Hello,

My sister has been baking bread for about a year now, and had produced some fabulous cheddar cheese and 7-grain honey breads.  Her birthday is coming up, and I would like to get her something special.  So I am here to ask:  What does a bread baker need/want?

She currently uses metal pans.  Are the stoneware and terra cotta pans worth the investment?  Are they harder to clean?  (I do not want to cause her more work!)

She makes bread by hand, not machine, and in small batches.  I'm not sure what else you might need to know, as I am only the lucky recipient of her talents.

Any suggestions?  Thank you.

-Sue

Hello bead makers, I was wondering what is the proper amount of dough to use in different size loaf pans, I am  sure i read this info in BBA but can not seem to find it. thank you for you help.

9x5

8 1/2 x 41/2

8x4

Will

Hi --

I've been baking my sandwich breads in stoneware loaf pans. I have two pans of the same size, one made by Le Creuset and the other branded by Paula Deen. 

The Le Creuset one is twice the price of the other.

Every time I bake, no matter the recipe, the bread in the Le Creuset pan rises almost twice as much as the other.

I just posted pictures of my latest attempts at Flour Girl, along with a pretty yummy Sourdough Whole-Wheat recipe from Clayton.

Can any of you bread detectives tell me why this might be happening?

What pans do you recommend for sandwich loaves?

Thanks ... and Happy Baking!

Flour Girl

Hello again!

The recent postings about pullman pans reminded me that my favorite loaf pan suddenly decided to impart my latest ww loaf crust with a silvery-flecked shine.

So many loaf pans, even the more expensive pullman pans I found online, seem to list "coatings" of one kind or another.

I would like to find some good, very sturdy, old-fashioned metal baking pans that I can scrub like crazy OR, as my grandmother did, season and continue to use after wiping out.  (Heresy in today's world of antibacterial cleaning products, I'm sure!)

Do such things exist?  What do professional bakers use for their loaves?  I'm not averse to paying for such things, as I expect they would last for a very long time in the home kitchen.  Just can't seem to find anything without a 'coating'.  Makes me nervous!

I'm interesting in finding these in 'normal' size/shape as well as pullman with lid.

Any advice, experience, words of wisdom (or wit) are greatly appreciated.

Freezing my loaves off in New England....

MommaT

I'm working up the nerve to try Hamelman's pumpernickel bread; the heavy-duty European one. This is probably a huge mistake, as I've only just started messing about with rye breads, but it's all been going so well, why not get in over my head?

The only problem is that it requires baking in a pullman loaf pan (well, that and the fact that it's going to own my oven for something like 12 hours...) and I neither have one nor especially want to buy one.