Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 23:39:22 GMT -------------- BEGIN bread-bakers.v104.n021 -------------- 001 - "Gina Piccolino" Subject: Hold the Date for Summer Loaf Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:40:28 -0400 The Bread Bakers Guild of America is happy to announce that the eighth annual Summer Loaf Artisan Foods Festival will be held Saturday, August 7, 2004 in the beautiful city of Portland, Oregon. Preliminary plans include: * Master Class * Baking Technique Demonstrations * Amateur Baking Contest * Guildhall Gathering --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v104.n021.2 --------------- From: "Russell J. Fletcher" Subject: RE: neglected starter Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 00:19:49 -0700 This original message touches on questions I have about sourdough. I have been reluctant to ever try a sourdough starter because there are so many types of bread to make that I figured my starter would dry up, mold, or otherwise get funky. Lately I have found a lot of sourdough rye breads that sound interesting, so I am becoming more interested in trying a starter. Is there a way to cost effectively save starter if you only use it once every few months? What are the danger signs that you need to toss your starter and begin again? Thanks ----- Russell Fletcher, acoder@xprt.net --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v104.n021.3 --------------- From: "Philip Seitz" Subject: Baking highly hydrated breads (long) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 14:39:54 -0400 Several months ago I asked Digest readers for help with the baffling limp crusts I encountered when making bread from highly hydrated doughs (at or above 85%). This is an update, both for those who responded and for anyone else who wants to make these breads CRUNCH. The following covers the practical solutions I've found, but I had also hoped to provide some useful science background. Unfortunately it will take me a good while to understand it all, and as a result the comments that appear below only represent my (weak) understanding of a complex process. Limp crust syndrome: As a crust lover I am in the habit of baking normally hydrated breads (up to 75%) for five or ten minutes at a high temperature 500F (260C) then dropping the temperature to 450F (232C) until the crust is a rich brown. This provides a crunchy crust with lots of color. When similarly baked doughs with 85% hydration come out of oven they look just as good, including a firm crust. But with as little as 15 minutes of cooling the crust becomes very soft, thin, and flaccid - almost like a sagging skin that's loosely attached to a heavier, interior mass. Once this meltdown sets in, the crust is never the same. Kitchen experiments: A solution came from a kindly professional who advised me to try again at a lower temperature. This I did, putting an identical bread (recipe appears below) in a 400F (204C) oven, and taking it out when the crust color indicated the bread was done. (Note: there was no time with the oven door open, or other curing tricks.) The result was fabulous, with a crust that is yielding but definitely crisp, marked by many small bubbles and an almost laminated (layered) cross section. The crumb is pleasantly holey and very even in texture, though not so creamy as the limp crust examples. This first success lead me to wonder where the limits on hydration might be, at least at this temperature. To explore the possibilities the above-mentioned dough was adapted with the addition of sufficient water to raise the hydration level to 98%. This bread is too soft to stand on its own, so a few changes in handling were required to approximate the volume of the first (recipe below). While it took over 70 minutes in the oven, the result was very pleasantly edible and with a crust very similar to that described above. When I waited for the loaf to wilt as it cooled, nothing happened. In my call for help and subsequent conversations with Digest readers the consensus was that water was in some way responsible for the limpness, and that finding a way to reduce the bread's after-baking water content would be beneficial. This was partially confirmed when the weights of two loaves - one baked at the high temperature, one at the lower - showed that the former weighed substantially more than the latter, presumably due to higher moisture retention. And water was indeed the culprit, though in a more complex way fashion than might first be thought. Technical stuff: The root of the problem is fairly simple, and well described by Harold McGee: "Immediately after being removed from the oven, the loaf of bread is far from being a homogenous body. The outer layer is very dry and close to 400F (204C), the interior moist and around 200F (93C). During cooling these differences slowly even themselves out. Moisture diffuses outward and heat from the surface, both inward and out into the cooler air." (McGee, p. 310) A more intricate description comes from French bakers, who have identified limp crust syndrome with a term of their own: Pain Saisi. One writer described it this way: "A bread's crumb is sticky when the baking is flawed: the most frequent cause is putting [the bread] into an oven at too high a temperature; the crust will be caramelized before the interior has time to cook - In the preceding case the crust, strongly colored, is hardly formed, and after several minutes of cooling it becomes very limp." (Guinet, p. 169) As noted in the last sentence above, limp crusts are not only prematurely browned, but only partially formed. The same writer adds: "Until 100C evaporating water from the crumb hinders crust development; the crust is essentially only a film. The water vapor released, in effect, helps slow the penetration of calories [heat energy] into the dough, the temperature above that being notably lower than that of the surrounding oven." "Above 100C the crust dehydrates slowly while solidifying. " "Finally, and at the same time, the sugars remaining in the dough undergo dextrinisation then carmelization, marking the beginning of the coloring of the crust, finally giving, by reaction with certain protides, products of roasting and grilling. This is what is referred to at the Maillard reaction." (Guinet, p. 59) Guinet notes that in the oven bread dehydration comes principally from the crust area, and the crumb retains nearly all of its moisture. One reason for crust water loss during baking is straightforward evaporation due to the heat and low humidity of the oven. But another, more interesting phenomenon is the loss of water as it is retracted into the crumb. As Guinet puts it: "Every difference in temperature in a wet body provokes a transfer of water toward the coldest spot." (Guinet p. 62) "This temperature difference is due both to the thermal inertia of a lump of dough, and to the different ways that each part of the dough is warmed: the exterior is heated by the radiant heat of the oven, but the interior is heated primarily by conduction (we all have our baking stones, right?)." (Guinet p.61) Conversely, it is only during cooling that the crumb experiences a notable water loss, for the same reasons. The crust cools more quickly than the interior, prompting the interior moisture to move outward. This process continues through the cooling period (up to 24 hours) until there is an equilibrium between the different parts of the bread and their storage environment. As as the water moves outward, it damages the crust - sometimes a crust that wasn't full developed anyway. Sources: Raymond Calvel, Le gout de pain: comment le preserver, comment le retrouver (Editions Jerome Villette, 1990) Roland Guinet, Technologie du pain francais (Paris: Editions P.B.I., 1992) Harold McGee, On food and cooking: the science and lore of the kitchen (New York: Scribner, 1984) Recipes used: Uptown Rustic v. 4.1 (Makes one loaf of about 1,200 grams) Step. 1: Mix sponge 250 grams King Arthur Sir Galahad (or similar unbleached white flour, about 11% protein) 280 grams water 1/2 tsp yeast Mix, leave at room temperature for 1 hour, then refrigerate overnight 2. Mix dough All the sponge 460 grams King Arthur Sir Galahad flour 40 grams General Mills All Trumps (or similar hi-gluten 14% protein flour) 360 grams water 1/4 Vitamin C tablet (500 mg), crushed Mix and let stand 20 minutes Step 3: Salt and knead Add 15 grams salt. Knead with mixer until a gelatinous, shiny steel grey (about 15 mins on Kitchen Aid speed 6) Step 4: Ferment Let rise until doubled in volume Step 5: Shape and let rise until doubled (in basket or free form) Step 6: Baking: Put into 400F oven, with steam for first 5 minutes. Finish at 400F (will take 50 minutes or more) 98% Rustic 1) Same ingredients above, except 460 grams water in dough 2) Knead until glossy and hanging on dough hook - about 30 minutes on Kitchen Aid speed 8 3) Shape and let rise in oiled 10 inch spring form ring, one hour or until doubled. 4) Bake at 400F (with five minutes steam) until rich brown - about 70 minutes. Phillip R. Seitz artifact@erols.com --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v104.n021.4 --------------- From: NorthStarKennels@aol.com Subject: Thanks for the celiac recipes Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 08:17:30 EDT Many thanks to everyone who responded to my problem with baking for my Celiac Sprue daughter. I have many resources now, and have placed orders at various web sites, I'll try them all. Bean flour---hmmmm. We're desperate, I'll try it. Joan --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v104.n021.5 --------------- From: Maggie Glezer Subject: Yeasted Waffle Issue Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 09:41:57 -0400 Dear Fellow Bread Bakers, At long last, I have an answer to the posting (bread-bakers.v104.n005.9) concerning poisoning about my recipe for waffle batter (bread-bakers.v104.n004.1). For those who do not recall, a poster was concerned that the batter for my recipe for yeasted waffles would become poisonous as it fermented overnight at room temperature. I wrote to Prof. Hammes, a microbiologist at the University of Hohenheim in Germany who specializes in studying fermented foods, asking him if leaving a milk based batter to ferment overnight was dangerous. A colleague of his, Michael Seitter, replied. Here is his response: >I do not think that you can poison people with this recipe. You make a >sourdough with instant yeast. Instant yeast contains commonly also >10000 >lactic acid bacteria (LAB) per gram as contaminants. Over the fermentation >time of 12 hours at room temperature the LAB produce lactic acid, which >causes a pH decrease to about 4 to 5. If you do add yogurt, which is also >a safe lactic fermented food the batter becomes safe against spoilage by >other microorganisms at once, because the yogurt already has a low pH of >about 4 to 4.5. > >The only point of slight risk in the recipe is that if you donīt work >asseptically in making your mixture therefore Staphylococci may grow and, >before the pH drops to the safe range, may cause food poisoning by Toxin >which is heat stable. > >I suggest you that you take pasteurized or UHT-milk for the dough and not >raw milk. > >If you want to play safe you can additionally hold your batter in the >refrigerator, here the yeast can ferment the batter and no other >pathogenic microorganism can grow up during the time of fermentation. >Additionally can you increase the yeast, 1 kg of instant yeast replaces 3 >to 4 kg of compressed yeast. You should have about 1% of compressed yeast >in the batter. The conversion to 1% compressed yeast is 0.25% instant yeast, which in this case is 0.4 teaspoons yeast (based on about 450 g flour, and about 3 g instant yeast per teaspoon). The original recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon yeast, so I would just round it up to 1/2 teaspoon if you are concerned. Better yet, work clean and wash your hands well! I hope this clears up the issue. All the best, Maggie Glezer --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v104.n021.6 --------------- From: Tarheel_Boy@webtv.net (Skallywagg) Subject: A recipe from Anchorage... Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 14:48:00 -0400 I got this recipe from a friend in Anchorage and have adapted the procedure a bit, but not the ingredients. Bob the Tarheel Baker Lynn's Dill Bread and Dinner Rolls Mix together and warm 1/4 C potato water 3/4 C cottage cheese 3/4 C sour cream Add the following and knead into dough 1 pkg yeast 3 1/2 C flour (I use bread flour) 1/4 tsp baking soda 1 1/2 tsp salt 1 unbeaten egg, at room temperature 3 tbl sugar 3 tbl minced dried onions 2 tbl whole dill seed 1 1/2 tbl butter After the initial rise, shape into 1 large loaf of bread, or 2 small loaves of bread, or 1 1/2 dozen large dinner rolls, or 2 dozen small dinner rolls. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise again in a room place. Bake at 350 F: large loaf approx. 50-55 min., small loaves approx. 40-45 min., dinner rolls approx. 20 min. --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v104.n021.7 --------------- From: "Russell J. Fletcher" Subject: Requesting Rye Krisp recipe Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 02:35:34 -0700 Does anyone have a recipe to make Rye Krisp flatbread? I can't find it in bread books, and on the internet search engines I can only pull up recipes that USE Rye Krisp, not ones to make it. Thanks. Russ --- Russell Fletcher CCS-P acoder@xprt.net Battle Ground WA USA <*)))>< --------------- END bread-bakers.v104.n021 --------------- Copyright (c) 1996-2004 Regina Dwork and Jeffrey Dwork All Rights Reserved