For the person in Thailand (I think?) who couldn't find a baking stone
and was wondering what he could substitute...my husband once worked in
construction and when I said I wanted a pizza stone (which was "sale
priced" $29 at a local gourmet cooking supplies shop) he brought home a
similarly sized unglazed floor tile from one of the houses he was
working on. It was a very thin ivory colored tile (no dye that I could
tell) and worked wonderfully. I seasoned it just as I would a stone
bought at a cooking supplies store and it was great. If you can't get
an unglazed floor tile, perhaps a roof tile made of similar material
would do.
And for the person looking for high altitude tips. I lived in Denver 15
years and am still having trouble adapting my baking for low altitude!
(I'm always surprised when the bread does what it's supposed to do
rather than what I expect it to do.) Add a tablespoon or a tablespoon
and a half of vital wheat gluten (I know they sell it at regular
grocery stores, but Wild Oats used to sell it in bulk and it's cheaper
that way) along with your flour (for a three or four cup flour
recipe...experiment to find out what your baking style requires.) Also,
the most successful bread baker I knew in Denver couldn't understand
why I objected to a dough that remained really wet and sticky right up
til the end of kneading. Hers would stick a little even in a greased
bowl after rising. She put in more liquid than the recipe required. I
never got her technique to work for me (adding as much as a quarter cup
additional liquid right up front) but you might try it and see if you
can get it to work for you. FWIW, I baked pretty decent kneaded breads
in Denver but my batter breads (Sally Lunn, that kind of thing) were
magnificent, and I think it's because I was willing to let batter bread
doughs stay sticky.
I recently got a bread baking video out of the library (don't remember
the title of the video) and the most important thing I got out of it
was that the instructor insisted that the best dough was a sticky
dough. This seems at odds with all those recipes that say to knead
until it is glossy and stops sticking, but I'm going to give it a try.
Mind you, I let my bread machine do my kneading (as my hands get older
that machine is more and more a lifesaver!) so I won't be cleaning
bread dough out from under my fingernails for two weeks, but I still
think it's a good idea.
gypsy
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