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Dear fellow bread enthusiasts, http://ted.com has a new video up by none other than Peter Reinhart! He's giving a talk on his epoxy method of making whole grain breads, and the basic mechanics of the whole bread baking process from (as he says) "wheat to eat". Watch by clicking here: Peter Reinhart on Bread

Sorry for the awkward title. Couldn't figure out how to word it concisely. Here's my dilemma. I have worked hard, studied hard, and have finally after many travails been able to consistently produce a good loaf of sandwich/pan bread. The problem is, unlike storebought or even bakery bread, my bread is not very durable for lack of a better word and falls apart when used for sandwiches. Wah. I have used both all-purpose and bread flour with no discernable difference. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Cheesecake Factory, Texas Roadhouse, Pappa's Seafood, Pappadeaux's. These places all have amazing bread! It's so soft, yeasty, and fluffy, and you can't get them anywhere else! Even your local bakeries or your Whole Foods and Central Market bakeries can't make bread like that. All the breads in the markets and even recipes in books are for rustic-style bread. But I want soft and fluffy bread like in the restaurants! I was wondering how I could replicate any of these at home. To be honest, I highly doubt any of these restaurants have enough room to make the bread from scratch, they probably get them frozen for all I know. I really don't care how they do it; it's so good and I want to learn how to make them from scratch. I know there are some recipes floating around for these breads, but I really don't think any of them are the real deal. But I've been researching and it seems to get soft yeasty bread requires more than the standard ingredients of yeast, flour, eggs, and butter. I've seen online that they use "dough conditioners" and "Vital Wheat Gluten" to achieve that softness. Anyone know about this stuff? Is it unhealthy? I'll gladly put gallons of butter if that's what the recipe calls for, but I don't want to be messing with anything un-natural like trans-fats.

Am I the only person who thinks a decently sharpened regular chef's knife does a better job of cutting bread than a serrated knife? Fewer crumbs, less tearing, cleaner-looking slices. I'm not a gifted sharpener of knives. I don't have Takeda knives sharpened to 7-degree angles. I just have regular, decently sharp Euro knives (Wusthof, Sabatier et al.). But I find they consistently do a better job slicing bread than my serrated knives.

Hey all, First post here. I have been inspired by all I see and learn. thanks. Anyway the 5 minute artisan bread thread really got me in the kitchen. My first try I used too much whole wheat flour and the bread was heavy and tasted like sawdust. Here are the results from my second batch which tasted great. I think the only issue I am seeing is that there was not much lift in the middle of the loaves. The crumb looked great nearer to the edges but it got much denser towards the middle. Could that be a result of poor slashes? Or possibly not letting it sit out of the fridge long enough (i waited 80 minutes). Baked on stone, 450 oven for 20 minutes. thanks Cameron

Greetings, all: A friend of mine is trying to re-create two Russian breads. The first is called "Borodinsky" bread...it is a wheat, rye, bran combination bread, flavored with such ingredients as caraway, fennel, instant coffee, molasses, onion powder, etc, etc. The second he describes this way: "The second is called, "Narachomsky" bread...which, as best we can figure out, is a sourdough rye and potato flour bread, flavored with salt and cumin...nothing much more...the bread is baked in round loaves ( no pan). The crust is almost completely black, and the bread itself is a beautiful pale gray....it is very moist, and has a sour-sweet flavor that is amazing with a mild cheese, or any type of deli meat....We usually just have The Parents mail it from Minsk, but I decided to try and re-create it..." Any help at all would be most appreciated! Thank you! Rachael

I know from bitter experience the results of overproofing the second rise for bread. But what about the first? How tied to the "let rise until just doubled" rule do I have to be for the first proof? Thanks in advance.

I've been using unbleached, non-bromated AP for the past couple of years for my starter and bread. I'm now going to use exclusively organic flour. At what point do you think its legitimate for me to claim that the bread is organic? Ever?

Anyone know a good place to buy yeast in larger quantities in NYC? Every grocery store I go into seems to only have the 3-pack of the little packets.

I am BEGGING for the recipe. I had it when I was younger. Very moist and used those jarred, bright red, spiced apple rings. I recall the mushed up apple rings were almost like a ribbon through the bread????

I am in the process of moving into a baker's position at my new job. At my old job, we shaped all of the bread by hand. The new job involves much higher volume - and the chef wants small rolls. The current baker (who is retiring tomorrow) uses an electric dough divider/rounder (Dutchess Model JN) to shape the bread. How will shaping small rolls using the machine (which I believe is set to the 1 oz setting) - affect the qualities of the bread that you look for when baking an artisan loaf? I have a few recipes that I want to eventually try, that when I have made in loaf form, result in a nice, open crumb. Should I be expecting the little rolls to have similar qualities, albeit on a smaller scale, as the loaves would, or should I expect to compromise on the crumb a little and just make sure the taste is there? On a related note: with the recipes that I am being taught now- as the rolls come out of the machine, the ones on the outside of the divider need to be shaped again by hand - they are coming out not completely rounded. Should this be happening or should the rolls be coming out fully rounded and equal? Thanks for any input!

There has been a tremendous amount of discussion lately, on the "Minimalist no-knead bread technique" topic and related topics, about simplified bread recipes that require little effort (and no kneading) and produce excellent results. Fundamentally, the no-knead system works because it lets the microorganisms do the work on their own schedule. All you need is patience and these little animals will do everything for you. There's one problem with these methods, though: they require a day of advance planning. It's 24 hours or so from flour to bread. Back when I started law school, stress was a constant companion. The first year of law school is pretty intense. So I took up bread baking as a means of relaxing. I never became a particularly good baker. But my study group grew accustomed to having, for example, fresh-baked raisin bread in the morning. Sometimes I made bread the old-fashioned way, but other times I had less time and needed a shortcut. That year, 1991, there was a book published titled "Bread In Half The Time," by Linda West Eckhardt and Diana Collingwood Butts. The book outlined an ingenious method of getting from flour to bread in 90 minutes, by using the food processor and microwave (the subtitle of the book is "Use Your Microwave and Food Processor to Make Real Yeast Bread in 90 Minutes"). Specifically, you use the food processor to knead the dough, and you use gentle doses of microwave heat to accelerate rising. The method works exceptionally well. From 1991 until 1994 -- at which time my bread-baking career was brutally terminated by my employment at a law firm -- I used the method at least a hundred times. You don't get the flavors of long-risen dough that has been developing overnight, but in all other respects you get really good bread. Here's the basic approach, which works for just about any dough recipe: 1. You add your dry ingredients to a food processor bowl, pulse to combine, then run the processor and add 120 degree F liquid until the dough forms a ball that cleans the sides of the bowl. 2. Once the dough forms that ball, let the food processor run for an additional 60 seconds to knead the dough. 3. Take out the dough ball, remove the processor blade, shape the dough into a doughnut shape and put it back in the processor bowl (the processor bowl has a hole in the middle so you need to doughnut shape to accommodate that). 4. Stick the processor bowl, with the dough, in the microwave oven, along with a small glass of water in the back of the microwave. Heat on the lowest setting (after experimentation you may go up a notch, but you need a very low setting) for 3 minutes. Rest for 3 minutes. Heat on low for another 3 minutes. Rest for 6 minutes. So that's 15 minutes total. The dough should have doubled in bulk, at least. If it didn't, you needed to use a higher setting, so give it a little more time this time around and use a higher setting next time. 5. Take the dough out, punch it down and form your loaf. 6. Now you have two choices: 6a. You can use a microwave-safe vessel, such as a clay loaf pan. Put your dough in there and repeat the 3-3-3-6 deal in the microwave. Then bake. 6b. If you're going to bake on a metal sheet or in a metal loaf pan, let the dough rise in a warm place. This will take a little longer than 3-3-3-6, but it will double in bulk pretty quickly. Then bake. That's it. The book has pages and pages of more subtle detail, but you can make it work with just the instructions I've given you here. Again, I've done it a hundred times. It really works.

About a decade ago a friend demonstrated the following method for restoring day-old bread in the oven or toaster oven: - Turn on faucet - Run bread under faucet - Toast on high temperature A couple of caveats: - You have to run the bread under the faucet ever so briefly. You just want to swipe it, really. The idea is just to get the exterior of the bread a little bit damp. You don't want to soak it. For the timid, this can also be accomplished by wetting your hands and feeling up the bread -- you may have to repeat a couple of times to get the whole surface damp, though, and the faucet method is faster. - The true beauty of this method is what it does to the crust -- it gives it a fresh-baked flavor and texture. So this only works brilliantly with bread where most or all of the exposed surface is crust. So, like, a roll or a baguette or a piece thereof. It doesn't work as well with slices of bread -- though it does work. Anybody else in the bread-wetting camp?

Anyone have this book? I read about it over on the Cook's Illustrated Boards. I started a batch of the dough this afternoon based on information I gleaned from the boards and some articles I googled. Here is a link to the author's website.

So I know I'm one week late, but since I noticed the evident lack of topics on the epiphany's goodnesses, I thought I would ask you a few questions... Do you guys make anything special for the epiphany? At my house, we make both galette des rois and couronne briochée. Do you have a favourite? The galette des rois consists in a rich almond and pastry cream filling called frangipane enclosed into two sheets of puff pastry. The couronne briochée, more popular in the south of France is more like a simple brioche, shaped into a couronne [wreath] and decorated with coarse sugar and candied fruits.

My friend and I are making Chelsea Buns, using an old recipe (Purity Cookbook) http://www.recipelink.com/mf/1/6866. This is the recipe my mom used when we were kids. My friend has a breadmaker. Can we convert the recipe, so the dough can be made in a breadmaker?

I went through my first hurdle in understanding the various types of Roti(Bread served Indian food. The Indian vegetarian is very healthy and the range of bean products is abundance. Now I would like to understand some of the popular dishes that goes well with the following roti: Chapati/Dosa(Thosai)/Puram Poli/Roomali roti/Pakora Pakoda/Naan/Poori/Bhatura. Let me know if I miss out any? Namaste

After spotting this week's Metropoli review of Pan.Cake http://www.elmundo.es/metropoli/2008/01/03...1199353350.html a relatively new bakery/pastry shop on Castelló, I stopped by and met Sergi and tried his creations. Good bread is much needed in Madrid and Im happy to say, in my opinion, Sergi is a 1st class chef baker making the real real stuff along with delicious croissants and brioches... on top of it, he's using organic flour. I still have to try out Maria's pastries and chocolates, but Im sure I won't be disappointed.

I picked up a cookbook named "The Best Bread Ever." I was curious -- can it REALLY be the BEST?? Julia Child's french bread, Mark Patent's whole wheat bread, the Fleishmann's Yeast honey wheat bread -- those are really good. How does this book live up to it's title? The bread is yummy (isn't just about all homemade bread?), and has that crisp crust and fluffy inside that I love. That is really great considering I use a buillt-in oven from 1968. The book emphasizes precise measurement of the flour, careful monitoring of temperatures (water, flour, dough), uses the food processor to quickly knead the bread, and s-l-o-w, cool rising. There's no sugar in the basic bread recipe, so the yeast is gently awakened by the interaction with the flour. The author carefully explains each process. So what makes this book great? The combination of techniques plus simplicity -- back to the basics of breadmaking. Is it the BEST? Well that is up to each reader and cook. Post Script: My daughter, a 20 year old total bread novice liked the loaf I made so much that she decided to make another the next night. She thought the cookbook was great.

Did anyone else happen to catch this on Sundance? If not, definitely set your DVR because there is no DVD release date as of yet. The theme of the documentary is European industrial food production and hi-tech farming. The most interesting thing about it, besides the machinery and sheer scope of some of the production, is that there is no narrator, no music...nothing. The only "soundtrack" is the sound of machinery, animals and workers. It is shot in such a way that once I started I couldn't stop watching all of the "stories" unfold. It includes apples, sunflowers, pigs, milk, salt.....and even though I'm a total sucker for shows like "How It's Made" I think the appeal for food-minded individuals is obvious. It leaves you to draw your own conclusions on the beauty and terror of factory farming. Some parts are easier to watch than others, but even the scene with the pork production (from live piggies all the way to parts) was so fascinating to see on that scale that it was easy to get past the gore aspect. The "zipper" machine that opens up the animals is one of the scariest pieces of equipment I can possibly imagine. Then there are scenes like the one with workers on their knees processing fresh lettuce, and you wonder....how is the lettuce getting into that tiny room, and why are they sitting so low? Then the camera pans back and you see the giant machine, and all of the workers are actually crawling across the ground in a little canopy on the front of the tractor picking the live lettuce...at night. Anyway, definitely watch this if you get a chance. I would really like to hear some other opinions.

The "Double Dipping" thread got me thinking of this. Occasionally I'll buy buns or bagels from the bulk section of supermarkets. One store in particular has aggressive signs everywhere..."Use the Tongs". But here's the thing. If I use the tongs, I'm not going to be contaminating the buns, but I'm damned if I'm going to use tongs that someone else has been handling, therebye contaminating my own hands....particularly when the tongs usually look really filthy. This to me is similar to the mania for foodservice staff wearing gloves. It gives a false perception of cleanliness, even if they keep the gloves on for hours. I just reach in and grab my own damned buns. I don't fondle every bun in the bin....I just snatch the ones I want with my hands, thinking it's the lesser of two evils. No doubt I'll be marched out of the store one day, but I've been ever so tempted to take a swab from those tongs, and write me a little expose......

This book is by Michel Susas and will be published in February 2008. I don't know Mr. Susas. Does anyone else? Thanks, Woods

I bought a delicious "Healthy Breakfast Bread" from The Bread Lady in Elberta, Alabama when I was in Perdido Key over the weekend. The ingredients are: whole wheat flour, unbleached bread flour, water, skim milk, honey, dried cranberries, dried apples, walnuts, soybean oil, oatmeal, milled flaxseed, salt, cinnamon, yeast. Delicious, not too sweet, with a nice, tight crumb. Any ideas about a recipe for this? I've googled until I'm blue in the face (finger?)

All the delayed fermentation techniques (retarding dough, preferments, etc.) seem to be about giving the enzymes time to develop flavors before the yeast finishes fermenting. So is there any reason at all to add the yeast before the dough ages? One kind of preferment is called a soaker; it's just flour and water set aside to age before being incorporated with the yeast and the rest of the dough. Why can't the whole recipe be a soaker? You could do it like this: roughly mix up the flour, water, and salt, and let it sit for as long as you want. A day. A week. Whatever you can get away with before any bad creepy crawlies have their way with it. Then mix in the yeast and work it until you have adequate gluten development. At this point you should be able to proof at high temperatures and get it over with in a hurry, because you're not waiting for the enzymes to break down the starch. They've already had plenty of time. I'm not sure what the best way would be to incorporate yeast into dough that's already partially formed. One possibility would be to make the initial mixture with just 80% of the dough's water. The yeast could be disolved in the remaining water and mixed in. The advantage over regular delayed fermentation (like Reinhart's Pain a L'ancienne or the 5-minute method or the no-kneed method) would be that you're not forced to precisely manage the time and temperature of the dough. There's no race between the enzymes and the yeast. Is this already a known method? Or a method known to not work? Thoughts?

I fried up some walleye last night and as a breading I used the new jalapeno cheddar cheetos. I have heard of captain crunch, and every other cereal being used, but I wanted something different. It turned out pretty good, but the flavor was not as pronounced as I expected. What else have you used or want to try??