[Stoves] Bread Question

[Steve Roggenkamp]

I don't think the whole wheat flour has as much gluten due to the added fiber and wheat germ it contains.  In my mind this would explain it having less elasticity than all white flour.

I agree about the "3 X as tasty as the best store bought" bread, even if it's a bad batch.

This year I have started making sourdough bread.  I find it's easier to mix the ingredients, but it takes a lot longer, 2-3 days compared to about three hours using yeast.

The advantage to sourdough is that you provide time for the water to hydrate the flour particles rather than mixing everything up at once.  This reduces the amount of effort needed to mix the flour and water.  You still must knead the bread to develop the gluten proteins.

My batches weigh between 1-2 kg, so I don't know what problems one might encounter making a 40-50 kg batch.  I'd hate to knead that amount of dough by hand.

You will need some type of support for the bread dough during the baking.  It will take it several minutes to solidify in the oven.  I'd be afraid that the dough would flow around the rack, then bake, making it difficult if not impossible to separate after baking.  I concur with using a stone.

Adding soy protein will improve the overall protein content of the bread.  Do a web search for Cornell bread for a recipe.  The soy protein adds amino acids missing from wheat flour. 

Here's a web site that got me going on sourdough breads:

http://samartha.net/SD/index.html

Steve


>Message: 7
>Date: Tue, 09 May 2006 06:08:47 -0600
>From: Thomas Reed <tombreed at comcast.net>
>Subject: Re: [Stoves] Bread Question
>To: William Carr <jkirk3279 at beanstalk.net>
>Cc: stoves at listserv.repp.org
>Message-ID: <4460864F.8010504 at comcast.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>Dear William:
>
>Since bread is the "staff of life", I suppose baking bread is a 
>legitimate STOVE topic. 
>
>I have baked all the bread in my house for a decade.  In my opinion it 
>is 3 X as tasty as the best store bought and 1/4 the cost, a dozen 
>reasons to bake your own. 
>
>I use a bread machine for just the mixing and first rising, then put it 
>in a bread pan, punch it  down, let it rise and then bake it 35 minutes 
>at 375F.
>All agree it is MUCH better than storebought.
>
>One puzzle.  Whole wheat flour doesn't rise as well as white, so 
>typically I make 50/50 white.  Yet I should think it would have as much 
>gluten (makes the bubbles) as white.  Any comments?
>
>I hope this starts a useful thread...
>
>TOM REED        BEF

... text deleted


>Message: 1
>Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 17:32:07 -0400
>From: "Lanny Henson" <lanny at roman.net>
>Subject: [Stoves] Bread Question
>To: <stoves at listserv.repp.org>
>Message-ID: <AGEGIADFKJLAFIBGHECGEEINCLAA.lanny at roman.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>
>I want to test my charcoal fired barbecue cooker to see how well it cooks
>bread. If it works as well as I hope then it may be worth the effort to
>morph it into low cost UMC (used metal container) design.
>
>I need a bread recipe that has an easy to make dough to test my cooker. I
>want to cook large quantities 50 to 1000lb with out the use of an electric
>mixer and with minimum other resources.
>I would like to avoid baking pans if possible by cooking loaves directly on
>a rack but if making a batter from flower is more practical than making a
>dough then I could use pans.
>What easy to make bread can I cook to test my cooker?
>Also I have another  question. Soy protein is made more useable with salt
>water to make tofu, Lime is also mixed with maze/corn, is there anything
>done with wheat flower to improve its nutrition? Leavening?
>Thanks, Lanny Henson
>
>
>
>