Greetings, I'm new here, reading for the past several days whilst waiting for my application for membership to go through. I'm enjoying the pics and the discussion. Have had the JC book for a few years now and always enjoy dipping into it now and again. Although, truthfully, I've had better luck with Carol Field's bread-baking methods from her very wonderful Italian Baker. But I love the JC book for a million other reasons. May I suggest trying Nancy Silverton's to-die-for pecan sticky buns (also from the JC book)? If you've never tried them, you'll never think of sticky buns in the same way again. They are flat out one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life. Her brioche tart with the white secret sauce is also very fabulous (the one that made JC cry on her "Baking with Julia" show, a delightful and quintessentially Julia Child moment, very sweet and funny), although the sauce was a bit finicky. But I may just be remembering it that way only because I screwed up and burned it the first time and had to do the whole sauce over again. I don't know whether any of you who are having trouble with the mixers overheating and such might find this useful, but Silverton notes in her bread book that "mix to combine" = speed 1 on the mixer, "slow" = speed 2, "medium" = 3, and "high = speed 4. That may help. Also, if you reserve a cup of the flour called for in the bread recipe you're working with, mixing for a few minutes to get everything kneading, add only what you need for the water and the flour to make a fairly wet dough (I tend to add only enough flour so that the dough still pools a bit in the bottom of the mixer while mixing). Having worked through Field and Silverton and several other bread making books over the past handful of years, I've realized they're right on: wetter is better. And a question. Have any of you worked with wood-fired ovens? Any experience building them? I've recently got the plans from Alan Scott to build one of his ovens, and my husband and I are going to try to get the thing built by the end of April. I look at the plans and immediately go cross-eyed and get pretty crabby, although my husband is just fine with them. It's so nice to be here and to have discovered so many dedicated baking folks.
