Bread

Hello! First post and link.Submitted by Relaxin on June 19, 2013 - 9:32pm. Hi everyone.  Here's my intro post.  I just posted a writeup for my experiences buying a cordierite kiln shelf tile for use as a baking stone.  Hope someone finds it useful and informative somehow.I've been working as a baker for almost four years but am taking summer classes working towards a culinary Assoc. in Science (Patisserie) degree.  I'm transitioned from having fixed computers for about fourteen years.  I've always enjoyed working with my hands and eating more than just playing computer games, hehe.Oh, and I've been bicycle commuting almost everywhere I go for over five years now, too.  I do tend to commute less during the winter and spend more time baking.  The oven warms the house very nicely.http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/33849/purchasing-cordierite-kiln-shelf-use-pizza-stone-lotsa-pics

Purchasing a cordierite kiln shelf for use as a pizza stone (lotsa pics)Submitted by Relaxin on June 19, 2013 - 8:41pm. Hello everyone.  Thought I'd write this up to help document my experiences in case anyone wants to go this route as well.  I've read a little here and there for alternatives to using a more expensive pizza stone in my home oven.  I've been a baker for almost four years at work but this is my first time trying to approximate a baking stone at home.  What follows is what I've learned from my cordierite stone so far.  It's a list of things I've noticed and a few recommendations about how to cut it, handling, etc.I measured the oven rack as 15 and 3/4" x 24".  The interior floor of my oven measures almost 19" x 24".  I went to Home Depot and Lowes to try and find quarry tiles but unfortunately noone seemed to know what I was looking for.  After a couple of phone calls I found a ceramics supply store called Ceramics Hobbyist.  I spoke with a great guy named Dean over the phone and found he had a few kiln shelves in stock.  I made sure to tell him that I was going to be using this to cook food on.  As it turns out Dean was in the process of building his second wood fired pizza oven.  What a coincidence!  I purchased a 20" x 20" x 5/8" cordierite shelf he had in stock.  Unfortunately he didn't have a saw set up to cut it right away.  So after a few more phone calls I found another great place called International Tile that said they could cut it for me.  Shops will charge your cuts by the foot so figure how much cutting you need done to figure out cost.  After cutting my kiln shelf pieces all came to a total of 19.79 pounds (8980g.)  And now for lots of pics and explanations.I had the 20x20 stone cut to 16x20 and had the 4x20 section split in half to two pieces measuring 2x20.  When in the oven the rack has less than an inch of clearance to the door and almost 2.5inches of clearance in the back.  In order to clear the lip on the back of the rack and keep things more centered I'll be putting the 16x20 piece on top of the two smaller pieces so that it stays level.  My other idea was to measure the rear lip thickness and to have a channel cut into the stone one inch from the edge.  The channel should be deep enough that the lip nests into the channel allowing the rest of the stone to lay down flat against the rest of the rack.  For my rack I would have to cut a 7mm deep channel into the tile which would still be less than half the thickness of the tile (approximately 17mm.)  I would only worry about overall strength of the tile if you were intent on constantly moving the tile back and forth from the oven.Before having your stone cut you will want to resist the urge to write cutting instructions directly onto the stone.  I scrubbed the surface for a few minutes with a fingernail brush to clean it but couldn't completely remove the graphite.While scrubbing the two smaller pieces I accidentally bumped them together and took off a chunk of the corner.  So be very careful.  This material feels softer than regular flooring tiles.  The kitchen sink doesn't seem quite large enough for the task.  I would just recommend setting a towel down in the bathtub to keep the tile from scratching everything and scrubbing it down in there.You may also see a little bit of blowout on the side of the tile where the cutting blade exits the tile.  The side where the blade enters remains clean and sharp.  This may be an issue if you don't plan to have the edges beveled.  I would recommend that you finish the edges because they may still cut you pretty deeply if you're not careful.  You may also want the blowout to appear on the less presentable side of the tile.Here's a picture of what the tile as a whole looked like and where I had the cuts made.  While examing the tile I noticed that it wasn't completely flat and had a slight bend towards one side of the tile when viewed on

Problems when baking my breadSubmitted by lshak on June 19, 2013 - 7:58pm. Does anyone know why my bread falls while baking?

Challah splittingSubmitted by varda on June 19, 2013 - 12:15pm. Lately I've been making Challah and most of the time I get a split like in the picture.   Any ideas how I can avoid this?   This is made with starter but other than that is a pretty basic challah.   Thanks.  -Varda

Here are some interesting new and limited edition products found on store shelves by us and your fellow readers. If you’ve tried any of the products, share your thoughts about them in the comments. Oh, Cinnabon. Is there any snack you won’t put your cinnamon on? The more products you put it on, the more it’s like the herpes of the snack world. (Spotted by Ruben & Heather and Nicolas at Walmart.) They might be easy, but I’m pretty sure I could somehow screw up these Ore-Ida Easy Tater Tots because I hate following instructions. (Spotted by Marvo at Target.) Hey look! It’s a new way for Kashi to get their famous 7 Whole Grains into us. (Spotted by Marvo at Target.) Hmm. What would Fake Medleys would consist of? (Spotted by Charmi at Target.) That Campbell’s Chunky Hearty Cheeseburger looks like it would be awesome in a bread bowl…or poured over a cheeseburger. (Spotted by Adam at Walmart.) Thank you to all the photo contributors! If you’re out shopping and see an interesting new or limited edition product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, and send us an email (theimpulsivebuy@gmail.com) with where you found it and “Spotted” in the subject line. If you do so, you might see your picture in our next Spotted on Shelves post. Related posts: SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 2/27/2013 SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 4/19/2013 SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 5/3/2013 SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 1/14/2013 SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 4/5/2013

Good beginner book for teaching classSubmitted by chera on June 19, 2013 - 11:25am. What book is recommended for beginners?  I am teaching a basic bread course and looking for a book that I use to base my lectures from.  Needs to explain the basics simply and easy enough for folks who have no prior knowledge of bread making or how the ingredients work.

Added too much wheat gluten to breadSubmitted by healthylife on June 19, 2013 - 7:33am. I tried a new recipe for whole wheat bread, which used several different dough conditioners I'd not tried before.  I accidentally used 1.5 times as much vital wheat gluten as was called for in the recipe (8 T. to 8 c. flour - recipe called for 5 T.).  Just wondered if this is why the bread seems really chewy - kind of like it's more than 100% whole wheat!! ha ha   Just wondered if anyone had any input on this - several of my family members do not like whole grains, and so with any whole grain recipe I try, I am hoping for something that will "taste good enough" to try to substitute for less healthy fare (white bread, instant white rice, etc.) - which is why I bought the expensive dough conditioners in the first place!  I am hoping if I make this recipe again, it will come out better.  Input please?

Exploding breadSubmitted by Breadmaker1951 on June 19, 2013 - 5:49am. I need some help please. I wanted to try and retard the proofing of my bread last night, so I mixed it up and put it into 1 gallon plastic bags and popped it into the refrigerator. I made three batches so when I checked it this morning one of the bags was missing. I had no idea where it went to. Then I looked at the door and low and behold there was the bread stuck on the door and everything in the door.(LOL) the dough exploded out of the bag. What mistake did I do?Did I add to much yeast?Do I cut back on the amount of yeast when I plan on putting the dough in the refrigerator?I punched the other bags of dough back down and put them back in. Will they rise again when I want to bake them this afternoon? How long does this rise usually take? Any help is appreciated.

How much weight is lost in baking?Submitted by DavidEF on June 19, 2013 - 4:47am. Is there a rule of thumb regarding how much weight is lost by baking? I know it will be mostly determined by how much moisture is present in the dough. I'd expect most or all of the moisture weight to be gone. Is that right? How much of everything can be expected to cook away? I'm just wondering if I wanted to target a "finished" weight, is there a way to tell by the ingredients, or is it just going to take trial-and-error?

Hi from WisconsinSubmitted by The Cave Baker on June 18, 2013 - 10:26pm. I recently started toying with sourdoughs and baking techniques. I'll post lots of pics and hope to get lots of feed to lots of questions as I progress in this new venture.  I baked two sourdoughs this morning from two different natural leavens about a month old and one has the crust I like while the other, the flavour.  Both have great crumb with large holes.  I just gotta work on making the crust lighter.  I'll post photos later as I am off to bed now.  Glad to be here!