Most bookmarked

I am relatively new to bread making, so I am often uncertain about kneading dough.

I've been told that if I knead the dough too much, the final product will come out dense.

But I've also been told that in order to get air into the dough, I should knead the dough

pretty thoroughly.

For example, making baguettes. I guess I'm supposed to knead the dough quite a bit to get

those holes that baguettes are known for. 

So I guess my question is... How much is too much? 

I am fairly new here.  I have been baking for about 10 yrs on and off but got really serious about it about 1 yr ago.  I no longer buy any store bought bread, tortillas etc.  I love this site and have learned a great deal from all of you.  I hope someone can give me some imput here.  I know I read about this somewhere but can't find it.

I have finally used all my store bought whole wheat flour and am about to embark on the home milling quest.  I have a Nutrimill and a Country Living Mill.  My husband has not mounted my Country Living Mill so I will be using the Nutrimill this weekend.  To the point- what combination do you use of hard white to hard red wheat when you make wheat bread?  I am going to make Hamelman's Whole Wheat Multigrain and I need 1 lb of WW flour.  Ay suggestions?  Also, has anyone tried to use the wheat flour in the liquid-levain build instead of the bread flour in his formulas?  I am wondering if it would be useful to use the WW in it if you are using fresh ground flour.  I don't want to try more than one change this weekend since the bread is for my daughter's birthday party.  I think one new element at a time.  Any imput?

Hello All -

I am trying to bake my way through Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery: Recipes for the Connoisseur this winter and started this weekend with the first recipe. I did not use Nancy's recipe for starter, I used King Arthur's starter that I purchased last winter. I used this starter last winter and had some luck with it, I am keeping it in a King Arthur crock in the refridge. I took it out Friday night and feed it, then I feed it again Saturday a couple hours before I started mixing the first recipe a white sour dough bread. Prior to mixing it with the flour, water and wheat germ, the starter was very active (puffy, bubbly and had a nice smell). The loaves I made turned out very nice, good crust, nice big holes inside, I was happy with the end result but the bread itself did not have much taste. I wanted to know if any one has any suggestions on how I can get a slight sour taste to the bread. I guess I figure that if the starter is active, I am getting the dough rise and a nice looking end product, why not the taste I am looking for.

Thanks to you all, I really enjoy this site and have learned a lot from all the postings.

 Alex

i tried nancy silvertons la brea bakery sesame semolina reicpe yesterday is there i big typo in the book because it has a total of 36oz of flour and 5.5 oz of water and 6oz of sd starter i adjusted the water but its still not right a litle too late by the time i got the extra 10 oz into but it was still a little too dry any one else try this recipe?