Thank you for your comments, Barry.

What do you think about using "King Arthur" (DRIED) "Diastatic Malt Powder"
1 teaspoon. I have on hand also "Non-Diastatic Malt Powder."

Yes, my starter worked alright previously. (It is the bigas left in the
refrigerator that definitely don't work for me.)
****
I'm going to do testing on your suggestion: at 16:50 using this:

I'm testing a couple of batches of starter -- 5 ounces flour,
> 3 1/4 ounces water, 1 teaspoon yeast -- one with all-purpose

My house is 69 degrees.

****
During these biga-making recipes, my house was always cool. When I made the
breads I always feel I erred on the "cool side" because I don't like a real
quick rise, mainly I don't like the taste of over-yeasted bread and that was
the reason for my failures. As Carol Fields says to take the dough out of
the refrigerator and put it into the processor if you are using a processor,
because you don't want the dough to heat up.
****

Your comment, Barry
Your comment that the thing was like a cracker leads me to think that the
> yeast isn't active or that you killed it somehow.

I made a ciabatta (another recipe - not Carol Fields') and used the same
yeast. No problem. But I'm testing it at your suggestion.

***

Will get back to you and the newsgroup.
Thanks for your time.
Dee

"barry" > wrote in message
et...
>
> "Dee Randall" > wrote in message
> ...
> > 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.
> >
>
> Hmmm.
>
> Let's review the Pane di Como on page 102. I last made it on 7-17-03 and
> marked it as Excellent.
>
> Starter:
> 1 teaspoon dry yeast or 1/3 cake fresh yeast. I used the dry yeast.
> 1 scant teaspoon malt syrup. I used diastatic malt from the home brew
shop.
> 1/3 cup warm water.
> 2/3 cup milk, room temp.
> 1 cup (135 grams) all-purpose flour.
>
> Stir stuff together, add milk and flour and beat till smooth. Let stand
at
> least 4 hours or over night.
>
> My notes to he
>
> This starter is VERY wet:
> 224 grams water/milk, 135 grams flour => 160% hydration.
>
> **** Comment: The milk may mitigate the hydration somewhat, but not
enough
> to alter the general effect.
> **** I use tap water all the time. We use city water and have a water
> softener in the apartment complex's domestic water lines.
>
> Dough:
>
> 2 cups water
> 6 1/4 cups (860 grams) all purpose flour
> 1 tablespoon salt
> cornmeal
>
> Make a dough with the starter and the rest of the stuff.
>
> This is 35 ounces of flour and 24 ounces of liquid, which is 68%
hydration,
> give or take. This is a wet dough. The malt syrup will add a bit,
probably
> enough to offset the solids in the milk. This is probably putting too
fine
> a point on the process.
>
> First rise: 1 1/2 hours or until doubled.
>
> Shaping and second rise: Shape and rise 1 hour, until fully doubled.
>
> Bake 400F for 1 hour.
>
> Discussion:
>
> This amount of dough would normally have at least a packet of yeast, 2 1/4
> teaspoons. I remember that I had some question whether the initial
starter
> would have enough food supply for the yeast to develop overnight and then
> carry the whole load itself with just the one teaspoon, but it did. This
> may be due to the malt syrup.
>
> As I remember it, I knocked the dough down and gave it another short rise,
> 20 minutes, after the first rise. I also gave the dough a rest between
> scaling and shaping, probably another 20 minutes, although my notes don't
> mention either of these. This procedure is my standard practice in most
> breads.
>
> Questions for Dee:
>
> Did the starter work properly, i.e., did it bubble and rise and collapse
as
> it should?
>
> Check your yeast: Put the yeast, a half cup of water, a teaspoon of sugar
> and a half cup of flour in a bowl, mix them up and let it sit in a warm
> place for an hour. This should just about blow the lid off a plastic
bowl.
> As an example, I'm testing a couple of batches of starter -- 5 ounces
flour,
> 3 1/4 ounces water, 1 teaspoon yeast -- one with all-purpose and one with
> bread flour. The batches have been sitting for twenty minutes and the
first
> one (the bread flour one) just blew the lid off.
>
> Your comment that the thing was like a cracker leads me to think that the
> yeast isn't active or that you killed it somehow.
>
> How warm is the kitchen and the rising place? It's unlikely, but you may
> have risen the dough in a place that was so warm that you killed the
yeast.
> I doubt this, since you can make other breads work.
>
> My notes on the other two, the Terni and the Pugliese, indicate that I
> didn't do much differently from the recipe and that the breads turned out
> well. I made the Pugliese on 7-31-01, and have written in the Pugliese
from
> BBA as a comparison, along with a description of the modifications I made
to
> use the stretch-and-fold technique, which involves two 1/2 hour rest
periods
> during stretch-and-fold. In the Pugliese, although the dimples are
supposed
> to keep the bread from rising too much in the oven, my bread went crazy.
>
> Sorry to take up so much time with such a long-winded answer, but I'm
> intrigued that something that's worked for me so many times isn't working
fo
> r you. If these recipes were something new or experimental, I could
> understand it, but these are traditional breads. There must be something
> going on that we're not noticing.
>
> Barry
>
>