Blog posts

19th Century Breadmaking

Toast
Noodlelady on 26 Sep 2007 at 14:35

My interest in the 19th century comes from researching my family history. Four of my ancestors were soldiers during the American Civil War (1861-1865). This peaked my interest in doing more than just researching names and dates. I have been participating in living history events and reenactments (with my Civil War reenacting unit) and teaching the ways of a typical 19th century Pennsylvania German woman since 2000. I dress the part and strive for authenticity by using reproductions or originals items.

Ramadan Pide

Toast
usta on 26 Sep 2007 at 13:17
 

Authentic Ramadan Pide (www.40firinekmek.com)

In my country, arrival of Ramadan is easily noticed by the long lines in front of the bakeries and the tempting smell of pides wafting into the streets. It is a special type of flatbread with an incomparable aroma and flavor. This recipe will yield the delicious authentic pide made by the bakeries during Ramadan time. Enjoy!

Earth oven construction, part 2

Toast
breadnerd on 26 Sep 2007 at 08:34

Continued from an earlier entry....

 

We let the first layer dry a few days, and some fairly big cracks started to form. I decided to pull out the sand to give the oven more room to shrink as needed, and to help it dry out faster. I cut a smaller door than the final size, you can see the final door scored into the surface:

Mud oven construction - foundation and first layer

Toast
breadnerd on 26 Sep 2007 at 08:06

I finally got up the gumption to move my construction photos over to my flickr account. Here they are in the entirety, I tried to make the titles fairly self-explanatory:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/7541655@N03/aX31kR

 

Here's a condensed version with some commentary:

First off is the foundation. Our frost line in in theory 48 inches, so we dug down quite a bit. We hit a VERY large rock, which made us decide the hole was big enough, and which we figured would act as a foundation in itself.

Pita Bread

zainaba22 on 25 Sep 2007 at 19:29

I post this recipe before for JMonkey, you can see it here.

 

1 Tablespoon yeast.
1 Tablespoon honey or sugar .
2 1\2 cup warm water.
3 cups white flour.
1 1\2 cups whole wheat flour.
2 teaspoon salt.
2 Tablespoons olive oil.

1)Preheat the oven to 550 degrees.

A slightly smaller miche

Toast
AnnieT on 24 Sep 2007 at 19:05
Today I baked the sourdough wholegrain bread from Breadtopia, and this time I used my ss dutch oven. I treated the dough like the NK bread and proofed it in a parchment lined banneton so I was able to score it before lowering it into the pan. No scorched bottom crust and in fact the loaf looks great. This is the one I am going to mail to San Diego, and the frustrating thing is that I won't know what the crumb looks like. Maybe my friends will send a picture - I have my fingers crossed that it is as good as it looks, A

Earth Oven - Early fall baking

Toast
breadnerd on 24 Sep 2007 at 10:43

Still working on the nuances of oven temperature. It’s really a comedy of timing between two ancient processes—bread making and fire building. It seem like if I get it over 600 degrees at the start, it takes a good 45 minutes to reach a more comfortable 550 for bread baking, but then it holds the temps nicely for hours. Handy if you have multiple batches, less handy if you were hoping to cook your dinner at 350 degrees anytime soon. I do crack the door to bring the temp down a bit quicker.

 

Common occurrences when firing your mud oven:

basil olive whole wheat sourdough

Toast
Anonymous on 23 Sep 2007 at 19:56

This is a concocted loaf of whole wheat with fresh basil from the garden, chopped green olives, and leavened with San Francisco Sourdough starter from Sourdoughs International

basil olive whole wheat loaf

Whole Wheat Basil Olive 

King Arthur Traditional Whole Wheat Flour

Amish Cornmeal

Quinoa Flour

Oat Flour

Ground Flax seed

Hemp seed

Org. Barley Malt

Org. Canola Oil

Subscribe to Drupal blog posts