Hi Everyone

I hope I'm not out of line. You may be interested in viewing a 2 minute demo of Price-Cracker a cost analysis tool for bakers and restaurants at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKCzq6Ruld0

If you don't measure you can't manage. Compare your recipe production cost to sale price for real time analysis. It simply makes sense to know how much your products cost.

Regards

Russ

Good evening bread folks!

I have wanted to ask this question for a while now. How do you get the really nice slash marks? You know, the kind like on a baguette that curl durring the oven spring. Here is the latest country wheat from Bread alone.

Any idea why? Thanks for any feed back you can offer.

Chuppy

Good morning!

I'm testing the flavor of a bread recipe and trying to use it as a benchmark for other recipes as well. In Rose Levy's Bread Bible, she says that pate fermentee is used to give the unique and nuty taste in the next batch of dough. What I am hoping for, is a reduced time for the pre-ferment. Not by a lot, but at least a few hours.

I know the longer bread has to pre-ferment, the better and nuttier the flovor will be. So is it safe to say that a pate fermentee will increase the flavor?

For example, if the recomended preferment is for 2-10 hours, can I allow a poolish to pre-ferment for 8 hours and add the pate ferment? I'm not so much looking for a short cut as much as unique ways to increase flavor as well.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Chuppy

I currently have a home-based specialty bakery based off my grandmother's bread recipe. I use a liquid starter and the result is a soft sweet bread with a thin crust on the top but the bottom is fairly soft. I'm working on a business plan to start a wholesale bakery (not in my home).

I had my bread tested and it has a water activity level between .92 and .94.  I understand that bread with water activity above .85 has to be sold refrigerated or with preservatives. Everything I've read says the standard water activity level for bread is .95. If this is so, how do bakeries or anyone sell fresh preservative-free, non-refrigerated bread? I am going to try to bake my bread at a lower temp for longer time to see if this lowers the water activity level. I don't want to use preservatives or refrigerate it because refrigeration causes staling. Can anyone PLEASE help??? 

I am using Floyd's Whole Wheat bread recipe on the site and it says to stretch and fold 2-3 times during bulk rising. Does that mean during the 60-90 minute rise I am to interrupt it and fold the dough every 20-30 minutes and if not, what is the technique?

Thank you for your help. :)

I have done some amount of research on the subject of how Sourdough breads affect persons with Diabetes. As a person afflicted by this disease, I take it seriously and while I'm not a very good follower of my Dr's orders, I do make efforts in certain areas to control my sugar levels. My own experience was that my blood sugar went and stayed down when I ate breads risen with a natural yeast. That isn't to say the same will happen to you but I wouldn't bet against it.

I was directed to a set of scientific papers done in Europe by some prominent scientists at a University concerning this subject. The short story is that they made 8 loaves of bread. 2 each of 4 types. In each type the bread was risen by commercial or natural (sd) yeast. Otherwise the breads were identical. The testing was done to determine the glycemic load of each bread on a healthy person. The results are remarkable. It shouldn't be a surprise that our bodies digest natural products more easily than commercial pretenders.

Here is the link to the paper I refer to.

Eric

I always seem to have difficulty scoring my baguette dough.  I believe the dough is well hydrated, not over-kneaded, and it is properly proofed. There is no "skin" on the dough.  I use a new, sharp razor blade, but the blade gets "stuck" in the dough when I try to score it at a slight or perpendicular angle - the blade does NOT slice through the dough.  Baked, the baguette is gorgeous and the crumb, wonderful. 

Any suggestions how I can score my dough without a tug of war?

Thanks,

Diane

How long should dough be steamed in the oven?  In his book, BREAD, Jeffrey Hammelman states, "From 4-6 seconds of steam is ample." (p. 100) in 460 degree oven.  In stark contrast, in BREAD BAKING, Daniel DiMuzio states, "The quality of the crust in hearth loaves in enhanced by exposing the loaves to steam for the first 5 - 10 minutes of baking." (p. 130)

That's a huge difference.  Any reasons for this disparity?

Diane

In my experience as a home baker, I've found that when adding either of the two seeds I mentioned to a dough, I need to add an equivalent amount of water since the seeds absorb moisture.  Any comments appreciated.

In a recent competition i entered I had to produce the following

• 2 white sandwich
• 2 flat breads from a grain or wholemeal dough and
• 3 products from a seet bun dough

Was fairly happy with the doughs, especially the wholemeal. However once baked off the wholemeal products ( a veinna and a cobb) both shrunk

Wheatmeal recipe:

75% wheat flour

25% wholemeal flour

3% gluten

3% yeast (instant)

1.8% salt

1% improver (soya flour based) Yes im a plant baker, but this comp was produced by hand

other things that may aid in answering why my wholemeal shrunk:

Flour temp:20oC

Water temp 29oC

Final dough temp 32.3oC

Was well developed, even the judges passed a comment about the dough that it was very good.

divded the dough into two 550g and bench rested for 15min, knock back then rest for 15 again.

Proved for about 55-60min and baked off at 215oC for 30min, excellent colour and taste.

Looked great in the oven but shrunk alot once cooling.

I can understand and accept some shrinkage once out of the oven but my wholemeal shrunk to much

Can anyone answer why my wheatmeal shrunk? im a little dumbfounded as to why it happened