“Love doesn’t just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread. remade all the time, made new.”
2020-06-18 Yet Another Mixer Shootout Should I hook, or should I roll? We could turn that into a rock’n’roll anthem! What’s it all about? Hang in for a few more paragraphs, and you’ll be in with the in crowd! Like many bakers, I grew weary of my KitchenAid mixer. I wanted more capacity than the …
Honey Honey is a sugar based syrup made by bees gathering pollen from plants. Many people feel local honey, having local pollen, can help people minimize allergy symptoms. Sugar contains enzymes which can interfere with dough rising. This is most pronounced with raw honey. The answer is to blanch the honey to denature the …
Cake Flour According to Nigella Lawson, cake flour is mostly found in the USA. It is a low protein flour, between 6 and 8% protein, that has been milled very finely and bleached. Cake bakers have historically wanted a very white flour to make very white cakes. Higher protein levels would make cakes tough rather …
2020-06-05 It Doesn’t HAVE To Be Difficult! Sometimes, OK – all too often, we make baking bread harder than it has to be. Feed the sourdough starter for three days. Make a preferment for 12 to 18 hours. Bake the bread in a dutch oven or a wood fired oven that has never cooled in …
2020-06-05 It Doesn’t HAVE To Be Difficult! Mike’s (more or less) Weekly Baking Tips Read More »
2020-05-28 Secrets of Bread Pudding and Class Comments – Mike’s (more or less) Weekly Baking Tips Hi Bread Heads! I thought I’d better send another note out before people start asking if I’m dead. I’m not dead, not even wounded or ailing! Time gets a bit strange when you’re livin’ on Corona Time! (I looked …
Sourdough English Muffins This is a stunning sourdough English Muffin recipe which has been on this site for years. We’ve just taken another shot at it to clarify instructions and measurements. The taste of these muffins is awesome! My son, who was about 10 when we first made these and who didn’t like English Muffins, …
Basic Yeasted White Bread Introduction to Baking This recipe has been with us for a long, long time. It’s an old favorite. So it shocked me when I found somewhere between the old web site and the new I managed to mess up the recipe. Yeah, the mangled version worked, but it just wasn’t as …
2020-05-13 – Oops, What Do We Do With All That Bread, and Hopes for Classes! Hello Bread Heads! A former student had a team building exercise class with us some time ago. It must have gone well because she recently contacted me REALLY wanting to have another class. It turns out her staffers are spread …
2020-05-13 Oops – Too Much Bread, What Now? – Mike’s (more or less) Weekly Baking Tips Read More »
How to Knead Dough, Convert Recipes from Cups to Weight AND a Pan De Yema Oaxaqueno recipe! Pan de Yema, made as a pan loaf. Not traditional, but it is still great! I was asked to do a Mexican bread to be a Communion bread for a church service held the day after Cinco de …
Hi Bread Heads, Toast. I LOVE toast! Not as a way to salvage a past it’s prime loaf, but on its own. I look for a change of texture, the bread should be crisp and my teeth should crackle through the slice of toast. It is better if there is a change of color. I …
2020-04-20 Toast of the Town – Mike’s (more or less) Weekly Baking Tips Read More »
2020-04-05 Covid-19 and Class News, Frigid and Scruffy Ride Again, and What About Pre-shaping? Hello Bread Heads! Covid-19 class announcement – We can no longer smile and convince ourselves that this too shall pass quickly. It shall pass. But in it’s own time. As a result, we are no longer comfortable attempting to hold hands …
2020-03-31 It’s NOT that hard! Reflections on baking and Pastabilities Hi Bread Heads! This one is going to be a little long. I’ll start with an overdue rant and then talk about sourdough pasta dough. An overdue rant! Sometimes I get frustrated when I read newsgroups, mailing lists and Facebook groups. Sometimes, I want to …