The Fresh Loaf

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trinalb's picture
trinalb

Is this older Magic Mill a good buy? Are the slicer and blender attachments good?

Hi, I am new to this forum. After being unsatisfied with a KA Pro model mixer I bought used, I have been looking at alternatives and have settled on either a Bosch or one of the Electrolux Assistent mixers or its predecessors, leaning toward the Electrolux. I am on a very limited budget so buying new is not an option and I have to scour for a better than average used deal. I would like your opinion on what I have found, please.

Magic Mill DLX Assistent, older model, I was told approx. 20 years old or so. Described as "runs as new" with a new belt installed last month. Includes machine, steel bowl, dough hook, roller and scraper but no other attachments. The price is $220, which includes shipping. (photo below)

The blender attachment $50

Slicer/shredder $100

 

Will this older model machine likely work as well as a newer Electrolux or Ankarsrum model? I am wondering if I will be as happy with it or if I should hold out for a newer model. Besides cosmetics, what differences does it have? Is the older model similarly quiet to what I've heard of the new one? Are all the attachments interchangeable? Is that a good price or should it be lower considering its age?

Do the slicer/shredder and blender attachments work well or would I be better off to save my money for dedicated machines at some point? I currently have a blender which is junk and a Magic Bullet which is okay for the small cups but doesn't work as well with the full size blender jar. I'm guessing this one doesn't work as well as a Vitamix but does it work as well or better than a typical store bought blender? How about the slicer/shredder? I think I would really like it if it was easy to use and clean and actually works well for what it's supposed to.

And where is the best place in Canada to look for new or used parts and accessories for these mixers?

Thanks so much in advance for the help!

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Italian Multi-Grain Sourdough

My wife requested an Italian style bread to go with her lasagna for this weekends belated holiday dinner with my family.  I couldn't just make a simple Italian bread of course, so I made a new version of an older formula I posted about early last year.  This is loosely based on Peter Reinhart's Italian bread from BBA where he uses a biga which I replaced with a durum based starter.  I also used some freshly milled white hard wheat, freshly milled spelt and rye flours along with KAF French style and Durum.

I used part buttermilk and water similar to my original formula and some olive oil and honey to round it out.

The end result was a nice tasty loaf with a fairly open crumb and nice crisp crust, perfect for mopping up some home made tomato sauce.

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Formula

Italian-Multigrain-SD

ScoredCloseup

Levain Directions

Mix all the Levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for around 7-8 hours or until the starter has doubled.  I usually do this the night before.

Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours, buttermilk and water together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Let it rest in your work bowl covered for 20-30 minutes.  Next add the salt, starter (cut into about 7-8 pieces), olive oil, and honey and mix on low for 6 minutes.  Next remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours.  Remove the dough and shape as desired.  I made 1 large boule shape.   Place your dough into your proofing basket(s) and cover with a moist tea towel or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray.  The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature.  Let the dough dictate when it is read to bake not the clock.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 550 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

Risen

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, score as desired and then add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for 35-50 minutes until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 210 degrees.

Take the bread out of the oven when done and let it cool on a bakers rack before for at least 2 hours before eating.

Crumb

CrumbCloseup

CAphyl's picture
CAphyl

Crusty Sourdough Rolls

I had a request to make crusty sourdough rolls when my husband and I were visiting family in England for the holidays.  I brought along my sourdough starter in checked luggage (TSA searched it), but the "baby" white and rye sourdough starters came through very well.  In fact, they performed better than the "mother" sourdough starters back in the U.S. performed recently.  I used the recipe below, but divided the loaf into rolls (and I didn't have my LaCloche, so.just used parchment paper and plenty of water in the bottom of the oven tray to create the steam to make the rolls crusty).  English friends and family gave the rolls the thumbs up.  I will definitely make them again now that I am back stateside.

 

http://breadmakingblog.breadexperience.com/2012/02/classic-sourdough-in-la-cloche.html

christinepi's picture
christinepi

weak starter?

I've tried ca 7 different sourdough recipes that all produced bricks. No oven spring whatsoever. My starter appeared to be healthy, and though I followed the recipes carefully, the results were awful. Then I tried ABin5, and things started getting better, and then Peter Reinhart's Lean Bread recipe (both yeast based, no starter); and I finally understood what people are talking about then they say "oven spring". 

I have this feeling the problem lies with my starter. Is it possible that the lack of oven spring can be mostly reduced to the starter, if I did all the other things properly as required by the sourdough recipes? This may be to vague a description to be easily answered, I realize that. I'm at the point of giving up the whole sourdough thing, but wanted to try to home in on where the problem may lie.

Dot's picture
Dot

White wholewheat flour

Does anyone know if white wholewheat flour is available in Canada (I live in Ontario). I have been unable to find a supplier so far.

 I would like to experiment with it.  What is the difference in nutritional value, taste, texture, etc. to regular wholewheat.

gman4626's picture
gman4626

Winter Bialys

Bialys

15% Whole Wheat

15% Whole Spelt

70% White flour

 

1 KG flour % mix above

20 grams kosher salt

700 grams water

320 grams of sour dough starter (equal mixture of water and flour with starter from the fridge.)

It is a little cold in my house around 19C, so I actually let the starter rise for over 10 hours and then made the dough which I let rise one hour before putting it in the fridge overnight. In the morning I took it out and let it rise for another 4 hours. Again this was due to the temperature in my house.

In the oven for 30 minutes at 190C.

These were the best I have made yet, I wonder if the long rising times are part of the reason.

Gerson

Theresse's picture
Theresse

Ugh - what wheat berries should I order to mill into flour?!

Man I'm sorry - I've been so dependent on this forum lately! : - /

I'm unsure about what to do.  For weeks I've been meaning to put in my first order from Azure Standard who will deliver wheat berries and pails, lids etc. (along with any other natural/organic foods) to a co-op drop off location a mile from my house.  So it's great that I won't have to pay for shipping!  But I keep putting it off cause I'm not sure what to order!

I got t Nutrimill grain mill from a Craigslist ad though I'm new to bread-making (also got one of those lovely Ankarsrum mixers cause I figured I'd be more likely to make lots of bread if it's made as easy as possible and so far that has indeed been the case with this mixer - albeit using store-bought flour so far).  I want to start making all homemade breads for my family (3 kids and husband) on a regular basis and hopefully stop buying bread at the store.  That would include whole grain sandwich bread and the occasional nicer rustic loaf (hard white berries I guess) to go with dinner.  I don't make pastries as often though I do expect to make them occasionally - things like cinnamon rolls or the rare pie crust.  So that's yet a third grain it sounds like (or since it's not healthy anyway, should I just buy the flour in a bag?).

Lastly, I want to cut down on wheat consumption for the adults in the family anyway - not totally cut it out though.  While I haven't jumped on the "Wheat Belly train" (not big on fads - especially ones that are extreme and tell you one thing is all good or all bad) I do think it's possible there's a legitimate link between modern wheat and stomach bloating, low energy and possibly also inflammation i.e. may not help arthritis sufferers (not sure about any of this...but my ears are pricked up at least).  I'm very intrigued by all the good things I'm reading about the use of the the "ancient grains" combined with homemade yeast/sourdough starters and allowing the dough some time to ferment.  So that's yet another quandary - do I also order some einkorn and a pail and lid for it, too?  Hahaha.  Or perhaps I should get a smaller amount to try first.  Have any of you had luck with bread using this grain?  I've read it doesn't rise quite as well which may or may not be a deal-breaker (and there may be a trick to getting it to rise better, I don't know).

So clearly I need hard red wheat berries (not sure how much), hard white berries... what about soft white berries?  What do most of you have/recommend for keeping on hand in those larger pails, at the very least?  What have you grown into also keeping on hand?

As always, thank you!

pantone_000's picture
pantone_000

Portable Charcoal-fed Firebrick Oven

Hi everyone.

Here in the Philippines, there is a company known for manufacturing firebricks and firebrick ovens as well. The inventor made it as a solution for the high cost of LPG-run stoves and gas ovens. They can also be used for smoking meat, one just has to cut the wood to fit in the pull-out charcoal box.

I am planning to get one as my very first oven, the standard for home bakers (the one in the image immediately below) which measures 15x15x14in on the exterior, 12x12x10in interior. It costs less than $400 (converted from our currency), almost the same as getting a La Germania or Elba LPG-fed oven. This company supplies and customizes for almost all of the restaurants of famous chefs here in our country. I can't wait till my order arrives. :)


They can ship to provinces far from the country's capital,  so I guess they can ship abroad too, if anyone of you would be interested. Here's their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JyFirebricks. I am not in any way related to them, just a fan of their firebrick ovens. :)

davidg618's picture
davidg618

80% Whole Rye Pullman loaf

This is the second time I've baked a high percentage rye bread. The first was Hamelman's Volkornbrot; I wasn't elated with the result. ( http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14991/christmas-baking-blisters ).  That was four years ago.

Lately--happy with my progress with sourdoughs, baguettes, challah and deli rye, and motivated by a number of other TFL'er's seemingly annual flurry of activity with Borodinsky rye Ioaves I thought I give it a go.

I read at least two dozen postings from favorite mentors (ananda, varda, Elagins, and hansjoakim to name a few); I searched other food blogs. I paused feeling intimidated. First of all, I didn't have all the right ingredients--malted rye, and blackstrap molasses specifically. I know where I could get malted rye, but it's a hundred-eighty miles round trip to the nearest homebrew shop that stocks it. I hadn't the slightest idea (other than buying online) where I might find blackstrap molasses.

Secondly, although I frequently use coriander in BBQ rubs, and pastrami crusts, I've never used it to flavor bread. I wasn't certain we'd like it. However, we love adding the flavor of Caraway seeds to Deli Rye.

I wanted to bake when the mood struck, not a week or more from now.

I recalled reading Borodinsky is always 80/20: Rye/Wheat flours in one of the many references I perused.

This bread is based (tightly) on Hamelman's 80% Rye with a Rye-Flour Soaker, in Bread.

I made some changes, but not many. I scaled the formula to produce 2kg of dough; enough for a 13" Pullman pan. I also substituted 115g (4.0 oz) of cracked rye berries for the 6.4 oz. of Whole-Rye flour in the soaker. (I had the rye berries on hand, and wanted to use them.) And lastly, I added 2 tsp. of Caraway seeds, 2 Tbls. of barley malt, and two Tbls. of ordinary Mollasses.

All other ingredients and ratios were as published. I built the Rye Sour in the prescribed manner, bulk fermented and proofed the dough at the recommended temperatures, and baked at the oven temperatures directed. Trusting the strength of my Rye Sour's yeast I did not use any optional commercial yeast. The finished paste filled only slightly more than half of the pan's height, but proofing expansion and oven spring pushed the loaf above the top of the pan.

I rested the loaf for 36hrs before tasting it. (I just couldn't wait any longer!).

The flavors are intense. The rye is immediately present on the palette, the Caraway shows itself moments later: not in-your-face, but not timid either. There is a lingering after taste I think is a melding of the barley malt syrup and the molasses; it has a bit of sharpness.

When I first cut into the loaf the center of the crumb felt slightly sticky. I feared the crumb would be gummy. Much to my delight the crumb's mouthfeel is moist but not  gummy. It is chewy, but doesn't have the springiness I find in wheat doughs, i.e., baguettes and sourdough, nor in the higher wheat percentage deli rye. An ocassional rye berry fragment offers a momentary crunch.

The crust is hard, and thicker than I would prefer. You can see the top of the loaf is partially charred (There is no burnt taste). I think this is due to the relatively high initial baking temperature, 480°F and the excess sugars from the malt syrup and the mollasses.

I've cut the loaf into four equal pieces, and froze three of them. I'm thinking this bread will stand up to my favorites for open-faced sandwiches: sardines and onion with Dijon mustard, home cured and smoked salmon, and pastrami with spicy mustard. I'm open to any other suggestions.

I'm ordering some rye malt, and blackstrap mollasses online. My next attempt will be an "authentic" Borodinsky but not soon. I've made a deal with my wife; I won't bake this style more than three times each year--she's not embracing its intense flavor.

David G

Added Monday, January 6

Monday's lunch

Sardines (water packed), onion, celery, salt, pepper (50/50 mix Tellicherry and Szechuan), mayo, and Dijon mustard on bite size, thin sliced toasted Rye with a pinch of paprika for color. De-light-full!

 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Chipotle Cheddar Roasted Corn Multi-grain

  This bread uses a combination of fresh milled flour from my Nutrimill and store-bought flours.  The hard red wheat and hard white wheat were fresh milled.

I used some pecan meal I had bought during my trip to King Arthur Flour a few months ago in the starter which adds a nice nutty flavor to the final dough.  I also used some canned corn that I roasted under my broiler since corn on the cob is not in season in New York right now.

I thought some chipotle cheddar cheese would compliment the corn and the combination of flours and to be honest I love cheese so it couldn't possibly hurt it.

Since I used some low gluten ingredients I decided to use some high gluten flour from KAF known as Sir Lancelot to compensate.

I have to say I was not sure how this one would come out, but it honestly couldn't taste any better.  The spicy cheese along with the whole wheat flours and pecan meal make this one good enough to eat by itself without any butter, oil or anything.  I wouldn't change anything on this.  The only downside is I need to lose some weight and it's going to be hard not to eat the whole loaf by myself!

Closeup2

Formula

ChipolteCheddarRoastedCorn

Closeup1

Levain Directions

Mix all the Levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for around 7-8 hours or until the starter has doubled.  I usually do this the night before.

Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours, and water together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Let it rest in your work bowl covered for 20-30 minutes.  Next add the salt, starter (cut into about 7-8 pieces),  and honey and mix on low for 5 minutes.  Next add the corn and cheese and mix on low for 1 minute to make sure they are incorporated and then remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours.  Remove the dough and shape as desired.  I made 1 large miche.   Place your dough into your proofing basket(s) and cover with a moist tea towel or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray.  The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature.  Let the dough dictate when it is read to bake not the clock.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 550 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.

DoughRisen

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, score as desired and then add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

Lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for 35-50 minutes until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 210 degrees.

Take the bread out of the oven when done and let it cool on a bakers rack before for at least 2 hours before eating.

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CosmobucketSmall
Cosmo decided the doggie toy basket makes a good bed....

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