Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 08:23:26 GMT -------------- BEGIN bread-bakers.v115.n004 -------------- 001 - Mike Avery Subject: Re: ancient challah Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 06:20:40 -0600 >From: Seth Godin >Subject: Question about ancient Challah >Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 12:25:45 -0500 > >Do you know where I can find a 200 year old recipe for Challah? >Whole wheat + sourdough, almost certainly, right? > >What do you think the bread was like before bleached flour? > >Thanks... Seth Bleached and white flour are not the same thing at all. White flour has been around since something like the 1500's. It is whole wheat that was milled and had the big parts sifted out. At that time, the dangers of white flour were discussed, a trend that continues to this day. The peasants got the parts that had been sifted out. Today, those parts are used for animal fodder. Even today, you can get unbleached white flour. I'm not sure why they have to label it unbleached, shouldn't they label the other stuff "bleached"? Flour in 1815 probably had more color, flavor and fiber than we get in all-purpose or bread flour. However, when you let the white flour sit for a few months, it self bleaches becoming much whiter, which is what was done in days of yore. In 1815, commercial bakers yeast was still a ways in the future, so it would have been made with sourdough or barm (barm is mostly an English thing). By the 1800's white flour had largely won the war, so Challah would, more likely than not, have been made with white flour. Just not bleached white flour. As for a recipe, I have one here that would be a good starting point and which I feel is fairly authentic. http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.php?content=challah Best wishes, Mike *Bake With Mike * Mike Avery A Randomly Selected Bread Saying Of The Day: Acorns were good until bread was found. -- Sir Francis Beacon --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v115.n004.2 --------------- From: Reggie Dwork Subject: How to Convert Recipes for Bread Machines Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 11:38:39 -0800 How to Convert Recipes for Bread Machines Reduce the yeast to 1 teaspoon for a 1-1/2-pound machine or to 1-1/4 teaspoons for a 2-pound machine. Reduce the amount of flour to 3 cups for a 1-1/2-pound machine or 4 cups for a 2-pound machine. Reduce all other ingredients by the same proportion as you reduce the flour. If a range is given for the flour, use the lower amount to figure the reduction proportion. For example, for a 1-1/2-pound bread machine, a recipe calling for 1 package of yeast and 4 1/2 cups flour would be decreased to use 1 teaspoon yeast and 3 cups flour. Since this is a one-third decrease in the flour, also decrease the remaining ingredients by one-third. If a bread uses 2 or more types of flour, add the flour amounts together and use that total as the basis for reducing the recipe. The total amount of flour used should be only 3 or 4 cups, depending on the size of your loaf. Use bread flour instead of all-purpose flour or add 1 to 3 tablespoons gluten flour (available at health-food stores) to the all-purpose flour. If your recipe contains any rye flour, add 1 tablespoon gluten flour even when bread flour is used. Add ingredients in the order specified by the bread machine manufacturer. Add dried fruits or nuts at the raisin bread cycle, if your machine has one. If it doesn't, add them according to the manufacturer's directions. Don't use light-colored dried fruits, such as apricots or golden raisins, because preservatives added to these dried fruits inhibit yeast performance. Choose another fruit or use only the dough cycle of your machine, lightly knead in the fruit by hand before shaping the bread, then bake it in the oven. When making dough to shape by hand, you may want to knead in a little more flour after removing the dough from the machine. Knead in just enough additional flour to make the dough easy to handle. For breads made with whole wheat or rye flour or other whole grains, use the whole grain cycle, if your machine has one. For sweet or rich breads, first try the light-crust color setting or sweet bread cycle, if available. For future reference, record how much additional liquid or flour you added. Source: "bhg.com" S(Internet address): "http://www.bhg.com/recipes/bread/converting-your-favorite-recipes/" --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v115.n004.3 --------------- From: Steven Leof Subject: Re: ancient challah Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 11:37:42 +0000 Seth Reggie is correct; there were a variety of recipes used around the world to make berches or challah. The bread was typically made from the finest flour available. Whereas daily bread was wholemeal wheat or rye, etc, the flour used for berches was sifted to remove the bran, rendering it (nearly) white. The recipes would have been sourdough as the production of commercial yeast began in the late 19th century. For more information, I'd suggest you consult the *Encyclopedia of Jewish Food* by the late Gil Marks z"l and *A Blessing of Bread: Recipes and Rituals, Memories and Mitzvah *by Maggie Glezer (who was was a member of this list at the time she wrote the book). Regards Steven Leof --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v115.n004.4 --------------- From: Suzanne Lander Subject: Re: pre-industrial yeast Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 07:44:27 -0600 Pre-industrial yeast hasinformation about making yeast cakes from hops. I've heard that the term leavening used in the Bible referred to actual bread saved back and left to go moldy before being used somehow. Some sort of starter would make more sense to me, as a baker, and would still fill the place in the parable as something inedible and undesirable that's necessary for bread making. But I'd never thought about people making yeast for bread separately from a sourdough type starter. But evidently they did. Thanks to Seth for promoting my early morning Google session! --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v115.n004.5 --------------- From: Dan Haggarty Subject: Re: challah Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 10:03:48 -0500 I once made a whole wheat challah on request for a friend who invited us over for a Rosh Hashanah seder. I used olive oil for the fat, honey for the sweetener and, IIRC, incorporated chopped Medjool dates into the dough instead of raisins. The recipe was just something that I created using my imagination and a spreadsheet; I could create a sourdough variant if anyone is interested. Dan --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v115.n004.6 --------------- From: Carolyn Taylor Subject: Re: heirloom wheat Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 08:16:40 -0800 I find this interesting because Iive in the wheat fields of eastern Washington and while the local wheat is not heirloom my friends who grow the wheat do share it with me. My mill is a Lee brand mill that belonged to my mother in law and the method of milling is by centrifugal force inside a cylindrical stone. The mill was bought new in the late 1930s and had its motor replaced in 1965. It is very efficient, adjusts for all degrees of fineness, shuts off if it becomes too warm and restarts when it cools. It will even mill popcorn which is too hard for many mills. I believe the company is no longer in existence but surely the technology still exists. Carolyn Taylor >They worked with an engineer to develop a machine that whisks off >the husk by centrifugal force. "Why would we go through such great >lengths to raise a healthy grain, only to shave off most of the nutrients?" --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v115.n004.7 --------------- From: Stephen Blumm Subject: Challah Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 13:01:54 -0500 Iwould add a bit to Reggie's post about challah. My comment is based on the general history of East European Jews and their types of bread. Challah was part of a larger class of breads that were often called "rich people's bread". Most of the peoples of Eastern Europe, and other parts of Europe, had a similar bread. Years ago the King Arthur monthly newsletter included a recipe for a similar Swiss bread. I've forgotten the name, but perhaps someone with old copies of the newsletter or knowledge of Swiss baking can provide more information. These breads, including challah, were called "rich people's bread" because they were made with white flour and eggs and fat. The literature of Jews living in Eastern Europe includes comments about poor people hoping someday to eat white bread. Literary comment about "rich" families would include that they ate white bread on the Sabbath. Also interesting was the development of different shapes for challah and this entire class of breads. For Jews there would be a local characteristic shape or shapes for the Sabbath and different shapes for the Days of Awe, Rosh Hashanah and the meal to break the fast after Yom Kippur. You can find discussion of the shapes in quite a few Jewish cookbooks. For more information about challah, Maggie Glezer's very fine book "The Blessing of Bread" includes anecdotes and stories about challah and Jewish bread baking in general. Best, Stephen Blumm Valley Forge, PA --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v115.n004.8 --------------- From: Reggie Dwork Subject: Your Whole-Grain Pantry -- Flours Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 10:54:39 -0800 Your Whole-Grain Pantry -- Flours All-purpose flour is actually a blend of soft and hard wheat flours that makes it suitable for both cakes and breads. To r3eplace all-purpose flour with whole-grain flours, consider the following attributes of these of these substitutes: Whole-Wheat Flour: This classic ground red wheat is high in protein and fiber and gives breads, bagels, and rolls a distinctive chewiness. Spelt Flour: Closely related to wheat, spelt has a milder flavor and less gluten, resulting in baked goods that are dense without being heavy. Whole-Wheat Pastry Flour: Also called graham flour (as in graham crackers), whole-wheat pastry flour is milled from "soft" or low protein wheat. It gives pancakes, cookies, muffins, and cakes a fine-grained teture that's similar to all-purpoe flour. White Whole-Wheat Flour: White wheat has fewer bitter tannins and a paler color than red wheat for higher, milder tasting baked goods that still have all the benefits of whole wheat. Non-Wheat Flours: Such as oat, barley, corn, brown rice and buckwheat can be thrown into a flour blend to add flavor and nutrients to muffins, flat breads, waffles, and pancakes. Get The Ratio Right: Forminimal changes in texture and flavor, start by substituting whole-grain flours for 1/4 to 1/2 of the standard flour in a recipe. See how it tastes, then gradually go higher. (Pancakes, waffles, banana muffins, brownies, and pumpkin bread work well with 100% whole-grain flours, but layer cakes and cookies fare better with a partial substitution.) As soon as you exceed 50% whole-wheat or any whole-grain flour in a recipe, the dry ingredients will absorb more liquid and fat than white flour. They can also mask the sweetness in recipes, so be ready to dial up the liquid and sweeteners, starting with 1 - 2T at a time. Source: "vegetarian Times, Dec 2013" S(Internet address): "" --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v115.n004.9 --------------- From: Marlynn Marcks Subject: How to make spongy bread Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 12:45:00 -0500 How does one make homemade bread spongy. Mine all taste great but have a crumbly crumb instead of nice soft spongy ones like commercial bread's texture. What is the secret? Mar --------------- END bread-bakers.v115.n004 --------------- Copyright (c) 1996-2015 Regina Dwork and Jeffrey Dwork All Rights Reserved