Hello Bakers,

Over the past year I have discovered that I love to bake bread, and not just because I have been baking out of necessity (sadly, good bread is hard to find where I live). Without the convenience of internet right in my kitchen, my single resource has been the "Fannie Farmer Cook Book" published in 1970 that a friend gave me. But as of a month ago, we finally have dial-up speed internet out here in the campo. One of my first searches lead me to The Fresh Loaf!

After reading through so many highly-knowledgeable posts, my list of questions is as long as my arm. But in general, I would greatly appreciate any tips on baking in this tropical climate and unique recipes that might be ideal for the limited amount of flours and grains available to me...Bollo Fino white flour, mid-grade wheat flour, corn meal, Oat bran, Oatmeal and a variety of add-ins (local cheese, nuts, fruits, veggies). My baking tools are very basic and my oven is propane rather than electric.

My desire is to get a few good recipes down so I can make bread regularly for friends and neighbors. I also know of several local women in the area who might enjoy learning about different breads they can bake in their adobe brick ovens.

Thanks Fresh Loaf community!

Linda

So I have been learning to bake bread.  I did NOT buy a bread machine, which I did consider for a while.  I was thinking about what would be easy, simple, less time consuming.  But when it came down to it, I just didn't like the constraints of a bread machine.  The loaf pans are so small, sometimes square, and the whole paddle thing just leaves me cold.  I had a bread machine when I lived in Germany.  I used it and hated it. It dumbed me down and I never understood the whole process of bread baking.  This made it impossible to troubleshoot or use anything other than the basic settings. 

Now, without a bread machine, I am so happy.  I feel like I have found a new hobby [that hopefully won't make me TOO fat!] and it is very exciting to create such wonderful works of edible art.  The breads that I have made so far, that have been successful, are a half-white, half-wheat loaf that is very nice, and would be great for sandwiches, cinnamon toast, and just about anything else.  The other loaf I have made that needs a bit of work is the artisan bread.  I have managed to get the right size, rise, and color...but need to work on the scoring and taste. 

Next I will try making a huge starter in the fridge and flavor it with some sourdough starter I already have.  Another really interesting thing I am doing, is using the bread mixes I am getting delivered.  Hodgson Mills makes some great mixes, but I don't use them as is.  I use them as additives to my breads for more flavor and the dough conditioning properties.  I could buy dough conditioner, but this is much more fun to experiment!

I also am working with gluten, and this addition is particularly helpful up here in the mountains.  I am at almost 8000 feet, so the high altitude is also a challenge.  But I am figuring it out as I go.

Thats it for now. Will post my recipes soon.

Ok, so the first loaf was horrible.  I baked it on a stone, and it didn't brown. I basically didn't bake it long enough.  Here is a picture of my second attempt.  I baked it in my Cuisinart 2 quart saucepan with lid, sprinkled with a bit of cornmeal, at 500 degrees [30 min. lid on, 20 min. lid off]. It turned out very nice and was a great texture. However, I felt it was a bit bland and will add some sourdough starter next time. I also need to work on the scoring I think.  It was very crusty and I like that, but not very pretty, I guess. Need to keep practicing!

Hello,

I have started a bakery in China producing a local type of quick bread. the recipe is below

50 eggs

25kg flour

2.5 ltrs oil

4 kg sugar

we use a sour dough starter that was given to us by a company producing the same type of bread. we combine the ingridients and the prepared sourdough starter and then add luke warm water to mix them in an industrial mixer. we mix for about 1 min and the dough comes out relatively dry, not sticky at all.

we let rise in a warm place over night. in the morning we put the bread in the mixer again and "knead" for around 2 mins and add a 1/3 kilogram of baking soda. then we seperate the dough into small ball, flatten with a presser, and smear a filling onto the dough. we then cut the dough into four pieces and arrange in a small aluminum conatiner. we cook the bread at 270 degrees celcius for around 35 minutes and then turn off the heat and let cook for another 5 mins. we then take the bread out of the containers and let cool before serving.

my current problem is that the bread continues to turn out very dry. when i eat the bread i have trouble swollowing it. the filling we put on it tastes good but the actually bread tastes very dry. we have tried adding more water to the mixing, adding yogurt, increasing oil, letting rise for two days, trying different flours, all to no effect. we have tried the bread at other places and it is relatively "wet" or easier to eat. it is sweeter than our bread. the recipe we have was given to us by the other comany also (we essentially franchised from them) and they do not know what the problem is either.

i think our method is similar to the "epoxy" method used by peter for his new whole grain bread. i just cant seem to get the flavor out of the bread, and get it to be more moist. please if you have any suggestions help me. and if you happen to visit beijing def drop me a message. thanks in advance

Baking in Beijing

If you're right around the VT/NH border, and like good bread, pick up a loaf from Orchard Hill Breadworks, or visit them in East Alstead, NH!

Has anyone used a professional Combi Oven to bake artisan loaves?  The website for this brand (www.rationalusa.com) says that it's perfect for bread baking, but I am so used to baking in a deck oven this crazy digital touch screen technology scares me.  

Hi,

I've newly discovered the concept of "crumb". I hope to be able to reliably create open crumb artisan breads (I think that's the right terminology). I'm at the beginning of this process. My current goal is to decide on a flour. I have two contenders, I prefer organically grown. I live in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Seeing as Canada is a big wheat producer I want to find a Canadian flour. (I'm a US ex-pat, so I'm ridiculously attached to this country)

I wanted to get this blog started and introduce my quest. I'm really happy to have stumbled across this site.

My name is Paul, by the way, but there's already a Paul here. Being something of a Mexican groupie from California I chose the Spanish version of Paul, which is "Pablo", for my username. FYI.

Paul

Just back from a week long artisan bread making class at the San Francisco Baking Institute.  In one word....fantastic....let's take two words or more....a life changing bread making experience.

Our instructor, Didier Rosada, is a master baker and gave clear instruction as all 16 of us made four or so breads a day.  Making artisan bread consumed most of our time along with enough class room experience to understand the process.

This is from yesterday's baking session using the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes recipes -- an epi and 2 small loaves of olive bread using some totally delicious kalamata olives I had to scour the city to find. What's wrong with these grocers? The dough for the olive bread was 11 days old. Great oven spring!

Baking session on 2/13/08. Kalamata olive bread and a pain d'epi.