bradyvickers

Ok.....I kind of have a magazine addiction. Amongst all my various hobbies I subscribe to so many magazines things are starting to get out of control. So I have decided to force myself to cut back. So if you had to pick just one (ok, maybe two) culinary magazines which would you pick. Believe it or not right now I subscribe to: Food & Wine Bon Appetit Gourmet Saveur Cook's Illustrated Cook's Country Fine Cooking Cuisine At Home Kitchen & Cook Chocolatier Hmmm......obsessive maybe....

The raspberry custard turned out great. Very smooth. I have made a few batches in the machine so far. The raspberry custard, coffee ice cream, and a cantaloupe sorbet. The coffee ice cream texture was good, but the flavor wasn't. The texture of the cantaloupe sorbet was bad. I think I needed to strain out the fibrous bits. Anyway, I would highly recommend the KA ice cream attachment it works great.

whoa, took me a while to get through this thread. there are some really beautiful chocolates here guys. i am very impressed!! i've only been posting for a couple of weeks but the amount of talent in this "online community" is amazing. i've been thinking of getting into chocolate work more, and was wondering what kinds of tempering techniques you guys prefer / and use on a regular basis? also what kind of tricks to you use to hold your chocolate in temper? heating pad? bain marie? i think it would be interesting to hear everyone's methods. thanks, brady

Thanks. I think I will try shaping and then retarding in the fridge.

Vengroff- Sorry to keep firing questions...but after you scrape the dough out of the bowl how do you shape it? The books says to shape it into a 6 x 8 rectangle, but it always seems like a have too much dough for that. It also says to roll it in the flour. Do you actually roll the dough around? That would seem to make the degassing worse to me? I was also wondering if you mix for the full 5 or 6 minutes, or just until the dough pulls away from the mixer bowl sides? I know i'm full of questions, but I really want to nail this dough. It's driving me nuts :) thanks again everyone

Here is the picture, as promised.<br> <br> <img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1119504930/gallery_33109_1382_10680.jpg">

Well today I backed my wetter dough. The holes were a little bigger, but still not big enough. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. It is really frustrating. I guess I must be degassing it too much. I have been breaking mine down into six baguettes size loafs, but maybe I should just do four bigger ones? I noticed that is what you did Vengroff. Did you make your dough wetter than the recipe calls for? Any ideas any one else? I will try to get pictues of the crumb up tonight.

Made another batch yesterday, but I left it on the counter too long. It overproofed and when I turned it out all the structure was gone. The dough couldn't handle the expansion and had little oven spring. It was bad. Anyway made another batch tonight, and am going to try it tomorrow. I increased the water. This batch is 28 oz flour and 22 oz water. Thats almost 79% water....pretty wet. Anyway we will see tomorrow how things go. It may be so slack that shaping will be quite hard..... I'll let you guys know... Also, Vengroff, thanks for the info. I have a shallow stainless steel bowl, but it seems like the dough sticks somewhat no matter what i do. When I turn it out I use a rubber spatula and sort of scrap the sides as a turn the bowl over. I can see the dough stretch a little where it meets the bowl. Not sure how I can make it work any better. I've tried increasing the oil in the bowl, but that didn't help. What kind of spatula is it that you use? Don't know if i've ever seen a curved stiff spatula.

Vengroff- I saw your post earlier. In fact that thread got me started on Pain a l'ancienne. The pictures are great. I followed the same technique and my dough was as wet or wetter, but I still didn't get the holes you did. I'm wondering if when I turn the dough out of the bowl if I am degassing too much. Not sure of any other way to go about it though. I guess I might try going a little wetter. I also think I need to make my refrigerator colder because the dough doubles overnight in the fridge which I think is a little too fast.

With mine the dough has already doubled in the fridge. I don't let it continue fermenting at all. I turn it out, shape it, and bake.

I'm using Gold Medal, "Better for Bread" flour. It's unbleached bread flour. Another thing I wonder is when I turn the bread out of the container it retards in, how I can decrease it degassing as much as possible. I do it slowly and use a plastic scraper to coax it out....but does anyone else have a better technique. Maybe it's the container. I use a square straight sided 4 qt. Cambro container.

I forgot to add a few things. This dough retards in the fridge overnight. After that it is suppose to sit on the counter for a couple hours until fully doubled. But usually it doubles overnight in the fridge for me. So I have been taking it out of the fridge and shaping it, and then baking it off. I get a alot of oven spring, and the bread is good, just not enough holes!!! :) Anyway, thanx PassionateChefsDie. The dough needs to be wetter, im sure. It's not as wet as a Ciabatta, but I'm trying to get Ciabatta holes, hmm..... Anyone else worked with this dough? What have been your experiences... I really like it alot, its soo easy. Mix it up, retard overnight, shape and bake. No proofing!

Hello everyone, I've been baking Peter Reinhart's Pain a l'ancienne for the past two days. I searched egullet and read some threads about it. Especially the one that focused on the Bread Bakers Apprentice. Anyway, I am having a little trouble. I've followed his formula, but am not getting the holes I want. The bread turns out good, great crust, and the crumb is irregular, but more like a good baguette. So anyway, I was wondering what others had experienced. I have thought about increasing the water, but it is pretty wet already. I weight my ingredients so It should be very close to the books specs. I guess it always seems like my doughs need to be wetter that what books recommend. Also in BBA for Pain a l'ancienne PR has you mix for 5-6 minutes. It says the bread should pull away from the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom. How do you guys interpret this? If this happens right away I assume I should mix for the full 5 or 6 minutes to develop gluten, right? Also, how much should stick to the bottom of the bowl? I usually look for about 2". Anyway, just wanted to hear your guys' thoughts on these things. Thanks, Brady PS - I will post some pics once I get em.

Just purchased a KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment. Thought about the Krups, but since it's being discontinued decided to try something different. I picked the KitchenAid because of its capacity, ease of adding ingredients during the churning process, and I didn't want another "appliance" that I would have to find space for. The kitchen aid takes up little extra room, especially if you keep the bowl in the freezer. I'm making a raspberry custard ice cream today, using the CIA's formula. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

Good idea using the melted butter. I'll have to give that a try. I was also thinking it could maybe use a little sugar which would also help to tenderize the dough. Replacing the vegetable oil with butter is a good step towards better flavor.