claudinefm

Thank you so much for such useful information. It will be instant yeast for me in the future, without any 'guilty feelings'. That is if I am not using the natural yeast and starter method, when time is on my side. Again, many thanks, Being a scientist, I appreciated your precise comments.

Thank you everyone for very useful info. I bake my bread by hand so I had the impression that the 'active dry' granulated yeast was better than the instant yeast also used for breadmaking machines. "Instant" has such a negative conotation! So I will use the instant form in the future - that is when I am in a hurry and cannot use fresh yeast. Does anyone know the equivalence gram for gram between fresh yeast and the instant type? I used a ratio of 2/3 gr fresh instead of 1 gram of fresh. Does that seem right? Also, I can only get frozen 'fresh yeast' and therefore keep it in the freezer and use it as necessary. Any opinions on this?? Thanks to all for your help!

Thank you all for your help. I trust that either types would yield similar results with similar quantity. Again, thank you.

I would like to bake some lavash or pitta bread. In recipes found in US books or websites, it says to use a pckt of dry yeast. How much (grams) is one US packet? A bried research on the web shows various quantities ... Also does anyone knows if US or UK dry yeast are pretty much equivalent. Thanks to anyone who can help.

Thanks for your answer. I am not really baking cakes - which is a bit forgiving - but bread, but perhaps I am a getting a little too worried....

I am currently trying my hand at making italian-type bread and I have just bought an american recipe book for that purpose (The Italian Baker by Carol Field). The author uses mostly ‘all-purpose’ flour, which she also sometimes combines with cake/pastry flour. I am not too clear how these translates to UK flours. From her notes, I gather that: . UK bread flours are too ‘strong’ to use for most italian breads and should not be substituted for the US all-purpose flours. Made from winter wheat it contains 13-15% gluten (high, I gather); . The soft wheat contains only 4-9% gluten and is best for pastries and cakes. . The US all purpose is supposedly a mix of the too – at what ratio she does not say. What do I get to replace the pastry/cake flour? What is the substitute for the ‘all-purpose’ flour ? Moreover, I understand the italian love the Manitoba flour and I know that in the UK Waitrose sells it. What is so special about this one and is there a UK substitute or equivalent? Thank you so much for your help. Happy St Valentine to all!

Thank you so much for the ideas - I had just looked in my larder and saw those bags of beautiful 'haricots' and could not think of anything clever to do with them. You gave me good ideas. Thanks.

Thank you so much for the tip about cooking in an Aga. I will try next for my next batch. Contrary to many recipes, you do not seem to recommend to lower the temperature (eg putting the 'cold shelf' in) for the later part of the baking....

Hello Everyone - I am a new member trying her hand at joining this forum. When in France and Turkey this year, I bought some beautiful white dried beans. If anyone has any interesting ideas/recipes as to how to use those, I would be most grateful. Although of french origin, I enjoy italian cooking, therefore my request in this part of the eG forum.

I find your photos - and surely your bread - amazing! I am a beginner, trying a few recipes, mainly from Dan Lepard's books but I must admit that my bread comes out a bit on the heavy side. What I want is something well risen with lots of 'air bubble spaces' like yours. Since Dan is not teaching courses in the next future, I was thinking of attending one of Richard Bertinet's courses. Recommendation? I cook in an Aga, with the advantage that the high temperature is not a problem but the lower temperature, that is below 200C is not easy to achieve with a 2-oven Aga. Has anyone got experience with this? I was wondering whether it is best to do the high temperature cooking in the Aga top oven first - this easily reaches 240 C - and then transfer the loaf to an ordinary electric oven with a lower temperature, say around 180-190C for the remainder of the baking.