Baking stones, Part 2 How do I use them? In the first part of this three part discussion of baking stones, we talked about selecting a baking stone. We prefer to use either the fairly high dollar Fibrament Baking stones or unglazed quarry tiles. We feel Hearthkits and Cloche’s rob us of too much baking […]
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Baking stones, Part 1 What are they and why should I use them? Since I put this page together, a number of people have asked me if I sell any of the merchandise mentioned on this page. Sorry, no. All I am selling at this time is my cookbooks in Mike’s Bread Shoppe. We used
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What is “spent grain”? Where do I get it, why should I use it, and HOW do I use it? Brewers soak grain in hot water for a fairly long time to extract the malt sugars from the grains into the water. Then they strain off the malty sugary water, boil it with hops, and
Sour is a mother that has been refreshed with flour and water. Or, yet another term seemingly made up to confuse the beginning sourdough baker. It’s just an active sourdough starter. A bit more discussion of starters and sponges. First, there are some equivalencies to be aware of: Mother = chef – it only depends
A straight yeast dough is a dough made with flour, water, salt and yeast followed by a short rise and immediate baking. This is the classic home baker’s way of making bread. It tends to make breads that taste yeasty and are not otherwise very flavorful.
Autolyse is a preferment technique pioneered by Professor Raymond Calvel. It is unique in that no fermentation occurs in an autolyse. An autolyse is, by definition, a mixture of flour and water which is allowed to sit for as little as 30 minutes to as long as 12 hours. Autolyse means “self digesting”, and during
A sponge is used more by housewives than professional bakers, but a sponge is still a good yeasted technique. In the early days of commercial bakers yeast it was just not very reliable, so bakers would “prove” the yeast, or make the yeast prove that it was still active. This is done by putting the
Extraction is a miller’s term that refers to how much of the original grain winds up in the final flour. If all the grain winds up in the flour, the flour is said to be 100% extraction. Most American white flours are around 70 to 75% extraction flours.
Bakers have found that dough develops best around 78F(25C). If the dough is too cold, it will rise too slowly. If the dough is too hot, it will rise too quickly which can result in not enough flavor development, and sometime off-tastes being created by yeast that are out of their preferred temperature range. Bakers
Extensibility is the ability of dough to be stretched, or extended. Dough has to be extensible to rise at all. Hand pulled noodles are at the extreme of extensibility – the dough has no elasticity and can be extended incredibly far. If your dough is too extensible, you might consider using fresher sourdough, making your
Elasticity is the ability of the dough to spring back and have tension. If dough has too much elasticity it is called bucky. Bucky dough springs back into it’s former shape as soon as you stop working it. If you roll a bread braid or Challah strip, it springs back. For dough to rise it
Sourdough starter, like any living organism, needs food to live. As bakers, we add flour and water to our starter and call that “feeding the starter”. There are as many ways to feed a starter as there are sourdough bakers, maybe more. There are a number of signficant things that happen when we feed the
