Hello!

I have had good success making lovely bread from Chad's book. I have a question. The crumb I get is a bit tight. I am searching for suggestions on achieving this result. I have tried varying the hydration. I can't seem to find the magic number if there is one. As a general matter I do not know the effect hydration has on the crumb structure. All help and suggestions To achieve a more airy crumb are appreciated. 

I made a loaf of bread this morning and when I took it out to test it for doneness it did sound hollow which is a sign of doneness but I did notice as it cooled it turned a bit soft, mainly on the bottom and sides. Is this normal ? Also how soft is too soft ?

thanks, chrissy

i plan to make a poolish for the first time since we´re having cold temps here and i feel the yeasts need much more time then usual. only thing i haven´t figured out is whether i´m supposed to put 100% of the yeast content (2% of the total in my case) of the whole recipe or the relative 2% of the poolish total (lets say 20% of the total final dough) which is considerably less of course... also once i incorporate the poolish into the final dough would i be adding the rest of the yeast (i case it didn´t all go inside before) or thats not necessary since there´ll be enough yeast in there as it is?

also... i´m thinking to dump into that my flex seeds to soak as well... i should account for their water consumption right... is that double their weight or just one to one ratio?

oh yeah... also.... about the ratio of poolish to final dough... i´m guessing the more poolish the faster the rise but since i have no idea just how fast we´re talking about is 20% ok... too much too little...? just right ? :O)

thanks in advance for the help,

Simisu

I recently made some bread and it was terrible, can't figure it out yet, it smelled ok but the taste was poor, I made a sandwich and thought the meat was bad, and it was the bread, I don't have the recipe in front me, but there was a sponge made in the morning 1 cup flour, 1 cup water, 1 tsp of yeast, then it was 5 cups flour, 2 cups water,  1 tbl olive oil, 1/2 cup powdered milk, 2 tsp yeast, 1 tbl sugar, 1 tsp salt, I think I cover it, kneaded for 10 min, let it raise, punched down and formed loaves and rolls, I am not sure how old 'tthe powdered milk was, I used regular all purpose flour, when the bread cooled it it tasted like it was stale, laying for 2-4 days., can't seem to get my Italian bread down. baked at 400deg sprayed with water for the first few min. it had good oven spring ect. even the color of the crust did not look appealing.

  Chet

Hi everybody,

I own an artisanal bakery/wineshop/cafe in Winston-Salem, NC. We are looking for someone to help bake bread a few nights a week. If you know of anyone good, send him/her our way... eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65%28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%77%73%62%61%6b%65%72%79%40%68%6f%74%6d%61%69%6c%2e%63%6f%6d%22%3e%77%73%62%61%6b%65%72%79%40%68%6f%74%6d%61%69%6c%2e%63%6f%6d%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b'))

Been wondering, should all types of dough double in size during bulk fermentation before shaping and final proof? Even highly enriched sweet doughs?

The reason I ask, some recipes I have used have given a specific bulk fermentation time, and the dough hasnt anywhere near doubled in this time....

Many thanks

Matt

Hi,

I'm looking for 2 things:

1. a description of what you think is the "perfect" bun for a Philiy Cheese Steak
2. a recipe for that bun

I now have access to a commercial bakery and want to try making these myself. They are not available commercially where I live. Thanks!

Back to the new book Inside the Jewish Bakery, regretfully.   I just check the errata pages again on www.nybakers.comand it's now up to 8 pages long.   Granted, typed more neatly, which accounts for some of the additional pages.   And now, if you click on 'books' on this site,  there's the author's notations on the UNPUBLSIHED CHAPTERS that should have gone into this book, but didn't make it (because of the publisher the author says).   Ya know, the more I read about this book the more I realize it's a total failure.   I want my money back.  Not a corrected book because I don't trust that they've made or found all the mistakes.   I'm going to print some of these threads out and print out the errata pages and am taking the book back to the store where I bought it and ask for my money back.   This isn't fair to all of this who bought the book in good faith.   I'm sorry, but that is just the way I feel about it now.   I want my money back, period.    Sorry Stan and Norm, really.   I know how popular you both are on TFL and how many folks on this site follow you and your book and I really don't mean to embarrass either of you, truely I don't.      Hope any future books that you may come out with come into our hands error free and usable, but Inside the Jewish Bakery?  But this book isn't fair to those of us who bought it.  Too many recipes have too many errors and now omitted chapters and a corrected index on top of everything else?   I won't use this book again.    This dog just doesn't hunt....at least not in my kitchen.      Joey the Doeyo

Hi there!

I've recently  started baking bread the artisan way. I've developed a starter and proceded to bake my first loaves and rolls. And I've got a huge problem: they all turn out with a brick-hard crust. They are baked in an electric oven, with a granite stone 2 cm thick. I preheated the oven for minimum one hour, then at the same time I put theloaf in, I  threw half a glass of warm water in the bottom of the oven. The rack is on the second from the bottom, i have an oven thermometer and strived to have a temperature of about 230-240 degrees Celsius. The second time I tried a lower temperature, because I read that if the oven is usedwith the fan on, it should use about 10 or 20 degrees less. Still, the crust is very hard. Not thick, but hard. Any ideas what I could do to make it ok?

Thanks!

I work in NYC and picked up a couple of different cream cheese for the weekend with my family. Cinnamon raisin walnut and fat free vegetable cream cheese. Manhattan bagel I believe it was. And of the different bagel bins was a 7 grain bagel. So much for having oatmeal for breakfast. This bagel was absolutely delicious covered with oatmeal. Ate the whole thing with some vegetable cream cheese.

Are there any 7 grain or multi-grain bagel recipes anyone can share or recommend?

Thanks, Howard L