artisanbaker

i woud buy a mixer other than hobart but i wouldn't buy a sheeter other than rondo

how bout make a thinner crust folks!

i hope you'll excuse my previous attempt at making a joke. i don't understand why any home baker would go through the trouble of making and using bean flour to "improve" their bread. one can make excellent bread without it. same for pizza dough. i think it's better to spend one's time understanding and making good bread than to bother with such things. regarding oxydation: some oxydation is desirable. too much oxydation will create a lighter/airy product at the expense of taste. that said, with a yeast roll you *want* to obtain such a lightness, but this is achieved through appropriate mixing. i would suggest understanding the autolyse method before getting into bean flours. this can greatly benefit almost all doughs, and requires no special ingredients. and to top it off, it reduces the total oxydation while acheiving the same development. happy baking

i've stayed for a year before, and basically i just saved the ticket/proof from my most recent trip across the border. theoretically, i could have been in the other country for the majority of my tenure in europe, thus reducing the time that i was in france... not that i'm saying it's ok to lie or anything!

just checked out that corvetti book and it looks exactly like something i was fishing for. thanks! the torreblanca book is called paco, right? hope they are translated soon, because they both are outstanding! ps. i told the dubys about this site in march. maybe they are lurking. regards

Hi everyone, Just wondering what books you have been buying and reading lately. Anything that you have felt would be helpful in this profession would be of interest to me. Funny enough, when I was at the NRA show I stopped by the CHIPS booth and didn't feel it was neccesary to buy anything. I just got a mail from gourmand books about a new El Bulli book. I've been reading mainly HR books and leadership books. I'll try to put a list together. Regards, Rob

Merci pour la reponse. Si c'etait M. Chiron qui a repondu, ca serait genial si M. MacGuire pourait repondre lui meme. Merci a vous deux, Robert

http://www.cg26.fr/gb/tourisme/gastronomie...ir/terroir.html have fun

Hello James, My wife and I came to Montreal for our honeymoon last New Year's Eve. We had the pleasure of meeting you and sampling a few things from the bakery. Unfortunately we never will be able to taste the food from your kitchen; it will remain legendary. I had some questions for you regarding the word artisan. In Europe I know there is legislation to protect the small players in the bakery business, but we have no such laws in North America that I'm aware of. This brings me to my questions: Where, in your opinion, does artisan baking become industrial? I know of more than a few very large bakeries that position themselves at artisan bakeries in the US, and some find this disturbing. Does a place like Poilane in Paris make an artisan bread? Is it all about size? Lastly, what are your feelings about stress free dividers such as Rheon? Do you regard this as one of the machines that will impede the success of the "true artisans?" Thanks for your time and I hope that you find happiness and continued fulfillment in your future endeavors. My wife and I will always remember eating our rillettes on the sourdough bread for lunch, and the simple pleasure of it all. Regards, Rob Alexander

sold on nyons personally

les cedres- i think it's in la drome pic- valence or for something a little more realistic l'auberge du pin beside pic bernachon- lyon oh wait, they have mainly chocolate... i will ask for more suggestions from locals

-croissant dough should be firm. (i would consider myself to be very good at making them) -it should only be mixed to about half that of a pan bread dough. the remaining development will take place as it is folded. -few recipes for amateurs are precisely correct. ask questions and use your intution during fabrication. -try using a european style butter. you'll get better flakes and flavor. good luck and it is usually easier during the cooler months. no matter what result i think you fill find it rewarding!

a couple remarks- -be careful of the final dough temperature when using pate fermentee. it is usually refridgerated dough and this can throw off the dough temp, resulting in weaker dough (flatter loaf). It should be 74 degrees minimum for a small batch. use a thermometer! -if you proof the loaf in a banneton with the smooth side facing up then there is no need to score the top before baking. you can obtain a very rustic looking bread that has a unique burst for each bread. The weak spots on the surface will be the seam from the underside of the shaped boule. -shaping and steam are also great examples of things that affect oven spring. i'm working as a bakery technition at the moment so i can appreciate the challenge!

ditto the james macguire idea. he translated one of the most influential books on french/artisan bread baking into english. great technical resource.

there are a few things that i can think of off the bat that affect oven spring 1. the dough's extensibility: dough "wetness", ingredient choice, strength (fermentation time), flour quality. all these factors can contribute by increasing or decreasing the dough's "stretchability." 2. the yeast activity upon loading the oven: the most active fermentation in bread making occurs in between loading the oven and the point where the yeasts' life is terminated at 140 degrees. if the yeasts are exhausted then they will not have enough energy to "finish the race." 3. some folks have noticed that a dough at 55-60 degrees has better oven spring. they believe that the yeasts have a longer "race to finish" and this translates directly to larger volume. the jury's out last, but i know that research is still going on. 4. temperature of oven: a oven that is too hot will impede proper oven spring as a crust will form and prevent expansion. a sign that this is the problem is a very dark crust. above all make sure that the dough is properly proofed, not too much though. a little young is always good in my experience. happy baking!

if you want a 100% WW flour bread and a lighter texture add a heaping tablespoon of gluten to your recipe. i think the reduced quantity of milk powder is appropriate. the milk powder and sugar will add moisture to the crumb, a fine texture, color to crumb and crust, and of course flavor. mix the dough with the gluten powder until a "window" forms. industrial bakeries use gluten powder (along with a cocktail of additives) to make "100% Whole Wheat Bread" because it is permitted by law. it is impossible to achieve a bread of comparable lightness without it. happy baking.

this definately helps gas production.

i usually mix a baba dough for at least 30 minutes in a kitchenaid/hobart. then again i usually hydrate the flour with ~150% eggs! happy baking.

http://www.chipsbooks.com/allpleas.htm

Mr. Bramhall: you're right about the gluten quality generally being better in french flours. the millers simply isolated the strains that provided the best baking results for...you guessed it: FRENCH bread. Millers in america have prefered the strains that are best for...you guessed it: AMERICAN bread. Times are changing though. Regarding the competitions again: the trainer for the American team 1999 was Didier Rosada, Chief Instructor and Consultant for San Francisco Institute. He also trained them to their second place victory in 2002. Keep in mind that the team goes to the SAF baking center in Lille for 2 weeks before the competition to train with french flours. The trainer for the Japanese team 2002 was Richard Dorffer from Bischwiller near Strasbourg. Kind of funny is how this ties in with the all french team thread. As far as the differing opinions regarding the baguettes, I think that a lot of people think that traditional American breads (wonder) taste like crap compared to a french baguette. And a lot of people think that a standard baguette tastes like crap compared to a general baguette de tradition. And a lot of people think that a general baguette de tradition tastes like crap compared to a baguette de tradition at Julien for example. When you compare a wonder bread to a baguette de tradition at Julien...

i must add that with respect to my comments about respect each others tastes, i must say that i've had wonderful yeasted breads and wonderful sourdough breads. i can't say that one is a better bread. it depends on what i'm eating it *with.* regards, rob

i can't remember all the points i'd like to make but here goes: why is the bread better in france? that's subjective, isn't it? In mexico they like sugar in their bread. if they taste a loaf from france, they might not think it's "good." *we must respect each others tastes and encourage diversity.* personally, i've yet to have a baguette in america that i've thought is as good as some french ones. you have to look hard in france, but i would be willing to supply some references of bakeries that i think make spectacular baguettes. julien in paris makes one of the best baguettes i've ever had. part of the reason the baguette is so good is simply the mastery of fabrication/fermentation, the wheat variety and earth it's grown on, the milling, the oven used. regarding the competition: these are not based on just taste alone; there are MANY factors that play in. we in america can make wonderful, even spectacular baguettes in our own right. i've made some great ones and my colleagues have as well. BUT, i've yet to have a baguette in america as good as the one at julien that spring morning. ps. if you ask the french why their baguettes are better they might say that it's because the flour is not pasteurised! hehehe

frankly, it's difficult to translate my technical knowledge to home baker qtys but i'll give it a shot 1st question. If it says it should resemble a stiff batter, use the amount of flour stated in the recipe and add enough water to make a stiff batter. 2nd question. You trash the extra starter. My guess would be the 10 ounces of dough would serve to continue the culture of ferments. there's a LOT of ways to make sourdough bread. some would like to claim that their methods are more righteous, but... a general idea is your starter should be at least doubled in volume with a decent ph (use you taste buds) after 6-8 hours. you can either refresh the starter to continue the culture by using the leftovers (what i said you could trash) or you might can save a step by using a piece of the bread dough you're mixing. usually starters don't contain salt so some bakers like to use the former, or otherwise they take a piece of the final dough before adding the salt. regards, rob ps never played with those cloche things but i've heard they work well

1% sounds rightish to me. that stuff is STRONG

try building the cake in pan extenders, then cutting to respective size. you will save time ($!) in actuel production, and you can even produce large cakes and small ones at the same time. cut into rectangles, and decorate with garnishes that are produced according to weekly par levels (except fresh fruit garnishes of course). the trick is cutting the cake into the biggest possible size while keeping the food cost in check. ps. you could try adding some italian meringue into the mousse recipe since there frequently seems to being extra whites available in pastry work. it could help lighten, sweeten, and stretch the yield out... regards