So I thought Id share with you guys, my baking episodes with my deck oven, as I told someone here a while back I would :)
Its a bit of trial and error, but its worth it. Rather than post ten pics here I thought Id just share my fb page
Just putting this out there in case it helps anyone else...
I've always had trouble making good bread in my KitchenAid Accolade (similar to the Artisan). Bread was crumbly with poor gluten development. I tried mixing longer (20-30 minutes) and saw some improvement. But the biggest improvement came when I used Speed 3 instead of the recommended Speed 2. This is fast enough to knock the dough off the J hook where it gets stuck and just spins on Speed 2. On Speed 3 it actually kneads the dough and gets the gluten well developed after 8-10 minutes. The spiral hook is not available for this model, which may help the bigger KitchenAid work better in this respect.
For a basic 2 lb loaf, the recipe is:
- 20 oz flour
- 13 oz water
(mix together until just combined, rest 20-30 min)
- 2.5 tsp year
- 1 tsp salt
- 2-3 tbsp honey (optional)
- 2-3 tbsp butter (optional)
(add above, mix on speed 3 for 8-10 minutes, rise 1 hour, shape and rise in pan for 1 hour, bake at 350 F for 35 minutes)
Hi,
So my boyfriends dad bakes all the time and his 60th birthday is coming up. Upon discussing his passion, he mentioned that he used to bake when he was a kid with his grandmother using a 'ceramic bowl; red on the outside & varnished and cream on the inside unvarnished' unfortunately that bowl broke last year. I didn't see it and so thought it would be a great idea to buy him one for his birthday.
The only problem is upon searching there are multiple bowls that fit this kind of description, any advice? Does anyone know which kind of bowl this is or how it looks or better yet have one to sell? I have until the 30th November. Please let me know!
Thank you and sorry for being so clueless about this, but any help is greatly appreciated.
New to "The Fresh Loaf" and so happy to have found you all! I'm exploring cast iron vs. stoneware loaf pans for making whole grain bread. I'm a "seasoned" cast iron user and it's all I use for cooking however. I do have a stoneware muffin pan that has worked well however you can't beat the price of cast iron over stoneware. What do you prefer and why?
It's between the Lodge http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QM8SMK?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_2&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER and the Hartstone http://www.chefscatalog.com/product/26648-hartstone-pottery-loaf-pan-baking-stone.aspx#BVRRWidgetID.
I do like that the Hartstone is bigger.
Also should mention that I plan to make traditional three rise bread. Thanks all!
I found an old Hoosier baking cabinet in OK condition in an antique store. They were moving shop, so they happily discounted its already-low price, and I've spent the last two months fixing it up.
http://fupjack.tumblr.com/post/130129442779/i-rebuilt-this-and-now-i-have-to-bake-like-crazy
I'm not looking to bring it back to the original state - I have no use for a leaky flour dispenser, or a circular spice rack. I do want to dedicate it to baking, though. (The material in the second picture is from making a lemon cake last night.)
I'm already thinking of getting a decent hand mixer so that I don't have to schlep a stand mixer in and out, for anything not needing a dough hook. What do you all keep nearest to hand for baking?
We just got a new Kitchenaid range that has a steam tray. This isn't proper steam assist, just a tray that slides like a little drawer under one of the oven racks that can be filled with water. Ambient heat produces steam, presumably anyway.
Does anyone have experience with this model? I have been making Lahey bread, and Forkish's bread w/ starter in a dutch oven but I was going to try to graduate to baguettes. Recipes I've read advise water soaked rags and other techniques, but since I have this tray all built in I'm going to start with that.
So if you've used this before I appreciate hearing about your experience with it. If not I'll post my experience when I give it a go next week.
Also, first post here, thanks everyone for all the great tips and good stories to be found here.
Is there a good counter top proofer you can buy, or is there a good plan for one out there?
Thanks
Hi all
I have just bought a hobart n50 which I want to refurb would anyone know where I can get the service manual, I do have a parts catalog but would like to refurb it properly with the right procedures any help will be greatly appreciated .
thx
I have a reconditioned 12 Qt. Hobart A120. I bought it about 6 months ago. Just recently it stopped turning in first speed. The motor hums but I cannot get the shaft to turn. I have tried manually turning the dough hook back and forth while the motor is running (with proper caution to where my hands are so I can get them out of the way) to see if I can get the gears to engage but no luck. I have also tried tweeking the position of the speed lever with no success. . The mixer engages just fine on second and third speed.
Does anyone out there have any suggestions? Can you pass me along to a friend who might know? Can you point me to a schematic of the drive gearing?
Hi
I currently either bake my bread in loaf tins or just leave them as flattish loafs on a parchment. Everything turns out well: shape, rise, crumb, crust etc. Lately I have been venturing into rather high hydration dough and have started proofing in "baskets". I currently improvise with a cotton tea towel (not terry cloth) lined bowl. I have major issues with the dough sticking absolutely horrendously to the towel despite having rubbed an obscene amount of rice flour into the towel. It sticks so badly that I need another person to help me hold the cloth while I carefully pry the dough away and still come away with a completely ruined loaf or boule.
I am thinking of investing in proper flax linen, not only in hope it will stick less but also I prefer something perfectly food grade. I see linen on sale online but they are all for couches. I would like to know whether the couch linen can serve both functions: as a couche as well as for lining proofing baskets or are the couche linens too thick as basket liners.
Thanks!
Hey ya'll, I've been lurking for years and gathered a lot of good information here...so thank everyone for that. I've lived the trajectory of cube monkey to full-time baker and bakery owner and back to a life not in bread. I'm hoping to swing back the other way, but I wanted to share a project I had been working on but never finished in hopes that it might help someone else trying to scale up into small commercial baking or cottage baking.
As an experiment one day, I took a standard issue $150,1.25 cu. foot cement mixer and threw a 20 pound batch of ingredients in. It produced some of the most beautiful dough I've ever worked with. It could have probably handled 60 pounds of dough easily.
I checked with the health department both locally and state to see what it would take to convert the cement mixer into a dough mixer and not have any problems from their department. The general consensus was that the bowl and blades of the mixer would need to be removed of all paint and an approved non-toxic coating applied to the steel. They said to document the process and keep a record of it in case anyone ever asked.
I researched medical grade powdercoating and industrial chroming (the same process used on the hydraulic pistons of commercial tractors), but ultimately decided that the best option was to go old-fashioned and have the bowl "tinned". If you're not familiar with the process, many old bakeries still have to send off their old steel bowls to have a tin coating applied every now and then. It's not often, and it's not terribly expensive. I was also told to avoid sandblasting with the wrong media as it can pit the metal.
The other consideration was that there is a rubber seal separating the two halves of the mixer bowl. The idea would be to replace that with a food grade seal either silicone (silpat?) or food grade rubber.
Replacing the nuts with wing nuts to allow for a quick dis-assembly would be ideal too. That would be for the blades inside the bowl and the two halves of the bowl itself.
Why a cement mixer?
1. It's cheap: Total estimated cost for a new mixer and to have it tinned and replace the necessary small parts is less than $600. That's less than a used, needs work Hobart 20qt and you'd have almost triple the capacity.
2. It's extremely durable and simple. If you ever had a problem, you could go down to your local big box hardware store and replace the head unit.
3. It replicates the folding and tumbling motion of hand mixing almost the way a diving arm mixer does.
4. It's quiet! Very quiet!
Maybe it's not the solution for you, but when I was desperate for a larger mixer solution at a low cost, this was what I could come up with and prototype. Maybe if the bowl itself could be replicated in stainless steel, then there'd be no need to go through the whole coating process. Maybe there's a better way to do it....suggestions?
Happy baking!
Not being a math whiz, I thought I'd check to see if anyone has any personal experience with this. I'm considering picking up a small deck oven to support the expansion of my subscription-based artisan bread CFO to include indirect and farmers market sales. No 3-phase electric in my house, of course, so I'm thinking along the lines of a setup like the Blodgett 901 Double Stack gas oven.
Looking around, I see that your average gas dryer consumes 20-40k BTU/hr. The spec sheet on the Blodgett reads: "MAXIMUM INPUT: Single 22,000 BTU/hr Double 44,000 BTU/hr." So it would stand to reason that the gas line in my garage that's intended for a dryer would support this oven. I've gotten a gas kiln up to 2,300 dF on gas from a similar connection, so my gut tells me I should be able to drive an oven like this, no problem. Still, it's a big investment to make only to find that that's not the case. Anyone have anecdotal evidence (or smarter calculations and science than I'm capable of) that this works?
Just to head things off at the pass on the cautionary tales, I'm totally aware that these things weren't made to operate in a garage. I understand the implications.
Chris
I have a chance to purchase floor models of a Miele H4886BP or a Wolf SO30US at good prices. It's hard to find recent reviews that seem to fit, even in general terms, Miele or Wolf ovens.
I mostly bake cookies, but also cakes and brownies. In addition to the normal things a home baker looks for in an oven, I'd like one that doesn't heat up the kitchen too much or have an obnoxiously loud or high-pitched fan.
Does anyone have experience or a recommendation?
Thanks,
Kerrie
[edit: corrected model number of Wolf oven]
Long time lurker, not much of a poster. I've about decided to buy a banneton, but I'm undecided on whether to get a liner for it. I'd greatly appreciate information about using vs not using a liner.
PS: Hope I've put this in the right place.
PPS: I did do a search, but didn't find anything--if this has already been covered, please point me in the right direction.
What brand is deck oven at 5.56min https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-APuZ5SHHoU ?
My new Miele oven has a convection bake cycle, a surround baking mode where the top and bottom heating elements are on, and a traditional bake mode with only bottom heat element on. Does anyone have experience with Miele ovens, what temp. used, what cycle used? My normal daily bread is an oatmeal, wheat bread using 1 cup oatmeal, 1 cup whole wheat flour, and 5 cups unbleached bread flour. Thanks, Lynn
Hey Folks,
Wanted to post my thoughts on my new Rufco B5 oven.
Purchased the unit from Pleasant Hill Grains at the site below. Great folks to deal with and several of their customer rep's worked with me through all my questions.
My contact was a nice lady named Sarah. The oven was ordered and shipped out to me the next day. The shipping was free and I didn't get tagged with sales tax. I highly recommend Sarah or others there.
http://pleasanthillgrain.com/rofco-electric-stone-oven-b5-bread-oven
ARRIVAL:
Arrived on a lift-gate truck in a crate that appeared 'bomb-proof'. The crate even had a 'tip-over' vial on the side that would change color if the crate was dropped on it's side.
The oven was doubled tied down and had a little forklift skid. I think it could have been 'air-droped' onto my driveway and survived.
Not a scratch on the little oven…. even the plastic on the SS came off easy.
SET-UP & FIRE-UP:
I set it up on a metal toped table on our patio. I wired a 240v / 20 amp AWG 10 circuit to provide service. Then installed a thermocouple inside the oven and followed the manual for initial start-up. It came up to 230c in approximately 1.5 hours. Seems to consume about 1400 watts while heating.
TEST BAKES:
First one…..
My first bake was Sourdough. I make my dough towards the low hydration side and the final proof is kinda short. The oven temp was set at 210c (about 450f), initial steam three shots during the first 4 minutes, then after 10 minutes the vent was opened, temp was dropped to 50c (110f) and the vent remained open for the last 15 minutes of the bake.
The Baguetts seemed to have good spring, color and open crumb. The bottoms were not burnt and crust was nice and crackly.
Second one….
This bake is what I call 'Country French' Baguettes (normal hydration). Again the same procedure as the Sourdough. Another good bake or at least I am happy.
I'm pretty happy with these. I should have left them in the oven for, maybe, another 5 minutes.
STEAMING METHOD:
For my steaming I purchased a little steam generator from Amazon. Did a few modifications to it and have been using it in our gas range oven. So when I got the Rufco I fitted the steamer with a copper tube nozzle that will fit into the door vent. This allow me to steam the dough without opening the oven door.
A couple of quick bursts of steam during the first 10 minutes of the bake works great. I need to remember to close the little vent each time.
OVERALL INITAL IMPRESSION:
This little oven beat the heck out of using a stove range oven. First, on a range oven you cannot control the venting, need to use a 'dutch-oven' or inverted a deep steam table pan to cover the dough for good color/crust, and steaming is always a chore. Did I mention crawling around on the floor.
The only down side for the Rufco so far is that the thermostat is inaccurate. At 230c the actual temp is well above 260c (>500f). I use 210c for warm up and baking. It is about 450f. Most thermostats I have dealt with have always been adjustable via a small screw inside the dial shaft, but not here. This is not a large problem. Just something to get used to.
Other that the above I can not find any other issues. It does exactly what I need and it is very fun to use.
I highly recommend the oven and Pleasant Hill Grains. I would like to thank 'drogon' and the others that posted comments and information which help me decide.
Let the fun begin…….
Hi all,
I'm prepared to purchase an electric convection oven mainly for baking sponge cake and occasionally baking pork steak. The oven is for home use. I have no pre-set budget but space is my major consideration.
On the market there are 2 main types, convection and true convection. The later is having an heating element on the fan tunnel to guarantee temperature accuracy but is rather noisy in operation according to my search on Internet. The former is without heating element in the fan box with less noise and being smaller in size.
Please advise which type of the oven being suitable for my use? Thanks
Regards
satimis
Hi!
We run a small commercial bakery. This is our firts family business.
Something happened with our conveyor. The mechanic says that the problem in rollers.
Who knows any supplier of parts for commercial bakery equipment?
thanks.
PS: We can ship from any location.
Avoid GE products
I really don't like using TFL as a kind of bully pulpit, but I am pretty darned frustrated with General Electric right now.
Oct. 2014 I decided to replace my perfectly good range with a new range that came with a double oven. I could provide a permanent home for my baking deck and lava rocks and leave the upper oven for most other oven things.
From the first month the oven lights blew out, first the upper and shortly thereafter the lower. I had GE service repair come in and check. Scroll forward one year - the lower deck oven light continues to blow out. I've probably replaced it at least a half dozen times, most recently last Friday.
The GE service repair person has made three visits. Each time he plugs his laptop into the range to dutfully perform diagnostics and has never found a problem. Just under one month ago he swapped out the oven lamp sockets for new sockets, and new bulbs. No dice. His next, and 4th, useless visit will be this coming Saturday.
GE states that their warranty (at least in the USA) will cover repairs only. No matter who I speak with at their Customer Relations Center, they will not replace the unit, which is apparently a lemon. I've had them extend the warranty one year more, but that doesn't resolve anything.
They are "nice" enough to offer me a replacement range for a small discount, so in essence I would be paying pretty much double the price of my one year old range with no chance to replace it when that one goes south too. No thanks.
So...unless you mother has her retirement invested in GE stock, my suggestion is this -
Look for another appliance company for your next "durable goods" big ticket appliance. Find one with a replacement warranty. But avoid GE as though it has the measles.
If you have any other forums or website suggestions where I can make my statement "heard" please add a comment as to where. Thanks,
alan
