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A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.
dzolotas's picture

A scheduler to prepare starter for baking (Excel)

December 14, 2010 - 8:50am -- dzolotas
Forums: 

Hi,

Here is a tool I make in Excel to help me when I need to prepare some starter for a recipe.

I believe that it's easy to understand how it works, and it may help all those poor starter-maniacs.

A little help anyway is on the spreadsheet page, to begin.

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/436906212/Starter_preparation.xls

 

Any advice, opinions or ideas, is welcome.

Happy baking to everyone

 

Dimitris

msmarguet's picture
msmarguet

12-12-10 was a big day for me. 

it was the day i mastered the baguette. 

i have spent years trying. i've rolled hundreds of failures. i burned out the heating element in our oven. there were many times when i thought about bagging it. after all, i have big successes with the batard and the boule.

making a baguette is at once simple–flour, yeast, water, salt. and yet baffling–the dough is sticky and wet, more like a thick batter, so it's confounding to roll. and the shape is long and skinny . . . seemingly impossible to get into a blazing-steaming-hot oven. 

          the real deal is only 5-6 centimeters in diameter (a little less than 2.5") and weighs only 250 grams (just under 9 oz.). the crumb is light, airy and full of holes. the crust is crackling-crisp and sends little shards flying when you cut into it with a bread knife. to make baguettes i use a metric scale and a tape measure, a stone, tea towels, a mini-peel, wooden tongs . . . and patience.

i was alone in our kitchen when i got those first two good baguettes into the oven. i saw them spring through the dirty glass window of the oven door, and like so many baking mornings before, my husband and dogs were asleep. it was dark outside and the snow falling looked blue. my kitchen was orderly just like it ordinarily is. after the loaves cooled i cut into one and tasted a center slice to confirm i had done it. there was a quiet gratification in that solitary moment . . . an unexpected flash in a routine day that was significant, if just to me. i've made fresh loaves both mornings since then, and each time i've been happy to pull that same satisfaction from the oven. and i am looking forward to stretches of days out in front of me when i will again find happiness in the craft of something as basic as making bread.

Melleah's picture

Hi from Michigan!

December 14, 2010 - 7:49am -- Melleah

Hi everyone!

I found this site a couple of weeks ago and am looking forward to exploring the forums and communicating with other bakers. I started baking bread at home a few years ago (mostly sandwich loaves) and have recently branched out into more artisanal breads in the last few months. I am also on a quest to find the best bagel recipe to make at home as authentic bagels are hard to come by in rural Michigan ;-).

BLHNYC's picture

ABED Soft Cheese Bread

December 14, 2010 - 7:49am -- BLHNYC
Forums: 

Hi Everyone-

I enjoyed reading the posts (and looking at the photos!) of ABED's Soft Cheese Bread. I am planning on making it this weekend and have a few questions for those of you have baked it:

What type of beer do you recommend using?

Did anyone use chives instead of onions? The other posts mention that the onions are overpowering but I think I would like to add something and not leave it plain.

ericb's picture

knife problem?

December 14, 2010 - 2:27am -- ericb

When I bake a dense, moist loaf, like this 80% rye from Hamelman's Bread, I find that I have difficulty cutting it. As the height of the cross-section increases, it seems like the friction of the knife blade causes the crumb to tear and roll into little scraps.

See?

ericb's picture

knife problem?

December 14, 2010 - 2:27am -- ericb

When I bake a dense, moist loaf, like this 80% rye from Hamelman's Bread, I find that I have difficulty cutting it. As the height of the cross-section increases, it seems like the friction of the knife blade causes the crumb to tear and roll into little scraps.

See?

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

 

 

The Artisan II Workshop at The San Francisco Baking Institute is all about sourdough bread. The first day of the SFBI Artisan II workshop is spent mostly in the classroom. The instructor reviewed the content of the Artisan I workshop and then introduced basic concepts of sourdough baking with emphasis on starter elaboration and maintenance. At the end of the first day, there is a quick review of baker's math.

In the bakery, we started elaborating a new sourdough culture with which we will be making bread on Friday. We also scaled the dry ingredients and mixed the levains for 4 different breads we will be making on Day 2

Our instructor for Artisan II is Frank Sally. My classmates are a different mix from that of the Artisan I workshop I attended in August. This group is almost entirely professional bakers who have come from Australia, New Zealand and New Jersey, among other exotic places.

Frank (in the center) and some of my classmates

A couple of my bench mates, both professional bakers from Australia (on the left) and New Zealand (on the right)

Mixing levains and scaling dry ingredients for mixing final doughs tomorrow

Our scaled ingredients awaiting tomorrows mixes

Much of the material presented today was familiar, but Frank touched on a few concepts which, while not completely new to me, I'd never thought much about.

He spoke of the “mass effect,” which occurs during bulk fermentation. He could not tell us the mechanism, but said that there is improved flavor development when the dough weighs more than 2 kg. Most of us home bakers generally work with batches of dough smaller than this most of the time. Evidently, we are missing out on some flavor enhancements by doing so.

Frank described the differing rates of growth of homofermentative and heterofermentative bacteria during sourdough elaboration. The former develop earlier. Moreover, it takes longer for the acetic characteristics to develop in the starter due to the greater volatility of acetic acid compared to lactic acid. This is a factor in the well-known improvement in flavor complexity as a new starter is fed over the first weeks. It takes about 3 weeks for a good stable balance of yeast and the various lactobacilli to develop

These differences also effect the balance of acetic versus lactic acid one can manipulate through differences in feeding schedules. More frequent feedings result favor lactic acid production. So a once a day feeding schedule yields a more tangy starter than a twice a day schedule.

The first set of breads we will be baking will provide comparisons between 1) once a day versus twice a day levain feedings, 2) liquid versus firm starters and 3) breads made with different proportions of starter (relative to the amount of dry flour in the final dough).

Stay tuned!

David

 

OldWoodenSpoon's picture
OldWoodenSpoon

My 30+ year old recipe card says this is Swiss Egg Bread.  I have no idea where I got this recipe, and I have looked it up by name on the web and found many versions that are similar, but none that are exactly the same as mine.  I do know that, whatever it's true name, this is a wonderful bread.  It makes excellent toast, which is my favorite.  It is popular with the neighbors for sandwiches and for French Toast as well.  I have been baking it every year at Christmas time and giving it away, for 30 years, and it has been popular wherever I have sent it.  I won't try to defend the use of Crisco in this recipe.   I bake it as it was given to me, and we like it.  I'm sure other fats could produce acceptable results.  Try them if you are averse to Crisco, or welcome a challenge.

In the original form the recipe below was stated by volume, but I have successfully converted it to weight, and I get much better results than I did when I baked it by volume.  Also, it is a big recipe that makes four 9" x 5" pan loaves if you use the full measure.   The recipe is very reminiscent of Challah and has similar consistency, and while I have never baked this as a stacked-braid loaf I think it would do well that way.

Here is the recipe I use, as converted to weights.

SWISS EGG BREAD
Makes 4 large ( 9" x 5" ) pan loaves

                            WT (grams)
PART I - The Sponge
WARM MILK                    1044  (I use 1 quart of whole milk)
ADY                                           9
WARM WATER                    79
SUGAR                                   24
AP FLOUR                           468

 

PART II - Main Dough
AP FLOUR                            1300
MELTED SHORTENING      188 (I use 1 stick of Crisco)
SUGAR                                       95
SALT                                           12
LG EGGS (6)                           390 (You will have to adjust flour based, at least, on true egg size)

Method
Poolish:
Scald the milk, then cool to lukewarm
If using Active Dry Yeast: Disolve yeast and sugar in the warm water and allow to proof
If using Instant Yeast: Add sugar and water to milk and stir to disolve sugar
                                 Reduce yeast quantity by 20% and mix instant yeast into flour
Combine milk, yeast and flour mixtures and beat with a spoon or whisk till smooth.
Cover and set aside. Allow to rise until light, about an hour or so.

Dough:
Add main dough ingredients, holding back 150 grams of flour. Stir, adding reserved flour, until it
clears the sides of the bowl. When the dough becomes too stiff to stir, transfer it to a well floured
surface and knead in flour till dough is tacky but not sticky. Knead by hand until dough is soft and
smooth, about 10-15 minutes. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl or dough rising bucket and
set aside to rise until doubled in bulk.

Shaping:
Divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Divide each piece into 3 equal pieces. Shape each piece
into a rough log. Go back to the first and roll each piece out into a rope about 14" long.
Braid 3 pieces into each loaf, making four loaves. Pinch the ends and tuck them under
and place each into a 9"x5" loaf pan prepared with your preferred release. Cover and set
aside to rise until doubled.

Baking:
Brush each with egg wash of 1 yolk + 1 Tbsp cold water.
Bake in 350F oven for 40-50 minutes, turning after 35 minutes to brown evenly.
Remove from pans immediately and brush tops liberally with melted buter.
Cool on a wire rack.

As I said, this is a big recipe, and it produces 4 big loaves like this:

This bread has a very cake-like crust when you don't put too much flour into it, but it also keeps well.

Here is a crumb shot:

And this is a closeup of the crumb:

 

My personal favorite uses of this bread are for breakfast buttered toast with or without jam, and with cheddar cheese in a good old fashioned grilled cheese sandwich.

Enjoy!
OldWoodenSpoon

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