i wrote this last week - the corrections are in parenthesis:
"i have to eat my words about finding 100% wholewheat bread undesirable.
after being on tour in chicago, on the moody bible radio station, a
listener immediately e-mailed me urging me to try prairie gold 100% white
whole wheat and though of course the grain (sorry--i meant crumb) is
compact (dense) compared to one using a high proportion of white wheat, the
flavor was fantastic--wheaty/nutty--especially so because i made it from
fresh-ground whole white wheat."
Jessica Weissman <jweissmn@his.com> wrote:
"As for the Rose Levy Beranbaum book, nearly all of the errata listed are
easy for an experienced baker to spot. Where I've had trouble is that some
of the flour weights seem off. 11 or 12 ounces for two cups of flour is
pretty high. Not sure whether that was a misprint or an author error, but
when I went back to measuring the flour instead of weighing I got good
results again."
please refer to the chart on page 570 for weights of different types of
flour. i list bread flour as 5.5 ounces which means that yes indeed 2 cups
weigh 11 ounces. the problem is that no two people measure the same way and
therefore a cup of flour will vary in weight depending on who is measuring
it. that is why i personally don't use volume. however, this is incidental,
because since i developed the recipes by weight, if you bake by weight, the
ratio of ingredients will all be in balance. and since i also offer the
percentage of water contained in each recipe, which you can figure out on
your own as well simply by dividing the total weight of the water by the
total weight of the flour, you can choose the amount of hydration you
personally may prefer. on the other hand, if you bake by volume (cup
measurement) you will always find yourself needing to adjust the dough
after mixing it.
"I've had some great successes with her recipes, and a few duds."
i'd love to know which ones were great successes and as for these duds, i'm
sure everyone on the list would appreciate knowing which they are so that
they can avoid them!
reMaggie Glezer's whole wheat challah: can't wait to make it--i've tried
other of maggie's recipes using this technique of very little yeast and
long rise and adore it. this one sounds wonderful! i find myself wondering
if my great grandmother rose, in russia, used wholewheat for her challah!
(that would be over 100 years ago.)
best,
Rose