Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 05:40:46 GMT -------------- BEGIN bread-bakers.v105.n006 -------------- 001 - "Gerald Ulett" Subject: Whole Grain Oat Bread Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 10:23:34 -0800 I was waiting for my doctor in an examination room with little to choose in reading material and I picked up a Martha Stewart Living Magazine, circa September 2003. In it was a recipe for what turned out to be a very tasty bread with lots of fiber. Perhaps the best flavored bread which I have ever made. It uses steel-cut oats, bulgur wheat, whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour and rolled oats, together with salt, honey, water and yeast! --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.2 --------------- From: Roxanne Rieske Subject: RE: The Montreal Bagel Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 08:29:05 -0700 For me: The Montreal Bagel vs. The New York Bagel The Montreal Bagel is the winner! I love them, but I've never been able to make them at home because these are baked in brick fired ovens, and my oven can't produce anything as worthy no matter what the tricks I use! There are a couple different recipes for the dough itself, but the version I like is made with sourdough starter. It's a very stiff dough that is also boiled in alkalized water before being fired in the ovens. Roxanne Rieske (Rokzane) rokzane@comcast.net --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.3 --------------- From: Roxanne Rieske Subject: RE: Golden bread Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 08:31:40 -0700 Challah dough has a wonderful golden color because of the butter and eggs it contains. I would use this dough and turn it into rolls instead of challah! Yummy yummy! Roxanne Rieske (Rokzane) rokzane@comcast.net --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.4 --------------- From: RisaG Subject: More Pita recipes Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 17:54:47 -0800 (PST) Here is more Pita for you. I've actually made this one but this is the original recipe I got for it: Pitas (Copyright, 1999 Linda Whitley) 2 1/4 Tsp. SAF yeast (instant or breadmachine yeast) 1 1/4 C. Warm water 3 1/4 to 3 3/4 C. Bread flour * 1/4 C. Olive Oil 1 1/2 Tsp. Salt * or whole wheat flour with 1 Tbs. or so of vital wheat gluten added, or part of each, adjusting the amount of VWG accordingly Preheat oven to 450F (425F, if using a dark pan) with a baking sheet in the oven on a lower rack. Mix and knead** to form a moderately soft dough, adding additional flour if necessary. Cover and let dough rest 15 minutes. Divide dough in to 8 to 12 equal pieces. Keep all dough pieces covered when not in use. Shape each piece into a smooth ball. (HINT: Roll it in circles between your palm and a countertop with your hand cupped.) After forming all pieces into balls, start flattening them slightly in the order in which they were formed into balls. Be careful not to crease the dough when flattening the balls. Coat each piece of dough with flour. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Take out two pieces of dough, keeping remaining pieces covered. Working back and forth between the two pieces of dough, roll them out gradually to form circles. Be careful not to crease, pinch, or pull the dough. (NOTE: It may be helpful to use a small rolling pin for some or all of this.) Dough circles should be approximately 7 or 8 inches in diameter and about 1/8-inch thick. (Thickness takes priority over diameter.) Without creasing, pinching, or pulling the dough, toss (or place) both pieces on the hot baking sheet. Leave the oven light on while pitas are baking. When pitas have puffed up well (a few minutes), bake another 30 seconds. Remove pitas from baking sheet (and oven) and stack on rack (or plate). Repeat with two more pieces of dough until all pitas have been baked. While one pair of pitas is baking, I roll out the next pair. (NOTE: If a pita is pinched, creased, or stretched, it will probably not puff up or will not puff up completely. If a pta happens to not puff up as it should, take it out when it is done and use it for flatbread. Posted by Linda Whitley to ABMTalk #548, 11/23/99 Risa's notes: ** If doing in bread machine, place ingredients for dough in bread pan according to manufacturers directions. Use dough cycle. Then follow rest of instructions as written to form pitas and to bake them. RisaG --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.5 --------------- From: Mike Avery Subject: Re: Baker's Percentage Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 21:25:02 -0700 "Valmai Barbala" asked: >I have started to make the leaven on page 58 and understand that, but when >I have made the leaven, how do I calculate how much flour, water etc to >use? They write of Bakers percentage, but that only confuses me further. Commercial bakers normally measure ingredients by weight. At least in the USA, home bakers usually measure by volume, which is less accurate. (Flour, and other dry ingredients, may not always pack the same. So the weight of a cup of flour can vary by 50% depending on the flour, the humidity, how the flour was packed in the sack, and how the baker filled the cup. Measuring by weight is faster and more accurate once you're used to it.) In order to make recipe scaling easy, bakers use bakers percentage. In bakers percentage, the flour is considered to be 100%. All other ingredients are scaled relative to the flour. If you are using more than one flour, you are free to wing it. I prefer to consider the combined amount of flour to be 100%. So, a baker's percentage recipe might call for: Bread flour 100% Water 65% Salt 2% Instant yeast 1.5% The percentages are independent of the weight measurements you use... use metric (or SI), pounds, troy ounces, avoidopois, stones, whatever, it works regardless. The ratios are independent of the weight system. If you wanted to make 1685 grams of bread with the recipe above, you'd use Ingredient grams Bread flour 1000 Water 650 Salt 20 Instant yeast 15 The ratio between the flour and water (and other liquids and oils) is the hydration of the dough. This recipe is considered to have 65% hydration. If the amount of flour and water is the same, the hydration is 100%. This gives you a ballpark guess as to the texture of the dough. The big variable here is the kind(s) of flour used. Whole grain flours tend to soak up more water than white flours, so a 80% hydration whole wheat dough and a 65% hydration white flour dough might be pretty simular. (Those numbers were pulled out of the air to make a point, they are not being represented as being accurate or having any real world signifigance.) As a final note on hydration, many bakers consider oil, butter, honey, eggs, or whatever to be water for the purpose of calculating hyrdation. All of these things tend to act just like water for the purposes of dough handling. Finally, I REALLY like "The Bread Builders". However, I think any number of other books are better books for the beginning baker. If you are at the intermediate level or beyond, it's excellent. If you want to build a brick oven, it's great! But, it isn't a great introduction to baking. If you want to build an oven, you might also check out Kiko Denzer's earth oven book. I have the book, but not here, and the title eludes me. Look up Kiko Denzer at amazon or half.com, there seems to only be one Kiko. [[Editor's note: ]] If you want to get going on sourdough baking, you might check out Dr. Ed Wood's books, Jeffery Hammel's book, Ortiz's "The Village Baker", or even my guide to sourdough on my web page at http://www.sourdoughhome.com. Another good resource is the rec.food.sourdough news group. Good luck, Mike --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.6 --------------- From: Debunix Subject: Re: Very moist bran muffins Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 13:25:46 -0600 From the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book-- I've been making these for years, and they're always moist and fabulous. I usually use some currants (pre-soaked in a little boiling water, then cooled) plus a bit of cinnamon and cardamom. This is the base recipe: 1 C whole wheat flour* 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 C wheat bran 3 T melted butter or oil (it really works fine with either one) 2 T brown sugar 2 T molasses 1 egg 1 1/2 C buttermilk (optional: 1/2 C raisins or currants ) Sift or whisk together the flour, soda, and salt, and stir in the bran. In another container, whisk together the liquid ingredients. Stir together just until mixed (add the currants or raisins here if you're using them). The batter will be fairly liquid but that's ok. Pour into lined or greased muffin pans and bake standard muffins 15-20 minutes in preheated 375 F oven. *I use fine whole wheat pastry flour, ground fresh from soft wheat (http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/WholeBaking.html), but have on rare and desperate occasion used unbleached white flour with good results. Diane Brown in St. Louis http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/FoodPages.html --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.7 --------------- From: Debunix Subject: Re: pita bread Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 13:36:36 -0600 I don't know all the whys, but I do have some experience with hows and whens..... In my experience, the key is the thickness of the bread--nearly any thin bread, about 1/8-1/4 inch thick, will try to puff up if baked on a very hot surface, like preheated bricks in a 450 or hotter oven, or on a hot griddle or frying pan on the stove. It does not depend on gluten, as corn tortillas puff up on a hot griddle. This is why most crackers have holes poked in them--to keep them from ballooning during baking and why many flatbreads are dimpled by fingers or pricked with a docker device. My guess as to why is that when a bread is thin and baked fast on a hot surface, the little bubbles inside more easily coalesce into larger bubbles, which grow rapidly under the quick cooking conditions into one large cavity. A thicker bread wouldn't be cooking so fast, so the bubbles might not be so prone to rapid growth and rupture to join in the bigger bubble cavities--although you do often get bigger bubbles just under the surface skin of some larger loaves, it doesn't propagate through the whole thing to make a hollow loaf. Diane Brown in St. Louis http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/FoodPages.html --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.8 --------------- From: Mary Stackhouse Subject: Flour Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 16:04:13 -0500 I noticed a remark regarding Carol Field's Cocodrillo Bread on last weeks listing. I have been interested in trying out this recipe. It calls for stone ground unbleached flour. Does anyone know if the flour called for is whole wheat flour, or unbleached all purpose or bread flour? Or a mix? Another flour question. Peter Reinhart calls for 'high gluten' or bread flour in many of his formulas I have been trying out. I have been using King Arthur unbleached bread flour. Has anyone used King Arthur's high gluten flour in his recipes? Or, how much vital wheat gluten should I add per cup of bread flour to make it high gluten? Thanks for any advice. Mary J. Stackhouse --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.9 --------------- From: Eitan Levy Subject: Bran Muffins Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 10:48:30 +0200 Hi Mike, This is a great moist recipe for Bran Muffins Preheat oven to 170 F. 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1/4 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 1/2 cups wheat bran 2 eggs 1 1/2 cups buttermilk 1/3 cup oil (not olive) 1/2 cup honey 1/2 cup raisins (optional) Sift flour, salt and baking soda; add bran. Lightly beat eggs, buttermilk, oil and honey. Add raisins and egg mixture to flour and combine quickly. Spoon into greased muffins tins. For moister raisins soak in liquid for 10 minutes, drain and add. Bake muffins for about 25 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clear. From "A Potpourri of Memories," An Anecdotal Family History through Recipes by Doreen Levy --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.10 --------------- From: "Pedro S. Arellano III" Subject: Moist Bran Muffins? Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 02:49:43 -0600 First off I would like to apologize for being so verbose. I started writing can couldn't shut up. Anywho, sorry to break it to you Mike, but you have to add fat. I suppose you could add potato flakes, but that will just make it soft. To get moist you gotta get fat, at least in IMHO. Someone else may say otherwise, but that has been my experience. This recipe makes great moist muffins. I quote the recipe exactly as it is in the book with comments afterwards as to why it comes out moist. It is from "Have Breakfast With Us II" Wisconsin Bed and Breakfast Homes and Historic Inns Association's Cookbook More specifically from The Krupp Farm Homestead http://www.travelwisconsin.com/d2k/servlet/internet.Details?RSID=14962&RANGE=10 I hope it is okay to post this info. I'm just trying to give credit where credit is due. [[ Editor's note: Yes, it's ok. You're SUPPOSED to credit your sources.]] 6-Week Bran Muffins 4 dozen muffins (depending on size) Ingredients: 1 quart buttermilk 12 ounces raisin bran cereal - one box 5 eggs 1 cup vegetable oil 1 1/2 cups sugar 5 cups flour 1 tablespoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup coarsely chopped nuts 2 cups raisins Procedure: In a large bowl mix the buttermilk and cereal. Set aside. In another large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the vegetable oil and sugar. Mix. Add to the bran mixture in the first bowl. Now add in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, vanilla, chopped nuts and raisins. Mix well. Store in covered airtight container in refrigerator. Keeps up to 6 weeks. bake as many as needed in paper muffin cups 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve warm with farm butter and homemade jam! Guests enjoy these muffins - they're always moist and fresh. I've never kept this mixture for 6 weeks - they're always gone quickly! My comments: First of all the recipe is large so you can adjust the ingredients as needed. However this stuff freezes very well. Plus it is quite convenient to have around as you can make muffins whenever you feel like it. I have kept the mix for more than three weeks for sure. They say 6 weeks. I may have had it for that long myself. Second I think it is skimpy on the cinnamon and vanilla. You may want to adjust those ingredients. Personally I think I put in 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of vanilla since it is such a large recipe. Anywho, as to why they are moist. The buttermilk definitely helps the moisture. The healthy dose of eggs also adds fat and moisture. The oil is generous. Again making for a moist muffin. Not much flour here. Too much flour can dry out your muffin. Plus more flour means more gluten and too much gluten can make bread tough. The good dose of raisins helps because it adds moisture. --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.11 --------------- From: "Pedro S. Arellano III" Subject: Golden Bread Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 02:59:37 -0600 Too make your bread golden heat your liquid and add a pinch of saffron you can substitute turmeric if you don't want to pay the outrageous price. it is more expensive than the white fluffy stuff people snort.) When it is cools make your bread. Before you bake your bread wash it with egg yolk, you'll have some super golden bread. For that matter you can make Challah. Betsy Oppeneer has a nice recipe in her book Celebration Breads from Around the World. I tested recipes for that book so I am kind of partial to it. All Challah recipes have lots of egg which makes golden bread. She includes saffron for a super golden bread. Happy Baking. Your Fellow Bread Baking Fiend, Pedro --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.12 --------------- From: "Pedro S. Arellano III" Subject: Moist abm Bread? Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 03:19:42 -0600 Mar wrote: >I bake all my bread in the abm. It tastes great but is a little dry and >sometimes crumbles easily. Any suggestions as to how to get the moist, >springy quality I admire in deli bread? I agree with Robert. Taking it out of the machine and baking it in the oven will do wonders for softness. In addition: If you are using bread flour switch to all purpose flour. I don't worry too much about conversions. There is a difference in absorption for sure, but in a recipe for one loaf it won't be that big a deal perhaps 1/2 cup more all purpose. Add 1/2 cup of potato flakes to your recipe. Be careful, the bread will rise higher with the flake, but they definitely help to make a softer loaf. Again, you will use less flour, but probably not that much. Personally I wouldn't worry about adjusting the flour. It isn't that big of a deal, but it certainly will help achieve that soft "deli" effect you are looking for. Use milk instead of water. There is a big difference between water and milk loaves. Substitute cup for cup. Up the fat, and switch to butter instead of oil. IMHO the butter makes for a softer loaf. Try 2 tablespoons instead of 1. You could even walk on the wild side and add 3 tablespoons. I melt my butter. It gets incorporated into the dough more readily that way. Last of all let your bread raise a little more than usual. Adjust your machine if you have to for a longer rise. However I must restate I agree with Robert you will get a MUCH softer loaf if you bake it in the oven as opposed to you abm. Hope my tips can help. Funny I haven't posted in a long time, but all of a sudden there were 3 post in this digest I thought I could help with. Anywho I hope this helps. Happy Baking. Your Fellow Bread Baking Fiend, Pedro --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.13 --------------- From: Wcsjohn@aol.com Subject: Re: Carol Field's Cocodrillo Bread Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 05:39:47 EST Douglas Lawrence wrote: "From her "The Italian Baker" book, this bread is a pain to make but my wife loves it so I make it once a month just for her (okay, I like it too). When we get our bakery up and running in the next few months this bread will be offered. I haven't any idea how to make this bread in a commercial setting and was hoping someone on this list might descibe how they do it or at least some helpful suggestions. The dough is very wet and handling is very difficult. Maybe if someone had Ms. Fields email address I could ask her how the Italian bakers did it. Thanks for any help." I have no idea how the Italian bakers do it but from long experience of making large (by domestic standards) batches (2 -3 kilos of flour) of Coccodrillo and my own "Quick Coccodrillo Substitute" I have learned that the dough can be handled easily (relatively) as follows. Mix several small batches not 1 large one, the dough climbs mixer paddles with irritating ease. They can be combined after mixing with no problem. USE LOTS OF FLOUR!! Blindingly obvious but it had to be said, flour the bench, your hands, the bench knife, the ceiling (for when the dough drives you to hurl it in frustration ). DON'T "HANDLE" THE DOUGH, move it along the bench, divide it, plump it up, portion it with a floured bench knife. The dough is extremely elastic and it will move around a floured bench quite easily if you hold the knife parallel to the bench at 30-45 degrees and slide the knife UNDER the dough. Divide the dough into the desired sizes before proof rather than the final dividing manoeuvre recommended by Ms Field. Small "Cocodrillo Rolls" are a lot easier to handle and everybody just loves them. The bread, in my current version, is inverted, after proof, by flipping over with a bench knife, picked up and stretched to shape. It is possible and results are excellent. See and Consider a buying a commercial version of the SuperPeel. Love John --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.14 --------------- From: Wcsjohn@aol.com Subject: Pita recipe Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 05:45:49 EST Meryl wrote: Hi -- My family enjoys pita bread, and we were wondering what causes it to form its characteristic pocket. Any explanations would be much appreciated. I'd love to try to bake some pita, especially if I can make the dough in my bread maker. If you have an easy recipe, please share it with us. Thanks and have a great weekend. The expansion is caused by steam generated by very high oven temperatures. The following recipe is, as the name implies very simple and reliable. And delicious. John's Routine Pita I normally bake this in large quantities as it freezes very well but I've given a relatively small quantity here, the recipe scales well. There's nothing particularly original about this bread, it's an amalgam of many published recipes. Makes 8 large or 16 small pita. 500 gm white "bread" flour around 12% protein, you don't want super-strong flour for these 325 gm warm (ca. 30C) water 1 tbsp sugar 2 tsp salt 2 tsp instant yeast 2 tbsp oil Dump everything except the oil in a mixer bowl, mix roughly and leave to autolyse for 30 minutes or so. Add the oil and mix on Kenwood speed 1 or 2 until the mixture is elastic, smooth and clearing the bowl. About 10 minutes but it's highly variable. Dump out onto the floured counter, form into a ball, cover and leave to double. Cut into the number of pieces you prefer and shape each piece into a ball. Leave to relax for 10 minutes. Roll each piece into an oval pita shape or any other shape you like square pita, for example are unromantic but make very practical pouches for stuffing with goodies as a preliminary to stuffing your face. The dough needs to be 3 - 4 mm thick with the smaller pita rolled thinner than the large ones. Lay each piece on a flat, floured surface, sprinkle more flour over and cover. I use my pasta machine for the rollout. In 45 minutes to 1 hour they should have puffed up and doubled in thickness. Just time to heat your oven, with stones or VERY heavy baking sheets to its absolute maximum temperature. Flip over as many pieces as will fit on your stones, and use a peel, cookie sheet or Superpeel to slide the dough onto the red-hot stones. Close the oven door and look away for 2 minutes. When you look back they will have puffed up like footballs, give them one more minute then out of the oven. Leave to cool wrapped in a towel. Repeat until they're all cooked. Eat hot or warm up in a toaster or under a grill, fill with grilled meats and onions and tomatoes and lettuce and yoghurt and mint and .....or dip hummus, tahini, olive paste, Chilli con Carne, curries, tagines..... This really is a most versatile bread. John --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.15 --------------- From: "Marcy Goldman" Subject: Montreal Bagels Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 06:25:38 -0500 For Adam and anyone who wants to try great bagels from Montreal.....This recipe is from my first cookbook _A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking_ (now in paperback from Doubleday 2004) and also at my website, . Montreal bagels are smaller, sweeter (usually NO salt at all) and use a bit of malt in the dough and honey in the kettle water. I cannot tell you how many years, and batches I watched being made at St. Viateur Bagels.......sleuthing out the recipe and distilling it down into a tiny home recipe for myself and countless other bagels fans. (I also have a new york bagel in my cookbook.) Enjoy, marcy goldman MONTREAL BAGELS You can wait to visit Montreal or depend on Canadian relatives to ship down bagels (not recommended) or try these absolutely authentic, good-enough-to-open-a-Montreal-bagel-franchise with bagel recipe. Although real Montreal bagels do not have any salt (or so they claim - I sometimes taste some - depending on the bakery), this recipe has a modest amount - and it serves to regulate the fermentation and exemplify the simple taste of this wonderful ring-shaped bread. I have spent years perfecting this recipe, visiting and watching bagel makers at work - assessing techniques and the ingredients used - in many a famous Montreal bagel landmark, such as The Bagel Factory on St. Viateur, The Fairmont Bagel Factory, as well as The Bagel Place, and R.E.A.L. Bagel. I love their bagels too and buy dozens, but still, always enjoy the challenge and satisfaction of making my own as well. After a bagel shop visit, I usually run home and re-test yet another batch. When it comes to bagels, I am always learning something. It is one of my favorite, "work-in-progress" recipes. This is my most definitive effort so far. For really authentic bagels, you should try fresh yeast, but dry will still give you outstanding results. 1 3/4 cups water 2 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast (or 1/2 ounce fresh yeast) pinch sugar 3 tablespoons oil 2 tablespoons beaten egg 1 tablespoon malt powder 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, optional 5 tablespoons sugar 4 1/2 - 5 cups bread flour KETTLE WATER 6 quarts water 1/3 cup honey GARNISH 1 1/2 cups sesame seed or poppy seeds (or half and half) Stir together the water, yeast, and pinch of sugar. Let stand a couple of minutes, allowing yeast to swell or dissolve. Whisk in sugar, beaten egg, vegetable oil, malt and fold in most of the flour. (If using fresh yeast, crumble fresh yeast into warm water along with a pinch of sugar. Let stand a couple of minutes and continue - adding other ingredients as you would for dry yeast method). Knead 10-12 minutes to form a stiff, smooth dough, adding additional flour as required. Cover with a tea towel or inverted bowl and let rest ten minutes. Line one large baking sheets with a kitchen towel, the other with baking parchment. Fill a large soup pot or Dutch oven three quarters full with water. Add honey and salt. Bring water to a boil. Meanwhile, divide in 12 sections and form into 10 inch strips. Form these into bagel rings and place on cookie sheet. Let rise 12-16 minutes until bagels are very slightly puffed up. Preheat oven to 450 F. Boil bagels about 1 1/2 minutes each, turning over once. Place on towel lined sheet first to dry out. Then sprinkle very generously with sesame or poppy seeds - Montreal Bagels are more seeded than regular bagels - and place on parchment lined sheet. Place in oven, reduce heat to 425 F. Bake until done, about 15-22 minutes, turning bagels over once when they are just about done. 12 Bagels --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.16 --------------- From: "Jan Connell" Subject: golden bread Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 07:50:54 -0500 Use yams or sweet potatoes in your dough to make Golden bread. Jan --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.17 --------------- From: RisaG Subject: ABM Pita Bread Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 05:47:22 -0800 (PST) I have a recipe somewhere, that I've made successfully, and can't find it. But I found other recipes online that folks have made - I will post my TNT recipe when I find it. Put in breadmaker: 1 cup + 1 Tbsp. warm water 2 Tbsp. oil 1/2 tsp. sugar 1 1/2 tsp. salt 3 cups flour 1 1/2 tsp. yeast Put on dough program & leave in till double. Punch down and divide into 8 balls. Roll out flat on lightly floured surface. Put a flat, ungreased pan on the middle rack of the oven. Preheat to 475 F. Bake 2 at a time for about 4 minutes. Time depends on the thickness of the dough. Let them cool between two dish towels. Bread Machine Pita Bread 1 cup warm water 1 tbsp. sugar 1 tsp. salt 3 tbsp. oil 3 cups flour 3 tsp. yeast Set on dough cycle. when done, cut into 12 small, equal sized balls. Allow to rest while oven heats to 450 F. Put either a baking sheet or pizza stone into oven while it heats. Roll out into circles about 1/8 inches thick. Spritz oven with water, and put first circle onto baking sheet or stone. Bake for 3 minutes. (It will be light in color, but cooked). Remove from oven, cool, and cover with a damp towel until ready to use. These are good filled with chicken or seafood salad. Pita Bread (Bread Machine) 1 cup plus 1 Tbsp. water 2 Tbsp. oil 1/2 tsp. sugar 1 1/2 tsp. salt 3 cups flour 1 1/2 tsp. yeast Do on dough program. After it has risen, take out, punch down, and divide into 6 or 8 balls, depending on the size you like. Roll flat and bake on a solid cookie sheet (ungreased) in the middle of a preheated 475 F oven for about 4 minutes. I usually do 2 at a time. Risa's note: The important things with pita bread is not to roll it too thin and also to really watch it once it is in the oven - 4 minutes or so is enough for each ball of dough. I read somewhere that if you roll it too thin that it won't puff in the middle when baked. Good luck. RisaG --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n006.18 --------------- From: rosmarinaus@netscape.net (Rosemary Moore) Subject: "Golden" bread Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 08:52:31 -0500 What comes to mind for me is challah or a semolina bread. Either would be good. Rosemary Iowa City --------------- END bread-bakers.v105.n006 --------------- -------------- BEGIN bread-bakers.v105.n007 -------------- 001 - Haack Carolyn Subject: golden bread ideas Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 07:31:01 -0800 (PST) For Lois, who asked how to make 'golden bread' -- Guaranteed to produce lovely golden color -- soak saffron threads in a little warm water (let's say 2 Tblsp warm water to 1/2 tsp saffron threads?) and work into any white or egg-bread recipe. Practical advice, warm up your container with hot water first, or this small amount of 'warm' water will chill down very quickly. The water develops a bright, well, SAFFRON color which infuses the entire loaf beautifully. An alternative is any challah recipe; this bread always includes eggs and has a light-yellow color as a result. The dough is springy and a joy to work, this recipe is from George Greenstein's Secrets of a Jewish Baker. Despite the generous-seeming amount of sugar, the bread does not taste particularly sweet and is a fine accompaniment to dinner. Challah 1 cup warm water 2 packages active dry yeast 1 egg, lightly beaten 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten (full disclosure -- I usually just use 2 whole eggs, but that's less 'golden!') 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup plus 1.5 tsp sugar 4 - 4.5 cups bread flour 2 tsp. salt for egg wash, one egg beaten with 1 tsp water poppy or sesame seeds for topping if desired Proof yeast in warm water; add egg(s), yolks, oil, sugar, 4 cups flour, and salt. Stir until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead, adding more flour 1/4 cup at a time if the dough is sticky or very soft. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (10-15 minutes). When you push down, the dough should feel firm and push back. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, turn to coat, and cover until the dough is TRIPLED in volume. Punch down, cut in half, cover and let rest 15 minutes. Shape into two loaves (can be braided or simply shaped into a traditional loaf pan). Brush the tops with egg wash; let rise UNCOVERED until doubled in bulk. Brush with egg wash again (original wash should be fairly set by now, that's why you left the breads uncovered). Bake at 350 F on the middle shelf until the bread has a rich mahogany color & the bottom has a hollow sound when tapped with your fingertips (about 35 minutes). If top is browning too fast, tent with parchment paper or a brown paper bag that's been slit open & flattened out. (If braided, be sure the bread is brown right down into the creases, if it's still pale let it bake longer; braided bread should feel firm when pressed gently.) --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n007.2 --------------- From: Michelle Plumb Subject: re: looking for 3 loaf mixer Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 11:58:28 -0500 That mixer looks really intriguing, but Electrolux is persona non grata here in Michigan. (They're closing operations here and moving to Mexico.) I've never seen a mixer with a moving bowl before! Too bad it's Electrolux. Michelle --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n007.3 --------------- From: Michael Kauzer Subject: Baker's percentage Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 08:29:35 -0800 Valmai wrote: I sent away for the book The Bread Builders, by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott. I have started to make the leaven on page 58 and understand that, but when I have made the leaven, how do I calculate how much flour, water etc to use? They write of Bakers percentage, but that only confuses me further. Valmai, Turn to page 7. It's described there. Mike [[ Editor's note: there is a nice description of Bakers percentage at ]] --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n007.4 --------------- From: fredex Subject: golden bread Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 19:36:09 -0500 Lois asked about making golden bread. A COMPLETELY wild guess... Perhaps some saffron? probably cost you a fortune, though. A couple of eggs or egg yolks will color it a little. Perhaps some yellow food-coloring, or maybe some yellow with a tiny amount of red. Experimentation may be the order of the day. Fred Smith fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n007.5 --------------- From: Roxanne Rieske Subject: RE: Moist bran muffins Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 08:12:27 -0700 I would sub the milk for buttermilk you might also want to try subing 1/4 cup of the buttermilk for boiling water and soak the bran in the boiling water. It causes the bran to swell and hold on to more moisture. I also love bran muffins with chopped apples and raisins added to the batter! :) Roxanne Rieske (Rokzane) rokzane@comcast.net --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v105.n007.6 --------------- From: "Anita" Subject: moist bran muffins Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 15:30:29 -0800 Mike Fuller Asked; "Does anyone have a good trick to get very moist bran muffins?" This recipe is very different from yours, Mike, it probably started out on the All Bran cereal box in the 30's or 40's. My Mom made them when I was small, and even tho I am crowding 70 now, still make them for breakfast. I have changed her recipe somewhat since she used All Bran cereal instead of regular wheat bran, and I don't know if they still make it. Mom's Bran Muffins 1/14 c wheat bran 1/2 c wheat germ (usually use toasted) 1/4 c soy flour (health food store) 1/2 c flour (usually use w/w pastery flour, but all purpose will do) 3 T brown sugar 4 T molasses 1 egg 2 T oil (she used butter) 3/4 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1 cup yogurt (she used sour milk) 1/2 c raisins (optional) Mix all drys including raisins, beat egg and mix all wets, lightly stir them together. Bake at 400 for 20-25 min. Makes 12 muffins. These are very moist. [[Editor's note: Kellogg's All-Bran Cereal is still with us, but they've changed the recipes. ]] --------------- END bread-bakers.v105.n007 --------------- Copyright (c) 1996-2005 Regina Dwork and Jeffrey Dwork All Rights Reserved