danlepard.com

Effects of type of flour on crust.

jerbal — Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:29 pm

Author: jerbal

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:29 pm

jerbal wrote:

As I understand it, Chris, T55 is a french flour that is generally used as the main flour in baguettes.

...I see I've written nonsense....

Easy Carrot Cake

Juleswest — Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:29 am

Author: Juleswest

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:29 am

I made this again yesterday, and used full-fat philly cheese. I mixed all the ingredients as Dan suggested, then added them gradually to the icing sugar, finishing with the lemon juice. It was still a little bit runny when I iced the cake, but firmed up nicely after an hour or so in the fridge. I'm just watching my work colleagues polishing off the last couple of slices. Definitely the best Carrot cake recipe I've tried.

Chocolate passion cake

Juleswest — Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:20 am

Author: Juleswest

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:20 am

I made this cake on the weekend. It was really nice - still quite 'hippy-ish' though, if you know what I mean. I think one has to go into vegan territory not expecting to emulate a regular chocolate cake, rather to embrace the differences.
Having said that, all assembled children had more than one slice each, and weren't remotely troubled by the lack of dairy ingredients.

Marmalade flapjacks

Juleswest — Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:14 am

Author: Juleswest

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:14 am

I made these last week, and they were delicious.

Stretch and Fold in commercial bakery

martin_prior — Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:58 am

Author: martin_prior

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:58 am

Hi I do stretch and fold of the dough in the tubs which are similar in weight to yours. I keep them stacked up in my fridge, for a day or so, taking them out periodically to do the stretch and fold.

An hour or so before cutting/shaping I empty onto a board and do one more stretch and fold and leave it to come to +/-room temp, then cut, rest and shape.

Mind I am not sure what is classified as commercial, I produce around 500 pcs including small buns during a baking day(I supply a chain of Organic shops). Fortunately I have two apprentices who come in now and they do the buns, which leaves me with about 200 bread to make.

regards

Martin

Clumped malt powder

martin_prior — Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:45 am

Author: martin_prior

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:45 am

My ingredient supplier has bags of Giusto's Barley Malt Powder. As it comes in big bags, to large for the local market, they re-packed some into screw top plastic bottles. Unfortunately before long the humidity got to it and it is now a bit like toffee set into the bottom of these plastic bottles.

They gave me a couple of bottles to see if I could get the "toffee" out. I tried putting the pot in hot water to see if it would melt, to no avail.

I tried just putting the whole opened bottle into some boiling water and it did dissolve out, but I guess too much water.

I do not use Microwaves so i could not try that option.

Does anyone have experience of using "clumped" Malt Powder. It seems such a pity if it cannot be used as there is so much of it. An email to their web site did not do much good. they said they were retailers and I would have to call the factory.

regards

Martin Prior

Gluten free cornbread

andyc — Mon Jun 08, 2009 8:45 pm

Author: andyc

Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 8:45 pm

Dan

Thanks. I will definitely give this another try. Mine was not that thick before adding the butter. Perhaps I didn't cook it for long enough, or perhaps it was the flour. I used Neal's Yard Maize Meal - for next time I'll get some of the Dunn's Cornmeal.

It (yours) looks similar to delicious corn bread I had in Tanzania, cooked outdoors on an open fire.

Andy

Perfect plain pitta

lepard — Mon Jun 08, 2009 11:16 am

Author: lepard

Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 11:16 am

Absolutely, glad you liked them. It's the same with nann and flour tortillas, they taste so different - much better - when made at home.

Dan

Pear and ginger tart

John R — Sun Jun 07, 2009 10:19 am

Author: John R

Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 10:19 am

Made this for the second time yesterday. The pastry is fantastic even if it has a tendency to overcook on the edges.

Now that I've run out of mincemeat, I'll have to find something else to fill the case with

Conversion of cups to grams for flour

Malcolm115 — Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:33 pm

Author: Malcolm115

Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:33 pm

This website looks very useful.

It has already helped me with one recipe.

A cup (US) is a different weight for plain flour than for bread flour!

and for US readers it does it the other way too.

http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/flour_volume_weight.html

baking powder packets

Debbie — Fri Jun 05, 2009 1:50 pm

Author: Debbie

Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 1:50 pm

I don't recall ever seeing packets of baking powder in the UK. I always get it in tubs.

First WFO Loaf

lepard — Thu Jun 04, 2009 11:57 am

Author: lepard

Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 11:57 am

I use a Mason Cash mixing bowl No. 4, about 35cm in diameter, sadly discontinued. In the past I've used large plastic washing-up bowls and once even the sink with the plug firmly in.

So� a very large ceramic bowl is lovely but plastic will do fine. You could try ebay.

Dan

beginner's success story

aus_amateur — Thu Jun 04, 2009 10:12 am

Author: aus_amateur

Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 10:12 am

Have been baking with wild leaven for a couple of months now, playing around and referring to The Handmade Loaf and Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice, both of which I am very grateful for, and which sort of complement each other. I have settled on the minimum, frequent knead technique that Dan describes - it works so well for me. I time the first few kneads for when I'm doing kitchen chores, so it is no trouble at all.

I have two sourdough starters going, one wheat, one rye, and I refrigerate them for a day or two when I need to slow the baking down, otherwise refreshing them twice a day. I don't use any commercial yeast at all, and I never throw any of the starter/leaven away when refreshing. I do not weigh (sacrilege) but I have learnt what quantities to use (for my basic family loaves) by feel.

I make one large loaf each time. I do the final proving in a round silicon (high-sided) 'cake pan', which I lightly spray with oil. When preheating the oven I put about 1cm hot water into my very large enamelled dutch oven and heat that up too. I take the oven temp to about 20 deg higher than what I need, then place the silicon pan inside the dutch oven, and relid over all that steam. After 30 mins I remove lid, shove meat thermometer into loaf, turn oven down a tad and replace. I use the intermal bread temp as a surefire guide to test when done. This works really well for me - I get a much better crust this way, and the silicon pan is really easy to get in and out of the dutch oven.

Today I experimented, enriching the dough with 3 of our hens' eggs, incorporating a little hazelnut meal with the strong wheat flour, and included chopped hazelnuts and chocbits in the final stage of mixing. Used a sugar syrup glaze. Stunning success - no problems with aeration or heaviness, gorgeous creamy crumb and coloured crispy crust. I am very proud, because I had no specific recipe, just relied on my experience, and referred to other enriched bread recipes for oven temperature etc.

Thanks so much, Dan for your great book.

baking sourdough bread in breadmachine?

Berti66 — Thu Jun 04, 2009 5:15 am

Author: Berti66

Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 5:15 am

I am currently going to teach my friend how to maintain a sourdough and make quick breads using baking soda and sourdough.
that would give her good bread and very light, without the expenses of a machine since so far i didn't find much proof (!) of being able to do sourdough with a machine.

I think people still seem to think bread baking is time consuming while in fact it only takes what, twenty minutes???? and all the rest is proofing or baking time.
I am not charmed by breadmachines and will never own one.
I rather would buy a kitchen aid for kneading and keep baking like I do...

ahh good bread.
crackled crust.
flavor.

berti

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

oilhead — Wed Jun 03, 2009 12:06 pm

Author: oilhead

Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2009 12:06 pm

Probably should have been awake when I wrote that previous entry... just realised I didn't link to the recipe itself, making it obviously only slightly challenging for folk to have a go themselves.

clicky clicky