Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:53:46 GMT -------------- BEGIN bread-bakers.v108.n024 -------------- 001 - "STEPHEN BLUMM" Subject: Challah & Thermometers & Rich People Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:42:41 -0400 Following up the recent discussion about oven thermometers, it was said that it is difficult to over-bake a bread. The point was made that it is a good idea to add another five minutes when you think your bread is done. I have no problem with the advice when you are working with a basic recipe - flour, water, salt, poolish, starter, or yeast - and even with variations such as seeds, various grains, barley malt. I find the extra five minutes - baking the basic bread at 450 or 460 F - has a brilliant effect on the crust. But challah entered the discussion and in my experience you can over-bake a challah. I think this is due to the use of fats (oil, butter, etc) and eggs in the recipe, but whatever the cause if you over-bake you end up with a dry bread. I bake challah perhaps six times a year so I am not skilled enough to judge from the time and color, and don't mind the hole made by the instant thermometer. I don't like dried out challah. The baguette came up in recent posts. I believe the baguette is an Italian import to France - though I'm not enough of a food historian to provide a date. I think it was either the late 19th or early 20th century. I do remember reading about French purists who objected to the popularity of the baguette. Perhaps someone who knows more about the cultural history of bread in France can correct me if I am wrong. By the way Jews in Poland in the early 1900's sometimes called challah "rich peoples' bread," probably because it contained eggs and fat. Stephen Blumm --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v108.n024.2 --------------- From: "Mary Fisher" Subject: Re: bread on the barbeque Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:34:21 +0100 When we're camping under canvas I use a charcoal fire which only has dampers to regulate the fierceness of the heat. I have a very heavy iron skillet which I put over the coals - raised so that it's not touching them. When it's good and hot I put on the dough and cover it with a large metal basin. When I think it might be done I look at it, if it needs more I put it back. Occasionally the bottom is a trifle scorched but that's no bad thing. When we're in our tiny, old and very basic caravan on our daughter's farm I cook everything in the gas barbecue. There are no temperature controls, just low, medium or high flames but there are two sources of flame so one can be off while the other is on. For this I use tins to put the dough in. I use one burner on high and put the tins on a rack at the side away from the burner then close the lid. Leave it for bout half an hour and test. Sometimes it needs a little more baking (outside temperatures can vary a lot and wind affects it) but it's never failed. Mary --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v108.n024.3 --------------- From: "Rosalie Valvo" Subject: Cosi Bread a Secret Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:44:45 -0700 Sariah is looking for the recipe for Cosi bread. Curious, never having heard of it, I went a-Googling and found www.getcosi.com. There, they say, "Our signature flatbread is based on a two millennia-old recipe, similar to the breads first produced by the Romans." They further describe the bread as "a secret, generations-old recipe for crackly crust flatbread." So, Sariah, I don't think you're going to get "the" Cosi bread recipe. Rosalie --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v108.n024.4 --------------- From: Dan Haggarty Subject: Re: Oven Temps Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:03:16 -0400 Bill Heffron wrote: >I have used all AP flour, 50/50 AP and bread flour, and now recently >incorporated degrees of patent flour Bill, French flour is typically fairly low in protein and has a slightly higher ash (i.e., bran) content when compared to North American flour. You're going the wrong way by adding bread or patent flour to AP flour. If anything, you should be adding pastry flour. According to Harold McGee(*), there are considerable regional variations in the protein content of AP flour, but what you want is about 9.5% protein with 0.55% ash. Here in Toronto, I make baguettes using 80% AP flour, 13% white pastry flour and 7% whole wheat pastry flour with a dough hydration of about 70%. (The result doesn't have the "small uniform texture" that you think you want but that's not typical of a traditional French baguette, which has a more irregular crumb.) Cheers, Dan (*) On Food And Cooking: The Science and Lore of The Kitchen, published by Scribner, ISBN 0-684-800001-2 --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v108.n024.5 --------------- From: "Steve Gomes" Subject: kitchen aid dough hook Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:43:08 -0600 I am wondering what is the best way to use the dough hook. I was told by kitchen aid to add the dry ingredients and slowly ad the water mix. This is okay but when making a stiff dough the flour stops sticking after a while. --------------- END bread-bakers.v108.n024 --------------- Copyright (c) 1996-2008 Regina Dwork and Jeffrey Dwork All Rights Reserved