Here’s something I was wondering about: you read about people traveling with their starter in order to infuse it with the microbes of foreign lands (not sure how that could work in practice, but whatever). But it got me to thinking, what if, while in the process of ramping up one’s starter in advance of a new loaf, one were to lift the container lid and give a good exhale into it and then close the lid thereby “infecting” it with one’s own bacteria? I was reading an article about starter which, in part, mentioned “Because sourdough starters depend on local strains of yeast and bacteria, no two ..read more

I’m traveling and want to bring along my oval bannetons but no way to travel with my oval batard clay bakers. I’m wondering what will happen if I bake my refrigerated dough in a round dutch oven. Will it spread making the oval banneton shape useless? In that case I’ll just deal with round loaves. Any ideas how to keep the standard oval “loaf” shape from banneton while baking in a round dutch oven? 3 posts - 2 participants Read full topic ..read more

This week I decided to try to make English Muffins. The one in back was when grill plate was too hot. So I kept the brunt one for myself. I used fresh yeast for the making of this test run of English Muffins. The recipe was based on recipe in Peter Reinhart book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, This was my first book that got me interested in making bread, I have first edition from 2001. What I learned from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread book gave me the knowledge to be able to build spreadsheets for being able to enter amount instant or active dry or fresh yeast and it calculates amount of each other ..read more

This is the comment thread for the Breadtopia blog post originally published here: Breadtopia – 27 May 23 Gluten Free Pizza Homemade pizza with fresh dough and the quality toppings of your choice isn’t just for people who can eat gluten. Breadtopia’s gluten free bread flour makes an amazing pizza that doesn’t require a lot of time or advanced baking skills. Our recipe has... To leave a comment, click the Reply button below If you do not see the “Reply” button, you will need to log in or register an account. Please click the blue “Log In” button in the upper right of the page. 4 posts - 2 par ..read more

I started my sourdough starter a week ago, day 2 I did not discard or add due to little activity with bubbles. So day 3 I fed 1/2 cup unbleached flour and 1/3 cup water, did not discard. The starter grew alot, was excited of course. So day 4 I discarded half and fed with 1/2 cup unbleached flour and 1/3 cup water. I repeated this process Day 5 I did the same as day 4. At this point there have been some bigger bubbles but no rise. Day 6, 7, 8 I started feeding every 12 hours, discarding half and feeding with the same measurements. Big bubbles on surface but no rising. The consistency of my star ..read more

Hi, I own a KitchenAid mixer which I’ve had for 4 years now. Recently, the gear of my mixer broke and I found a Whirlpool replica that seem to show compatibility with with KitchenAid mixer. Would anyone know if this is the case or has had an experience with this? I hope someone can help me with this! 2 posts - 2 participants Read full topic ..read more

I liked the NY rye recipe when I made it in my round cast iron baker. I wanted to try an oblong baker to get a better shape for sandwiches, so I got an oblong ceramic baker and proofing basket from Breadtopia. The first time I tried it, the loaf was pretty dense like it didn’t rise enough. The score marks self erased during baking. But the loaf came out of the baker just fine. Today I tired the recipe again, and this time the loaf was really stuck. So here am I trying to figure out what went wrong by looking at the site videos, site explanations, and the forum. I thought I fully preheated the ..read more

Our local newspaper had a recipe for Oatmeal Breakfast Bread. I have been experimenting with the recipe to use more whole grain flour and to convert it from yeast to sourdough. I also increased the hydration. The following is the recipe for the latest bake. Autolyse (2 hours) 385 grams warm water 2 T melted butter 80 grams maple syrup 115 grams whole wheat 115 grams Kamut 150 grams AP Loaf 75 grams starter 120 grams rolled oats 9 grams salt 2 t cinnamon 1 cup craisins (or other dried fruit) 1 cup chopped pecans I baked this in an oblong Sassafras cloche at 400F, beginning with a cold start. I ..read more