momcook

The Better Than Prison Food Cookbook A collection of recipes from prison guards.......

Hi Zoe, I grind the wheat as finely as purchased flour. I make an AP blend of about 80 percent soft white wheat, and 20 percent hard red wheat. I use it for my baking, usually adding a little extra water. Thanks for this thread - it has been a lot of fun to follow, and now to be able to participate in! ----------------- Hi momcook, I'm so glad you are enjoying the book and the bread. No need to feel guilty about cheating. I figure if your bread comes out of an oven and not a plastic bag you are in excellent standing. Please let me know what your results are with the home ground wheat. How finely do you grind it? Thanks, Zoë ←

Hi Zoe, I am LOVING your book and the bread. I am a long time bread baker, and this feels like cheating, but my family is in heaven. We made our first basic batch last week, doubled, and just baked off the last loaf tonight. In the fridge are the next two batches, the rye and the peasant doughs. The only "modifications" I've made are that I'm baking in the Cuisinart Stone lined oven, so I cannot put in a broiler pan for the water. However, a small stoneware ramekin with water sitting on the baking stone seems to be taking care of this. The crust is a nice dark color, and the oven spring remained excellent all week, with larger holes as the days went on. Thank you! This is such fun. The next challenge will be to try some of the home ground whole wheat we usually use, and see how much we can get the dough to take.

I've been working on a large bottle of vanilla for a few years now, and have worked out this method: I saved a few of the small dark glass bottles from the vanilla I used to buy, and put half a bean (or two) in the small bottles. Once the large bottle has sat a year, I pour off into the smaller bottles, and set those aside to use. I add a fresh bean to the original bottle, top it off with vodka, and put it away until needed. This way I always have a few smaller bottles to use or give away, and a large batch brewing, without having to start over and wait for the large bottle to "ripen". I do the same thing with vanilla sugar.

I'm not sure this is "the best", but, I love collecting bread books, and I know that this can be a hard book to find, and is considered one of the better gems on making bread in the food processor. It is a novelty, at least, and I like having it in my collection. When I found my copy a few years ago, the prices were sky-high, and I felt very lucky to get one at a reasonable price.