The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Anyone up for an Inside the Jewish Bakery Challenge?

Urchina's picture
Urchina

Anyone up for an Inside the Jewish Bakery Challenge?

Hi, everyone!

I've had two weeks now with Stan and Norm's wonderful book, and I'm ready to bake. All of it. 

Anyone game for a challenge? I think that doing this in parts might be a fun way to do it -- that way, people who can't do the whole book in a row can join in a "semester." 

The "First semester" would start at the beginning of December. 

If there's enough interest, I'll be happy to coordinate it on a blog here at TFL. 

Let me know what you think!

Kendra

flournwater's picture
flournwater

Sounds like a nice "keep busy" winter challenge.

Stuart Borken's picture
Stuart Borken

I'm up for it.  

My last month at the office (internal medicine) is December and it will be busy.  Then...then...then, the kitchen is mine!  I already bought jars of yeast and all varieties of flours.  

I happen to have two copies of the book, don't ask how that happened.  My son, the cook, will get one copy.  But, with new twins and a 5 year old he won't be doing much baking for a while.

caryn1047's picture
caryn1047

I am enjoying the book.....would love to participate

HeidiH's picture
HeidiH

Who knows?  I might even get brave enough to make a sour.  How about an album of pictures of the recipes -- even the mistakes -- so we can help each other.

Urchina's picture
Urchina

I think the album is a great idea. 

Since December is a busy month for many of us, I'll select easier (and festive) recipes for that month. I think this first semester will be 16 weeks, so it will run through the end of March. We'll take a break then, and restart in May for the second semester, and so forth. 

I'll set it up and get the calendar rolling. Let's get more people to join us! To that end, I'll cross-post in the General category. 

 

Kendra

bonnibakes's picture
bonnibakes

has always been an unsuccessful experience for me. I would appreciate some help and advice in doing so. Love this idea. Bonni

Franko's picture
Franko

Bonni,

The 1st thing you need to do with your photos is reduce the pixel size to 800x600 with a photo-editor app of some kind. Irfanview is a very good free app for doing this. Once you have the size reduced on the photos you'd like to post it's just a matter of clicking on 'create content' underneath your membership name> dialog box opens> then click on the little tree symbol on the tool bar. This will open a box that says insert image. On the right of the Image URL slot you'll see a browse box. Click on this and it opens up another box for uploading your images. Click on upload and then yet another box opens allowing you to browse through your files to find the images you want to upload and post. hi-light the file you want then click upload. Once the file has uploaded click on "insert file". Then another insert/edit box will open, click on 'insert' and your photos will be posted. It's a bit of a hassle, but once you get used to it it's.... less of a hassle. ;^)

Franko

loydb's picture
loydb

The '800' is the key figure -- don't force your image to resize to 800x600 unless it's already at a 4:3 aspect ratio, it will 'stretch' it funy. Just make sure it's no more than 800 pixels wide -- let the height be whatever is appropriate.

 

hanseata's picture
hanseata

and now have the book, I might join in.

Bonni, what happens, if you try to upload photos? Do you get a message that the file is too large?

Karin

Elagins's picture
Elagins

you guys are the best.  Norm and I will be watching with great interest ...

Stan

pmccool's picture
pmccool

I'll give it a shot.

Paul

Urchina's picture
Urchina

flournwater -- 

Ah, the perils of cross-posting. You can sign up in either place; I'll keep track of both. 

bonnibakes's picture
bonnibakes

 

It looks like it worked. These are some bagels I made a while ago using a combination of recipes & suggestions from TFL. The exact info is scribbled in a book which is still packed. I closed my bakery/cafe after 12 years and haven't sorted through a room's worth of equipment & stuff. Not sure what I'm ready to part with yet because I'm still grieving the loss of my professional convection oven. However, I am looking forward to playing in flour with the rest of you.   Bonni

FoodHacker's picture
FoodHacker

Unfortunately I probably will not be able to due to financial issues ( I don't have the book and can't afford it ATM ) but I am most definately looking forward to seeing all of the great pics.

Good luck to everyone that participates!!!!!!!!!!!

Jon Morrison's picture
Jon Morrison

We'd love to be a part of the challenge. 

 

Jon and Allie

aneesh's picture
aneesh

I'm in.  This is going to be fun!

-aneesh

Urchina's picture
Urchina

Hi, everyone!

I've started a blog here at The Fresh Loaf (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/26029/inside-jewish-bakery-challenge-semester-one-december-2011-march-2012) for the first semester of the challenge. It begins on December 3rd, and I've posted the schedule so that people can plan and also order any speciality ingredients that they need to get. 

I'm not going to control who participates very tightly (as in, at all), so feel free to bake along for the whole thing or a subset, and chime in when you will. On the assignment date for each item I'll start the posting, and then people can share their experiences. We have a week to bake the recipe, then it will be on to the next. 

Looking forward to having you all bake along with us. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kendra