The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Aloha from the Big Island!

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

Aloha from the Big Island!

I joined a while back but have been just reading and lurking. I found this site on a google search for something (too old to remember what!) I'm new to cooking and baking but I've always enjoyed "fiddling around" in the kitchen and getting under my wife’s feet! She passed away this spring and now I'm into cooking full time or get REAL hungry! Friends got me into an International Cooking group and I found that I can follow a recipe pretty good. I had joined Allrecipe.com and was looking around for something to cook for a potluck and came across a recipe for "Black Olive" bread. I read through the directions and reviews a couple of times and proceeded to make my first big round loaf of bread! The amazing thing.... It tasted wonderful! The people at the potluck couldn't believe I hadn't made bread before. Sense then I've been buying all kinds of baking toys... I mean utensils. Last week I started a pineapple juice starter and looking forward to my first loaf of sourdough bread. I did try some of the discard starter in some pancake mix a couple of days ago. That was different! Just a little bit of tang to the packaged mix... I'll do that again sometime! My other hobby is woodworking but now I've got to make more choices. Do I buy a new woodworking tool, more flour, or that neat kitchen gadget??!!

Sorry for the long post and hope I don’t ask too many strange question. 

Aloha,

Royall

Just down the road from Hilo town!

PS. I read on one post about doing primitive baking on the lava from the Kilauea volcano… That’s do-able as it’s just down the road a bit!!! Interesting concept to say the least.

 

Paddyscake's picture
Paddyscake

Welcome, so glad you've joined us! One of my very good friends at work is from Volcano, not too far from you! Never worry about asking questions here! You will find all the help you need!

Aloha, Betty

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

Mahalo for the welcome Betty. I move here from Oregon (Brookings). Just got tired of the COLD rain!

 

Royall

 

OOPS!! Sorry about posting in the wrong place. I see where I screwed up!!

Wild-Yeast's picture
Wild-Yeast

Royall, Welcome aboard and enjoy!

Now about the Lava Baked Bread as an offering of appeasement to Pele for all the Haole violations of her paradise. She'll probably like the beautiful smell of a roasting sourdough loaf . . . , 

+Wild-Yeast

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

Thanks for the welcome WY. I'll not waste the good bread on the lush! She gets plenty of gin offered to her and wouldn't appreciate flavors of a fine loaf of bread! ;) Now I hope I don't loose the house to a lava flow now!!

Paddyscake's picture
Paddyscake

I'm from Oregon and my friend from Volcano lives in Washington!

Betty

Janknitz's picture
Janknitz

We lived for a few years in HPP between Keauu and Pahoa.  It was a great place to be and I miss it when I see posts like yours. 

Bread baking in Hawaii is a little different than other places because of the ambient temperature and humidity.  If you don't have AC, the ambient temperature in your kitchen will be in the high 70's, low 80's and that means that your breads will proof quickly and be at more risk of overproofing.  When I lived there I compensated for the temperature by doing a lot of retarding in the fridge.  That worked well to control the timing and also developed lovely flavors in the bread. We also had a Foodsaver vacuum sealer that came in handy for keeping ingredients fresh and bug-free. 

It was fun baking there because the yeasts are very responsive and you can produce a lot of breads that aren't readily available on the Big Island or vtoo expensive to buy. 

There are two other Big Island bakers I know of with blogs you might enjoy: 

http://northwestsourdough.wordpress.com/  Teresa is a master baker new to the Big Island and she is getting used to baking her amazing sourdoughs there.  Sounds like she lives "off the grid", which adds to the challenges.

http://myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com/ I think Devany lives on the Kona side and her blog is really a visual treat.  She bakes some killer breads. 

It's a lovely place to live, enjoy and bake well. 

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

Good morning Jan and thanks for the tips! I know Devany! She is part of our cooking club and just lives up past the cemitary going north out of Hilo town. We have a very social group and always have a party, potluck or club dinner going on!! She brought a wonderful foccasia to a dinner at my house a couple of weeks ago!

I too live in HPP! (Hawaiian Paradise Park) I built a home down on the middle of Makuu. Love having bananas growing in the back yard. Such a novel thing coming from the northwest!

If anyone on the Big Island want to know more about our "International Cooking Club" just let me know and I'll send a link along to the guy that kinda heads it up!

Janknitz's picture
Janknitz

Devany's partys sound great!  She's got a fan here in the "other paradise"--northern California. 

We loved Hawaii but this is where we feel most at home. 

Elagins's picture
Elagins

Great to see you're putting that stone to good use!

Stan Ginsberg
www.nybakers.com

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

Thanks Stan. I love the stone but haven cooked anything on it yet other than some cookies. I'm trying to get more time in the kitchen but there are woodworking projects in the shop that need to get completed as they are commision jobs and help buy the baking tools!

By the way Stan, I didn't have to cut the stone down at all like I thought I was going to have to do. I've got about 1" all the way around and the oven seemed to be doing well when baking the cookies.

 

Aloha

Elagins's picture
Elagins

to use parchment when you bake cookies. the shortening in the cookie dough, which is much more concentrated than in enriched breads (a lot of which are baked in pans) tends to soak into the stone and over time oxidize and turn rancid. you can clean the stone by running it through the oven's self-clean cycle or heating it with a blowtorch to get rid of the baked-on gunk, but again, i'd try not to expose it to too much in the way of oils or fats.

happy baking!

SG

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

Thanks for the heads up SG. I did use pans rather than laying them on the stone. It would have been a bit difficult to get the peel under them!!

Debra Wink's picture
Debra Wink

Welcome, Royall :-)

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

Thanks for the welcome Debra. It is your recipe for starter that I've been working with. I was following the step by step that Paul posted on yumarama. The little guy is working hard to work hard.. I guess another week and he'll be able to go to work!

Debra Wink's picture
Debra Wink

Paul did a great job with that, didn't he? Be sure and let me know if you run into problems, and I'll be happy to steer you out :-)

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

I'm sure there will be those! After ready Pauls page and what you've posted on starters (twice) I just wish the light would go on in my head like it did for crumb bum!

I'm convinced that the old I get the thicker my scull gets!!

Thanks again Debra

Debra Wink's picture
Debra Wink

Sourdough is very confusing until you see it in action. It's one of those subjects that isn't easy to explain in a few words, which may be why it is so intimidating to newbies. When you start working with it, things will begin to make more sense :-)