#BreadChat -- tune in April 18

New for 2012, #BreadChat is a Twitter discussion hour for bakers of yeasted, artisanal breads.

Next #BreadChat:
Wednesday, April 18, 2:00-3:00 pm Chicago time (UTC/GMT -5 hours). That's 20:00 London time, 21:00 in Berlin, 22:00 in Helsinki. In Sydney, 5:00 Thursday, April 19; in Auckland, 7:00 Thursday. We are delighted to welcome back Eric Duhamel (@EricFrenchBaker), Master Baker at Daylesford Organic, as the co-host of the April #BreadChat.

How to participate: 
If you haven't done so already, create a Twitter account. Once you're logged into Twitter, click on #Discover, and then search for the hashtag #BreadChat. A hashtag is any word with a hash (#) in front of it. Hashtags make Twitter discussions easy to find and follow.

During #BreadChat, @AmateurBakers and @EricFrenchBaker will lead the discussion through a handful of questions related to yeasted bread baking. During the March #BreadChat, we discussed various techniques for developing the gluten network in bread dough. This month we discuss bread ingredients that tend to interfere with the development of the gluten network:

Q1: Nuts, seeds, or whole grains mixed into bread dough can poke holes in the gluten network. When and how should they be added? #BreadChat

Q2: How do fats (e.g., butter, olive oil) added to bread dough affect development of the gluten network? #BreadChat

Q3: The proteins in eggs tend to toughen/strengthen dough. To promote gluten development in dough, when/how should eggs be added? #BreadChat

To suggest a question to include in the discussion, please email it to breadchat [at] amateurbakers [dot] org by midnight (Chicago time), Tuesday, April 17.

#BreadChat transcripts are posted on The Fresh Loaf: March 2012, February 2012.

Many thanks to The Fresh Loaf for hosting our transcripts, and to our friends at #SeedChat for inspiring this new project!