"Mike Avery" > wrote in message =
news:mailman.3.1121656109.12629.rec.food.sourdough @mail.otherwhen.com...
> I hate to be honest, but the home mills I've seen produce a very poor=20
> grade of flour from the baker's perspective. =20
I do very well with my ancient chromed VitaMixer. Witness:
http://www.prettycolors.com/bread%5F...BMWW7SEP04.jpg
which was made in a bread machine.
1 cup bread flour (All Trumps 50111)
2 cups hard red spring wheat, ground in VM after measuring
10 fl. oz. water, in which is dissolved at the right temperature
Enough dry yeast (try 1.5 rounded tsp. of the not-instant variety)
2 fl. oz. molasses (total fluid incl. molasses 65% of flour weight)
10 grams salt (~2 tsp. level)
Optional: zest of an orange
(Cycle #1, crust setting 1 of 3 in machine rated for a 1.5 LB loaf.)
I know what you mean about honesty -- you just don't get any respect.
Even worse -- contempt sometimes.
> [ ... ]
> At the end of the day, I'd rather not mess with it. There are enough=20
> complications in my life already.
Whole grain is nice because it stores indefinitely and is always "fresh" =
as soon as it is ground and can be bought cheap in big sacks. I think
that WW bread has got enough taste of its own so that WW SD does
not make sense. I have made the above formulation slightly complicated
with the molasses and the orange peel, but it works (rises) much better =
with
the molasses, and tastes pretty good with the slight molasses sweetness
and the very mild orange flavor.
In general, I feel that the best bread is that which is made in the =
simplest
way with the fewest ingredients. (Couldn't sell any books about that,
could I(?), nor bread to fancyassess!). Similarly, when it comes to=20
ingredients, the cheapest and most abundant are always the best. (So
don't recommend me for a job at kingarthurflours.)
Normally I would not be using a bread machine, but I found one at a
close-out for $17 and could not resist. There were serious problems=20
with the instruction book that came with it, which probably accounted
for the low price. We do have a KA45, but it is quite old.
--=20
Dick Adams
<firstname> dot <lastname> at bigfoot dot com
___________________
Sourdough FAQ guide at=20
http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/sourdoughfaqs.html