breadmaking-msg - 3/20/08 Period bread recipes and re-creations. Useful breadmaking hints. NOTE: See also these files: bread-msg, BNYeast-art, yeasts-msg, brd-mk-sour-msg, brd-mk-ethnic-msg, brd-mk-flat-msg, flour-msg, trenchers-msg, pretzels-msg, porridges-msg, rice-msg, grains-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ From: "ysabeau" Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 10:26:30 +0000 Subject: Re: SC - Turnips a la Beauce And a tip for bread bakers, to get that hard crunchy crust with a soft inside, either mist the bread with water every 10- 15 minutes or put a heat-proof bowl of water in the bottom of the oven. This simulates the steam that builds up in stone hearth ovens (according to my Germany bread baking class). Also I was told that our whole wheat flour is too fine. Look for the whole wheat or grain flours at health food stores to simulate what they use over here. Ysabeau of Prague Vielburgen, Drachenwald Baumholder Germany Ysabeau at interquest.de From: Ray at amygdala.demon.co.uk (Ray Almond) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Recipe for scones? Date: Tue, 29 Jul 97 19:19:53 GMT akela at charleston.net "Bill Martin" writes: > Does anyone have and, more importantly, wish to share a good recipe for > scones? Well it depends on what type of scones you want. If you want oven baked scones then I would suggest: 8oz flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 or 2 oz butter or margarine 5 fl oz milk mix the dry ingredients, rub in the fat and then add enough milk to give a soft dough. Turn on to a floured board, knead lightly if needed to remove cracks, roll out to about 3/4 inch thick, cut into two inch rounds with a pastry cutter or into triangles with a sharp knife. Brush with milk then bake at 450 F for 8-10 minutes until brown and well risen. If you want you can add raisins or chopped dates after the fat and before the milk. For cheese scones add 1-2 oz grated mature cheese and 1 teaspoon of mustard powder to the mixture and once cut out brush with milk then top with 1-2 oz grated cheese. Bake at 425 F. If you want drop scones then try: 4oz self raising flour 2 oz caster sugar 1 egg 5 fl oz milk mix flour and sugar, stir in beaten egg and enough milk to make a batter the consistency of thick cream. Drop the mixture in spoonfuls on a hot lighlty greased griddle or heavy based frying pan. Keep the griddle at a steady heat and when bubbles rise to the surface turn over and continue cooking until golden brown on the other side. Serve hot with jam and whipped cream. -- Ray Almond From: The Kirby's Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: scone recipe Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 12:34:11 -0500 Here's a scone recipe I use. I use golden raisins, but you can use other fruits as well. 2 1/4 c flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 c butter (chilled) 1/2 c raisens 1/2 buttermilk 2 eggs (room temp, beaten) 1 tblsp honey Mix dry ingredients. Cut in butter then mix in the rest of the ingredients. Flour your hands and form (gently) 1/2" circles and place on a cookie sheet. Brush with milk and bake at 450 degrees for approx. 12-15 minutes. Laura Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 13:30:44 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: SC - Manchet (LONG POST) I said I would post this when I finished experimenting. Since I'm going to switch to experimenting with French and Spanish breads (panacea for depression, the State of Oklahoma has scheduled me into an all day meeting on the day I would be driving to St. Golias for their yearly feast), I think I better post this before my notes disappear into my home singularity. Commentary on my experiments follows the recipe and notes. Fine Manchet Recipe By : The Good Huswife's Handmaide for the Kitchen, 1594 Serving Size : 4-6 Preparation Time :1:00 Categories : Medieval Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method - -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 8 ounces water, warm 1 ounce yeast barm 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 pounds flour, mixed Proof 2 teaspoons dry active yeast in 1/2 cup lukewarm (90 to 110 degrees F) water with a pinch of sugar. After 15 - 20 minutes, add 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water. Let stand for 1 hour. Pour into a clean jar. Refrigerate. This is used as a substitute for ale barm. Decant 1 ounce of the liquid from the yeast barm. Add to the warm water in a medium bowl. Add salt. Sift 1 pound unbleached white flour and 1/2 pound whole wheat pastry flour together. Stir in flour 1/2 cup at a time, until a soft dough forms. Knead in the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough becomes stiff. Knead the dough into a ball. Cover. Let rise for 30 minutes. Divide dough into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - NOTES : Take halfe a bushell of fine flour twise boulted, and a gallon of faire luke warm water, almost a handful of white salt, and almost a pint of yest, then temper these together without any more liquor, as hard as ye can handle it: then let it lie halfe an hower, then take it up, and make your Manchetts, and let them stande almost an hower in the oven. Memorandum, that of every bushell of meale may be made five and twentie caste of bread, and every loaf to way a pound besyde the chesill. From David, Elizabeth; English Bread and Yeast Cookery. A bushel weighs 56 to 60 lbs. A pint is 20 fluid ozs. A gallon is 160 fluid ozs. A caste is 2 to 3 loaves of bread, each loaf equal to 2 manchets. Chesill is the finer dross seived out in the second boulting, 1 peck (14 lbs.) to the bushel. Commentary: The recipe is approximately 1/20 of the original. All baking was done on a terracotta baking stone in an electric oven. Each batch was divided into 4 loaves. The first test was undertaken with 2 pounds of Hodgeson Mills 50/50, 1/4 teaspoon of dry active yeast and 10 ounces of water (the flour was very dry). The flour is unsuitable, containing too much bran. The yeast failed to activate properly. The dough was too stiff for much rising. The result was what I refer to as Francis Drake's Bowling Balls. I created the barm as a replacement for ale barm, so that I would have a fully proofed yeast liquor. The second test used 1 1/2 pounds of whole wheat pastry flour, 1 ounce of decanted yeast liquor, 8 ounces of water. I used wet hands to form the loaves and smooth the crust. These were baked at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes. These produced beautiful brown whole wheat loaves which split across the top during baking. The third test I replaced the whole wheat flour with 1 1/2 pounds of a 2 to 1 mix of all purpose flour and whole wheat pastry flour. This required nine ounces of water as the all purpose flour was drier than the whole wheat flour. Two loaves were formed and allowed to rise before baking, two loaves were allowed to rise then formed. No appreciable difference was found in the end product. The loaves were formed with dry hands and scored around the middle to allow for rise in baking. These were baked a 350 degrees F for 1 hour. The results were very pale loaves with a hard crust and a some what doughy interior. All of the loaves had an interior which resembled a heavy muffin rather than what we currently think of as a loaf of bread. Manchet was made from the next to finest white flour, twice bolted. The whole wheat pastry flour I used would have been the finest flour, but it isn't white. Mixing it with all purpose flour makes what I believe to be a reasonable substitute for fine period flour with its lower germ extraction ratio. The goal appears to have been to create a "white" loaf (visually) with a finer texture than most coarse breads. Unfortunately, taste appears to have taken a back seat in this recipe. This particular recipe should be served hot from the oven for maximum flavor. I am of the opinion that these loaves should be formed with wet hands, as it helps close any fissures in the stiff dough and forms a more disticntive crust which in turn helps retain moisture in the bread. The bread will rise during baking, splitting the hardening crust. The crust splits at the weakest points and the wet formed bread will tend to slpit where it is scored rather than at random. To improve the bread in keeping with other manchet recipes, I would triple the yeast barm and increase the rise to 1 hour (ala Gervase Markham) and replace the water with warm milk or an equal mix of warm water and warm milk. I might also add an egg (ala Lady Arundel's Manchet). My personal addition would be to add 1/2 teaspoon of salt rather than 1/4 teaspoon. To soften the crust, brush melted butter on the loaves before baking. Bear Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 14:37:52 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Manchet (LONG POST) >adding the salt to the liquid...wouldn't that kill the yeast and prevent >the bread from rising? I have always mixed the salt into 1/2 of the flour >and used that first then added the remainder of the flour.. > >Dragonfyr I've never had any problems from the salt, but then I normally use exceptionally hard to kill dry active yeast, which I usually proof to get it started. If I add the salt to the yeast, it is immediately before I start adding the flour. Technically, I should have sifted the salt into flour. Since I am working with a yeast liquor rather than dry active yeast, it would have been better to add salt to the flour. I will correct this point on my recipe for future use. The failure of the first batch was not due to the salt, which I had forgotten until I had already stirred in the first half cup and quickly added to the flour. I goofed the proof using such a small amount of yeast. It was the yeast failure which got me to try making a barm. When I try this again, I'll follow Markham's technique of mixing the dry ingredients together and then adding the liquor to the dry mix. Thanks for catching my faux pas. Bear Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 23:29:45 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Manchet (LONG POST) ><< e: adding the salt to the liquid...wouldn't that kill the yeast and >prevent the bread from rising? >> > >Adding the salt to the recipe would slow down the growth of the yeast. This >is good. Fast growing yeast produces unwanted compounds which could, for >instance, cause a decided bitter flavor in the finished product. > >Ras Good point. Salt is generally added to improve the flavor of the bread, which is why I'll increase the salt the next time I make manchet. It does slow yeast activity and by doing so "sweetens" the bread. The ratios of yeast/salt/flour differ based primarily on the length of the rise. In the case of the recipe for manchet, the major rise of the bread is during baking and the rise times are so short that you really don't worry about fast growing yeast. Standard bread recipes usually call for 1 teaspoon of salt to one or two teaspoons of dry active yeast and about two pounds of flour with a two hour first rise and a one to two hour second rise. The place where the balance gets tricky is when you create a slow rise bread or a starter. Either of these may rise for as much as twelve hours. Some of the recipes I've seen call for tablespoon of salt to a teaspoon of yeast and two pounds of flour. Bear Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 13:09:19 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: SC - Long-Period food, bread, etc. James & Melody Mahanna wrote: > Anyway ...(big deep breath) is there anyone with a GOOD yeast bread > recipe. I have a wonderful Russian Round Bread recipe, but I am not > quite sure how "period" it is. Thanks! There aren't a heck of a lot of period bread recipes that have survived. This is probably because much of the bread that was eaten in period would have been baked by professional bakers, in a bakery, which had little or nothing in common with the kitchens whose recipe collections have come down to us. A simple "white" bread recipe, as suitable for most of period Europe, would be something like this: 2 packets dry yeast, or equivalent in sourdough starter, barm, etc. 1 Tbs salt 1 Tbs sugar ~1 cup lukewarm water (~100-110 degrees F.) 2 1/2 cups all-purpose white flour 1 cup whole wheat flour Various things like a couple of tablespoons of butter or an egg could be added, and something like milk or ale could be substituted for the water, but I find technique to be more important than non-essential ingredients, especially when you are dealing with potential ovo-lacto-vegetarians, to say nothing of period dietary laws regarding animal products. If you're using dry yeast follow the directions on the package. Anything else you might use, be it fresh cake yeast, barm, sourdough, or whatever, would end up being mixed with the sugar, the salt, and the liquid. Start with a cup of the liquid, but you may need a bit more. You don't want to use any more liquid than is absolutely necessary. Add the flour and mix to make a stiff dough. Use only enough liquid to absorb all the flour into the mass of dough. Knead the dough until it is smooth, elastic, and not sticky. It may actually have a slight shine to it. This should take around ten minutes, but whole wheat doughs might take longer, so you're better off with the above signs. Put the dough on a floured board, and cover it with a _slightly_ oiled bowl, or put it into the oiled bowl, roll it around a little until it is coated with oil, and cover with a piece of plaswrap. Leave it to rise in a warm, draft-free room. Preheat your oven to around 425 degrees. If your kitchen wasn't warm enough to be a warm, draft-free room, it probably will be in a few minutes after you light your oven. Let the dough rise until double in bulk, probably around 45 minutes. Punch it down, give it a quick knead of one or two turns, and return it to the board or bowl, and let it rise again until almost double in bulk. This time it will be faster, probably around 30 minutes. Now form your loaf. The easiest way to do this that I have found is to flip the dough over, so that the domed top is now on the bottom as the dough lies on the board. Gather the edges up and together, pressing them together like drawstring pouch. Keep repeating this process until the top is a small knot of compressed dough in the middle, and the rest of the surface (the bottom) is a tightly stretched elastic membrane of extended gluten. Now flip it back over, tucking the knot into the center as you flip. Now your stretched membrane, which is the foundation for a good crust, is on top, where it belongs. Place it on a baking sheet, or in a greased pan (I'm extremely fond of using a cast-iron skillet), or on a wooden baker's peel, or whatever you plan to use to get ead into the oven. You may want to slash the surface of the dough with a sharp knife, razor blade, etc. A cross is nice, and very common, but you might want to experiment with, for example, the Gervase Markham trick of slashing a circular cut around the waistline of your round loaf, which will give you a sort of hatbox shape to your baked loaf. Let the loaf rest one more time, for 20 or 30 minutes. Again, it will have risen somewhat. Put the loaf in the oven. Beep. Beep. Certified professional baker's trick alert! Keep handy a clean plant mister filled with plain water. Spray the loaf with a fine mist of water just before putting it into the oven. After five minutes, do it again. After another five minutes, do it a third, and final time. This helps develop a good, baguette-like, crust. (If you miss and hit the back or bottom of the oven, instead of the loaf, it really doesn't seem to make a difference, provided you don't extinguish the oven flame. Electric ovens are shielded from this type of thing, and should pose no problem.) Bake for anywhere from 25-45 minutes, depending on the size and shape of the loaf. If, after half an hour or so, it shows no signs of browning, you might consider a wash or glaze of some kind. An egg beaten with a little water and some salt is the industrial standard, but you can use whites only, with water and salt (which gives a shine, but no browning), yolks with water and salt, or even milk or cream and salt, for both browning and sheen. The bread is done when it produces a hollow sound when rapped on the bottom. If you have it in a loaf pan, you can do the old bit with sticking a skewer in it, or try tapping it on the top. I'm sure there are others on this list, who bake more than I do, and who might have different methods, or favorite special recipes. But, this one works well, and provides a good all-purpose period-type loaf, and is almost universally acceptable to anyone who eats bread at all, so even those who don't eat eggs, or milk products, or who want assurances that no yaks were molested during the production of this loaf, should have no problems. The only real problem I can think of would be for those who don't eat processed sugar, but then the yeast will have eaten most of it, anyway. Adamantius Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 12:25:58 -0800 From: david friedman Subject: RE: SC - Long-Period food, bread, etc. At 9:43 PM -0600 11/20/97, Decker, Terry D. wrote: >I've got Markham's recipe and I was planning to experiment with it. I >do not have the recipe for the rastons and would appreciate it if you >could post it when opportunity permits or if you know where it can be >found online, point me in the right direction. from our Miscellany: Rastons Two Fifteenth Century p. 52 Take fayre Flowre, and the whyte of Eyroun, and the yolk, a lytel; than take Warme Berme, and putte al thes to-gederys, and bete hem to-gederys with thin hond tyl it be schort and thikke y-now, and caste Sugre y-now ther-to, and thenne lat reste a whyle; than kaste in a fayre place in the oven, and late bake y-now; and then with a knyf cutte yt round a-boue in maner of a crowne, and kepe the crust that thou kyttyst; and than pyke al the cromys with-ynne to-gederys, an pike hem smal with thyn knyf, and saue the sydys and al the cruste hole with-owte; and than caste ther-in clarifiyd Botor, and mille the cromes and the botor to-gederes, and keuere it a-gen with the cruste, that thou kyttest a-way; than putte it in the ovyn agen a lytil tyme; and than take it out, and serue it forth. [end of original--I think I replaced all the thorns with th's, but if something looks funny I probably missed one] 2 1/4 c flour 1/2 T dried yeast (mixed with 1/2 c water) 2 egg whites 1/2 c sugar 1 egg yolk 1 c butter After mixing all ingredients except for butter, let the dough rise 45 minutes to an hour. Mold the dough on a greased cookie sheet, let rise a little more. Bake at 3508 about 1 hour. Cut off top as described, mix insides of loaf with melted butter, and replace top. Second baking is about 5 minutes at the same temperature. and also from the Miscellany... On Bread Platina pp. 13-14 (Book 1) ... Therefore I recommend to anyone who is a baker that he use flour from wheat meal, well ground and then passed through a fine seive to sift it; then put it in a bread pan with warm water, to which has been added salt, after the manner of the people of Ferrari in Italy. After adding the right amount of leaven, keep it in a damp place if you can and let it rise. ... The bread should be well baked in an oven, and not on the same day; bread from fresh flour is most nourishing of all, and should be baked slowly. 1 1/2 c sourdough 1 c whole wheat 2 1/4 c warm water 5 3/4 c white flour: 5 1/4 c at first, 1/2 c later 1 T salt Put sourdough in a bowl. Add warm (not hot!) water and salt, mix. Add whole wheat flour, then white, 1 or 2 c at a time, first stirring in with a wooden spoon and then kneading it in. Cover with a wet towel, set aside. Let rise overnight (16-20 hours). Turn out on a floured board, shape into two or three round loaves, working in another 1/2 c or so of flour. Let rise again in a warm place for an hour. Bake at 3508 about 50 minutes. Makes 2 loaves, about 8" across, 3"-4" thick, about 1.5 lb, or three smaller loaves. >>> To be a little closer to period, I would use a pinch of sugar in the >>> water to help start the yeast and leave out the rest of the sugar. I'd >>> probably also use less yeast, but those are just minor arguments of >>> technique. Sugar is not necessary to start the yeast; yeast does just fine on flour (see Platina recipe above). Also, given how expensive sugar was and how basic a food bread was, I find it hard to believe that sugar would have been a standard ingredient, even in small quantity. For my ordinary home baking, I normally use a scant tablespoon (= 1 envelope) dried yeast per 1.5-1.75 lb loaf; Marian of Edwinstow, who uses the sponge method, I believe uses a third of that. Elizabeth/Betty Cook Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 22:52:08 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: SC - Galette de Dame Carcas When Charlemange laid siege to the city of Carcassonne, Dame Carcas tricked him into lifting the siege of the starving city by stuffing a pig with the last of the wheat in the city's granary and throwing the fat animal off the battlements. Believing he was being taunted by a well provisioned fortress, Charlemange moved his army on to more profitable endeavors. Her reward is a galette named for her. For my version, I used 3 tablespoons of dried orange peel, softened in water and chopped fine. And canned orange juice. I also used a baking stone rather than a baking sheet. The result was a little drier than I would like, so I will probably test the loaf by thumping it on the bottom at 20 minutes rather than 25. Bear Galette de Dame Carcas Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method - -------- ------------ -------------------------------- Finely grated zeste or peel of 2 oranges 1 tablespoon orange juice 2 teaspoons dry yeast 2 tablespoons warm water (105 - 110 F) 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 6 egg yolks (room temperature) 4 oz butter (room temperature) 1 egg 1 tablespoon milk Place finely grated orange peel in a cup and add the orange juice. Set aside. Dissolve yeast in 2 tablespoon of warm water (105 - 110 degrees F). Blend 1 cup flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the dry mixture and pour in yeast mixture. Separate egg yolks and add to the mixture one at a time. Stir after adding each yolk, pulling flour from the sides of the bowl into the mixture. The result will be a heavy batter Divide the butter into small pieces and drop them into the batter. Blend the mixture with twenty strokes of a wooden spoon or rubber scraper. Add the orange peel and juice. Add enough flour to form a ball which can be lifted from the bowl. Knead for about 5 minutes on a lightly dusted surface. The fat content of the dough will keep it from sticking. The flour is to keep excess butterfat from the surface. DO NOT OVER FLOUR. The dough should be soft and elastic, yet able to hold its shape for 2 to 3 minutes on the work surface. Cover the ball of dough with a bowl and let it rise for 30 minutes. Press the dough into a circle about 1 inch thick. This recipe will make 1 loaf about 9 inches in diameter or 2 loaves 6 inches in diameter. Place the loaves on an ungreased baking sheet, cover with wax paper and let rise for 45 minutes. Mix egg and milk. Brush onto the galette. Pierce dough half a dozen times with pick or skewer. Bake 25 minutes in preheated oven at 400 degrees F. Cool galette on a metal rack. Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 22:49:55 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: SC - Pain de Campagne - Honfleur This recipe for Honfleur Country Bread produced a lighter loaf than I expected. It has a medium density with excellent aeration. I would recommend leaving the starter for about twelve hours. Four hours isn't enough to bring out the full flavor of the bread. If the odor of fermentation causes you distress, you may wish to avoid this recipe. It gets very pungent during the second rise. Bear Pain de Campagne - Honfleur Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method - -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1 tablespoon honey 1 cup warm water (105 - 110 F) 1 teaspoon dry yeast 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat flour all of the starter 2 cups warm water (105 - 110 F) 1 tablespoon salt 2 cups whole wheat flour 3 cups all purpose flour Starter: Dissolve the honey in the warm water and add the yeast. Stir to dissolve, then let rest for about 15 minutes while the yeast becomes active and the mixture looks creamy. Add 1/2 cup each, whole wheat and all purpose flour. Stir to form a thick batter. Add the rest of the flours and mix until the dough can be worked by hand. Knead on a floured surface for about 3 minutes. Add additional flour if the dough is slack or sticky. Place dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave at room temperature for 4 to 24 hours. Dough: Place the starter in a large bowl. Pour two cups of warm water over the starter. Stir with a wooden spoon or rubber scrapper to break the dough apart. Add the salt. Taking 2 cups each of the all purpose and whole wheat flours, add equal parts of each, 1/2 cup at a time. If the dough is sticky, add more all purpose flour. On a floured surface, knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes with a strong push, turn, fold motion. To be very French, every 2 or 3 minutes, slam the dough onto the work surface 3 or 4 times and resume kneading. Place dough in a clean, greased bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise until double in volume, about 3 hours. Punch down dough. Turn out of a floured surface. Divide into four equal parts. Hand shape dough into tight balls. Place on a greased baking sheet. Press top lightly to flatten. Cover the loaves with wax paper and allow to rise until triple the original size, about 2 1/2 hours. In a preheated oven, bake for 40 minutes at 425 degrees F. Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 14:22:32 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: SC - Barm Revisited After five weeks of it sitting in my refrigerator, I decided to test how my yeast barm was doing. I made two loaves of bread, one using a teaspoon of dry active yeast, the other using one ounce of thoroughly agitated barm. I made the loaves in the following manner: 1 cup of warm water (105 - 110 degrees F) Add the yeast to the water and let rest for fifteen minutes Mix 2 teaspoons of salt into 1 cup of all purpose flour and add to the yeast Add enough flour to make elastic bread dough Let rise until doubled, then shape and allow to rise in the bread tin until doubled Bake a 425 degrees F for 40 minutes The dry yeast required 2 cups of flour. The barm required 2 1/2 cups of flour. On the first rise, the dry yeast took 2 hours, the barm 3 1/2 hours. On the second rise, the dry yeast took 1 1/2 hours, the barm took 2 hours. The barm loaf had slightly better flavor and texture, probably attributable to the longer rise times. Bear Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 16:40:39 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Breads >We're just a little stressed *twitch*twitch* And the thought of making >that much bread at once is a little daunting the first time. > >kael I can empathize. I'm baking bread for a feast tomorrow and I think some of the panettone has a rising problem (real fun since a batch takes about 12 hours with the traditional techniques I'm using). To add to it, I can't attend the event, I'm scheduled in to work. If it were me, and I had a kitchen on site, I would probably bake the loaves on site and put fresh bread on the table. If I didn't have an oven on site, I would bake it the night before. I assume you are planning to bake a plain white or whole wheat bread and make 1 to 2 pound loaves. If you can get your hands on a couple of 13 quart stainless steel bowls, you can mix up most of the dough you need at one time. A 13 qt. bowl can handle 8 to 12 loaves of bread. As a field expedient, you can use a stock pot or a roasting pan. Don't try to do this two loaves at a time when the standard home oven can handle 8. If you are short of baking tins or sheets, buy some aluminum pie tins at the grocery. They are usually packaged about 4 for a dollar and they hold a round cottage loaf quite nicely. They can be washed and reused for several events. One of the nice things about bread is you can go work on other things while it rises. The bad thing is, it does take oven time. Bear Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 21:50:48 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: SC - Panettone - OOP Namron Rapier Champion is over and I have survived my baking. I chose to go with Panettone for the second bread. While Panettone may be period, this particular recipe is probably not. The bread is labor intensive and I couldn't get production to overlap and flow properly. It is also an expensive bread to make. While I may make this as a treat in the future, I don't plan to make it for an event unless I have a commercial kitchen and a lot of time.. Since I used traditional French methods to make the bread, 80 loaves took about 32 hours. These were 40 loaves of Pain du Campagne and 40 loaves of Panettone. Cost per loaf was about 88 cents. Bear Panettone Starter: 1/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F) 1 teaspoon dry yeast (1 pkg.) 1 teaspoon malt syrup 3/4 cup all purpose flour Dough: All of the starter 1 1/4 cups warm milk (105-155 degreesF) 7 cups all purpose flour 2 teaspoons salt 4 oz butter at room temperature 4 egg yolks at room temperature 2 eggs at room temperature 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup candied mixed fruit or citron 2 Tablespoons pine nuts 1 Tablespoon ground anise seed 2/3 cup of raisins 4 Tablespoons of butter for the crust To make the starter: Dissolve yeast in warm water in a 1quart bowl, let rest for about 5 minutes. Add malt syrup and stir to dissolve in the liquid. Considering the viscosity of malt syrup this may take a bit of work. Stir in flour to make a soft ball. Knead for about 3 minutes. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and leave for a minimum of six hours or overnight at room temperature (70-75 degrees F). To make the dough: Place the starter in a large bowl. Add the warm milk. Cut the butter into pieces (quarter a stick of butter lengthwise and cut the quarters into small pieces while chilled. Allow the diced butter to warm to room temperature). Stir the butter, salt and 2 cups of flour into the starter and milk. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together until light yellow and frothy. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the starter mixture and blend thoroughly. Blend additional flour into the batter 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough mass can be worked by hand. Turn the dough out on a liberally floured surface and knead. Use a dough scrapper if the dough remains sticky. Add flour as necessary, until the dough become soft and elastic. When the dough is smooth set it aside to rest for about five minutes. Mix nuts, candied fruit and anise seed together. Punch the dough into a flat oval. Spread half of the fruit mixture over the dough. Fold into the dough and knead until the fruit disappears. Repeat using the second half of the fruit mixture. Place the dough in a large greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow dough to rise until approximately tripled in size. About 2 hours. Punch down dough. Divide into 4 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Place loaves on a greased baking sheet. Flatten the tops of the loaves slightly. Cover with wax paper and allow to rise until doubled. About 1 1/2 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and allow it to stand at that temperature for about 20 minutes before loading the loaves. Using a razor blade, cut an X into the top of each loaf about 1/2 inch deep. If using a single rack, bake in the middle. If using two racks, bake on the top and the middle. Bake for 40 minutes. Five minutes after loading the loaves, open the oven and put a Tablespoon of butter in the center of each cut. Close oven door. If using two racks, switch the baking sheets halfway through the baking. Notes: The dough did not take as much flour as the recipe calls for. The batches I made did not rise as much stated, but baked up nicely. You can use a knife to make the cuts, but a knife produces greater drag when passing through the dough and may pull the points where the two cuts cross out of line. For large quantities of this bread, baking sheets are better than individual pans. This is a high sugar bread. It continues to cook and caramelize after being pulled from the oven. The optimum baking time for my oven using two racks was 37 minutes. The loaves should be a deep brown with a light yellow center at the top. I am informed this bread freezes well, but needs to be eaten within 6 weeks. Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 18:38:37 -0800 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Bread Making From Platina > Hello all! According to Barbara Santich's THE ORIGINAL MEDITERRANEAN > CUISINE, bread was a staple of the Mediterranean diet. In there she > quotes Platina's De Honesta Voluptate: > > I recommend to anyone who is a baker that he use flour from wheat meal, > well ground, and then passed through a fine sieve to sift it; then put > it in a bread pan with warm water, to which has been added salt, after > the manner of the people of Ferrari in Italy. After adding the right > amount of leaven, keep it in a damp place if you can and let it rise. > That is the way bread can be made without much difficulty. let the > baker beware not to use more or less leaven than he should; in the > former instance, the bread will take on a sour taste, and in the latter, > it becomes heavy and unhealthful and is not readily digested, The bread > should be well baked in an oven, and not on the same day; bread from > fresh flour is most nourishing of all, and should be baked slowly. > > Now, I remember, vaguely, a conversation about bread making months ago. > But can't remember much of it. Could someone out there (bakers beware) > help me in redacting this recipe. I am not much of a baker and don't > want to ruin 28 loaves of bread to test out all the possibilities. > > Murkial af Maun The critical part of the recipe is the leaven. Platina is talking about adding the leaven (not barm or yeast) and letting the bread rise overnight if I understand his instructions about not baking on the same day. What he is probably talking about is using some dough reserved from the previous breadmaking which is known as a leaven. You would use about a cup to 2 cups of leaven to eight loaves (from my experience with starters). The leaven would be broken up in the warm water. The salt could be added to either the water or the flour (Platina appears to add it to the water). The flour would then be added to the liquor a cup or so at a time and stirred in until the dough turns into a ball. Kneading the flour helps work the ingredients together, but it is not absolutely necessary. Platina does not specify kneading, but it may be understood and it does make a better loaf. The bread is put in a bowl and set aside to rise. A damp, slightly cool place would keep the surface of the dough from drying out and would slow the rise. Although Platina does not say so, the bread is probably punched down, shaped and allowed to rise again. It would then be baked in a cooling oven. Bear Date: Sat, 31 Jan 1998 11:57:36 -0800 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: SC - Rye Bread I needed to bake some rye (at the wife's request) and I wanted to experiment, so I killed two birds with one stone last night. I made a batard (long, wide loaf) of rye with a single rise. The bread was fairly dense (to be expected with a single rise and rye flour), but tasty. Were I to make this again, I would probably let the bread rise 3 to 4 hours or until tripled in size and use 2 teaspoons of yeast. By doing a single rise loaf, I double checked what I remember about single rise breads. It is very possible that the bread Platina was describing used a long, slow single rise. As an aside, rye flour contains gluten, but not as much a wheat flour. Pure rye flour does not rise very well, so most rye bread is a 1:1 misture of wheat and rye flours. Bear Rye Bread (makes a single 2 pound loaf) 2 cups of warm water (105 - 110 degrees F) 1 teaspoon of sugar 1 teaspoon of dry active yeast 2 cups stone ground rye flour 2 to 3 cups unbleached white flour 1 teaspoon of salt Dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Dissolve the yeast in the water and allow it to proof until foamy (about 10 minutes). Add salt. Add 2 cups of rye flour and two cups of white flour, 1 cup at a time, alternating types and stirring it to blend the flour into the mixture. A soft,slightly sticky ball of dough will form. Place the dough ball on a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes. If the dough is sticky, sprinkle it with flour from the remaining cup of flour (you may or may not use all of this flour). The dough should be soft and have an even color and texture. Shape the loaf and put it on a greased baking sheet. Let rise until at least doubled (about 2 hours). Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake for about 45 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Brushing the surface with a little melted butter or oil will improve the color of the loaf and help keep the crust soft. Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 20:17:20 -0800 From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" Subject: Re: SC - Bread Making from Platina Hi all from Anne-Marie Here's another bread recipe for you to play with. This stuff is amazingly rich, no doubt due to all the butter. Here's a hunk from my CA-in-Progress on French food in period. This recipe is not medieval (1654), but still darn tasty stuff. My bread making friends are amazed that this recipe works...only one raising, all that fat from the butter...yum! Enjoy! FRENCH BREAD One of the unfortuante omissions in medieval and renaissance cookbooks is the total dearth of bread recipes. We know they ate bread, but according to the "shopping lists" we have access to, bread was bought already made, or else it was the realm of bakers, not of the cooks who wrote down the other recipes. In the reign of Edward I in England (1272-1307), London bakers were making a white "light bread, known as French bread", also known as puffe or poufe. The Assay decree of 1288-9 said that this French bread was to be made from flour of the same bolting as wastel, a bread of second quality, and that weight for weight, it's price was to be half that of a loaf of demeine or finest quality Bread. We have a recipe from the English source by Robert May, who was partially trained in France (Robert May's French Bread the Best Way), and we have a very different recipe from The Perfect Cook, a translation of Le Patissier francois, published in London in 1656. Le Patissier is often ascribed to la Varenne, though his name appears on it nowhere, and the source gives incredibly detailed instructions, unlike The French Cook, which we know he wrote. This recipe from Le Patissier yields an amazingly rich loaf of bread, with a stiff crust and a moist interior. Interestingly, Robert May's recipe yields a much lighter loaf, more in keeping with the name "pouft", and the recipe presented here suggests in it's baking instructions that this Bread Dipped in Eggs is no ordinary pain demain. To Make Another Soft Cake or Tart Without Cheese, which cake the Flemmings do call Bread dipped in Eggs. Put into a Bason, or upon a Table, two pints of fine flower, break and beat two eggs into it, adde there unto half a pound of fresh butter which you shall have caused to be melted over the fire, with a quarter of a pint of milk, put also into this mizture a spoonful of good beer yeast which is somewhat thick, and rather more than less, as also salt at discretion. You must mixe and work all these things together with your hands, till you reduce them into a well-knitted paste, and in the kneading of this your paste you must now and then powder it with a little flower. Your paste being thus well powdered will be firm, after which make it up into the form of a Loaf, and placing it upon a sheet of Paper, you much cover it with a hot Napkin. You must also observe to set your said paste neer unto the fire, but not too high, lest that side which should bee too nigh the fire might become hard. You shall leave this said paste in the said indifferent hot place untill it be sufficiently risen, and it will require at least five quarters of an hours time to rise in and when it shall be sufficieiently risen, which you may know by its splitting, and separating it self, you must make it up into the form of a cake, or tart, which you must garnish over, and then put it into the Oven to bee baked. The Ovens hearth must be as hot almost as when you intend to bake indifferent great household Bread. This Tart or Cake will require almost three quarters of an hours baking, or at least a great half hour; and when it is drawn forth of the Oven, you may powder it with some sugar, and sprinkle it with some rosewater before you do serve it up to the Table, which depends of your will. Our version: 1 c. butter 1 3/4 c. milk 1/2 oz dry yeast about 6 c. unbleached white flour 2 tsp salt 2 beaten eggs optional garnish: - --beaten egg - --poppy seeds - --almonds - --lemon peel - --sugar - --1 tsp rosewater 1. Heat butter with milk till butter is melted. Let cool till it's body temperature (ie just warm to the touch). 2. Add the yeast, and let it dissolve, mixing with a fork. This may take five minutes. 3. Sift 5 cups of the flour and the salt into a large bowl, or onto a flat work surface. 4. Make a well in the flour, and pour in the beaten eggs, and butter-yeast solution. 5. With your hands, mix, drawing in the flour until you have a nice soft, non-sticky dough. Add more flour as needed. 6. Knead on a floured surface until the dough is smooth and elastic (about five minutes). 7. Shape your loaf into a ball, and set on a floured cookie sheet. Cover with a cloth dampened with hot water, and set in a warm place to rise for 1-1.5 hours, till surface begins to split and crack. 8. Shape into a round loaf, and garnish as desired, ie - --slash the top - --brush with an egg glaze (1 beaten egg + 1/2 tsp salt) - --chopped almonds - --poppy seeds sprinkled on top of egg glaze - --lemon peel 9. Bake at 400o for 1/2 hour. Turn down the heat to 350o, and bake for about 50 minutes till the loaf sounds hollow when rapped. 10. Cool on a rack. Makes one large round loaf. Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 00:20:29 PST From: "Arabella de Montacute" Subject: Re: SC - Re: [Dstlg] beer bread, OOP Puck, I'm new to this list and have been quietly been listen for about a week. I have not yet tried using spent grains yet but my lord husband is new to brewing and there's a workshop demonstration this month in our barony, I'll let you know how it went. I am not claiming to be anywhere near an expert, but I've got ideas to share with you. I have had the same problem with my bread maker. I have found that wheat flour takes longer to cook, and the very best flour for a bread machine is the type ground specially for the machine. Gold Medal makes one, it comes in a yellow package. There's is something about how it's ground that makes it different from regular bleached flour. I also use bread machine yeast in a jar kept in the fridge, seems to be fresher, instead of packages kept in the fridge. I let the machine make the dough then remove it and cook the dough on a baking stone, (you know the kind from Pampered Chef for pizzas) It makes a nice round period looking loaf. I use a egg bread recipe that has had the same doughy middle. I found if I take the bread out of the machine and let the dough sit on the baking stone, on top of the stove while the oven heats up, it rises again and is not so heavy in the middle. I've also tried to cook it a little longer. The crust is really crisp but it's done in the middle. If your using a bread machine the liquid you use should be no hotter than 100 degrees. Any hotter and your yeast will die. I look forward to hearing how you it comes out again. Hope my tiny bits of wisdom helps. Arabella Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 09:16:37 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - beer bread, OOP > OK, I finished brewing my second ever all grain batch today, and took the > spent grains to make beer bread. It was delicious, but soggy in the > middle. Here's the recipe, ideas anyone? Phlip and I were surmising too > much liquid. > > For 1 1/2 lb loaf: > 1 cup spent grain > 8 oz homebrew (quality not important) > > Mix grain and beer in blender to pulverize. Add to bread machine with > 2 1/2 cups white flour > 1 tsp salt > 1 tbsp vegetable oil (I used olive oil) > 2 tbsp sugar > 1 pkg bread yeast > > Well, as I said, it was absolutely one of the tastiest breads I've ever > made, but virtually mush in the middle, and didn't rise hardly at all. If > anyone can help me fix the recipe, I will happily bake my little Puck butt > off and mail out loaves to any who want one, as I have some 12 pounds of > spent grain that will either go into bread or go out back for the > critters. > > Regards, Puck You're probably right about the excess liquid. The grain absorbs a fair amount during the brewing. The oil and the alcohol are probably causing the problems with the rise. You need to proof the yeast and get it working before building the dough. I don't know how to correct the problems for the bread machine (I've never used one), but I can tell you what I would try for regular baking. Dissolve 1 teaspoon of sugar in 1/4 cup of warm water (105-110 degrees F). Dissolve 1 teaspoon of dry active yeast (1 Pkg) in the sugar water. Let stand until frothy (10 minutes or so). Add 3/4 cup of home brew. Mix 2 teaspoons of salt with 1 cup of flour and stir into the liquid. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour 1/2 cup at a time, blending it in thoroughly. (You may require more or less flour, depending on the type and dryness of the flour). For a single rise bread: Break up the grain in a blender. Turn the dough out on a floured surface. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a rectangle. Add half of the grain to 1/2 of the surface. Fold the dough over and knead to work the grain into the dough. Repeat. Shape the loaf and place it in a greased tin to rise. Let rise until triple in size, about 3 to 4 hours. (This is an ideal rise. In practice the loaf may not triple. Giving the loaf 3 to 4 hours should give it reasonable aeration even if it doesn't rise ideally). Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F until the loaf is a nice brown and sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom (40 to 45 minutes). For a double rise bread: Turn the dough out on a floured surface. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a covered, greased bowl. Let rise until triple in size, about 3 to 4 hours. Break up the grain in a blender. Punch down dough and turn out on a floured surface. Shape the dough into a rectangle. Add half of the grain to 1/2 of the surface. Fold the dough over and knead to work the grain into the dough. Repeat. Shape the loaf and place it in a greased tin to rise. Let rise until double in size, about 2 hours. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F until the loaf is a nice brown and sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom (40 to 45 minutes). Bear Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 17:27:59 EST From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: SC - Bread tip-softer crust ladyarabella at hotmail.com writes: << The crust is really crisp but it's done in the middle. >> Tip o' the day> To soften the crust on bread immediately brush with butter or margerine when removed from the oven. Turn out of pan and lay a cloth over all until cool. Ras Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 13:33:21 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - beer bread, OOP Most of the brewers I know break the grain before fermentation, so the grain is already coarse pieces. I'm neutral on the point of chopping up the grain or leaving it whole, since it will be only a minor textural difference in the bread. I tend to use 1 teaspoon to yeast to one cup of water to 2 to 3 cups of flour and 1 teaspoon of salt with a pinch of sugar dissolved in the water to activate the yeast. For flours other than wheat, use a 1:1 mix between wheat and non-wheat flours. Eggs, butter or oil can be added to enrich the bread. I use a wooden spoon to mix the dough and my hands to finish the blending. I don't have a mixer heavy enough to use dough hooks. Personally, I would add the spent grain during kneading by flattening out the dough, sprinkling the grain on it, then folding over the dough and kneading it in. In the mixer, I would add it to the mix early on, before changing to the dough hooks. This would allow it to get worked into the dough before adding the flour that stiffens the dough. Bear Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 13:43:35 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: Event bread (was SC - Flours) > Can I store the dough in "Pickle Buckets" (actually filling buckets from > the local donut place) without the plastic affecting flavor? I assume > that the leaving of the dough overnight will "sour" the dough, This may > not be bad, but how will that affect a sweet dough? > > Brandu Plastic buckets will work fine for storing dough as long as they don't hold the flavor of their previous contents. I'd love to have some five gallon buckets for rising bread in. I would not try to mix the dough in them. I would spray the insides with some oil to keep the dough from sticking. I would thoroughly clean them as soon as possible after removing the dough. If you cover the containers to keep out wild yeast, the amount of souring should be minimal. Using a tablespoon of salt to three or four pounds of flour will also help sweeten the flavor. You can also extend the rise by chilling the dough. I know that chilling the dough to between 35 and 40 degrees F can extend the rise up to twenty-four hours without sacrificing much in texture or taste. By a sweet dough, I assume you mean a dough enhanced by sugar, oil and eggs. The kind of dough you would find in a festive brioche or a fruit bread. Such doughs normally go from mixing to the oven in five to six hours. They tend to go off faster than plain bread doughs. I've held them for about 9 hours and Elizabeth David says you can hold them up to 12 hours (8 to 10 hours in the first rise, 2 hours in the second) without damaging the flavor. Bear Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 10:04:35 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Payne Puff > > From: david friedman > > > > At 10:11 AM +0000 2/27/98, CHRISTINA van Tets wrote: > > >5. Pastry: I did post this some months ago, but it seems that it is > > >needed again. Payne puff is mentioned (line 497) in John Russell's > > >Book of Nurture (Harl. MS 4011), c. 1452, given in F. J. Furnivall's > > >Early English Meals and Manners, Early English Text Society, London, > > >1868. His footnote states that the last recipe in the Forme of Cury > > >is for payn puff. His quote, unfortunately, does not appear to be > > >complete, or to give adequate directions for the pastry. What he > > >does provide is this: > > > Payn puff, Forme of Cury, # 196 > > > > > > Eodem modo fait payn puff. but make it more tendre 6e past, > > >and loke 6e past be rounde of 6e payn puff as a coffyn & as a pye. > > > > > >Perhaps someone else can help further? > > > > _A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye_ has a recipe for Panne Puffe (p. 27); I > > don't know if it is the same thing or not. > > > > Take the stuffe of Stock frytters and for hys paest take a quantitie of ale > > and a lytle yest and Suger, Mace and Saffron, than heate it on a > > chavyndysche and ut it to youre floure with the yolcke of a rawe agge, and > > so after this maner make up your paest. > > Interesting how slight textual variatons can make a big difference. The > version of FoC in Curye On Inglysch contains the following: > > "203. The pety peruaunt... > > tart with fruit and marrow> > > ...and loke (th)at (th)ou mak (th)y past with (y)olks of ayren 7 (th)at > no water come (th)erto; and fourme (th)y coffin and make vp (th)y past." > > Followed by # 204: > > "Eodem modo flat payn puff, but make it more tendre 6e past, > and loke 6e past be rounde of 6e payn puff as a coffyn & as a pye." > > Either meaning, 'in the same way flat payn puff', etc., or 'in the same > way make payn puf', assuming "flat" to be an error, and that "fait" was > intended. > > Anyway, it's not really clear, for certain, whether any other shortening > is included. All other things being equal, the only way I can think of > to make the pastry more tender, without adding shortening or sugar > (neither of which is mentioned for the pastry) is to add more egg yolks > (i.e. more liquid and more egg yolk shortening), making the dough > softer, or else to knead it less, or to knead it to the point where the > gluten is fully developed and then begins to break down. That's quite a > bit of kneading...maybe Bear could tell us more about that? > > Adamantius > troy at asan.com I'm afraid all I can say about over-kneaded, unleavened dough is that it gets leathery when baked. Since this is a finished product I try to avoid, I haven't really experimented with it. When working with any kind of pastry dough, I tend to mix the ingredients and knead only enough to get the desired consistency, not that I'm any great expert with pastries. Looking at the egg and flour dough recipe, I wonder if this may not have been a common, utilitarian dough in the 14th and 15th Centuries. In Maggie Black's The Medieval Cookbook, she quotes Harleian 279 for a recipe for Cruste Rolle, which is a griddle cake: "Cruste Rolle. Take fayre Flowre of whete; nym Eyroun & breke ther-to & coloure the past with Safroun; rolle it on a borde also thinne as parchement, rounde a-bowte as an obyle; frye hem and serue forth; and thus may do in lente but do away with the eyroun, & nym mylke of Almaundys, and frye hem in Oyle, & then serue forth." The egg and flour pastry dough would certainly yield a better tasting product than flour and water. I would also expect a dough that could be used for boiling, frying or baking, depending on the thickness of the dough and its contents. While it is not mentioned in the recipe, another trick that could be used to make the pastry tender is to add sour cream to the mixture, which would add semi-liquid and butter fat. Modern pelemi dough uses sour cream in a standard pastry dough and produces a smooth dough which is easy to roll and to work. I will add the caveat that I think using sour cream in this manner is a recent practice, although I would love to be proven wrong. Bear Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 10:14:16 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Palladius, tamarind, buckwheat, soap > 3. Is buckwheat (and presumably its relation, rhubarb) period? > Found myself wondering the other day as I failed dismally to remember > my favourite recipe for buckwheat/buttermilk pancakes. Does anyone > have access to the Sunday Times' Book of Real Bread? Or else another > good suitable recipe? My preference is for yeast-risen, not carb > soda. > > Cairistiona I believe buckwheat is period, but that the use may have been primarily as animal fodder. It is used in some parts of England and France to make pancakes, but the major use appears to have been in the US. There is a yeast based recipe for buckwheat cakes in Modern Domestic Cookery & Useful Receipt Book by Elizabeth Hammond, 1817. But I would use Elizabeth David's recipe, which follows. Buckwheat Cakes 2/3 Cup buckwheat 2/3 Cup unbleached flour 1 tsp salt 1 1/4 Cup milk (body temperature) 1 tsp yeast 4 eggs 1/2 Cup milk (room temperature) Sift flour and salt together in a bowl. Turn the yeast to a thick cream with some of the warm milk. Add to the flour, stir in the rest of the warm milk. Cover and let rise (about 1 hour). Stir in the 4 eggs and the 1/2 cup of milk (as needed). Keeping the batter fairly thick. Cover and let rise (about 1 hour). Make into small pancakes like blinis. Bear Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 13:17:55 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Palladius, tamarind, buckwheat, soap > Where is the end of the recipe for Buckwheat Cakes, after forming them > into pancakes? The cooking procedure, time, and temperature is not given. > > Arlene Silikovitz > West Orange, NJ Since no special cooking instructions were with the recipe, I assume the instructions are covered by the term pancake. Pan or griddle cakes are cooked in a frying pan or on a griddle, usually at medium or lower heat, depending on the heat source. Heat the pan, then lightly oil it. Let the oil warm then pour some of the batter into the pan to form a pancake. Cook until the outer edge sets up then turn and complete the cooking. I favor cooking just below the smoking point of the oil. I haven't tried this recipe, so I don't know how to tell if the yeast rising pancake is setting up properly. The following comments may not apply to this recipe. Chemical rising pancakes develop bubbles in the batter which work their way up to the uncooked top of the pancake. When a bubble breaks and the hole it makes fills with batter, the cake is still under done. When the bubble breaks and leaves a hole, the batter has set up. The outer edges of the cake are thinner and tend to set up faster, so turning the cake helps even the cooking of the center of the cake and helps prevent burning. David suggests serving them with butter and a sprinkling of brown sugar. I'd probably grab for the maple syrup. Bear Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 00:05:03 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Rosemary Bread Here's the recipe for the rosemary raisin bread, which is a Florentine dessert bread. If you drop off the raisins, it should come close to what you had. If you choose to reduce the amount of oil in the bread, increase the amount of water by an amount equivalent to the oil you leave out. With all purpose or bread flour 2 1/2 cups should be enough to make a stiff dough. Softer or fresher flour will require more flour. Bear Pain de Ramerino (Rosemary Raisin Bread - Florentine) 1 teaspoon dry active yeast (1 pkg) 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F) 1/2 cup milk 3 Tablespoons of sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon dry rosemary 2 eggs 1/4 cup olive oil 3 cups flour 1/2 cup raisins olive oil for oiling pans In a medium bowl, sprinkle the yeast onto the warm water. Allow to dissolve and become creamy (about 5 minutes). Combine milk, sugar, salt and rosemary in a sauce pan and heat until warm (90 - 110 degrees F). Beat 1 egg and 1 egg white (reserve yolk) into the milk mixture. Beat the olive oil into the milk mixture. Add the milk mixture to the yeast mixture. Gradually beat in flour to make a stiff dough (this may not take all of the flour). On a well floured surface, knead the dough until it is smooth and satiny (10 to 20 minutes). Add flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking. Flatten the dough out into a large circle. put the raisins on one half of the dough and fold over the other half to cover. Fold and knead the dough lightly to get the raisins evenly distributed in the dough. Place the dough into an oiled bowl. Rotate the dough ball to coat with oil and cover. Allow to rise until doubled (about 1 1/2 hours). Punch the dough down lightly and form into a smooth ball. Place the dough on an oiled baking sheet or cake pan and press to flatten slightly. Cover and allow to rise until puffy (1/2 to 1 hour). Slash a cross in the top of the bread with a razor blade. The cuts should be about 1/2 inch deep. Beat the reserved egg yolk with 1 Tablespoon of cold water and brush onto the loaf as a glaze. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for about 35 minutes or until loaf is brown and sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom. Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 10:56:06 +0100 From: "Mark Fry" Subject: SC - C15th Bean/Pea Breads Hi Caroline & all Just some more 'bready' thoughts to pass onto you cooking info circle. I'd have no problems about you also passing on my bread experiment article in the WC newsletter 67. if that might help people - there is also my research (in a 1997 WC newsletter) on the quantities of food given to soldiers and galley marines which might be of interest but I don't have an electronic copy of either text anymore. The bread(s) I've been experimenting with are the various mixed grain types. At least one of these was called 'horse bread' during the C15th and this appears to have been an inferior quality bread (if we are to believe the complaints of soldiers issued with it as rations) made from a mixture of pea/bean flour and wheat flour. I've also experimented with rye/wheat and barley/flour mixes as well. There is also refferance to a 3 grain bread - wheat, rye & bean/pea - but I've not tried this yet. The recipe I've based all my experiments on is an adaptation of the Maggie Black recipe from the Weald & Down Open Air Museum Cookbook (I think this is now out of print which is a great shame as it's a great source of modern adaptations of medieval & renaissance recipes) :- BAYLEAF FARMHOUSE BREAD 1 lb (450g) - Pea/ Bean/Barley/Rye flour* 1 lb 14oz (850g) - strong white baking flour~ 2 oz (50g) - rice/corn flour^ 1 oz (25g) - dried yeast (fresh is much better) 1 1/2 tablespoons salt (you will need to reduce this for the beans) 4 tea spoons clear honey 1/4 pint (150 ml) strong brown ale# 1 - 11/4 pint (575-850 ml) warm water (* I used dried butter beans, yellow split peas and dried pearl barley, which I ground in an electronic coffee grinder bought specifically for the purpose. The rye flour came from a health food shop. Dried marrow fat peas are actually more 'period' than any other form of modern pea/bean, but I have heard that the flour from these starts to 'de-grade' very quickly once mixed with water - but I've not tried this yet). (~ You could use a 50/50 strong white to rye flour mix which produced a very acceptable loaf - which did rise - just keep the total flour weight consistant). (^ I'm not too sure about this as it's a bit 'rich' for inclusion in a 'cheap' bread ?). (# Possibly this was included by Maggie to represent the fact that most C15th yeast was a brewing by-product but that's only my own personal guess). Maggie also has some recipes for oatmeal 'cakes' which I've tried and which went down very well with my various guinea-pigs at events. They're made from a 50/50 oatmeal/wheat flour mix with suet but also include parsley (I've made them with veggie suet & they work just as well). I'll dig out the recipe for these and forward them onto you in my next communication. The C13th refferace to bean bread is very interesting and I'd like to have a look at the original text for any other 'clues'. Regards Mark Fry Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 09:29:25 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Bread Soup Bowls > I need 100+ individual bread bowls. To save money for our Barony, I'll be > making them from scratch. I plan to raise the dough and then freeze them. > What's the best way to do this? Warning: Edible bread doughs will leak if you put a lot of liquid in them. If they are dried out (4 days old like trenchers) they will absorb more liquid, but they will still leak. Put the bread bowl inside a regular bowl. That's more fun than soup dribbling off the table. To freeze the dough: Make your dough, let it go through the first rise, punch it down, shape your loaf, lightly flour it, wrap it in wax paper, then wrap the wax paper package in aluminum foil or a plastic bag. Freeze immediately. The dough keeps for several months. To bake: Remove from the freezer, unwrap, place in greased tin or on greased baking sheet, let thaw and rise until doubled, bake normally. The light flouring and wax paper help keep the dough from sticking to it's wrappings. You may wish to increase the yeast to improve the rising action. Doubling is about maximum to avoid an overpowering yeast flavor. Average bread recipes tend to use too much yeast anyway. > Should I raise the dough, once, divide and freeze? Twice and freeze? > Twice, bake for 5-X minutes, and then freeze? You can bake the bread and freeze it. If you do, let the bread cool down after baking (overnight might be advisable). When it's cold, seal it in a plastic bag and freeze. To thaw: Remove from the freezer and the plastic bag. Wrap in a towel and let stand on the counter for 3 to 4 hours or bake the bread in a 300 degree F oven for about 15 minutes (I'm assuming 1 pound boules, larger loaves require longer in the oven). > (I have the counter space to raise the dough a second time on the day of > the event, but I'm not sure if yeast survives freezing?) Yeast survives freezing quite nicely, but recovers slowly as it thaws. Yeast dies around 140 degrees F. > Rosalyn MacGregor > (Pattie Rayl) For what you are attempting, I like freezing the dough and thawing and baking it on site, given enough oven and counter space. I use the technique when I know I can not make and store the bread fresh (the 200 loaves for First Ansteorra/Calontir InterKingdom comes to mind). Dropping fresh, warm bread on the table at a feast is always fun. Be careful about choosing your recipe. Some doughs do not take kindly to freezing. As you are talking of bread bowls, I'm assuming a dough of flour, water, yeast and salt, and, perhaps, a little shortening. These doughs do well in the freezing process. I recommend preparing some dough and freezing it for several days, just to learn what the process is like. That way you will know what to expect when the hurley-burley of setting up for a feast surrounds you. You might also test the differences between freezing dough and freezing bread. And try out your soup in the bowls to see how badly they will leak. Bear Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 21:08:48 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: Freezing Bread Dough (was Re: SC - Bread Soup Bowls) > Does anyone on the list have tips for freezing bread dough in general, not > just for trenchers? The freezing techniques I mentioned work for your average bread. The application is as a trencher, but the method works for most general applications. In period, the trenchers would have been a coarse wheat loaf, four days old, trimmed and sliced for the table. > Bread from scratch is _much_ cheaper and usually tastier. However trying > to produce enough for a feast on that day without tying up the kitchen or > exhausting the cooks (I am NOT a morning person) has just not seemed > feasible. (This time I'm delegating bread to a moring person.) I know > bread dough will freeze, but how much has to be done to it afterwards? Frozen dough must thaw and rise. You need counter space and ovens. You can lay batches to fill the ovens about an hour apart. Fire up the ovens when the first batch is ready and roll an assembly line of baking. A standard kitchen oven holds about 8 one pound loaves. For really large feasts, I've put in three sixteen hour days just for the baking. Freezing the dough can shorten the time, if you have the oven capacity to push it through. At the InterKingdom I mentioned, I had four ovens and spent Friday night with all of then hot. Other specialty baking had been done on Wednesday and Thursday. Sunday, I died. > Does anyone have recipes that are better suited to such freezing and will > give reliable results? Most standard bread recipes work fine, especially if you double the yeast. I do not recommend freezing doughs fortified with eggs or large quantities of sugar. The only way to be sure is test the recipe. Bread from frozen dough is usually a little denser than bread from a fresh rise. > What about bread made, baked, frozen, and reheated? What little > experience I have of this hasn't been too happy. But my roommate owns a > bread machine.... You can't allow condensation to develop on the crust, it will turn leathery, so it's out of the freezer into the pan and into the pre-heated oven. Larger loaves take more re-heating than smaller loaves. You may want to use an oven thermometer to make sure the oven temperature is right. > I'm not a bread baker; my results when working with yeast-risen dough have > been, well, erratic. Not enough practice yet to predict results. I'm > usually not in one place long enough to do all the fiddling with it over > time that it seems to require! And I am certainly not going to plan on > serving from a recipes of whose results I cannot be reasonably certain. I > can't even get consistant results from the bread machine unless I use a > mix. That's too expensive for a feast, and anyway while they're predictable > and easy, the loaves have a rather boring taste & texture. Proof your yeast first. I use dry active yeast and add it to a half cup to a cup of water with a pinch of sugar dissolved in it. In five to ten minutes it will foam and turn creamy, then you use it to make the dough. In most cases, the liquids need to be between 70 and 90 degrees F. In some cases, the recipe asks for 110 degrees F. Don't go above 110 or the yeast may lose some of its potency. To change the flavor of the bread, use a tablespoon of honey, molasses, or malt syrup in place of the sugar. If you want a little more change, dissolve the sweetener in a cup of water. Stir in two cups of flour into the water, then cover the bowl with plastic, let it stand for four to twenty-four hours. Use this a starter. Subtract the water, flour and sweetener from the recipe, break the starter apart in a bowl containing the remaining water and make the recipe as per instructions. > The regular ovens at the site where I'll be doing a feast in Feb. ( I > think -- the autocrat hasn't officially confirmed bid acceptance) don't > work but they have two commercial convection ovens. (Finally - a site with > any kind of working oven besides one tiny residential style stove!) What > effect might this have on baking the bread? Convection ovens bake bread faster and quite well, but I would worry about breakdowns, since it is obvious the owners of the site don't believe in maintenance. Depending on quantities and timing, I might pre-bake. Convection ovens are trickier when it comes to re-heating frozen bread. > Also, I know there is a temperature adjustment that has to be made for > using convection ovens but I haven't yet found out what it is. Does anyone > have experience with this? > > Jocetta Can't help you with that, I haven't used a convection oven in years and I don't remember the differences. I do know I wouldn't trust the official oven temperature until I ran a test batch through the ovens. Bear Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 00:05:45 EST From: DianaFiona at aol.com Subject: Re: Freezing Bread Dough (was Re: SC - Bread Soup Bowls) jocetta at ibm.net writes: << What about bread made, baked, frozen, and reheated? What little experience I have of this hasn't been too happy. But my roommate owns a bread machine....>> This is what we usually end up doing--we don't have enough time/hands/counter space/ovens to do it fresh. It can work just fine if you keep a few things in mind. Underbake the bread slightly--get it done, but not too brown. Wrap it very well before freezing--aluminum foil, then freezer bags is a good idea. Thaw it well in advance of the feast hour; the day before ideally. It will sweat as it thaws and you need to give it time to re-absorb the moisture. As close to serving time as possible considering the rest of the menu, run the loaves through a hot oven until hot all the way through and browned. If you have to do this well in advance of the dinner hour, put them back in the bags while still a bit warm, to conserve moisture and soften the crust. (I only like hard crusts on bread when it's just out of the oven and crispy--yummm! ;-) ) Ldy Diana Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 12:13:08 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: Freezing Bread Dough (was Re: SC - Bread Soup Bowls) > I don't know if there is some secret to it, like extra yeast or something. You normally increase the yeast for frozen doughs to get a reasonably quick rise. Most people don't have the time or patience to wait out a long rise. > Probably it needs to get frozen faster than my > standard issue kitchen freezer can manage. Self defrosting? A normal refrigerator freezer tends to fluctuate between freezing and non-freezing temperatures if it is self defrosting. This isn't good for dough. Deep freezes work nicely (unless the power goes out). > I agree wholeheartedly that bread has been a major let-down for at > feasts I've eaten. But then, I'm very picky about bread. My > suggestions: I'm picky about my bread, too. That's why quality bakegoods are a signature of one of my feasts and why several cooks often ask me to handle the baking for their feasts. If you can pull it off, fresh bread is a fabulous addition to the normal board. > 1) find out what last weeks cook did to get bread from the Big Sky > Bakery in Raleigh. That bread was a definate improvement over the > grocery store french bread we usually enjoy. A good idea. If the bakery closes on Sunday and they are overstocked on Saturday, you can find bargains to use or freeze. > 3)(very small voice) I'm a baker, though never on quite such a scale as > Ymir will demand. I'm even a morning person, though less so when > sleeping in the high volume cabins at Camp Kanata. For baking large quantities, you need to be a morning, noon, and night person. If you plan to bake fresh for 200+, be prepared to begin the minute the site opens on Friday and work until Saturday afternoon. Between the baking and the cooking, scheduling the ovens is critical. The equipment must be reliable. Bear Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 22:41:25 "GMT" From: Page Hutchinson Subject: SC - Bread Bowls: A BreadRecipe.com Recipe for You Her is the recp for those who do not have access. However if you do please visit this site. - -------------------------------- Bread Bowls Submitted by:Jack Dickson Bread and stew, and no dishes to wash after dinner. Ingredients: 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast 1 3/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F) 2 cups bread flour 2 cups whole wheat flour 1 egg white Directions: 1. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add one cup of bread flour and one cup whole wheat flour. Mix until smooth. Keep adding flour, alternating bread flour and whole wheat flour, and mixing until very hard to mix. 2. Turn dough out on a floured work surface, and knead until dough is smooth and not sticky. Work as much flour as necessary into the dough. Roll into a ball. Place into a lightly oiled bowl, and turn to coat the whole surface with oil. Cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled. Rising time is between 1 1/2 and 2 hours. 3. Punch down the dough, and let rest 10 minutes. Divide into 4 balls. Place on cookie sheets, and flatten into disks. Allow to rise for another 1 to 2 hours. If desired, brush with egg white. 4. Bake in a preheated 375 degree F (190 degree C) oven for 40 to 50 minutes. When done bread should sound hollow when thumped on bottom. Remove from oven, and let cool. 5. Cut a circle out of the top of each loaf, and remove that part of the crust. Either remove the soft bread beneath, or compress it to form a bowl. - -------------------------------- Visit http://WWW.breadRecipe.com Copyright 1998 Emergent Media. Inc. Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 22:27:37 EST From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Crusty bread dy018 at freenet.carleton.ca writes: << Would it make any difference to just put a little pan of boiling water in the oven, or am I over simplifying this? >> Many recipes for French breads, crusty rolls and other things call for the inclusion of a pan of water on the bottom of the oven. Seems like a better idea than opening the door and letting your heat out to spray things. Ras Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 22:31:04 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Crusty bread > >I read that pro bakers sprayed water in the ovens like you do when > >bakeing bread. > > Would it make any difference to just put a little pan of boiling water in > the oven, or am I over simplifying this? > > Micaylah From some experiments, misting will give you a thinner crust. You can humidify the oven by putting a pan on the lower rack, bring the oven to temperature, then pour in about a 1/2 cup of water. Wait about 5 minutes then load your bread onto the upper rack. Bear Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 19:24:06 +1100 From: Charles Dean Subject: Re: SC - Crusty bread Two very effective methods to get steam in into a oven are: 1) Get a kitchen spayer and mist the oven when you put the loaves in and then again after 5 minutes of baking. Be careful not to mist the oven light or bang the door when you close it. 2) Put a pan containing a few ice cubes in the bottom of the oven as you put the loaves in. The ice cubes help spread the time you have a humid oven. Less effective but handy is to wet the surface of the loaf just before you bake it. Charles (of the Park) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 06:57:28 -0500 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - Crusty bread LrdRas at aol.com wrote: > Many recipes for French breads, crusty rolls and other things call for the > inclusion of a pan of water on the bottom of the oven. Seems like a better > idea than opening the door and letting your heat out to spray things. > > Ras OTOH, the spray method works just fine, and appears to produce results indistinguishable from the pan or ice methods. I had a baking instructor who swore by wetting and lightly wringing out a kitchen towel, and cracking it like a whip against the back or floor of the oven, three times, at five minute intervals. I doubt it matters too much how you do it, as long as there is some steam at the beginning of the baking process. Adamantius Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 12:01:44 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Steam in the Bread Oven > The Sourdough Rye was, uh, rather dense -- even more > dense than I'd expect a rye to be; but good flavour. I'll definitely try > this one again. The gluten in flour depends on the variety of cereal used to make the flour. Rye in general is lower in gluten than wheat, which is why many rye bread recipes call for a mix of rye and wheat flour. You may have a rye flour that is particularly low in gluten and can probably improve the density by adding some wheat flour. > I found millet meal at a local organic food store. Anybody tried baking > with millet? Also found spelt and barley grain -- anybody have any > experience with grinding these? I may just send a half-cupful through the > grinder just to see what they do. > > Elizabeth Millet doesn't have gluten so you will need to mix it with wheat flour for yeast baking. Try toasting the millet to improve the flavor. Bear Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 12:10:31 -0800 (PST) From: Donna Hrynkiw Subject: Re: SC - Time to give something back Greetings from Elizabeth, In the spirit of Maedb's "sharing" posting, I'd like to offer a recipe for Porridge Rye bread. I made this a couple of weekends ago (and froze it) and it was the star of my "different kinds of bread" display at this past weekend's Baroness's Birthday Tourney A&S display. People came back for second and third helpings of the samples, and as I was packing up, the remaining heel was begged off of me. Elizabeth Braidwood, An Tir donna at kwantlen.bc.ca - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: The Village Baker - Classic Regional Breads from Europe and America by Joe Ortiz. (Italics are indicated by dashes around the words.) - -Pain Bouillie- Porridge Bread Whenever you see a French recipe that begins with the instructions "Fair une Bouillie..." you know you have come across a very old recipe because it starts off with a mush made by pouring boing water over flour. The mush, with will ferment slightly overnight, is used the next day mixed into a bread. The most fascinating recipe I have heard of for -pain bouillie- is one from the Alpine region of France around the town of Villar-d'Arène. The - -boullie- is made with dark rye flour and set aside for rest for seven hours. The porridge is then mixed into a dough, without any yeast, and allowed to rest for another seven hours. When the dough is finally made into loaves, they are placed in an an oven that has already been used for making bread and so the temperature is only about 200F. The loaves bake for seven hours and the process produces a moist, dense, completely sourdough bread that lasts well over six months -- or so the story goes. The bread is traditionally made in November and it keeps best when stored in wine cellars and hay lofts. In the following recipe yeast and some white flour are included to make the procedure a little easier for the contemporary home baker. [EB: I suspect that in the original recipes, the porridge captured sufficient wild yeast to take care of the leavening.) Makes two 14-ounce loaves. THE -BOUILLIE- (PORRIDGE) 2 teaspoons honey 1 3/4 cups boiling water 1 cup organic rye flour 1 cup organic cracked rye grain [EB: I substituted rolled oats. Who has cracked rye on hand?] THE DOUGH 1 teaspoon active dry yeast [EB: I used 3/4 - 2/3 cup of my sourdough yeast culture and adjusted the amount of white flour to compensate for the added liquid.] 3 tablespoons warm water [EB: omitted.] All of the -bouillie- from the previous step 2 teaspoons fine sea salt [EB: I used table salt.] 2 teaspoons caraway seeds [EB: omitted. I dislike caraway.] 1 tablespoon raisins [EB: omitted. Without the caraway, the raisins don't make sense.] 2 cups organic, unbleached white (or all-purpose) flour [EB: I used Robin Hood unbleached white -- Canadian all-purpose flour.] TO MAKE THE -BOUILLIE- (PORRIDGE), dissolve the honey in the boiling water and pour it over the rye flour and grain in a ceramic bowl. Let the mixture soak for a few minutes, then stir it with a wooden spoon until the flour is completely wet. Cover the bowl with a towel and set it aside overnight in a warm place. [EB: I used my usual proofing place -- the cupboard over the fridge. Always a toasty 76-80F.] TO MAKE THE DOUGH, [proof the yeast in 2 tablespoons of warm water.] Place the -bouillie- in a medium-sized bowl, sprinkle the salt over the porridge and stir it in. [Crush the caraway seeds in a mortar, add the raisins, and grind the mixture to a paste. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of water. Add 2 teaspoons of this caraway flavouring to the -bouillie-.] Gradually add 1 1/2 cups flour, a handful at a time, while mixing with a plastic dough scraper. Mix in the yeast. Continue adding the rest of the flour by handfuls until it is all incorporated and you have a medium-firm piece of dough. Knead the dough on the worktable for between 5 and 8 minutes using a small additional quantity of white flour if necessary. The dough will be firm but if you press your fingers into it it will feel sticky. Return the dough to the bowl, cover it with a moist towel, and place it in an unlit oven for between 1 1/2 and 2 hours to rise. [EB: my notes say that my yeast culture took a little longer -- about 2 1/2 hours to doubling in size.] When it has doubled in bulk, cut the dough into 2 pieces. Shape the pieces into flat loaves that are 5 inches square and 2 inches high by flattening and then folding the edges toward the middle and sealing the joins with the heel of the hand. Oil one side of each loaf and place them, oiled sides abutting, side by side in a greased bread pan that measures 9 inches by 5 1/2 inches by 3 inches. [EB: He's making two half-loaves and putting them in the same pan. I made one loaf.] Let the dough rise, again covered with a moist towell, in an unlit oven for 30 minutes, until the dough has risen about 1/2 an inch above the top of the pan. [EB: My rise at this point took a whole hour.] Give each loaf a straight, 2-inch slash on the top with a razor blade and brush the tops with a little salad oil. [EB: I slashed, but did not oil.] Set the oven at 450F and immediately place the loaves inside. Bake the bread in what is known as a rising oven for 25 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 400F and bake the loaves for 45 minutes longer. They will be quite dark. Remove the loaves from the pan and place them on a cooling rack. When cooled the bread is best sliced very, very thin. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Man, talk about a wordy recipe. An experienced baker could pass this to another experienced baker in about 1/3 the space. E.B. donna at kwantlen.bc.ca Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 13:09:11 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Bread > I am looking for a good loaf to go with soup or stew.... > > Stacie For soup and stew, Pain de Campagne is excellent. Here is what I plan to make, sans raisins, to go with a cassoulet for New Year's. It might be interesting with soup or stew. Bear Pain de Ramerino (Rosemary Raisin Bread - Florentine) 1 teaspoon dry active yeast (1 pkg) 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F) 1/2 cup milk 3 Tablespoons of sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon dry rosemary 2 eggs 1/4 cup olive oil 3 cups flour 1/2 cup raisins olive oil for oiling pans In a medium bowl, sprinkle the yeast onto the warm water. Allow to dissolve and become creamy (about 5 minutes). Combine milk, sugar, salt and rosemary in a sauce pan and heat until warm (90 - 110 degrees F). Beat 1 egg and 1 egg white (reserve yolk) into the milk mixture. Beat the olive oil into the milk mixture. Add the milk mixture to the yeast mixture. Gradually beat in flour to make a stiff dough (this may not take all of the flour). On a well floured surface, knead the dough until it is smooth and satiny (10 to 20 minutes). Add flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking. Flatten the dough out into a large circle. put the raisins on one half of the dough and fold over the other half to cover. Fold and knead the dough lightly to get the raisins evenly distributed in the dough. Place the dough into an oiled bowl. Rotate the dough ball to coat with oil and cover. Allow to rise until doubled (about 1 1/2 hours). Punch the dough down lightly and form into a smooth ball. Place the dough on an oiled baking sheet or cake pan and press to flatten slightly. Cover and allow to rise until puffy (1/2 to 1 hour). Slash a cross in the top of the bread with a razor blade. The cuts should be about 1/2 inch deep. Beat the reserved egg yolk with 1 Tablespoon of cold water and brush onto the loaf as a glaze. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for about 35 minutes or until loaf is brown and sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom. Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 21:45:06 -0500 From: Brenna Subject: Re: SC - Bread Stacie wrote: > Does anyone have good bread recipes, is there > a good webpage for old fashioned bread recipes? etc...I'm looking for the > kind that mother's would make 8-) I have a very simple recipie which won me first place in a bread-making contest at our spring coronation (not to toot my own horn). It is very tasty, but incredibly easy to make. Here goes. 2 cups of hot water (105-110) 1/2 Tbsp of shortening 1 pkg of dry yeast (I use a quick-rise, so my times are based on that) 1/4 cup of honey 1 tsp salt flour (buy whole wheat and "Gold Medal brand wheat mix") Melt shortning in water. Add yeast and sugar and stir until dissolved. Addsalt and begin adding flour while mixing with a fork (alternate 1/2 cup measuresof the two flours to keep an even amount of them in the mixture) until the doughis able to be kneaded. Dump dough onto a tabletop liberally floured with thewheat mix flour. Fold in as much of that flour as the dough will hold, thenknead it for a few more minutes. Grease a bowl with shortening. Place the doughin the bowl, and coat the top with a thin layer of the shortning. Let rise in awarm place for 45 minutes. Punch down. Let rise an additional 45 minutes.Punch down again and seperate into 2 greased loaf pans. Let rise 35 minutes.Place in a preheated oven at 350 degrees and bake 45-60 minutes (untilbrowned and hollow sounding). If I'm serving the bread soon after, I butter the tops while hot out of the pans. If I'm freezing them, I skip this step. Brenna Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 18:55:50 -0900 From: "Reia M. Chmielowski" Subject: Re: SC - Bread Stacie wrote: > Does anyone have good bread recipes, is there > a good webpage for old fashioned bread recipes? etc...I'm looking for the > kind that mother's would make 8-) Well, I don't have web page addresses, but I tend to make my bread the old-fashioned way. I always start with a bread sponge. Put about a cup full of flour in a bowl with some yeast (I never measure--but typical bread recipes use two packages of dry yeast) and add roughly the same amount of warm to hot water gradually--stirring all the while. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and set it aside for an hour, or over night, or until you remember to get back to it. It should look much like a sponge when it is ready. Then I add more warm liquid (sometimes water, sometimes milk, sometimes water that I boiled vegetables in--whatever) and flour (sometimes white, sometimes white in combination with whole wheat, or rye, or barley, or whatever I feel like today, but if I'm using lots of "heavy flours I'll add some gluten to keep the dough soft), a bit of salt, and perhaps some sweeter (honey, molasses, sugar, whatever) in small quantity. If I'm feeling decadent I'll also add butter (or some other shortening or flavored oil), +/- egg(s), and then any other extras (like fresh peeled garlic cloves with herbs, or dried fruit, or nuts, or whatever). All that bread really needs is flour, yeast, water, and salt--the rest is optional depending on today's inspiration. Once I've mixed it all together and kneaded it well I set it to rise and hour or three or more and then punch it down and let it rise again before shaping. Many recipes say to omit second rising to save time--but if you are doing the bread in small bursts of energy while working on some other project it is really worth the extra time in terms of texture. I often set the sponge either the night before, or in the morning before leaving for work, then I'll have time to do the rest later. Yes, this is more of vague description than a recipe, but that is the way I cook--I pinch of this, a dollop of that, and different every time, but always delicious! Oh--yes, I recall that she wanted bread to go with a stew. In that case I'd tend to be using a fair bit of rye or other dark flour and put in powdered milk (much cheaper out here than the real stuff) and butter for richness. I'd also try to time it so that the bread was done around the same time as the stew--so start the sponge the night before, knead the dough first thing in the morning, have it punched down by lunch time, shaped two hours before the meal, and then it should be baked right on time... - --Kareina Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 07:49:56 PST From: "Bonne of Traquair" Subject: Re: SC - Bread Kareina, your guidelines pretty much describe my breadmaking! The winter I committed myself to learning to bake bread, I worked closely with a book called "Breadtime Stories". Tacky name, but one of the few books that describes the process rather than simply giving a recipe. The instruction on how much ignoring a batch of bread could take, and the very apt descriptions of the texure and feel of the dough at each stage surely cut a lot of trial and error out of my learning process. It was as good as having an experienced baker visit every Saturday and keep an eye on me through my first half dozen attempts. The book opens with a history and materials chapter. Then follows a long chapter on "the basic loaf". Something like 4 pages of text and illustration on the making of a loaf. A chapter on common variations (of flour, liquids etc) and the difference those ingredients make in the finished loaf. A chapter on shaping and baking techniques somewhere in there. The book closes with an international collection of bread recipes paired up with soup or stew recipes from the same culture. Bonne Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1999 10:57:00 EST From: Devra at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Bread Okay. This is a lovely, mild bread, but not just another boring white loaf. Oatmeal Bread with Cooked Oatmeal, from On Bread, by James Beard. Alfred A Knopf, 1973, copyright 1973 James A Beard [The original recipe is for 2 small loaves. I 'm giving the quadruple version I usually make, because otherwise it's all eaten up in one day. It freezes nicely. Actually, I've made a few small changes, but it's his recipe, really.] Ingredients 4 C (1 quart) coarse rolled oats 4 C (1 qt) boiling water 8 pkgs (8T, scant) dry yeast 4 tsp granulated sugar 1/8--1/4 tsp ground dry ginger 1 C warm water (to proof the yeast) 1 Qt warm milk {either regular or 1/2-1C dry milk, then fill up qt measure with regular} 4 Tblsp salt (I usually use coarse) 1 C dark brown sugar, packed 16-20 C (4-5 Qt) white flour 1) Cook the oats in the boiling water until thickened, about 3 minutes. Pour into a very large mixing bowl and cool to lukewarm. 2) Stir yeast, ginger, and sugar into warm water. Let it sit a few minutes to proof. 3) Add warm milk, salt, brown sugar, and yeast mixture to the lukewarm oats. 4) Stir well, then stir in 14-16 C flour, (3-1/2 --4Qt), in medium-sized dollops. (Original says to add 1 C at a time, but we're talking larger here.) 5) Turn out onto floured board and knead into a smooth, pliable, elastic dough. If necessary add up to 4 C more flour. 6) Kneading will take 10-20 minutes. Final dough will have a wonderful feel. 7) Shape into ball, put into well-buttered bowl, and turn to coat on all sides. Cover with damp towel and let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled, about 1-11/2 hrs. 8) Punch dough down and knead for 2-3 minutes. 9) Shape dough into 4-5 large loaves. Place in buttered loaf pans, cover, and let rise again until about even with top of tins, or almost doubled. 10) Preheat oen to 375^ F, place tins in the center of the lowest rack, and bake for about 45 to 50 minutes, until loaves sound hollow when rapped on the bottom. 11) Return the loaves, without the tins, to the oven rack to bake for about 5 more minutes, then remove to racks to cool. Beard says that you can coat the crust with butter at this point for a soft crust, but I think the crunchy crust is much nicer. NB: When you are shaping the loaves (flatten to an oval, then roll up firmly) you can sprinkle them with chopped nuts, and/or cinnamon and sugar mix. Devra the Baker Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 09:21:35 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Bread > when I was in the middle of > it I realized that that I had used 1 cup water instead of the 1/4 cup it > should have been so instead of 1 cup milk I used 1/4 cup. Well the > question is I know the amount of liquid total was correct but would the > reversal ( ie boo boo) I made affect the overall taste/ consistency? > The bread is great but I am curious if correcting the boo boo would make > it better? Is it six of one and half a dozen of the other? Or does the > original have 1 cp milk 1/4 water ratio for a reason? > > Morwenna The total amount of liquid determines how much flour can be used. It is normally 2 to 4 cups of flour to each cup of liquid, depending on how dry the flour is and how stiff you want the dough. Milk enriches the dough by adding proteins, fats, and lactose. Milk enriched bread usually has a softer, more delicate crumb and a richer taste. The proteins improve the crumb. The fats and lactose improve the taste. Correcting your error would improve the bread, but the change will probably go unnoticed. One other thing, enriched breads have a shorter storage life than plain breads and they are more susceptible to molds. This is normally not a problem in the presence of the average ravening horde. Bear Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 12:33:46 -0800 (PST) From: Donna Hrynkiw Subject: Re: SC - Bread Somebody already mentioned that using milk as part of the liquid in bread makes it richer (which is true), but something in the back of my mind says that it also makes the crust softer. More water - crispier crust More milk - softer/more tender crust So by adding more water, your crust should be crisper -- which jives with your description. Elizabeth Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 10:47:16 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - once again bread > But I have a question...I love making sour dough bread.....but to me it is > never sour enough....can it be made sourer ? is that the proper way to say > it even? > Stacie The best sourdoughs are produced by a symbiotic reaction between Candida milleri, a strain of Saccharomyces exiguus, and Lactobacillus sanfrancisco. The reaction does not occur with S. cerevisiae (regular bread yeast). C. milleri strengthens the gluten and L. sanfrancisco improves the fermentation of the maltose and provides the characteristic sourness. Unfortunately, most of us are not in San Franciso where this combination is readily available. To make a sourdough starter, in a bowl, mix 2 cups of flour with one cup of water. Place the bowl on the counter and wait. It does not matter whether the bowl is covered or uncovered. The water and the flour will activate a natural amylase reaction to convert starch into sugar. The yeasts present in the flour will use the sugar to ferment the dough and create a sourdough. Exposing the starter to the air increases the probability of gathering wild yeasts and lactobacilli in the starter. None of this insures a good starter or decent sourdough. That is the luck of the draw. If you have problems with bugs, tape a couple layers of cheese cloth over the starter bowl. If it is sealed to the sides of the bowl, it will keep most bugs out, but let the yeasty beasties in. In my opinion, most recipes for sourdough starter are too complex and depend on S. cerevisiae to boost them, which defeats the idea of wild yeast and lactobacillus. I am considering trying a little sour cream or buttermilk to initially boost the lactobacilli in the starter, but this introduces other organic compounds which may be susceptible to molds and other infections. If you have a starter. Try leaving it on the counter and feeding it twice a day with 1/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup of flour. Use a big bowl, and be ready to bake two or three times a week. Keeping the starter on the counter makes it more active than keeping it in the refrigerator and it needs to be fed regularly to keep it from dying. If the bread still isn't sour enough, try baking bread made with starter, water, flour and salt. Leave out the shortenings, the sweeteners, and the yeast. Your first rise will likely take 8 to 12 hours. Your second rise will take 1 to 2 hours. Bear Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 13:34:28 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - once again bread > > The reaction does not occur with S. cerevisiae (regular bread yeast). > > Whose name, ironically, suggests it is, or was, in fact a brewer's > yeast, which might help account for the phenomenon. > > Adamantius Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the yeast found in ale barm. Today's baker's yeast is a variant of S. cerevisiae, so if you use compressed yeast or dry active yeast to leaven your bread, you are using the equivalent of ale barm. Most, if not all, of the top fermenting brewer's yeasts are variants of S. cerevisiae. Just to add to the confusion, variants of S. cerevisiae have been bred to be bottom fermenting and these are replacing the variants of S. carlsbergensis which were previously used in beer making. The symbiosis between C. milleri and L.sanfrancisco occurs because C. milleri can not use maltose, but can use all of the other sugars released by the amylase reaction. This leaves the maltose free to be used by L. sanfrancisco. Additionally, C. milleri is more resistant to the acidic environment created by the lactobacilli than many other yeasts. This fortuitous combination optomizes fermentation and sourness. Apparently, S. cerevisiae is a little wimpy in high acid environments. Bear Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 18:47:25 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Was Pizza Wars - OOP, Now Bread Rising > I have professed before that I do bake a bit of bread. However, everything I > do is the basic "rise until doubled - 1 to 3 hours" or variations there of. > Could we start an educational discussion of other ways and reasons for rising > bread. Especially extending risings, chilled risings, 8-24 hour risings and > the like. > > Katarin In for a penny, in for a pound, I've been baking for 35 years and I'm still learning things. Rise until doubled is fine. You use about 1 teaspoon of dry active yeast or equivalent for two pounds of flour and make bread. The rise is fast enough for most people, the quantity of yeast is low enough so that the bread doesn't taste like a cake of yeast, and the end product is better than most of the insipid, underbaked stuff the groceries sell as bread. I use this method often, usually with enriched, sweet doughs which do not work well with extended rises. Going beyond the common quick rise, you are seeking improvements in texture or flavor or both. The first trick is the sponge. Dissolve 1 tablespoon of sweetener (honey, sugar, malt extract, etc.) in 1 cup of warm water. Sprinkle in 1 teaspoon of dry active yeast and allow to cream. Blend in two cups of the flour(s) you will be using to make the bread to form a dough. Cover and let stand for 4 to 24 hours. The sponge sours slightly producing a better flavor. Letting it stand 12 to 24 hours is best in my experience. Break the sponge apart in the remaining liquid for the recipe you are preparing. Blend in the remaining ingredients and rise and bake as usually. Professional bakers tend to use less yeast and allow more time for nature to take it's course. A variation on the sponge is the "quarter rise," where the sponge is created in stages. The first step is a normal sponge using 1/4 of the total flour and water, all of the yeast, and a little salt. Let it ferment for 12 hours, then break the sponge apart in 5/8 of the remaining water. Add a 1/3 of the total flour, 1/4 of the total salt and all of the sweetener. This will produce a second stage batter sponge. In an hour add the remaining ingredients, let rise for an hour, knead and form the loaves. I don't use this method and I don't really recommend it except as a experiment. The method is used with large quantities of dough (the recipe I've seen it used with calls for 280 lbs of flour and 8 oz. of compressed yeast). If you use it in a normal recipe, try a scant 1/8 teaspoon to 4 lbs of flour. However, it does point out a simple fact. If you want a longer rise, use less yeast. A sourdough starter is a sponge created from a spontaneous leaven rather than from a commercial yeast. It works slower than regular yeast and as stated previously will take 8 to 12 hours to get a good first rise. Once the yeast is spread through the dough, the second rise will be faster. The majority of sourdough bread recipes boost the sourdough with yeast to get a fast rise. I prefer the longer rise and increasing the salt to control leavening and sourness of the bread. Raising the loaves of bread in a cooler is a professional boulangier's trick. It lengthens the time of the rise overnight, so that the baker has better control of his time. It is a necessity of economics rather than of baking. That being said, a refrigerator rise allows a home baker to delay baking for up to 24 hours. The home refrigerator is colder than the boulangier's cooler and not as benign an environment. When making bread to rise in the refrigerator, I tend to double the amount of yeast. Shape the loaves after the first rise and put in their tins. Cover with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator. When you go to bake it, put the dough into a cold oven and bring it to temperature. Bake until done (50 to 60 minutes, for standard bread dough). Refrigerator rise improves nothing. It allows the home baker to schedule more efficiently. Breads rise in the refrigerator best between 4 and 12 hours. I use the technique primarily to have bread fresh and hot from the oven in the morning by letting the dough rise overnight. A rise extending technique I want to try is "peggy tub," where the rise is slowed by wrapping the dough in a cloth and immersing it in cool water. Apparently the rise can be extended to about 12 hours and the water improves the texture of the bread. It is a method first described by Pliny when commenting about Parthian bread. That's a start. I have to go and cook supper. Until later. Bear Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 16:00:34 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - bread adjustments for higher altitudes > Well I am back to bread again ( seems a recurring theme with me hehe). > I wanted to give a friend Devra's yummy oatmeal bread recipe, but the > problem is she lives at a higher altitude so I dont know how to adjust > the recipe for her? Anyone out there have any experience with this? > She is at 6500 ft. > Morwenna For most yeast leavened breads, you don't have to worry much about altitude. Since you're using a sweet dough, I would recommend running a couple test batches. Sweet doughs tend to be more finicky about baking conditions than plain doughs. Run one according to the recipe, if it comes out, fine. If it doesn't, then you have to decide which changes need to be made. The problem with high altitude baking is water boils at about 198 degrees F at 7500 feet. The boiling point of water at sea level is 212 degrees F (this does not change appreciably until above 2500 feet). For the high altitude baker, this means the internal temperature of the bread is lower, lengthening the baking time, while the liquid in the product is evaporating faster, drying out the crumb. If the first batch doesn't turn out, use just enough flour to keep the dough from being overly sticky (around 16 cups with the recipe given) and try baking at 400 degrees F to raise the internal temperature of the loaf. If you are interested in solving the problems of high altitude cooking, take a look at the Colorado State Extension Publications at: http://www.colostate.edu/depts/CoopExt/PUBS/FOODNUT/pubfood.html Bear Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 14:02:12 EDT From: Seton1355 at aol.com Subject: SC - REC: Oatmeal bread I am in the process of going through my recipes and transfering them to disk. I came across this recipe for oatbread from the Quaker Oats people. I haven't made it for years, but everytime I did make it, my family loved it. It always struck me as a "hearth" loaf (well, if you don't put it into pans) and while not period, exactly...it could be "period - like!" YIS, Phillipa HINTS OF HONEY LOAF 2 packs yeast 2 1/2 tsp salt 1/2C warm water 6 C flour 2 1/4C milk scalded 2 C qroats, uncooked 1/4C shortening 1/3 C honey Dissolve yeast in water Pour milk over shortening, honey & salt; cool to lukewarm. Stir in 2 cups of flour. Add dissolved yeast & oats; mix well. Stir in enough additional flour to make a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface & knead until smooth & elastic Shape into a ball & place into a greased bowl, turning once to coat the top surface, Cove & let rise for 1 hour. Punch down and let rest for 10 minutes. Divide dough in half, roll out each half to form a 15 X 9" rectangle. Roll up, starting with the narrow end, pressing together the seam to seal. Place in 2 greased loaf pans. Cover & let rise for 45 minutes. Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes. Remove from pans & cool on wire racks. From: "Decker, Terry D." To: "'sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG'" Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 10:21:50 -0600 Subject: SC - Ciambelle (was Bread) > I do not have primary source, but the > one I read said the receipt originally was in the notebooks of a > late-16th-Century Italian nun, Maria Teresa Somethingorother (it's not > here). The name of the item is "Drowned Chiambelle" (sp may be off) and > they really are like miniature bagels seasoned with anise. Quite yummy, > and > not sweet. > > ---= Morgan I think your recipe comes from Gillian Riley's Renaissance Recipes. Only the redactions are given, there is no translation of the primary source and no information other than the bibliography as to where she got the redactions. The recipe comes from the notebooks of Sister Maria Vittoria della Verde (Portia della Verde) of the convent of San Tommaso in Perugia. Bear Drowned Ciambelle 1 lb. strong white flour 1 tsp. dried yeast 1 tsp. ground anise seeds 1 tsp. salt 1 Tbsp. white sugar Water as required Knead the flour and yeast with water, salt and ground anise to make a soft dough. Leave to rise until the dough has doubled in size. Knock down, then take egg-sized lumps and roll them into strips. Join the ends to make a circle with a hole in the middle. Cook in batches in a large pan of boiling water. When they come to the top, they are done. Take them out and leave them to dry in the open air or in an uncovered baking dish in a cool oven. Then bake them in a hot oven for ten minutes. Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 14:58:21 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - help - my own bread recipe! As requested, Bear. Ravensgard slow-rise multi-grain bread c. Chimene des CinqTours / Patricia R. Dunham, 1995, rev. January 1999 This recipe has its roots in the French Country Bread recipe in the Feb/March 1995 issue of Fine Cooking magazine. The following instructions assume some basic familiarity with bread making; this is probably not a recipe for an absolute beginner. A. Make a sponge (damp yeast starter) of: 2/3 cup warm water (105-115 F) 1/2 teaspoon yeast 1/4 cup Stone-buhr 4-grain cereal (wheat/ rye/ barley/ oats) OR 7-grain (cracked wheat/ oats/ bran/ rye/ corn meal/ flax seed/ hulled millet) 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon whole wheat flour Mix ingredients thoroughly in a medium-size bowl; let proof for 4-16 hours. Cover the bowl while it's sitting and the yeast is working; keep it out of drafts and temperature changes as much as possible. When finished it should look (like it has been) bubbly and should smell yeasty. B. For the bread: In a larger bowl, combine the sponge and: FOR 4-GRAIN: 3/4 cup water + 1/8 cup water 1 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 Tablespoons sugar + 1 T. water (originally this was 1 T. Honey) 1 1/4 teaspoon yeast 1/4 cup cereal 3 cups unbleached bread flour (approximately) ******** FOR 7-GRAIN: 3/4 cup water 1 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 Tablespoons sugar + 1 T. water (originally this was 1 T. Honey) 1 teaspoon yeast 1/4 cup cereal 3 cups unbleached bread flour (approximately) ******** Knead about 5 minutes. Keep your kneading surface floured with the minimum amount of flour to prevent the dough sticking to it, or to your hands. This is a damp dough, but works nicely. When finished kneading, the dough should spring back when pressed with a finger. Let rise at room temperature 2-3 hours or up to 12 hours in the refrigerator in a lightly greased bowl. If the dough has been refrigerated, let it come to room temperature (I do NOT know how long this "coming to room temp" should take, always seems like forever to me and I think I usually short it). Shape loaf and set to rise on baking surface (whatever you're using), until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours. (Additional rises are possible early in the process, if you wish, or if timing problems require.) The baking surface(s) I use are Superstone ceramic cloches (WONDERFUL things; I have both the original round/beehive top and the baguette-loaf shapes). These easily simulate period bread baking conditions*. I place the shaped loaf (previous step) on a sprinkle of flour in the base section for the rise (and put the lid on to prevent drafts). When risen, I remove the cloche lid, slash the loaf, rinse the cloche lid interior with water and replace it. This produces an initial "steam" treatment for the crust. Oven temperature of 375 for about 30-40 minutes. Loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. If the bread has not browned by the time it should be done, remove the cloche lid for about 5 minutes, that should take care of it. (The original recipe's baking instructions -- non-cloche -- indicate: 450 for the first 15 minutes, and spritz the oven walls with water from a spray bottle every few minutes for the crust effect; then finish at 425 for 30-35 minutes. The one time I tried these times and temperatures with a cloche, I got a blackened rock; hence the cooler and shorter figures for cloche baking.) IMPORTANT! Be sure to slash this loaf (sharp knife, razor, even snipping with scissors). There is (supposed to be) a sudden expansion of the loaf when the heat hits, and the crust will tear explosively and randomly if not given a route for rapid expansion via the slashes. You need to slash deeply, about 1/2 inch (thanks, Bear), and you may have to experiment to find the tool that works for you. You may have to encourage the slashes to open as you cut, by GENTLE finger-tip pressure on either side... at least this is the stage I'm currently at, 8-) -- the dough is moist enough that it just closes around the razor edge I'm using... maybe I'm pressing too hard or trying to go too fast? This should produce a moist, chewy loaf with an interesting multi-grain content which is nice for a period feel (rougher flours with multiple ingredients). To our taste, the 4-grain gives a somewhat milder -and- richer taste, and has fewer "period-questionable" components. The 4-grain version contains a bit more water and yeast, which I tried in response to the recent SCA-cooks thread on barley breads being very difficult to leaven. The dough may be a bit wetter at the kneading stage, but comes out only a bit denser than the 7-grain one. I have made the 7-grain with honey, but my husband doesn't like the taste, so... The steps can be done at long or short times, and the possibility of extra rises makes this a recipe that can be very flexible -- or drive you crazy trying to figure out how to fit it into the work-a-day world... 8-) * See Karen Hess' discussion of reproducing period baking conditions in modern applicances, esp. pp 19-20, Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery; contents ca. 1575-1625. Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 21:08:49 -0500 From: "Sharon R. Saroff" Subject: Re: SC - Bread for a wedding feast... I used to make this for friends weddings. It is partially taken from a Greek wedding bread recipe I saw in a bread recipe book I used to own from Sturbridge Village. Since I experiment a lot I changed the book's recipe. I researched the customs that I note below, though I don't have my sources handy. Sindara Wedding Bread Recipe: 3/4 cup orange juice 1/4 cup cool water 1 stick sweet butter, melted 1/2 cup honey 2tbs rum 1 tbs amaretto or almond extract 1 tsp vanilla 2 tbs dry yeast 1/2 cup warm water 1/2 tsp sugar 3 eggs 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp grated orange peel 1/2 tsp grated lemon peel 1/2 tsp anise seed 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp ginger 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp allspice 1/2 tsp ground clove 1/2 tsp coriander 7-7 1/2 cups of flour (white) eggwhite for glaze In large mixing bowl place yeast, warm water and sugar. Stir and let stand until froth begins. Add liquid ingredients (make sure the melted butter is cooled so as not to kill the yeast) and stir. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add dry ingredients, add flour a cup at a time. Mix until dough can be handled. Knead on floured board about 5 min or until elastic. Placed in greased bowl, making sure that the dough gets coated w/ the grease and coover w/ wet towel. Let stand until doubled in size (about 2 hours). Punch down and knead again until elastic. Check for air bubbles. Divide dough into four parts. Roll three parts into tubes and braid them together. Form a circle with the braid (You now have a braided wreath) Roll out the fourth piece until flat. With cookie cutters form shapes and decorate the braid. Let stand covered on greased cookie sheet until doubled in size. Brush w/ eggwhite and sprinkle w/grated peel, currants and chopped nuts if desired. Bake at 400F for 15 min then drop temperature to 350 and bake 40-45min or until bread has a hollow sound when tapped at bottom. The custom is to serve the bread on a silver tray surrounded by dried fruits and nuts. Place a lit candle in an enclosed holder in the center. This represents the "Eternal Flame of Love." Another note: The people of the South Pacific have a curious wedding custom of placing an agate bead in the shell drinking vessels of the bride and groom. Upon doing this the bride and groom take a drink from the vessel and the priest says, "Just as these two beads, So you shall go down together, but never apart." Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 21:01:26 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: SC - OOP - Cheese Bread > Ooooh, cheese bread! One can never have too many recipes for that (or > anything else :-) )! Please, please?? > > -- Harriet Start with a basic bread recipe (makes 2 loaves). I used: 2 cups of water about 90 degrees F 1 teaspoon of yeast 2 Tablespoons of sugar 2 teaspoons salt 5 cups of flour Dissolve the sugar and the yeast in the water. Stir in a couple cups of flour and the salt. Stir in flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough forms a ball. Turn out on a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic. Add flour as necessary. Let rise until doubled. Punch down and divide. Now for the cheese part: cube 1/2 pound of cheddar or provolone or etc. (I like approx.1/2 inch cubes or a little smaller). Flatten one of the pieces of dough. Place 1/4 of the cheese cubes in the middle third of the dough. Fold over one of the outer thirds. Place 1/4 of the cheese cubes on the folded dough. Fold over the remaining third. Shape the loaf and place it on a greased baking sheet or in a greased tin. Repeat for the second loaf. Allow to rise until doubled. Bake in pre-heated oven at 400 degrees F for 50 minutes or until done. Some of the cheese will weep out, but if the loaf is formed properly, the cubes will expand and melt leaving cheese lined cavities in the bread. For onion cheese bread, I chop up and sauté a bunch of green onions to be added with the cheese. My wife gave me The Italian Baker for my birthday and there are some lovely looking cheese bread recipes I'll be trying in the near future. Bear Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 09:08:34 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - bread recipes--?? Phefner at aol.com wrote: > Does anyone know where I might find some period bread recipes? Also, does > anyone know what you're supposed to do with rolled oats to make oatcakes? Somewhere in the "Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books" there is, I think, a recipe for rastons, which are essentially loaves of bread with the innards taken out, buttered a bit like a bread-and-butter pudding, and packed back into the crusts for service. The recipe tells you how to make the bread, too. There's also a good manchet recipe in Gervase Markham's "The English Hus-Wife", and a bread recipe in Platina's "De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudinae". As for oatcakes, yes, you can make them with rolled oats, but you have to grind them into proper meal. Maybe not quite as fine as flour, but much finer than the rolled oats. Actually, this is probably the best thing you can do with rolled oats, as it is no longer apparent that they _are_ rolled oats after you grind them. I've done it a cup at a time in a clean electric coffee grinder. Just whiz the bejeezus out of them (my aplogies for such technical jargon) until they resemble sand or very fine breadcrumbs. Most oatcake recipes seem to call for oat meal (as in oats ground into flour of a not-very-well-defined grade), or pinhead oats, which are steel-cut oats somewhat finer than we get in the USA, maybe like fine bulgur in texture, or even finer. Adamantius Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 00:42:42 EDT From: Korrin S DaArdain Subject: Re: SC - bread recipes--(Recipes) (LONG) On Mon, 16 Aug 1999 08:38:56 EDT Phefner at aol.com writes: >Does anyone know where I might find some period bread recipes? Also, >does anyone know what you're supposed to do with rolled oats to make >oatcakes? >Thanks in advance. > >Isabelle Sorry, nothing on oatcakes. Korrin S. DaArdain Kitchen Steward of Household Port Karr Kingdom of An Tir in the Society for Creative Anachronism. Korrin.DaArdain at Juno.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Indian Breads Ain i Akbari From Cariadoc's Miscellany. Copyright © by David Friedman, 1988, 1990, 1992. There is a large kind, baked in an oven, made of 10 s. flour; 5 s. milk; 1 1/2 s. ghi; 1/4 s. salt. They make also smaller ones. The thin kind is baked on an iron plate. One ser will give fifteen, or even more. There are various ways of making it; one kind is called chapati, which is sometimes made of khushka; it tastes very well when served hot. 1 lb = 3 1/2 c flour 1/2 lb = 1 c milk 2.4 oz ghee = 3/8-1/2 c .4 oz salt = 1/2 T Melt the ghee, stir it into the flour with a fork until there are only very small lumps. Stir in the milk until thoroughly mixed, knead briefly. Put the ball of dough in a bowl covered by a damp cloth and leave for at least an hour. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, adding a little extra flour if necessary. Either: Take a ball of dough about 2" in diameter, roll it out to about a 5" diameter circle. Cook it in a hot frying pan without grease. After about 2 minutes it should start to puff up a little in places. Turn it. Cook another 2 minutes. Turn it. Cook another 2 minutes. It should be done. The recipe should make about 11 of these. Take a ball of dough about 3" in diameter. Roll it down to a circle about 7" in diameter and 1/4" thick. Heat a baking sheet in a 450deg. oven. Put the circle of dough on it in the oven. Bake about 6 minutes; it should be puffing up. Turn it over. Bake about 4 minutes more. Take it out. The recipe should make about 5 of these. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Platina Bread Platina pp. 13-14 From Cariadoc's Miscellany. Copyright © by David Friedman, 1988, 1990, 1992. ... Therefore I recommend to anyone who is a baker that he use flour from wheat meal, well ground and then passed through a fine seive to sift it; then put it in a bread pan with warm water, to which has been added salt, after the manner of the people of Ferrari in Italy. After adding the right amount of leaven, keep it in a damp place if you can and let it rise. ... The bread should be well baked in an oven, and not on the same day; bread from fresh flour is most nourishing of all, and should be baked slowly. flour 6 3/4 c: 1 c whole wheat, 5 1/4 c white at first, 1/2 c later 2-1/4 c warm water 1T salt 1-1/2 c sourdough Put sourdough in a bowl. Add warm (not hot!) water and salt, mix. Add whole wheat flour, then white, 1 or 2 c at a time, first stirring in with a wooden spoon and then kneading it in. Cover with a wet towel, set aside. Let rise overnight (16-20 hours). Turn out on a floured board, shape into two or three round loaves, working in another 1/2 c or so of flour. Let rise again in a warm place for an hour. Bake at 350deg. about 50 minutes. Made 2 loaves, about 8" across, 3"-4" thick, about 1.5 lb, or three smaller loaves. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Panckoecken (Medieval Dutch Pancakes) Recipe translated and typed by Heiko Ebeling. The amounts of the ingredients mentioned in this recipe are educated guesses by the Dutch cookbook author Annie van't Veer. 500 g Flour 25 g Fresh yeast 3 dl Tepid milk 1 Egg 25 g Melted butter 10 g Salt Make a dough from the ingredients and knead it, preferably with your hands. After you've done that, let the dough raise for one hour. Then roll it out as thinly as you can manage (stop when small holes appear) on a flour-dusted surface. In the middle ages, people deep-fried the panckoecken in rape seed oil. For special occasions they sometimes added a few raisins or small pieces of apple (used as a cake for Lent). At what stage of the preparation is not known, but I assume they added them to the dough before rolling it out. This way, the pancakes turn out thicker, but that's what is needed to keep the raisins or pieces of apple from falling out. Since this is a medieval recipe, it didn't have a list of ingredients, only instructions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Manchet Bread - England, 14th Century Seven Centuries of English Cooking by Maxime de la Falaise 1992 ISBN 0-8021-3296-0 Posted by Jeff Pruett. 1 pk Yeast 1 c Warm water 2 1/2 c White whole-wheat flour 1 c All-purpose flour 1 Tsp. Salt 4 TB Softened butter Dissolve the yeast in half the warm water. Put the two types of flour and the salt into a bowl; make a well in the flour and add all the water and butter. Mix well. Add more flour if the mixture is too sticky to knead. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic and then put into a greased bowl, covered with a cloth. Let the dough rise for 1 to 1-1/2 hours, or until it has doubled in bulk. Punch it down and shape it into rather flat, round loaves. Put these onto a greased baking sheet, cover with a cloth, and leave to rise for 45 minutes (or until twice the size). The loaves can be brushed with egg wash, to 'endore' them, before baking, and the tops can be slashed and pricked with a fork. Bake at 375f for 35 to 40 minutes. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Saffron Bread - England, 15th Century Seven Centuries of English Cooking by Maxime de la Falaise 1992 Posted by Jeff Pruett. 3/4 c Milk 1/4 Tsp. Saffron 1 pk (1/2 oz) yeast 4 TB Lukewarm water 3 1/2 c Flour 2 Tsp. Salt 2 Eggs 1/2 c Sugar (Opt'l) 1/2 c Raisins (opt'l) Scald the milk with the saffron. Let it cool. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water. Sift together 3 cups of the flour and the salt. Make a well in the center of the flour, spoon in the eggs, milk, and yeast mixture and blend. Add enough flour to prevent it becoming sticky. Knead, adding more flour as needed, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Put in a greased bowl in a warmish place and leave to rise until it is double in bulk (about 45 minutes). Punch down and shape into a round loaf. Place this on a greased baking sheet and leave to rise until it has again doubled in size. Bake at 375f for 25 to 30 minutes, then cool on a rack. If you decide to use raisins, knead them in after punching the dough down the first time. The sugar should be mixed in with the flour at the beginning. Good for tea; keeps a long time; good for breading fish or veal. "Stale slices baked very slowly in the oven can be turned into excellent rusks. Rub those with garlic and use them as a garnish for fish soup." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Red and White Gingerbread "Gyngerbrede" - (Scottish Medieval dated from 1430 AD) A Book of Historical Recipes by Sara Paston-Williams The National Trust of Scotland, 1995 ISBN 0-7078-0240-7; Posted by Paul Macgregor "Take a quart of hony, & sethe it, & skeme it clene; take Safroun, poudir Pepir & throw ther-on; take gratyd Brede & make it so chargeaunt (thick) that it wol be y-leched; then take pouder Canelle (cinnamon) & straw ther-on y-now; then make yt square, lyke as thou wolt leche yt; take when thou lechyst hyt, an caste Box (garden box) leves a-bouyn, y-stkyd ther-on, on clowys (cloves). And if thou wolt have it Red, coloure it with Saunderys (sandalwood) y-now." Historical note: Gingerbread, both red and white, was a favourite medieval sweetmeat. Home-made gingerbread could be prepared by mixing bread crumbs to a stiff paste with honey, pepper, saffron and cinnamon. Ginger is omitted from the earliest recipe we have, but this may be due to an accidental slip on the part of the scribe. Once made, it was shaped into a square, sliced and decorated with box leaves impaled on cloves. ** British Measurements ** 1 lb. Honey pinch Powdered saffron 1 Tsp. Black pepper 2 Tsp. Ground ginger 2 Tsp. Ground cinnamon 1 lb. White bread crumbs Box or bay leaves & whole cloves to decorate Warm the honey over a gentle heat until quite runny, then stir in the saffron and pepper. Pour into a large bowl and add the ginger and cinnamon, then mix in the bread crumbs. It is impossible to say exactly how many bread crumbs the honey will absorb because it varies, but the mixture should be very stiff. If not, add a few more bread crumbs. Line a shallow gingerbread tin with baking parchment and press the mixture into it with your fingers. Level the top and leave to firm up in the fridge for several hours, then turn out on to another sheet of paper and cut into small squares. Arrange the gingerbread on a large plate, then decorate each square with two box or small bay leaves and a whole clove stuck in the center. You can achieve an even prettier effect by gilding a few of the leaves or painting the ends of some of the cloves red. If you want to achieve a checkerboard effect, make the mixture up in two lots, adding a few drops of red coloring to one quantity of honey before mixing, then continue as before. Arrange the red and white squares of gingerbread alternately on the serving plate. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jumbles or Knot Biscuits "Jumbles a hundred" - (Scottish Elizabethan dated from 1596 AD) A Book of Historical Recipes by Sara Paston-Williams The National Trust of Scotland, 1995 ISBN 0-7078-0240-7; Posted by Paul Macgregor "Take twenty Egges and put htem into a pot both the yolkes and the white, beat them wel, then take a pound of beaten sugar and put to them, and stirre them wel together, then put to it a quarter of a peck of flower, and make a hard paste thereof, and then with Anniseeds moulde it well, ane make it in little rowles beeing long, and tye them in knots, and wet the ends in Rosewater; then put them into a pan of seething water, but even in one waum, then take them out with a Skimmer and lay them in a cloth to drie, this being don lay them in a tart panne, the bottome beeing oyled, then put them into a temperat Oven for one howre, turning them often in the Oven. ** British Measurements ** 1 1/2 oz Butter; salted 4 oz Caster sugar 1 TB Rose-water 1/2 oz Caraway seeds 1 lg. Egg; beaten 8 oz Plain flour Extra rose-water & caster sugar for glaze Preheat the oven to 350øF / 180øC / gas mark 4. Cream the butter, sugar and rose-water together, then mix in the caraway seeds, beaten egg and flour to form a soft dough. Knead on a lightly floured board, then take small walnut-sized pieces of dough and with your fingers form each into a roll, approximately 3/4-inch in diameter and 6-inch in length. Make into simple knots, plaits or rings and arrange on a lightly greased baking sheet. Brush with rose-water and sprinkle with caster sugar. Bake near the top of the oven for about 20 minutes, or until tinged with brown. (Knots and plaits will take longer to bake than simple rings, so don't mix shapes on a baking sheet.) Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight tin. Delicious when served with syllabub. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bisket Bread, To make fine (1596) Posted by Aoife (L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt ) Take a pound of fine flower, and a pound of sugar, and mingle it together, a quarter of a pound of Annis-seeded, foure eggs, two or three spoonfuls of Rosewater put all these into an earthen panne. And, with a slyce of Wood beate it the space of two houres, then fill your moulds half full: your mouldes must be of Tinne, and then lette it into the oven your oven, being so whot [hot] at it were for cheat bread, and let it stande one houre and an halfe: you must annoint your moulds with butter before you put in your stuffe, and when you will occupie of it, slice it thinne and drie it in the oven, your oven beeing no whot-ter [hotter] than you may abide your hand in the bottom. Although the directions are out of order, this is clearly a recipe for an Anise Seed Biscotti-type confection that gets a drying in the oven, just as modern biscotti does. An alternative interpretation would be that they are cut so thin before the drying that they are like modern english tea biscuits (i.e.: fine digestive biscuits). Historical Note: The word Cookie had not been invented yet, but they did have small cakes and pastries, which would definitely qualify as cookies by today's standards. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Galette de Dame Carcas Posted by Bear "Decker, Terry D." When Charlemange laid siege to the city of Carcassonne, Dame Carcas tricked him into lifting the siege of the starving city by stuffing a pig with the last of the wheat in the city's granary and throwing the fat animal off the battlements. Believing he was being taunted by a well provisioned fortress, Charlemange moved his army on to more profitable endeavors. Her reward is a galette named for her. For this version, use 3 tablespoons of dried orange peel, softened in water and chopped fine. And canned orange juice. I also used a baking stone rather than a baking sheet. The result was a little drier than I would like, so I will probably test the loaf by thumping it on the bottom at 20 minutes rather than 25. Finely grated zeste or peel of 2 oranges 1 tablespoon orange juice 2 teaspoons dry yeast 2 tablespoons warm water (105 - 110 F) 2-1/2 cups all purpose flour 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 6 egg yolks (room temperature) 4 oz butter (room temperature) 1 egg 1 tablespoon milk Place finely grated orange peel in a cup and add the orange juice. Set aside. Dissolve yeast in 2 tablespoon of warm water (105 - 110 degrees F). Blend 1 cup flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the dry mixture and pour in yeast mixture. Separate egg yolks and add to the mixture one at a time. Stir after adding each yolk, pulling flour from the sides of the bowl into the mixture. The result will be a heavy batter Divide the butter into small pieces and drop them into the batter. Blend the mixture with twenty strokes of a wooden spoon or rubber scraper. Add the orange peel and juice. Add enough flour to form a ball which can be lifted from the bowl. Knead for about 5 minutes on a lightly dusted surface. The fat content of the dough will keep it from sticking. The flour is to keep excess butterfat from the surface. DO NOT OVER FLOUR. The dough should be soft and elastic, yet able to hold its shape for 2 to 3 minutes on the work surface. Cover the ball of dough with a bowl and let it rise for 30 minutes. Press the dough into a circle about 1 inch thick. This recipe will make 1 loaf about 9 inches in diameter or 2 loaves 6 inches in diameter. Place the loaves on an ungreased baking sheet, cover with wax paper and let rise for 45 minutes. Mix egg and milk. Brush onto the galette. Pierce dough half a dozen times with pick or skewer. Bake 25 minutes in preheated oven at 400 degrees F. Cool galette on a metal rack. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pain de Campagne - Honfleur Posted by Bear "Decker, Terry D." This recipe for Honfleur Country Bread produced a lighter loaf than I expected. It has a medium density with excellent aeration. I would recommend leaving the starter for about twelve hours. Four hours isn't enough to bring out the full flavor of the bread. If the odor of fermentation causes you distress, you may wish to avoid this recipe. It gets very pungent during the second rise. 1 tablespoon honey 1 cup warm water (105 - 110 F) 1 teaspoon dry yeast 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat flour All of the starter 2 cups warm water (105 - 110 F) 1 tablespoon salt 2 cups whole wheat flour 3 cups all purpose flour Starter: Dissolve the honey in the warm water and add the yeast. Stir to dissolve, then let rest for about 15 minutes while the yeast becomes active and the mixture looks creamy. Add 1/2 cup each, whole wheat and all purpose flour. Stir to form a thick batter. Add the rest of the flours and mix until the dough can be worked by hand. Knead on a floured surface for about 3 minutes. Add additional flour if the dough is slack or sticky. Place dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave at room temperature for 4 to 24 hours. Dough: Place the starter in a large bowl. Pour two cups of warm water over the starter. Stir with a wooden spoon or rubber scrapper to break the dough apart. Add the salt. Taking 2 cups each of the all purpose and whole wheat flours, add equal parts of each, 1/2 cup at a time. If the dough is sticky, add more all purpose flour. On a floured surface, knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes with a strong push, turn, fold motion. To be very French, every 2 or 3 minutes, slam the dough onto the work surface 3 or 4 times and resume kneading. Place dough in a clean, greased bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise until double in volume, about 3 hours. Punch down dough. Turn out of a floured surface. Divide into four equal parts. Hand shape dough into tight balls. Place on a greased baking sheet. Press top lightly to flatten. Cover the loaves with wax paper and allow to rise until triple the original size, about 2 1/2 hours. In a preheated oven, bake for 40 minutes at 425 degrees F. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mustacei (Must Rolls) (Cato: de agricultura, 121) From an old Roman cookbook: Marcus Gavius Apicius: De Re Coquinaria. The book I have is edited and translated from Latin to German by Robert Maier. Posted and translated from German to English by Micaela Pantke (hz225wu at unidui.uni-duisburg.de) 500g wheat flour 300ml grape juice (or young wine) 2 TB anise seeds 2 TB cumin seeds 100g lard 50g grated cheese (sheep's cheese would be best) ca. 20 bay leaves Pour some must over the flour, add anise and cumin seeds, the lard and cheese. Work it together until you have a reasonable dough. Form rolls, then put one bay leaf under each of them. Bake 30-35 minutes at 180 deg. C. Note: It's better to make the must rolls with yeast dough, because then they can be kept longer, and they are not so hard. To make the yeast dough, add 40g yeast to the flour + grape juice, leave it a while until you continue like above. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mustacei Recipe from Cato by way of Giacosa. Posted by Bear / Decker, Terry D. (TerryD at Health.State.OK.US) Mustaceos sic facito: Farinae siligineae modium unum musto conspargito. Anesum, cuminum, adipis. P.II, casei libram, et de virga lauri deradito, eadem addito, et ubi definxeris, lauri folia subtus addito, coques. Prepare mustcei thus: Moisten a modius of fine flour with must. Add anise, cumin, 2 librae of fat, 1 librae of cheese, and grate bay twig. When you have shaped them, place bay leaves beneath; cook. For each 3/4 cup flour: 1 Tbsp. lard 1/2 Tbsp. ricotta 1 tsp. total anise and cumin 1 small piece of bay bark, grated 1 Tbsp. must (to make a soft dough similar to that for a pie crust) bay leaves Cut the flour with the lard and ricotta; add the anise and cumin, and, if you can find it, the bay bark. Add enough must to form a ball (remember that flour doesn't always absorb the same amount of liquid). Form small flat focaccias from this dough; or roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into shapes. Place 1 or 2 bay leaves beneath each one, and cook on a griddle over low flame, turning then so they cook evenly on both sides. The name of this dessert survives in cookies that are still made in various regions of Italy: mustazzit in Lombardy, mostaccioli in Calabria, mustazzola di Missina in Sicily, and mustazzueli in Apulia. But curiously, the must has disappeared from all of them over the centuries. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bread, German Taken from a 14th century German cookbook, Das Buch von Guter Spise translated by Alia Atlas. Researched and written by Kateryn de Develyn (nickiandme at worldnet.att.net) 1 cup rice flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 2-3 cups unbleached flour 12 ounces beer 2 teaspoons raw sugar 2 teaspoons yeast 1 cup warm water Mix sugar and yeast into warm (not hot!) water. Allow to sit for 10 to 15 minutes or until yeast begins to bubble. Mix flour, yeast water, and beer together. Knead for 10 to 15 minutes. Allow to rise for 1 hour or approx. doubled in size. Punch down and divide dough into two roughly shaped round loaves. Place on greased cookie sheet. Allow to rise until doubled in size again. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Top should be a golden color. Makes 2 rounded loaves. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Trencher Bread 14th century French. Researched and written by Kateryn de Develyn (nickiandme at worldnet.att.net) Goodman of Paris: Three dozen of half a foot in width and four fingers tall, baked four days before and browned, or what is called in the market corbeil bread. I baked my own trencher bread using the following recipe: 4 cups of flour 2 tablespoons sugar (used this to start the yeast) 2 teaspoons yeast 1/2 to 1 cup warm water 1/2 teaspoon salt Mix the warm water and sugar together. Add the yeast to this mixture. Let stand for 15 minutes. Mix flour, salt and yeast mixture together. Knead until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl, or until elastic. Bake in a moderate (350 or 375 degrees) oven for approximately 45 - 55 minutes. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ginger Bread, Course Markham in Queens Taste p97. Posted by Meliora / Melissa Hicks (HICKS_M at casa.gov.au) Take a quart of Honey clarified, & seeth it till it be brown, & if it be thick, put to it a dish of water: then take fine crums of white bread grated, & put to it, & stirre it well, & when it is almost cold, put to it the powder of Ginger, Cloves, Cinamon, & a little Licoras & Anniseeds: then knead it, & put it into a mould & print it. some use to put to it also a little Pepper, but that is according unto taste & pleasure. 1 cup honey 1/4 teas ground ginger 1/8 teas cloves 1/8 teas cinnamon 1/8 teas licorice 1 3/4 cups bread crumbs 1 Tbsp anise seeds In the top of a double-boiler, heat honey. Add spices except anise seeds, & stir to blend. Add bread crumbs & mix thoroughly. Cover & cook over medium heat for 15 minutes. Mixture should be thick & moist. Place gingerbread on a large sheet of waxed paper. Fold up sides of paper & mold dough into small rectangular shape. Sprinkle anise seeds on top & press them gently into the dough with the sides of a knife. Cover & refridgerate for 2 hours. Serve gingerbread at room temperature in thin slices. [Katryn's notes: Add more ginger - I used 2-3 times the specified amount. ] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Libum From Giacosa, A Taste of Ancient Rome, pp. 169-170. (Cato 75). Posted by Bear / Terry D. Decker, (TerryD at Health.State.OK.US) Libum hoc modo facito. Casei P. II bene disterat in mortario. Ubi bene destriverit, farinae siligineae libram, aut, si voles tenerius esse, semilibram semilaginis eodem indito, permiscetoque cum caseo bene. Ovum unum addito et una permisceto bene. Inde panem facito, folia laurea subdito: in foco caldo sub testu coquito leniter. Make a libum thus: Thoroughly grind 2 librae of cheese in a mortar, When it is well ground, add 1 libra of fine flour or, if you want [the loaf to be] softer still, 1/2 libra of the finest flour; mix well with the cheese. Add 1 egg and mix well. Then form a loaf, placing the bay leaves beneath. Cook slowly under a testo on a hot hearth. 1-1/2 lb. ricotta or other soft cheese 2 cups flour 2 eggs 2-3 bay leaves per loaf Mix the ingredients as prescribed in the recipe and form small loaves, placing bay leaves beneath each one. Bake in a medium oven (350 degrees F) for around 30 minutes. This bread is called libum (related to libare, to make an offering) because it was also used as a sacrificial offering. The farmer, for whom Cato wrote these recipes, was expected to make ritual sacrifices to the Lares, the guardian gods of home and property, "for the feast of the Compitalia, either at the crossroads or the hearth." We amy thus assume that what was once good enough for the gods should certainly be appealing to us as well. A testo is a covered terracotta baking dish used like a cloche oven. The closest thing to it today is Romertopf. Using a covered dish for baking will probably help retain moisture in the loaf. Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 11:23:22 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Lefse/hleifr > Thank you for the recipe! Being a bread-baker and -lover, it is a > frustration to me that there are no period recipes for bread. I do have > one question -- what kind of starter would be used? Would it be wheat- > based or rye-based? Or something else? From what I have read in the > FAQ for rec.food.sourdough, and elsewhere, rye starters are common in > northern Europe. I have a nice healthy wheat starter, and could easily > convert part of it to rye. > > Lady Brighid ni Chiarain To my knowledge, there are four pre-1600 bread recipes (which I posted to the list about a week ago), and a number of 17th Century recipes which probably originate in the 16th Century. Since this cook book was published in 1616 and was describing common practice, the odds are the northern European seeded ryes mentioned are period. Now, how far in the past they can be placed is another question. Since the book suggests unsalted bread was common, I would suspect adding seeds for flavoring is a fairly old practice. The starter would probably be rye-based, however the yeasts and lactobacilli required to make a good rye loaf may differ from those in your current starter. Give it a try. If it works, great! If not, it was a valiant attempt. Most recipes for rye use a mixture of rye and wheat (maslin) to get the flavor of the rye, but the gluten of the wheat. A period Scandinavian rye might actually be maslin (wheat and rye grown together by accident or design) , but the flour would be more rye than wheat given the growing conditions. So, a straight light rye flour might be appropriate. If you do use a straight rye flour, keep in mind it does not have nearly as much gluten as a wheat flour. You'll have to knead the dough longer, it won't rise as much as a good wheat loaf, and you will probably have to extend the rise to get good aeration in the crumb. I have done one rye starter from scratch, mixing rye flour and water and letting it ferment. I was not particularly pleased with the result. Given time, I'll probably experiment more with the process. Let me know how your experiments work out. Bear Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 18:28:44 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: SC - OOP - Pumpernickel recipes Pumpernickel Bread (from A Treatise on Baking) Sponge and Dough Sponge: Pumpernickel meal 45 lbs. Water 32 lbs. Old Rye Dough (or 15# sour) 12 lbs Fleischmann's yeast 1 lb. Set sponge at 78 F for 2 3/4 hrs. Dough: Pumpernickel meal 55 lbs. Water 36 to 40 lbs. Salt 2 1/4 lbs. Diamalt 2 lbs. Temperature of the dough, out of the mixer, 80 F. Let the dough rest 20 minutes, then make up. Dough must be stiff. Some meal takes more water. Total absorption runs from 64 to as high as 72%. Bear's Notes: This recipe should make about 100 loaves, so diviing by 25 or 50 should give you 4 loaves or 2 loaves respectively. Diamalt is malt syrup with diatase. It replaces the molasses and has approximately the same color. Diamalt is a commercial baking sweetener which can be replaced by malt or molasses. The sponge is mixed and left to stand and sour. The dough ingredients are added to the sponge. If making this by hand, I would break the sponge apart in the water, then add the solid ingredients. To prepare a commercial sour: Rye flour 2 lbs. water 1 1/2 lbs. 1 large onion quartered Ground caraway seed 6 oz. Fleischmann's yeast 2 oz. Mix together and let stand 24 hours. Remove the onion. To the starter, add: Water 4 lbs Dark rye flour 5 lbs. Let stand 3 hours, then add: Water 8 lbs. Dark rye flour 10 lbs. Let stand 3 hours and add: Water 24 lbs. Dark rye flour 30 lbs. These sours should be made 3 hours apart. See that these sours are not made too stiff. Temperature for the water of these sours should be 60 F in summer and 80 F in winter. If more than one batch is required, arrange to take 30 lbs from the 3rd and final sour, adding 24 lbs of water and 30 lbs of dark rye flour, which makes again 84 lbs. of sour. In this manner continuous batches can be made as required. Always leave enough sour for use the following day as shown above. Use 1/2 lb. of sour for every 10 lbs of final sour required. Bear's Notes: I haven't tried either of these, but if you want to make the sour, I'd start with 2 cups of rye flour, 1 cup of water and a teaspoon caraway, and 1 teaspoon of dry active yeast, then add 1 cup of rye flour and 1/2 cup of water for each of the following sours. I'm a little curious about what the onion does, so I'll give this one a shot when the Y2K project I'm concluding is over. Since Fleischmann's published the book for it's commercial customers, Fleischmann's yeast is called for in the recipes. Substitute your favorite dry active yeast. Pumpernickel Bread 2 pkgs dry active yeast 1 1/4 cups tepid water 1 cup rye flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 1/4 cup dark molasses 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 1 tablespoon caraway seeds 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose sifted flour 2 Tablespoons cornmeal Combined yeast and water and let cream. Add rye, whole wheat, molasses, cocoa, caraway seeds and salt. Mix thoroughly. Stir in 1 cup all purpose flour. Turn out on a floured surface. Knead, adding as little flour as possible until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place in oiled bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled (about 1 hour). Turn out on lightly floured surface and shape into a ball. Sprinkle cornmeal in the middle of a baking sheet. Place the ball of dough on the cornmeal and press to form a six inch round. Cover and let stand until doubled (about 30 minutes). Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake bread for about 30 minutes or until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Remove and cool. Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 09:31:38 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - OT-OOP-bread help! >From the description, I'll make the assumption that this oatmeal bread recipe calls for a yeast leaven rather than a chemical leaven. If it's a chemical leaven, different criteria apply. > I followed the directions as usual, but the dough was very sticky, rose > very fast, and the eventual loaves, well, one of them tried to crawl out > of the pan- it looks vaguely like the elephant man. This sounds like a slumping loaf. Bread slumps when it rises beyond the point the strands of gluten can maintain the shape loaf. If you think of a loaf of bread as a honey-combed balloon, slump is what occurs when you over-inflate the balloon and individual cells rupture and collapse while other cells remain intact. Common causes are over-yeasting and over-proofing. Considering the relatively high temperature, you might need to cut back on the yeast. If you allowed the bread to proof based on time rather than until doubled, you may be over-proofing. Also, did you leave out the salt? Salt slows the rate of fermentation and strengthens the gluten. For high-temp proofing, salt is a critical ingredient > I don't understnd at all what happened. The variables might be: > > 1) the heat today. But that shouldn't matter, should it? And why would > the dough be sticky? If the dough is supposed to be smooth and pliable and not sticky, I would say you used too little flour. Sticky doughs tend to be soft doughs, which have a faster rising time than harder doughs in general. > 2) I might have miscounted the cups of flour that I was kneading in. But > if there was too much, why was it sticky? And if there was too little, > why was there so much dough? Temperature and humidity change the ratios between solid and liquid, so recipe quantities are not absolute. Bread dough is best handled by mixing to a soft ball, then working it by hand and feel to the proper texture and consistency. The fact that the dough was too sticky, suggests that you needed to add a little more flour. If the quantity of dough was about right, then you probably got the mixture in the ball park. Your problems likely come from the high temperature and over-proofing on a fast rise. > 3) I looked at the bottle- I got dark molasses instead of light. But > that should only be a taste difference, no? Would it affect the dough? > The recipe doesn't specify dark or light either. I also double checked- > and unless the bottle is doing a 'widow's cruse' miracle, I used the > correct amount and not accidentally too much. Molasses contains 35 to 50% sucrose, 15 to 30% invert sugar, 20 to 25% water, 2 to 5% mineral matter and a few other odds and ends like protein, etc. The better grades of molasses will have a high sucrose level, be lower in invert sugars, and have a minimal amount of mineral matter. Low grade molasses has a harsher taste and can affect the taste of the end product adversely. The color of the molasses may affect the color of the final product, but has nothing to do with the formation and rise of the dough. Overloading on sugars can inhibit yeast growth, but that is obviously not the case here. > This is very frustrating- as a baker I've always been rather proud of my > bread. To totally blow a batch is humiliating. And the shekels are few > and far between enough around here that a mistake like this is not good- > and no, it doesn't taste all that great either. Bummer. > > Does anyone have any ideas? Or should I just go back to the tried and > true potato bread that the kids inhale in an afternoon? > > 'Lainie My idea of a perfect loaf is somewhat more stringent than the opinion of the people who eat what I bake. I often have failures that disappear amid screams of joy. If you bake a lot, and make a wide range of bake goods, you are going to have more failures. Two failures of the same recipe in a row and I start looking for what has changed in my kitchen. Bear Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 15:02:38 GMT From: "Liam Fisher" Subject: Re: SC - OT-OOP-bread help! >Esteemed bread bakers- help! >1) the heat today. But that shouldn't matter, should it? And why would >the dough be sticky? The closer to blood warm the medium is, the faster the yeasties beasties work, also on hot and humid days, I work the bread a lot less because the increased heat and humidity along with the hyperactive yeast can cause the gluten strands to break down, resulting in stickiness as well from the starches. Mix, knead, rise, pound, rise, pound, bake. As little contact as possible after the kneading. >2) I might have miscounted the cups of flour that I was kneading in. But >if there was too much, why was it sticky? And if there was too little, why >was there so much dough? see previous commentary. >3) I looked at the bottle- I got dark molasses instead of light. But >that should only be a taste difference, no? Would it affect the >dough? The >recipe doesn't specify dark or light either. I also double >checked-and >unless the bottle is doing a 'widow's cruse' miracle, I > used the correct >amount and not accidentally too much. Okay, darker molasses aren't just darker, they have less water in them than lighter molasses or cane syrups. More sugar for the yeast at a higher temperature means a poofy Cthulian bread-stuff. I had a similiar thing happen this weekend myself, but I was using pre-made dough (I wasn't home and in a foreign kitchen, so forgive me) and I was cursing it for being sticky, overly elastic, and rising very fast. Also, barometric pressure plays a small part as well, less weight on the dough and the faster it rises. (I once had a rye that tried to eat my counter-top in the summer) >This is very frustrating- as a baker I've always been rather proud of my >bread. To totally blow a batch is humiliating. And the shekels are few and >far between enough around here that a mistake like this is not good-and >no, it doesn't taste all that great either. Bummer. probably has a vaguely fermented, sour taste to it as well? >Does anyone have any ideas? Or should I just go back to the tried and >true potato bread that the kids inhale in an afternoon? Yeah, try this: cut back your molasses a bit and your yeast as well. Heavier breads like that usually are winter fare, so you can proof your bread in the fridge, or a cool spot in the house to limit the yeast's activity and keep it from going nuts on the molasses. (btw, bread is one of my hobbies *grins*) Cadoc - -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Cadoc MacDairi, Mountain Confederation, ACG Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 12:36:26 -0700 From: "Laura C. Minnick" Subject: Re: SC - OT-OOP-bread help! Ok Bear, snce you asked, here's the recipe I used- from _The New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook_ by Jean Hewitt (Avon Books, New York, 1971). pg.274 Delicious Oatmeal Bread 1 1/2 c boiling water 1 c. rolled oats 3/4 c molasses 3 T soft butter 2 t sea salt 1 T dry active yeast 2 c lukewarm water 8 c unbleached flour, appoximately Butter Pour the boiling water over the oats and let stand for 30 minutes. Add the molasses, butter, and salt. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and add to the oat mixture. Beat, and work in, enough of the flour to make a medium-soft dough. Turn onto a floured board and knead until smooth, about ten minutes, Place the dough in a clean buttered bowl, turn to butter the top, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about one hour. Turn onto board and knead again. Divide and shape the dough into two loaves and place in well-oiled 9x5x3 loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. Preheat the over to 400 degrees. Bake the loaves five minutes, then lower the heat to 350 and bake 40 minutes longer or until loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Brush tops of loaves with butter for a soft crust. Yield- two loaves. There it is. Usually a good recipe. *sigh* Maybe I'll try again when the weather cools off a bit... 'Lainie Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 09:17:15 -0800 From: "Stephanie Dale Ross" Subject: SC - Rose petal bread I also have a recipe for Rose petal bread from the same event as the Payn Pur-Dew, and it looks to be from the same source also, like a magazine of some kind. It is a yeast bread. Rose-Petal Bread 2 pkg active dry yeast 2 c warm water 6 tbsp honey 7 c unbleached white or whole wheat flour 1 2/3 tbsp coarse salt 6 whole eggs plus one egg yolk 1 c currants, softened in warm water 6 tbsp melted butter butter for greasing bowls and cookie sheet 1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary 1 1/2 tsp dried basil 1/2 tsp cinnamon 2/3 to one cup finely chopped rose petals (between one and two dozen red roses) several drops of red food paint, prepared as the medieval baker would, in advance (see page 116) (?) 1. Sprinkle the yeast on 1/2 c of the warm water in a mixing bowl. Stir in the honey. let it stand for 5 minutes. 2. Add the remaining warm water with about 2 1/2 to 3 cups of flour. Beat by hand with a wooden spoon, about 200 strokes. Cover with a damp towel, put in a warm place, and let the dough rise 30 to 45 minutes until it is doubled in bulk. Oh Sh**! That is all I have of the recipe! No baking instructions, or if it needs a second rise! ( The instructions I pasted to the *back* of the card...) Wish I had noticed that before i typed it all. I'm sure Bear can give us a good approximation of what the end of the recipe should be (please?). Again I left the recipe intact (what I have of it *sigh*) so that someone might remember the source. Maybe a Bon Appetite from 1983? That was the year of the event anyway (and when I graduated high school BTW). Aislinn Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 16:30:20 EST From: Carolbarke at aol.com Subject: SC - Rose Petal Bread-OP From "Medieval Holidays and Festivals" by Madeleine Pelner Cosman 2 packages active dry yeast 2 cups warm water 6 tablespoons honey 7 cups unbleached white or whole wheat flour 1 2/3 tablespoons coarse salt 6 whole eggs plus one egg yolk 1 cup currants, softened in warm water 6 tablespoons melted butter or oil butter for greasing bowls and cookie sheet 1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 2/3 or 1 cup finely chopped rose petals (between 1 and 2 dozen red roses) several drops red food paint 1. Sprinkle the yeast on 1/2 cup of the warm water in a mixing bowl. Stir in the honey. Let stand for 5 minutes 2. Add the remaining warm water and about 2 1/2 to 3 cups of flour. Beat by hand with a wooden spoon, about 200 strokes. Cover with a damp towel, put in a warm place, and let the dough rise 30 to 45 minutes, or until it is doubled in bulk. 3. Punch the dough down. Beat in the salt, melted butter, and 5 whole eggs plus one egg yolk. Stir in the currants. 4. In a mortar with a pestle, crush the rosemary, basil, cinnamon, and rose petals to make a paste. Add this herb mixture to the dough and knead it, blending well. (The bread should be a delicate rose hue. If the color from the petals isn't strong enough, use the red food color, sparingly). 5. Beat in the remaining flour, using a spoon. Knead the dough until it comes away from the sides of the bowl. 6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board or slab of marble and knead it until smooth, shiny, or elastic, about 10--12 minutes, adding small amounts of flour if the dough becomes too sticky to handle. 7. Place the dough in a buttered bowl. Cover with a damp towel. Let it rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes. 8. Punch the dough down. Cover it, and let it rise again until doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes. 9. Again, punch the dough down. Turn it out onto a floured surface and let it rest for 5 minutes. Shape the dough into 1 or 2 freeform turbanlike curls or twists. Place on a buttered cookie sheet. Cover lightly with a towel and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 25 minutes. 10. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Brush the loaf or loaves with the remaining whole egg, lightly beaten. Bake for about 50 minutes or until nicely browned and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped lightly on the top with knuckles. Transfer the rose-petal bread to a rack and allow it to rest NOTE: It is advisable to obtain roses, either from a florist or a garden, that have not been sprayed with pesticides. Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 17:43:04 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - 1894 > The yeast (1 package) should have been dissolved in about 2 Tablespoons of > water. > --- > did that, then did it again with the rest of the yeast . . . You're making between 1 and 2 pounds of dough. You should only need about 1 package of yeast. If the recipe calls for 2 packages put in at different times, they're worried that you will kill the first batch and want to insure a rise. Personally, I would use only 1 package of yeast, but I've been doing this type of baking for a few years and I know pretty much how to get what I want. I would use 2 packages of yeast where I was making large loaves and wanted to insure a rise. > The milk should have been warmed, then allowed to cool to below 90 F. > --- > recipe suggested scalded milk, however, for lack of clean pots, and no way > to clean them, I used warm milk. (i.e. had been sitting on the table rather > than in the fridge) Good enough. If you are going to keep the rolls around for a few days, you might want to scald the milk to reduce bacteria and mold spores. Enriched breads spoil easier than plain breads. > Continue adding flour slowly, until the dough begins to ball. > --- > slowly? is there any reason for doing that rather than adding it all at > once, always wondered . . . When you add flour slowly, it normally blends into the mixture more quickly and with less working of the dough. This helps reduce gluten formation, which is a desirable trait in cinnamon rolls. It also helps prevent small balls of flour from forming in the dough. When I'm making bread, I tend to add larger measures of flour faster because I am working it heavily. > I will never be using that oven again. > > -M Get an oven thermometer anyway. After a few years of use, an oven can easily be 25 F off. I have a brand new oven which is bang on temp, but I still put a thermometer in to double check. Bear Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 10:11:40 +1100 From: Lorix Subject: Re: SC - Freezing Bread Dough Suzanne Powell wrote: > I'll be attending Gulf Wars again this year and, as in past years, I'll be > baking bread onsite to go with each of our meals. In the past, I've done > all the preparation onsite. Kneading the bread takes up a good part of my > class time / shopping time and has caused some concern over whether our > tables were sturdy enough to handle such pressure. To try and circumvent > these problems, I was considering prepping the dough (mixing, kneading, > first rise) and then freezing it and taking the frozen bread dough to the > event. > > I know they sell frozen bread dough at the store, but I can't seem to find > any guidelines in my cookbooks about how to do this -- what stage in the > prepping process I can safely freeze the dough, whether I might need to add > any extra yeast (in case some is killed during the freezing process), how > long it will take to thaw... > > Lady Suzanne de la Ferte' > Stargate, Ansteorra M'lady, I asked this question on the list last year & received some very informative advice. I happen to have an electronic breadmaker (as opposed to my spouse who can sometimes be coerced ;-). What I ended up doing was putting in a normal mix (ie no more yeast than I would normally use) & letting the breadmaker make up a number of loaves each night over a couple of weeks. I wrapped each dough in alfoil (per a suggestion given me from the list ;-) & put it into the freezer after the full mixing & rising cycle had been performed. The night before the feast I took all the doughs out of the freezer & left them in the fridge to defrost. Next morning (most were defrosted), I simply placed half of the loaves into my oven on a greased tray (ie no further kneading done) & the other half under cover also on trays to await baking. Both lots rose an equal amount over the full day. My oven can be programmed & I happen to live near the feast site. The oven was probably slightly warmed as it was a warm day & the loaves rose nicely. Two hours before the feast was due to start my oven started cooking. My husband returned to get showered after the tourney & took first batch of 8 loaves out when he arrived & wrapped them in towels. Then, the 2nd batch went in & 40 minutes later (post shower ;-) were on the way to site also wrapped in towels. The feasters pounced on the hot freshly baked loaves ;-) Hope this helps, Lorix Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 11:19:52 -0600 From: Magdalena Subject: Re: SC - Freezing Bread Dough > Do not store the dough for any length of time in a self defrosting freezer. > The bread will start rising during the thaw cycles. The dough really needs > to be kept solidly frozen until your ready to use it, which may be a problem > with Gulf Wars. > > Bear The solution to the freezing problem is dry ice. Buy a five pound block, set it in the cooler wrapped in plastic and a towel, and don't open the cooler more than once a day. It will keep everything frozen solid for between 4 and 7 days. - -Magdalena Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 12:08:44 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Freezing Bread Dough > Thanks so much for the information. I'm going to try putting the frozen > bread dough in their own coolers with a lot of ice (that I will keep > replenishing). That way, I hope they won't begin the thaw cycle until I > intend them to do so. > -- Suzanne I think you will find the dough will start to rise within a few hours of being put in an ice chest. An ice chest substitutes for a refrigerator rather than a freezer and maintains an average temperature a little above 32 F. You might try an ice chest with dry ice with something to keep the wrapped dough out of contact with the dry ice. I've no idea how well this will work, so you might give it a shot at home to see how well and how long the dough stays frozen and the times for a thaw and rise. Bear Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2000 03:25:46 EST From: Korrin S DaArdain Subject: Re: SC - Freezing Bread Dough This might be of some help. Temperature Measurements For Baking 212 deg F: Pie Done 190 deg - 200 deg F: Bread done, Core Measurement 150 deg F: Hot pastry ideal temp & scald milk, kills protease for better yeast growth 140 deg F: Reheat stale bread to refresh 110 deg - 115 deg F: Proofing yeast grows beast 074 deg - 80 deg F: Dough rises best 046 deg F: Bread stales 6x faster than 86 degrees 020 deg F: store frozen dough 000 deg F: Frozen dough yeast dies Korrin S. DaArdain Kingdom of An Tir in the Society for Creative Anachronism. Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 13:32:52 -0500 (EST) From: Morgan Cain Subject: SC - Cold-rising doughs Lady Katherine McGuire asked: >>> My questions is how do you get bread dough to raise during >>> the night or early morn hours in order to have fresh bread >>> and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. It's always too cold >>> where we camp. I often leave bread to rise in my 'fridge overnight if I want fresh bread in the morning at home. This means about 40 degrees (F). (If it is "always" colder than this where you camp, you might need to look for other places to camp.....) This also means a 6-10 hour period for the rising. You can look for specific "cool-rise" recipes but I have found that almost anything works well enough. Give it a test some time with a favourite bread recipe and see how it works. The other option is one I learned while doing historical re-creation before I joined the SCA, when we did 1850's prairie stuff. You make a "warmer" for the bread, something like an incubator for chicks, but for bread. I do have some old recipes that advise if the kitchen is cold and you have a pilot light, put the dough in the oven during the rise. While camping, I guess you could use a box or designated cooler with a hot water bottle or some hot rocks or bricks. Wrapping the warm dough well in a woolen blanket helps trap the heat in, but you need a large enough covered container that the dough has adequate room to rise without pushing off the covering, or you get fuzzy dough and a gunky blanket. --= Morgan Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 13:06:31 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Camp baking As long as you are above 32 F, bread will rise, slowly, but it will rise. The worry in an overnight rise is the dough will rise too fast and slump. I would suggest using a sourdough. The first rise will usually be between 8 and 12 hours, the second between 1 and 2. To make a quick starter, mix 1/2 cup water and 1 cup flour in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let stand on the counter. In about 2 days the mix will start to bubble. At this point it is ready to use. Make a batch of bread replacing the yeast and about 1 cup of the flour with the starter. After the first rise, put a cup of the dough into a bowl cover with plastic and let stand on the counter. Feed it 1/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup of flour about ever 12 hours. If you don't want to feed it every 12 hours, feed it once, then put it in a sealed container and place the container in the refrigerator. The starter should be okay for 3-4 days. To keep it in the best condition, the starter should be used to bake something every 3 days or less. Starter can be frozen to keep it for extended periods, but it takes 2-3 days of feeding to recover from freezing. Bear Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2000 23:06:42 EDT From: Peldyn at aol.com Subject: SC - Frozen Bread Dough Recipe Now onto the cooking!!! For this last weekend I made a foccocia type bread with fozen bread dough. I used the honey wheat kind. I have a very large cooler and on Friday I put the frozen dough in a baggie and placed it on top of a block of ice in the cooler. On Sunday it was completely thawed and had risen a little. I punched it down and pressed it into a flat round shape. I then drizzled margarine, garlic, rosemary and a little parmesean on it. I carefully placed it on a rack I had put in my dutch oven that had sat warming on the camp stove over low heat. I put the lid on and let it bake until it was golden brown. It was gone in seconds!! The kids even asked for more! Peldyn Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 13:12:26 EDT From: CBlackwill at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - OOP Cider cake TerryD at Health.State.OK.US writes: > You are making an error converting dry measure to a liquid measure. A pound > and a half of flour is 4 to 5 cups rather than 6. Weight is a more precise > measure than cups when baking and the cider and the butter should be enough > to moisten 1 1/2 pounds of flour. So true...Baking recipes (professional) use a system where all other ingredients are listed as a percentage of the flour used, and are almost always in weight, rather than volume measurements. Also keep in mind that, unless the recipe specifically states otherwise, flour should be sifted or spooned lightly into a volume measure, and not compacted or "shaken down". The weight difference is tremendous, and will have a serious effect on baking. Balthazar of Blackmoor Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 20:12:42 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Re: re/ beaten bisuits > I have heard, in a non-documentable story, that ladies not having the time > or strenght to beat them, used to put the dough through a iron mangle a > few times. > beatrix This doesn't provide the same effect as beating. It does provide an even mechanical kneading. Professional bakers refer to the device as a brake. It was used in the Middle Ages. The simplest form is a long pole attached to the wall above a kneading table with a free swinging connection so the baker can use it as a lever to press and squeeze the dough between pole and table. If you work it long enough, it will break down the gluten and soften the dough. Leaving salt out of the dough speeds up the process. Bear Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 20:15:33 GMT From: "Vincent Cuenca" Subject: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #2588 >Unto the list, Help, I am looking for a good black bread recipe for my >Russian/Eastern European feast. Thank you in advance. I've had some success in making a dark (not necessarily black) bread by adding cheap dark beer to the dough in place of water. Goat's Breath Bock works well. I don't know how period it is, but it makes good bread and avoids using things like coffee as a coloring agent. Or if you're really adventurous you could buy roasted barley at a brewers' supply shop and mill it yourself.... Hmmm, that actually sounds good! Vicente Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 01:22:58 +1100 From: "Lee-Gwen" Subject: SC - French Bread - a period recipe (long) All this discussion about Mexican Chocolate Bread made me think of this bread recipe which I published on the Ynys Fawr webpage. There is also a recipe for making this bread in a (big) breadmaker which follows the more conventional version. I really like this bread. It makes a dense loaf with a very fine crumb. It is also very rich (all that butter and egg!) - not good if you are dieting! French Bread Taken from French Food in the Renaissance: A Survey of Recipes from the 14th to the 17th Centuries - Compleat Anachronist #102 by Anne-Marie Rousseau (MaÓtresse Anne-Marie d'Ailleurs) I know that the amount of yeast (and the total lack of sugar) given in this recipe looks entirely too little for the quantity of flour, but it works like a charm! All the eggs and milk make it work, I suppose. The author of this translation of the recipe says: 'the original recipe calls for beer yeast. Dry yeast is easier to obtain, so we chose to use it instead. Beer yeast would work as well, and give a slight beer-like flavor (sic) to the bread.' I made this bread both ways and I found no noticeable difference at all. Ingredients: 1c butter (200g) 1 3/4c milk 1.2 oz yeast (1tsp) about 6c unbleached white flour 2tsp salt 2 beaten eggs Optional Garnishes: beaten egg, poppy seeds, almonds, lemon peel, sugar, rosewater. Method: Heat butter with milk until butter is melted. Let cool until the mixture is just warm to the touch (this step can be simplified by heating only 1c of milk and then adding the cold milk after the butter is melted). Add the yeast and let it dissolve, mixing with a fork. This may take 5 minutes. Sift 5c of the flour and the salt into a large bowl, or onto a flat work surface. Make a well in the flour, and pour in the beaten eggs, and butter-yeast solution. With your hands, mix, drawing in the flour until you have a nice, soft dough. Add more flour as needed. Knead on a floured surface until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes). Shape your loaf into a ball, and set on a floured cookie sheet. Cover with a cloth dampened with hot water, and set in a warm place to rise for 1 - 1.5 hours, or until surface begins to split and crack. Shape into a round loaf, and garnish as desired. You may slash the top, sprinkle with chopped almonds or lemon peel, brush with an egg glaze of 1 beaten egg with 1 - 2 tsp salt, and even sprinkle poppy seeds over the egg glaze. Bake at 400 F for 1/2 hour. turn down the heat to 350 , and bake for about 50 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when rapped. Cool on a rack. If desired, dust with sugar and sprinkle with rose water. Variation (for the Easy Bake Bread Machine): Put 3/4c cold milk into bread pan. Add 2 eggs. Melt the butter into the remaining 1c of milk (2 - 4 minutes in a microwave) and add to pan. Put 5 1/2c flour into pan (reserve the rest in case you need to add it during the mixing process). Add the salt and the yeast. Cook on "FRENCH" dark crust. About this Variation: Because I don't have an oven at present but I do have an Easy Bake Bread Machine, I decided, with some trepidation, to make this bread by machine. I needn't have worried! The bread worked very well indeed. I have never eaten this bread made conventionally, but I imagine that the major difference between my loaf and the original is that the original would probably be crustier all over - that is a function of baking bread without a tin. As well, I cannot say for certain that this recipe will translate well to any other make of bread machine. Mine is designed to take 6 - 8c of flour easily and most machines are smaller than that. I have given the order required by my machine - if you choose to attempt this in a different make, follow the order given for yours. Good Luck! Gwynydd Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 10:11:58 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - MEXICAN CHOCOLATE BREAD Salt slows the action of the yeast, allowing the yeast to spread through the dough more thoroughly and producing a more even aeration and a finer crumb. Yeast is a living organism and the rise is produced from carbon dioxide interacting with the gluten strands in the dough and the yeast grows. Salt, as Adamantius points out, strengthens the gluten, allowing to better trap the carbon dioxide and form a nice crust. On the other hand, yeast needs to be fed to grow. Yeast can grow on the sugars released by the amylase reaction between the water and the flour, but the rise will be slow. By adding sugar, you add yeast food and speed the growth of the yeast, accelerating the rise. So the balance between the salt and the sugar will determine how fast the yeast grows and how quickly the bread rise. This will be modified by whether or not you cream the yeast, how much fat is in the bread, and what else has been add to enrich the bread. In general, keeping the first rise to two hours or longer and the second rise to one hour or longer improves the crumb and the flavor of the bread. I personally prefer "longer," and tend to use a small amount of yeast, more salt, and only a pinch of sugar for plain bread. In the case of the Mexican chocolate bread, the sugar is primarily to sweeten the chocolate and the quantity of fat will help slow the rise. This is more of a yeast leavened dessert cake than a loaf of bread. Bear > From: Adamantius > > Salt would be there, most likely, to make gluten strands extensible, for > > a lighter bread. I don't think it has much direct beneficial effect on > > the yeast itself, although I suppose anything's possible. > > Actually, the book which came with my breadmaker says that the salt is there > to impede the growth of the yeast and the sugar is present to encourage it. > What I have never quite grasped is why one can't just cut the amount of > sugar. I think that the book says that the use of the two ingredients helps > regulate the amount of rise. > > Gwynydd Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 11:03:42 -0700 From: david friedman Subject: Re: SC - French Bread - a supposedly period recipe (long) Unfortunately, this is not a period recipe for French bread. As I pointed out to the author prior to publication, the worked out version quoted below has quantities and instructions that are inconsistent with the original it is supposed to be based on. Furthermore, the recipe is from a book published in the mid-17th century (The Perfect Cook , a translation of Le Patissier fran=E7ois, published in London in 1656). Hence even the original is not a period recipe. Here is what I believe to be the original (I'm getting it from something Anne-Marie sent me prior to the C.A., but it was accompanied by the same worked out version). - ---- To Make Another Soft Cake or Tart Without Cheese, which cake the Flemmings do call Bread dipped in Eggs. Put into a Bason, or upon a Table, two pints of fine flower, break and beat two eggs into it, adde there unto half a pound of fresh butter which you shall have caused to be melted over the fire, with a quarter of a pint of milk, put also into this mixture a spoonful of good beer yeast which is somewhat thick, and rather more than less, as also salt at discretion. You must mixe and work all these things together with your hands, till you reduce them into a well-knitted paste, and in the kneading of this your paste you must now and then powder it with a little flower. Your paste being thus well powdered will be firm, after which make it up into the form of a Loaf, and placing it upon a sheet of Paper, you much cover it with a hot Napkin. You must also observe to set your said paste neer unto the fire, but not too high, lest that side which should bee too nigh the fire might become hard. You shall leave this said paste in the said indifferent hot place untill it be sufficiently risen, and it will require at least five quarters of an hours time to rise in and when it shall be sufficieiently risen, which you may know by its splitting, and separating it self, you must make it up into the form of a cake, or tart, which you must garnish over, and then put it into the Oven to bee baked. The Ovens hearth must be as hot almost as when you intend to bake indifferent great household Bread. This Tart or Cake will require almost three quarters of an hours baking, or at least a great half hour; and when it is drawn forth of the Oven, you may powder it with some sugar, and sprinkle it with some rosewater before you do serve it up to the Table, which depends of your will. - ---- Here are the comments I sent prior to the publication of the C.A. version. - --- French bread: The relative quantities in the recipe do not correspond to the original. Original: Redaction 2 pints=3D4 c flour 6 c flour 2 eggs 2 eggs 1/2 lb = 1 c butter 1 c butter 1/4 pint= 1/2 c milk 1 3/4 c milk So the redaction has the same amount of butter as the original, half again as much flour, and more than three times as much milk. That isn't the same recipe. It is also being baked for 80 minutes (unless the author means "1/2 hour, then enough longer to make a total of about 50 minutes," which isn't what she says), when the original is for 30-45 minutes. Perhaps making the dough considerably wetter results in its requiring a longer baking time - ---- As this example suggests, a system of asking people to comment on C.A. manuscripts in advance, as was done here, only works if the author or editor then makes use of the comments to correct errors in the original. - -- David/Cariadoc http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 15:25:12 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - OOP: making up bread Tsk. All that automation. So obviously you won't mind another little "cheat." Breads enriched with milk or sugar tend to have a darker crust, unless you cover the top of the loaf about 2/3 of the way through the baking. A tent of aluminum foil on top of the loaf will reflect heat and reduce the darkening. Bear > I let the bread bake for about 45 minutes. The crust at this time looked > darker than what I'm used to, a nice brown that wasn't burnt. I took > the bread out of the oven and gently slid it onto some baking racks I > had, to improve the circulation under the loaves and keep them from > getting squishy on the bottom. > > Iasmin Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 22:19:40 -0500 From: harper at idt.net Subject: RE: SC - OOP: making up bread And it came to pass on 30 Oct 00, , that Gaylin J. Walli wrote: > Do you or does anyone know how well, in general, bread recipes translate > into rolls? That is, if I make up a bread recipe, is there any logical reason > why I wouldn't want to take that recipe and make individual rolls out of it > instead of one or two loaves? > Iasmin I know of no reason. I have done it often, and never had problems. You will, of course, want to bake them for a much shorter time. Lady Brighid ni Chiarain Settmour Swamp, East (NJ) Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 12:44:05 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Trenchers Oh my! Maslin is any mixed grain, but especially a mix of wheat and rye, the two most commonly used grains in Europe. While maslin is produced by mixing grain in the fields (by carelessness or by design), brown bakers commonly produced maslin flour by mixing wheat and rye flours. Mixing the flours allows better control of the end product and better control of the costs, important considerations considering the regulations controlling the commercial baking of bread. > One thing I've noticed and meant to ask the list about: every time I'm > baking bread (here in the Lehigh Valley, PA), I'm adding more flour than > the recipes call for in order to make a kneadable bread. With breads made > from a starter, I have to add a LOT more flour. The bread rises fine, > though a little slow in the wintertime, and is good, but i get a very > tough crust unless I bag the bread when it is still warm or paint it with > butter. > > By the time I finished with that bread, it would have been 2/3 rye, 1/3 > spelt and barley flour. Bread baking is far more accurate when the ingredients are mixed by weight. This compensates for the amount of water retained by the flour and gets away from the problem of a cup of flour weighing anywhere from 4 to 7 ounces. When working with starters, you need to remember that every cup of starter began as approximately 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup water, but has become more liquid by producing alcohol as a byproduct of the fermentation. In any baking humidity and altitude also add variables to the mix. To compensate for the variables, I tend to weigh the base ingredients to get the right ratios then work the dough to the proper consistency by feel. If you want to soften the crusts, increase the amount of fat in the dough, bake at a lower temperature and avoid a moist oven. Bagging the bread and buttering or oiling the crust work nicely. Try painting the bread with butter or oil before you slide it into the oven. BTW, bagging works at almost any stage of the game because the internal moisture of the bread works to the surface as it dries out. Bagging traps the moisture and allows the crust to retain more of it, but increases the possibility of mold production. > > The yeast is added to insure a rise. This is a modern trick used by bakers > > who must have rise (usually in commercial kitchens) or by people who know > > very little about sourdough baking. This further suggests the "thick beer" > > is a modern approximation. > > It's definitely a modern approximation. I decided to try his way to see > what happened, and when I do it again, I will use all starter and no > yeast. I am just concerned about the additional liquor. > > > Okay. I think you will find your 3 to 1 flour to liquor mix by volume > is > > about 2 to 1 by weight, which is a fairly common ration for bread > making. > > *nod* > > > > +I don't know if tops of the loaves were slashed in medieval Poland, > but I > > > recall pictures of medieval breads with slashed tops. Weaver says that > > > bread stamps or signs of the cross were used (Dembinska, p182) > > Probably not for a trencher. Table loaves are a different matter. > > That makes sense. (One of my books suggested slashing bread dough inorder > to direct the rise, so that the bread would spread out one way and not > another?) > -- > Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise > jenne at tulgey.browser.net Bread expands where it has been slashed because you've weakened the surface at that point. Normally the slashes are made just before putting it in the oven, but making them after the shaping can affect the rise. One of the problems with slashing the bread too early is you may damage the structural integrity of the gluten strands and the bread may slump faster. Slashing permits greater oven spring (such as cutting a manchet around the middle allows the center to expand) and it provides channeling for glazes such as butter (panettone for example has a cross cut in the top of the loaf and a pat of butter place in the center of the cross, brown crust, light colored and soft slashes). Slashing is one of the techniques for sculpting bread and I would suggest looking at Bernard Clayton's book on French breads for some ideas about what can be done artistically with bread. Bear Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 14:14:35 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: Bastons - was ( SC - AEthelmearc Coronation feast menu) Thank you for the recipe. That brings to 6, the number of period bread recipes of which I am aware, four of which are for rastons (or bastons, or restons). Two of these recipes are in the Harleian manuscripts and are the same recipe with typographical differences. The raston is an enriched dessert bread which becomes more elaborately spiced over time. The bread is much like brioche. I would not liken it to biscuit, because it is fairly obvious from the various recipes that it is not twice baked. While the recipe is appropriate to the time, as an enriched bread it probably would not have been used as trenchers. Because of its use, I would expect trencher bread to be denser than a loaf baked "as french bread." "French bread," also known as "poufe" or "puffe," is a lighter bread which appears in the latter half of the 13th Century. Although not contemporary with your recipes and just out of Period, I think Gervase Markham's recipe for cheat may be suitable for making trenchers. Bear > Bastons, Beinecke Manuscript, 15th Century > Make a stif bature of yolkes of eyron, & paryed flour, & > sigure, a grete > dele, & a lytle yest of new ale. set hit by the fyre, or els in a pot > boylyng, that hit may take a lytyl hete. When hit is rysyd, > sweyng hit well > togedyr that hit fall doun ayene. Loke thy oven be hote, & > clene swepyd; > poure hit on the floure of the oven & bake hit as french bred. > Trenchers, Salt Cellars, and Breadcrumbs > 26 C water (6 qt + 2C) > 3-4 T yeast > 1 C + 2 T honey > 1 C + 2 T salt > 9 lb. King Arthur white whole-wheat flour > 16.25 lb. King Arthur all-purpose flour > Proof yeast in water with sugar. Add half the flours and let the > sponge/biga rise. Add the rest of the flours and knead until elastic. Let > rise until doubled. Shape into flat round loaves and let rise at room > temperature until doubled again. Bake at 375 for 35-40 mins. > As you can see and as Terence Scully explains, Le MÈnagier mentions > bread several times but offers no recipe. I selected an English bread recipe > from approximately the same time as the French dishes selected for this > meal. Note that it contains eggs and a lot of sugar, so it was intended more > as a biscuit recipe than a bread recipe. However, medieval bread recipes are > very scarce, so this is the best I could come up with from the time period! > - Katja From: "Decker, Terry D." To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 08:20:00 -0500 Subject: [Sca-cooks] Semmel Semmel is bread made from fine white flour. The name derives from the Latin "simila" or "fine flour." This is a simple recipe I concoted to produce individual Semmel loaves. Bear Semmel 8 cups warm water 1 teaspoon sugar 1 Tablespoon dry active yeast 7 1/2 pound white bread or all purpose flour 1 - 2 Tablespoons of salt In a small bowl, dissolve 1 teaspoon of sugar in 1 cup of warm water (90 - 110 F). Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of dry active yeast onto the water and stir until dissolved. Let stand until yeast begins foaming (about 10 minutes). Put 6 cups of warm water in a large bowl. Add about 1/3 of the flour and the salt to the water and stir until a batter forms. Add the yeast mixture. Rinse the yeast mixture bowl with the remaining cup of water and add to the batter. Add the remaining flour slowly, stirring it until the dough becomes a ball in the bottom of the bowl. Turn the dough out on a floured surface and knead until the dough becomes smooth and elastic, adding flour as necessary. Place the dough in a large, oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled (2 - 4 hours). Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Punch down the dough and turn it out on a floured surface. Knead it lightly to shape, then divide into 32 equal pieces. Scatter meal (coarse corn meal is usually the easiest available, but coarse barley or millet meal works equally well) on a shallow baking pan. Form the individual loaves and place them on the pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until the surface is golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom. Cool and serve. Notes: The dough will weigh between 9 and 10 pounds, but will reduce to about 8 pounds in the baking. Baking in a convection oven reduced baking time to about 25 minutes and provided a thinner crust. I've found the scattered meal beats grease hands down for baking bread on trays or sheets. It also is easier to clean up. From: "Decker, Terry D." To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 10:47:11 -0500 Subject: [Sca-cooks] Rye Bread Here is the rye recipe I used for the German feast at Guardian tourney. As with the Semmel, it is of my devising because there are no period recipes. Bear Maslin Rye Bread 7-8 cups warm water 1 teaspoon sugar 1 Tablespoons dry active yeast 5 1/2 pounds bread or all purpose wheat flour 2 pounds finely ground rye flour 2 - 3 Tablespoons of salt In a small bowl, dissolve 1 teaspoon of sugar in 1 cup of warm water (90 - 110 F). Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of dry active yeast onto the water and stir until dissolved. Let stand until yeast begins foaming (about 10 minutes). To prepare a sponge, put the yeast mixture in a large bowl. Rinse out the proofing bowl with a second cup of water and add the water to the yeast mixture. Slowly add 2 pounds of the all purpose flour to the yeast liquor, stirring it to form a dough. Place the dough in a large oiled bowl, cover and let rise for 4 to 24 hours. In a large bowl, break the sponge apart in five cups of water. Sift the salt into 1 pound of all purpose flour and add to the sponge mixture. Slowly add the remaining rye and all purpose flour, alternating between the two. If the dough ball becomes too difficult to work, add more water one or two Tablespoons at a time and work into the dough. Turn the dough out on a floured surface and knead until the dough becomes smooth and not overly sticky. Flour the surface as necessary. Place the dough in a large, oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled (2 - 4 hours). Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Punch down the dough and turn it out on a floured surface. Knead it lightly to shape, then divide into 8 equal pieces. Scatter meal (coarse corn meal is usually the easiest available, but coarse barley or millet meal works equally well) on a shallow baking pan(s). Form the loaves and place them on the pan(s). Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the surface is brown and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom. Cool and serve. Notes: The dough will weigh between 9 and 10 pounds, but will reduce to about 8 pounds in the baking. If the potency of the yeast is in question, use 2 Tablespoons of the dry active yeast or extend the sponge process until their is an exceptional rise. If time permits, letting the sponge rest for at least 8 hours improves the flavor. For the large quantity of bread required by a feast, I had to use the sponge after 4 hours. The batches of sponge were the first doughs created on site and they were allowed to rest until the Semmel was in the oven. I prefer using 3 Tablespoons of salt. Brushing the crust with oil or melted butter before baking will make a softer crust. Baking in a convection oven reduced baking time to between 30 and 35 minutes. As an alternative baking method in a regular oven: pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees F, load the bread in the oven and drop the temperature to 450 degrees F, after 15 minutes drop the temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for 20 to 25 minutes longer or until done. Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 10:30:38 -0500 (CDT) From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Stone King Arthur Flour sells wooden peels. www.kingarthurflour.com They're probably a usurious price, but you can find them there. Margaret Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2003 07:58:25 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Cheese To: "Cooks within the SCA" > You can use the whey in bread-making, rather than just discarding it. Isn't > that right, Bear? > Devra Sure thing. Whey simple replaces the water in most bread recipes and usually adds to the flavor. You might trying it in a soda bread, since the acidity gives a good kick to the chemical leaven. Not period, but nice with corned beef. Bear Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2003 13:48:15 -0600 (CST) From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" Subject: [Scacooks] Finnish bread To: Cooks within the SCA Ok, here's the bread stuff. Finnish black bread, from _The Great Scandinavin Baking Book_, by Beatrice Ojakangas 3 packages active dry yeast 4 c warm water 7 to 9 c dark rye flour 2 tsp salt (optional, says the note) Dissolve the yeast in the water and stir in two cups of the flour. Sprinkle another cup of the flour over and cver tightly. Leave 24 hours for the dough to ferment and sour. The next day, add 2 more cups of flour and let sit another 24 hours. Then stir in the salt and the rest of the flour (but no more than 9 cups, she says), and knead for a half-hour. She suggets a heavy-duty mixer. The dough will be very sticky. Shape into a ball and sprinkle with enough flour to make the top dry. Leave to rise for 1 1/2 hours. Divide dough into 2 parts and shape. You can make them into shapes like slightly flattened Hershey' kisses, or you can make them into rounds with holes in the middle--poke a hole with your finger and pull the dough apart to make a 2" dia. hole. Dip your hands in water and smooth the loaves. Brush with water and sprinkle generously with more rye flour Put loaves on a baking sheet greased and heavily floured with more rye flour. Place in a warm place until the loaves have flattened, spread apart, and have cracked surfaces. Put a jelly roll pan on the bottom of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350. Fill he pan with boiling water, and put the bread in to bake for an hour or until firm. Then wrap in towels or waxed paper to soften. According to her notes, the holes were used to store the loaves by threading them on poles, at least in western Finland. I have to at least try it, even though I don't think I have any Finnish ancestry, because it just sounds nifty. Margaret Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 01:29:58 -0500 From: "Phlip" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Freezing pita bread To: "Cooks within the SCA" > I am baking bread in advance for an event in February. I know how to wrap > round loaves for the freezer, but I've never tried this with pita bread. > Suggestions, please? > > Brighid ni Chiarain Stack them in convenient size "loaves", wrap them as usual, and throw them in the freezer. When you take them out, give them enough time to thaw, and they'll seperate easily Saint Phlip, CoDoLDS Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 09:01:28 -0500 From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Freezing pita bread To: mooncat at in-tch.com, Cooks within the SCA >No advice, just a comment. >I wouldn't bother. I've tried it a couple of times, and it's always >dried out horribly. Hopefully, your mileage will vary! ;o) >--maire > >Robin Carroll-Mann wrote: >>I am baking bread in advance for an event in February. I know how >>to wrap round loaves for the freezer, but I've never tried this >>with pita bread. Suggestions, please? Try baking them slightly underdone, then put the still frozen breads into a very hot oven (450 F) to finish baking, just before serving. Put them in a single layer on baking sheets and have some clean napkins to wrap them in, to keep them warm. They probably will be dry once they cool off. Ranvaig Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 10:30:36 -0500 From: "a5foil" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Freezing pita bread To: "Cooks within the SCA" I just stick them in a plastic bag in the freezer, as soon as they're cool. If you wanted to be really careful, you could put parchment paper between the breads to keep them from sticking together. Yes, they are a bit drier than fresh when they thaw, but still better than store-bought. Cynara From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" To: Cooks within the SCA Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 12:48:58 -0500 Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Freezing pita bread On 7 Jan 2004, at 8:16, Kathleen A. Roberts wrote: > --On Wednesday, January 07, 2004 1:09 AM -0500 Robin Carroll-Mann > wrote: > > I am baking bread in advance for an event in February. I know how to > > wrap round loaves for the freezer, > > i am in the same boat, only for march. usually i just throw the loaf into a > freezer bag and push as much air as i can out. > > is there a better way? > > cailte I wrap the loaf in plastic wrap, then in foil. Remove from freezer the night before the feast, and let thaw IN THE WRAPPINGS. The loaves I've done this way have come out fresh and tasty. Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom rcmann4 at earthlink.net Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 13:37:25 -0500 From: "vicki shaw" Subject: [Sca-cooks] eggs and pita and other stuff To: Re freezing pita, my mum taught me a trick for ensuring air tight freezing and that is to zip your bag leaving only a bit of room to insert a straw, and then suck out the air; the bag will shrivel right up like shrink wrap and have a longer freezer life. Pita recipe: From an old Herb Companion issue that featured Biblical herbs, I got a wonderful recipe to jazz up pita. The only thing is it will not puff up but will be a flat bread, but a delishus flat bread. You need thyme (the ancient herb is Za'tar which I get from my local Indo/Pakistani grocer, but a nice variety of thyme will do nicely) finely chopped or minced, Olive oil minced garlic, a pinch or so of cumin powder salt a squeeze of lemon (my own addition, adds zip and tang) Prepare that and have it sit while you make your pitas. When your pitas (or any flat bread) are ready to go into the oven, brush them with this mixture. If you do not put too much of the sauce, they may puff up, but generously baste the top of each bread with this sauce and they don't puff up, which is fine with me. Angharad www.omygoddess.biz Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 14:25:07 -0400 From: Wildecelery at aol.com Subject: [Sca-cooks] Libum recipe To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Sorry this tok so long. crazy work week. semi-job...hoping on better. -Ardenia Libum By Baroness Ardenia Aruadh Description: Libum is a Roman Cheese-based bread. The ingredients are cheese (homemade, soft), eggs, flour, olive oil, and bay leaves. Process: I put the bay leaves in a bowl of olive oil to soak overnight. I began the baking process by making a soft or bag cheese. Basic Soft -cheese redaction: 1/2 gallon of whole milk 1/2 c. white wine vinegar This involved heating approximately one half gallon of milk to just below the boiling point, then adding 1/2 cup white wine vinegar as a curdling agent. I then drained the mixture through cloth and left the curds to dry suspended in the cloth overnight. The yield is 3/4 lb, approximately Making Lbum: 1 egg 3/4 c. white flour 3/4c. whole wheat flour First I blended the cheese with the egg. Then I slowly mixed in both flours. I then rolled this mixture into small balls. I lightly rolled each dough ball in whole wheat flour. Each ball of dough ws placed on a bay leaf that had been soaked in olive oil. These were then baked at 350 until lightly browned. History: Libum is a Roman cheese bread or cake. It can be found in the writings of Cato and Apicius. Cato's redaction from De Agriculturais as follows: To make libum. Cream well in a mortar, 2 pounds of cheese. Add to the cheese and mix well, 1pound of flour, or if you wish a lighter dough, use 1/2 pound of flour. Add one egg and mix well. Form the cake. Place on a large leaf and bake slowly in a hot oven. The Evolution of this Recipe: I have found several modernized versions of this recipe. Frances Bernstein's recipe in Classical Living called for the use of cream cheese as a base. I found that this was far too sticky ad ended up needing considerable amounts of extra flour as well as an additional egg to make a reasonably pliable dough. I have also found a recipe in Mark Grant's Roman Cookery that calls for shredded cheddar cheese. I have also found redactions in various sources that suggest the use of ricotta or feta cheese. These are all modern guesses, as the original writings merely say "cheese." In discussions with Master Joram Goldspoons , I heave learned that the best modern equivalent would be a feta, a ricotta,, a goat cheese or a homemade bag cheese. I have chosen to make this batch using the bag cheese. {I learned this cheese making process at a class taught by the Cheesemonger at Pennsic 29} I have also tried this recipe using only hite flour and only whole wheat flour. I prefer it made with a mixture of the two. Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:41:33 -0400 From: Sandra Kisner Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Libum recipe To: Cooks within the SCA > LibumBy Baroness Ardenia ARuadh > I then drained the mixture through cloth and left the curds to dry > suspended in the cloth overnight. The yield is 3/4 lb, approximately > Makng Libum: 1 egg 3/4 c. white flour 3/4c. whole wheat flour > > > Cato's redaction from De Agricultura is as follows:To make libum. Cream > well in a mortar, 2 pounds of cheese. Add to the cheese and mix well, > 1pound of flour, or if you wih a lighter dough, use 1/2 pound of > flour. Add one egg and mix well. Form the cake. Place on a large leaf > and bake slowly in a hot oven. Cato's version of the recipe seems to call for a lot more cheese for an approximately equal amount of four and egg, if I'm remembering my flour weights (4 cups per pound). Would Cato's cheese have been more liquid? Sandra Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 16:08:44 -0400 From: Avraham haRofeh Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] was Libum recipe now whole wheat bread To: Cooks within the SCA > Thanks for the recipe Ardenia! It got me thinking... I bake a lot of > yeast bread. If it is whole wheat, usually half whole wheat, half bread > flour. I tried my recipe with all whole wheat flour, but as you can > expect, it needs more leavening. I had a cousin suggest a teaspoon of > baking powder. It was OK, but does anybody have a recipe for bread with > 100% whole wheat flour with just more yeast perhaps? Whole wheat flour, because of the presence of the bran, has less protein per unit mass (or per unit volume) than white flour. Less protein means less gluten, and therefore breads made with 100% whole wheat flour are unable to support the gas bubble structure under the weight of themselves. You could try adding some vital wheat gluten (look in the baking supplies near the flour and yeast), but I suspect you will need at least SOME bread flour to support the structure. At the least, look for flours specifically for bread machine baking - they have the highest protein levels of any flour on your grocer's shelf. **************** Reb Avraham haRofeh (mka Randy Goldberg MD) Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 16:13:46 -0400 From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] was Libum recipe now whole wheat bread To: Cooks within the SCA Also sprach Samrah: > Thanks for the recipe Ardenia! It got me thinking... I bake a lot > of yeast bread. If it is whole wheat, usually half whole wheat, > half bread flour. I tried my recipe with all whole wheat flour, but > as you can expect, it needs more leavening. I had a cousin suggest > a teaspoon of baking powder. It was OK, but does anybody have a > recipe for bread with 100% whole wheat flour with just more yeast > perhaps? My own experience has been that most of the whole wheat flour you're going to encounter has (naturally enough) a lot of bran in it, and the bran interferes with gluten extension (sort of). Essentially introducing a lot of little flakes with semi-sharp edges into a mass of strands cuts a lot of them. If you're dedicated to using 100% whole-wheat flour, you might try adding extra gluten (Arrowhead Mills sells this, and, I assume, the King Arthur flour people), or you might find some whole-wheat chappatti flour in an Indian market, which is fine whole-wheat flour ground from hard durum wheat: the milling process is powerful enough to reduce the size of the bran particles, and the hard wheat has a lot of protein and produces a little more gluten than some other whole wheat flours. Bread made from chappatti flour (not to mention chappattis) have something of the texture of semolina bread. Maybe not cloud-light, but lighter than most whole-wheat breads. Adamantius Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 17:25:07 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Libum recipe To: "Cooks within the SCA" > Cato's version of the recipe seems to call for a lot more cheese for an an > approximately equal amount of flour and egg, if I'm remembering my flour > weights (4 cups per pound). Would Cato's cheese have been more liquid? > > Sandra Another interesting question is would the flour have been wheat? Barley was the grain of choice during the Republic, giving way to wheat as Rome became an empire. The author of the recipe is Cato the Elder and predates the Empire by around a hundred years. The "fine flour" being called for in the recipe might be barley flour rather than wheat flour. Bear Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 17:52:54 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] was Libum recipe now whole wheat bread To: , "Cooks within the SCA" > Whole wheat flour, because of the presence of the bran, has less protein per > unit mass (or per unit volume) than white flour. Less protein means less > gluten, and therefore breads made with 100% whole wheat flour are unable to > support the gas bubble structure under the weight of themselves. You could > try adding some vital wheat gluten (look in the baking supplies near the > flour and yeast), but I suspect you will need at least SOME bread flour to > support the structure. At the least, look for flours specifically for bread > machine baking - they have the highest protein levels of any flour on your > grocer's shelf. > **************** > Reb Avraham haRofeh You're making some assumption which aren't necessarily true. A whole wheat flour does not necessarily have more bran than white flour nor does it necessarily have less protein per unit volume. Whole wheat flour has wheat germ in it. White or unbleached flour does not. Protein is dependent upon the protein content of the grain being milled. Whole wheat and white flour made from the same grain will have approximately the same protein content. To produce whole wheat, commercial mills tend to return wheat germ and bran to the flour, which does produce the effect you describe. In the past, I've purchased a bulk whole wheat pastry flour which has very little bran and is a soft flour between all purpose flour and cake flour. King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour is a high protein whole wheat flour that resembles unbleached flour. Both of these flours are probably very close to "thrice-boulted" flour and the latter makes a fine loaf of bread although the former is probably closer to Medieval flours. Bear Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 01:30:39 -0400 From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] was Libum recipe now whole wheat bread To: Cooks within the SCA > AEllin Olafs dotter wrote: > If you're seriously interested in baking with 100% whole wheat flour, > look for The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, by Laurel Robertson, Carol > Flinders and um... someone else... The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book: A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, Bronwen Godfrey ISBN: 0394724348 Ranvaig Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 16:58:46 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Honey Oatmeal Bread To: "Cooks within the SCA" The quick way to do this is take a standard bread recipe to make 2 one pound loaves, add 1/4 cup of honey and 1/2 cup rolled oats to the recipe. You may need to adjust the liquor and the flour to get the right consistency of dough. Oats other than rolled oats need to be softened before use and may not give you the texture you are looking for. I like using some large flat oat flakes I sometimes find at the health food store in preference to the more commercial rolled oats found at the grocery There are about five bread recipes in the in period European corpus and none of them are honey oatmeal bread. Roller milled and steel cut oats are 19th Century processes, so most of your common oatmeal sources are OOP. As period fare, oatmeal bread would probably have been small unleavened pancakes of an oatmeal finer ground than rolled or stone cut oats mixed with water, a little fat and some salt then cooked on a griddle or a hearth stone. Real peasant fare or as Gerard specifies in his Herball, "(about Lancashire) it is their chiefest bread corn for Bannocks, Haver cakes, Tharfic cakes, and those which are called generally oaten cakes." Elizabeth David in English Bread and Yeast Cookery covers a number of oat cakes and breads, but they aren't the kind of thing served at feasts and most of the recipes are well out of period. Bear Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 20:02:10 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cook] Bear's breads (was Fair feast budget) To: "Cooks within the SCA" Recipes? Here you g. Bear Finnish Cardamom Bread (makes 2 loaves) 2 teaspoons dry active yeast 2 cups warm water 1 egg 6 or 7 cups of flour 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom 1/3 cup sugar 2 teaspoons salt 1/4 cup soft butter of margarine Dissolve the yeast in the water. Lt cream. Add the egg. Sift 3 cups flour, sugar, cardamom, and salt together. Stir into the yeast mixture. Continue stirring until the batter is smooth. Stir in the butter or margarine. Stir in enough flour to form a soft dough. Turn out on a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic. Place the dough in an oiled bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled (about 1 hour). Punch down the dough. Divide the dough. Shape into 2 round loaves. Place on greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled (about 1 hour). Bake at 400 F for 40 to 50 minutes. Cover the loaves with aluminum foil after 30 minutes to keep the crust from getting dark. Schiacciata (Tuscan Almond Bread) Schiacciata is an Italian flat bread. This particular version is a dessert bread from Tuscany. The recipe is modern. The origin of the bread may be as early as the Renaissance when the region was known for its innovations in pastries. 1 teaspoon (1 pkg) dry active yeast 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F) 3/4 cup butter (room temperature) 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1/3 cup milk (room temperature) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 Tablespoon grated orange peel 1 Tablespoon anise seeds 4 eggs 1 egg yolk (reserve white) 4-5 cups flour 1 cup raisins 1 cup diced candied orange peel egg white beaten with 1 Tablespoon of water 7 ounces almond paste 1 cup sliced almonds Dissolve a small pinch of the sugar in the warm water. Dissolve the yeast in the water and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes to activate. Stir in butter, sugar, milk, slt, grated orange peel, anise seeds, eggs and egg yolk. Stir in flour a little at a time until a dough ball forms, continue adding flour until the dough stops being sticky (about 4 3/4 cups of flour total). Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface nd knead lightly. Place the dough in a covered bowl and allow it to rise until doubled (1 1/2 to 2 hours). Flatten the dough and cover with raisins and diced orange peel. Fold the fruit into the dough. Divide the dough into two equal parts and shape eah into a ball. Put the balls on a lightly greased baking sheet and press down gently to form a flattened round loaf. Cover with plastic and allow the loaves to rise in a warm place until they look puffy (about 40 to 45 minutes). Uncover and brush the loaes with the egg-white and water glaze. Crumble the almond paste into 1/2 inch chunks and spread them over the loaves. Sprinkle half of the almonds onto each loaf. Press almond paste and almonds lightly into the dough. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bak loaves on the middle rack for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and cool on wire racks. The loaves can be dusted with powdered sugar if desired, but I normally eat them without. Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 17:15:21 -0700 (PDT) From: Louise Smithson Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: questions about breads To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org from Alexa: >>> I will be making bread for an upcoming event. Due to time and lack of large kitchen space, per norm, I would like to premake the bread. Any suggestions? <<< Harold McGee (On food and cooking, an absolute gem) says this: Staling proceeds most rapidly at temperatures just above freezing and very slowly below freezing. In one experiment, bread stored in the refrigerator at 46F/7C staled as much in one day as bread held at 86F/30C did in six days. If you're going to use bread in a day or two, then store it at room temperature in a breadbox or paperbag, which reduces moisture loss while allowing the crust to remain somewhat crisp. If you need to keep bread for several days or more, then wrap it well in plastic or foil and freeze it. Also: Bread dough can be frozen, thawed and baked into bread, but freezing kills a large proportion of the yeast cells, which means less leavening power, a slower rise, and the spread of yeast chemicals that weaken gluten. Sweet rich doughs turn out to freeze the best. The best stage at which to freeze bread dough is after the dough has risen and baked for 70 - 80% of its usual baking time. This frozen "par baked" bread can be thawed and finished with just a few minutes in a hot oven. Yeast survival is no longer important because the yeast cells have done their leavening and are killed during the initial bake. Helewyse ps I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know exactly why things happen like they do. Once you understand the theory behind something you can use it to your advantage. Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 11:46:46 +0200 From: Volker Bach Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] question about breads To: Cooks within the SCA Am Samstag, 4. Juni 2005 06:41 schrieb Stefan li Rous: > Bear commented: >> Period breads don't use sugar. > > I'm curious why you are so sure of this. I realize that sugar probably > wasn't cheap enough until at least the 16th century to be used this > way. There seem to awfully few recipes though to make this statement > from. Or do you have some other information that indicates this? > > In a regular, modern bread how much sugar is used? I assume this is a > small quantity used for something other than sweetening the bread. Is > this for the yeast? Or is this similar to what we discussed here > before, where just a touch of sugar doesn't really sweeten the taste of > item, but brings out other flavors? I've used a teaspoon of sugar to get yeasts started in pizza crust and herb bread without undue effect, so I don't think you can taste it after baking. That said, the point is (acording to my mother and great-aunt) to give the yeast 'something easy to eat', so presumably the sugars (disaccharides, IIRC) get converted first, so that then the growing yeast cultures tackle the starches better (polysaccharides). I would still doubt that this technique is period for bread, for a number of reasons. sugar was valued highly as a flavourant. Any technique in which its flavour is lost strikes me as wasteful from that perspective. the main item saved on when using sugar to 'start' yeast is time. Now that I have taken to starting my yeast doughs a day or two before use rather than the same morning (like my mother does), I don't use sugar any more and they turn out fine. The middle ages don't strike me as an age much concerned about losing time. in period, something could be addressed as 'sweet' or 'cake' by virtue of being made with eggs, cream and fresh butter. No other sweetening was required. I doubt that baked goods involving any kind of sweetening would have been understood as 'bread' rather than 'cake' by many. Of course by our standards, period 'cakes' can look more like what we think of as 'bread' A point in favour: they serve sugar-and-spice-strewn white bread at the Olde Hansa medieval restaurant in Talinn and it's very good. I have no documentation for it whatsoever, but it is still good. And remember, we were all sure they didn't use flavored butter till the Wolfenbüttel MS turned up :) Giano Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 08:50:41 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] question about breads To: "Cooks within the SCA" > Bear said: >> If you store the dough in a self-defrosting freezer, the temperature rises >> above freezing reactivating the yeast in the outer layer. This makes >> for lousy bread. > > Ooooh. Thank you. This makes sense. I bet it does make for poor bread. > I had been wondering why you specified a non-frost-free freezer in an > earlier message. > > Stefan I once had the oozy experience of losing a loaf of frozen dough in a self defrosting freezer for six months or so. It's empiric knowledge they don't tell you in the cookbooks. Bear Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 10:32:58 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] question about breads To: "Cooks within the SCA" Some flours, rye for one, retain moisture better than other flours and lose less in the baking. As you surmise, older flours tend to be drier flours and require a greater volume of liqour to rehydrate them. Since most commercial flours are aged, they usually will absorb the maximum quantity of liquor. It is more of an issue if you are working with freshly milled flour. Bear > Bear mentioned: >> You lose about 25 percent of the weight of the dough during baking, mostly >> in fluid loss. So 4 pounds of ingredients will produce approximately a 3 >> pound loaf. Type of flour, age of flour, and type of liquids used tend to >> alter the amount of loss, but 25 percent is a good rule of thumb. > > I remember you mentioning this weight loss before. It surprised me at > first, but then I realized the amount of liquid which boils off. I can > understand how the type of liquids used affects the loss, since some > liquids such as a thick beer are going to lose less water to vapor than > say plain water. But how does the type of flour or age of the flour affect > this? Is there less or more moisture in older flour? Or is it just that a > different flour or an older flour might require more liquid added > initially to be workable into a loaf? > > Stefan > -------- > THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra > Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 17:53:49 +0200 From: Volker Bach Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pea Flour/Bread To: Cooks within the SCA Am Freitag, 22. Juli 2005 16:31 schrieb Vladimir Armbruster: > My next experiment (and no, I haven't given up on period sundrieds yet) > is to attempt to bake a few loaves of pea flour bread. Has anyone here had > any experience on the topic? I've tried a mix of pea flour and coarse-ground wheat to approximate the cheaper grades of southern European breads. It worked fairly well. I'm still looking for victims to test a rye-oat-pea flour mix. > What I'm looking for is: > Can you buy it commercially? Not hereabouts. The only thing I could found was pease puree, which comes pre-seasoned with salt, various herbs and MSG. You might be lucky at organic places. I had to grind split peas in my tabletop handmill. > How does it bake? Slowly. It doesn't rise very well (surprise) and holds moisture for a long time. I used a commercial sourdough starter (I don't bake frequently enough to raise my own) and it ended up reasonably nice, with a dense, soft, slightly spongey body and a hard, crunchy crust, but it was still nowhere near the light texture of wheat bread. > What considerations do you need to make in regards to > taste/texture/cooking times? The pease gave my bread a slightly sweetish aftertaste and made it very dense and thick. It doesn't cut well and can't be crumbled when fresh. And I found that I had to extend cooking times twice, lowering the temperature each time. You may fare well starting at a lower temperature to stop the top crust from hardening too soon (that may be behind part of my batch's refusal to rise). However, I'd also consider fooling around with smaller loaves and high temperatures, just to see what happens. I've never done it, but I suspect it may result in a crustier, fluffier bread for small, flat loaves. As to all-pea flour bread, I'm not sold on the idea. Would it even hold together without a mould? Good project, and please let me know how it turns out. I don't bake often enough. Giano Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 13:40:36 -0300 From: Micheal Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pea Flour/Bread To: Cooks within the SCA Funny you such mention such a topic as Peas Bread. Just finished trying to make some. Came to a conclusion pretty much the same as yours, it don`t like rising. Chic pea flour at least so I went looking deeper surprise found recipes for everything except wheat style raised breads. Quite right tends to keep lots of moisture, gets a crunchy crust and soft almost doughy inside. I went towards flat breads it seems to work better just have to get use to it is all. Before anyone says, there is no wheat flour in what I was trying to make because of allergies the lady has. Cealian Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:49:19 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pea Flour/Bread To: "Cooks within the SCA" Sadaf.com has chickpea flour. An outfit in Canada called Century produces commercial pea flour from yellow peas. And there are a couple of Italian companies that produce pea flours. In general, pea flour is used in flat breads as it has no gluten to rise properly. Mixing it with wheat flour will produce a dough that will rise. I would check "Flatbreads of the World" for recipes. Texture of the finished product depends on how fine the flour is milled. Bear Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 22:50:28 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] easy bread recipe? To: "Cooks within the SCA" Actually, if you do much less than a two hour first rise and a one hour second rise, you are either using too much yeast or have the temperature of the dough too high. In both cases, the quality of the crumb and the flavor suffers. If I have the luxury of time, I will reduce the yeast and lengthen the rise to improve the final product. The optimal rising temperature for bread dough is between 65 and 90 degrees F and it does best around 78F. If your dough goes over 110 F, you're killing yeast. In any event, I don't have a usable garage or enclosed porch, nor do most of the sites I bake at. Bear > In the summer, I have found a little short cut to > this. I used to have a garage. I used to set up a > table and set the covered rising bowl or covered pan > on the table-worked kind of like the commercial > proofers. Used to cut my rise time in half. I now > have a sun room/enclosed porch-still helps cut down my > rise time. Of course, out of luck for this in the > cooler months. > > Alexa > > --- Terry Decker wrote: >> but I haven't been able to ditch the 3 hours minimum rising. >> >> Bear Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 23:01:05 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] easy bread recipe? To: "Cooks within the SCA" > 1 tbsp barley malt syrup (you can get this in healthfood/organic/hippy > shops, or be nice to someone who brews) You might also try 1 to 2 teaspoons of diamalt. It works the same, isn't sticky and doesn't leave you with leftover malt extract. > Combine the yeast, 1/4c water, and malt syrup and let stand 5-10 > minutes. (makes kind of an ersatz ale barm) Nothing ersatz about it. If you dissolve the can of malt in 5 gallons (IIRC) of water and add the yeast in a few days you get ale. > Note about yeast and larger quantities: This recipe scales up well, but > when I triple this recipe, I at most double the yeast. > -- > Adele de Maisieres A rough rule of thumb is 1 teaspoon dry active yeast per pound of flour. It's rough because the potency of the yeast is a difficult variable to calculate. Bear Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 23:46:02 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] easy bread recipe? To: "Cooks within the SCA" Diamalt is diastatic malt, a type of powdered barley malt. Diastatic malt helps break down starches to sugars and helps feed the yeast. Malt can also be non-diastatic, in which case, it is strictly used as a sweetener. I can assure you that diamalt is available in New Zealand, but it may be limited to baking supply houses and large groceries with a large selection of baking supplies, which is where I find it in Oklahoma. Bear >> You might also try 1 to 2 teaspoons of diamalt. It works the >> same, isn't sticky and doesn't leave you with leftover malt extract. > > I'm not familiar with that product-- I suspect it's not available in NZ. > I _can_ buy malt extract in small jars, though, so having leftovers > isn't really an issue. > > Adele de Maisieres Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 10:28:39 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] grilled Cuban sandwiches? To: "Cooks within the SCA" Roll in my grave? Puuuulese! This is just another trick for the kit bag. Actually, this is a fairly common technique for producing fast yeast breads. I might go as high as 450 degrees F and I'll point out that the light, airy baguettes are baked around 500. You know, a little semolina and a hot oven might make some real taste buns. Bear > The term Cuban bread (eaten, AFAIK, both in and outside of Cuba) refers > to a long loaf like a baguette, made without oil or shortening, and > generally with a lot of yeast, so it rises very quickly. There are > written recipes for Cuban bread going back to the 40's or 50's, in which > the dough consists of flour, water, salt, and active dry yeast (and, I > believe, some sugar), is kneaded and formed into loaves, and placed into > a cold gas or electric oven without any significant rise time. The oven > is set for a fairly high baking temperature, say 400 degrees F. (I'd have > to check the details for that), and turned on, and by the time the oven > has reached that temperature the warming bread has started to rise. Oven > spring from steam building up in the bubbles in the dough helps inflate > it further, and by the time the loaf is done it's light in texture > and has a good, crisp crust. > > If Bear weren't alive and well, I'm sure he'd be turning over in his > grave ;-). > > Adamantius Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 22:55:37 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bread baking for 12th Night To: "Cooks within the SCA" > Does someone have a surefire recipe for a whole-grain bread? I need some > variety for a dayboard. It doesn't have to be a period recipe, but should > not contain New World grains. Also, nothing with seeds, fruits, or > other foreign objects. Thanks! > -- > Brighid ni Chiarain > Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom > Robin Carroll-Mann *** rcmann4 at earthlink.net Assuming you mean a loaf made from whole grain meal rather than actual whole grain, here's a recipe for a French country loaf that has done well at feasts. You can replace the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour, although you might want to boost the recipe with a couple teaspoons of diamalt. I've also got a recipe or two for barley bread around somewhere, but the flavor is less than that of wheat or rye and may not please the average palate. Meal scattered on a baking sheet works as well as the greased baking sheet. using the meal to separate the bread from the baking surface is also more period. Bear Pain de Campagne - Honfleur 1 tablespoon honey 1 cup warm water (105 - 110 F) 1 teaspoon dry yeast 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat flour all of the starter 2 cups warm water (105 - 110 F) 1 tablespoon salt 2 cups whole wheat flour 3 cups all purpose flour Starter: Dissolve the honey in the warm water and add the yeast. Stir to dissolve, then let rest for about 15 minutes while the yeast becomes active and the mixture looks creamy. Add 1/2 cup each, whole wheat and all purpose flour. Stir to form a thick batter. Add the rest of the flours and mix until the dough can be worked by hand. Knead on a floured surface for about 3 minutes. Add additional flour if the dough is slack or sticky. Place dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave at room temperature for 4 to 24 hours. Dough: Place the starter in a large bowl. Pour two cups of warm water over the starter. Stir with a wooden spoon or rubber scrapper to break the dough apart. Add the salt. Taking 2 cups each of the all purpose and whole wheat flours, add equal parts of each, 1/2 cup at a time.If the dough is sticky, add more all purpose flour. On a floured surface, knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes with a strong push, turn, fold motion. To be very French, every 2 or 3 minutes, slam the dough onto the work surface 3 or 4 times and resume kneading. Place dough in a clean, greased bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise until double in volume, about 3 hours. Punch down dough. Turn out of a floured surface. Divide into four equal parts. Hand shape dough into tight balls. Place on a greased baking sheet. Press top lightly to flatten. Cover the loaves with wax paper and allow to rise until triple the original size, about 2 1/2 hours. In a preheated oven, bake for 40 minutes at 425 degrees F. Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 23:12:15 -0600 From: "Simon Hondy" Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Bread baking for 12th Night To: "Cooks within the SCA" No recipes, but another thing that works well also in place of semolina, or cornmeal on the baking sheets is bread crumbs. I know, make good bread you have nothing to make crumbs from! Simon Hondy Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 11:07:08 -0800 (PST) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bread baking for 12th Night To: Cooks within the SCA --- Robin wrote: > Does someone have a surefire recipe for a whole-grain bread? I need > some variety for a dayboard. It doesn't have to be a period recipe, but > should not contain New World grains. Also, nothing with seeds, fruits, > or other foreign objects. Thanks! > -- > Brighid ni Chiarain > Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom > Robin Carroll-Mann *** rcmann4 at earthlink.net Here is a Norwegian Whole Wheat bread that people seem to scarf up with gusto. Huette Norwegian Whole Grain Bread 2 cups boiling water 2/3 cup whole wheat kernels 2 packages active dry yeast 1 tbsp sugar 1/2 cup warm water [for proofing yeast] 1/2 cup rye flour 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 8 cups all purpose flour, preferably unbleached 1 tbsp salt 1 1/2 cups milk 1 1/2 cups water Pour boiling water over whole wheat kernels and let stand for an hour or two to soften. Proof the yeast and sugar together with the warm water. Combine the rye, whole wheat, and white flours with the salt and blend well. Add the yeast mixture, the drained whole wheat kernels, and the milk and water. Knead well for 15 min. Forme the dough into a ball, and place in a well-buttered bowl, turning the dough to coat all sides. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft free place for about 1 hour. When it has risen to almost double, punch down and remove to a floured board. Knead about 10 min. and cut into two equal pieces. Knead each piece lightly and form into a loaf [either a 10x5x3 loaf pan or a free form round loaf]. Cover and allow the dough to rise again until almost doubled in bulk, then brush with melted butter and slash each loaf two or three times with a very sharp knife. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for one hour or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped. Remove to a rack to cool, before cutting. Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 14:02:04 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bread for 'trenchers' To: "Cooks within the SCA" > I suspect that at least for the first few times I will still need to use > something under the trencher, at least until I see how much seeps > through, but this could be a wooden plate about the same size or slightly > smaller than the trencher. Perhaps even something of plastic since > the trencher would hide it. Just remember that except for the heels, slices of a coffee can loaf won't have a crust. Putting something under them is a good idea. > However, a 3 pound coffee can would make a loaf of a size and a weight > which I wouldn't expect to find in my bread baking info. > > For this 2 lb. loaf would you want to use the baking time given for a 2 > lb loaf? Or a bit longer because of the round, fat shape? Or would you > use a lower temperature for a longer time? What about if I'm working from > the recipe for a 1 or 1 1/2 pound loaf? I'm assuming rectangular or round > loaves for the original directions, rather than a long, thinner > loaf like "French" bread. > > Stefan A three pound coffee can has a little more volume than a 2 lb loaf pan, but the exposed surface is smaller which contains and channels the expansion. The can needs to be greased (I recommend solid vegetable shortening) before putting in the dough. Weight is not the issue, mass to surface area is. A basic bread of flour, water, yeast and salt formed into one or two pound loaves will bake in about 40-45 minutes at 425 degrees F, so don't worry too much about shape and weight. The thermal differences between silver and a black baking tins will cause more variation in baking than size and weight of the loaves. Temperature and time differences are more critical for loaves enriched with fats or sugars, because they are easier to burn, underbake, or overbake. Small loaves like rolls or odd shaped loaves like baguettes having less mass to surface area are also more likely to take less time or special temperature handling. For example, the true French baguette goes into a 450-500 degree oven with steam to produce the aeration and crust for an initial period then the temperature is dropped to 350 degrees F and the baguette is allowed to finish baking in declining heat. BTW, most breads are baked at an internal temperature of around 210 degrees F. Bear Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 06:59:44 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bread machine revisited To: "Cooks within the SCA" > One of my attempts- following the recipe exactly- had a loaf with a hole > inside it, big enough to fit my fist in. I know, because I actually > fit my fist into it- and I do NOT have small hands ;-) Large holes in the crumb usually happen to me when I get in a hurry and don't get all of the flour worked into the dough or the gluten in the dough breaks down from being overworked > Now, if I could just figure out how to get a little bit of that > aeration into my whole wheat loaves... > > Phlip Try using a little more yeast and/or adding some diamalt to the mix. One of the extremely active yeasts might also be a plus. Bear Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 07:54:30 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bread machine revisited To: "Cooks within the SCA" > OK, Bear, lets pretend there isn't a bread machine ;-) What factors > increase or reduce the density of a loaf, amount of flour being the same? > > Phlip Gluten and yeast, assuming we are talking wheat flour. The more protein in the flour the more gluten and the longer and stronger the strands of gluten in the dough to better trap the CO2 from the yeast. While you can make decent bread with soft flour, hard flour is easier to work and makes better bread. Whole wheat flour introduces wheat bran and wheat germ into the equation reducing the percentage of gluten by weight and influencing the chemistry of the dough, producing a denser bread. Underkneading the dough, produces fewer, shorter gluten strands which may not effectively trap the CO2 giving dense bread or tears in the crumb. Overkneading can break down the gluten strands leading to similar problems. A weak or dead yeast may not provide enough CO2 to properly aerate a loaf. An overly active yeast or too much yeast may generate more CO2 than the gluten can trap in small bubbles causing gas pockets in the crumb. The activity of the yeast can be modified by adding salt to buffer and slow activity or yeast digestable sugars to feed the activity. Weak yeast is the most common problem I run into, so I try to buy fresh dry active yeast twice a year and keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Underkneading, from being in too much of a hurry or being a little lazy, is the second most common problem in my experience. I mostly do mechanical kneading these days, but unless you watch it closely, that can lead to overkneading. Working by hand, I've experience overkneading only three or four times in about 40 years. These factors can also affect bread machine baking, although the manufacturers try to compensate for them in their recipes. You just can't see the errors being made. Bear Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 10:06:17 -0400 From: "Jeff Gedney" Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Kitchen Towels To: Cooks within the SCA > What is a "couche"? A "couche" is a piece of canvas used to shape french loaves such as baguettes. it goes in the oven with the bread, and it's chief advantage over a metal pan is that the steam from the bread is retained next to the bread by being absorbed into the couche, without condensing as water, forming a better and deeper crust. Capt Elias Dragonship Haven, East (Stratford, CT, USA) Apprentice in the House of Silverwing Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2006 22:43:52 -0700 From: Susan Fox Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Potrero seige contest To: Cooks within the SCA On 6/1/06 8:11 PM, "Stefan li Rous" wrote: > Selene commented: > <<< It would have worked, I know that for a fact. Remember the cinnamon > rolls that brought in big bucks at the arts auction? I made those on > site, with yeast from a jar. Did up a sponge the afternoon before, kept > in in the kitchen pavilion near the range so it got intermittent heat at > least, covered with a black plastic trash bag to soak up the sun's rays > during the day. Made a slack dough in the morning, let them rise and > baked just before auction time.>>> > > What's a "slack dough"? Soft, not stiff. Good for sweet breads and cinnamon rolls. Selene Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 22:37:56 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Potrero seige contest To: "Cooks within the SCA" > What's a "slack dough"? > Stefan Slack dough means a soft dough that won't hold shape (for very long), thus it goes slack in the pan. In Jana's case I suspect the dough was soft without being sticky and at the point where a large mass of dough would collapse under its own weight, but a small mass of dough would be able to hold shape. Bear Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 22:55:14 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fermentation Sponge Question To: "Cooks within the SCA" Point of terminology: a sponge is an initial dough created from flour and some form of leaven. It is usually used within 24 hours. A starter is a leaven that is continually replenished, which can be used to leaven a sponge. Bear Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:06:10 +1200 From: Adele de Maisieres Subject: [Sca-cooks] Bread baking (was Re: Manchet) To: Cooks within the SCA Another bread resource that may be useful. It's modern, but it covers a lot of the basics, and has a faults chart. http://www.kitchenconservatory.com/bread.htm -- Adele de Maisieres Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:10:52 +1200 From: Adele de Maisieres Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bread baking (was Re: Manchet) To: Cooks within the SCA Adele de Maisieres wrote: > Another bread resource that may be useful. It's modern, but it > covers a lot of the basics, and has a faults chart. And another one. This is really quite good. Did I mention that I'm a bit of a fruitbat about bread? http://www.baking911.com/bread/101_intro.htm -- Adele de Maisieres Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:09:56 -0500 (CDT) From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bread Labor To: "Cooks within the SCA" One thing that I read about in the Leeds symposium on Food and Society books that I had not heard of before, and which affects the amount of kneading. Apparently, in pre-modern times right up to the late 19th century, it was common to knead bread dough either using a sort of lever arrangement (with a pole fastened at one end like half of a flail positioned longwise over a table, which was then raised and lowered into the dough) or by enclosing the dough in a very large fabric bag and kneading it by jumping and jogging on it with the feet. It's not mentioned in the two bread history books I have, but both of them are modern-ish. H. E. Jacob's 6000 years of bread betrays such a strong distaste for physical labor that I suspect before his Nazi camp experience he probably had little contact with the making of bread; and Elizabeth David's bread book centers more on the home making of bread. -- -- Jenne Heise / Jadwiga Zajaczkowa Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:59:08 EDT From: Stanza693 at wmconnect.com Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bread Labor To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org In a message dated 10/30/2007 10:57:17 PM Mountain Daylight Time, Johnnae writes: > Having grown up on a farm, I suppose I look at questions like > this in a different fashion, but why would you suppose that > the farmer raising the grain, the miller grinding the grain into > flour and the baker would have been the same person? > Didn't most bakers buy their flour? > > Johnnae Here's some info on Spanish ladies and bread. It's from Heath Dillard's book, "Daughters of the Reconquest: Women in Castilian Town Society, 1100-1300". I read it from the online version which has the hardcopy page numbers interspersed. You can see it on The Library of Iberian Resources Online. libro.uca.edu/dillard/dr6.htm p. 151 "On other occasions they would carry grain to a water mill to be ground into flour, ... The townswoman's grain was either grown in a family plot outside the walls or purchased in the municipal market. Once it was ground, she made the family bread at home with the flour and the massa she kept for leavening. Usually she took her loaves to be baked at a municipal oven. ..." p. 158 "Bread, among other staples of the municipal diet, was one of the main items produced and sold by townswomen who mixed it at home but would commonly have it baked in a municipal oven." He mentions that there was an official that would fine the bakeries for insufficiently baked loaves or for wheat flour loaves that were adulterated with other kinds of flour. There was also apparently a problem with underweight loaves. I got a little off topic there, but my general point was that in Castile, at least, even if the women weren't doing it all themselves, they were still spending time taking it to have it done by the ones who did the milling and the baking!! A sus ordenes, Constanza Marina de Huelva Edited by Mark S. Harris breadmaking-msg Page 104 of 104