Hi all,

I'm really excited to report that as of New Year's Day, NYB is implementing new shopping cart software that with features and functions that make it easier than ever to do business with us. Our new capabilities include:

• Automated order acknowledgement and shipping notification.
• Expanded payment options that let you use all of the major bank cards, as well as PayPal.
• A new and improved Shipping Calculator that provides access to a broad range of shipping choices that more closely reflect actual delivery times, weight and distance.
• Search and Advanced Search features that let you quickly find items that you previously had to hunt for.
• Your full Order History, as of our 1/1/2012 go-live date.</li>
• A Permanent Shopping Cart that remembers the items you add until you either remove them or proceed to checkout.
• A Personalized Address Book that allows you to have orders delivered to addresses other than yours - perfect for gift-giving.
• Product Reviews that let you share your opinions of our products with other NYB customers.

And last but not least all NYB customers are automatically enrolled in the NYB Frequent Flour program, which awards customers 1 point for every dollar spent on NYB merchandise. Points earned translate intoacross-the-board discounts of as much as 20%, starting immediately and good for as long as you maintain a qualifying point balance. We're automatically setting up accounts for all past and present NYB customers, and you can look for an email on or about New Year's Day containing your log in information.

Think of it as our way of saying "Thank you" for your continuing support.

We're really excited about this and invite everyone to have a look around. www.nybakers.com

Happy New Year!

Stan Ginsberg
(posted with Floyd's permission)

There is a Sourdough movement going on in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
All The Fresh Loafers should look at "Sourdough Baker" website for different ways of making sourdough.

http://sourdoughbaker.com.au/

I am working my way through some of Warwick's everyday breads. I especially like the convenience of the "old dough method".
The "porridge" method is very successful.
The ideas for beginning and maintaining starters make this easy.
The delayed salt method is of value to all wild yeast bakers.
The story of the formation and demise of the Sourdough Cafe is below.

The translation of the French word “artisanat” to “craft” in English barely does it justice. In French, it refers to the practice of a handmade craft, usually anchored in tradition, like ceramics or woodworking but the word also begins with “Art” giving artisans and artists a common root and a shared passion for what they produce. While bread-making may not technically qualify as art, Warwick Quinton certainly deserves the title of “artisan” and if his beautifully golden sourdough bread wasn’t so tasty, you might even be tempted to frame it and hang it on your wall.

Warwick’s passion for sourdough started with a girl who was yeast intolerant. Armed with John Downe’s “The Natural Tucker Bread Book”, he soon started baking his own naturally fermented sourdough. The girl came and went but the sourdough stayed and evolved into a series of businesses, from Sydney to the Blue Mountains and until recently, in Newcastle, as the popular Sourdough Baker Cafe on Hunter Street, renown for its honest breakfasts, good coffee and of course, the warm and crusty loaves always fresh out of the custom-made oven, affectionately known as “Bertha”.

The cafe was conceived as a “community enterprise”, a business owned, controlled and used by the members of the community. The bakery and cafe, along with Warwick’s blog, his website and a series of regular workshops have built a strong fan base among Novocastrians, on both sides of the counter, as customers and apprentice bakers.

A couple of months ago, the Sourdough Baker Cafe “came up against the perfect storm” as Warwick describes it. “Bertha”, originally built as a prototype started showing signs of fatigue, the shop’s ventilation system broke down and the rent became unmanageable. The absence of financial backing was the undoing of the much-loved cafe which reluctantly closed its doors after just 18 months in business.

“What emerged from that was this incredibly faithful following in Newcastle and we started using that group of people as a sounding board for ideas.” One of those ideas is the “Village Bakery”, Warwick’s latest social enterprise. The concept is simple. People subscribe to a weekly delivery of freshly baked sourdough bread delivered to their homes every Saturday. After only a few weeks, the Village Bakery already has 50 subscribers all over Newcastle.

In addition, Warwick is still running his regular and very popular sourdough workshops from the new kitchen in Newcastle West. In one day, you will “cover all the basics of sourdough breadmaking and ‘sole baking’ techniques for home breadmakers, from beginners to advanced” and take your own bread home.

Whether you like your bread delivered to your door, made with your own hands or have it with coffee and baked beans, you have plenty of options for how to get your sourdough but what you get hasn’t really changed at all, “just sourdough, nothing else and getting as close to perfection as possible using the simplest technology to do it.” Spoken like a true artisan.

I have an oatmeal raisin cookie recipe from a great uncle who has passed away, he worked at a bakery. Apparently these are some really great cookies, but the recipe is in pounds which are not a problem but it does not state how much vanilla and salt to use or the cooking time or temperature. I figure that someone has ran into this before and wondered if you could help.
Thank you

Uncle Bobs oatmeal raisin cookies
1 1/2 lb sugar
3/4 lb Lard
1/2 lb Raisins
1/2 lb Oats
1 1/4 lb Flour
2 Eggs
7/8 cup milk
3 Level tsp soda
Salt
Vanilla
Temperature

So I've made a connection thru a local restaurant that should help me get access to bulk flours. I'm definitely going to buy 1 50lb bag of GM Harvest King Flour, but I'm interested on any opinions on the following flours:

• Giusto All Purpose Enriched Unbleached Flour
• Pendleton Power high-gluten
• GM Rye Flour

Any feedback appreciated, thanks in advance folks. 

Flour Salt and Water are all that we need to make great bread.  So I am on the search for the best flour/salt/water for a new baking adventure/venture.

PART 1 - Salt

JohnD on sourdough.com wrote an interesting article regarding the varying qualities of salt.  The conclusion is the minerality of sea salt was superior to river or rock salt.  In my travels I have been looking for an affordable high quality salt and I am pleased to say I have found it.

My preference was to find a locally produced salt but the reality is salts in Victoria, Australia just don’t have the quality I was looking for.  So I broadened my outlook to include fair trade salt.  Salt that I could purchase directly from the farmer. (I figure that I can off set any resulting carbon footprint with tree planting which is already planned to compensate for the use of a wood fired oven).

Whilst on holidays on the east coast of Bali I ordered a bowl of chips and they where the best chips I have ever eaten. Not because of they were well cook, in fact the preparation was less than pleasing, oily and under cooked, but because they where covered in the most extraordinary salt.  When I enquired further I was thrilled to discover that the salt was produced only a short walk from where I was staying.

Amed Sea Salt is produced on small salt farms that have been producing salt the same way for generations.  At one time, several generations ago, the farms could be found scattered up and down the coast but now there are only a few left.  The salt is sold almost exclusively to locals although some restaurants are now using it.

The traditional process remains unchanged with perhaps the only amendment being plastic/hesion bags are used to line the clay filters

Step 1)Harrow the clay/soil pans and fill with sea water

Step 2)Smooth the salt and soil mixture to enable even drying

Step 3)Rake the dried salt and soil to break it up

Step 4)Put broken soil into the filter cones, lining the sides.  The cones are a lot like giant coffee filters

Step 5)Collect more sea water and fill the cone

Step 6)The sea water then filters through the salty soil

Step 7)Collect the filtered salty water and place into wooden containers to evaporate and reveal the salt.  (the wooded containers are palm trunks that have been cut in half and carved out)

In this photo the salty water is only one day old

After 3 days the salt is visible and crystalising

Step 8)After 4 days of drying the salt is ready for collection in large 5kg baskets

The salt is a wonderful color, slightly grey and so so tasty.  The local restaurants don’t use any stocks and very little additional flavoring as the salt seems to do it all.

I am looking forward to seeing how this amazing salt complements my bread.

Just found out that a local (Southern Maryland) Mennonite farm orders from these folks.  Looks good !

http://www.dutchvalleyfoods.com/products/flour-and-grains

According to my acquaintance, a normal order is 50 lbs and per lb the cost is roughly $ .50

Hi,

I can't seem to find much information on dough developers or dough improvers. I searched, but didnt' find information on differences or usage. Any links are always appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Ingredient List for TFL Bakers

A previous blog:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/22562/sourdough-crackers

If you are one of the TFL members already on my Applications list, new application was already sent to you. If you are not on that list, and could use a free spreadsheet calculator for determining the Calories, Grams, and Ounces for the amounts you enter on any of 155 existing ingredients entries, as well as the option for you to edit the existing information, and space for you to add to the list in any of the 45 remaining blank slots, then you might want to look at the sample PDF file, which I placed on Google Doc:https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_MScoZfDZkwNTI4NWJjOWMtNzQwZS00YWU1LWJlZWQtMGZiN2I0Njg0ZWU0&hl=en

I generate many programs for my own needs. If they seem like others might find them of use, I have been placing them in Public Domain and sending copies to those that have previously requests any of those that I have given copies to in the past.

If, after looking at the PDF example of the spreadsheet, and if you have Open-Office, or Excel, then I will e-mail you copies, if you request them. To do so, simply e-mail me with " TFL Apps " as the Subject Line. That is all you need do, I will e-mail you copies, and add you to the list. The list is only for these free applications, and updates, etc. I maintain the list myself and for no other purpose. I will also remove your name at anytime request me to do so, with no reason necessary to be given.

You can e-mail me at:
Ron@ronray.us

Hi all! We are new to this forum, so I may find this info in one of the threads, but...

Does anyone have suggestions for wholesale suppliers for bakeries? We are going to get our flours directly from Bob's Red Mill, but need to find suppliers of baking chocolate, sugar, pastry items, etc.

Suggestions will be most appreciated!

CC

Any unique bread recipes out there? whether its unusual techniques,or ingredients you wouldn't normally use?