Q&A MISC. Bread Questions
Until we can figure out a more sophisticated way to handle your feedback, your praise and your questions, we hope the following series of Q&A posts will help. Our goal is to get a conversation going about a particular topic in one location. Hoping that it will be easier for you to follow and get the information you need to bake gorgeous bread.
If we haven’t started a thread on the subject you are interested in then leave it here and we can create another post!
Thank you so much for all of the conversation. We enjoy it immensely and are learning so much from you all!
Zoë and Jeff
Rosemary: Thanks for noticing the article; I just put it on our “Reviews” page but here’s the link as well for readers who didn’t see it: https://www.mercurynews.com/entertainmentheadlines/ci_8779739
We’re pleased to say that we’ll be in the Bay Area to promote our book from June 26 through June 29; our events and classes will be announced here, on our “Events” link.
Lady Di: I’m so glad the Hot Cross Buns worked so well for you, that’s great. Now, about the “French” dinner rolls, I’m assuming that you mean the recipe on page 108 (caramelized onion herb dinner rolls). The recipe, as written in the book, has you “cloaking” and shaping the one-pound mass of dough and then doing it again for each individual roll. I think you are right, we probably could have skipped the first cloaking and just shaped the rolls.
Thanks for catching the oversight; your version will probably yield a lighter result. Jeff
Howdy,
I was thinking of experimenting with kefir (the fermented milk drink). It’s similar to yogurt but more sour and watery. Anyways, I know that some homebakers use kefir to jumpstart sourdough starters. Since I’m interested in making something really tangy (like a faux sourdough without alot of time cultivating and feeding a starter). I wonder what if I just used some kefir in with your method. I think I saw some kefir at the local Trader Joe’s.
So, here are the questions. First, how does the acid/milk affect the bread (does it tenderize the crumb)? Do I have to compensate by adding some bread flour to the all-purpose? Any suggestions on a starting volume of kefir to add to a basic master dough? Is it 1:1 substitution water to kefir?
Just wondering. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks I’ll have a chance to give this a go. I’m hoping to get a bread that is even more “sourdough-like” than a well-aged basic master dough. I’ll probably give it a small dose of rye too.
Dan
Dan: I like it, it should work. Acidic ingredients like vinegar are said to yield a more “open” crumb (bigger holes) by breaking down gluten, especially over aging time. So you might see that (depending on just how acidic kefir actually is). Milk products act as tenderizers and that might operate here as well.
Mainly, I think it’s going to add an interesting flavor. I’d start with a one-cup substitution for water. Then increase up from there.
Bread flour might help prevent this concoction from getting too heavy, which is a possibility depending on how much milk-solids are in your kefir. But for the first experiment, AP flour will be OK Let us know how it turns out. Jeff
Love your book I’ve only had it for 1 week and already made 3 batches. The first two batch was with bleached that I already had in my pantry. Third batch with unbleached definately is better. Second batch was the Challah, I made the sticky carmel rolls and also made Czech Kolacky with prune filling. They were as good as Mom use to make. I think my refrigerator will always have a batch of dough.
With summer grilling season coming I would like to make mini hamburger buns. Do you have any suggestions?
Zoe and Jeff–
Re cornstarch wash–what do you mean by “glassy”? I microwaved the mixture for 60 seconds. It turned more clear than it started, about the color of block glass. However, it did not create the shine on the bread. What did I do wrong?
The olive bread tastes wonderful even if it does not shine.
Thanks for all your help.
Michele
Michele: What you describe sounds like what I get after the microwaving. Sometimes the bread gets shiny, and well… sometimes it doesn’t. If you really want the shine, paint it again about ten minutes before the end of baking and see if that helps. Jeff
Darlene: OK, hamburger buns, you definitely want something soft or you’ll cut the roof of your mouth with the crust. My personal favorite is to make mini-pitas (page 163, just make them small). Or, try the buttermilk dough (page 207), and shape small flattened rounds. After shaping, place on a greased cookie sheet, rest for 40 minutes, and bake at 350 for 25 minutes or so. Don’t use steam in the oven. See what you think– milk will tenderize nicely instead of buttermilk if you like. Jeff
I’ve been loving the book and breadmaking, but now I’ve got another question. Most of the doughs have been just as described in the book with it being nice and sticky / stretchy when I pull it out of the refrigerator to bake. But, I’ve gotten a few that are great at room temperature, but the dough becomes too solid when it gets chilled down to refrigerator temperatures. For example, the 100% whole wheat took off just fine while it was warm after mixing it up, but when I tried to use it the next day the dough just sort of broke off instead of stretched out, and couldn’t be shaped. It was fine again after warming up. I’d also suspect that with it being this solid it’s not getting much help from aging in the refrigerator. So, what I’m wondering is if I’m doing something wrong or if this is something I have to expect with the doughs that have things like honey in them. Should I maybe be adding more water, or would I have trouble the other way with too wet a dough, or is my refrigerator too cold? It seems to defeat the purpose if I have to wait for the dough bucket to warm up before I can take dough out of the bucket.
Thanks again for all the help you give on this site. Two of my friends have already bought your book after trying my bread and I’m working on a couple more.
Daryl: I don’t think it’s the honey so much as the whole grains. As you start replacing white flour with whole wheat or rye, you’re losing gluten and the ability to “stretch” the dough. It just feels different, and it’s worse when it’s cold. I’ve taken to very minimal handling of our cold whole wheat doughs. Just roughly “cloak” it (five seconds), and put it in the loaf pan (or on the pizza peel). If you try to stretch it around itself, it’s just not going to work. Jeff
The only semolina flour my grocery carries is Hodgson Mill’s blend of golden semolina and extra fancy durum wheat pasta flour. Will this work for your Italian Semolina Bread, or do I need pure durum wheat flour?
Thanks!
Sandy: Either should work, but the semolina may yield a drier result. In general, durum for bread is a high-protein, very fine-ground product that yields a nice moist bread. I’m not positive about “Durum for Pasta,” but I wouldn’t worry about it. The only time the durum/semolina choice becomes important is if you try to increase the durum/semolina proportion in the recipe. For the proportion as we’ve written it, it should be forgiving. Jeff
Hi Jeff and Zoe,
I love the book and have not bought store made bread since I got it.
My kids love the bread, and even eat the crust!
Some questions as I work my way through the book-
if I am baking two loafs, one requires steam (oatmeal) and the other did not (buttermilk) how soon can I put the non steam bread in the oven to share some of the baking time?
Can you freeze any of the bread doughs or just the ones specified in the book?
Can you put any of the breads into a pan, for instance the light whole wheat? I tried it and it came out a little dense…
Have you done any overnight rises in the fridge, for instance shaping sticky buns and letting them rise in the fridge overnight to bake in the morning? I have done this with traditional dough with success.
And finally, if I am baking two different loafs, one with a stone and one with out, can you put the pan right on top of the stone, then remove it for the next loaf on the stone? I only have two racks in the oven. You cannot put the cold stone in a hot oven, but I do not want to remove the hot stone either (the other rack holding the pan for steam)
Thank you again, you book has changed our eating for the better!
Mandy
Wow Mandy, this is all great! Thanks for all your enthusiasm. OK, your questions:
Most of the changes in the crust due to moisture are happening in the first 10 minutes (so I’ve read!). So that’s when I’d put in the second (without steam) loaf.
All the doughs should be freezable.
You can put any of them into a pan, but the resting/rising time is dramatically increased. I like to go at least 1 hour 20 minutes for a loaf pan bread. The loaves are bigger, and the pan retains the cold. The longer rise should solve the density problem.
The overnight rise in the fridge should work for everything. Many readers have been experimenting with it… you can then bake cold, straight from the fridge into the preheated oven. Sticky buns should work well this way.
And finally, yes, you can put the pan bread directly on the stone. I do it all the time.
Happy baking! Jeff
pizza stone Q:
have had my pizza stone for o heck almost 20 years and never had a problem – always heat and cool it in the oven etc, etc.
last might, it cracked, while baking the baguette – we were wondering is it the steam that might have done this? it’s a superstone brand. prob time for a new one anyways – will get the thickest i can find, but we were just curious.
LOVING the book. my husband was looking in askance atthe fridge space the dough bucket stole, but is now a convert. 😉
mari
Thank you for your prompt answers, will put them right to work.
I made the Raisin Bread last night to eat this morning and we ate the entire loaf!
I have three doughs in the fridge at a time, and the hardest part is deciding which one to make next.
Looking forward to your next book already.
We’re working on it, but the wheels turn slowly…. Jeff
Mari: Sorry I missed your note…
I can’t figure out what happened with that stone. Some of the cheap ones do fine, until you start using them a lot. Or maybe did some water spill on it if the broiler tray was above (rather than below) it? The Williams-Sonoma rectangular stone is lifetime guaranteed, for whatever that’s worth.
Jeff
I’ve had much success doing the Leahy no-knead method but putting the dough in a cold LeCreuset, and baked in a cold-start oven. Has anyone tried baking your basic bread recipe, with the cold-rise technique followed by baking the dough in a covered enameled cast iron in a cold-start oven?
I just started your dough today so I will likely wait 2-3 days before attempting this myself. Just curious if anyone else has tried this and their results.
Mickey: Leahy’s baking method works fine with our dough, but I’ve only tried it letting it rest/rise fully before baking in a pre-heated oven. Let us know how your experiments go. You’ll find that our dough, being drier than Leahy’s, is a lot more versatile. It’s dry enough to be rolled into pizza and shaped into free-form loaves. You can’t do that with a dough as wet as the Leahy method’s. Jeff
Amazingly quick response!
I’ve also done this technique using the Cook’s Illustrated version where the hydration includes beer and vinegar but overall is much drier than Leahy’s. After the long 18+ hour autolyse I typically put the dough into a covered enameled cast iron pan and let it rise for however long I think the dough needs, eliminating the need to transfer the risen dough into the pan before baking. I find using a 2 1/2 qt. or 3 qt. pan allowed the dough to rise nicely and it gets a nice oven spring when baked without spreading flat. I also like the cold-start because it saves energy.
I’m going to try the cold start method but will also use some of the dough for pizza (hot, not cold, pizza stone) and will report back early next week with my results.
Thanks Mickey. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Jeff
I really enjoyed your class on Feb 23 at Cooks of Crocus Hill in Edina. Have been experimenting ever since but am concerned with the lack of rise that I get during the resting period. Particularly with challah. I’m concerned about letting it sit much longer than the recommended hour and 20 minutes because of the egg content. I do get some spring in the oven and this is also problematic because the braid seems to rise and tear apart and the resulting bread is not very pretty since it is only partially covered by the egg wash when this occurs. Any suggestions.
Thanks for coming, Jill, we had a blast!
If you’re an experienced baker, you may be surprised our loaves don’t rising as much as expected during the rest period after forming loaves. Still, 1 hour and 20 minutes should be enough if your room is over 66 degrees, I’d say. A greater percentage of our expansion (compared to traditional dough) occurs as oven spring, as you’ve noticed.
You didn’t say the bread was over-dense, so I’m assuming that you’re getting some rise, and then oven spring. So the problem is cosmetic? Which loaf are you making that is doing this? Jeff
Hello,
I just wanted to report back on my initial efforts in using kefir in your master recipe.
I just sampled some and it definitely has more tang in it than a well-aged master recipe dough. Here is what I used:
1 cup (about 9.3 oz) nonfat kefir (I wanted to keep this dough lean)
2-1/4 cups (18 oz) warm water
1-1/2 Tbsp instant yeast
4 tsp kosher salt (the kefir has some salt in it)
4 cups (20 oz) unbleached AP flour
2 cups (11 oz) bread flour
1/2 cup (2.3 oz) dark rye
I dosed the dough with bread flour because I was concern that the kefir would overly tenderize the crumb. I also boosted the water to compensate for the bread flour and for the fact that the kefir has some solids in it (it’s not all wet).
I mixed it up as usual and let it sit at room temp for about 3 hrs. Then I put it in the fridge until the next day. Next day, I shaped two 1 lb loaves (let proof for 90 min) and baked as before. Nice oven spring.
So, the kefir did add a nice tang. It wasn’t overbearing and very pleasant tasting. I’ll let the rest of the dough age in the refrigerator to see if the yeast and the “wee beasties” in the kefir make the bread much more sour. Still, it was a nice addition for a tangier bread (with definite sourdough qualities) — a faux sourdough.
The kefir was bought at a grocery store. I know some people make their own and it might be much more sour, but the storebought one worked fine. So, what to do with the rest of the kefir? Well, this morning I diluted 1 part kefir with 2 parts milk and the result is something close to buttermilk. I made “buttermilk” pancakes that were very tasty and light.
I know that there are people who claim all sorts of magical properties of kefir. That wasn’t why I wanted to try this. I only wanted tangier, more sourdough-like bread without the whole constant care and feeding of a sourdough starter. The kefir apparently has a complex mix of microbes (yeasts/bacteria, including some lactobaccilus and acetobacter to give it an assertive sourness).
I’ll let you know when I bake off the remaining dough if the extra aging really sours it more. But for now, I’m intrigued by this use of kefir to sour it.
Dan
Thanks Dan, this is great material. I’ll look for kefir to consider using it in the next book that Zoe and I are writing. Jeff
Jeff,
Thanks for the ever quick response. The most problematic bread has been the challah. Since it is springing in the oven, what do you think about opening the oven about half way through and reapplying the egg wash so that the braid is fully browned.
Oh, that’s what you meant! If you really want a completely even finish, your approach will definitely work. Give it a try and let us know. Jeff
Hi Jeff and Zoe,
I love the book, and have been experimenting with the different doughs, and everything’s been great.
Until today, when I tried to make a pizza with the boule dough on our gas grill.
At the thickness you specified, the dough seemed too thin to slide onto the stone, and I had to use SO much cornmeal that the entire bottom of the pizza ended up with a strong burnt cornmeal taste.
Would you consider making a video illustrating the pizza? I have lots of questions about how large the rolled-out dough should be, and I’d love to see your methods for transferring large pies onto the stone without dislodging the toppings. Next time I’ll try smaller pizzas, I think.
Hi Kelly,
Are you using a stone on your grill? If so you can use parchment paper under the pizza which will prevent any sticking to the peel. If not you may want to switch to rice flour which I find is mush more “slippery” than cornmeal and you end up using less of it.
Making smaller pizzas until you are really comfortable with it is a good idea. We also suggest that you have all of your toppings ready so that the dough is not sitting on the peel for very long before going in the oven. The other trick is to not load the dough up with too many toppings which makes the dough heavier and harder to transfer.
The idea of a video is great. We have intentions of doing some. In the mean time we will try to take some photos to help you with a visual!
Thanks! Zoë
Jeff & Zoe, I love the book. I can’t believe how easy it is. I love to make sandwich bread almost every week but making artisan bread like La Brea just takes too long for people who work.
Thanks for the tip on the Maltex for the Granary bread. I could not find that but here in St. Louis, MO we have Malt-O-Meal. It was really good. Last week I had my 10 yr. old nephew & 6yr. old niece over to bake. They had so much fun making the baquettes. The roasted garlic,olive oil,and parm. cheese were flat but tasty. The plain were picture perfect.
The brioche is awesome. I have pain du chocolate in the oven now. We had the rye for dinner. Can’t wait to try baquettes to try and make party rye for party pizzas.
Thanks for making it easy and tasty!!!!
Beth
Thanks for your kind words Beth. I have to try that Malt-O-Meal idea, we always have that in the house. Jeff
I love your book. In the first 3 weeks I have made 12 loaves of wonderful bread. Many were shared with friends. I have sold 3 books and everyone is very excited. I was frustrated with the size of a “grapefruit”, the amount of dough you say to grab for a 1 lb. loaf. My solution was to get 4 large containers and divide the dough amongst them before the 2 hour room temperature rise. All I have to do now is take a container out of the refrigerator and shape my loaf. Maybe this idea would appeal to others. Thank you for revolutionizing bread making at home.
Barbara: Thanks for the suggestion, that would work well. For freezing, that’s exactly what I do. Jeff
Hello again,
I’m writing back to report on the experiment using kefir to the ABin5 method. As I reported before, the bread after only 1 day aging in the refrigerator already had a nice tang to it. Today, I baked the rest of the aging dough (now 5 days in the refrigerator).
The bread is definitely a bit more tangy (not in your face tangy, but definitely there and very pleasant). My wife and I both agree that it is also a bit more nuanced in flavor. My guess is that some of the “wee beasties” in the kefir remained active in addition to the bread yeast.
Overall, I really like the effect. Definitely sourdough-like qualities without as much work. Also, I noticed that the first batch of bread had a little better keeping properties (did not stale quite as fast), perhaps due to the bit of acid in the bread.
I was wondering how long do you think it would be safe to keep this dough stored in the refrigerator? I noticed that your enriched doughs are not to be kept more than 5 days. This dough does not have eggs, but there is some dairy (albeit sour dairy at that).
One other thing that I noticed is that the increase tanginess makes the saltiness of the bread come to the fore a bit. I’ve noticed this with other foods (like when I make hummus, adding in the lemon juice also boosts the salt flavor). So, in my next batches, I may drop the salt a bit more.
Dan
Dan: I have to admit that I don’t know how long you should keep the kefir-enriched dough. Maybe another way to think about it is, how long should you keep open kefir in the refrigerator? Not past it’s expiration date, for starters. And not if you see any visible mold (that’s true for any stored dough). And not if it develops any odd flavors.
But I don’t have an absolute answer for you. Jeff
Jeff,
Well, being rather sour and therefore somewhat acidic, I would think that kefir would not spoil very quickly (it is afterall carefully controlled “spoiled” milk). In poking around the web, there are many people who make their own kefir who claim that it keeps a very long time in the refrigerator (some claim months). I suspect that the reduced pH in the dough would give it some preservative powers, so I bet you can leave it for a up to the 10-14 days. But it is just a guess on my part.
Dan
I’m back after poking around some more. It appears that kefir is sometimes used to jumpstart traditional sourdough starters. Because a sourdough starter can just be maintained for very looooong times, I bet the kefir in the master dough isn’t anymore of an issue than the other ingredients.
By the way, when the bread baked this time, it didn’t rise upward as much. It spread sideways more this time. Probably due to weakening gluten.
Dan
I’m back to report my experiences combining the Leahy and 5-minute bread making techniques. I’m sure there are other variations to try. Here are the ones I attempted.
All doughs were created the same for each trial using a scale and weighing all ingredients in grams based on Jeff’s 1/20/07 post) and dough was left at room temperature for 2 hours and then refrigerated for 3 days. All baking occurred on day 3.
1. Hot Oven, No Pot, With Steam (rise time after shaping included)
Heated oven to 475 degrees with baking stone in the middle and shallow baking pan on lowest oven rack. Removed 3-day refrigerated dough, formed a boule, let it rest for 1 hour 40 minutes, slashed the top and placed dough directly onto baking stone, poured hot water into baking pan for steam and quickly closed oven door. Baked for approx. 30 minutes and removed boule after bread reached internal temp. of 208 degrees. Bread was cooled to room temp. before slicing.
RESULTS: Great oven spring, crusty exterior but definiely much softer than Leahy or Cook’s Illustrated (CI) crust. Crumb is tender but generally much denser (smaller holes) than Leahy or CI’s crumb but not as dense as the “Hot Oven, Hot Pan” version made. Flavor far superior to either Leahy or CI’s versions.
2. Cold Oven, Cold Pot (rise time after shaping included)
Removed dough from refrigerator, placed shaped dough in 2 1.2 quart. enameled cast iron pot, covered it and left it at room temp. for 1 hour 4 minutes. Slashed the top of dough and put covered pot into cold oven set to 475 degrees. Removed cover after 30 minutes, inserted a remote thermometer and continued baking until internal temp reached 207 degrees. Bread was cooled to room temperature before slicing.
RESULTS: Not much overall oven spring, crust was nicely caramelized but not as hard-crispy as with the Leahy dough, crumb was denser and holes were not as large as the Leahy bread. Flavor was far superior to the Leahy or CI’s versions.
3. Hot Oven, Hot Pot (rise time after shaping included)
Removed dough from refrigerator quickly shaped it and let it rest for 1 hour 40 minutes. 40 minutes before baking, put an empty 2 1/2 quart enameled cast iron pot and lid in the oven and set it to 475 degrees with baking stone in the middle. Right before baking, slashed the dough, removed hot pot from oven, gently placed slashed dough into hot pot, covered it and returned it to the hot oven onto the hot baking stone. Baked, covered, for approx. 30 minutes, removed cover and inserted remote thermometer and removed bread from oven when internal temp. reached 208 degrees. Bread was cooled to room temp. before slicing.
RESULTS: Great oven spring, crusty exterior but definiely much softer than Leahy or CI’s crust. Crumb generally much denser than Leahy or CI crumb. Flavor far superior to either Leahy or CI’s versions.
4. Hot Oven, Hot Pot (No Second Rise)
Finally I tried everything I did in version #2 above except I took the dough straight from the refrigerator, quickly formed it, immediately plopped it into the hot enameled cast iron pot, covered it and baked as in #2 above.
RESULTS: Considering there was absolutely no rise time after shaping, I as good oven spring as with the Hot Pan, very crispy crust (although not as shatteringly crisp as Leahy or CI’s bread) and the same denser crumb than any Leahy or CI versions I’ve done. As expected, the flavor was far superior to Leahy or CI breads.
I’ll continue playing around but based on my trials, my conclusions are that the Leahy or CI doughs/baking methods result in the crispiest crusts with the most open crumb. The Artisan Bread in 5 minutes dough has a denser but still tender crumb and best flavor, regardless of cooking method.
I actually prefer the Artisan-in-5 crust better than the Leahy crust (easier to slice and gentler on my bread knife!) and the flavor is, hands-down, far superior but I much prefer the more open crumb I get from the Leahy or CI bread. If anyone can tell me how to get a more open crumb with the Artisan-in-5 bread, I’d love to know.
Correction to my earlier post…
4. Hot Oven, Hot Pot (No Second Rise)
Finally I tried everything I did in version #2 above except I took the dough straight from the refrigerator, quickly formed it, immediately plopped it into the hot enameled cast iron pot, covered it and baked as in #3 above.
Dan: Thanks for following up about kefir. We may try some experiments with it.
Mickey: Great experiments, thanks for posting. We know that our doughs work well in closed pots as we’ve tried them too. Your three-day refrigeration made the flavor difference. You can get an open crumb with a longer rest, essentially. But there are many more suggestions, and you’ll find them at https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=141, where we’ve posted these in bulk (like the dough!). Jeff
I have really enjoyed your breads – the brioche, challah, deli rye, boule…I just tried a batch of Oatmeal Bread and have baked 2 loaves, one on the first day and one on the 5th. In both cases the bread was really crumbly, hard to use it without it falling apart in a sandwich or before it reaches the toaster. Is there a way to make this bread so that there is more gluten activity – or what might be the problem? It tastes great but is more of a cake-like texture than bread.
Hi Lady Di,
What kind of flour are you using in this dough? It sounds like the dough is too dry?
Another thing to try is adding a tablespoon of vital wheat gluten to the dough. This will help improve the texture of the bread.
Please let me know if this helps!
Zoë
Hi Jeff and Zoe,
It’s Kelly again, with the pizza problem from 4/6. I plucked up my courage and tried the pizza again on the gas grill (and yes, I was using a preheated stone both times.
This time I made smaller pizzas, worked quickly with few toppings, and used a very small amount of cornmeal, and the bottom of the pizza still burned rather severely, even after only 6 minutes. Could the stone be getting too hot?
Next I will try parchment. The taste of the crust on the top is so good that I’m not ready to give up yet. But I’d be grateful for any more suggestions.
Kelly: It really sounds like your grill is too hot. The grills that work best have a thermometer in the lid that pokes through. If yours has one, what is it reading?
If yours DOESN’T have one, you just need to turn down the heat some notches until you get a good result. Preheat the stone for at least 20 minutes before putting the pizza on. Let me know what happens.
Parchment? Might work, give it a try. But I really think you have a temperature problem. Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Yes, both the grill (and, I presume, the stone) were at 500 degrees. The grill temperature lowered to 400 after I opened the lid to put the pizzas on the stone.
Well, let’s try turning down the heat, maybe to 450 and let me know what happens. I’m betting that the grill’s thermometer is reading low. Jeff
Zoe,
Thank you for your response. I am using all purpose unbleached flour, I think it is the one that Costco carries but I don’t remember for sure. The dough did not seem dry at all; maybe I’ll try the vital wheat gluten–is that available in grocery stores?
Di: The most readily-available VWG in the U.S. seems to be the Bob’s Red Mill product, which is in most supermarkets. Another option might be to try bread flour (which has higher protein than AP). If you use Bob’s Red Mill VWG, try about a tablespoon. Whether you go with bread flour, or adding VWG to AP, you may find you need to add a little more water in order to achieve dough of your usual consistency, but it shouldn’t be more than about 1/8 to 1/4 cup more than the recipe specifies. Jeff
I’m loving your book and also loving all the praise my baking has been getting from friends. Now I’ve got a couple questions regarding loaf pans. Your book recommends 9×4 pans. I’ve been able to find 9×5 and 8×4 pans, but I’m having trouble finding 9×4. If all I can find is the 9×5 or 8×4, do you know which is likely to work better with the recipe sizes in your book? Also, if I want to bake two loaves in pans at the same time, do you have a rule of thumb for how much longer I’d need to cook for, or if I’d need some sort of temperature change?
Thanks you for writing this wonderful book!
Here is my adaptation of the recipe for pancakes. I used the basic recipe with 100% whole wheat flour substituted. For a quick pancake batter, pull out 1/4-1/2 c dough per person (depending on how many pancakes you expect them to eat), add 1 egg for each 1/2-3/4 cup dough, and enough milk or buttermilk to make a thin batter.