The "Taste-and-Tell" is a monthly event held by the Chicago Amateur Bread Bakers.
Today we announced the focus for our April "Taste-and-Tell": Basic Shaping. For more information, and to join the group, please visit us at http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-Amateur-Bread-Bakers/
I was just over at The Back Home Bakery looking at Mark Sinclair's Tutorial videos. I wanted to remember how he rolls up his sweet sticky buns in preparation for making Franko's Pineapple up side down rolls. Mark's videos are really excellent and I thoroughly enjoy going back to the DVD collection to remind me how to do things he does every day and I do once every few Months.
Greetings all!
I am following the instructions for the Tartine Basic Country Bread recipe and have some questions on the initial shaping. The description is, basically, "use your bench knife and work each piece of dough to a round shape". I think he means to shape a boule, but I can't make sense of his description and the photo sequence (usually pretty clear on other parts of the process) is not very clear here.
I'm now retired and a complete neophyte at baking. I'm slowly working my way through Jeffrey Hamelman's wonderful book.
Today is my third attempt at making the beginner's Ciabatta with Poolish. I'm gradually beginning to see the light on the subject of folding. The previous two attempts were highly edible (after scraping off the burnt crusts -- I still don't understand steaming) but not anywhere near acceptable.
King Arthur Flour has created a wonderful video series called Techniques for the Professional Baker which are awesome.
While labeled for the "pros," serious home bakers can learn a lot from these videos. I sure did.
I visited "De Zandhaas", a working grain mill close to Amsterdam. Together with two fellow bread enthusiasts we had a one on one with the miller. He gave us loads of really useful info on the local, regional, national and European ins and outs on grain.
