A few of you have been asking me to put up a basic tutorial on dough kneading for a while, and this seems like a good time. I’m normally a machine guy, I do most of my kneading with a mixer and a dough hook, however there are times when only the personal touch will […]
READ ONReader Cindy asks if the invention of one of America’s most distinctive sandwiches, the peanut butter & jelly, had any thing to do with the introduction of sliced bread. Based on what I know, the answer is yes. The PB & J was supposedly invented by American troops in World War II, who, either out […]
READ ONReader Jim C. asks: OK, uncle Joe, how about a nod towards us bread history buffs? I’m guessing that in earlier centuries [wheat bran, germ and endosperm] WAS crushed together and that separating them out was a relatively recent development? For people who want to make bread “just like” those of earlier eras (“bread reenactors”, […]
READ ONThis bread works every bit as well as a free-form rustic loaf as it does in a loaf pan. If that’s the sort of thing you’re after, you can shape it as you wish, then follow the instructions under the How to Make Your Oven More Brick-Oven Like post under the techniques menu to the […]
READ ONWhite wheat flour has only been getting attention for few years in the States. It is, quite simply, a white strain of wheat which when milled yields a whole wheat flour that’s far paler than traditional whole wheat flour. Historically, American agriculture has produced two basic strains of wheat: hard red wheat and soft red […]
READ ONNo, the whole wheat berry isn’t just ground up and put into a sack, if that’s what you were thinking. OK, sure, it can be like that at some boutique low-production mills, but commercially speaking, whole wheat flour is made in exactly the same way regular white flour is made. The difference is that after […]
READ ONNothing like a three-day weekend to help a person get a little perspective back. Truth be told, I wasn’t traveling on business last Friday, but rather meeting with my father and sister to retrace a little family history, back in our ancestral homelands. No, not Chicago, though that’s where my mother’s family has lived for […]
READ ONLooks like I’ll be traveling all day Friday. Back with more on whole wheat bread on Monday!
READ ONGood question, reader Bob! A soaker is pretty much what it sounds like: whole grains, flour, or a combination thereof that’s mixed with water or milk and left to steep for as little as a few hours, or as much as a few days. I suppose the real question is: what’s the purpose of a […]
READ ONIt’s said that if you’re going to steal, you might as well steal from the best. So I did. This is recipe is from Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads, a book that every serious or aspiring bread baker should own (along with all his other books). I’ll be making the 100% whole wheat version of […]
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