Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 06:05:33 GMT -------------- BEGIN bread-bakers.v105.n042 -------------- 001 - RCox45@aol.com - Cindy's Kitchen Aid question + a request 002 - "Adele Klingberg" Subject: Re: melting salt Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 06:49:40 -0500 "Jim Neuman" wrote: >I can't get salt on top of my rye bread to stay hard. No matter how >I have tried, the salt sort of melts into the crust. Then, if I get >anything close to what I'm looking for the salt draws moisture by the >next day making the bread soggy. I store in paper. Please help! Jim King Arthur sells Pretzel Salt that does not melt for breads and pretzels. Item #4142 at 3.95. Adele --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n042.3 --------------- From: dmrogers218@comcast.net Subject: Re: Swanmore's EM recipe from Rick Krall/Alan Zelt Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2005 12:20:51 +0000 Would you know approximately how many english muffins the recipe makes? --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n042.4 --------------- From: Linda Badeen Subject: re: Stovetop raised bread Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2005 09:33:17 -0400 Tom, Tell your son to buy a cast iron dutch oven. Using a dutch oven on a gas ring will make a very fine substitute for an oven. It's what sourdoughs over the ages used to bake their bread in....except not a gas fire, but a wood one. I've done this camping before. At home, he'll have to experiment as to the height of the fire. But, bread is amazingly resilient. It can be baked at a range of temperatures and still turn out quite well. Probably a low/medium low would work best. And, the oven needs to be preheated slowly. Find a wire grate that will fit inside the oven to raise a pan slightly above the bottom and allow air circulation. If he can't find one to fit, a few clean, non porous stones work also. Just set a pan filled with bread dough on top of the grate or stones in the preheated oven and cover the oven. It's called a dutch OVEN because it works quite well as such. I find the most challenging part is finding a pan and a grate that fits inside the oven. And, figuring out how to get it out of the hot oven without burning your fingers. A possible inexpensive reference source: Dutch Oven Cooking by John G. Ragsdale He has practical tips, quite a few bread recipes, and many other recipes. HTH, Linda --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n042.5 --------------- From: David A Barrett Subject: English Muffins and Crumpets Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 11:31:52 -0400 English Muffins and Crumpets are two entirely different things, and not a confusion over terminology across the Atlantic. As someone raised by very English parents in Canada, I can confirm that crumpets are definitely an traditional English food, but I can't comment on whether or not the same is true for English Muffins. Crumpets resemble a small thick pancake that has not been flipped over. The batter is yeasted, and the consistency is much more elasticky than that of a pancake or bread. The top has a large number of deep holes in it, where the bubbles popped but were never flattened out by flipping. We used to toast them, and spread butter on top, which would melt into the bubble holes. English Muffins have a crumb of the same consistency as bread, but also look like a small, very thick pancake. The crust of a English Muffin is very thin, and remains elasticky (no "snap" like you'd get on a baguette). Most of the English Muffins I've come across have a dusting of cornmeal on the outside, probably to stop them from sticking to the pan. Traditionally, an English muffin is pulled apart into two pieces by inserting a fork around the middle of the outside circumference and then pulling them apart like an Oreo cookie. This technique yields a very coarse surface on each half which results in irregular cooking when toasted, and causes the butter to melt into little puddles. I have never heard of anyone eating an untoasted English Muffin. dave. --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n042.6 --------------- From: LAllin@aol.com Subject: Re: bread machine sourdough request (Digest v105.n041) Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 08:24:51 EDT "Ratliff, Betty" asked for a sourdough recipe that works in a bread machine. I suggest you purchase a copy of "More Bread Machine Magic" by Lois Conway and Linda Rehberg. It has a 15 page section on bread machine sourdough; some of the recipes are made completely in the the bread machine, others only the dough, which is then baked in the oven. I use a recipe I adapted from their first book (Bread Machine Magic) and I don't add yeast to the dough. I make the dough in my bread machine, shape it, let it rise in a warm place for 3-5 hours and bake. Here's the recipe, with some liberties taken in interpretation. In a non-metallic bowl (I use Pyrex) put: 1 cup 100% hydration starter (mine originally came from King Arthur) 5 oz filtered water 6 oz (1.5 cups) bread flour Cover bowl loosely (I use plastic bowl covers; looks a bit like a cheap, hotel-room shower cap). Set in warm place until bubbles form - about like a pancake looks a bit before its ready to be flipped. Then, dump into bread machine pan and add: 6 oz (1.5 cups) bread flour (I have successfully used all-purpose, whole wheat and semolina) (2 tbls wheat germ - if I'm making whole wheat.) 1 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar 2 tsp active dry yeast (original recipe, I don't use) Process on dough setting. When bread machine is finished, remove dough, shape (original recipe called for baguette shape) and let rise in warm place until doubled. Bake in 400F oven for 25-30 minutes. Loaf: Instead of baguette, I put my dough in a clay loaf pan from Sur la Table; put the loaf pan on a dishcloth soaked in hot water, inside a Rubbermaid "shoebox" size plastic container to rise. This provides a warm, moist proofing environment. When raised by 50%, I open the container, slash the loaf, close and let rise until doubled (the dough is too delicate to slash at the end). Starting in a cold oven (necessary because of the clay loaf pan), bake at 400F for 40-45 minutes. NOTE: For 10 years, I made bread in my machine by measuring the flour in cups and thought those who weighed the flour were nuts. I do believe you can make great bread by how the dough feels and whether you measure or weight doesn't much matter, you simply adjust the flour/water mix until it feels right. BUT - with sourdough, I have come to believe weighing IS necessary; thus, I have provided the weight as well as cup measures. Start with the Conway/Rehberg book, it is a great help; experiment, learn and find your own way to a result you like. Flour is cheap. --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n042.7 --------------- From: Debunix Subject: Re: Stovetop raised bread Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 11:26:37 -0500 Elisabeth Keene wrote: >My son now lives in Beijing, and he cannot get any bread that is >really edible! He's used to my slow-rise bread! He doesn't have a >real oven, only a tiny, tiny toaster oven, and two gas rings. Check out the recipes Flatbreads and Flavors by Alford & Duguid. It has a marvelous array of breads cooked in different ways, including stovetop techniques. I'd start there. You won't get a nice fat sandwich-style loaf, but you can make tasty breads if you make them thinner. And if he could has the ability to cook outside where charcoal is safe to use, he might try a proper dutch oven, designed for coals top & bottom, to make thicker breads. Having never really used one, however, I can't give any tips or suggestions. Diane Brown in St. Louis http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/FoodPages.html --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n042.8 --------------- From: "Mary Fisher" Subject: Re: An ocean's difference Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 20:13:02 +0100 >What a difference an ocean makes. I knew that you people over there >didn't know what a cookie was and we had to send the cookie monster >over there to straighten things out. But now we find out you don't >know what English muffins are? >Horrors. LOL! But, I wonder, do you know what "American Muffins" are? Muffins is muffins. The definitive is what you're used to. To us in Great Britain American Muffins are over-blown cakes in various flavours, sold at motorway service stations and apparently intended as single portions. These days British people have larger appetites than they used to, especially the younger ones (i.e. not me), so eat them with relish. And I don't mean sauce or pickle ... :-) Mary --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n042.9 --------------- From: "Mary Fisher" Subject: Re: muffin differences Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 20:17:13 +0100 >This site gives an explanation of the whole "Muffin Mystery": >http://imaginatorium.org/words/muffin.htm No it doesn't -but it's a smashing site :-) I especially liked: "Oh, and I ought to remind non-native speakers of British that "crumpet" has an extra, vulgar meaning, a non-count noun, as in "a bit of crumpet", meaning a sexually available woman." But it doesn't say that 'muffin' has a far more vulgar meaning ... :-))))))))))))) Mary --------------- END bread-bakers.v105.n042 --------------- Copyright (c) 1996-2006 Regina Dwork and Jeffrey Dwork All Rights Reserved