The Fresh Loaf

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

My dough whisk arrived today... now what?

January 5, 2010 - 6:32pm -- althetrainer
Forums: 

I would like to try the whisk out.  What's the best way to warm up to it?  Something doesn't require a lot of experience handling this little gadget... like pancake or cupcakes?  The whisk is pretty big for my hand but I probably can handle it if the dough is not too stiff.  Any suggestions?  Al

KneadToKnow's picture

Bread failure.

January 5, 2010 - 6:26pm -- KneadToKnow
Forums: 

Hello all,

I'm in need of help.  I've been trying off and on, to bake bread for some time now.  I've tried probably eight recipies and can never get things to work right.

The loaves always come out looking great.  They rise well, brown nicely and visually are successes.  Unforunately, they neither taste right or have that "trademark" mousthwatering bread aroma. 

Problems:

1 The breads always seem flat tasting for lack of a better word.  Not four-y, just bland.

breadbakingbassplayer's picture
breadbakingbass...

Hi All,

I just wanted to share with you my final bakes of 2009.  I was unable to post them earlier as I went to Japan for Christmas and New Years...  This was a year of much improvement for me, perfecting my version of baguettes, getting the hang of sourdough, refrigerated bulk fermentation, baking very large loaves, making pizza dough, and kneading large quantities (7-8kg) of dough by hand successfully.

Wishing all of you much baking success in 2010.  Now I'm off to do my first bake of the 2010.

Cheers,

Tim

Karmel_Kuisine's picture

Yeast types

January 5, 2010 - 4:07pm -- Karmel_Kuisine
Forums: 

I'm thoroughly confused about yeast.

The King Arthur Flour baking books, which I use a lot, say to use instant yeast.

I just checked out their book on whole grain baking, and in that book, the text says that instant yeast and rapid rise yeast are not the same thing and are not interchangeable.

However, in my supermarkets, there really is no "instant yeast." Just active-dry, and depending on the brand, either fast- or rapid-rise.

Faith in Virginia's picture

Hello from Virginia

January 5, 2010 - 4:05pm -- Faith in Virginia

 

First rule ....don't post while drinking.
Too late!

To put things in a nutshell I love to bake bread. My work and my life are quite stressful and bread is my sacuary (sanctuary, no spell check here) I'm no expert but that doesn't matter. As life gets tougher I'm looking to dive deeper into the art of making great bread. Life is always good with a fresh loaf of bread.

hilo_kawika's picture

Second rise proofing tests

January 5, 2010 - 3:34pm -- hilo_kawika

Being somewhat new to the baking scene, I'm beginning with the no-knead approach and generally following recipes from Lahey, this website and breadtopia.  So these are fairly high hydration breads.  I'm using either a 5 qt Dutch oven or a Corning ware 3 qt for my containers.  I'm happy with the crumb and crust most of the time but the amount of spring I get seems pretty random.

shallots's picture

Hello from east Tennessee

January 5, 2010 - 3:29pm -- shallots

I am glad to have found this site and hope I can both contribute and learn. (I'm not really this boring.)


The first bread I ever made, I didn't know that yeast would die at certain temperatures and the loaf was so dense that even when I broke it up, winter birds wouldn't eat it.

Since then I've had successes and failures. Timing of rise and temperature of rise are some of my main causes for failure (nothing like a deflated loaf) and my attempt to capture my local wild yeasts here led to an alcoholic mixture that could have taken paint off an old car. 

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