quote:

Originally posted by rustyfingers:
Speaking of flour wtfh IS cake flour, anyway.

You are correct in that it has less gluten. Additionally, "cake flour" is made entirely from the much softer-grained spring wheat. The use of spring wheat allows for much finer milling than the "bread flour" made from winter wheat.

quote:

Originally posted by EHpianist:
...How long does it take you from start to end?

Actual time spent in the kitchen, about 10 minutes to initially mix that first bit that's called technically "the sponge". Another 10 after the first rise spent working in the last half of the flour. About 20 rolling and adding spice, sugar and nuts and cutting. The rest is spent ignoring the kitchen, during the rises. Three rises at 45 each works out to 2 hours, 15 minutes. Overall that's just under 3 hours, prep and rising. Add baking time, comes out to 3.5 hours.

I control my rising time by putting the dough on the front burner (off) and inverting a very long shallow pan over the bowl so that the back hangs over the rear burner, which I put on very low, to provide a way to funnel a controlled amount of heat to the dough. This ensures that I have sufficient warmth for consistent rise in those times so that I can keep it within those 3 hours going into the oven. If you depend on room-temp warmth, rise times would probably double.

I make my glaze during the last minutes of baking and have it ready to put on the moment they come out of the oven, so that adds no time to the total.

Jodi, that "back forty" looks vaguely familiar. My grandmother had an old pot like that, mostly used for making soap, before it became commercially common in the 30s.

Big Al, I have made bread in a wood stove. A friend of mine has a cabin that was featured many years ago in National Geographic that I've used often over the years for quiet weekends. It was built with methods and furnished exactly as would have been done in 1850. That bread was *not* very good. Pique's the only expert in these parts for making bisquits in a wood stove.

quote:

Originally posted by katie:
that God-AwFuL carpy BlUeGrAsS all bloody day long at maxoid volume .... THEN they're SO on their own scrounging for fOoD !!

Wow - your kids listen to Bluegrass?


My kids tolerate it when I play it but it's certainly not something they would choose for themselves.

quote:

Originally posted by rustyfingers:
Speaking of flour wtfh IS cake flour, anyway. They don't sell it at any grocery stores around here. I think it's supposed to have less protein (or gluten????) so the cake is lighter and fluffier, unlike bread.

Somebody told me you can just substitute all purpose flour less 2 tablespoons.

Anybody know?

Cake flour is made from soft wheat and not hard winter wheat... in other words, it's more popular down south (where they only grow soft wheat... it's too warm down there for hard winter wheat). Although, these days a miller can regulate the amount of gluten in a flour by how it's ground. There's more to that than this, but I'm lazy this morning and you can research it on the web.

You can find this flour many places... White Lily is a popular brand down south, and well may be available where you live (I've seen it here in Tucson, which is a long way from it's traditional sales locations). Another idea may be a bulk-food dealer. They often have pastry flour available in bulk as well as other varieties. King Arthur does have an internet presence and does sell online (but it may be pricey compared to getting it locally... Trader Joes sells KA flours).

As a general rule, pastry (cake) flours have less than 9 grams of protein per cup, all-purpose (really no-purpose, but that's my humble opinion speaking) are between 9 and 12 gms, and good bread flours are over 12 grams (KA makes several, including a machine-only bread flour with somewhere around 16 grams.) Holy Gluten, Batman!

Bread baking is an art, and like all arts, requires practice. Don't let temporary setbacks discourage you. And you CAN kneed with your Kitchen Aid Mixer (I know... I have a big 5 quart red one right here at home!)

And one more thing... Gold Medal makes a great bread flour that is usually available at your supermarket. The folks at America's Test Kitchen rate it right up there with King Arthur. So that's an option if you want to go that route.

Well, it's been almost a year. I guess we can assume Jodi's bread turned out OK.