Ok, so, let's get the brief intro out of the way:  41 year old dad & husband who started baking bread in May despite supposedly being on a low carb diet, been lurking around here picking up a lot of good info, and feeling a bit nervous of putting my question out there. Whew.

My (round) stone is a fine size for pizza, but I have a hard time getting two batons or boules to fit on it  and not have the loaves bump and grind during the oven spring.  I'd like to do it one at a time, but don't know what to do with the raw loaf while his brother is baking.  Do I need to retard it? Just let it be and stop worrying about it?

Kevin

I am posting for the first time. However I have been registered in this wonderful place almost 2 years now. Like all of you a love bread. I love baking it, sharing and most of all eating it. I am just a home baker, don't have fancy oven or even a brick one. All I have is a gas fired oven that get the most heat at the top, while the lower shelve barely heat. However I manage to get nice breads using a cast iron Le Crouset casserole. Using it with the lid on for the first 10 minutes, I manage to get a nice and crisp crust. I use I sourdough starter, that was given to me by someone from US and is the "Red Sea Starter".  

Well, the reason I decided to post today is to ask a question. Today I prepared some dough so I can bake tomorrow. I am letting the dough rest in the fridge overnight. My problem is, the dough has already doubled. What I had in mind was, have it have a first rise in the fridge, then tomorrow morning I would let it come to room temperature; nock it down; pre-shape; shape and let it rise again.

Now I don't know if it is going to work. Won't it over-ferment? Should I do what I had planed for tomorrow morning, tonight?

I live in UK and it is past 8:00 pm. 

Thank you for any advice.

Lucia

Hi Everyone!

So I am no baking novice, but when it comes to baking bread I am not nearly as experienced as I am when it comes to cookies!

I have previously made successful white bread (with some help from everyone here in the past) and was hoping that I could get a few pointers before taking on my first Italian loaf, especially since I am making it for my future in-laws this weekend!

I am going to be using the Italian Bread recipe on this site (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/italianbread) , but need to make a few modifications because of time and travel restraints.  We will be driving approximately 2 hours upstate, and I plan on bringing my dough with me and baking the bread fresh for dinner upstate.

Because of this travelling and timing issue I was planning on making the dough and allow it to have its first rise and then putting it the fridge (and then refrigerated travel case) and letting it slow rise until we get up to the country.  When we get to our final destination I was going to let it get back to room temperature and rise again before baking.

I have done this in the past with white breads before, but wasn't sure if with the Italian bread I was asking for disaster, does anyone have any insight? 

I know the letting it slowly rise in the fridge allows the gluten to develop and can solve any under kneading problems, so I figured I would be in the clear if I did it for these loaves.  Due to time restraints I will need to make the dough a day before baking it, so I thought this may be a good solution, but am unsure and appreciate any insight you have to offer :)

I also have 3 questions about the recipe if any one can help:

1) It calls for instant yeast - can I use the active dry yeast packets for this and just measure the correct amounts? Or do I need to get the blocks of yeast? Or the bottles of Bread Machine Yeast (which I believe is still active dry yeast but am still unsure)?

2) The recipe calls for nonfat dry milk, can I use regular liquid nonfat milk? If so how to I adjust for it? Is there a particular reason dry milk is used?

3) Different sugar options are given, which one is the best for amazing Italian bread?

I'd appreciate any insight anyone can offer!  I know its a lot of questions but I'd be willing to trade my award winning melt in your mouth pumpkin cookies recipe for some great pointers (I'd be happy to give it to you even if you don't have any!)

Thanks!

Laura

I've just made bread #3 (taste's great, good crust). But (1) all 3 breads have risen sideways more than I'd like and (2) how do you move the shaped bread onto the oven-heated cookie sheet (or oven-heated baking stone if I get one).

thanks, anticipating answers.

I am on the sponge stage of my Pain de Campagne from The Bread Bible. This is my first experience with it. It has doubled, almost tripled, in my 4 quart container and is nearly hitting the plastic wrap on top. What should I do?

Alrighty guys, I've been making whole wheat boules for a while now and I have noticed that there are large air pockets that seperate the crust and the crumb. Am i not forming the boule correctly or maybe not making a strong enough outter-skin?

-Brian

Dear All,

I love baking my own bread, but I'm still pretty new to it. Yesterday, after kneeding the dough for about 10 mins, it was no longer sticky and quite smooth and nice. But after the first rise, and when i tried to shape it.. it was sticky again. This never happened to me before. I pretty much sort of rolled and scraped it into the loaf pan. It turned out pretty well after baking though 

I used a simple bread recipe (much like the one in this sites lesson - except with 1/3 wholemeal flour and brown sugar) . Is it normal for it to be sticky after rising?

thanks

Rgds,

Geraldine