Welcome to the McMinnville, Oregon Baker's Dozen! Inspired by similar organizations in San Francisco, Salt Lake, and New York, we have decided to bake and share on a monthly basis.
Everyone is welcome; we recommend that you like to make- and eat- baked goods. The meetings are held the first Monday of each month at 7 pm at the Red Fox Bakery, 328 NE Evans Street, McMinnville.
Our January meeting used at recipe from Maggie Glezer's Artisan Baking Across America (http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Baking-Across-America-Recipes/dp/1579651178) . We selected the ciabatta recipe at the December meeting, and were given the assignment of baking the loaf once at home, then bringing it to the bakery and using the Bongard oven.
Each baker arrived with a different loaf of bread. All of them were delicious, but each loaf had a different crumb, slightly different crust color, and unique flavor. The main differences seems to the based on the flours, but some people experimented with retarding overnight, and others added more flour when turning. This dough is fairly forgiving, and we were all pleased with out personal efforts and results.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The breads were amazingly different. As Laurie mentioned, there were many variables - whether we measured or weighed our ingredients, mixed by machine or by hand, what flours we used, how we fermented and proofed and how obsessed we were about all of those.
ReplyDeleteThe variation within our own bakes was equally interesting - just one test run was enough to raise our level of expertise noticeably!
Oops! I forgot my Google name was pajarita - that means Little Bird, the name my schoolmates gave me when I went to elementary school (!) in Las Cruces, New Mexico. My English name was Bertie, nickname for Bertha.
ReplyDeleteTMI, I know, but I had to explain.
Too early in the morning. I forgot to tell you I'm Jo McIntyre, Serious Home Baker, the title given to non-professional members of the Bread Bakers Guild of America.
ReplyDeleteI am so pleased to have finally made a sucessful ciabatta--thanks to the Baker's Dozen. I now can see that in previous efforts, too much flour has been the problem. The croissant recipe for next month should be equally enlightening.
ReplyDeleteI tried to upload a picture to Followers but couldn't make it work. Oh well.
Sandra
Since this ciabatta recipe had such high hydration, I want to share a great quote I just came across by Jeffery Hamelman, a professional baker and instructor in Vermont:
ReplyDelete"Water makes the baker rich," say the Germans.