A couple of questions:

I have a Fibrament stone in my oven that maybe leaves an inch or inch and a half around the edges from the oven wall. I always use convection heat, since I thought it might be best to move the hot air around in the oven, but now I wonder if that's still a good idea, with the airflow severely restricted by the stone? I have also noticed a couple of hot spots in the back center of the oven, close to the spot where the convection fan is located.

Also, if I still want to create steam, how would I do it in a way that would be safe for the stone? I imagine a blast of steam coming from the bottom of the oven and then hitting the bottom of the stone would not only be problematic for the stone, but also not reach the breads very well. Is there a better way of delivering steam to the breads - ideally just once, to keep the oven door closed during baking?

I should also add that I recently had to replace the convection heating element in the back of my Maytag oven - I am suspecting that the steam I used in the past had something to do with it. I'd usually pour about a half cup of water onto a hot pan on the bottom of the oven (this was before I got the stone). Somehow, the motor that moves the hot air around burned out. If I use straight heat, will that eliminate the risk of burning out that motor again (since the steam most likely will not get "sucked into" the system?

Stephan

So... time to try something new and the pictures of the pita breads on the right side of TFL has always appealed to me.

Being European, I had to use some other measurements and didn't bother getting the exactly like the recipe, so here's what I did, inspired by http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread.

Ingredients: (Made 8 pita breads á 50g)

• 1 dl tepid water
• 15g fresh yeast
• ½ dl plain natural yogurt (I can't seem to stop using this in my creations)
• 5g sea salt
• 5g honey
• 10g olive oil
• 50g durum/semolina flour
• 150g regular wheat baking flour + some for dusting and adding as nessecary.
• Optional: Spices (I used a tiny bit of ground chilli, smoked paprika and ground cilantro)

Mix the yeast with the water, add the yogurt, oil, salt and honey, mix well with a fork, till it's a greyish, oilish mixture.
Add the flour, a little at a time (100g) and stir with the fork as long as it makes sense.

Knead for around 10 mins or so. Let it rise under a luke warm tea towel in a warm place for 30 mins.

Carefully fold and strech the dough, and make a sausage. Cut the dough-sausage into appropriate size lumps, I weighed them and made them 50g. Let the pieces rest and rise for 5 mins.

Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough and hopefully you'll succeed in making them circular as well. Just make it really thin, not paper thin, but 3-5mm thick.

By this time your oven should be really hot (max. heat) and if you have a baking stone (which helps), it should be hot as well. Place the pancake lookalike dough onto the stone and bake them for 3 mins in 200°C or to taste. The breads should blow up like balloons.

Cut them up sidewise and enjoy your pitas.

Filling suggestion:
Garlic and herb roasted shoulder of lamb, sweet corn, tomato, cucumber, salad leaves and hot salsa.

...I'm going to quit blogging now and eat some more...

Over the last year, I have been experiencing severe memory loss. As I have been searching for answers for why this is happening or what could have cause this digression to occur, I am looking at some of the more toxic products I have been using in my daily life. One product that I have always wondered about is, my trusty Fibrament cooking stone. The smell it gave off on it's initial warming gave me a headache so bad I threw up. I am having a chemist friend of mine that works at the nearby university take a look at my stone. I am seriously concerned about this product. The company gives no indication or explanation of how the toxic smell is formed. It leaves room to wonder what is in this product. I find it hard to believe the composition of this product is so sacred that even the smell cannot be explained without the divulging the secret recipe of this stone's makeup. Any input would be much appreciated. 

Hi all,

My girlfriend and I are trying to start a locally sourced organic bakery.  We would love to grind our own flour and are seeking a functioning (or close to it) small stone grist mill for milling wheat and similar grains.

We don't have much money (are starting from scratch with no previous capital) but are willing to pay what we can for quality equipment.

Trust that it will go to loving hands and work to nourish a community.

Thank you,
Chris and Emily
mountain.oven@gmail.com

We have a Lowes in the town I live, Does anyone know EXACTLY what to ask for/look for.

TIA.

Hello,

Iv'e graduated from a culinary school and started to do some workshops.

My next one is breads. At home I'm using parchment papaer- to put the shaped and pre-shaped doughs

After that I transfer them to a sheet pan that has been already heated in the oven (otherwise the bottom will burn).

I had success moving the parchment with breads to the oven, and using the sheet pans.

I don't use cloth nor special baskets....but I want this workshop to look more professional.

What would you advise me to get?

Pizza peel? stone? (very expenssive), canvas? (I believe it's more usefull for loafs), bannentons?

I never used those at home, I don't know how easy it to transfer the bread from the peel to the oven...do u proof the shaped

bread on the peel?? if not- how do you transfer it?

Thanks so much!

Hello,

I know we bakers are always trying new equipment, just like new recipes. If anyone is needing or wanting to get rid of a decent baking stone, please email me. Having been out of work for the bast 16 months (Urrgghhh!) and doing everything we can to "keep the house going", as much as I'd like to go out and buy a baking stone, it just wouldn't be prudent. I live in Southeast MI and depending on costs (wouldn't it be the heaviest thing you could ship) I may be able to cover the shipping... please, I am not looking for charity but just thought since we are baking our own bread now (so much less expensive) that someone might have a duplicate stone of which to be rid. Thanks!

Mekales

I know there are a number of excellent mills for different applications, so I hope I get this detailed enough to really pinpoint which will work best for me. Thanks in advance for your advice!

I'm looking for a mill that can accomplish the following;

can mill coarse or very fine flours (dry grains) for baking, pasta, hot cereal, pastries, gravies, cakes, breads, etc.

does not heat the flour (over 120 farenheit)

can sift the milled flour to make white cake flours (meaning that it's capable of not crushing the outer layer into the flour making it too difficult to sift out to get a white flour)

can mill for a large family (meaning does not heat up or mess up with heavy use)

does not need to be cleaned

does not throw flour dust everywhere

has electrical and hand mill capability

lasts for 30 years+

does not need to be babysat (won't catch on fire or break with a distracted operator)

does not have quarks with getting odd sized or shaped grains stuck and cracks, or constantly needing to be taken apart to fix

low maintenance

less than $1000

can be purchased in or shipped to the U.S. without incredible waits, fees, or bribes, and with the knowledge that defective or damaged products will be fully replaced in a timely manner without uneccesary inconvenience

Any thoughts?

I have a bread recipe that calls for 30 minutes at 425ºF on a cookie sheet. I've prepared this recipe a half dozen times and it always turns out great. It's not broken, but I'd like to fix it. :) I have a 1/2" pizza stone. Would baking on the stone yield a better finished result? If I go the baking stone route, would I tweak temps or baking times?

Thanks,
Hans - AKA bread noob

I was wondering what materials people would recommend for use when making bread, I've made a fair bit now with help from this site, and recently picked up BBA and LOVED it, I was wondering though about a few things, First off is there a reason to use wood over plastic, metal or other materials? I enjoy wood and find it pleasing to handle and look at, but wasn't sure if it was worth the investment to get a solid wooden board and bowls to knead and proof dough in, Some sites recommend it and I notice every picture in BBA has bread being kneaded or proofed on wood (Or in a couche with wood sides that I'd imagine is sitting on top of wood) and the rustic image of a bakery in my mind imagines wood as being the 'right' way of doing things, but aside from some vague mentions of wood becoming seasoned like cast iron, and adding flavor over time through a build up of fermenting dough in pores (Which I don't think seems too likely or healthy), I can't find any good information one way or the other, I've been proofing dough in metal bowls with a bit of spray oil and it's been working fine, but for larger recipes I'm going to need to get some new bigger bowls soon, Any suggestions there?

The next question is regarding a baking stone, We have a cheap ($13 CAD) circular stone from Walmart, that has actually worked out very well so far, but again with larger loaves or with a few smaller longer loaves (like Baguettes) it's not big enough and will soon need to be replaced, any recommendations there? I need something that can be easily moved out of the oven for other things, preferably is rectangular, and is thick enough to hold heat for my purposes.

Next in regards to tools, I'm looking for a decent Dough Scraper, and Lame for scoring, I've been using an xacto-knife/scalpel which works quite well for some things, but the blade is so thin that even though it cuts the dough well, sometimes it doesn't spread the scores enough and they reseal, I've poked around online but the name is a bit ambiguous to search for on ebay or google, where (Preferably in Canada) can I get a decent lame from? I'd imagine a dough scraper would be easier to find online, I haven't looked yet but if anyone cares to make a recommendation I'd appreciate it.

in Ingredients, I found out I can buy Gluten powder from a few stores in my area, would it be worth it to add this to all purpose flour? Or will I get better results with just getting bread flour, (The difference in price isn't big enough to bother me between the two types of flour, I'm baking more but I still don't bake enough to worry that much about the cost of flour) I'm just looking to get the best results, the only bread flour in my area that I've been able to find is Robin Hood brand, anyone with more than one type in their area able to offer a comparasin?

Thanks for any replies ahead of time, and for this excellent resource of a website, I've learned so much from here and it's really enabled me to enjoy this fun hobby :)