I've recently begun making breads, mostly wheat and white sandwich
breads. Is there a good book or web-site with guidance on this. I have no
trouble finding recipes but want some guidance on how to vary ingredients
and hoe kneading affects texture.

Dave M.

Many authors say to take dough out of the refrigerator an hour before using
it. This is supposed to "warm up the dough."

I took 600 grams of pizza dough out of the refrigerator at 3PM. When I
took its temperature at 5:45 it was 50F. Some warm up.

This looks to be another fig newton of someone's imagination.

Barry

I quite like the taste of rye flours in breads, and one of my favourite
recipes is a 70:30 mix of white bread flour to rye flour, with a 65%%
hydration.

I find that after my mixing and kneading I am left with a sticky ball
with little to no elasticity. The resultant dough actually forms into a
decent loaf with a fine, soft crumb, that fortunately is in no way cake
like.

So, is this normal for a rye flour, or is my technique lacking.

My technique is;
- mix ingredients together with the Beating attachment on the Kenwood
for about 2 minutes on Low until a ball is formed.
- Rest for 10-15 min
- Knead with the dough hook on a medium setting until the dough ball
tends to smooth out on it surface. Usually about 5 min. Trials at up to
20 minutes show no noticeable improvement in elasticity.
- Proof/Shape/Bake etc...

Yet two of the best loaves ever. It was supposed to be Italian bread
from a Reinhart formula. Had the biga; needed equal parts bread and AP
flour, salt and yeast. Hmmm I thought Italian bread had some sugar?
Ooops I'm on the wrong page. His Italian bread uses all bread flour.
Oh well I added 1.25 oz bread flour, made a yeast and salt adjustment
and added sugar. Except for the AP flour, it ought to be close.

I added the biga balls, a little oil, then hesitating on the water I
gave the mixing paddle a gentle turn. P O W ! The biga balls whacked
the dry flour and sent oodles out of the bowl, all over the counter,
the floor and the bread maker. Impossible to tell how much I lost.
Still I added some flour to replace oodles, and mixed, then kneaded in
the machine until I had a decent dough. Maybe a little stickier than
it should have been.

As I said this was great bread. Thin crust, good crumb with very fine
holes and great flavor. . . but can I ever make it again? Probably
not. I could try another chaotic mix but the clean up is no fun.

Just for fun I remembered to take a few pictures as I made it. Check out
this link...
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563199237Wgfkvz

I've been making this and a vegetable focaccia for years. So, delicious.

Lynne

Sun-Dried Tomato Focaccia

The prepared pantry has several baking guides. Since I consider myself
somewhat of a beginner, I find these quite helpful fo me.

http://www.preparedpantry.com/baking-guides.htm

The latest version of Adobe Reader lets one print this up in booklet
format. I haven't tied that yet, but intend to try it when I print
another topic.

Bobbi Jo

Dick,

I tried twice to email planeguy and they both bounced. Please give it a
shot and see if you can get through and have him email me.

johnfrum@optonline.net

Barry

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I have a small electric mill to grind the wheat into whole wheat
flour. What is real good and cheap source of wheat berries?

We sometimes buy in local Trader Joe realk tasty bread. The name is
Rustic bread. Also Artizan bread tastes real well.
Can suggest a good book or some other resource to learn how to make
artizan bread?