Anna N

Curious to know if anyone is running into issues with the ratio of water to flour. I always expect to make some adjustments but I’m finding the doughs I have tried so far are much more like batters until I add considerably more flour. I am weighing my ingredients in grams so there shouldn’t be such a large disparity I would think. I have made a note to myself in future to hold back a good portion of the water.

Here’s a brief paraphrase of what they say. Osmosis occurs in any liquid medium and with any dissolved compound. Sugar will exert osmotic stress on the yeast. To some extent this is mitigated by the glycerol that the yeast produces. As a result of these two stresses, doughs leavened by yeast may take longer to rise in the presence of salt and sugar. They actually say “a lot” of added salt or sugar but do not quantify it. Discussion of osmotolerant yeasts stretch over 3 volumes so you may find more when you open the books and start reading.

That is very sad state of affairs. I hope it’s not the same tonight.

I think Chris and Dave are working from a electronic copy.

Chances are not good. I initially entered it as “try using the word processor to chop the dates”.

Shhhhhh!

You are right. I was reading the hand mixing on the recipe that Chris posted. Now I look back I see that it is not in the machine instructions. Yes, certainly is in the book. Apologies.

Inspired by Diana Henry’s Mumbai toast. Cheddar cheese, tomato, red onion, salt and a sprinkling of garam masala. Major Grey’s on the side. (The last of the potato bread from Modernist Bread.)

Makes perfect sense to me.

Hmmm. I am seeing “add 3” where 3 is the flour and the poolish.

Well I talked to my cleaning angel today and she indicated she would be more than happy to take bread off my hands at any time. Wonderful. I couldn’t bring myself to make it and then toss it out. So I attempted to bake another bread today. This is the pain de mie. Again I had no osmotolerant yeast so I used 30% more instant yeast than called for. And again I did not have the large 13 x 4 x 4 pullman pan but only the 9 x 4 x 4 so I reduced the ingredients this time by 30%. Somehow I managed to not get the lid on properly but it doesn’t seem to have suffered too much from that error. The pulling away of the crust, however, does warrant some troubleshooting. The bread is still quite edible just not very attractive.

Thanks for this. Will give it a try next time. Note added to recipe. Now all I have to do is read it at the appropriate time. What are the chances of that I wonder.

Budget didn’t stretch quite that far this time. Danish blue.

A little of this and a little of that.

I found this on Food52. You will have to scroll down a bit to find the sage leaves in salt directions.

Lazy lunch today. Jamaican patty and some pickled mushrooms.

Could be interesting if I found the right one! Korean fusion steakhouse. My fingers are crossed.

Doesn’t appear to be an awful lot better than breakfast. I’m holding out for decent supper for you.

I understand. Even moving one volume a few feet requires that I rest for half an hour.

Yes I tried the food processor route and that just made more work in the long run.

I am sure Chris will pop in here and give his explanation but in the meantime… According to MB what the mixer brings to the party is better incorporation of all the ingredients including water (which is essential to good gluten development) and also adds the element of friction which raises the temperature of the dough which reduces the ferment time. Hope that is somewhat helpful.

How does that work @JohnT? Do you bunch the dates up and push the mass through hoping to miss your fingers?

Double bonus. These were organic medjool dates on sale. Yes I had to pit them but it didn’t take that long. And then I took the scissors to them because I find that easier than attempting to chop them.

The only comment – – this is the traditional potato bread from Modernist Bread.

Ah yes I knew that two of these books ring a bell with me and it sounded cracked. Beautiful breads lost all my affection when it called for a can of condensed sweetened milk to make real mint sauce. That wasn’t it’s only horror but it was one of them. And it seems to me that I recall that Soup Factory actually made enough soup to feed a factory. YMMV.