I'm out of SAF gold yeast (!), which I need for my Christmas Tree Sweet Rolls.

To take advantage of King Arthur's free shipping (which expires today) I need $50 of stuff to do it.  If anyone else in the San Jose area needs something from KA, please reply or message me today and we can group orders (I'm happy to take care of ordering/paying upfront).

-Alison

The other day I stopped into a Whole Foods store in the hope that I could find some white rye.   I couldn't, in fact the person I spoke to had no idea what white rye was.  But there on the shelf were bags of King Arthur Italian Flour.   Wow!   No shipping.   But what to make?   I decided on Ciabatta.   Specifically Hamelman's Ciabatta with Poolish (p. 107 of Bread).   Only after I had mixed everything up did I remember that the Italian Flour bag had a note recommending less water for this flour than others - and I had even accidentally put in around an extra ounce of water.   So it was wet.   I just decided to go with it instead of adding more flour.   It was too wet to take out of the bowl to stretch and fold, so I used the in the bowl method.   Then I decided it was too wet to move it around too much so after the first rise, I poured it (yes poured) into a dutch oven and let it do the second rise there.   Then  baked with the top on for 30 minutes, and the top off for 25.   What did I get?    Well it looks a bit like a three pound muffin.  

with an extremely blistery top:

and the lightest feathery texture I've ever managed to produce.

Yum!  

Reading Peters Bread Baking Apprentice and notice the man says use Bread Flour. Then on page 29 he gets into gluten percentages. > 11.5% gluten = bread. < is AP

1. I am newer than new to all this bread stuff. Enjoying TFL as I read/learn.

2. Have the ingredients, tools etc to begin (sort of)

3. Decided to use KA flours to start.

4. King Arthur AP is approx 11.5 % gluten and KA Bread flour is approx 12.5%.

Q: for the formulas in the BBA, which King Arthur flour should I use.

Hate to have my first 2,000 attempts fail simply by starting off wrong.

Great site- thanks,

Tim Mandeville

I tinkered with my classic King Cake recipe this year, and came up with this Bavarian Cream Cheese King Cake, inspired by the King Cake my friend brought me from New Orleans after the Superbowl.

Hi Everyone

I am thinking of attending some of the King Arthur bread classes, and I'd like some feedback from those of you who may have attended them previously.  I'm a fairly experienced home baker who cooks both sourdough and yeast breads, mainly with a high percentage of whole grains, so I am looking for a class to advance my skills rather than a beginners class.

The two classes I'm considering are:

Beauty & The Baguette

At last! Tame the beastly baguette with this hands-on class to help you make the best possible baguettes in your home oven. Learn how to work with a pre-ferment to achieve the maximum flavor. During the course you will mix a traditional baguette dough, get experience shaping and slashing loaves and learn steaming techniques for home ovens.$90.00

Pain au Levain with James MacGuire

Join us for a master class on this classic French loaf with renowned baker James MacGuire. The class draws on Chef MacGuire’s recent article on pain au levain in The Art of Eating, and each student will go home with a deeper understanding of the history, principles and method of producing the best possible loaf as well as their own crusty breads.$175.00

Thanks in advance for any input.

So, I live in Hungary, but my family lives in the U.S., and wonderfully, in five days I'll be visiting (I'm going to bake them so much bread!).  It'll be neat, too, as a good number of ingredients in some interesting recipes aren't easily available here.  

Including King Arthur flours.  I always see TFL-ers mentioning it, and I've seen (and disobeyed) recipes specifically calling for KA... I'm just wondering - why?  I definitely want to give it a go, but can anybody tell me why it's the most preferred one?

I don't know if it just local, but Wegman's in Cherry Hill, NJ, has 5 lb. bags of King Arthur Flour on sale for $3.29.  Most stores in my area charge $4.99 for King Arthur so this is a good deal and I intend to stock up!

I have moved from the USA to Victoria, BC. Its beautiful here and I love it. However, I haven't been able to source King Arthur bread flour. I'm buying a bread flour from the local bulk food store. Its OK but not great. I've looked at the Robin Hood bread flour but its bleached. I'm really trying to find an outstanding organic white bread flour. Does anyone have any suggestions. I'm on Vancouver Island.

Thanks,

Tim

So I'm moseying around on the Internet and a link takes me to the King Arthur site.  Okay, while I'm here, I'll see if they have anything new or interesting.  And I come across Bread Salt.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/bread-salt-16-oz

The blurb calls it "An all-natural salt that's ideal for bread baking."  It also says "[Its] high mineral content helps feed yeast in a rising loaf. "

Questions:

(1) What makes this salt so special?

(2) Helps feed yeast?

Rosalie 

Before I email the company themselves, does King Arthur sell the non-organic or the organic bread flour in 25 pound bags? I see the all purpose on the website, but no mention of the bread flour.