Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 09:40:49 GMT -------------- BEGIN bread-bakers.v106.n018 -------------- 001 - Popthebaker@aol.com - sourdough starters demystified 002 - RisaG Subject: ABM Sourdough Italian Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 14:52:33 -0700 (PDT) Today I combined 2 old ABM recipes to make 2 rolls and 1 loaf of Italian Sourdough bread. 1/2 cup sourdough starter 1/2 cup water, plus more for smooth dough 2.5 cups bread flour 1/2 cup semolina flour 1 tsp sea salt 2 tbsp Splenda 1.5 tsp SAF bread machine yeast Put it all in the bread pan according to manufacturer. Used dough cycle. When dough was done, I put it on a floured work surface and formed the dough into 1 loaf and 2 rolls (long rolls). I slit the tops, sprayed them with oil, sprinkled with sea salt and then covered for alittle while. Then I preheated the oven to 350 degrees F. I brushed my Italian Bread pan with oil, put the loaf on one side, the 2 rolls on the other side. Covered again for 1/2 hour while the oven preheated. Then I baked them for 1/2 hour, removed them from the pan and put them on the pizza stone, and lowered the oven to 275. Baked for another 15 minutes. Removed to wire rack to cool. They came out beautiful. Smell so good. Can't wait to eat them tonight - making steak sandwiches! Yum. RisaG --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n018.3 --------------- From: "Mark Piper" Subject: Trying for uniform open webbing Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 13:42:58 -0500 Hi All - I'm very much a newbie bread baker. I've been working out of Peter Reinhart's book 'The Bread Bakers Apprentice'. I've tried several attempts at his Pain a' l'Ancienne, similar to a Ciabatta without a biga. Here's my problem, I struggle to get a uniform open webbing in the bread. This is a slack dough with a high hydration rate. The top of my loafs will have nice big holes in the crumb but the bottom of the loaf crumb is a much smaller tighter webbing. The bottom of my loaves do not get very brown as I start them on parchment then transfer them directly to the stone mid bake as I rotate them. I seem to get pretty good oven spring over all. Could this be a function of placement of my stone in the oven? (too High?) Or could this be a hydration issue? Longer rise? I also use a steam pan and spritz, and crank my oven to its max of 500 F. The bread is very tasty, but I don't feel I'm getting the full "nutty" tones from the bread that come with the interior caramelization from a very open webbing. I'm careful not to deflate the dough as I shape it. If the loaf is too thick will it compress the gas bubbles? I hope the answer is not "all of the above". I've definitely been bitten by the bread baking bug and I will not rest until I perfect this awesome bread. Tonight I'll try to lower my stone to the bottom rack of my oven. Thank you in advance for any help. --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n018.4 --------------- From: Gloria J Martin Subject: Bread from Sweet Potatoes Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 23:16:52 -0500 This just goes to show that if you've been teaching long enough, you probably have a recipe covering every subject. Rosemary Jasso wanted a bread from Sweet Potatoes. This is a recipe I taught in 1985! Yummy Yams Hot Cross Buns 1/4 cup warm water 2 pkg. active dry yeast 1/2 teaspoon sugar 4 ounces peeled raw sweet potatoes 3 1/2 cups bread flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup sugar 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, firm 3 eggs 2/3 cup currants Combine water, yeast and sugar in small bowl. Let stand until foamy. Measure all ingredients. Shred sweet potato with fine shredding disk into Processor work bowl. Remove disk and leave potato in work bowl. Immediately after shredding, proceed with adding the other ingredients, so the potatoes do not have time to darken. Insert Metal Blade, twisting to get it to the bottom of the bowl. Add flour, sugar, salt and butter. Cover and run machine for 30 seconds to combine ingredients. Remove small feed tube and, with machine running, pour in yeast and then the eggs. This will make a very soft dough. After the last egg is incorporated, run machine for no more than 30 additional seconds. Stop. Add approximately half the currants to the bottom of a gallon zip type bag. Scrape dough into bad and pour in remaining currants. Close the bag, squeezing out the air. Squeeze dough and currants to combine well. Set dough aside in warm, draft free place to rise until doubled, 20-30 minutes. Punch dough down by squeezing bag and empty out onto counter that has been sprayed with a non-stick pan spray. Pat out into a circle shape about 3/4" thick. Cut with floured biscuit type cutter and transfer to greased baking sheet. A 2" size cutter will yield approximately 20 buns. Cut shallow crosses in the top of each bun with a very sharp knife. Cover with sprayed plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free area to rise. A dent in the dough will remain when the dough has risen enough. Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake rolls 15-20 minutes, until they are beginning to tan. Remove to rack to cool and pipe a simple frosting into the previously slit crosses. Do not cover until the frosting has set. Enjoy. Cracks in bread --------------- Someone else enquired about getting cracks in their bread. I had that happen, particularly with one recipe. I think it was in a previous Bread Bakers that someone gave me the answer. My dough had not risen enough before it is put into the oven, therefore it had excessive oven spring, and cracked. When I let it rise longer before baking, this usually did not happen. If letting it rise longer makes the finished product too big for the pan, choose a different pan size. --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v106.n018.5 --------------- From: Reggie Dwork Subject: The end of the Hooch Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 02:23:04 -0700 A summary of three posts to bring the hooch thread to an end. **** Tarheel_Boy@webtv.net (The Old Skallywagg) writes: Thanks to Mike in Havana and Pop the Baker for their comments on "drinking the hooch" in reply to Mary's query. I drank some of my own hooch and forgot all about Mary. Perhaps that's what happened to those two sheepherders in that "currently popular film." But I didn't drank that much hooch. ;-))) As for the "sourdough snob," lighten up. My comments were not meant to be disdainful. And I'll betcha those trail cooks would have used a refrigerator if they had had one. Bob the Tarheel Baker - who never takes himself too seriously. **** "Mary Fisher" writes: >From: "mike fuller" > >Bob and Mary have been engaged in a fascinating dialogue on the >dangers of drinking hooch. Well, if you consider aphrodisiacs a >danger, then sourdough hooch is almost lethal. I've never needed an aphrodisiac. >But it is important to remember that the power of our craft must >always be used for good things. Indeed. Mary **** Gloria J Martin writes: I remember reading in a book by Adelle Davis, who was at one time the_ expert on Nutrition that one should never consume bakers yeast in an uncooked form. Reggie adds: While the idea that yeast in the gut is the source of many bad things has been around for long time, baker's yeast isn't being blamed for it. Adelle Davis recommended eating yeast: (linked from ) A google search for "eating baker's yeast" found only three reasons not to do it: It is possible to have a true allergy to baker's yeast. Here is a case of a boy who had an allergic reaction after eating bread or pizza, but only if fresh from the oven: It doesn't taste as good as nutritional yeast, at least if you're a hamster: If you're a cat, you might get bloat: Reggie --------------- END bread-bakers.v106.n018 --------------- Copyright (c) 1996-2006 Regina Dwork and Jeffrey Dwork All Rights Reserved