Recently I learned how to mix a wet dough with a dry dough. (It happened b/c
I misunderstood the instructions of a recipe.)

Wet dough: 10 ozs water 10 ozs flour (sat on counter 8 hours)

Dry dough: 10 ozs water 22 ozs flour (almost instantly turned into a dough
ball)

I thought the recipe then said "mix" these two. (NOTE: Upon re-reading the
recipe it actually meant, mix the wet dough with these new ingredients (10
ozs water and 22 ozs flour) which would have made a normal 63%% hydrated
smooth dough. Nonetheless, I plodded on.)

Innocently I poured the wet over the dry (as if that would help ... such a
newb) and then watched all my ingredients evaporate into my imagination. My
brain went into vapor-lock, 1 step before panic and 2 steps before the
trash. Then, by God's grace, a light turned on... why not use that hunk of
metal!? So I plugged my stand mixer (KASM) into the outlet, placed the
conglomerate dough into the bowl and turned on the mixer.

Crust 01:
http://img187.imageshack.us/my.php?image=baguette01loaf22crust01ji1.jpg

Crust 02:
http://img207.imageshack.us/my.php?image=baguette01loaf22crust02xz4.jpg

Crumb:
http://img204.imageshack.us/my.php?image=baguette01loaf22crumbzk3.jpg

Taste:
Excellent.

Yo soy un coola grande!

... just wanted to let you all know that I changed my nick to 'baka joe'

We see a lot of talk on this board comparing the various US wheat
sources used in baking breads, but not much from International sources -
not surprising where the majority of this group's population comes from.

So, on that vain, this is a specific call out to other Aussie bakers,
about where you source your flour, and what brands/sources you have
found give the best breads?

(As an aside, a google search shows info about different stages of US
wheat cultivation, and the impact it has on protein (ie early crop vs
late crop). Does anyone know much about the qualities of Aussie wheat?)

I believe I have done it. This is Italian bread - very similar to the my
Queens baker's. (BTW, The baker's shop is on 48th Ave off of Bell Blvd in
Queens NYC.)

The Crust:
http://img359.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rib6crust01dp5.jpg

The Crumb:
http://img105.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rib6crumb01cw5.jpg

Its weird look is due to a near catastrophe with a new peel and an
inexperienced "peeler" (me). The stone grabbed and I pulled without pushing
the cloth ... it was scary.

The lack of slashes is due to me not owning a lame, razor blade, or sharp
enough knife to cut through dough. (such a newb!)

The taste is very good - not the bland "flour and water" taste I was getting
before. So I think "I" have done it. In all honesty everything is possible
_with_ God, and nothing is possible with man.

I've been using the standard Pillsbury bread recipe for a long time
to make pepperoni rolls,
Trying to come close to the ones made by the Country Club Bakery in
Fairmont, W, Va.
But that is not as good as theirs, I'm guessing their recipe is a take
off on an Italian bread,
has a soft crust and many say it is a sweeter dough but it's not
tasted (the sweetness) because of
the spiciness of the pepperoni
I have found another recipe for this, and have not tried it yet, Mine
are good but not quite what
I want,
Can anyone tell me what the difference in the rolls would be from the
following recipe?
They are scalding the milk (what does that do?) and what will adding
the egg to the dough do?
any thoughts would be appreciated before I may waste the pepperoni on
the recipe
Thanks
CC ...

My Aunt taught me this trick many years ago. If you ever need to get
the right amount of Shortening for say...Your home made Pie Crust,
here is a simple yet easy way to do it.

Most Pie Crust recipes call for 1/2 cup of shortening. If you don't
have a measuring cup, or you are just trying to save a little time,
you can take a 1 cup measuring cup and fill it to the 1/2 cup line
with COLD water, then you can spoon in your shortening, butter, or
margerine until the water level reaches the 1 cup line. This will give
you the 1/2 of shortening, butter or margerine that you need for your
recipe. Just remember to use COLD water as warm water will melt what
ever it is you are trying to measure.

I use this method everytime I bake as it is faster and cuts down on
the dirty dishes I have when I am through baking. Try it and let me
know what YOU think.

Check out my Blog at: http://oldfashioncooking.blogspot.com

After some discussion about liquid measuring I discovered that the 3
measuring cups I have do not measure 1 cup. Instead they each measure their
own amount of liquid according to the precision placed upon their
manufacturing. IOW, one measuring cup weighed 1 cup of water to be 8.45 ozs,
while the other two turned in at 8.2 ozs and 8.15 ozs.

I mistakenly thought that the 1 cup line measures out 1 cup of liquid. It
does if you have a calibrated eye. Not being bionicly enhanced yet, this
facility escapes me in this lifetime. So I will from now on measure out the
weight (ozs) or mass (g) for whatever liquid is required in a recipe.

To be fair, their is the problem of meniscus which is an objective problem -
it's there due to physics and no one can prevent it from happening. So the
measuring of 1 cup will be imprecise for that reason alone. "Another reason
for the metric system." -Barry Harmon, ca. yesterday, today, and tomorrow

BTW, which is better - weight or mass? ANS: mass - no matter where you are
in the universe, 10 grams of anything is 10 grams. Weight? Well, on what
planet are you baking? Then again, if you are an astronaut, and you don't
live on a planet there is no pull of gravity, i.e. g = 0! However, you
always know what X grams of anything is b/c mass is _independent_ of
gravity. Awesomeness max to the extreme! :)

I am still working on the Rustic Italian Bread recipe from CI and thought of
this question:

Is there a observable (real) difference between covering your sponge/dough
with saran wrap, aluminum foil, cloth or linen? wrap and foil won't let the
dough "breath" while the other two, cloth and linen, will. But bread does
not inhale so it seems a minor difference. Or does it come down to personal
preference... 'cause I prefer foil since it is so managable.

Here it is, my first actual (well, I think it is) success:

http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ui2ik3f892688a5attid0e1ka0.jpg

I believe that the hand mixing I did for the dough was key. The mixture
formed into a thing that looked like dough and not what I am use to seeing
use the mixer. I also waited 40 mins for the dough to rest (this is not
autolyse since the dough has yeast in it) which I think helped the flour to
get aquainted with the water and yeast. Finally I also blended the sponge
and dough mixtures by hand using the KA dough hook ("pigtail" shape). The
new mixture actually pulled away from the bowl as I had read. So I stopped
that and figured to let the machine do its job now that everything was
blended together well. Bad idea - the gooey mess appeared at the end of the
4+1 min of mixing.

Nonetheless, as you can see in the image, there must have been some decent
gluten production for me to get such a nicely defined crumb. If you go to
the end of the video of Julia Child with Danielle Forestier
(http://www.pbs.org/juliachild/meet/forestier.html) that this is what one
should see.

So I think I did it. What do you all think? Oh, the taste? I think it's even
better than the loaf "RIB Crust and Crumb" I posted previouosly.