So, I'm learning much from this website and have a steep learning curve right now. But, like Julie on the movie I must watch my beltline and my husband must too. As he said this AM after devouring half of the delicious (30% recipe) loaf of cinnamon raisin swirl bread, "You have to stop, don't make this again, even if I ask for it!!". Last night it was the "excess starter sourdough bread" that came out with the taste and texture of an unbelievable french bread. And the naan, sourdough whole wheat muffins, whole wheat sandwich bread, whole grain seed bread. That's just this past week.

I'm already freezing and giving a majority of it away to my parents and brother. The other side of the family only likes 100% soft white wonderbread style and sweet breads which is probably 10% or less of what I actually bake.

Anyway, how small can I make a recipe? Can I make it down to dinner roll size and just change the cooking time? I need to practice kneading, stretching, folding, the feel of the dough, retarding, all those things that make bread what it is. Learning what recipes I like to make and don't like to make. Learning how to play dough, shape dough, etc. Braiding was a great project with the Finnish Pulla bread that I made because it got my hands into the "feel" of a good workable dough.

Can I make a recipe with 250 total grams, 150 total grams, how small and still not lose the integrity and learning value from a recipe?

Tracy

for fermentation, resting and proofing? Or, do you...

I am trying to learn so I read a lot about building bread, but one (well, one at a time) thing I keep seeing, I don't get.  For example, I was just reading about making Scali on SteveB's web site at Bread Cetera. Thank you Steve, that is a great site, and the breads are gorgeous. There are multiple references to rising and resting at different and very specific temperatures for a specified time.  I see resting the biga overnight at 70F.  I see the ferment at 76F for 1 hour and 15 minutes, and I see proofing at 74F for 1 1/2 hours.  I see all this, and I understand it, but how do you do it?

How do you manage to control your temperatures so precisely in order to follow those instructions?  My house has variable and not all that well controlled temperatures.  They rarely, and never predictably, match the requirements of any given recipe at any particular time.  Is it as simple (not to say easy) as learning to vary the times to compensate for the temperatures?  Cooler takes longer, and warmer takes less time?  Those variations have to have an impact on the results though.  Can you compensate for that as well, or do you just take what comes of it?  I need help getting my brain around this so I can start trying to practice it.

OldWoodenSpoon

I bought this book a couple of months ago because the recipes looked so enticing. I've used Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book for many years and have always achieved very good results from her recipes and techniques. But, I wanted some new whole grain recipes and got pretty excited after reviewing the table of contents in the Reinhart book.

After making a few loaves from the Reinhart book, I'm perplexed and vaguely dissatisfied. The Reinhart breads seem much denser than Laurel's, and some of them have a sour, off-flavor. I've been able to achieve lighter loaves by kneading much longer than the recipes call for - like, 15 minutes instead of 4 minutes. Also, by using water in the soakers instead of milk, the sour flavor seems to have been alleviated.

My question is: do the techniques in the Reinhart book really produce better whole wheat bread than the traditional breadmaking methods? Is it really worth it to go through the prefermentation steps? Any feedback is truly appreciated. Or maybe someone can direct me to a book with updated whole grain recipes and traditional techniques. Thanks!

For a while now I've known about the existence of a set of three VHS tapes: "Bread & Baker: From the Source". It is a 3 tape set (VHS) which has Prof. Raymond Calvel teaching, in detail, the production of various types of bread as part of his visit to the Culinary Institute of America. It was co-produced by the BBGA (Bread Bakers Guild of America).

If you look around the Internet you'll be able to find them for sale (although not easy to find). Right now, there is a set available on eBay for $135. Problem is that many of us don't even have a VHS anymore. Second problem is that $135 may be well over most people's budget, and that is a "good" price. In the past the BBGA made it available to its members only for $150!

CIA comes to the rescue. They have taken the most important segments of these videos and made them available as video podcasts. While this section is about book reviews, I decided these videos should be of enough interest to warrant review here.

This is really a little bit of a misnomer. Podcasts are typically streamed to your computer and loaded on your iPod. These are basically MPEG4 videos you download. You can, however, put them on your iPod if you wish. They are 640x480 resolution, which means they are nearly the resolution of Standard Definition TV. Image quality and sound quality are very good.

The good thing is that you can selectively buy any of the 9 segments (varying in length from 5-17 minutes) for $4.95 each. Here is a description and brief review of each:

1. Introduction (Size: 52.3 MB, Length: 6:41)
   An introduction to bread and Prof. Calvel and his life and work. Introduction to basics of French Bread baking, technique and quality requirements. Interesting background material. Not much technical information.
2. Ingredients and Mixing (Size: 96.4 MB, Length: 11:46)
   Gives detailed information about ingredients and their properties. Discusses why you want to use unbleached flours, milling, resting period, baking performance, gluten water absorptions. Water quality is not important except for chlorination (undesirable), or too high mineral content. Amount of water needed and environment. Yeast and its role. Salt and its role. Additions such as ascorbic acid, malt and lecithin. The importance of proper mixing and over oxidation (improved mix vs. conventional mix) and the use of autolyse. Presents his philosophy on great bread. This is all still background material, but well worth knowing.
3. Fermentation (Size: 38.7 MB, Length: 5:46)
   Importance of correct (and long) fermentation. Direct method with intensive or conventional mix versus using pre-ferments. Discusses poolish, sponge (levain), and pâte fermentée. Short mix. Does not show technique, but teaches the difference and importance between mixing techniques.
4. Division, Molding & Baking (Size: 43.9 MB, Length: 5:32)
   This is the first segment where you can learn technique that may not always be obvious. Not everything is explained, but watch the hands at work and learn. Discusses purpose of bulk fermentation vs. proofing. Humidity and its importance. Scoring and baking. Crackling or "singing" crust.
5. Baguettes (Size: 134.8 MB, Length: 16:31)
   While dedicated to a particular bread it shows much generally useful material (fermentation, keeping quality etc.) and useful tips (e.g. put dry yeast in at beginning of mix, before autolyse, but fresh yeast after). It shows the complete process from start to finish. Also shows making of the "Pain Rustique" and "Parisienne", made from the same dough. This segment is really half of a set of two as the formula is not presented until the end of segment 6.
6. Pain de Campagne (Size: 82.7 MB, Length: 10:20)
   Country bread is the sister of the baquette and is baked in many different shapes. Includes "Pain Fendu," "Couronne" (ring & horse shoe), and "Bouton d'Or" (Butter cup). Comments about excessive application of flour on the outside. Finishes up with the formulas for baguette and pain de campagne. Other comments are similar as to the baguette section.
7. Pain au Levain (Size: 125.8 MB, Length: 15:31)
   This is the first of three segments belonging together: Specialty Breads. This segment is about the French version of sourdough bread. Shows all steps in producing and refreshing a (stiff) starter and introduces correct terminology (Seed culture, Mère, elaboration, tout-point, Levain). Shows the shaping of the boulot and boule. Other comments are similar as to the baguette section.
8. Pain de Seigle (Size: 47.7 MB, Length: 5:46)
   Rye bread, eaten in France with seafood and charcuterie (cold cuts). Discusses formula (and use of viral wheat gluten). Other comments are similar as to the baguette section.
9. Pain de Mie (Size: 68.6 MB, Length: 8:07)
   Pulmann bread, or pan bread, also known as sandwich bread. Includes formula. Shows three different shaping options: round ball shapes (5 balls), pan roll, and "twisted" shape. Advantage of machine shaping: uniform texture. Even shows a bread with a small defect: "Even a pro can good up!" Other comments are similar as to the baguette section.

All together 691 MB of video, just under 90 minutes in length. If you don't want all segments, or can't afford them, I'd suggest getting 2, 3 and 4 together for basic explanations and techniques, and only getting any of the others if you have a particular interest in those breads. Segments 5 and 6 can be used individually, but are part of a combined section. Segment 5 is also useful as a single segment extension to 2, 3 and 4, showing the whole process.

The CIA's online shop is found at: http://www.ciaprochef.com and these videos are found on the podcast page. You may want to explore the online store: there is a lot of other material available. After you order you'll receive an email with links to download the segment(s) you bought. The servers are quite slow and, effectively, you will only be able to download one video at a time. For all 9 videos, and on a very fast Internet connection, this took me about 70 minutes. So beware! (Tip: Download each next segment while watching the previous one).

Conclusion: Great buy for anybody that wants to learn more than baking one recipe all the time and wants to venture into a couple of different styles of bread. Any or all of the segments are well taped and digitized with as good a quality and resolution as may be expected from an original VHS production. The material represents classic knowledge about french techniques that have wide applicability to all bakers. As video material, this is necessarily less complete than Calvel's seminal work "Le Gout du Pain" or its english translation "A Taste of Bread", but at the same time it is much more friendly to the beginning or home baker that wants to learn more. Well worth the money, in my opinion, for each segment that is of interest to you, or for all of them. Unfortunately there is no discount available for getting all of them.

--dolf

See my My Bread Adventures in pictures

Hello again bakers,
This is the next video in the series - the longest yet, and most specific. A few people asked me specific questions about roll shaping, so this video is for them. It's easier to show you than to explain it in writing. I also show a little bit of home oven technique for baking on two racks. There's no commentary, so enjoy the music. And in case you're wondering who it is, (Trishinomaha) it's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Bruddah Iz. Enjoy.

-Mark
http://TheBackHomeBakery.com

Norm, there's a Dutchess in there just to make you homesick for the bakery.

Hey there everyone,

This is the *new and improved* version of the kneading and folding video I posted a couple of days ago. As per some of your suggestions, I addressed the volume levels, intro commentary and video angles. I like it a lot better, and I hope you do to. In addition, I used Hamelman's multigrain dough this time, instead of whole wheat. (Floyd, could you put this video on the first thread also instead of the first video? I removed the first one already from YouTube- thanks in advance). Next video will be on shaping.

-Mark

Hey there everybody. I just made this baking video http://youtube.com/watch?v=QfaXbn5HpAY and put it up on YouTube - a little blurry, but I'll try putting a clearer version on our bakery site later. It's a 'how to' without the commentary (if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth...). Anyway, let me know what you think, and if you'd like any other topics addressed in my future videos. The next one will be on kneading and folding whole wheat dough. Thanks!