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French Bread Dough (for bread machines) The dough is made in the bread machine, then taken out, shaped and baked in the oven. 10 oz water 1 T butter 3-1/2 c all purpose or bread flour 1-1/2 tsp sugar 1-1/4 tsp salt 1-1/2 tsp active dry yeast or bread machine fast rise yeast Add water and butter to pan. Add the flour, sugar, and salt. Tap pan to settle the ingredients then level them, pushing some of the mixture into the corners of the pan. Make a shallow well in the centre of the mixture, add the yeast. Lock the pan into the breadmaker. Select the dough setting. When cycle ends, place dough on floured surface and let rest for 15 minues. Roll dough into a 15x12 inch rectangle. Roll up tightly from long sidge, seal and taper ends. Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet, sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover and let rise for 45-55 minutes or until doubled in size. With a sharp knife, make 3 or 4 diagonal cuts on top of loaf. Combine 1 egg white and 1 tsp water and brush the top of the loaf with it. Bake in a 350 oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown. Keywords: Side, Bread Machine ( RG783 )

I will be in Tubingen, Germany, for a couple of days. Does anyone know of a good traditional bread bakery there?

The time of year reminded me that I should make Simnel Cake, but I'm sure there are many other local traditions. UK: Simnel Cake: A light fruit cake with a marzipan core, and traditionally 12 toasted marizipan balls on top (the Apostles), and perhaps glace apricots... Originally for Mothering Sunday, but now often served at Easter. The tradition is that servant maids were allowed to make them at the Big House, and then take them home for Easter. Hot Cross Buns Spiced fruit buns with a slip cross on top Saffron breads. A quick Google reveals many more - breads with eggs in them, cheezy breads, tortes with spring greens, greek Tsourekia, Bulgarian kozunak Italian Columba and Pane Pasquali, Rusiian Paska, and others from Poland and Portugal.It would be better to hear from those with personal knowledge. Speak to me of Easter baking traditions:

I am in the middle of baking ciabatta bread.. I have a few loaves going right now and have a couple more to go.. I am using a regular kitchen oven and have found the bottoms of the bread to be over moist.. I am thinking that the water bath i am using is making the bottoms too soggy,, Has anyone had this problem.. I just removed the water bath in hopes to solve my problem.. Or should i flip the bread and put the bottom on top.

Hey All I am cooking brunch for my mother on mother's day and I am interested in knowing where I can find good quality brioche bread in Vancouver.

What are the general guidelines for preparing, handling and cooking veal sweetbreads? I cooked them for the first time last week end, and I was frankly not pleased with the result. As I was going through the preparation and cooking process, here are some of the more important aspects of it that I seemed to have problems with: - Removing the membrane, how much of it? The cookbooks I have recommend after soaking in cold water that the outer skin and other membrane be removed from the sweetbreads. In doing so, I found that as I was removing the outer layer, there was also a fair amount of connective membrane running though the entire piece. I realized that the more membrane I was removing, the more I was breaking the single piece apart. I thought leaving whatever I could not remove (by fear of undermining the integrity of my whole piece) would not be an issue after cooking. It turned out that whatever membrane I had left out had a slightly unpleasant "chewy" quality. - Is flattening the sweetbreads before cooking an important step? Why? - Does it have to be quickly poached before it is seared? Again, this was instructed in several recipes I read. Aside from poaching alone in a flavored liquid such as stock, I have seen recipes recommend that the sweetbreads be allowed to sit in a cool place for several hours in its own cooled poaching liquid. I personally found that quick poaching undermined the lovely texture of the sweetbreads more than it actually helped. - Should pan searing be very brief over high heat to avoid overcooking? Thanking you in advance for your input ...

As a North Jersey kid, I was raised on Pechter's rye bread (Harrison Baking Co.) It's the ultimate Jewish Rye. I used to be able to get it at Siegfried's at the Reading Terminal, but when he closed up shop I was left carraway-less. On my regular trip to the Cherry Hill Shop Rite this week, however, I found it in the bread aisle: the rye bread of my youth! Pecther's is back!

Did anyone go the the Breadline benefit for Sri Lankan relief efforts last night. Was wondering how good the food was.

To the eGullet bread baking experts! Please tell me about bread flours...which brands and types to use for a simple loaf of bread. For focaccia? For pizza crust? For adding some whole grain flours? Thanks. lkm

Mise en place Sponge Adding eggs, flour, salt to sponge Mmmm butter - the recipe I used called for 2 sticks Scraped into oiled bowl, covered with plastic wrap After first rise Refrigerating overnight Fresh out of fridge Kneading a little more flour in Divide into 3 sections Refrigerate 2/3 Divide one third in half Divide half in thirds Shaping Place in pans before plastic wrap covering, final rise Eggwash after rise 425 for 10, 350 for 15 Really wish I had more than 6 pans..

Any ideas? I had saved some online sources but they were deleted. Thanks, J.

I am baking some bread for a Saturday night dinner party. One of the breads is a walnut/raisin that is to be served with the cheese course. The usual process with this bread is mix, rise until doubled, form into loaves, rise again, and bake. Because of time constraints I would like to mix the bread Friday night and put it in the fridge. I am assuming that this can be successfully done. My question is: 1) Should I let it rise in the fridge for the first or the second rise? 2) If I shape it into loaves and rise in the fridge in the pans, do I bake it "cold" from the fridge, or let it come to room temp before baking? I think I remember reading - maybe in Jackal's bread baking class - that cold dough increases oven spring? Suggestions would be most welcome.

I am ready to start baking my own breads, rather than spending $2.50/slice. Looking for the best recipe for zucchini bread--one that is MOIST and sweet, please! Thanks!

I have been on a bread-baking frenzy and have had some surprisingly good results BUT whenever a recipe calls for a 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch loaf pan, my bread always rises so far above the top of the pan that it becomes more crust than loaf. This has happened on many occasions and with many different doughs. I have measured my pans over and over and they conform to the specs. What gives? Thanks, as always, for your insight.

I've been eating lots of sweetbreads lately--cooking some for myself, eating them in restaurants and also at friends' houses. I've tasted a pretty wide variety and have reached a point where I have some questions. I like the crust you can get on a sweetbread when it is seared in a pan. Sometimes on the inside it can be chalky and sometimes it is juicy as all hell. I don't know what issues are at play that combine to cause these results. Is there collagen in a sweetbread? Ought it be served rare? The best I've had of the species is at an NYC restaurant called Prune. They deep fry. I wonder if deep-frying obviates the setting in boiling water. I wonder if setting is necessary? When I cook a steak, I do it fast and hot. I want it crusted on the outside and rare and tender on the inside. When I cook a lamb shank, I sear first for browning reaction flavors and then cook it low and slow to melt the collagen. I do things this way in no small part because of Mr. McGee's scientific explanations in his book "On Food and Cooking." I'd like some similar explanations of sweetbread cookery that take into account the specific properties of the sweetbread. Anybody got any?

There's been some mention of this unique product here but as a bread lover I think this operation deserves it's own thread. Yesterday I stopped by Transilvania (sic) Peasant Bread in the 3400 block W. Broadway and picked up one of most outstanding bread products in the city. A tiny bakery offering only one kind of bread done in a wood-burning oven this bread is delicious and hearty-to say the least. The wood heat somehow converts ordinary ingredients to the nutty rich and complex flavours not found in any other bread I've tasted in the city. The reference to mighty loaf isn't hyperbole-it's rich dark and heavy bread and a loaf must weigh 2 pounds if it's a gram.Rolls are also sold for those wanting a taste before committing to a serious relationship over a number of days My only regret is that my late Uncle Mike isn't here to share it with me-he was an ethnic Ukrainian born in Transylvania and no doubt ate and thrived on a similar bread in his youth.

Never tried them. Want to give it a shot. Not much of an organ fan, though, so I want to start with the best. Where should I go?

I just bought half a pound of lamb sweetbreads from the farmer's market this morning. I love sweetbreads but I've never tried cooking with them, and I'm not sure I've even tried lamb sweetbreads. Any suggestions?

I've had some trouble getting a new sweet bread recipe to rise. I've been playing with a recipe including dried pears and crystallized ginger. Anyone know if ginger inhibits yeast activity? Probably the problem lies elsewhere, but I thought I'd check with you smart people just in case.

Is anyone here familiar with the Hot Breads chain in the US? Yes, its the same Hot Breads that started in Madras and then franchised, rather disastrously, across India. After that turned out badly, the owner focused on Madras and then the global market - expanding to the Gulf, then the US and now even Paris where he has two outlets. I'll admit here that I'm doing a story on them, but I'm not asking these questions for it (the story is almost over anyway, just taking a break between finishing it). What I found interesting, and relevant to many of the discussions we have here on fusion food, is how the food served here fits in, and what people here make of it. Its been described, by no less than Robb Walsh, the Houston based food writer who's featured on eGullet (and mentioned Hot Breads), as a "wacky fusion of French pastry and Indian food". Here are a couple of links to Walsh on Hot Breads: http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2003-01-23/cafe.html http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=36735 And here are some descriptions (still Walsh): "potato-filled pastry known as an aloo croissant, which has an exotic fenugreek aroma and tastes like sag paneer inside a puff pastry" or a "tangy chicken croquette, masala-spiced chicken and cheese wrapped in pastry dough" or, what really excites him, "goat doughnuts... flaky croissants filled with cumin-scented ground goat meat in zesty curry sauce." (Its not his fault, I guess, that these descriptions sound like the menu descriptions on Air India's in-flight menu - there is, I guess, no other way to describe dishes like these to a non-Indian audience). What interests me is what people make of the concept - Indian foods in Frenchish wrappings and sold in markets abroad where the target is mostly Indians living abroad along with (increasingly) non-Indians in these markets looking for something different. That's the niche that Hot Breads decided to focus on after their Indian franchising misadventure, and that is what has brought them big success. Mr.Mahadevan, the founder, tells me that people drive from Philadelphia to Edison to get their products. In some markets their clientele is 80% desi (Indian), although in others like Texas its approaching 50:50 desi: non-desi. They also have other products targetted at desi niches, but with potential for moving beyond - for example, eggless cakes for Jain customers which people allergic to eggs are now snapping up. In many ways I think this is great and Mr.Mahadevan is certainly an entrepreneur I admire. When American fast food chains are spreading across the world, its certainly neat to see a reverse flow and one that has found such a good niche. The only thing that sort of depresses me is, well, I grew up in Madras myself and am familiar with their products and while they aren't exactly bad... they don't exactly get my juices going. There's something bland and processed and sort of subliminally greasy about everything. As fast food goes - and it is fast food at the end of the day - its not bad and I suppose the spice makes it more interesting than most of what's available, but the idea of people driving miles to eat it is somehow profoundly depressing. Do people really do this? Does the Hot Breads stuff seem that interesting and different when its in the US? What do people on these forums make of it, if they've eaten it? Vikram

Over the next week, at my day job, I'm taking up my new duties as "team leader" in the bakery (essentially manage that department). We've just recently switched to a new bread supplier. These are artisanal breads of excellent quality from one of the leading local purveyors; the price points are higher and part of my job will be selling the new product to our longtime customers. However, because of the higher costs, another part of my job will be ensuring that we get maximum utilization out of the unsold product. For the unflavoured breads, I don't anticipate any difficulty locating recipes for upscale bread puddings (or using them for breadcrumbs or stuffing or what have you); but many of the breads we're buying are savoury...black olives, peppers, onions, cheese, and many other suchlike ingredients. Are there any traditions of savoury bread puddings out there? We do a carved item every day, so I wouldn't lack for meals to pair them with, but I'm unsure about how they'd be received. Bread puddings, for a lot of people, conjure up memories of frugal grandmothers and stale-tasting sodden goo. If there was a traditional style of savoury bread pudding, now, I'm thinking that I could put it across as an ethnic specialty...something that would perhaps garner a more sympathetic ear from my customers. Anyone know of anything? Got any ideas?

i have seen several ways described for the second rise in the refrigerator. what is the "proper technique", should the dough be allowed to rise and double overnight, or should it be flattened during the first hours of refrigeration untill the yeast activity stops?

How about: Sourdough. My Year of Leavening Dangerously

Does anyone know how to make this fig bread? All it has in it is figs, nuts, honey, and spices. It's really good, but expensive at the store I go to, and I thought it'd be fun to make it myself. My store now carries Matiz apricot bread, too, but I haven't tried it....

Whilst watching the bread guy at Mohsen in Warwick Road work his magic at dinner last night, cutting, rolling, shaping and baking the fantastic "nan" that is served in the restaurant, I wondered if it might just possibly be the best bread in London. Its so delicious that I would be quite happy if they served nothing else (as it is, their mixed grill of lamb fillet, minced lamb and chicken is fantastic). So where else is the bread so good that its worth a special trip; be it restaurant, bakery or, heaven forbid, supermarket .