Marcia

Glossyp, sorry for the delay in giving you a suggestion... You probably have already baked your bread by now. I would suggest the Potato and Rosemary Bread. I've never done it but I believe that the scent of the herb my go nice with the pork! But anyway I hope you enjoy your dinner! Marcia

Thanks everyone for the compliments on my Pane Siciliano! The bread is gone, we ate it all !! Well, now about the slash. I made some rolls in order to practice because so far my slashes have been pretty useless and ugly. Not long ago I received a kind PM from SethG giving me some tips to improve the slashes. Here's part of his e-mail: I realized that I was doing it all wrong! I read his instructions many times and also the Peter Reinhard's tips of thinking about slitting open an envelope. I use a very *very* sharp japanese knife (JKC). So i used this small knife, almost paralel to the bread, trying to not apply much pressure but let the knife bite the dough. But I still don't feel comfortable to give any instructions because I made 4 slashes and only that one worked and the others failled big time . I believe the dough also need to be in its right moment to be slashed and i think the surface need to be streched and tensioned. If completely proved the slash can make the dough colapse a bit. Am I wrong? Marcia

Hello! Thanks Ellie and Glossyp for sharing your kneading methods! Today I baked the Pane Siciliano and I can honestly say that it was the best bread I've ever baked so far! Hooray!! It's nice, light and soft inside, the crust is nutty and crisp and the whole loaf smells so lovely! I think I'm finally getting there! I'm beginning to understand and to feel the dinamic of the fermentation, kneading, proofing and all that. I'm so happy and excited! Thanks each one of you who've been helping me and teaching me this alchemical magic of making bread ... Here's a picture of My Big Fat S Bread: I hadn't got sesame seeds so I used Poppy Seeds instead. It worked well in my opinion. And here's a picture of the small roll I made with the rest of the dough: Have you noticed the cute slash? Have you? Have you?? Marcia

Questions to my fellow home-bakers: When making a lean crusty bread: 1. Do you knead by hand? 2. What's your technique? 3. How long for in average? 4. When do you feel that it's time to stop kneading? Do you check the temperature? Do you make the windowpane test? Any other way? --- I haven't got a Kitchen Aid or any of those wonderful mixers (although I asked it for Santa and he keep failing to bring it! ) and I mix everything by hand. I found that mixing the wet ingredients first and then adding spoonfuls of flour makes the task easier. Then I knead by hand using the push-roll-turn method. I normally make the windowpane test before stop kneading but I'm not sure if it's enough... Well, so far my breads had a bit of dense consistence and I'm not sure if the lack of kneading is the culprid... If you have a spare time, please tell me how do you knead your breads. Any input or suggestions will be appreciate. Cheers. Marcia

A Neff double-oven! And a new house to fit it in . Marcia

Fantastic pictures! Congratulations to everyone! I'm going to make a pizza tonight (Pizza Napoletana page 207). The dough is in the fridge since last night. I'm using the italian flour "type 00" and I have no idea if it's good or bad for pizza. As my husband said, there's only one way to find out: making it. I'll post the results. Can't promise pictures because we're normally so hungry at dinner time!! Have a nice weekend everyone. Marcia

Glossyp, your rolls look great! I'm sure your loved one deserved them ! The cloverleaf shape is so cute, I think your bread is the cutest so far in this thread . Vengroff, your loaves are fantastic too, what a nice colour and texture inside! How much water do you put in the pan that goes inside your oven? --- As from me, I made Pain a L'ancienne again. This time I baked for a lot longer and finally get a better crust. But still not fabulous . This time the taste wasn't as nice as the first time but I'm pretty sure I overprooved it I left the dough in the worktop to de-chill and we went out. It supposed to be a quick walk but then we found a nice new cafe on our way, decided to have lunch there and then... forgot about the dough! Oh, I've just bough a box of unglazed quarry tiles! They are 6"x6" and 1cm thick. I'm thinking of making two layers with them because they're not so thick, do you think it will make a difference? I'm also thinking of putting them inside a large pan sheet to make it easier to remove from the oven when I don't need them instead of collecting 18 pieces of tiles . What do you think? Marcia

Judith, your loaves are really beautiful, I loved your dinner rolls, they look so cute and yummy!!! Oh my oven is a total disgrace ... I'd like a new one (a NEFF oven if possible) but we think we'd better move to a house first and them buy it, so... not for a while ... Jay Francis, where in London did you buy the Poilane miche? Was in that shop in Belgravia (Elizabeth Street)? --- Seems like many of us are baking breads this weekend, can't wait to read about them all!! Please post you results and then we can all learn with your experiences. I'm baking a Pain a L'ancienne again Have a nice weekend everyone! Marcia

WOW Elie, it does really look very professional loaf!!! Ahhh and I know what you mean about the satisfaction of having that delicious smell of bread all around the house...! I'm pleased your efforts were rewarded!! Marcia

Hello everyone! I've just baked my first French Bread. I made the pate fermente a day before. Used the microwave proofing. Here's the picture of the loaves on their final proof. I haven't got a baguette tray so I cut the top of two boxes: one was baking parchment box and the other one was the freezer bag box. I lined them with plastic wrap and sprinkled some flour Then I carefully rolled the loaf to a pan and scored the surface: Then I baked for 20 minutes, pan with water on the bottom shelf, pizza stone on top shelf, pan with loaves on middle shelf, sprayed 3 times. The bread is light and taste good BUT I still couldn't get a crunchy crust... It's actually very soft and sad. I definetelly need to use the pizza stone, might need to buy another one. I also have the feeling that my oven is not so hot... the maximum it gets is 200-210ºC. Marcia

Hi Sthitch! Good tip about using two stones! I might buy a better thick one and use my pizza stone on the top shelf. And ohhhh Cinnamon Buns! They are delicious!! I want to try to make it one day but then we'll need to go for a long workout afterwards to burn all the calories ! Marcia

Elie, i'm looking forward to see your Poilane-style miche! Hope it's nice!!

glossyp it was jgarner53 who suggested the bag proofing, I haven't tried that myself yet . I only tried inside the microwave oven, like PR suggests in his book. I warmed up a glass of water until just before it boils. Then I turned it off, placed the dough inside and closed the door. There was barely any condensation inside. I think you're right for being worried about the amount of condensation on your dough, but I really don't know for sure if that's a problem or not. I hope someone else can help you better than me.

lovebenton0, WOW thanks for sharing the pictures! Your loaves are great, and the texture looks fantastic, exactly what I wanted to achieve! And your sandwich was simply mouth-watering with aspargus and olives!! Marcia

Glossyp, it's great! I'm pleased your pain a l'ancienne was nice and tasty ! Well done. I loved the taste of this bread and also loved its delicious aroma! That's the most important, isn't it? I have the same problem with the oven and the crust of my loaves weren't very crunchy either. Have you got a pizza stone? Mine is a cheap and thin one but I think it helps a bit. jgarner53 also recommended a humid and warm proofing with a big food-grade plastic bag. PR says the same trick can be done in a microwave oven: bring a cup of water nearly to a boil, then place the dough inside and close the door. My dough also took a long time to wake up after coming out of the fridge, so I did the microwave trick and it took another hour or so to rise, but it didn't doubled the size. --- I think my next try will be the French Bread. I know it's hard to reproduce it at home (and with a dumb oven) but I'll give it a go to see what kind of french bread am I able to make. Marcia

jgarner53, thanks for the information about the "ballon proofing"! I read something similar in the book but I couldn't understand... Now I do! Thanks, I'll look for a big kitchen bag (not all bags are appropriated, are they? - i know petroleum based bags are a no-no). Transparent, i hope you get your copy soon! Maybe you could also keep an eye on Ebay to see if you can find it...? chromedome, thanks for you tip! there's a shop here in uk (lakeland limited) that sells a plastic cover for cooking books ! I'll think about it. glossyp, thank you! please let us know how your bread turned out! By the way, I also read the jackal10's thread about the Sourdough Bread and the pictures there are so great, aren't they? I can wait to try to grow my own wild yeast one day. I hope we get some answers about how to succed in a humid climate. Because as you know, England do little but rain ... kjente2, good point! PR does indeed explain the danger of spraying water on glass parts of the oven like the light and door, but he advises to cover with a towel, he doesn't mention it sould be wet... Marcia

Wow, Elie!! Your loaves are great!! I made only half formula because there're only my husband and me to eat the breads so my loaves were more like sticks. But yours are lovely!! And I really like the redish colour of this bread! Looking forward to see some more of your work!

chrisamirault, hi thanks, the foccacia seems very easy to make and very tasty! I'll try soon. An oh, the dog under your name is just so cute!! jgarner53, thank you for your tips. how do you produce a "warm and humid proofing" and how many times do you spray the oven walls? Elie, hi. As the book is brand new I'm still taking so much care of it! I place it away from the worktop then I need to walk and read and then come bak to the dough . That might explain the overproofing ! Oh is the Potato Rosemary Bread good? I wonder if it's not a bit dense because of the potatoes? Is it nice? Sinclair, hello! I'd love if could have a Bread thread like that one Chocolate by Pierre Hermé where people try the receipes from the book and share their experiences, it's so great! lancastermike, yes you're right, you can't go wrong when you put your heart into something! Marcia

SethG, thanks and yes it's a very wet dough but I loved to handle it gently with lots of flour around, very entertaining! Anni, thank you. Oh I need to try the Pane Siciliano one day. Need to go and buy some semolina. Have you tried baking this pain a l'ancienne yet?

Wow, congratulation to all the team! The cheesecake looks so delicate, the folds in the chocolate are really beautiful. Can't wait to see the choc fountain too.

jgm, yes it's so great when things work for a change not sure what am i going to do next... i think i'll try this same bread again and see if I can improve my results. foul de Bassan, I put a big retangular pan inside the oven while it was pre-heating. Then when I put the bread in, I also added 2 cups of boiling water inside the pan and closed the door. Then I waited for 30 seconds and sprayed the oven walls with water using a plant spray. I repeated the spray process twice in 30 seconds interval. Oh and for the white bread i think I measured the dry east in wrong proportion and also I started to preheat the oven while the dough was proofing and the kitchen got really hot and spoiled the rest jackal, thanks! i've been reading your posts and it means a lot to have a compliment from you! I did retard overnight and the flavour was great! I used a pizza stone (very thin) but my oven is really bad, it warms up all the flat because it can't keep the heat inside!! chezcherie, thank you! if you bake something please share with us! Thanks everyone!

Hello everyone! I'm new posting here although I've been reading the threads for long time, always learning something new and exciting. I'm just a food lover and I've recently got my copy of the book The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhard and I'm completely in love with it. I've tried to bake breads few times in my life and the results were pretty poor most of the time. Now that I've been learning the amazing process that involves this art of making bread, I feel completely hooked and couldn't wait to try some formulas. My first attemp was a White Bread Loaf, enriched and simple to make, but I definitely did something wrong and it tasted sour and yeasty. Two days ago I thought i was feeling confident enough to cross a new frontier and try a crusty bread (my favourites). I read the book many many times and armed with all information and courage I went for it. I made a dough to bake a Pain a L'ancienne (I loved the story that Reinhard tells about this bread!). Yesterday was the big day, when I finally baked my first crusty bread. And for my surprise, it wasn't that bad! And I am still so excited and happy that I thought I could post some pictures of my bread because you guys are the only ones who can understand my joy ! The crust wasn't very crunchy despite my effort of creating steam in a home-dumb-oven, and the little bubbles could have been bit bigger. But overall the taste was fantastic and the pleasure of eating it was great! I now it's far from perfect but I'm keen to keep trying. Here are the pictures, i hope you enjoy: Thanks for reading! Cheers, Marcia