I've dried and frozen some dried starter as a back up that I have.  My question is, has anyone ever froze the whole Mother in it's container?  I'm going to be gone for close to a month and I don't have anyone here to feed my 2 starter. 

Peggy

Is there some way the search function can operate so that when I have read an entry on page X and return to search it can go back to page X and not to page 1. Perhaps it's me, or my computer, but it if it is the way it's supposed to work, it makes looking things up slow and tedious. If it's my fault, please tell me how I can prevent this. Patsy

I have two questions really...

First off I have been making Struan as my go to bread recipe for the last several months.  I was following the recipe/techiques in BBA.  I tried the technique in the new book.  I am guessing from the new book that soaking the grains is no longer necessary.  Is that true?  If so that would be nice cuz sometimes I forget to soak my grains.

My second question has to do with the Classic French Bread Recipe.  I've tried this several times, and the flavor is spot on, but I cannot for the life of me get my crumb right.  It always ends up very compact and dense.  I'm wondering if I should skip the bulk fermentation and just go straight to the form and bake it in the morning?   Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Jane

Can anybody tell me  how to change my email address? I have started a whole new account since I am in a different location with a new email. But so far the mail keeps going to the old place- which is shut down or so I thought.

I have not recvd any mail at the new email

WHERE do I make these changes?

thanks

rockyrd

I have been reading the historical threads on fresh yeast, trying to get a handle on how best to convert my recipes and how best to measure the proper amount. The old school seems to be to cream the yeast with a small amount of sugar and a bit of the water from the recipe. Then It seems like some crumble it into the flour with the fingers which is my practice using instant.

Then the question of should I try to scoop into a teaspoon? I'm inclined to think it would be better to weigh the grams with the scale. With dry, it is easier for me to use a measure. I understand it is a 3:1 ratio for fresh over IDY and if you want to be picky, you need to hold back a few grams of liquid due to the water in the fresh yeast. My IDY weighs about 3g per tsp so an equivalent in fresh would be 9g.

For all of you who have been using fresh yeast please jump in here and tell me if I have the right idea on using fresh. My plan is to stop as of now with the IDY in the freezer and not look back. Most of my breads have some SD component in them but I am looking forward to this change. I'm also hoping that I too will experience the better crust and crumb that I have read so much about. Wish me luck!

Eric

Does anyone know how to make fresh yeast (cake yeast)?

I heard the fresh yeast is better taste than the dry active yeast and instant yeast. I baked some milk breads with the fresh yeast two days ago. The milk breads rised very nice however, they have the live yeast smell. I feel it is a strong smell.  Later, I changed to dry active yeast baking the same type of breads. It doesn't have the strong live yeast smell.

Has anyone used black food grade coloring, in place of cocoa or coffee, to get the black color?  Would the food dye kill the SD beasties?

Duane

So I finally got all the ingredients for PR's panettone and I made 2 loaves this weekend. The aroma was heavenly but I wasn't quite happy with the crumb- it wasn't that feathery shreddy light buttery thing I was looking for. Not being one who is easily daunted I am trying the panettone recipe from Foolish Poolish (thank you FP!!). I read and re-read the recipe until it finally started to make sense. Yes, it is time-consuming but hopefully it will be worth it in the end. I am sitting here at 11:15 pm, waiting until 1am when I have to make the first dough using my pasta madre that I oh so lovingly fed 3 times today...Unfortunately I messed up my timing (should have re-re-read the recipe!) but I am willing to sacrifice a few hours of sleep all in the name of making a superb loaf of bread! My patients won't mind if I am a tad bleary-eyed tomorrow, will they?? I am sharing this with you guys because who else would understand doing such a nutty thing as spending 3 days of time and effort just to make bread??? I made good use of my waiting time tonight, though- I made a HUGE batch of cappucino-hazelnut cookies to take to work tomorrow. Yawnnnnnnnnn. Stay tuned! If I can ever figure out how to upload pics here I will share :-)

Amaz the Crazy Baker

I am moving to San Luis Obispo in the next few weeks and wonder if there are any other TFLers in the general area? If so, I would love to hear from you!

Wendy