Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 22:30:04 -0600 (MDT) -------------- BEGIN bread-bakers.v102.n048 -------------- 001 - "Jazzbel" Subject: Make your own Tortila Press!!! Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2002 12:34:59 -0400 Instructions are found in the tortilla section of Glen Hammet''s website below: http://www.mo.quik.com/bpglenn/bakingbetterbread.html Later, Jazzbel --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v102.n048.2 --------------- From: "S&R Ash" Subject: Re: Soft Tortillas/ Texas Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2002 13:08:09 -0400 Hi all. I have been following the Tortilla chain of postings. Yes, too much baking powder will give the bitter taste. Here is my recipe and some hints. Hope these help. My recipe after living in San Antonio: 2 cups flour 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp baking powder. 4 to 5 Tbsp Crisco, or good solid shortening (do not use oil) 8 to 10 Tbsp warm water Cut Crisco into flour as you would for pie crust. (Mix salt and baking powder into the flour before you add Crisco) Add warm water one tablespoon at a time, until dough forms a ball. I like to make in a tupperware bowl as the dough will pull away from the bowl easier. KNEAD BALL SMOOTH BETWEEN YOUR HANDS, abt 5 to 6 minutes. Let dough rest covered for 15 minutes. Pinch off balls (2oz each) Roll flat thin circle about 8 inches in size. Bake in a small heavy skillet until slightly brown spots appear. Keep warm in a covered tortilla basket. HINTS: Reheat 8 seconds in a microwave, mine has only 750 watts. So would have to experiment to get them heated. The warmth of your hands will give a better dough. I weigh the balls to 2 ozs. If you like larger tortillas you could weigh them at 3 oz. I suppose. By dividing the dough by weight I have more uniform tortillas. The lining from Cereal Boxes is GREAT for rolling them out. I have used Freezer paper but you cannot see what you are doing. The waxed paper is too thin and gets very messy, but the cereal liners are heavy and will hold up for rolling them out. One has to practice a few times to get this right. Don't be upset if the circles are more like odd square shapes at first. It takes time to learn how to roll out the circles. I never could get the press to work for me, as I don't have any strength in my hands and arms due to health problems. I just use my rolling pin. flatten the dough first in my hands then roll like one does a pie crust. Hope these added hints help and you can enjoy making your own tortillas. I agree that buying the corn tortillas is a WHOLE lot easier! I am SO hungry for a good Puff Taco from San Antonio, plus all the other great foods. I love the old market. Sue Ellen in Ohio --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v102.n048.3 --------------- From: POACHER2@aol.com Subject: 20 qt mixer Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2002 14:34:23 EDT I have little if any experience of other mixers than Hobart. Here as some things that might be of interest with the 20 qt. The Hobart 20 qt also accepts a 12 qt bowl (naturally, you would have to buy the 12 qt accessories, dough hook, etc.). The 20 qt also has a power take off on the head. The power take off accepts a grinding attachment and slicer. Grating disks can also be used in conjunction with the slicing head. There are a few more attachments that fit the 20 qt, the ones I have outlined are the major ones. Allow me to assure you I neither work for nor sell Hobart equipment. However, as a chef I have used Hobart for many years and been happy with the mixers. They are not cheap, a new one is $2500-$3000, a reconditioned one $1250 up. Hope this helps. Victor --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v102.n048.4 --------------- From: Kathleen Fay Subject: Dark wheat bread Date: Sat, 05 Oct 2002 19:52:47 -0400 Has anyone got a recipe for the Paradise Bakery and Cafe dark wheat bread? I visited Arizona a couple of different times and enjoyed the sandwiches made with this bread so much, but have been unable to find a recipe that comes close to duplicating it. Thanks, Kathy --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v102.n048.5 --------------- From: "David A Barrett" Subject: Re: More flour tortilla information Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 09:14:58 -0400 I bought an electric tortilla press, that cooks the tortillas as well as flattens them, about six month ago. It looks like a normal tortilla press with a glandular disorder, and presses the same way as normal press. Honestly, though, I haven't had as much time as I would like to play with it, but I have been able to get passable results with it, and I think that a little tinkering with the recipes will give good results. What I do with the dough, while it's resting and when I'm making tortillas is to wrap it up in platic wrap. If you roll it into a cylinder you can roll plastic wrap around it, then hold each end roll it on the counter so that it twists the wrap like a christmas cracker. The more you roll it, the tighter it gets on the dough and it will get like a sausage made out of dough. If you get it tight enough, then you can just cut off as much as you need for each tortilla as you need it, and the rest will stay moist inside the tube. I'm in Canada, and I got my tortilla press at Golda's Kitchen (www.goldaskitchen.com), which is in Canada. I'm pretty sure they have regular tortilla presses also. If not, just email them and ask. Everytime I've asked about something not listed they've told me that they can get it and given me a list of prices. thanx, dave. *8-o --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v102.n048.6 --------------- From: Judy Nylen Subject: list posting Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2002 10:20:36 -0400 After lurking on this wonderful list for years, I have a question regarding using the linen couche. My first attempt was a disaster, my baguettes completely deflated. I thought I had covered it well with flour but when I tried to transfer each baguette, they stuck and lost the shape I intended to create by using the couche in the first place. Has anyone had a successful experience with a couche? I've had a similar difficulty with the "brotform" dough rising basket. It seems no matter how much flour, it is insufficient and I end up with a spreading, deflated loaf instead of retaining the beautiful pattern of the basket. Judy Nylen --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v102.n048.7 --------------- From: Seacookee@aol.com Subject: REQ: Black Bread Recipe Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 13:02:24 EDT Hi Group, I have read and admired the great bakers from this group and learned so much about bread baking THANK YOU!! REQUEST: Long ago my family enjoyed an (Italian) restaurant that served a VERY dense Black Bread with creamy butter. I have been unable to find a recipe that equals the density and taste of this bread. It was very very dark (black), very heavy and moist. Extremely tasty! I would appreciate anyone who can assist me in my search for the recipe of this wonderful bread. I am also sure that others would enjoy trying a recipe that equals the taste of this bread. Thank you, Cookie --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v102.n048.8 --------------- From: "Jeanette or Norbert Jacobs" Subject: Bitter Tortilla Problem Solved Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2002 09:53:40 -0500 Well, I'm really ashamed to admit it to you all, but I discovered my error in making those darn bitter tortillas last week: it was a "pulling error".....I pulled the baking SODA off the shelf, instead of the baking POWDER!!! Snickering at me, my 85 year old mother said she developed this problem, too, when she was my age; said it's called "CRS disease." (Hint: the first two words are "Can't Remember...." hehehe) Oh well, motivates me to try those tortillas again! Eating Humble Pie until then, Jeanette in South Texas --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v102.n048.9 --------------- From: Gonzo White Subject: Question on Egg whites Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2002 15:19:19 -0600 Read the recipe then one of you super smart food experts please answer my question at the bottom. French Bread This recipe was in the recipe book that came with my original Dak R2D2 bread machine many many years ago. This was the first recipe book for making bread in an Bread Machine and I have to say it still has some of the best recipes for baking bread. This is a wonderful white bread, makes fantastic french toast. 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast 3 cups of bread flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 Tablespoons of Sugar 2 Tablespoons of Butter 1 Cup less 1 Tablespoon of water 2 stiffly beaten egg whites Beat the egg whites and then set aside. Add the remaining ingredients to the ABM and start the machine. When the mixing starts slowly stir in the egg whites. Use the French bread setting if you have one, otherwise just use the normal white. You can also use the dough setting. If you do this Remove the dough and roll flat. Then roll up like a jelly roll, tuck the ends in and let rise one hour. Then put in a 350 F oven till golden brown about 20 minutes. This will give you the classical long French bread. loaf. You can also take a very sharp knife and put some slashes into the top of the bread, then wash the top of the bread with a mixture of 1 Tablespoon of water, dash of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of cornstarch, and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. Now my question. Why do you stiffly beat the egg whites? I know the texture of this bread is totally differnet from a recipe without the egg whites. But if I toss raisins in at the beginning of the cycle my machine will beat them to little black dots. Why doesn't it beat all the air out of the egg whites? --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v102.n048.10 --------------- From: "Dale Baker" Subject: Dutch Oven baking Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2002 20:17:32 -0500 I have been trying to figure out a way to bake bread in a very hot oven, 600 - 700 F. Last week I decided to try baking in a wood fired cast iron Dutch oven I had laying around, just for grins. I figured the worst that could happen is I'd get burned and/or my bread would be ruined. It rained the next few days and today was the first time I've had the chance to try it. Here's what happened. Recipe: I used a plain white bread leavened with SF sourdough starter. The flour was KA unbleached bread flour. The recipe was pretty much Peter Reinhart's SF sourdough bread. Technique: I heated the Dutch Oven directly in the flames until it was about as hot as it was going to get. Then I took the lid off and put the lid in the fire while I went to get the loaf. I put the loaf on a wooden peel with lots of cornmeal on it. I took the loaf out to the DO and removed the DO from the fire, but left the lid. I put lots of cornmeal in the bottom of the DO, it started smoking almost immediately, and then slid the loaf into the DO. I spritzed the loaf and the inside of the oven with about seven or ten squirts of water and placed the lid on it immediately. As a matter of fact, I had the lid ready to place on the oven before I started spritzing. I then placed the oven back on the fire but this time on a small bunch of coals and put a few coals on the lid as well. I'm not sure of the temp of the oven as I seem to have lost my oven thermometer. But it was about as hot as I could make it. About a minute or so into the bake, I lifted the lid ever so slightly and spritzed the inside of the oven again. The loaf took about 15 minutes to cook and had an oven spring of about twice the height of the loaf. I cut the loaf twice before putting it into the oven, but in retrospect, I would have cut it 3 or 4 times. It was a small loaf, about 6 by 9 or so and oval in shape. Folks, if this is the kind of bread I can expect from a wood fired masonry oven, wild horses can't stop me from making one. The crumb is perfect, with some rather large irregular holes all the way down to small ones. The crust is crunchy, but not tough. It didn't stick to the DO at all. Came right out. The loaf has a slight smoky flavor. Conclusion: Although a bit more trouble than using your kitchen oven, this loaf is hands down the best loaf I have ever managed to bake. I baked another loaf from the same batch in the regular oven using Peter Reinhart's technique for baking artisan breads, and although good, does not compare to the D.O. loaf. Dale Baker --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v102.n048.11 --------------- From: NorthStarKennels@aol.com Subject: Re: sourdough starter recipes Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 17:03:32 EDT I remember a while ago a discussion about good starters for sourdough. I just tried and failed with King Arthur's. Does anyone have another receipe I could try? Please email directly, I think sometimes I don't get all the digests. Joan Ayers www.NorthStarKennels.com 609-654-2882 "Be pretty if you can, be witty if you must, but be gracious if it kills you." ------------------ Elsie de Wolfe --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v102.n048.12 --------------- From: James Ross Subject: A Big Thank You Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 16:22:17 -0700 (PDT) I want to thank everyone who responded to my request for recipies on Salt Rising Bread. Dilly, thank you for Susan Browns site. That is so neat. I did order the salt rising yeast from King Arthur this morning and will let you know how it works. I have always loved salt rising toast for breakfast. I bake a yeast bread at least once a week and have for years. I have a Kitchenaid 6 qt. Professional. It is great and has a splatter shield, so no mess. Thanks again and so nice meeting you all, James --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v102.n048.13 --------------- From: "vin bad" Subject: help Date: Sun, 06 Oct 2002 23:11:27 +0530 dear folks, my husband is a kidney patient but he loves eating bread so i have lately learnt to make breads at home but my bread has a yeast smell, what do i do to eliminate this problem? kindly help chhaya Regards, cvin83@hotmail.com --------------- END bread-bakers.v102.n048 --------------- Copyright (c) 1996-2002 Regina Dwork and Jeffrey Dwork All Rights Reserved