Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 01:35:49 -0600 (MDT) -------------- BEGIN bread-bakers.v103.n032 -------------- 001 - Nifcon@aol.com - Mixer repair for Dan Erwin 002 - ede Subject: Re: reducing kitchen heat Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 10:15:45 -0500 Hi Ed! <<< An oven cranked up to the max, especially during the summer season can make life uncomfortable in the home, and add to air-conditioning expense. >>> Tell me about it!! >>>far safer than the oft-advised steam-generating methods of pouring boiling water into a hot pan, tossing ice cubes, opening the door and spritzing water inside, etc. Even the act of loading the bread is safe, simple and casual because you're not dealing with scorching-hot surfaces, nor a blast of steam that fogs glasses when opening the door<<< Yes!!! "Where's the counter to set this hot pan on?" BTDT!! I also have the scars on my arms to prove it!! >>>......to the simple Popover - the cold-start method works very, very well. <<< Even Popovers? Great!! >>>turn the oven "off" (or reset to a low temp) for the last say, 5 minutes. <<< All the years of my baking (eons), I never thought it would work. (Well, DUH!!) Now if my bread is not browned on the bottom when it's done on top, I do put it back into the oven, upside down, for about 10 more min... but with the oven off. But I'll sure use this method, too. Thank you so much for this info, Ed... gonna try it today!! I'll be baking bread after a bit today and will employ your techniques! Anything to keep down the heat!! I've devised many other ways of conservation, but have always trusted other's bread recipes. Don't mind the heat in the Winter... helps to warm the house... but not now at 100+ F without the A/C on!!! Again, Thanks, Ed!!! ~~May all your bugs be beneficial.~~ <*}}}>< Texas, USA! --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n032.3 --------------- From: "King's Crown" Subject: Tomato Bread Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 11:08:15 -0700 This recipe is so good it seems like it deserves a fancier name. Funny I notice I didn't have any tomato sauce in the pantry, but had 4 cans of tomato paste. Wondering why I had so many I decided on something different for dinner for the lack of tomato sauce. Then I came across my bread machine magic book (_Bread Machine Magic_ by Linda Rehberg & Lois Conway). Giving it a look through to see if it deserved to stay in the kitchen or go to the pantry book shelf I notice I had marked tomato bread as a recipe to try, but hadn't yet. Well, what do you know it asks for 1 can of tomato paste. Sold. Plugged in the bread machine. First time I had left it unplugged in years, but the dehydrator needed to come in. I plugged in the 13 year Zoji bread maker and nothing happened. I've been waiting for about 5 years for the thing to die. Decided to check that I had plugged in the right appliance. A HA! Wrong plug - the Zoji is still alive. Yeah! Made the recipe and it was so good I'm making another today. Recipe said it made great croutons. Well, we ate the other loaf yesterday and this morning. Tomato Bread 1 1/2 lb size 5/8 cup milk 6 oz. can tomato paste 1 egg 3 1/4 cup bread flour 1/2 tsp salt 1 T olive oil 1 T sugar 1 tsp Italian seasoning 2 tsp dried minced onion 1/4 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg ( I used 1/4 tsp just sounded like too much to me) 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast Place all ingredients in bread pan, select Light Crust setting, and press Start. After the baking cycle ends, remove bread from pan, place on cake rack, and allow to cool 1 hour before slicing. (Yeah right! With a good bread knife we sliced it fresh out of the oven, applied butter and ate it.) Enjoy, Lynne --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n032.4 --------------- From: Tarheel_Boy@webtv.net (Skallywagg) Subject: Slashing and flouring bread dough... Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 14:26:14 -0400 (EDT) John sez: If you sprinkle with flour BEFORE slashing the contrast between the floured top and the unfloured dough revealed as the slashes open in the oven is visually stunning, and the flour helps make slashing easier, the blade sticks less. Bob replies: I slash my dough and then immediately sprinkle on the flour. Then it goes into the oven. Because the slashes don't open until the heat hits the dough, I don't think it makes any difference when the flour goes on. With regard to the blade sticking, I use a Nuflex polymer clay blade that is actually made for potters. It never sticks. Take that, Yorkshire Lad. ;-))) --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n032.5 --------------- From: Tarheel_Boy@webtv.net (Skallywagg) Subject: Pineapple and Cocktail Breads Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 14:35:45 -0400 (EDT) I've been to Hong Kong several times, Cindy, and have eaten those breads, but never knew how to make them. Thank you very much for posting the recipes. Kung Hey Fat Choy! Bob the Tarheel Baker --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n032.6 --------------- From: Lobo Subject: crockpot bread? Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 13:00:06 -0600 >From: Bszim@aol.com >What I'd like to know, since I've no bread machine, is there a possible >recipe for bread using a 'crockpot'? I've made many excellent bread machine recipes in the conventional oven. Usually all I've done is add a little more flour. --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n032.7 --------------- From: Reggie Dwork Subject: Summer Loaf get together!! Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 14:41:35 -0700 If you go to Summer Loaf, meet with Chris Dalrymple at the wood oven at 2 pm. We don't yet know if we will be there or not. Reggie --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n032.8 --------------- From: Ed Okie Subject: l' Ancienne bread making - a better method Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 10:07:39 -0400 One year and a hundred loaves later, improving Peter Reinhart's "Pain a l'Ancienne" formula remained elusive. Peter adapted the formula from bakers in Europe and I was trying to tweak it a bit better. After a year and on the verge of conceding defeat I finally nailed a winner. Ancienne bread making requires a highly-hydrated formula - wet, sticky, a "wetter-the-better" mix. It can be intimidating to handle until one eventually grasps the meaning of a "liberally sprinkled" countertop, baker-speak for "solidly coated," not just dusted. Adding to a first-timer's "do I dare try it?" initial fear is the breads' very quirky construction: normal ingredients, but using ice-cold water, then immediate dough-storage refrigeration - no rise, no punch down, no-anything normal. It's 180-degrees opposite everything learned about bread making. Your next thought: "this can't possibly work!" In blind faith, the method not only works, the bread approaches "beyond description" taste. And a crust-coloration to-die-for. It stands in stark contradiction to its overall simplicity, requires the least amount of "pushups" or "involved babysitting." The new method developed offers two distinct advantages: Ease of handling what otherwise is difficult dough (I'm being very kind with words) and appreciably better oven spring. Peter's formula suggests "[remove the bowl stored overnight from the refrigerator] ...leave the bowl of dough out at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, or longer if necessary..." Thereafter, the (now-warm) soft and puffy dough is removed from the bowl, divided, stretched (and likely cussed at a few times), then baked. The book's text nearly doubles at this handling point using a flood of cautionary words - a subtle clue "you've now got your hands on what can be a real nightmare." The discovered secret: After removing the bowl from the refrigerator, immediately remove the dough from the bowl while it is ice-cold. It handles like a dream! Do -all- of your "slicing and dicing" at that point, shape and stretch and into the baking tray. (I use a silicone sheet laid on a 3-slot baguette tray, the latter serving as a couche). Let it warmup in the tray for 2-hours as advised. Then bake it, untouched by human hands. The handling simplicity is a vast improvement. Equally remarkable, oven spring is noticeably better! The best of all worlds! A secondary benefit for the wetter-is-better baker: since ice-cold dough is (relatively) easy to manage, hydration can be increased by about 5% over normal standards if desired. One guru says "handling 90% is a piece of cake" er-r-r-r, bread. For the uninitiated the Ancienne formula is one of many in Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" book. It is one of few publications I can say "highly recommended reading." - Ed Okie --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n032.9 --------------- From: "Randy Clemens" Subject: Summer Loaf Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 15:41:56 -0700 Looking forward to seeing some of you at Summer Loaf. I'm flying up from Los Angeles, just for the festival. If you see me at the Guildhall Gathering, please feel free to say hi!! I love to chat bread with fellow enthusiasts. Hope to make some new friends! - Randy Clemens - --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n032.10 --------------- From: Ed Okie Subject: Flour - is every bag the same? Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 18:50:37 -0400 Is flour different bag to bag? "Looks" doesn't give a clue. White is white. Testing a well-devised Pain a l'Ancienne bread formula last month involved a series of 15 baking sessions. End result: a highly successful new Ancienne method. But there was an untold story: Flour variation bag-to-bag proved nightmarish. After developing the technique and getting consistent day-after-day results... I suddenly endured consistent failures! Three days in a row! Adding to the agony if not embarrassment, my off-site professional tester (used to verify results) was shouting words of glee, "It works! It's fabulous!" Little did he know at that very moment I couldn't bake bread worth beans! My bright idea a bust, a perplexed look pasted firmly on face. Thankfully, detailed note-keeping during the closely controlled testing gave a clue, why consistent failure followed consistent success. Testing consumed four 5-lb flour bags. Each bag (Gold Medal Bread flour) carried different expiration (manufacturing) dates. Bag #3 was the bad-apple, and used in three consecutive baking sessions. It was not "total-failure" per se, but bread far less than extraordinary as achieved previously. First failure I thought "must have been something I left out, or a technique goof." No big deal. Next time I carefully monitored the procedure - same thing. Third go-round, ditto! Running out of excuses and in desperation I grabbed a new bag - everything back to normal. Great results! Then it dawned on me: I've experienced similar periods during a baking year when "things mysteriously go off kilter," layered between other "I can't miss" ego-boosting periods. Those "off kilter" points inevitably left me totally mystified. The culprit is now clear: Flour variation bag-to-bag. Key suggestion: buy same bag-dates at the grocery store and buy several at a time - at least your flour remains consistent longer. More irony: General Mills (maker of the Gold Medal brand) produces an extensive line of professional grade flours manufactured to very tight tolerances (unlike the retail Gold Medal brand), sold in 50-lb bags. It's the perfect solution. "Harvest King" was the specific "just what I need" flour. And then my dream unravelled: A local major-chain grocery store couldn't special order it. SYSCO, a national food supplier could get it, but only if they purchased a full pallet. Just what I need, a huge pallet of flour stored in the kitchen! Came up with "Plan B": use appreciably higher-priced King Arthur flour; KA claims high-quality and close manufacturing tolerances. This would be a slam-dunk solution, or so I thought. Two bags later: Had to adjust hydration levels in well-learned formulas to accommodate the difference in KA's all-purpose flour. Okay, I can accept that. But bread-crust coloration was noticeably "off," less brown than normal. More critical, crumb taste was lacking - it was ordinary, not extraordinary. Grabbed a bag of store-branded (Publix) all-purpose flour. It turned out to be close to low-protein cake flour. "Abysmal" is being kind with words. The underlying issue of flour variation bag-to-bag, plus seasonal variation of a product casually made for retail use is a concern. Had I not been doing this series of carefully controlled Ancienne trials, probability says I'd have no clue why success and failure were my kitchen partners. Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware. - Ed Okie --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n032.11 --------------- From: "Gardner, Meryl" Subject: shipping bread? Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 16:31:13 -0400 Hi - I dropped my son off at camp yesterday and realized that I have no idea what kinds of breads would travel well in a care package or how to wrap bread for shipping. My guess is that I'd need to send it overnight delivery or something. Any advice would be much appreciated. I should mention that my current skill level consists of throwing ingredients into my abm and that my son prefers breads without dried fruit, chocolate or nuts. THANKS! Meryl --------------- END bread-bakers.v103.n032 --------------- Copyright (c) 1996-2003 Regina Dwork and Jeffrey Dwork All Rights Reserved