, Lionel assumed control of the company from his father. He went on to supervise the growth of the company and played a key role in defending France’s bread heritage and traditional methods of baking. In 2002, Lionel and his wife, Ibu, were tragically killed in a helicopter accident. Their daughter, Apollonia, took over the business and ran this Parisian institution from just down the street – in her Harvard dorm room. Today, Apollonia continues to helm Poilâne’s operations, stringently maintaining standards, keeping the product line focused and adhering to the artisan traditions established by her grandfather, Pierre.

Poilâne Pain au Levain

Poilâne’s pain au levain, inscribed with a beautiful cursive “P,” is the bakery’s best known loaf – sometimes referred to simply as Pain Poilâne. Each loaf is made with only four ingredients – sourdough, flour, water and Guérande sea salt – and weighs about 4-lbs. They are baked in Poilâne’s “manufactory,” located in Bièvres, a suburb just outside of Paris where the wood-burning ovens operate 24-hours a day. The resulting bread is crusty, beautifully fragrant, dense yet porous and keeps very well (for a week if refrigerated).

Currant Loaf (top left) and Walnut Loaves

These days, we receive our weekly shipment of Poilâne bread every Thursday and, in addition to the pain au levain, we bring in Poilâne’s currant and walnut loaves. Pain Poilane is delicious simply with a smear of salted French butter (a favorite snack of Ihsan, Formaggio Kitchen’s owner), or as Apollonia Poilâne likes to eat it, with soft-boiled eggs!

We are able to special order larger quantities of Poilâne breads for customers. Special orders require one week advance notice — and, for planning purposes, please note that our shipment from Poilâne arrives every Thursday. Please call our shop in Cambridge at 617-354-4750 and ask for the bread counter for details and pricing. If you are not local to our Cambridge shop, please place orders for Poilâne bread online.

Three cocoas: Dutch-processed (L), Valrhona natural (R) and Les Confitures à l’Ancienne drinking cocoa (bottom)

At this time of year, customers often pop into the shop looking for cocoa – whether for baking a dense chocolate torte or for a warming cup of hot cocoa after hours of shoveling. There are a few different type of cocoa available and we thought it would be helpful to shed a bit of light on the differences.

What is cocoa?
Cocoa is the result of processing raw cacao seeds into what is called cocoa mass or cocoa liquor. Cocoa mass is made up of roughly equal parts cocoa solids and cocoa butter. When you buy a chocolate bar it often has a percentage figure on it. If, for example, the label indicates 75%, that means the bar is made up of 75% cocoa mass and unless other ingredients are mixed in, 25% sugar. If  you’ve ever had a taste of 100% cocoa mass, you know how important the sugar is to counterbalance the natural acidity and tannic quality of the pure cocoa. In some cases, a bit of extra cocoa butter may be added to give the chocolate a smoother textural dimension – a greater melt-in-your-mouth quality.

What is cocoa powder?
Cocoa powder is made by pressing cocoa mass through extremely high pressure rollers that separate the dry matter of the cocoa solids from the fatty matter of the cocoa butter. The dry matter is formed into cakes which are further pulverized into a fine powder.

It is worth noting that cocoa powder is never entirely devoid of cocoa butter. When we make macarons in our bakery, despite all other things being equal, the batter for the chocolate macarons always yields less than our raspberry and pistachio varieties. This happens regardless of who makes the macarons and we suspect that the trace cocoa butter left in the cocoa has a slight deflating effect on the batter. Somehow it may also be the reason for a greater stability in the chocolate macarons as they seem less affected by atmospheric and/or baking conditions than our other varieties.

What are the different types of cocoa powder?
Cocoa powder made for drinking usually has sugar already added to it. Bakers generally prefer unsweetened cocoa powder, which allows for greater control over the amount of added sugar. There are two main types of unsweetened cocoa available: natural and Dutch-processed.

Dutch-processed (L) vs. Valrhona natural (R) cocoa

Natural, unsweetened cocoa from a quality source is pretty much just that – pure, unadulterated cocoa powder with nothing added. This powder retains all of the natural acidity of the cocoa and gives a deep chocolate flavor to baked goods. Ruddier in color than Dutch-processed cocoa, it can lend a reddish hue to baked goods – it is sometimes thought that it was this redness that was the origin point for the Red Velvet cake (indeed, most recipes still call for some cocoa), a redness that is now usually exaggerated with food coloring or beets.

In contrast, Dutch-processed, unsweetened cocoa is treated with an alkali – and is sometimes referred to as alkalized cocoa. This addition has the effect of neutralizing the cocoa’s natural acidity and darkening the color of the powder. With the chocolate’s natural acidity neutralized, Dutch-processed cocoa will not react with baking soda and must be used in recipes calling for baking powder (unless there are other acidic ingredients that can jump-start the chemical leavening process).

Within the world of Dutch-processed cocoa, there are variations on the theme depending on the amount of alkalization. Moving up the scale from lightly Dutched to more heavily Dutched, the most common is light cocoa, followed by red cocoa, dark cocoa and finally black cocoa. In an excellent blog post on the topic of cocoa, pastry chef David Lebovitz writes, “black cocoa is cocoa powder that has been heavily-Dutched. If you’ve ever had an Oreo cookie, the outer cookies are a good example of black cocoa. Because it has a strong, very brusque flavor, it’s best used in conjunction with another cocoa powder and is mostly used to boost color.”

Here at the shop, we use Dutch-processed cocoa in the bakery. On our shelves, we stock several natural cocoas – at the moment we have ones from Valrhona (France), Askinosie (US), Maglio (Italy) and Venchi (Italy). In terms of Dutch-processed cocoa, we usually stock Rademaker (The Netherlands). For drinking, we stock a wide variety in the winter time from the likes of Rancho Gordo (cocoa with cane juice and cinnamon added), Confitures à l’Ancienne (cocoa with sugar and vanilla), Maglio (cocoa with sugar) and Cocoa Felice (cocoa with sugar). Stop on by before your next chocolaty baking project or the next snowstorm when a hot cup o’ cocoa will not go amiss!