Bread

Braiding SourdoughSubmitted by Lap on May 22, 2013 - 3:58am. I am looking to braid my sourdough. I normally retard in the refrigerator for the overnight before baking. I assume I braid before i retard. Most of the discussion in the forum appear around Challah....Has anyone done? Any pointers....guess I need to roll before? Thanks.

MixersSubmitted by lamberta72 on May 22, 2013 - 12:59am. I know, I know - mixers .. pls don't yell at me I'm old!  In short, have a 6mo KA Artisan, hate it, am selling it.. Want an Assistent, none here in Australia, can import but no service here.  Looked at the Bosch 86 but prob overkill at 1600W.  Make bread just for myself, don't eat a lot of bread (carbs!), so scale recipes back to 500g flour weight and I prefer slightly higher hydration breads.  Am looking at the Bosch MUM 56 (900W) .. anyone have experience with one and are you happy with it?  Dough hook looks a little flimsy.  Have checked previous posts.BTW I just made David Snyders San Joaquin Sourdough (my most ambitious loaf yet) and it turned out beautifully, despite all the usual interruptions, phone calls, visitors etc.  Don't it always happen!!Sondra

Moving on from Chester St ...Submitted by PiPs on May 21, 2013 - 11:54pm. Due to creative differences I am moving on from Chester St Kitchen to pursue a new venture ... I wish all the team at Chester St the very best for the future.... stay tuned I guess :)Happy baking everyonePhil

hot tip Submitted by yozzause on May 21, 2013 - 10:41pm. Hi FOLKSI responded to a post by Khalid the other day that started with reference to flour bags  and a job as an apprentice of cutting up the heavy hessian bags that the rye flour and rye meal used to come in, they were 150lb bags in those far off days.The hand mits are used by the men working the 40 - 50 tray travelling ovens also the 40 tray peel ovens for protection from the hot tins or trays but also needing to have their hands and fingers free for alternately loading the oven.hands free to pick up things  tins or trays  to load ovens        ready for action flipped  ready for the hot stuff these ones are purchased from a supplier of bakery and butchers supplies made from terry towelling far better than using tea towels that the students tend to use,( must be a chef thing ) but can be quite dangerous if the tea towel has been used on anything damp as the heat quickly starts to produce steam that then makes the tray get so heavy that i have seen them drop the goods on the floor.i think i could easily make these myself too right tool for the right job  kind regards  Yozza (Thats me just in case there are talent scouts out there)

Dough HookSubmitted by bures on May 21, 2013 - 10:19pm. I have just purchased a Bosch Food Mixer with a dough hook.I made the bread by allowing the appliance to mix the ingrediants for about 5 minutes. I then took out the dough and kneeded it by hand for about 10 mins, Let it rest for an hour, knocked out the air  then another hour before going into the oven.Superb loaf of bread, best I have ever made.Now, I purchased this Bosch with the objective that can do all the kneeding for me, rather than my hand method.A breadmaker carries out this task by replicating my hand process, ie, it never leaves the breadmaker from start to finishCant find anything on the net on how a Dough Hook can complete the entire kneeding process liker a breadmaker ?Any comments would be appreciated

What’s the best way to cut a mango in perfect cubes – without peeling it first, and with absolutely no hassle? Hint: NOT the way I’ve just started in the picture above. Thanks to Susan Reid, a CIA-trained chef and my fellow test-kitchen baker, I now know the most efficient, effective way to prepare a mango for serving. And I’ve been practicing a lot lately, as one of my very favorite fruits – Ataulfo mangoes (a.k.a. Champagne mangoes) – is in season. If you’ve never tasted this super-sweet, creamy mango, run – don’t walk – to your nearest supermarket and pick some up. They’re generally available late April to early August, so their season is shorter than the more common year-round varieties. Identify an Ataulfo mango by its flattened appearance, and golden (not green or red) skin. Inside, its flesh is bright gold, and firm/creamy; not at all the coarse/stringy texture of a typical mango. And flavor? There’s not a sweeter fruit anywhere. Think perfectly ripened peach, with hints of citrus. Anyway, enough with the rapturous compliments. Let’s cut up a mango. Take your ripe mango (the skin will be yellow-gold, not green), and turn it on its side. An Ataulfo will naturally rest on one of its flat sides; you want to turn it so a narrow side faces up. Take a sharp or serrated knife, and make a vertical slice just slightly to the right of center. As you slice, try (by feel) to come as close as possible to the large flat pit inside; angle the knife around it. Remove the first slice, and repeat, cutting past the pit on the other side. You’ll now have two nice fat pit-less slices; and a flat pit surrounded with a thin layer of flesh (center, bottom photo). Working with one fleshy slice at a time, score in cubes to (but not through) the skin. Gently press the skin inside-out, so the cubes separate. Use a knife or spoon to cut them off the skin. Peel the skin away from the pit; it’ll come off in a long strip. Use your knife to carve any remaining meaty pieces away from the pit. Add them to your bowl of cubes. Oh, and don’t forget to nibble as much remaining flesh off the pit as possible, before composting; you don’t want to miss any of that juicy sweetness! Now you’re ready to make easy mango sorbet (above)… …or rich, creamy mango gelato. Enjoy!

Using different flours for Pita bread recipeSubmitted by palestiniancham... on May 21, 2013 - 6:30pm. I've been baking Pita bread since I was 12 yrs. old (with help of course). I always used white flour. Recently, i began substituting part of the white with whole wheat and it's great!! I tried making it with 100% whole wheat and it's no good. I would like to try the recipe with other flours but since I am still a novice baker I do not know much about other types of flour and what will work and what won't. I saw some of the comments/post on the Pita bread recipe about using other flours but I would like more information. Anybody please? Thanks so much!

My Sourdough Bread...Submitted by Gingi on May 21, 2013 - 5:05pm. Hi there people,Here is a picture of my sourdough bread... made from a 100% hydration starter and some T80 flour... suggestions/feedback are welcome.Thanks,gingi

SD and YW Emperor Franz Joseph Buns with Same Dough ChallahSubmitted by dabrownman on May 21, 2013 - 4:00pm. I found a WW levain lurking in the back of the fridge.  It had been there for at least a week and maybe two.  It was a 100% hydration one since the hooch had separated out and was lying on top.  We poured off the liquid and fed it twice with multigrain flour and water on 4 hour intervals and it doubled in 2 hours after the last feeding.  So what to do with it?  WW Sourdough                                                                       White Yeast Water - love those toadie specksWe had our monthly hamburger night coming up and were without the required buns again.  After doing our normal whole grains in the SD levain we used AP flour for the rest of the mix.  After a 2 hour autolyse using milk, we mixed the levain with the wet flours.  To enriched the dough we added butter, egg and honey.  Since we have no idea what the pedigree is for the 10% protein, AP flour in the Winco bins, we added some VWG to ensure decent gluten structure.  The hydration came in at 81% which was pretty high for a 35% whole grain bread.  After 10 minutes of slap and folds and 3 sets of S&F on 20 minute intervals the dough went into the fridge for an overnight retard. When putting the SD in the fridge I noticed that the YW had gone unused for a while and probably needed refreshment but would wait on that till the morning.  First thing in the morning I got out the YW and mixed up an enriched white dough similar to the SD but added ricotta cheese and the only whole grains were the Toadies. No levain build, no autolyse and no retard required.  It felt much wetter than the 74% hydration it calculates to.  Still, this too is very wet for something that is supposed to be a shaped, rope roll of some kind.   So if you want more coil definition, use less liquid for both of these dough preparations. We just tossed everything together, did 10 minutes of slap and folds and 3 sets of S&F’s on 15 minute intervals and then left the dough on the counter to ferment for 2 hours,  At the end of 2 hours we retrieved the SD out of the fridge to let it warm up for and hour.   This is when Lucy sort of went berserko with her wild, hair brained ideas that she is known for executing poorly if at all. She thought it would be cool to make Franz Joseph rolls by making ropes out of the 2 varieties of dough and then twist 1 of each kind together to make a 145 g  twisted rope.  This twisted, half step sister rope could then be shaped  into Franz Joseph rolls, which are the same as Kaiser rolls but named properly from a historical point of view. We didn’t need or want 12 buns, so we took half of each  dough and used that to make a 6 strand round challah since these mixes sure looked and smelled like challah to me… only way more wet.  It was a bad choice since the dough was too wet and should have been in a loaf pan instead.  Always listen to Mini Oven when she says, (paraphrased) something like, ‘if its not ciabatta and over 80% hydration, it belongs in a tin! I couldn’t remember what temperature to bake enriched dough at so looked at the beet infused buns and saw 350 F.  Since I know my oven is 25 F low, I baked at 375 F with steaming lava rocks in a CI skillet. I put the egg washed challah on the top stone 4 minute before the egg washed and sesame seeded rolls went on the bottom stone.  After 8 more minutes out came the steam and on went the convection at 350 F this time.We rotated the bread and rolls every 5 minutes on the stones and at the 25 total  minute mark the rolls looked done and out they came to cooling racks without testing for temperature.  8 minutes later the challah hit 202 F.  We turned off the oven and then when the challah hit 205 F we removed it from the off oven.   Everything browned nicely, no blisters were expected since you can’t get them at 375 F no matter how much steam you have.  We sliced open the challah and found that the SD portion was more

Calamata and Oregano BreadSubmitted by Wingnut on May 21, 2013 - 9:12am. 75% Hydro, 20% HG Flour, 3% Whole Wheat Flour Tasty Bread but since my wife wanted something with "a little less big holes" so her mustard wouldn't drip out, I had to add a little HG Flour. Turned out well.Cheers,Wingnut