This is my first attempt at starting a discussion, I hope I'm posting in the right place

this coming weekend I want to make steak sandwiches to invite friends over to watch a football game on TV. 

I would appreciate some advice on the best bread for that - I thought about ciabatta, but maybe there are better options.... also, I have two kinds of sourdough starter that I could use, so feel free to point me to recipes that need a starter (one is a starter made according to Dan Lepard's Handmade Loaf, and the other is the King Arthur starter).

thank you very much for your help

On a regular basis, any bread that I bake that requires a 200+ internal temperature reading NEVER reaches the temperature which it supposed to. The obvious reason is bad measuring tool. Can't use that excuse because I've tried three thermometers now. Now I'm using the CDN digital "quick read" with the highest recommendation from Cook's Illustrated. It has a max reading well over 400. I've tried the probe that came with my oven, along with other probe style thermometers.

Today I was baking an, albeit large, loaf (in a pan) of 75% whole wheat/25% white/other. The recommended goal was 205. I ended up baking it twice as long as recommended, never reading above 197. This is the common top-out. I have a brand new GE electric convection oven (came with the new house) that isn't a dog, but not a professional quality, either. Just a basic reliable oven that cooks evenly.

I've tried placing pans on top of my cooking stone. I've tried using the convection. I've tried higher temps, lower temps for longer, etc.

Our elevation is around 2600. Could this account for this much of a disparity?

BTW, the bread never tastes raw...always good. I'm just more curious than anything...

I found this recipe over on the Wildyeastblog and it's worth a try for anyone wishing for great results. http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/08/27/overnight-ciabatta/ I made the greatest crust and crumb of my baking days, with some trials and tribulations. Here are some pics of my bread. crust and crumb: ciabatta crust and crumbCiabatta: Looking goodBatard and ciabatta: a bastardized batard and some more ciabatta

Hi, I am a new member from England UK and I think the  ideas and recipes on this website look really great.

I am a fairly inexperienced baker but LOVE doing it and want to do lots more! However, I really want to start by learning how to bake a good wheat free loaf (for celiac and wheat intolerances) I have tried on my own using rice flour and potato flour but I find the rice makes it very gritty in texture and I dont like the taste much.  I have tried corn starch with rice but this is better but I still feel it needs more taste and  smoother texture. I find potato starch make things a bit rubbery!  I am really happy to experiment with different quantities and ingredients but cant find a happy soloution yet!

 So I am not too confident in the state of the world, and I wanted to get a good wheat grinder and maybe be a bit more self sufficient.  There were several people that I knew that wanted the same Country Living Grain Mill I was interested in so we put in a bulk order and I became a dealer for the mill.  What to do now?  Well I guess I buy a domain name, something like say, www.Grindwheat.com.  Done.  Now what do I put on the website?  How about recipes.  So here I am. 

I am looking for recipes I can put on my web page.  If you have any you would like to submitt please send the to

 I am not sure how large this thing is going to grow.

Many Thanks!

Joe M

Hi, I had a bread that tasted like regular bread almost but with only 5 carbs per bun or slice, The ingredients are Unbleached Flour, Vital Wheat Gluten, salt, vinegar and yeast. Not sure of the amounts so I tried one with 1/2 cup unbleached flour, 2-1/2 cups vital wheat gluten, 3/4 cup water 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon vinegar, and 3 teaspoons yeast. It was a disaster and made my breads machine door push open(really rose up!)and the stuff looked like a volcano. I baked some of the dough and it was very dense, chewy and not right, I fried some, tastes good like a doughboy or I should say like a dough flavored chewing gum, VERY VERY rubbery. Is there a special technique or is the amount of my ingredients way off? Maybe more flour less Gluten or vice vesa? The bread I bought is called Irene's Health Bakery(5.95 a loaf is too much!) and it's for my mother who is diabetic and likes only white bread. Does anyone have a  gluten bread recipe that tastes like white bread and has minimal carbs? Thanks!

Hi,

Now that I've developed a very healthy and robust starter AND have mastered a couple breads that are favoured in our household, I'm trying to get myself into a routine for daily baking.  Why daily, you might ask?  Needless to say, my husband (and 7 y.o. son) have a penchant for extremely fresh bread.  If I make two loaves, e.g., the second one is consumed at a MUCH slower rate the second day.

Ideally, the bread would be ready for breakfast and for preparing school lunches in the morning.  Not wanting to get up at 3 to accomplish this, I'm wondering if anyone on TFL has developed their own routine for accomplishing the daily loaf.  I should also mention that we are partial, usually, to grainy loaves, so many of the recipes I use involve an overnight soaker.

My current approach: 

I am home during the day most days, so can accomplish the routine where I build my soaker and pre-ferment the night before and then work the rest of the magic throughout the day.  The trouble here is that if I bake the loaf before supper, someone invariably hacks into it while it is still warm (grrrrr!) and then there is none left for the next day.  I am working to time it so I bake the bread after the kids go to sleep, then let it cool overnight, because my attempts at behaviour modification have been futile....or else the smell of freshly baked bread is just too overpowering.

How do the rest of you out there do this?

What happens in a bakery that sets out fresh loaves at 6:30 or 7 am?  Are these all accomplished by insomniac bakers who start at 3 in the morning?  Or are there any other "tricks of the trade"?

Thanks! 

 MommaT

tried this one today the first time with a dough I'm familliar with.

evening before:

375 flour; 285 water 7°C; 15 sourdoughstarter. mixed, not kneaded. in the fridge under foil.

next morning:

300 flour; 150 water 7°C; 8 fresh yeast; 12 salt; 10 sugar.

(flour = high protein baguette flour, roomtemperature)

knead 10'; after 45' fold; after 30'fold; after 30' divide and braid.

preliminary report:

1 this dough is too wet

2 the strands were too short

3 my worktop was too small

4 use abundant dusting flour to get the strands better separated

5 try two-strand winston knot first. its probably easier.

but the taste was good

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9191909@N07/2821437720/

I accidently got ahead of myself and added salt to my dough right before the autolyzing, and it just didn't seem the same after the 20 mins. do you think my bread will rise the right way later in my recipe? I usually use rapid rise yeast. I always add gluten to this recipe too, to help with the rising.

I made the Laurel's Vollkornbrot over the last few days and was disappointed with the outcome.

I was wondering about the instructions re the baking. It has you starting, covered, on the bottom rack in a cold oven - ok, bake for an hour at 425-ok, turn oven down to 215 and bake for 2 more hours -ok, uncover and turn oven up to 425 for another hour. This last part gave me a seriously burnt bottom.

I did shave off the bottom but the entire crust was inedible and I actually chipped a molar. So I trimmed off the rest of the crust and am left with just the centre which is actually quite good. I am guessing that the instructions should have said to raise the loaf up from the bottom for the last hour of baking?

Even if I had the sides and top were also way too hard to eat, and I love a crusty loaf.

I would like to know anyone elses experience with this loaf(s)

Thanks!

B.