I just baked two sourdough boules, and they began to make lovely crackling noises after I took them out of the oven. My son wants to know what causes this, and I figured someone here would know. Thanks!

Hi,

My name is Sunee Hughes. I am Thai but married and living in the UK with my British husband. I love cooking and baking. We both love eating bread and home made bread is our favourit. I have made bread from my bread machine for over 3 years and I have a passion to be able to make artisan bread which it is nice with the crust and crum. I have tried many times to make this bread such as ciabatta but the result were not acceptable. I am thinking to buy a bread book which could give me some ideas how to make in the right way, for home made bread, not to complicate. I would like to have a book which can give me a suggestions or advices for many type of bread. Could anyone give me some comment which book I should buy such as Artisan Baking by Maggie Glazer or Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads or The Italian Baker (Hardcover) by Carol Field or Cust and Crum by Peter Reinhart.

Thank you

Sunee

I'm not a new baker, but new to any kind of starters but packaged yeast. Can anyone tell me what white leaven is and how to make it?

I made ciabatta today for the first time. I was actually very pleased with the results. Nice big, open crumb, great crust and it looked just like the pictures in Reinhart's BBA! Exciting!.....until I tasted it and it just didn't taste like anything! So bland.

Normally I use KA Bread flour and KA AP for breads I make. Lastnight I was in a pinch and my normal store didn't have KA so I had to switch brands and ended up using Gold Medal bread flour. (the biga I used was made w/ KA though.)

Could the brand or type of flour effect the taste that much? What are some suggestions to get more taste after all that work?

I invite you to start posting about different kinds of bread around the world and to share some recipes. It is really amazing how every region from the world has its own bread and how different kinds of flours are used. Every region is simply unique. I will like to make a study of breads around the world and share with those who have recipes from their grandmothers, great granmothers, etc.

So, let's start and share what the amazing bread world worldwide has!!!

Be all blessed and welcome to the amazing bread's recipes & its history forum...A legacy from generation to generation.

I think I first found this site from a link on the cooking forum at gardenweb--I have learned so much here!-and I thought I was a fairly accomplished bread baker,making most of our daily bread (usually an oatmeal or multigrain)and mastering a hole-filled biga loaf --but nothing compared to you guys!

Now I am in search of the method for making a Corsica Loaf like the Door County Bakery- fabulous,light texured,but not big holes,crispy crust,covered w/sesame seeds,and at some point doused in olive oil (decently flavored oil,but not real fruity or green) to the point that there is some oil drippage,and it is wicked up about a 1/4" at the bottom-has anyone ever had this,and tried to duplicate it?

Thank-you so much for all you have shared on this site

Anita

http://www.doorcountybakery.com/corsica.asp?width=750

I am looking a two different recipes for Herbes de Provence bread.

One calls for 1 Tbsp of herbes to go with 1 cup of water and 2 1/2 cups of flour.  It also calls for 1/4 cup olive oil, salt, yeast, etc.

The other calls for 1/2 cup of herbes to go with 1 1/4 cup water and 3 cups of flour. It also calls for 1/4 cup liqueur, salt, and yeast.

That is quite a difference.  I am inclined to try 2 Tbsp of herbes with the first recipe. 1/2 cup seems like a LOT.

Any opinions?

Colin

The photo's below are from a recent bake, but I've seen the same phenomena on multiple previous bakes. The first photo shows the bread's crumb at the very center of the boule. One can see it's relatively closed. The second photo shows the crumb nearer the edge of the same loaf. The crumb appears much more open, to me. I'm not certain the photos illustrate it as much as my eye perceives the difference.

I think the difference is attributible to the way I preshape, and shape the boules, but I'm not certain. I shape boules following the instructions I've learned from watching multiple videos, and recently at KA Baking Center. On every boule I recall shaping the center of the loaves have been more closed than the periphery. Any comments re alternative causes, and, more importantly, how I might achieve a more homogeneous crumb will be appreciated.

Thanks, in advance.

David G.

Thirded Bread --- from Ella Shannon Bowles and Dorothy S. Towle, Secrets of New England Cooking, M. Barrows, New York, 1947.

4 Cup White flour
4 Cup Yellow corn meal
4 Cup Rye flour
1 Cup Yeast, or 2 yeast cakes
1/2 Cup Brown sugar
2 Cup Milk, scalded
Water, lukewarm

Mix the ingredients, adding enough lukewarm water to make a dough that can be molded. Let it rise until it cracks open. In the morning shape into loaves, place in brick-loaf pans, and let loaves rise for 45 minutes. Bake in a slow oven, 325 degrees F., about one hour. This large recipe makes a number of loaves. (If you use yeast cakes, dissolve in one half cup of lukewarm water.)

****************************************************

This one requires explanation. Jo and I went to a lecture on early New England cooking, and copies of parts of this book were available - we took the bread item. Xeroxed of course, with a copy of the cover, and an illustration of an Indian with a basket of corn greeting a colonist in his field.

Now, history. In early New England, there was no wheat, not a New World grain - it was eventually brought from England. So bread was made with rye and cornmeal, and in fact the rye was meal not flour. When wheat became available the colonists moved to a bread more like what they were familiar with. But wheat was still a luxury, so the "thirded" method. That "white flour" I take to be wheat, and "white" seems to mean similar to the usual flour we use today - I debated using whole wheat flour but decided no. Now yeast - nothing like the packages of yeast we have now. I made in fact a 1/4 recipe, and used 2 yeast packages, added to the dry ingredient mixture. Brown sugar - used dark brown, almost certainly what the colonists would have used.

The rising instructions are confusing. "Let it rise until it cracks open" - and then "in the morning". I took that to mean make the loaf in the evening, although now "until it cracks open" is irrelevant - except to see that it actually does crack open. But go on as soon as it cracks open? but the instruction is "in the morning".

What I did was to make the dough in the afternoon. As a note, it took about 1/2 cup of lukewarm water to make a dough for the quarter recipe. It did in fact rise, and crack. To bed, and in the morning more cracked, but not any great rising. Shaped to a loaf (remember, I made 1/4 of the recipe, a single loaf). At the 45 minutes, it had risen a bit more. Into the oven at the specified temperature for an hour.

That loaf was not thick and heavy as I feared it might be, but firm and, while not soft, clearly risen. It was however very crusted, i.e., the crust was hard. That made it difficult to cut. The taste I found great, very tasty. Jo found it with a bitter aftertaste, and, while pleased, was not as enthusiastic as I was.

Colonial bread in 21st century Maine, and I declare it a success.