Jim Wills

Dougal, Thanks for taking all the time with this. Far as I know, the SAF Gold was bought from King Arthur and transported to Spain. I'm with you; I think there were a lot of dead cells in that yeast, and Glutathione was the culprit; the results were exactly as you describe. It would have been preferable to use fresh cake yeast from the local supermarket to continue with the variables, but I ran out of time, not wine. I did not see the actual vacuum pack, so no knowledge of the best before date. I use SAF Gold here because it has a higher percentage of live cells per gram than any other I've used. Never had a problem using it with hearth breads (I've also used Red and Fleischman's), but the water here comes from a very deep artesian well in the nearby glacial morraine: high in trace minerals, fairly low in calcium. For the ancienne baguette, I chilled the water to 40F, a la Gosselin and Reinhart, before the overnight retardation. For the Campagnie, the water was at about room temp (70F), because the mixer on site was pretty good at generating a tad too much friction. In the very large and quite glorious Art Deco market in Valencia, there were two types of baguette on offer: one was just called "baguette," okay but not stellar; the second was "Arteseano," for a bit more money, and it was really quite good, great crust. Language barriers prevented me from finding out more about ingredients and methods. The strong flour was "Allinson Strong White Bread Flour," and I'll try to get the actual name of the whole wheat. It was so bran heavy that we sifted a lot of it out before use. The students have told me that they've been doubling the amount of yeast with better results. This tells me that the yeast is off. I never proof IDY, but I was suspicious and gave it a try. The salt was Fleur de Sel from Brittany. My expertise is definitely in the area of wood fired baking--converting all sorts of recipes for use in that rather specialized environment--and much less in the chemistry part of the equation. The entire experience puzzled me greatly, because I've never experienced these results in North America, whether here in Ontario on the Jersey shore or Santa Barbara; hence the questions. Thanks for your help, Sherlock, very instructive, valuable. Jim

Jack, I was a bit suspicious of the yeast's freshness, so I proofed a bit in warm water. It seemed to behave okay, not great, but okay. Commonly, I do use diastatic malt in small quantities in my bagel dough, but did not have any with me there. It's entirely possible the amylase levels were low, but I had no real way of verifying it. What I do know is that the rise was very poor. That takes me back to the yeast again. Jim

Hans, It's a curious thing, this flour business. I routinely use Caputo Molino from Naples for pizza, and the dough responds best at a fairly high hydration level: 65 per cent. I did cut back on the water with the English flours, but the ancienne dough had no structure at all, very tough to get good gluten development, just puddled and did not rise. I'm still working through the variables, but I did stick with very lean formulas to reduce the overall number. Jim

Jackal, The water was directly from the spring and definitely unchlorinated. I had to cut back on the water to get manageable doughs, but the real problem was very slow to no rise at all. Made pain de campagne using pate fermentee, a bread I commonly make here, but the rise was incredibly slow and the baked loaves had about half the volume/oven spring as usual. Still puzzling over it. Jim

EG, Recently, I spent two weeks in Javea, Spain, mostly on holiday, but also giving instruction on bread baking in a wood fired oven. That's what I've done extensively in North America for the last five years with few if any difficulties. Before I left, I was alerted that real rising problems were being experienced using English Strong Flour imported into Spain, as well as "whole wheat" flour, also from the UK. Apparently, Spanish flours are of the "cake" variety. When I got there, I found that none of my formulas behaved as expected. High hydration ancienne baguette dough, one of my standbys, was simply unmanageable; didn't plan on pita. The yeast on hand was SAF Gold IDY, which has always performed well. After several disasters, I added 25 percent more yeast for somewhat better results, but only somewhat. Since then, the students there have been as much as doubling the amount of IDY with even better but not stellar results. Would anyone have opionions on what was going on? The yeast was active; proofed it. The salt was Fleur de Sel. The water was from a mountain spring. The villa where the oven was located was about 700 feet above the Med. The air was only a bit salty, and the temps were in the seventies. My only conclusion is differences in the flours from here to there, but I'd welcome advice. Thanks, Jim Wills, Mary G's Artisan Breads

I, too, began using oxtail just for stock. Then I ran into a recipe in Julia Child's The Way to Cook for oxtail dumplings, p. 18. They are a very fine addition to her vegetable soup, and they freeze very well. Might be a good way to use up leftovers from oxtail stew. Jim

I've been considering milling my own flour for some time, but have yet to invest in a Nutrimill, which seems to be the best out there, until I get some good info on the hows and whys. I live in a rural area surrounded by farms, and it would be an easy matter for me to get hard wheat, both organic and not, to mill for my hearth breads. One farmer, and fellow wood-fired baker, offered me 80 lb bags for next to nothing. I live in Ontario, and the vast array of different flours available in the US, particularly KA (which I have used with good results), simply is not offered here. My questions are: 1. Does the flavour of the finished breads improve sufficiently to warrant the expense and labour? 2. Jeffrey Hammelman suggests that freshly milled flour should be air aged for several weeks before use; true? 3. Would anything have to be added to home milled flour to increase performance? Thinking here of malt powder, Vitamin C, gluten, etc. 4. Are there any drawbacks, detriments, sacrifices, problems with home milled flour? 5. Is gluten development affected? How about extensibility? Most, but not all, of my breads are made with wild yeast leavens or preferments of one sort or another, and I'm constantly looking for ways to improve flavour, crust, crumb. I never use bleached flour, and I'm not terribly concerned about vitamins added to enriched flour, just looking for better. I've yet to find a site with details on milling at home, but maybe I'm not looking hard enough. I bake quite a bit of bread, and I go through between twenty-five and fifty pounds of flour a week, depending on demand. Any advice would be much appreciated. Jim

Touchy subject for me. I HAD a 600 Series Professional KA. Lasted 3 months before the gears stripped and the housing cracked. Used it only for bread doughs. The claim is that it will handle 14 cups of flour. No it won't; 10 max. Also really, really poor at kneading dough; constantly overheated the dough, even with the so-called new design hook. Tried kneading 4 mins, relax for 20, knead for 4; still overheated, with poor gluten development. Difficult to get within the 77-81 F range and achieve a proper dough windowpane. The problem being experienced is overkneaded, overheated dough, that makes dense, tough bread. Replaced the KA with a larger and more expensive Esmach SP5. Made in Italy and purpose-designed for bread doughs, it will handle up to 8 pounds of flour (6 is best), doesn't overheat the dough and works like a charm. Got it through TMB Baking (tmbbaking.com), which is an adjunct of the San Francisco Baking Institute. Check it out. Kitchen Aid stoned me on a money-back return, saying they would repair it FREE. Didn't want it back at all. Had no ORIGINAL box, so the retailer would only give me an in-store credit. The KA is now a shiny new meat slicer. Jim

Jake, Think I messed up yesterday and my question was not posted. I'm looking for a reliable, FRESH source for fresh baker's yeast in the GTA. I live near Port Perry, so the eastern part of the city is easiest, though I've been known to venture all the way to the St. Lawrence Market and Kensington. Cheers, Jim

Bill and All, Wow first post and so many helpful replies. Thanks everybody. I'll try the suggestions and keep you "posted." Cheers, Jim

I've been baking pain de mie for quite a while now, using a standard 13" (33cm)x 4" (10 cm) x 4" (10 cm) pan. Recently, my restaurant gear supplier offered me a French pain de mie pan at a price I couldn't turn down. Problem is, it's bigger, but not double the size. The 13" pan holds 3000 ml of water and the larger pan holds 5000 ml. The larger pan measures 15 3/4" (40 cm) x 4 7/8" (12.5 cm) x 4 3/4" (12 cm). My pullman loaf recipe is specifically for the smaller pan, and I'd like to find a reliable formula to fit this larger size. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Right now, I've gone to big and too small. Grrr. Jim

Jake, I'm new to Egullet, so apologies if I mess up a bit. I'm really looking for a reliable source for fresh yeast in the GTA. Struck out so far, and what I have found is not so fresh. I'm a wood-fired brick oven baker in the Port Perry area, so the eastern part of the city is best, although I do venture to St. Lawrence and Kensington markets. Thanks, Jim ←