Quick shopping note and followup...

Our local Wegman's currently has unbleached unbromated All Purpose flour for $0.99 (that's 99 cents, friends) for a 5 lb bag. If they hold true to last month, it'll be that price all month. May be time to stock up...

As soon as Life settles down, I promise the Pretzel post. Really! The baking is done and there are pictures. Real Soon Now!

Reinhart book has arrived!

Peter Reinhart's artisan breads every day (his lack of capital letters, not mine) is here! I've made it through the first chapter, into the second chapter and will start the seed culture for my starter tonight.

Will try to post the pictures/text from the great pretzel experiment this weekend, they were really good, but don't keep...

This and that...

The Lehay loaf was very nice, good bubbles, nice, slightly sour taste, made great sandwiches.
The Reinhart book is in the mail, will probably arrive on Thursday.
Made a loaf of AB5M dough made with part whole wheat flour and baked in the cast iron pot, may have gotten it a little singed, will know for sure when I have lunch (made sandwiches).
Have a loaf of the Lehay dough rising, 4 ozs of whole wheat and 10 ozs of bread flour, will bake it tonight. I do have pictures of that one, will post hopefully tomorrow when I post about that loaf.

Lehay bread

Made the Lehay no-knead bread yesterday. Finished baking at around 11PM, so haven't cut into it yet.



I'll try to report on the taste tonight.

I will say that the loaf is very pretty, and it 'sang' when I took it out of the oven...

Book Arrived!

The Lehay book has arrived! It's beautiful. Will try to make something from it this weekend and report.

Tomorrow we bake!

A baking night – 10-21-09

Before I left for work yesterday, I took out a 1 lb hunk of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day boule dough that had been sitting in the freezer for about a week, sprinkled a little flour on the top and left it, covered with plastic wrap, on the counter all day.

When I got home, it had thawed and risen slightly. I floured up a Brotform basket (http://fantes.com/images/12701brotforms.jpg) and put the loaf in it and let it rise while I fixed and ate dinner.

While that was going on, I formed six 4 oz pieces of the same dough into rolls. These were left to rise on a quarter sheet pan.

After dinner, the loaf was turned out onto parchment paper on a pizza peel. The brotform basket had worked its magic and the top of the loaf looked very nice.

Both the loaf and the rolls were slashed with a serrated knife.



Both then went into the oven at 500 degrees, the rolls still on the baking sheet and the loaf on the parchment paper directly onto the quarry tiles. I also added two cups of water to a broiler pan on a lower shelf, as per AB5.

The rolls came out after 15 minutes, at which time I lowered the oven to 400 degrees and continued to bake the loaf.

After about 30 minutes more, the loaf came out as well…its internal temperature was 209 degrees when I pulled it.

Finally, I mixed up another batch of the boule dough, this time with 10 ozs of whole wheat flour instead of all bread flour and put it away to "age".

The rolls were very tasty after 20 minutes out of the oven. I had another one this morning, and while the crust was no longer crispy, it was still very good. Next time, I think one or two minutes more for them in the oven. We will try the bread tonight with dinner.

Waiting...

According to the tracking info, the Lahey book is in the local post office and should be delivered tomorow!

Book on the way!

Heard from Amazon this morning that my copy of Jim Lahey's My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method shipped overnight and should be here by this weekend!

Something to read while the bagels and pretzels rise!

The first post...

It is my intention to bake my way through the book, Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day. The book has been ordered from Amazon and the waiting begins.

In the meantime, I plan to talk a bit about Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day and the doughs from that book that are sitting in my fridge even as I type. Coming up this weekend - Bagels and Soft Pretzels. If there's time, possibly a pizza as well.

I also, in time, plan to try comparison baking the same/similar recipes from various baking books as time allows.

In between all the baking, we'll talk about other foods as well.

Welcome to the ride, I hope we all have fun. Keep your arms inside the car and hang on tight...