website question + intro
Hi baking friends, and a big hello and thank you to Floyd for creating and maintaining this incredible resource and gathering.
Introduction: I'm a new baker, trying to learn to bake with 100% whole grains. The first time I tried to learn to bake I was using sprouted flour and I really couldn't get anywhere. Now I have a Mockmill and I'm mostly using the Laurel's Kitchen bread book, with guidance from TFL's past and present greats (bless you, bless you, Txfarmer, wherever your journey has carried you!) Things are going much better this time around.
I do have one concern/challenge with the TFL website: it seems to be hosting some exceedingly aggressive malware-type ads. I had to install an ad blocker extension on my mobile Firefox browser because TFL kept spontaneously opening malware/virus web pages.
I imagine that ad revenue is an important support for the site, so I'm sorry I had to block the ads. If there is a PayPal where I can make a direct contribution, would someone kindly show me that way?
Warmly, Jess in foggy Santa Cruz, CA
Welcome neighbor. I'm just up the hill from you, off 17. And yes, it is a foggy one again today here in 95033 as well.
I'm not sure what device you're finding these annoying spams on. But yes, I get hammered with them sporadically but only on my iPhone/Safari (I rarely use Chrome on it). They are always claiming to be Amazon ads but I seriously doubt Amazon buys or needs advertising that spammy. It's someone else. I have to close the window and reopen TFL. Back button doesn't do anything because, I'm told (by a TFLer) that the spammers send blasts of these that fill your 'history' queue. But I've never encountered them with Firefox or Chrome on my laptop.
I admire your 100% whole grain ambitions. I've been there but concluded that 60% is a comfortable place for our weekly miches. 100% ww breads haven't had much keeping quality for us. I don't know why -- the bran somehow robs moisture from the prematurely staling loaves. Your initial posting is certainly promising! And don't be disappointed if you cannot reproduce txfarmer's results. She was/is from another planet, baking-wise. I'd love to see a video of those hands at work.
Ciao,
Tom
P.S. (edit) Or is it possible that the spamming we're experiencing is geographically confined to Monterey Bay area wireless networks? I've never seen these spams when I travel out of this area. Possible? I wouldn't know.
Hi Tom, how funny that we're almost neighbors!
I'm honestly not sure about the keeping quality of the bread I make because I'm feeding myself, my husband, my 18-year old twin boys, and an unofficial foster daughter, also 18, who is living with us now. The faster I bake, the more they eat bread!!!!
The issue you bring up with premature staling is interesting though. Recently I have taken to sifting out the bran, or a portion of it, and scalding it (giving it a boiling water soak) before adding it back to the final dough. I have found that this increases the hydration of the dough without changing the dough-handling characteristics. Or in other words, when I do this I can't subtract the scalding water weight from the other liquid in the recipe, or the dough is too dry. So maybe you're right that the bran in your dough is only partially hydrated and is robbing water from the bread over time. If you want to play around with increasing your whole wheat percentage, maybe experiment with a sift-and-scald and see what happens.
The other thing I'm doing is adding porridge, which is supposed to improve keeping quality.
On a side note, one would think that the Peter Rinehart method of dividing almost all the dough into a biga and a soaker would have the same effect on the bran (extended soak instead of scald) but I can't tell because for me the bread dough that results from that method is just weird and hard to work with: it is supposed to create 2nd day dough that is almost fully developed but for me it creates 2nd day dough that requires massive amount of machine mixing to develop the gluten. And the resulting bread still isn't great. I think my wheat doesn't like this method. It does much better with the Laurel's Kitchen 2-bulk-proofs-and-a-shaped-proof method, which is around a 5-hour process from wheat to eat. (Well, at least from wheat to cooling rack.)
Oh hey, speaking of wheat, are you a home miller? If so, where do you like to buy your grain? I've been getting hard red winter wheat at Staff of Life but I'm not super happy with it. It's rubbery. Crazy rubbery. Adding in some Kamut improves it. But I might make a run down to Pie Ranch and buy some Jammu from them soon.
Sorry to 'talk' your ear off, Tom. : ) Happy baking. -Jess
Hi Jess,
Sounds like you have a challenge keeping your supply up with household demand. And for 100% ww too. Good for them!
I got into all kinds of sifting machinations several years ago but rarely go that route anymore primarily because we are so satisfied with our 60%ww that I'm no longer motivated to play sift/scald/steep/steam tricks to increase it. But I have noticed (and posted something to this effect a few years back) that effectively 100% hydration porridge probably has that continuously-hydrating effect on doughs into which its incorporated and I'm surprised Chad Robertson never pointed that out in T3. Or if he did, I've forgotten, or missed it. So yes, our weekly porridge bread has excellent keeping quality, even frozen and thawed it's still spongy soft.
I can't comment much on PR's or Laurel's protocols. I've never seen Laurel's bread books and haven't followed Reinhart's methods for a few years. His books taught me the basics when I was starting, but I was never convinced that his products were destined to become favorites in our house. Of course, it could very well be that the bewitching aesthetics of Chad Roberston's and Ken Forkish's books reeled me in, as did the rock solid journeyman professionalism of Jeff Hammelman. Those three have been my best mentors. Plus YouTube and The Fresh Loaf of course. Funny - I cooked from Laurel's Kitchen what? 40 years ago? Brings back memories of Vegetarian Epicure and Diet for a Small Planet!
Regarding wheat and milling: Yes, I am a diehard home miller. And 100% organic, btw. We only buy AP and that only from Staff of Life since they have Giusto's in bulk and WFM/Amazon has removed any identifying source from their AP bin so I don't trust it they way I can SoL/Giusto's. I special order Central Milling Hard Red berries in 25 lb bags from Staff of Life and have no complaints about it. I asked them if they could get me bags of Central Milling Hard White berries and they said No, we can't get that. Huh? And a week later there was a new bin in their fabulous bulk section labeled, "NEW ITEM! Hard White Wheatberries". Really? That's probably my only gripe about SoL after several years of shopping there. Except perhaps that Cesar needs to keep an eye on the sell-by dates (or not date them out so far) on some of his more perishable imported cheeses. More fungus than dairy in some of my favorites sometimes. Anyway, I mailordered my hard white from Giustos/Petaluma before that bin appeared and have continued to do so since. Even with shipping it's worth it, for me. We just don't get up to Sonoma ever really, so mail order it is.
This local stuff we should probably cover in private messages or email. PM me and we can exchange emails if you want.
"From wheat to eat" - I love that.
Look who's talking whose ear off now.
Tom
Full disclosure: I did not come up with that 'wheat to eat' saying. I stole it from Rinehart!
Thanks for the tip re Central Milling hard white at Staff of Life. That's where I'm getting the red, which clearly is fine for you, so there goes my hypothesis. Probably a technique issue. I do find the addition of some khorasan makes my bakes come out better though.
Warm regards, Jessica
The spam is a known problem - see the following link for more discussion.
Spammed on mobile - anyone else?
... Unless what you're seeing is a very new/very different problem, but I doubt that it would be.
Yes, I'm on Android mobile, not IPhone, but it looks like exactly the same problem they were having.