Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2003 22:50:18 -0600 (MDT) -------------- BEGIN bread-bakers.v103.n044 -------------- 001 - "Ina Belcher" Subject: Manual Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2003 13:55:52 -0400 Could you please tell me where I may obtain a manual for a Westinghouse Bread Machine #WWTR700C? Thankyou, Ina B --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.2 --------------- From: Shack Subject: RE: Swedish bread oven Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 08:29:19 -0400 (GMT-04:00) I just finished building an earth (mud,adobe,cob,whatever you wish to call it) oven in my backyard. I am unfamiliar with swedish oven design per se and I have learned quite a bit about the different types of ovens. The earth oven can be built any size you want, although the standard size is a 27 in hearth floor of firebrick. There is a wonderful book called Build Your Own Earth Oven by Kiko Denzer which I used and that is available online. I got mine from Amazon.com and you can see more about this oven at http://www.intabas.com/kikodenzer.html It is an environmentally friendly way of building and baking if you choose to build it that way and can be quite inexpensive to build if you can scrounge up the materials in you neighborhood (soil, rubble, sand, rocks is pretty much all you need). Mine cost less than $500 and was easy to build and $350 of it was for nice stones for the foundation. I chose this oven over all brick for space issues. Plus the earth oven is an all out group and family affair (kids love the mud!) although I did mine mostly alone with some help from toddlers and friends. You could easily build a basic oven in a day! If you want a more involved project - still entirely in the realm of the novice - is a true all brick oven which is outlined in the book The Bread Builders, written by Alan Scott and Dan Wing. Scott is the oven master and has his own site at www.ovencrafters.net Plans for this oven are in the book which is a serious treatise on bread baking - no recipes though. There is also a great group on yahoo! called brick-oven which you can peruse and join. There is a ton of info, mostly on the brick ovens designed by Alan Scott but there is adobe oven talk there as well. Kiko Denzer answers questions about his oven there as well. He is very approachable and a good person. I think you can bake any bread you want in either of these wood fired ovens, even flatbread varieties. Good luck - if you decide to build an oven, have fun and prepare for everyone you know to be in awe of you! Evan --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.3 --------------- From: Nifcon@aol.com Subject: Ovens for Larrry Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 08:57:08 EDT Larry: Googling generated 300+ hits. I haven't the time or interest (that's not meant to be pejorative, it's just not the way my attention is grabbed) to work through them. Also <"wood-fired" ovens diy> gave 80+ hits. If you've already gone through this process, I apologise for stating the obvious John --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.4 --------------- From: Nifcon@aol.com Subject: Lobo - Laziness Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 09:04:25 EDT There's a phrase "Lazy man's pains" meaning working now to ensure the ability to idle later. I readily admit that working hard when it's not necessary strikes me as the height of stupidity. Or, as the George Bernard Shaw dialogue has it, "I believe intensely in the dignity of labour". "That' s because you never done any". John --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.5 --------------- From: "Mike Avery" Subject: re: baker's percentages??? Date: Sun, 05 Oct 2003 07:16:04 -0600 RCannetoAL@aol.com asked: >Just bought the book The Bread Bible and I am having a hard time >understanding how to figure out baker's percentages. Please help! I wonder how many replies you'll get? Still, it's a common question, even in professional baking circles. Measuring by volume (cups, tbsp, etc) is hard to do consistently, so almost all professional bakers measure by weight. Most don't understand why everyone doesn't. The next step is baker's percentages. Everything is expressed as a percentage of the weight of the flour. Flour is ALWAYS expressed as 100%. One advantage here, is this approach is very easy to scale. So, with a ciabatta, your recipe might be something like (please note, this is NOT a recipe, this is numbers off the top of my head): ingredient percentage weight 1 weight 2 flour 100% 1000 gr 2500 gr water 80% 800 gr 2000 gr salt 3% 3 gr 7.5 gr yeast 2% 2 gr 5 gr It's easy to put the recipe into a spreadsheet and tell the spreadsheet you want 2,000 grams of dough. While baker's percentages will work with pounds and ounces, metric is a lot easier to scale. Quick - what's 5 times 4.5 ounces? Hope this helps, Mike -- Mike Avery MAvery@mail.otherwhen.com --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.6 --------------- From: Nifcon@aol.com Subject: An example of lazy man's pains. Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 09:43:59 EDT Hello all my little busy bees! If you're making a poolish based bread, put all the recipe's water into the poolish and, before you put everything away, measure the second day's ingredients into a plastic bag to add to the preferment. Today's bread is an example. Baguettes 98/60/2/2/1 white flour/water/rye flour/salt/instant yeast. So, 240 grams white, 10 grams rye, just a pinch of yeast and 300 grams water, mixed into a thin batter and left at room temperature overnight. While the scales are out, 250 gram white flour, 10 grams salt, 5 grams yeast, weighed into a plastic bag, or bowl, if you're intent on generating washing-up. Next day, just tip the bag contents into the poolish and start mixing. A minute or two extra work at night saves effort the next day since you don't have to get out all the ingredient and scales in the morning. John --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.7 --------------- From: DRogers248@aol.com Subject: Re: wood fired oven Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 09:44:56 EDT wood fired ovens - HomePopular I am also thinking about a wood fired oven for my new house next year. This is a site I have been looking at. Hope it gives you a start. deb* --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.8 --------------- From: POACHER2@aol.com Subject: Re: Baker's percentage Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 09:48:16 EDT Bakers percentage is based on the ingredient that has the largest amount in the recipe, usually flour. My basic white bread in bakers % would read 100% HG flour or 3 lbs Flour 50% Water 1 1/2 lbs Water 2% Dry yeast 1 oz Dry yeast 2% Salt 1 oz Salt 4% Margarine 2 ozs Margarine 4% Sugar 2 ozs Sugar Assuming that my math is correct. The advantage of bakers percentage (in my opinion) is two fold. 1, it is easy to see if a recipe is likely to work or if it fails why it may have done so. 2, it is easy to scale (increase or decrease) the recipe to suit your needs. Hope this helps. Victor --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.9 --------------- From: "Max Prola" Subject: Re: bread ovens Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 13:33:07 +0100 "The Bread Builders" by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott is largely devoted to the theory and practical aspects of constructing bread ovens. Max --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.10 --------------- From: Larry T Subject: hi-altitude bread Date: Sun, 05 Oct 2003 10:10:42 -0700 Do bread recipes need to be adjusted for high altitudes? Every year I cook Satuday dinner for a week-end dance camp up in the mountains, at about 6000 ft. elevation. Next year, since the dinner I'm thinking of preparing is simpler that what I usually do, I'm thinking of baking fresh bread for the 40-or-so participants. I'm thinking of using either the pan de campagne or ciabtta recipes from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. What I want to do is 1. Make the pre-ferments at home. 2. Mix the final dough at home, and place in the fridge. They don't have any mixers at the lodge, and I don't want to lug my Kitche-Aid up there. Nor do I want to have to hand-knead it there. There are other, more fun things to do. 3. Try to keep the dough cool during transport, and refrigerate at the camp until Saturday morning, when I'll take it out and let it warm and rise, then bake it. Does anyone have any suggestions re the altitude or the prep? Should I shape the loaves at step 2 or Saturday morning? Thanks for your input. Larry --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.11 --------------- From: "Audrey & Bill" <2ofts@bigsky.net> Subject: B-I-L Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 17:20:03 -0600 Over many years I've been told I was so smart to think of easier ways to do things and I'd always tell folks that I was just lazy and figured out a shorter and/or simpler way to do it and get the same results. Now I find that I can join the B-I-L Club because there are lots and lots of folks out there just like me - hurray! Audrey Konie, 2ofts@bigsky.net --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.12 --------------- From: LDavis47@aol.com Subject: Maintaining sourdough Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 21:47:28 EDT NorthStarKennels@aol.com wrote: >A friend told me of occassionally adding milk rather than water when >refreshing starter for sourdough---any advice from the seasoned sourdough >bakers on the list? I have been using a sourdough starter for about a year now and love the bread it produces. I never add milk. I maintain about 3 cups of the starter at all times in the refrig in a glass bowl(I think from Corning) that has a flat glass top loose fitting. I take the starter out and refresh in a larger bowl by adding 1 cup white flour and 1 cup water. After sitting 3 hours it is bubbling and about a third larger. I stir it down to get rid of some of the air, pour off 1.5 cups to use in a 5-6 cup bread (This includes the 1 cup of flour in the starter). I stick the remaining starter back in the refrig until the next day when the origonal bowl is clean. Before putting the starter back in the origonal bowl, I add 2 heaping tablespoons of rye flour (It seems to like the rye as food to hold it over until the next refreshment.) I make a sour dough bread once a week. This method is simple and has worked consistenly. The starter is very lively and strong. The origonal culture was from a friend who just fermented flour and water from the yeast and bacteria in the air. It is a true New Jersey sour dough. Lloyd --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.13 --------------- From: "Mary Laird" Subject: dark rye bread? Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2003 05:39:12 -0400 Is there a good recipe for a dark ,chewy rye bread with a hard crust? thanks- mary.laird@comcast.net --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.14 --------------- From: Mary Stackhouse Subject: a suggestion to help lower cholesterol Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2003 14:35:34 -0400 I have a suggestion regarding lower cholesterol - whole grain breads. Though my cholesterol was only just over 200, I took up trying to eat a diet with more whole grains such as brown rice more often instead of white rice but continuing to eat the same foods. My cholesterol lowered. I find that it is more difficult to bake whole grain breads but they are still great and provide more fiber which should help lower your cholesterol if eaten often. I suggest "The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book" by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders and Bronwen Godfrey published by Random House. This book only contains breads make with 100% whole grains. The book is well researched and there is a huge variety of recipes. Eating whole grains does not eliminated carbohydrates, but eating an increasing amount of whole grains can help to lower your cholesterol. --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.15 --------------- From: Dan Aldrich Subject: Re: wood fired oven Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 12:51:03 -0400 There is a yahoo group, Brick-Oven, that has lots of good information. I have two books that I recommend: Build your own earth oven by Kiko Denzer The bread builders by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott Denzer and Scott post regularly on the Brick-Oven list. -d --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.16 --------------- From: "Steven Leof" Subject: Savoury pies Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 15:23:55 +0100 I've made very good savoury pies using yeasted dough from Claudia Roden's "The Book of Jewish Food". Her recipe for the dough resembles pita; Peter Reinharts' recipe from "Crust & Crumb" works well. I'm wondering if anyone has made theses little pies and if so, how they are shaped and what is used as filling? Steven Leof --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v103.n044.17 --------------- From: Nifcon@aol.com Subject: Rose - bakers' percentages. Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2003 12:28:57 EDT Rose: Baker's' percentages are not really percentages they are ratios. The often quoted example of the Paris baguette which is usually; given as 100/60/2/2 of flour/water/salt/fresh yeast is saying that the bread contains the ingredients in those ratios and it's only because convention dictates that the flour weight should be expressed as 100 that percentages come into the picture. The recipe could easily be specified as 50/30/1/1. Also the benefits of calculating in ratios is only really apparent when you're using metric weights. A kilo of flour, as an example of a starting point I often use, just gives rise to weights of 1000/600/20/20 grams of flour,water, salt and yeast.. Avoirdupois weights being binary in nature do not map well onto ratios. If you wanted to make the recipe with, for example 2 pounds flour, you have 2lb, 1lb 3 1/4 oz, 5/8 oz, 5/8 oz rounded as close as possible. It is not immediately apparent what ratio underlies these weights. Get off your soapbox, John, cry the list! John --------------- END bread-bakers.v103.n044 --------------- Copyright (c) 1996-2003 Regina Dwork and Jeffrey Dwork All Rights Reserved