Weekends with Yankee

NARRATOR: In this episode of Weekends with Yankee, Amy heads to Norwich, Vermont to visit the flagship campus of the well-known King Arthur Baking Company to learn about the art and science of making perfect breads.

- You can just already feel the transformation.

AMY TRAVERSO: It relaxes quickly.

- Things are happening.

NARRATOR: In New Hampshire, Richard chats with author and former Dartmouth rowing coach Whit Mitchell about the lifelong bonds this sport creates.

- Crew is the sport of all sports.

Symphony of motion.

NARRATOR: Later, we're out on the water with Olympic gold medalist and Dartmouth head coach Wyatt Allen to learn more about the art of rowing.

Nearby in Hanover, Amy explores a local institution with a fascinating history, Lou's Restaurant and Bakery to learn the secret to making their signature cruller doughnuts.

TRAVERSO: They're so good.

NARRATOR: So come along with us for a once-in-a-lifetime journey through New England as you've never experienced it before.

A true insider's guide from the editors of Yankee magazine.

Join explorer and adventurer Richard Wiese and Yankee senior food editor Amy Traverso for behind-the-scenes access to the unique attractions that define this region.

It's the ultimate travel guide from the people who know it best.

Weekends with Yankee.

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TRAVERSO: If you love to bake or you've ever watched a baking show and wanted to step right into the screen, this is for you.

I'm at the King Arthur Baking Company headquarters in Norwich, Vermont.

This is the premier baking destination in the country.

I'm going to go in, I'm going to shop, I'm going to taste.

I'm going to bake with my friend Jessica Battilana, who's an employee-owner here.

But first, I want to meet her down at Crossroads Farm where we're going to pick up some ingredients for our baking project.

Jessica!

- Hi.

TRAVERSO: It's so good to see you.

- It's been so long.

Thanks for coming to meet me in Vermont.

The best day.

TRAVERSO: Baking and my friend.

- Yeah, I mean, it's a good day.

And I figured we could just like add in a little bit of vegetable tourism because always an area of interest for me.

TRAVERSO: Yes.

- And I've been coming to this farm stand since I was a kid and I, I was like, if we're gonna make pizza, we're ought to put something on top of the pizza, so I thought we could, I don't know, could stop here first and pick out some stuff.

TRAVERSO: Oh, I can't wait to see what we're gonna make.

- Awesome.

let's check out what they've got.

- Hey.

- Welcome to Crossroads.

- Oh, man, I'm so happy to be here.

And what a time to be here.

- Yes, indeed.

Well, I'm glad you're here.

We have all the local produce that you might need.

- Do you guys have cauliflower today?

- We do.

- Okay.

We'll get that and then see whatever else catches our eye.

- Absolutely.

Let me know if you have any questions.

- Thanks!

- Thank you.

- So the toppings are an important part of pizza, obviously.

TRAVERSO: Yeah!

- But not as important as the dough.

TRAVERSO: Yes.

- So today I'm going to show you how to make these weeknight Detroit pizzas.

TRAVERSO: Nice.

Such a great style.

- Such a great style.

TRAVERSO: Let's talk about what Detroit pizza is.

Because if you haven't had it, it's really special.

- It's really special, so it is made in a rectangular pan, sort of a heavy-duty, high-sided pan.

But really the defining feature of Detroit pizza is a lot of cheese.

TRAVERSO (laughing): Yes.

- So a 9-by-13 pan gets a full 12 ounces of cheese.

TRAVERSO: Right.

- And it bakes up into this like crispy sort of frico layer.

TRAVERSO: So good.

Yeah.

- Because they have more dough, because they have a harder bake, they can accommodate more toppings.

TRAVERSO: Nice, 'cause they won't get soggy.

- They won't get soggy.

So we're just gonna do it.

So turn on your scale, you can measure 360 grams of bread flour into your bowl.

TRAVERSO: Okay.

- And then I'll do the same.

We always use instant yeast, and then you're gonna add a tablespoon of olive oil.

TRAVERSO: Okay.

- The last thing you're gonna add, water.

And then that water's at about 95 degrees.

TRAVERSO: Almost there.

That's fun.

I got it exactly right.

- That is very satisfying when that happens.

TRAVERSO: So we're done measuring, right?

- We're done measuring, and then a lot of people stir using the bowl of their spoon, like, the way a spoon is traditionally used.

But I actually find when you have a stickier dough like this, it's easier to mix it using the handle just because less dough sticks to it.

It's got less surface area.

TRAVERSO: Right.

- So you just wanna make sure there's no dry bits.

And if you find that your dough looks a little bit dry, you can add additional water by the tablespoon.

I think this looks good and yours looks good.

So we're gonna cover these and come back in 15 minutes and just do a little bit of manipulation.

So we'll see you in 15 minutes, dough.

TRAVERSO: Yeah.

- Okay, so we're gonna do a little bit of manipulation to this dough just to build strength.

TRAVERSO: Okay.

- So, you know, some doughs you might dump out on the counter and knead.

This is a pretty wet dough.

So doing that would be just very frustrating.

TRAVERSO: You'd have to have so much flour, and then it would get... - So much flour.

So what we're going to do is called a bowl fold.

So to do it, you just dip your hand in water and you're going to go around the bowl just to kind of free it from the bowl a little bit.

And then you're going to grab a section and fold it over to the middle.

And you can sort of see, like already how it transforms.

TRAVERSO: Yeah, yeah.

- And you can do it until it really stops stretching easily.

And then that is the dough's telling you, like, I need a break.

Even after 15 minutes, you can just already feel the transformation.

TRAVERSO: Yeah, yeah.

It relaxes quickly.

- Things are happening.

TRAVERSO: A little high strung, but it does relax quickly.

- Yeah, (laughs) I can relate.

So, yeah, I just worked my way around in the bowl, I'm doing like two rotations just because it felt like it could handle it, and then that's it.

And then we say, goodnight, sweet prince.

TRAVERSO: (laughs) - Another 15 minutes and we'll come back and do the same thing.

Okay, so it's been about 15 minutes since we did our first bowl fold.

So we're gonna uncover our dough and just do a second bowl fold, just like the first one.

And we're gonna cover.

And then now we don't have to do anything, now we can-- well, I guess we should do something to fill the time.

But the dough doesn't need anything more from us for the next hour and a half.

So I thought I could take you over to check out the store while we wait.

TRAVERSO: Oh, fun.

Yes.

Twist my arm.

Let's go.

- I think people know us for all the things they see in the grocery store.

So, like the lines of flours, some of our mixes.

But there's so much more here.

TRAVERSO: So much.

- Like all the supplies for making pizza.

TRAVERSO: Wow.

Ah!

- Including... ...I'm already putting one in your cart.

TRAVERSO: I really-- I'm so excited.

- I'm enabling your pizza making.

TRAVERSO: (laughs) Thank you.

It's fun to see people so excited about baking.

I feel like I'm with my people.

- Yeah, totally.

TRAVERSO: Jessica, I need you to tell me that I need this.

- You don't really need this.

I'm here to enable any baking purchase.

I mean, how cute would these be?

I think so, yeah, I think so.

TRAVERSO: All right.

- I think your family would approve.

Okay, let's check out and then we can go check on our dough.

TRAVERSO: I'm gonna get my essentials.

- (laughing): Yeah, get your essentials.

Okay, we're back.

This dough has sat for an hour and a half, room temperature.

TRAVERSO: Uh-huh.

- So, you know, you see some bubbling on there.

It also just looks kind of marshmallow-y.

So these are Detroit pizza pans.

They're essentially nonstick.

They are almost impossible to scratch, which you'll see later when we, like, wrest this pizza from the pan-- they are really a great investment.

So you can also do this, if you don't have a LloydPan.

You can do it in a standard 9 by 13.

Metal, though.

Not glass.

TRAVERSO: Okay-- metal, okay.

- So we're gonna put about a tablespoon of oil into the pan.

TRAVERSO: Okay.

- Just use your fingers to kind of coat the inside of the pan.

So once you have a nice coating in there, just take your bowl scraper and just scrape your ball of dough into the pan.

Ooh, it feels great.

Then I just flip my dough over just to coat it in oil on both sides.

This feels good, doesn't it?

TRAVERSO: It's so-- it's like therapeutic.

- It totally is.

I feel like this lowers your blood pressure just doing this-- so we're just stretching this.

It may not, at first stretch, get all the way to the corners of the pan.

TRAVERSO: Right.

- And that's totally fine.

And you know, you're sort of dimpling it and stretching it.

TRAVERSO: They look beautiful.

What happens now?

- So now we're just gonna parbake the dough.

TRAVERSO: Looking parbaked and smelling incredible.

- So I wanted to make two different styles of pizza today.

A red sauce pizza and a white pizza.

I'm a huge white pizza fan, but I think Detroit pizza loyalists would say the red pizza is the move.

So I was like, well, we'll just make both.

So it's 12 ounces of cheese, it's six ounces of sharp cheddar, six ounces of mozzarella.

You're gonna sprinkle a generous moat of cheese right where the parbake crust meets the pan, and then the remaining cheese, once you've made your nice moat, you did a great job, is just gets scattered evenly over that.

TRAVERSO: Okay.

- And then we like to stripe on the sauce in diagonal stripes.

And if you were going to add meat to this, you could add it right now.

Looks good.

Smells good.

Okay, so that one is ready for the oven.

And now we're going to make this white pizza.

Same cheese moat, but this pizza, we use a combination of gruyere cheese, the Alpine cow's milk cheese, and the low-moisture whole milk mozzarella.

TRAVERSO: Gruyere is so good.

- It's so good.

This, to me, I think this is a great riff on this pizza.

It just has a lot of big flavor-- so I made my moat.

And then this pizza also gets bechamel sauce, so a mixture of butter, flour, milk, whisk together till it thickens, and then lots of parmesan cheese.

It's hard to go wrong.

TRAVERSO: It's kind of like a pizza lasagna at this stage, right?

- And then this is our roasted cauliflower.

So olive oil, salt, pepper, and then I just gave it a little chop after it came out of the oven.

So these are now ready for the oven.

Because of the parbake, they're only gonna take about 12 minutes.

TRAVERSO: Wow.

- And you're looking for deep caramelization around the edges so that frico edge and the top will be all bubbly and browned.

This is not the time to walk away from your oven and go do something else.

TRAVERSO: Right, right.

- You've gone through all this work.

TRAVERSO: Yeah.

- Don't blow it on the landing.

All right, so these are ready for the oven.

TRAVERSO: Ooh!

Look at that!

- Hot pizza.

TRAVERSO: Ooh, that one look so good.

- They look so good.

Take a deep breath, and then in one fell swoop, you're just gonna slide it out.

TRAVERSO: Ah, looks so good.

Look at that shiny, gorgeous... - That cheesy edge.

And then I give this a little finishing touch.

So on this one, I like to do some grated pecorino romano, which is a sheep's milk cheese, a hard sheep's milk cheese.

And then if you wanted to, we have this pizza seasoning.

We can just sprinkle a little bit of that.

This one gets a treatment of this-- panko breadcrumbs.

And then just to brighten it up a little bit, some fresh lemon zest, and then some chopped flat leaf parsley, you know, for the health.

TRAVERSO: Yes.

(chuckles) - Cheers.

TRAVERSO: Cheers.

It's so solid, you know, the edges are crunchy and firm.

- I'm so thrilled that you were inspired enough to pick up your own Detroit style pan so you can make this pizza for your family.

And it's a treat to see an old friend again.

It's a treat to bake pizza together.

So I hope you'll come back and visit us again.

TRAVERSO: Absolutely.

This was so fun.

Thank you, yay!

- Here's to pizza.

RICHARD WIESE: I'm on the campus of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, a place steeped with tradition.

If I think of the most emblematic sport, not only here at Dartmouth, but the entire Ivy League, it's probably crew.

In fact, the first intercollegiate event ever contested in the United States was a rowing event right on Lake Winnipesaukee in 1852.

Well, Dartmouth's crew team still has its traditions, but its head is squarely in the future.

So, Whit, when you come to a boathouse and you see the chase boats and the oars and the shells, it must evoke certain feelings for you.

- Nostalgic for me that I've been involved in this sport since I was eight years old.

My parents took me to the Yale-Harvard Crew Race on the Thames River.

Not only is it nostalgic, but it started in New Hampshire.

Crew is the sport of all sports.

Symphony of motion.

WIESE: A symphony of motion.

I like that description.

- Yeah.

It's beautiful.

WIESE: So I'm going to be rowing today.

What should I be looking for?

What should I be thinking of?

- Just relax and just listen.

And don't try and muscle it through because the boat's not going to go any faster if you do that.

WIESE: It has to be satisfying when you coach somebody at collegiate level and then you meet them years later to see what they've become.

You actually wrote a book based on your experience with collegiate rowers and then, you know, their experiences later in life.

- Yes, it was wonderful.

I hadn't seen many of them or even talked to them in 25 years, and they all had the same common theme.

They didn't each know that they were going to talk about what they had learned on the river rather than the classroom, in fact, some said they learned more on the river than they did in the classroom.

But they gave me story after story about some of the lessons they'd learned as leaders.

Coming out early in the morning, frozen hands, sleet coming down.

So the teamwork and the forming of relationships happened every day that we were out on the water, and everybody had to show up and everybody had to put the oar in and out of the water at the same time.

WIESE: So what are some of the big takeaways that you can apply to other aspects of life?

- Some of them talked about being in leadership roles and having to deal with tough times.

They talked about discipline, they talked about how they formed teams at work.

You know, there's just something about sitting in a boat ahead or behind somebody and going through the victories and the losses and the teamwork and all that goes along with that nine months of rowing.

WIESE: Your advice for me, rowing later, is, to listen and relax.

Anything else to take me through my journey?

- I think this Dartmouth crew rowing shirt will help support you out there on the water.

WIESE: Wow, look at this.

Well, I will wear it with pride.

Thank you very much.

Coach!

How are you, Wyatt?

- I'm great.

WIESE: I'm your new recruit.

- Awesome, well, welcome to the Friends of Dartmouth Rowing Boathouse.

We're going to give you a quick crash course here on rowing.

WIESE: So what are we looking at right here?

- We're looking at the erg, and it's the standard in our sport.

WIESE: I'm ready to give it a go.

- So the first thing you want to do is strap your feet in here.

WIESE: Okay.

- What we're going to do is we're going to start at the finish, which means you're at the back end of the stroke, right?

And this is where we would be taking the blade out of the water and starting the recovery.

We're going to sequence things out of the back end on the recovery, by going... WIESE: Oh, we're just doing this?

- Arms and then the body.

WIESE: Okay.

- And then legs.

The drive or the power application is going to be the exact opposite of that.

So we can just push, swing, squeeze, and stop at the finish.

Okay-- you remember the sequence of the recovery?

WIESE: I do.

- And we want it to be continuous, simple, and flat on the drive.

WIESE: Okay.

- That's pretty good.

Yeah.

Legs and keep your arms straight for as long as you can.

And maybe draw in a little bit higher at the back end.

WIESE: Higher here?

- Yep, that's good.

Yeah.

Good.

WIESE: You've been a part of the sport for quite some time.

How has the sport changed?

I walk around this facility, and it seems like there's some things here that you didn't have when you were coming up.

- Yeah, it's changed in a lot of ways.

There's a lot more technology in the sport.

The ergs have been the standard for probably the last 25 years.

If you look around, we've got moving water tanks next door, we've got RP3s, which are a dynamic erg.

If you go downstairs and look at the boats, they've advanced a lot over the last 30 to 40 years.

They used to be wood-- they're now carbon fiber, Kevlar.

They're extremely light, extremely stiff.

These tanks were installed in 2019, right before the pandemic.

And they're some of the best tanks in the country.

WIESE: And I imagine on a cold Dartmouth winter day, this is a good place to row.

- Yeah, the guys are very happy to get off the ergs when we let them off the ergs, and this allows us to stay in touch with on the water rowing.

WIESE: Okay, so what do I need to know on this one?

This looks complicated, I have to admit.

- It's a step forward from what we were doing on the erg.

WIESE: Okay.

- But you got the major sort of big picture motions down.

Now we're going to put an oar in your hand and make you put the blade in the water at the catch and take it out at the finish.

WIESE: This looks like a lot could go wrong.

- So the first thing I'll talk about is your grip.

So you want kind of a natural grip.

You want your outside hand, you want it at the end of the handle.

You want your inside hand, or your left hand, to be, kind of, just natural.

Like you have it, kind of shoulder width apart.

Right now the blade's in a position that we would call feathered.

WIESE: Right.

- That would be how we would normally row on the recovery.

Today we're just going to have you row on the square, which means we're going to rotate it forward this way.

WIESE: Okay.

- And that, we're going to leave it like that, both on the recovery and on the drive.

The only difference between what you're going to do here and what you were doing on the erg is you have to push down to take the blade out before you go arms, body, slide.

There you go.

Good, then you put the blade in, drive.

I didn't even have to tell you to do it, you knew to do it.

I'm going to turn on the tanks and we're going to actually have the water move by you.

WIESE: Oh, no.

- You're stationary.

The water's moving.

In a boat, the water's stationary, you're moving.

But you're going to feel that challenge.

You want to square the blade up on the recovery a little bit earlier on the recovery so the blade can go in directly.

WIESE: I'm sorry, square it up here?

- Square it up earlier in the recovery.

we usually say over your shoelaces, you should be squared up.

WIESE: So, here?

And it should be there?

- Correct.

WIESE: Okay.

- And what we want is, we want the, the catch or the blade work to look, like, square and in, right?

So let's start by rowing on the square blade.

So we're not going to feather.

So we'll start at the finish.

WIESE: Yep.

- And I'm just going to row continuously, kind of very slowly and patiently, and just try to match me.

Okay, here we go, ready, go.

Arms, body, slide.

WIESE: Does it become that they become so rote that they don't have to think about this?

Like, I'm focused very much on following you.

- Yeah, I think a lot of these motions and skills we've talked about become very... natural and second nature for the guys.

So they have to stop thinking about the big picture things.

And they can start thinking about the details, right?

All right, Richard, really good job.

A lot of progress-- next step, we'll get you out on the water.

WIESE: Yeah, and what could possibly go wrong?

- Hey, guys, I want to introduce you to Richard, new member of the team.

WIESE: Got one more year of eligibility, so... (laughter) ...obviously not.

I'm, you know, I'm anxious to go out on the water with you, and I know you have a tight schedule, and so what do I have to do?

- Yeah, let's get hands on.

WIESE: All right, let's do it.

- Part of the crew, let's go.

WIESE: All right, where am I hands on-ing?

I'm over here, okay.

- Shoulders, ready?

Up.

WIESE: Everybody seems a little bigger than me.

- Good, clear, start to swing.

One, two, push.

- Good.

So just the arms, keep it short.

Keep it simple.

Into the water together, out of the water together.

Yeah, good.

Very good, Richard.

WIESE: You know, I'm just sort of keeping my mouth shut, focusing on the person ahead of me and trying not to screw up.

That's how it's going.

But this is fun.

It's nice to be out on the water.

I mean, what a beautiful spot.

- How was that, Richard?

WIESE: You know, it was pretty good.

There were a couple times where I thought, I'm teetering on either catching a blade or not keeping pace.

And I definitely don't have the forward flexibility, so my stroke's shorter.

So I had to sort of compensate by hanging a little at the end there.

- So what you were rowing there was probably 18 strokes a minute, and when they race, they'll race at 38 strokes a minute for six minutes.

WIESE: I definitely have a newfound admiration for crew guys, if I didn't already.

Really thank you for your group here.

And if character wins races, I think you guys are going to win a lot of races.

- Well, thanks.

Yeah, I'm a little biased, but it's a good group.

WIESE: I can only imagine when you're winning a race and you just feel that perfect sync, you know, with your teammates, it's got to be a great feeling.

So I'm envious of all of you.

- Well, one of the things these guys will tell you, it's always easier when you're in front.

WIESE: Oh, yeah.

- Sport's all about pain, but there's-- it's a little less painful when you're in front of the other crew and you can see their backs and you're winning.

WIESE: You know, all you can do is give your best.

(cheers and applause) NARRATOR: Lou's Restaurant, a Hanover institution, was founded in 1947 by Marine veteran Lou Bressett.

TRAVERSO: I love this place.

I've been coming here since I was a teenager.

One of my best memories is coming here on a Sunday morning and having the fresh donut.

- Well, today's your day.

We're actually making them right now.

TRAVERSO: Wow!

- So if you'd like, I can introduce you to our baker, Jon, and you can jump in and bake some if you like.

TRAVERSO: Oh, my gosh, I'd love to, thank you.

- Here's an apron.

TRAVERSO: Oh, thanks!

I'm ready.

- Let's do it.

TRAVERSO: Okay.

Hi, Jon.

- Hey, how are you?

TRAVERSO: Hey, I'm Amy.

I heard you're the donut guy.

- I sure am.

TRAVERSO: What are you working on?

- We're making our famous crullers today.

So I already put the water in here, and right behind you is ten ounces of yeast.

You wanna just pour that right in there?

TRAVERSO: Okay-- ooh, you got me working already, I'm glad.

- And now we're just gonna weigh out 25 pounds of the mix.

And I am guaranteed to make a mess when I do this.

TRAVERSO (chuckling): Oh, well, how could you not?

- Okay, now we get to do the fun part.

Start it on slow, just so it kind of starts to incorporate a little bit.

TRAVERSO: So how many donuts do you guys go through in a day?

- I make about 180 crullers on average a day.

TRAVERSO: Wow.

- Could be more for big events and stuff like that.

So now it's gonna sit here on second speed for about ten minutes, and then it'll be a nice dough.

TRAVERSO: Oh, it already smells good.

I'm so excited.

(chuckles) So, first of all, how long have you been making these donuts?

- 11 years.

TRAVERSO: Wow.

- Yeah.

TRAVERSO: So what do you think makes them special?

- You don't see the crullers, like, the twists a lot anymore.

TRAVERSO: Yeah.

- And we've been doing them forever.

TRAVERSO: This place, so many generations of people have come here.

And I'm sure for the students who go here and then they come back and they're so happy it's still here.

And it's a good price.

Great quality, really familiar, wonderful foods-- it's just really special.

- And we have great people here, too.

TRAVERSO: Yeah, yeah.

- All right, so now we're gonna take this dough and we're gonna put it in the cutter.

It's gonna cut it into 36 pieces.

You're just gonna roll it out.

TRAVERSO: Okay.

- Like you're making a snake with Play-Doh.

So then what you're gonna do is you're gonna put the side down like that, put your finger in the middle and cross over.

Then cross over this way.

And then twist your top.

TRAVERSO: Okay.

- And then turn the whole thing upside down and place it down on here.

TRAVERSO: I'll get it better on the next.

- I mean, it doesn't matter, really.

TRAVERSO: But people like consistency here at Lou's.

- Now we're gonna take them over to the proofer and we're gonna put them in there for about a half-hour.

TRAVERSO: Okay.

- Time to take the crullers out of the proofer and we're gonna put them in the fryer.

TRAVERSO: Look at them!

- This is 375 degrees.

Takes about 30 to 45 seconds per side.

TRAVERSO: Wow, they're gorgeous.

I like how the glaze really does drip off into like a very thin film.

- Mm-hmm.

TRAVERSO: It's just the right amount.

- They're best straight out of the fryer, too.

TRAVERSO: I like your work, John.

- Thank you.

TRAVERSO: Can I split one with you?

- Sure.

TRAVERSO: Okay.

These are fantastic.

Mm!

I've always loved them, but to have them so fresh out of the fryer... - It's when they're best.

TRAVERSO: They're so good.

Wow.

Thank you, thank you so much for letting me see how this is done.

You know, it's one thing to admire them from a distance, but it's really fun to see them up close.

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