This will be a regular series of posts documenting some of my learning experiences. I have recently made the decision to

a) learn how to bake bread

b) build a wood-fired oven

c) try to sell it (if good enough) at a local farmer's market where I live in Cape Breton Island, Canada.

I think many might find this amusing - some might even find it irritating - given my lack of experience!

I learned last night that my wife has allergies.  She can't have brewers yeast or baker's yeast.   I've heard of creating a starter from just mixing and resting flour and water on the countertop for a long time.  Does this work?  Does it have the same properties as packaged yeast?

She's also, seemingly, allergic to cow's milk, but that's a whole different kettle to stir.

thanks in advance,

John

Just wanted to make a note that Atlantans can find the 1 lb bag of SAF instant yeast at the glorious (if smelly) Dekalb Farmers Market for $2.69 as of 02/10. I was resigned to having to order this online again (with no free shipping deal from King Arthur Flour like last time), but thought I'd check here as a last resort. I think I literally sang a little bit under my breath when I came upon the familiar red and white bags on the shelf. I had done lots of fruitless driving and Google searches trying to find a local brick & mortar source, and read that you can find this at Sam's, BJ's, etc, but I thought I'd put this out there for non-wholesale-club members like me. :)

Hi, my name is Sergio.  I live in central Florida so I've been taking advantage of the cold weather so I can use the oven to help warm up the house.  I started baking not too long ago, weeks maybe a month or two, on a regular basis.  I made a Challah, and that was very edible.

Lately I've been trying to make French baguettes.  A Parisienne I met said that they were so good and crunchy on the outside and for some reason I have an image of them with giant bubbles and a lace of dough, or whatever the stuff inside is supposed to be called, on the inside (not at all like what I get at the grocery store).  I haven't been able to get big bubbles.  The first ones I made were okay but the bubbles were far from fantastic.  The second one I made came out totally flat-- well, not totally flat but somewhat flat.  The flat one I tried to proof while it was already shaped: mix ingredients (including Patty F (the pate fermentee)), roll out baguettes and let rise for about two hours.  I don't know if they came out flat because I didn't proof the dough first then shape and proof again like I did the first time, or if it had everything to do with how I forgot to put flour on the parchment paper on which I proofed the baguette so it stuck when I tried to move it... maybe I should have just baked it while it was stuck... anyway--

Question 1: any advice about how to get big bubbles and a lacy inside in my baguettes? (OOPS! I just scrolled down and found the bubbles thread-- Sorry!)

I'm also trying an experiment in my refrigerator with a pate fermentee.  I've heard that they usually last for no more than three days.  I'm trying to use half of the PF up to every three days in the bread I'm baking that day while adding a cup of bread flour, 1/3 cup of water, a quarter teaspoon of yeast, and 1.5 quarter teaspoons of salt to the remaining PF and the same amounts to the bread I'm baking that day (this is the recipe I've been using halved).  I've heard that with a sourdough, adding equal amounts of flour and water is a way of feeding the starter, so I'm hoping this will work to feed the PF and that way I'll always have a PF on hand so I only have to wait a few hours to make bread.  This way I also don't make so much bread at a time so I bake more often and, more importantly, have more opportunities to eat fresh baked bread.

Question 2: Any predictions on how Patty (the PF) will do?  I guess I should also ask how I'll know when Patty has moved on to a better place (when the PF has gone bad/sour/unusable).

And at long last, finally--

Question 3: I've been using the packets of yeast, the Fleischmann's active dry, but I want to get the little jar of yeast instead.  The problem is that the only jar I could find at my grocery store said it was for bread machines-- can I use this without a bread machine, or are there some kinds of computer chips in the yeast that have to communicate with the bread machine or something?  Just so that it's perfectly clear, I don't really expect that there are micro-chips in the bread machine yeast.

Thanks in advance!  Sorry for going on and on,

Sergio

  i recently purchased from Sams club INSTANT yeast without paying attention to what I was buying.  Now I cant figure out how to make the stuff work.  what i meant to buy was Active dry yeast but I guess I had a case of cranial rectumitits.  Can someone explain how to make this stuff work?  What I use it for is Sweet Roll Dough.

So here we are...baking again. Thank God. Seriously. Grocery store bread really does suck. Eating that crap through my entire pregnancy almost killed me. Since the bouncing baby boy is now sleeping a lot better than before, baking once again commences.

This was a riff on Eric's Fave Rye. I forgot the sugar and caraway so it isn't really right. I plan on making it again.

This was my final formula for my everyday, I-need-something-tasty-that-I-can-be-lazy-with bread. The write-up on my new and improved blog is on my new and improved blog.

Next up I'm hoping to tackle San Joaquin Sourdough and some bagels. All this week.

Maybe a little too ambitious?

I've been baking successfully for a few months now, french bread with packaged dried yeast, one loaf every weekday.

Thought I was turning into an expert.

Suddenly my doughs won't rise. No matter how long I leave them.

And they don't suddenly explosively rise and fall down again while I'm not watching. They don't rise. At least as best I can judge.

I've proved my yeast and it is excellent, works no problem.

The ambient temperature around here recently has been usually better than 32C - 89F.

The only things I can think of is this ambient temperature - would that be too hot for the dough to rise, too hot for the yeast?

Or the flour. I use 25kg bags and this one is down near the bottom quarter and has been in use over about a month. It, too, would be at ambient temperature.

Could the flour be no good for dough?

When I first turn it out of the mixing bowl to begin kneading it I find it feels heavy and lifeless straight away. Where I am accustomed to my dough feeling light, airy,  springy.

When I put it back in the bowl for the first rise it feels like a lump of lead.

When I look at it half an hour later it looks like, feels like, it has a dry skin on it and though there's no holes in the surface it looks like sort of 'pitted' under the surface, like it had risen and collapsed.

Looks like temperature to me, on reflection as writing this. Could I get some more opinions, please, from the knowledgeable and experienced?

 regards,

 ab  :)

Did I get a shock today, as I am almost out of yeast I phoned around to see who sells the one pound vacuum packs of it.

 A couple of places only sold fresh cake yeast which I did not want at this time, I do use it on the odd occasion.

Any way  I finally found a place that sold it at $7.99 a pound, last time I bought it was $4 some thing. wow. so I continued to phone around and the next place was $9.99. Blow that.

 Then I called National Grocers , yes they had what I wanted , and yes I could buy it from them, $5.99.

 So shop around if you are in the market for yeast.... qahtan

I bought a bag of dry active yeast from costco in a few weeks ago. After I opened the package, I put the dry active yeast in a plastic container then leave it in the room temperature. I was wondering if that is the right way to store dry active yeast?

My Grandmother's Yeast Rolls

Hi - I am new here but after reading so many comments from knowledgable bakers, I thought I would ask for your thoughts/opinions.  I remember my grandmother baking yeast rolls (with cake yeast) that were approximately 4" high, moist, and with an almost silky texture - not at all crumbly.  Does anyone know of a recipe and techniques that might help me replicate her rolls?  Any comments would be appreicated.