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We have had this ravioli plate for decades. My mother-in-law had it and when she and my father-in-law passed we inherited it. We have never used it. I often thought about tossing it but never did. The other day David mentioned ravioli on my pasta post. Well that started the wheels turning...no pun intended :) My DH made his usual pasta dough and then I looked up a few YouTube videos on ravioli and we were off. Three dozen later I can honestly say this is VERY easy. I took photos to show step by step. The filling is 4oz of baby bella mushrooms sauteed with 1/2c chopped onion and 2 minced garlic cloves till dry. salt and pepper to taste. Cool and add 1 c ricotta and 1/2c grated parmesan and some minced fresh basil. This will fill 3 dozen ravioli. 

filling: ravioli plate, dust lightly with flour: shape indents with plastic plate: fill with 1 tsp filling...don't overfill and brush lightly w/water between and around each top sheet of pasta: roll over HARD with the rolling pin: pull off extra and save to reroll: turn over plate and drop onto semolina dusted pan: 3 dozen : Things to do differently. It says everywhere to use the finest setting, which is 6 on our machine. In the future we will use 5 for the first layer that the filling goes into and 6 for the cover. The reason is that I know a couple of these are going to burst. Leading to the next thing I will NOT overfill next time. Other than that it all went beautifully. It helps to have 4 hands...as David pointed out he and his DW ( dear wife) do this together. So harness a helper and get started. c

I was in Walmart last week and noticed a new green bag on the shelf next to the bright yellow Bread Flour from Gold Medal. It could be that this isn't a new offering from GM but it's the first time I have seen the Green package. I thought I would try a bag and see how it like it compared to other AP flours I use. First, the price made me take a second look. It was priced at $4.74 for a 5 pound bag. The Bread flour next to it is $2.65.

I have been wanting to make a batch of croissants so I thought his would be a good recipe to try my new organic AP on. A better test for me will be a French bread since I'm struggling with my laminated dough skills. Next time. Some people use a stronger flour for croissants than AP. I like the tender crumb I get from the AP. I used SteveB's recipe and procedure which I have enjoyed for some time. My croissants don't look any where as good as Steves or Larry's or Andy's and probably everyone else but they are delicious! Every time I make these  I swear I'm going to buy a sheeter even if I have to put it in the garage.

Proofing after 1st egg wash, under the cover. These half sheet covers are just terrific for these.

After 1st egg wash

A little crowded for good browning:>(

A small sample with my name on it :>)

Reasonable crumb and very nice flavor!

Ever since Don introduced the method to combine cold retardation and gosselin baguettes, I have been eager to give it a try. David's successful try adds fuel to the fire. First I made the original Gosselin baguettes just to compare, it was delicious. Howver my first attempt with the cold retardation version ended up with an overflowing bucket in the fridge - yup, I forgot to reduce the yeast and used a container that's too small. I probably couldn've salvaged what's left in the container, but I didn't, I was too busy wiping my fridge.

This time I reduced yeast to 3/4tsp (Don added to his original post that he used 1/2tsp of yeast, but I didn't see that until ... now. Oops. Sort of decided on the # of 3/4tsp randomly, luckily it's close enough to Don's 1/2tsp.), used a combo of KA bread flour (25%) and GM AP flour (75%), kept the hydration at 75% exactly. The rest is exactly like Don's formula and everything worked out well.One thing I noticed immediately is that even though I baked them as how I bake all my baguettes, these come out MUCH darker. Is it because the long autolyse and long cold retardation brought out more sugar in the flour? They sang loudly coming out of the oven.

I used more AP flour in this batch than the original Gosselin baguettes, which means the dough's even more soft. Channeled David and the chickens, scored with an angle, got ears, however tiny, but there they are!

open crumb, comparable to original Gosselin

Here's what's unexpected about this bread:I would've thought after such a long time in the fridge (36 hours), the dough would lose some of the gluten due to too much proteolysis, especially for a dough that's mainly AP flour. However, it's the opposite. It felt MORE elastic than the original Gosselin dough during preshaping and shaping, in fact, they are so elastic that I had to fight a bit to get them to the proper length. Anyone has a good explaination? Does proteolysis activity slow down a lot at low temperature? Anyway, these baguettes are very flavorful, less sweet than original Gosselin, but more "complex".

Thank you Don for sharing with us such an innovative recipe, it was fun to make and delicious to eat.

I have just returned from a gold prospecting trip here in Western Australia, the trip was organized by my good mate Bob,and it was to be a 2 week away jaunt.

There were two vehicles and a trailer and 4 guys along with my SOUR DOUGH culture setting off from Perth on a saturday morning, we had some rain overnight but the spirits weren't dampend as we picked up the two hire detectors (minelab 4500's).

The drive took us up the Great Northern Highway which is the main route used by trucks going to the North West servicing the Mining Industry, Iron Ore being the biggest along with gold, gas and a multitude of other minerals our state is blessed with.

Everything here is big and it is not long before you are sharing the road with road trains , huge trucks pulling 3 trailers, we had our 2 way radio on and could here the colourfull truckie lingo from time to time, and very handy to let these guys know that you are ready for them to come past if they are in a hurry or if you catch them on a hill and are going past, most of thes guys are real pros.

There is also a large number of grey nomads heading north for the winter warmth and they are usually the truckies nightmare as their speed is quite a lot lower, they are often elderly and can be oblivious to faster trucks trying to earn their living. The air displacement of a truck passing can also upset caravans quite easily. How ever if trucks loose there momentum and have to slow to 80 klm it takes them a long time to build it up again.

We did come up behind an escorted load of two dump truck bodies on low loader that according to the escort vehicles were 8 and a half metres wide so therefore took up the whole of the paved roadway.

The lead vehicle travels a good way ahead with flashing lights advising over the two way the size of the following load giving traffic in the opposite direstion time to pull of to the gravel shoulder of the road this is followed by a police escort vehicle that ensures the traffic is off to the side then come the outsize load followed by tail end charlie that advises of following traffic. We were treated to the site of a triple road train passing the two dump truck bodies at about 80 klms an hour.

It started with calls between tail end charlie and the truck and then the lead escort identifying a floodway further up the road as a passing point , The Overtaker then drops back a bit and winds up ready for the manouver, it seems to take for ever. but safely past we are the called to come past as the dumpers have lost a bit of omph, but the road way is not as wide as in the floodway and we have 2 wheels in the dirt and most of the dump tray over us with various attaching items sticking out at you with dayglow flags flapping almost in your face we were baulked half way past as the roadmarkers were in danger of being flattened.The truck driver barks encourgement to go for it. Bob thought we would have a yellow mark on the side of the Prado we were that close, although he did think that it could match the brown mark on his side. Anyway our second vehicle got past unscathed and we made our first nights stop at Cue. Two of Bobs friends were joining us here and had been kind enough toput us up for the night in two of their caravans.

I was able to feed my sour dough here as i intended baking bread in the campfire oven when we were set up in camp.                          (to be continued)

Hi Again!

Very quickly following on from my last post "Whitsuntide Breads and Other Antics", this is a quick post listing the books that I recommend for my bakery students to source to aid their programme of study.

Hansjoakim asked me about this, after I posted information about a Student Bread Competition.   There are just short of 50 books on the list.   The one I most want is one Hans referenced sometime ago by Claus Schunemann.   I've tried to get it through Amazon UK, and finally received an e-mail today.   Original price for the book is just over £55.   I would pay that!   However, a secondhand version is about £90 + P&P, and a new version is over £125 + P&P!!!!

The College Library service is top class.   Next year's books are ordered already.   These will now come mainly as e-books.   Most of the books I'm ordering now are scientific and technical and go over the magic £100 mark.   That's the point where alarm bells start sounding in our "cash-strapped" world of UK 2010!   Books shown below with double * are in our library.   Others are noted as on order in some shape or form.

Of course, blogging on TFL partly shows my keen enthusiasm for all matters electronic too.   And this is very highly valued by the College....To the extent that, as Lecturers, our use of ILT is monitored and built in to performance management.   Every course  which runs in College has a "Blackboard" site.   This is a means of inter-active learning for students, and the sites I have created for the bakery course I run are my pride and joy.   I won 2nd prize last year as ILT Practitioner of the Year.   The site content allows students to access any learner materials night and day, either in College, or anywhere else, given access to a pc and the internet.   Materials include a host of photgraphs from all the practical classes, plus demonstration videos.   Some of these are available on my TFL blog, as you may have already seen.   All course details and documents are posted, and folders full of my recipes.   The front page is an "Announcements" area, enabling me to provide rapid and immediate news for students [eg the news of the Apprenticeship Baker post which came up the day before yesterday].   There is also a place for "External Links".   I have quite a range in here; top of the pile is immediate access to....THE FRESH LOAF, of course!

In the syllabus area, there are loads of documents for students to use to complete the course.   Also in here, is this list shown below.   Well, my studies at University in the early 1980s involved use of microfiche to access books in the library,; no computers whatsoever!   I didn't even know how to word process until early 2004!   Some folks think mobile phones are where it's at, and others go more for media such as television.   I've long been convinced that the most powerful player is the pc, and, particularly the internet.   Anybody disagree about that?

So if I've missed anything off please let me know.   As you can see, there is a big "hats off" to the great US Artisan Bakers; my personal big inspiration in the book world of the last 5-10 years.   A quick count up suggests I own about 20 of the books shown in my personal baking library.

BOOKLIST:

Recommended Texts

I will add to this list from time to time:

**Amendola, J., Rees, N. (2003) Understanding Baking: The Art and the Science of Baking. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons

Banfield, W.T. (1947) Manna: A Comprehensive Treatise on Bread Manufacture. London: Maclaren & Sons

**Barenbaum, R.L. (2003) The Bread Bible. New York & London: Norton

**Bertinet, R. (2007) Crust: Bread to Get Your Teeth Into. London: Kyle Cathie

**Bertinet, R. (2008; paperback, with dvd) Dough: Simple Contemporary Bread. London: Kyle Cathie

** [7 copies]Brown, J. et. al. [Eds] (1996) The Master Bakers' Book of Bread Making. Hertfordshire: NAMB

**Calvel, R., MacGuire, J., Wirtz, R. (2001) The Taste of Bread. Gaithersburg, Md.L: Aspen

Cauvain, S. P. [ed] (2003) Bread Making: Improving Quality Cambridge: Woodhead [on order as an e-book]

Cauvain, S. P., Young, L. S. (2006) The Chorleywood Bread Process. Cambridge: Woodhead

**Cauvain, S. P., Young, L. S. (2007) The Technology of Breadmaking. 2nd Edition. New York: Springer - Verlag

**Cauvain, S. P., Young, L. S. (2009) More Baking Problems Solved. Cambridge: Woodhead

Collister, L., Blake, A. (1993) The Bread Book London: Conran Octopus

** [multiple copies]Connelly, P., Pittam, M. (1997) Practical Bakery. London: Hodder & Stoughton

**David, E. (1979) English Bread and Yeast Cookery. London: Penguin

**DiMuzio, D. T. (2009) Bread Baking: An Artisan's Perspective. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons

**Edwards, W. P. (2007) The Science of Bakery Products London: Royal Society of Chemistry

**Figoni, P. (2008) How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science 2nd Edition. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons

**Friberg, B. (2002) The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry.  4th Edition. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons

**Friberg, B. (2003) The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef: Advanced Baking and Pastry Techniques. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons

**Gisslen, W. (2008) Professional Baking. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons

**Glezer, M. (2000) Artisan Baking Across America. New York, Artisan

**Hamelman, J. (2004) Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc

**Hanneman, L.J. (1991) Bakery: Flour Confectionery. 2nd Edition. Oxford: Butterworth - Heinemann

**Hanneman, L.J. (1992) Bakery: Bread and Fermented Goods. 2nd Edition. Oxford: Butterworth - Heinemann

** [multiple copies]Hanneman, L.J. (1993) Patisserie 2nd Edition. Oxford: Butterworth - Heinemann

Hui, Y. H. et. al. [Eds] (2006) Bakery Products: Science and Technology New York/London: Wiley-Blackwell [on order as an e-book]

Kaplan, S. L. (2006) Good Bread Is Back: A Contemporary History Of French Bread, The Way It Is Made, And the People Who Make It. Durham and London: Duke

Kirkland, J. (1927) The Modern Baker, Confectioner and Caterer. London: Gresham

**Labensky, S., Martel, P., van Damme, E (2009) On Baking: A Textbook of Baking and Pastry Fundamentals.  New Jersey: Pearson, Prentice Hall

**Leader, D., Blahnik, J. (1993) Bread Alone: Bold Fresh Loaves From Your Own Hands. New York: Morrow

**Leader, D., Chattman, L. (2007) Local Breads: Sour Doughs and Whole Grain Recipes From Europe's Best Artisan Bakers. New York: Norton

**Lepard, D. (2004) The Handmade Loaf. London: Mitchell Beazley

**Lepard, D., Whittington, R. (2010) Baking with Passion: Baker and Spice. London: Quadrille

**Ortiz, J. (1993) The Village Baker. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press

**Reinhart, P. (2001) The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press

**Reinhart, P. (2006; paperback) Crust and Crumb: Master Formulas for Serious Bread Bakers. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press

**Reinhart, P. (2007) Whole Grain Breads. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press

**Reinhart, P. (2009) Artisan Breads Everyday: Fast and Easy Recipes for World-Class Breads. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press

**Rinsky, G., Rinsky, L. H. (2008) The Pastry Chef's Companion: a Comprehensive Resource  Guide for the Baking and Pastry Professional. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons

**Roux, M., Roux, A. (1993) The Roux Brothers on Patisserie. London: Little, Brown

**Shulman, M-R. (1990) Bread Book. London: Macmillan

Stevens, D. (2009) Bread: River Cottage Handbook No. 3. London: Bloomsbury

**Suas, M. (2008) Advanced Bread and Pastry USA: Delmar Cengage Learning

**Treuille, E., Ferrigno, U., O'Leary, I. (1998) Bread. London: Dorling Kindersley

**Whitley, A. (2006) Breadmatters: the state of modern bread and a definitive guide to baking your own. London: Fourth Estate

**Wing, D., Scott, A. (1999) The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens. Vermont: Chelsea Green.

MOST WANTED:

Baking: The Art and Science (Hardcover)   by Claus Schunemann (Author)

Other texts of interest to be found in the College Library:

Sugarcraft

Best wishes

Andy

I am new to baking bread.  I made a loaf of 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread and Whole Wheat Mash Bread from Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads".  I made both of them in the Batard shape. During the proofing process, both loafs flattened out. The volume did increase as speciefied. It started out about 2.5" to 3" tall and ended up around 1.75".  It did not have any oven bounce.  I used a sheet pan and steam. I do not have a hearth stome yet. What should I do different?

I started the rye starter last weekend and it came together quickly and was fermenting away so I decided to try to make a batch this evening.  I also made two boules of french bread, but the dough was not behaving well;  too wet, and they spread sideways.  However, these turned out great!  (I followed the recipe from Bread Bakers Apprentice, basic sourdough):

Nice golden crust.  I like the way these look.  They are a little flat, but not bad.  I meant to do more stretch and folds (I only did one after an initial short round of kneading) but the day got away from me.  I haven't tried the little pointy cuts before; they're fun.

In Quebec the one thing I'm always really looking forward to is, of course, French cuisine. For our daughter's graduation in Montreal we put up in a fairly nice hotel near campus, and went down for breakfast with pleasant expectations.

Heading straight for the croissants I noticed their lack of crispness, cold and tired they were sitting in the display. Well, there was the toaster, and innocently pretending not to understand the warning: "Pas des croissants" ("Nix comprengg!") I revived my lackluster pastry (no smoke alarm).

Back at our table I garnished my croissant with some butter and jam and took my first bite. At once red lights started flashing as my taste buds yelled: "Beware of cardboard!!!" In utter disbelief I took a second bite, and there it was - a total blandness and the faint but unmistakable taste of shortening!

In two days we will be home in Maine, and next time we visit Portland we will go to our favorite breakfast place: "Mornings in Paris", where they have the most wonderful, buttery, crisp croissants...

I really wanted to try once a 100% rye recipe- a dense, moist, delicious bread that I love eating in my trips to europe (not the sponge like clorored stuff they sell in the stores). I decided to give Hamelman Vollkornbrot a try.

I've tweaked the recipe just a bit as I changed the rye chops to cracked rye and I had only 7 oz of it (I've add the rest as rye flour).

The whole rye experience is quite ew to me as have not made more than a 40% rye until now. It was actually great fun' as you don't expect gluten development and you just mix "clay". I don;t have a pullman loaf pan either so I use two smaller pans. I shoud have proofed it for 30 minutes more as almost non cracks appeared at the floured surface of the loaf before going to the oven but still-the results were fantastic.

Hamelman's Vollkornbrot:

The crumb:

Sorry one of them are shorter- I forgot to take a picture before slicing into it.

We've waited about 60 hours before cutting it and boy, it was hard. After tasting it with just a little butter on it I knew it was worth it- one of the very best breads I've made and even tasted. It keeps easily int plastic in the fridge for a week and a half or so now and it tastes just as good.

Greatly reccomended- easy to follow recipe, wonderful bread!

Happy Baking!

Jonthan.

Whitsuntide Baking and Other Antics

Today has been a busy day making a range of breads.   I had refreshed both my rye sourdough and wheat levain, with no definite projects in mind.   Given store cupboard availability at the time, this is what I've ended up with:

•1.    Cheese Bread

Part of the "Hamelman Challenge", I made this Cheese Bread using the white levain, pretty much to the recipe.   I'm afraid I couldn't extend to Parmegiano Regiano, but I did have a half decent Farmhouse Mature Cheddar Cheese to use as substitute.   As with all the breads made at home, this is solely reliant on natural yeasts, so it took a considerably longer time to prove than Hamelman suggests in his book.   I made a small loaf in a banneton which was underproved.   So, I just allowed the loaf in the Pullman Pan to prove for about 3 hours before baking; this was after a 2 hour bulk proof, so I was really pleased with the end result.   It is to formula, found on pp.180-1 of the book, apart from these alterations.

•2.    Roasted Brazil Nut and Prune Bread

Well, it should be hazelnut, but I was quite happy to use brazils instead.   No added yeast, just the white levain.   To formula otherwise.   The loaf shown is just shy of 1.2kg.   I baked it at 180°C for 55 minutes.   It had stuck, ever so slightly in the "banneton", but I was really happy about the lovely moist crumb in the final baked loaf.   Prunes are a new household favourite, and we have sourced dried fruits which have been packed perfectly, and knock the socks off even fresh plums!    See pp. 185-6

•3.    Horst Bandel's Black Pumpernickel

Given I bought 3kg of Organic Rye Berries and 3kg of Organic Cracked Rye Grain, I want to keep on producing "Pumpernickel-style" breads.   8 hours steaming works so well; keeping qualities are unsurpassed.   We both love this bread...lots and lots!

•4.    Wholegrain Bread leavened with a Rye Sourdough

This one's my own recipe, shown below.   I made it as one BIG loaf in a banneton, using bran as a topping to the bread, which weighed in just short of 1.4kg prior to baking!   The flours are all organic; the formula is as straightforward as can be for this type of loaf.   Bulk ferment time was about 2 hours, with 2 S&F in that time.   Final proof was similarly 2 hours.   I do so love using rye sourdough to leaven any type of bread.   This loaf makes me think of Leader's Pane di Genzano, and yet the 2 formulae have little in common.   Can't wait to try it!   Bake profile utilised steam, loaded at full heat of 250°C, reduced to 220°C after 10 minutes, then 200°C for the last 20 minutes of a 50 minute bake.

Pre-fermented Flour: 13.8%  Overall Hydration: 67.2%

Photographs shown below:

Student Bread Competition

The end of the student academic year approaches.   Currently we are building 2 College Buildings out of Cake ready for the EAT Food Festival held in Newcastle later in June.

At the end of April we played host to Warburtons to celebrate National Bread Week; the first week of May.   A huge organisation, and massively successful baking company; this was a great opportunity for the students, and they all did the College and themselves proud.   They divided into 3 groups and designed their own loaves to produce and present to a Senior Manager at the local Warburtons Bakery in our city.   Hamelman's Roast Potato and Onion Bread was the inspiration for one group, and it was soo moist; probably my favourite on the day!   Another group was led by a baker from Sicily, and the recipe lent heavily on the Semolina Bread I posted on not long ago.   Both these breads were made using a Biga Naturale, prepared and fostered by the students themselves.   The winners went down the seed route in a big way, and adopted rye sourdough as a means to pack a punch with flavour.   Clearly this impressed the judge!   They actually made Pain Siègle, a Wholegrain Chollah with seed topping, and a "Couronne" of rolls using rye sour dough and topped with seeds.

Some photographs are attached.   Most of these are taken on a mobile phone, so, apologies for lack of quality.

I don't seem to have posted on the blog for a while; hope this keeps up the interest!

Best wishes to you all

Andy