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Dee Randall
 
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Default Biga breads - Carol Fields Bread book

The Como Bread beginning p. 102, and the Como Bread of the Past, beginning
on page 103, the Pan di Terni, p. 114, Bread of Puglia p. 122, do not rise.
There might be others, but these are the ones I recall now.



I have left the Como Bread 102 even to rise 3 days and it finally did rise,
but tasted pretty awful-flat.



I have followed all instructions diligently with the bigas, leaving them to
set various days. I have used variously a mixer and a food processor. I
think her instructions for the food processor might be out of date regarding
how cold the starter should be before you put it into the processor, as the
new food processors do NOT heat up with the new low speed and dough/low
settings. Do you use a mixer exclusively or do it by hand (I cannot do it
by hand because of physical limitations.)?



Even the ciabatta p. 107, doesn’t turn out correctly. It is more like one
big cracker with a teeny-teeney layer of bread inside. I Have made ciabatta
from other recipes which turned out fine.



I was thinking if I could make the previous ones, I would be able to tackle
the crocodile bread. Before I joined this site, I threw all my notes on
these breads I made of Carol Fields’ and put her book in the back of the
cookbook shelf. What a disappointment. These are the breads I specifically
want to make and EAT!





I have used strictly King Arthur all-purpose flour for my Carol Fields’
recipes, distilled water, active dry yeast, taken the temperatures of my
water, and used “real” salt.



Ah, Barry, what to do!

Yesterday I went to the old “Oster Bread Machine,” and put in a recipe for
oatmeal/rye/barley flakes at dough setting, left it to rise another hour
while the stone was heating and it turned out pretty good, but it is will
never be the bread(s) I really want.



Dee

"barry" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Dee,
>
> You and I should team up to bake; I've never had a failure on a Carol

Field
> recipe. However, most, if not all, of the recipes require additional

yeast.
> The Como and Coccodillo breads are the only ones in the front of the book
> that don't require added yeast. If you are trying to make another bread
> from this book with no added yeast, then it's another kettle of fish all
> together.
>
> I've made a lot of the recipes, most of them several times. Which one are
> you trying to bake and what's happening?
>
> Barry
>
> "Dee Randall" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Does anyone make the breads in Carol Field's book that are made with

bigas
> > or poolish that include such a minimal amount of yeast for the biga,

with
> > absolutely no extra yeast added when making the dough with the biga. I
> > have had failures on everyone of these recipes. Can anyone help?
> >
> > Dee
> >
> >
> >

>
>