BR,

Can't wait to see the pics now that you have the magic ingredient.

justjoan wrote:malted barley flour is exactly the same as diastatic malt powder

What's the difference between diastatic malt powder and DME (dried malt extract), which, of course, is made from malted barley?

pairs4life wrote:BR,

Can't wait to see the pics now that you have the magic ingredient.

Success! I posted my detailed write-up in the bagel-making thread.

Éirinn go Brách!

leek wrote:

pairs4life wrote:Bread in Action!
[snip]
Can't wait to perhaps make these in advance and freeze them, (pre-baked or post baked, what do you think?)

I bet it would be good pre-baked, as long as they thawed fully in the fridge. How long would you plan to leave them? This is not a hard experiment to carry out

I've now made croissants 3 times. I want to commit it to muscle memory. I'm getting better.

I've frozen some, after shaping them, baked, them & they tasted fine. I've frozen others after baking them, take one out to warm/defrost/toast in the oven, and they taste awesome as well.

The GP wrote:

pairs4life wrote:

Darren72 wrote:
Regarding flour, have you thought about grinding your own? Home grinders aren't that expensive and you can buy the whole wheat berries in large bulk sizes.

Are you trying to hurl me down the rabbit hole?

I think you're hurtling yourself, you crazy baker!

Looking up from the bottom of the rabbit hole...



Baguettes.

I used CI's recipe. I think they look a shade phallic. But the taste was magnificent and bonus! They lasted more than a day without turning into rocks.


Then BR and his bagel making sent me on the hunt as well. As you can see, it is perfectly clear that these bagels were made by hand.



I also used CI's recipe for bagels. This was a bit more of a challenge because I couldn't find high gluten flour without ordering it. I tried, Treasure Island, Jewel, Fox & Obel, the Dill Pickle Co-op, Green Grocer, even Fresh Farms to no avail (I won't shop at WTF Market, so it doesn't matter if they do have it, although I'm curious). Just as I was about to pull the trigger & order it from KAS, a friendly bakery let me buy some. Still, I'm annoyed that I can't just buy it in a store.

Despite these bagels utter homeliness, they were delicious. They were all gone in under 24 hours.

Final proofing( man I sound like I know what I'm doing, a few weeks ago I would have just said "rise" not "proof", ) on another couple of loaves is almost done.

If you want a real laugh, I was given a "bagel maker" that was nothing other than a water bath after a bread rising bread maker that required intervention to the extent that it was far better to buy bagels. The son of a "insert obscene things here" that gave it to me as an xmasgift and I give it back every year/birthday/ etc.

We do our bagels with just plain ol' bread flour (usually KAF, but for now Dakota standard patent commercial) and they turn out great.

Me and images here don't always play well together, but I'll give it a try... here's what Chouxfly's bagels usually look like:


ETA: jpeg, jpeg, gotta remember this place only likes jpegs....

(Recipe from Rose Levy Berenbaum's Bread Bible, black stuff on some bagels is wonderfully crunchy pyramidal Black Cypress salt.)

pairs4life wrote:
I also used CI's recipe for bagels. This was a bit more of a challenge because I couldn't find high gluten flour without ordering it.

Hi,

A few years ago, Chicago Foodways Roundtable hosted Steven L. Katz, author of “Chicago’s Big Apple” (The Chicago Tribune, January 10, 2007) baked German apple pancake in Chicago. who has reverse engineered the German apple pancake at Walker Brothers. One of their key ingredients is a high protein/gluten flour not available for retail. Instead of sending people on a wild goose chase, he engineered his recipe to have the maximum amount of protein: bread flour, skim milk, egg whites and gluten were added ingredients.

To save the audience grief, we gave them a copy of the recipe and enough gluten to make two batches. I now keep gluten, bought at Whole Foods, to amp up for lower gluten flours when needed.

Regards,

I thought I put up these shots already.
Thanks to BR, I'm reading Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice and I've made my own sour dough starter with wild, and local, yeasts. I will post that later. But, in the book I had a " Eureka!" Regarding "room temperature" for proofing/rising breads or doughs. Room temperature is definitely warmer than 68 degrees Fahrenheit if you don't want to wait forever for breads to rise.

So I placed my brioche loaves in my little closet of a laundry on top of a heated seed mat and finally they rose and aren't squat.


Craquelin is on the left and studded with pearl sugar.

mamagotcha wrote:Oh, and for other bakers... A local baker sold me a 50lb bag of the best bread flour I've worked with (other than the twice-as-expensive King Arthur brand) at a decent price. Definitely ask your friendly neighborhood baker if they'd do a similar deal for you; they can get bulk rates that can make a big difference to us small-batch bakers.

Can you tell me how much you got the bread flour?
Thanks.

pairs4life wrote:I thought I put up these shots already.
Thanks to BR, I'm reading Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice and I've made my own sour dough starter with wild, and local, yeasts. I will post that later. But, in the book I had a " Eureka!" Regarding "room temperature" for proofing/rising breads or doughs. Room temperature is definitely warmer than 68 degrees Fahrenheit if you don't want to wait forever for breads to rise.

Hi,

My oven has a bread rising setting at 100 degrees. If I use this setting, I will also try to process a half-gallon of yogurt at the same time. If I drain this yogurt, it is the equivalent of a quart of Greek yogurt.

Alternatively, I will heat a quart of water to boil in the microwave, then place it in the oven with the bread dough. The oven's insulation helps keep it warm for an extended period of time.

Regards,

niknik wrote:

mamagotcha wrote:Oh, and for other bakers... A local baker sold me a 50lb bag of the best bread flour I've worked with (other than the twice-as-expensive King Arthur brand) at a decent price. Definitely ask your friendly neighborhood baker if they'd do a similar deal for you; they can get bulk rates that can make a big difference to us small-batch bakers.

Can you tell me how much you got the bread flour?
Thanks.

Ack, I'm afraid I cannot. I know it was about half of what I paid for the King Arthur bread flour in the 5lb packages at Fresh Farms. Good luck!

So, the Sourdough Starter took me for a ride and took forever. If you decide to use Reinhart's recipe, i I would strongly suggest you follow these instructuions, developed by scientist & bread baker Debra Wink,in lieu of the one's in the book. The secret to success is pineapple juice and those detailed instructions solved the problem. Don't worry, even Reinhart gives a hat tip to Wink for her work.

I would say plan on 14 days to get your starter together prior to being able to start this bread. Hey, count yourself lucky, and a user of Wink's method, if you come anywhere close to having a starter ready in a week. This is a wild yeast starter. I chose not to buy a starter.

Here's my Poilane-style Miche, p. 242 of the Bread Baker's Apprentice


Pre-Bake


Out of the Oven

I bought a big tin of dry milk powder last week, thinking I would bake a lot from King Arthur's. But since that acts as a tenderizer, I think I might make one batch of Something with it, one without (but substituted with another grain like flax, maybe?), and see what difference it makes.

Has anyone frozen soft pretzels before? I have a hankerin', but I don't want a whole batch at once. Does freezing mess up the crust? Also, has anyone made soft pretzels with whole wheat flour or another healthy flour?

Thanks,

For those of you that are looking for KAF in bulk, and are aspiring bread bakers. I buy both the King Arthur Sir Galahad (AP equivalent) and the King Arthur Special (Bread Equivalent) for my bakery. I would be willing to sell people larger quantities if interested, and my cost is a significant discount to what you would purchase in the store. Just PM me if interested. I am located in Naperville.

Hey Kevin T. I'd love to PM you re: bulk flour but I see no email listed in your profile! Feel free to PM me.

doughgrl1 wrote:Hey Kevin T. I'd love to PM you re: bulk flour but I see no email listed in your profile! Feel free to PM me.

Click the button that's says "PM" under his screen name.

Thanks

I had a wonderful brioche bun on 1-1-17 at a friend's home. She said it was an easy recipe from the NY Times.

It is not as rich nor does it take as long as most brioche recipes.

It is Jane Sigal's recipe for Light Brioche Buns at the NY Times. At some point I googled it and found Deb Perlman at Smitten Kitchen had also featured it and suggested an optional topping of seeds. I also found seeds on KAF's website in their recipe.

This is a slack/sticky wet dough. Do not flour the board. I kneaded by hand.

What I love is being able to start the recipe and eat it a few hours later. This was started around 6 pm and eaten before 10 pm. I did use instant yeast because that is what I keep to hand.

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1012 ... ioche-buns

Can't upload pics for some odd reason. So see here.

https://instagram.com/p/BPRP5aSlgFd/