Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 06:37:21 GMT -------------- BEGIN bread-bakers.v106.n012 -------------- 001 - "kwarendorf@nyc.rr.com" < - Irish Pint Glass Bread 002 - "Allen Cohn" Subject: Irish Pint Glass Bread Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 09:09:28 -0500 I baked this bread (from Bob the Tarheel baker, bread-bakers v106.n010.2) this weekend, although I used the recipe as it appears in the Mar 2006 Saveur Magazine (page 84). It was created to ease the fears of starvation of a boy going to college. His father developed the recipe using tools that every college student in Ireland had at his or her disposal; to wit: A Pint Glass 'borrowed' from a pub. Also in this issue is Myrtle Allen's Brown Bread. I baked it too. Both breads are easy and excellent! [[ Editor's note: Saveur is available in digital form from . Back issues $5.00 ]] --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.2 --------------- From: "Allen Cohn" Subject: RE: request for help with challah baking Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 19:26:10 -0800 I would try mixing the dough the night before in your stand mixer, not ABM, let it rise for perhaps an hour, and then throw it in the refrigerator. When you get home from work on Friday, just remove the dough from the fridge and shape. You *may* have to increase the amount of yeast by 50-100% to compensate for the lower temperature of the room where the dough rises (say 70F) compared to the rising temperature inside the ABM (mine is at 87F) ...and every 17F increase in temperature doubles yeast activity. As a byproduct of all this extra fermentation time in the fridge...you'll likely find that the taste of the bread is improved! Allen --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.3 --------------- From: "Allen Cohn" Subject: RE: Recipes by weight Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 19:39:04 -0800 Hi Ron, The only one I know of is www.cooksillustrated.com which is the parent of www.americastestkitchen.com. Measuring by weight (mass) is such a better way to measure that Cook's Illustrated now presents all their recipes that way. In addition, I've assembled a list of "average" volume-to-weight conversions that work well for me (even though there's no guaranteeing that a particular recipe's author measured, say, cocoa powder quite the same way...). This allows me to do most any recipe using my scale instead of measuring cups. Anyone who wants my summary, please contact me offlist and I'll e-mail it to you. Allen PS: I'd encourage you to learn about those percentages. They definitely lead to more consistent, dependable results. And all the professionals use them, so it makes you part of the club! For a free tutorial, check out: http://www.artisanbakers.com/percentage.html --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.4 --------------- From: FREDERICKA COHEN Subject: having bread ready in time Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 19:59:32 -0800 (PST) Long ago I discovered that any thing I could make or do ahead of time, I made or did. That's what you do when you have 5 children less than 7 years! That's why I bake my breads early in the week and freeze. You could take it out Friday morning and let it defrost (in its wrapper) during the day. A warming early evening will give the flavor and aroma of fresh made bread. You could also freeze the shaped bread before the second rise.(Make early in week) Then let it thaw slowly in fridge from Thursday night till you get home. By the time the oven is properly heated ( 30 minutes)'the bread can go in. Why don't you experiment with thawing times ? Just don't do it when special guests are coming! Fredericka Cohen --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.5 --------------- From: nobody nowhere Subject: Coccodrillo Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 11:23:32 +0000 (GMT) The original recipe I posted was the following. John's Quick Cocodrillo Substitute Direct method, lean rustic dough, commercial yeast. Days to make, 1. Yield 4 small-medium loaves. 500 gm 12%+ protein white flour. 550 gm warm (30C) water 1 tbsp tsp instant yeast 10 gm salt Mix til roughly combined, with the paddle, and rest for 10 min or so. Still with the paddle, beat seven bells out of the glop on medium-high (3 on a Kenwood) until the dough is slapping around the bowl and clearing the bottom completely. This will take about 25 - 30 min and nothing much will happen for at least 15-20. Tip the dough (glop) into an oiled bowl or similar, I use a cylindrical, transparent, polyethylene food container with a tight sealing lid which makes it very easy to see the progress of the rise, and leave, tightly covered, to triple. It MUST triple or this recipe will not work!. Pour onto a well floured surface, shake more flour over, divide into 4 rough squares and plump them up by sliding an angled bench knife under the dough. Shake flour generously over the loaves and their surroundings and leave until extremely puffy and wobbly, about 45 minutes - just about right for heating the oven to flat out max. Take no prisoners. Using a floured bench knife free each loaf from the counter and, gently, flip it over, pick it up, using floured hands and, gently, stretch it to about 10" long and onto a peel, Superpeel (thank you Gary) or parchment. The dough very nearly stretches under its own weight. You must move quickly. It will look as if you've totally and permanently deflated the bread. Trust Uncle John, he may be a little wierd on occasions and is prone to "running off at the keyboard" but he's actually done this stretch 'n' bake loads of times and it always works. Straight into the raging oven, down to 220C after 10 min, bake to internal temp at least 96C and you can go as high as 98C if the crust doesn't brown too quickly. You will not believe the oven spring. I baked the bread in 2 batches. The bread will pass the "thump the botttom" test long before the bread is cooked - You Have Been Warned! Love John --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.6 --------------- From: nobody nowhere Subject: baking time calculations. Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 11:35:38 +0000 (GMT) Baking times for similarly shaped loaves of different sizes are related to the cube root of the mass. So, if you double the mass and hence the volume the increase in baking time is the cube root of 2 which my calculator shows as 1.2599 so a doubling in size only requires about 25% increase in baking time. Love John --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.7 --------------- From: "Mary Fisher" Subject: Re: Cowboy bread Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 18:12:46 -0000 "mike fuller" wrote: >Cowboy Bread >A rough inspiration for folks who can sleep on a bedroll. >... >Method: >This is for one person, because as everyone knows, cowboys are loners. >... >Cowboys have no need for teaspoons. >... >Force the dough around for several minutes with a chipped wooden >spoon, cussing, and throw it onto a floured tabletop. er - what's a cowboy doing with a table??? Smashing post, thanks :-) --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.8 --------------- From: "Gerald Ulett" Subject: Thanks to Bob and to Carol Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 16:03:38 -0800 I was planning to post this week to find out how to pronounce lame, the tool used for scoring bread loaves. Thanks to Bob, The Tarheel Baker, for his posting last week, I now have the answer. I own several bread baking books, but only Carol Field's book The Italian Baker, tells how to pronounce the names of the breads for which recipes are given. Perhaps we amateur bakers are supposed to be versed in Italian and French. I am not. Jerry Ulett --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.9 --------------- From: RisaG Subject: request for help with challah baking Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 17:49:44 -0800 (PST) I have made the dough the day before, refrigerated it in a ziploc bag that was sprayed with Pam (or something similar) and then took it out early in the a.m., let it come to room temperature, let it rise again and then formed it and baked it. Works pretty well. Making the dough the day before, even breaking it into 3 pieces or 4 for the braiding and then refrigerating it, really helps. That's my suggestion. RisaG --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.10 --------------- From: Maggie Glezer Subject: Challah Baking Temperatures Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 12:12:40 -0500 Hi Fredricka, Guess what, I finally have answers for you! I have just baked tons of challah (and other treats) for my daughter's bat mitzvah, and, the following weekend, for her friend's bat mitzvah. It was a blast, and I can know share what I learned about making huge celebration breads. For our event, I baked in the synagogue kitchen (the events were both strictly kosher), so I mixed the five-pound version of My Challah recipe times three--meaning I mixed the dough using 15 pounds of flour in all--in the professional mixer, a real blessing for that amount of dough. I wanted to make two four-pound ornately braided challahs and 16 simply braided one-pound challahs. The amount of dough was perfect--we were feeding first 70 people for Friday night, then about 125 for the kiddush lunch. I mixed the dough, then let it ferment and then braided the loaves. For the ornate braids, I used two pounds of dough for the base, and two pounds of dough for the upper braid. This is about as big as you would want to make a single bread in a normal home oven on a large cookie sheet (preferably a half-sheet pan). A flat four-stranded braid is a perfect base, and either a six-stranded braid or a five-stranded braid makes a gorgeous top. Remember to lightly flour the strands before braiding, for the prettiest, most defined braids. Also, braid loosely! Brush the base braid with egg wash before putting the top on, letting the eggwash dry to get a little sticky before adding the top, so brush it with the wash while you are braiding the top. For the remaining challahs, I used the single-strand braid, which was quick and pretty. I refrigerated the shaped loaves overnight, as usual (much better for both scheduling and flavor), and baked them, after I finished proofing them in the synogogue's convection oven. The loaves were very, very well proofed before baking. I baked the four-pound breads at 275 degrees F for about 45-50 minutes, with the low speed fan. These breads are normally baked at 325 degrees F, so I reduced the oven 25 degrees F for the large size and another 25 degrees F for the convection. They baked perfectly. For the one-pound breads, I baked them at 300 degrees F. When I baked the challahs for my friend's daughter, I baked in our rabbi's home. There I baked the four-pound challahs at 300 degrees F for about 45 minutes, only reducing the temperature 25 degrees F. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions. Best, Maggie --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.11 --------------- From: "Barry" Subject: Sourdough recipes Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 17:17:04 +0200 Hi Everyone, Barry Engelbrecht from South Africa here. This is my first post ... Bob the Tarheel Baker wrote, "Many of us seek that Holy Grail called good sourdough bread with a crunchy crust. And many of us have good recipes. So consider this to be a warning you that you could be drowning in sourdough recipes soon. There is a wonderful baker in St. Catharines, Ontario named Glory who bakes excellent sourdough. She is a member of this list and I hope she will post her recipe for you." Glory, I hope that you read that and this message, and post your sourdough recipe !! I have made a sourdough starter here in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the bread is seems to be "OK" with a lovely "creamy/buttery taste", and only a little sour. I need a good recipe to test this sourdough starter with. Kind regards. Barry --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.12 --------------- From: "ansleyrc@juno.com" Subject: Sour Dough Starter Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:43:07 GMT Hello, I am sure this has been discussed before on this list. I am finally brave enough to try a sourdough bread after 6 years and having successfully killed the starter. I cannot locate a recipe for sourdough starter in my files. If anyone would be so kind as sending an extreme beginners version of how to make and keep a starter, I would be very appreciative. This is on my 'New Years Resolution' to make sourdough bread. I am not an expert breadmaker. I make good french or italian bread, my whole wheat leaves a heavy impression. If you want to email me the recipe off list, that would be great. Thanks! Ansley [[ Editor's note: if you email directly to Ansley, please send a copy to the list so we can all see it! ]] --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.13 --------------- From: "ansleyrc@juno.com" Subject: Bellacino's Grinder Bread Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 21:24:35 GMT Does anyone have a bread recipe similar/ same as used in the Bellacino's Pizza and Grinders chain? They have a great sandwich bread and I can't find the recipe on the internet. Thanks, Ansley --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.14 --------------- From: "Jay Lofstead" Subject: par-baking or not? Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:25:05 -0500 I have this week to bake a lot more than normal and wanted some confirmation on what is the best thing to do with respect to storing the loaves for later eating. As a home baker, is it better to par-bake the loaves, freeze, and later defrost and bake or to just bake completely and freeze? From what I have been reading, it seems complete baking seems to be the better recommendation for non-commercial bakeries. Does anyone have any experiences they could relate to help me choose? Thanks Jay Lofstead --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.15 --------------- From: Maggie Glezer Subject: Challah Help Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:51:23 -0500 Hi Meryl, I don't use a bread machine, but the bread baking principles are the same. There are very good ways to schedule your baking to accommodate your schedule. Why not program the bread machine so that the dough is fully fermented when you get home Thursday evening? Then you can shape your dough and refrigerate it overnight. The dough will proof a little or a lot in the cold. On Friday, you can pull it out of the fridge, let it finish proofing, if it needs it, and bake it. I usually find that my challahs need another hour or two before they are ready to bake. If the bread is fully proofed when you check it Friday afternoon, you can bake it immediately, it does not need to come to room temperature. In the North, the winter sunset comes very early. If you don't come home early enough, I would move everything up by a day: mix the dough on Wednesday and bake it on Thursday. You can freeze the breads overnight if you are worried about freshness. On Friday, let them fully defrost on the counter and warm them in a 350 degree F oven for 10-15 minutes. I promise no one will be the wiser! All the best, Maggie Glezer --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.16 --------------- From: RosesCakeBible@aol.com Subject: Re: Digest bread-bakers.v106.n011 Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2006 12:47:47 EST hi Everyone! i've been silent for months due to my total absorption into my first blog: . (of course i have listed the bread bakers as one of my favorite sites with a link and of course i've never missed a posting! instead of the one hour a week i was planning for responses on my blog it is more like 5 whole days a week! but how gratifying! i've learned about a terrific new scale called myweigh and discovered a fantastic blog on which the owner/blogger is listing photos and comments on every bread she has made from my book "the bread bible" and she plans to work her way through the entire book. i'm on my way to iacp annual conference in seattle and should be packing but must just respond to three of the comments on this current digest: Ron, re weighing: my blog offers several recipes and i always give weights. (see my blog posting "weigh to bake"! if using metal weights on a balance or to calibrate (thanks Pop for your great posting about scales and accuracy) i never touch them with my fingers as the grease resident in all people's fingers will build up and eventually affect the weight. i use a clean cloth to lift them. this is something i learned in chem lab years ago at college and probably only makes a difference for minute weights but none-the-less, my thought is that if you're going to publish recipes with weights they should be as accurate as possible as each person's instrument of weighing may vary up or down and at least one is starting with as close to accurate as possible. of course Pop is right that the relativity is reassuring , i.e. if your scale is off say 1/4 ounce it will (hopefully) be off 1/4 ounce at 4 ounces as well as 12 ounces so it all remains relatively in balance. (this is not true of thermometers that can be off 1 degree at say 75 F. and 3 degrees at say 90 F. Allen, re dough slashers, i agree that a single edged razor blade is the best and i've tried most everything. great idea to attach it to a wooden or metal stick--didn't think of that! we all thought that my baking blog would elicit the most postings on cakes but it turns out bread rules! best bread baking and warmest wishes, Rose (Levy Beranbaum) --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.17 --------------- From: "Brett Baker" Subject: Re: Scale Accuracy Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2006 15:04:39 -0600 Hi Pop, You're very perceptive. Yes in-deedy, if a scale is off by 2% then all readings will exhibit that same degree of inaccuracy which simply means that your entire recipe will be scaled up or down by the percentage of inaccuracy. Also, keep in mind, that +/- 2% is the maximum deviation. In most cases the actual deviation will be significantly less than that. So in reality, as long as it's within tolerance it's no big deal. Before retiring, I worked as an industrial process-control engineer for 35 years. We were much more interested in repeatability than we were in accuracy. Repeatability is the ability of a measurement device to always come back to the same output value each time a given input value (in this case the input value is weight) is provided. Simply put, take your scale, place upon it some object that is below the maximum allowable weight for that particular scale and record the scale's digital reading. Remove the object (the scale should go back to zero) then place the object on the scale again and record the digital reading once more. Do this about 10 times and see how much deviation there is. I'll betcha there's not one iota of difference. And if that's the case your scale's good to go. Happy baking!! Brett Baker --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n012.18 --------------- From: WLHelms@aol.com Subject: Many thanks to many people Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 23:50:21 EST I would like to thank all the readers of the Bread-Bakers Digest that responded when I asked for help in obtaining a sourdough starter. I know this is long in coming, but I am truly grateful to several people, who wish to remain anonymous, for their efforts. To them a hardy Thank You! They provided vigorous cultures to which I am grateful. I now have two vigorous sourdough starters that are easy to deal with and lend a great taste to biscuits, pancakes, etc. There is nothing that tastes quite like a good sourdough bread. Many Thanks, Wayne Helms --------------- END bread-bakers.v106.n012 --------------- Copyright (c) 1996-2006 Regina Dwork and Jeffrey Dwork All Rights Reserved