On Mon, 13 Oct 2003 11:07:38 -0400, EJM wrote:
Bob, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are
serious about trying to get help making a hard crust on your baguettes,
rather than just filling up the ether by insulting the people who are
trying to aid you.
I have not insulted anyone trying to aid me. As I said, there is some
kind of psychopathology going on here. Perhaps it was caused by those
spammers who bombarded you all a while back, as described by one of
the posters. All I can do is extend my sympathy and ask you to control
your paranoia. I am not a troll like those other people.
As a measure of my sincerety to make bread, I made that "chewy
sourdough baguette" last night incorporating some of the things I
picked up here. Here are my observations:
1. I increased the recipe to 6 cups of flour. That made 3 baguettes
the size I wanted but I still had to let the dough go thru a final
rise to get the size loaf I wanted. That lessened the density which is
not what I wanted. Lesson: I am going to have to increase the flour
some more to lessen the time of the final rise.
2. I mixed 50% starter to 50% dough instead of the 1:2 ratio that KA
recommended. However, I did not get a more pronounced sourdough effect
because I also changed the way I made the starter. Lesson: Let the
starter go 3 days past the active stage and do not proof it. Also, I
am going to try rye flour additive next time, and that ought to
improve the sourdough effect.
3. I forgot to put yeast in the final dough but the starter had enough
activity that it was capable of rising the dough. I got a doubling in
the 2 hour rise just like when I used yeast. I kinda miss the yeast
aroma in the finished product, so I think I am going to put a small
amount (1/8 tsp) in the final dough. Lesson: It is possible to make an
authentic sourdough with no yeast in the dough - if you have an active
starter.
4. As a side experiment I mixed 1/4 cup of KA bread flour with 1/4 cup
filtered water in a mason jar and let it sit open in the kitchen
overnight. I did not need to put it in the oven with the light on
because the ambient temperature in our house at this time of the year
in Houston is around 80F anyway. The mixture has not started to
ferment in 18 hours, so I stirred it again. Lesson: The jury is still
out but maybe I can make a sourdough with no commercial yeast
whatsoever - from scratch.
5. I left the baked loaves in the oven for 10 minutes after turning
the oven off and opening the door for a minute to cool it off to 300F.
I also sprayed the loaves with water when I started baking them. Now I
have more crust than I really want. Lesson: Don't overdo crust
formation. Water spray alone is sufficient or perhaps leaving them in
the oven with no water spray will work.
It's true that we who recommend this book may be just parroting nobodies
(but then again we might not). But there is a simple way to test.
Instead of asking why you should bother believing that something is
worth taking up your valuable time to read, see if your public library
has a copy of the book(s) recommended here and read for yourself. Or if
you don't want to heft the whole book, you can go to amazon.com and read
an excerpt to see if perhaps it is indeed a book that you would find
useful:
As I said before I have read a lot of books and Internet recipes, so I
am reluctant to read any more because I am afraid I will just get more
confused. I do have
Classic Sourdoughs: A Home Baker's Handbook
by Ed World Sourdoughs from Antiquity Wood
on order from the library.
Rather than stick doggedly to the one KA recipe that works (or at least
almost works) for you, do use the internet to do some comparisons.
I am trying to achieve a consistent bread. I bake not for the hobby
but for the fact that I can't stand factory bread. Once I get this
recipe down pat, I will put it on a recipe card and move on.
I do have two things I want to achieve once I get this recipe to the
point where it satisfies me. The first is to make an authentic San
Francisco sourdough. In order to do that I have to find an authentic
starter in Houston. Any suggestions?
The second thing I want to do is make a genuine New Orleans French
Bread, like the kind Reising sold when I lived in NO in the late
1970s. I am tempted to try using a pastry flour with 8% gluten with
vegetable shortening to see if I can achieve the texture I want. Any
suggestions? (I started a separate thread for this subject).
Beyond that I spend my time on my main food hobby, which is Texas BBQ.
Bread making is fun up to a point, but it does not compare with
cooking authentic Texas BBQ. I also enjoy smoking salmon and making
gravlox, as well as deep frying anything that I can think of (I am on
a high unsaturated fatty acid regime so I need to eat one serving of
fish per day and one fried food per day). Once I get a New Orleans
bread recipe figured out, I will be making fried catfish and fried
oyster po boys.
http://ejmtph.crosswinds.net/recipes...html#resources
I took a close look at your boule recipe and decided that it is a more
elaborate version of the KA recipe I used. I am sure you achieve a
much better product than I do, but I am afraid I do not have the same
passion about bread making as you do. The only thing I will put that
much effort into cooking is Texas BBQ. I did bookmark your site as I
have some others mentioned here.
Thanks to everyone who assisted me with this excursion into
enlightened bread making. I will keep you posted on my successes and
failures as I work out the kinks in the above-mentioned projects. In
the meantime if you have anything constructive to add, please do so
because I will keep these NGs open for a while longer.