Muffin Man's blog

    Well, I've completed a couple of weeks without the mixer.  It has been an interesting and informative time.  I have a very nice Kitehcn-Aid which my son gave me for Christmas about 4 years ago.  It was a refurbished machine which works fine and had given no trouble all this time.  Based upon the experience of others, I decided to mix by hand so I could get to know my dough better and to develop a sensibility to its needs.  This is not something you can get from a book, and failure is your best teacher.  Analyzing what went wrong with a bread

I decided (for some strange reason which eludes me now) to formulate a list of tools in order of utility.  This is what I came up with:

1. Scale, Measuring Spoons, and Mixing Bowls

         Absolute necessity.  You cannot make bread without them.  A scale because while 6 oz is always 6 oz, a cup of flour may vary considerably in weight.  Spoons because most home digital scales are not accurate at tiny amounts.  Bowls for the obvious reason.

     When I started baking a few years ago, I was a strict adherent to recipes.  I still do not deviate much as results are then unpredictable.  One area in which I do deviate is in the amount of flour.  I measure (weigh, if possible) all other ingredients, but since flour is the largest single component, and the one most affected by outside influences (humidity, temperature), I find that adding flour by the cup (less as the dough comes together) gives me a much better finished product.  I am not advocating that new bakers do this, but as you see the

  I recently rewatched an old King Arthur baking DVD and thought, well, why not try it.  It was revelatory.  I had gone over to weighing everything (a la Peter Reinhart) and using my Kitchen Aid (a Christmas present four years ago from my son).  In the vid, Michael Dubinski measured all but the flour (OK, so he used cups).  He brought the mixture from liquid to dough manually, adding only as much flour as was needed.  i tried this and rediscovered why I started baking some 5 years ago (I'm an old, slow learner).  What joy, watching ingredi

I was in Portland nearly three years ago to attend the birth of my second grandson (first child for my son).  I had not been baking very long and I knew that Portland was a 'Bread' town.  My son took me to the Pearl where I purchased several breads, including a Walnut Bread.  We took the purchases back to the apartment and tried them all.  I liked the Walnut Bread, but felt that, with a little work, I could produce a loaf that tasted that good.  I'm truthfully not sure of the origin of this recipe, but I have adjusted it over the years based upon suggestions from my

   A of years ago, I was browsing in Barnes and Noble, looking for nothing in particular, when I came upon Daniel Leader's "Bread alone".  It looked interesting as it was more than just a collection of recipes.  I bought it and was hooked by bread.  I read and consumed the book and, since there sere as yet no other books by him, I expanded my horizons to include, again in no particular order, Maggie Glezer, Peter Reinhart (I'm eagerly awaiting his newest), Nancy silverton, Jeffrey Hammelman, Carol Field, Beth Hensperger, Joe Ortiz, Laurel Robertson, Ruth Levy Barenb