Cake and Bread

Authentic Recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Italian Semolina Bread Recipe

Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day say “White, free-form loaves flavoured with semolina and sesame seeds are the fragrant products of southern Italy. Semolina is a high-protein wheat flour that gives loaves a sweetness, and an almost winey aroma. The flavour of the sesame seeds is inextricably linked to the semolina flavour (like caraway and rye). Be sure to use semolina flour that’s labelled ‘durum,’ other semolina flours won’t do as well this method.”

Makes four 1-pound loaves. The recipe is easily doubled or halved.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups lukewarm water
• 1 ½ tablespoons granulated yeast (1 ½ packets)
• 1 ½ tablespoons salt
• 3 cups durum flour
• 3 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• Sesame seeds for top crust, approximately 1 to 2 teaspoons
• Cornmeal for the pizza peel
• Cornstarch wash (see below).

Cornstarch Wash

1. Using a fork, blend ½ teaspoon cornstarch with a small amount o water to form a paste.
2. Add ½ cup water and whisk with the fork. Microwave or boil until mixture appears glassy, about 30 to 60 seconds on high. It will keep in the refrigerator for two weeks; discard if it has an off smell.

Mixing and Storing the dough:

1. Mix the yeast and salt with the lukewarm water in a 5-quart bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container.
2. Mix in the flours without kneading, using a spoon, a 14-cup capacity food processor (with dough attachment), or a heavy-duty stand mixer (with dough hook). If you’re not using a machine, you man need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.
3. Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.
4. The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 14 days.

On Baking Day

1. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece.
2. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.
3. Elongate the ball to form an oval-shaped free-form loaf. Allow to rest and rise on a cornmeal-covered pizza peel for 40 minutes.

Twenty minutes before baking time

1. Preheat the oven to 450° F with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the rising bread.
2. Just before baking, paint the surface with cornstarch wash, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and slash the surface diagonally, using a serrated bread knife.
3. Slide the loaf directly onto the hot stone. Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, and quickly close the oven door. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until deeply browned and firm. Smaller or larger loaves will require adjustment in baking time.

Allow to cool before slicing or eating.

Recipe printed with the permission of Zoë François.

Visit the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day web site for more recipes and information on events and classes.

Bread and Cake Retailing in Australia (IBISWorld)

Market: Retail

Published Date: 16/07/2008

Market Research Report Title: Bread and Cake Retailing in Australia

Table of Contents: View

Report Type: Market Report

Country: Australia

Number of Pages: 42

Summary:

IBISWORLD INDUSTRY MARKET RESEARCH REPORT

This is the replacement for IBISWorld’’s November 2007 edition of Bread and Cake Retailing in Australia report.

Industry Market Research Synopsis

This Industry Market Research report from IBISWorld provides a detailed analysis of the Bread and Cake Retailing in Australia industry, including key growth trends, statistics, forecasts, the competitive environment including market shares and the key issues facing the industry.

Industry Definition

This industry is part of the Retail Trade division in Australia. Operators in this industry retail a broad range of bread, cakes, tarts, biscuits, etc. These products are often made on premises or purchased from domestic wholesalers. Operators then retail these goods, through their stores to the general public for private consumption. It is important to note that those entities which primarily operate as bread manufacturers (Industry 2161), cake and pastry manufacturers (Industry 2163) or biscuit manufacturers (Industry 2163) are excluded from this industry. ANZSIC definition: This class consists of units mainly engaged in retailing bread, cakes, pastries or biscuits. This class includes units which bake bread, cake, pastries or biscuits on the premises for sale to the final consumer.

Report Contents

The Key Statistics chapter provides the key indicators for the industry for at least the last three years. The statistics included are industry revenue, industry gross product, employment, establishments, exports, imports, domestic demand and total wages.

The Market Characteristics chapter covers the following: Market Size, Linkages, Demand Determinants, Domestic and International Markets, Basis of Competition and Life Cycle. The Market Size section gives the size of the domestic market as well as the size of the export market. The Linkages section lists the industry’’s major supplier and major customer industries. The Demand Determinants section lists the key factors which are likely to cause demand to rise or fall. The Domestic and International Markets section defines the market for the products and services of the industry. This section provides the size of the domestic market and the proportion accounted for by imports and exports and trends in the levels of imports and exports. The Basis of Competition section outlines the key types of competition between firms within the industry as well as highlighting competition from substitute products in alternative industries. The Life Cycle section provides an analysis of which stage of development the industry is at.

The Segmentation chapter covers the following: Products and Service Segmentation, Major Market Segments, Industry Concentration and Geographic Spread. The Products and Service Segmentation section details the key products and/or services provided by this industry, highlighting the most important where possible to demonstrate which have a more significant influence over industry results as a whole. The Major Market Segments section details the key client industries and/or groups as well as giving an indication as to which of these are the most important to the industry. The Industry Concentration section provides an indicator of how much industry revenue is accounted for by the top four players. The Geographic Spread section provides a guide to the regional share of industry revenue/gross product.

The Industry Conditions chapter covers the following: Barriers to Entry, Taxation, Industry Assistance, Regulation and Deregulation, Cost Structure, Capital and Labor Intensity, Technology and Systems, Industry Volatility and Globalization. The Barriers to Entry section outlines factors that can prevent a new company from entering this industry and also gives an indication of the extent to which this occurs. The Taxation section details all kinds of taxation that are specific or are particularly important to this industry, including taxation concessions. The Industry Assistance section refers to any government and/or other measures designed to improve the performance of this industry. The Regulation and Deregulation section details any applicable regulation and/or deregulation to this industry. The Cost Structure section details the average costs for a company operating in this industry as a percentage of total revenue. The Capital and Labor Intensity section provides a guide to the amount of capital used in production/providing a service compared to the amount of labor in the total mix of inputs. The Technology and Systems section acknowledges the latest technology and/or systems available to this industry within the country. Technology refers to machinery and equipment and systems refers to methods of production that enable better and more efficient production. The Industry Volatility section refers to the year on year fluctuations which occur in industry output. The Globalization section gives an indication of the extent to which the industry is global based on factors such as the level of foreign ownership, the proportion of demand accounted for by foreign operators and the volume of production conducted in other countries.

The Performance chapter provides an analysis of both the industry’’s Current Performance and Historical Performance. The Current Performance section provides the key analysis for the industry over the past five years with key performance indicators discussed. The Historical Performance section details previously important events in the development of the industry.

The Key Competitors chapter lists the major players in the industry as well as an analysis of each major player’’s activities in the industry. Market share information is included where possible.

The Key Factors chapter covers the industry’’s Key Sensitivities and Key Success Factors. The Key Sensitivities section outlines the key factors that are outside the control of an operator in the industry, but are likely to have significant impact on a business. The Key Success Factors section details the factors within the control of an industry operator and which should be followed in order to be successful in the industry. Often this will include behavior that will help to minimize the effects of the Key Sensitivities.

The Outlook chapter is a key analysis section of the report and outlines expectations for the key industry indicators over the next five year period, including forecasts.

Forget Bread and Cake Retailing, Forget the cake. Times to eat Bread. Here is story how good eat bread is.

I finally made a perfect loaf of bread…it’s a labour of love. Worked on and fermented for hours, just to yield one normal sized loaf. Baking a cake is 6th standard biology compared to bread making’s understanding Grey’s Anatomy. Cake batter is simple. You mix everything togther and bake it. Even if you did not do the sugar and butter creaming first, or added the eggs without separating the yellows and the whites, cake still tastes like cake.

Bread dough is so fickle.
The salt should not be directly added to the yeast+warm water mixture. the sugar should. too much flour, and your bread tastes like cardboards’ cousin.
You have to knead and knead for ten solid minutes for proper gluten strands development.
Then it has to rise to double its size in the perfect temperature with good, living yeast of the exact right amount.
Then after the first time the dough rises,(it might not rise at all, if any one parameter is screwd up, old yeast, water not warm enough, water too hot that kills yeast,too much yeast it makes dough rise too fast and collapse, etc etc) you got to punch it down and shape it.
If you punch it down a little too much, your bread is flat and tastes a little of the alcohol that couldnt escape. If you dont punch enough, your dough will overrise and collapse.
After punching down and shaping it, it has to rise again.
Then you bake it in the oven at the exact right temparature, a small deviation could cause the crust to form too soon too thick that it cannot be broken through without a hammer.

So, after overcoming all the odds( many imperfect loafs later), yesterday I made the perfect loaf. Properly crusted outside, soft and spongy bread with good air-holes and slicing it was a peice of cake
Am thinking that now that I have troubleshooted and found out what I was doing wrong (it was the second rise, it just wouldnt rise, tuns out i was kneading again, when all i should have done was press the dough down softly a couple of times and carefully shaped it without pulling it too much) and perfected bread making, I should turn my attention to making croissants, which are much tougher, because of the many layers it has, that require folding and folding the dough over a rectangle of butter.

Did you know that money is called dough because of bread dough???? din’t realise that before Too many conotations about bread being directly equalled to money in western idioms….bread and butter, which side bread is buttered on, put bread on the table bla bla….

To crossiants!!!!

Source: http://am-howtonameit.blogspot.com/2008/09/forget-cakeeat-bread.html

In the bread bowl, they’re sticky. They take a long time to knead, and they don’t rise quite so high. Why then bother making your own bread?

Answer: Rye-bread lovers do it for the tangy flavor, chewy texture and those tasty caraway seeds. They do it because baking one’s own bread is satisfying. Just as gardening does, bread-baking connects us to the food we eat.

I’ve been baking bread at least once a week for 36 years, but I’m a late convert to making rye bread, which I loved to eat even as a child. My mother wasn’t a baker. She bought the bread at the local bakery.

I learned about souring bread from “The Tassajara Bread Book,” a standard text among us back-to-the-landers in the 1970s. Tassajara No. 1 taught the sponge method of baking, which called for making up a sponge with all the liquid but only half the flour, letting that rise overnight and completing the process in the morning.

There are rye bread recipes that call for incremental steps over a 48-hour period, but that seems extreme. A 24-hour process will make a good sour rye loaf.

Because rye bread doesn’t rise as much as wheat bread, it doesn’t dry out as fast either. That gives rye bread the edge for still-fresh second-day eating.

Don’t seal crusty bread up in a plastic container or plastic wrap until after the second day. You’ll ruin the texture of the crust and you won’t help the interior texture either. The traditional bread bag made of paper works better.

The great rye breads of my youth were a mixture of white rye flour and white wheat flour. White rye flour can be mail-ordered from King Arthur at www.kingarthurflour.com, but the cost is high.

My recipe, making a loaf both darker and denser, uses roughly 60 percent Hodgson Mill wholegrain rye flour and 40 percent unbleached white (wheat) flour.

I’m presuming I’m not the only person baking rye bread in Charleston. Kroger wouldn’t give rye flour shelf space at several local stores if someone wasn’t buying.

For years, I baked all my bread at 350 degrees. That was wrong, wrong, wrong, as the Gazette’s editorial writers used to say. Artisan breads, it turns out, get their great crusts by starting at 425 or 450 degrees, then scaling back to 375.

If you bake bread regularly, buy yeast by the half-pound or one-pound package. If you use the sponge method, it takes only the tiniest bit of yeast to get the process started. Give yeast moisture, flour and time, and it multiplies quickly.

Source: http://sundaygazettemail.com/Food/200809230809

Imagine life without cookies … or nary a bite of cake … not even a slice of whole-wheat bread, which is thought to be so good for you.

For people with celiac disease, and those with other gluten intolerances and allergies, these are forbidden foods.

If people with celiac eat dishes prepared with wheat, barley or rye, they get painful bloating, diarrhea, sometimes rashes and fatigue, and eventually osteoporosis and anemia.

The only way to get better is to avoid foods made with those grains – completely.

That’s not so easy since wheat and other grains are hidden in many foods, such as sauces and dressings. The bad guy, gluten, is a protein found in common grains. With celiac disease, a hereditary autoimmune disease, the digestive system cannot tolerate gluten. According to “Healthy Gluten-free Cooking,” by Darina Allenand Rosemary Kearney, the gluten damages an area of the small intestine, causing inflammation and subsequent malabsorption of food and nutrients.

Vigilant label reading helps with buying foods, but what about dining out? That can be tricky for people who must avoid gluten. Waiters sometimes say a dish is gluten free, and diners find out later they’ve been, essentially, poisoned.

Valerie Lobo, who was diagnosed with celiac disease more than two years ago, took matters into her own hands and organized Gluten Free Dinners at restaurants around town.

So far, the group has had four specially prepared dinners, one a month, at local restaurants Gertrude’s, The Nook, The Warehouse and Craftwood Inn.

“All the restaurants have gone out of their way to make a wonderful, safe meal for our group,” she said.

Some examples of how chefs have changed their recipes to make them safe for celiacs include using nuts to make a crust for cheesecake instead of the traditional graham crackers.

“We have had a fair amount of practice and had already had information and training sessions with our servers in regards to gluten intolerance,” said Lawrence “Chip” Johnson, executive chef and owner of The Warehouse. “We were a few steps ahead. Only slight modifications were needed in most cases: changing from linguini to potatoes or polenta, for instance, or leaving a crepe off the lamb dish we offered. The salad and soup took no modification at all, as these are always gluten free. The main courses of lamb, rib-eye and bass were already gluten free; we just had to modify some sides a little bit.”

“Chip even had a soup that was safe for us,” Lobo said. “I haven’t had soup in a restaurant since I was diagnosed.”

She didn’t know she could have been having this soup at The Warehouse long before the special meal: It always has been gluten free. A memo to chefs: Note such dishes on menus so customers who need to avoid gluten can zero in on them.

At Craftwood Inn, where the September dinner was held, executive chef Jeff Knight wowed the diners with gluten-free ravioli for a vegetarian tapas plate.

Kirsta Scherff-Norris, who lives in Pueblo and comes to the dinners, is very sensitive to gluten. Even cross-contamination from using a cutting board with a few tiny bread crumbs could cause damage to her intestines.

That’s a main reason she likes to come to Lobo’s dinners.

“I feel much more at ease at these meals because Val has already had detailed discussions with the chef,” she said, ” so I don’t have to ask multiple questions before I can even order my food.”

Cross-contamination was at the top of Johnson’s mind when he prepared for the group to dine at his eatery.

“Besides adjusting the recipes, I gave some forethought and attention to details like cross-contamination of equipment and work surfaces, airborne gluten, fresh gloves and sanitation materials,” he said. “And sharpening the awareness of the cooks and servers took more energy than actual menu design.”

The monthly dinners have attracted a growing number of guests.

“My largest group has been 32, and my smallest has been 24,” said Lobo, noting that the smaller number was due to weather cancellations. She said she enjoys “meeting the other folks who have the same issues with food and particularly being able to eat out without much thought of ‘is it safe?’.”

Molly Cassidy, who had known about her gluten intolerance for five years, has enjoyed going to the dinners. She said there are other ways to dine out, even if you need meals without gluten.

“I pretty much go where I want and find at least something to eat,” Cassidy said, “likely without any sauces or dressings – what I call naked food. When in doubt, go without!”
Celiacs have found other eateries where they can get safe meals.

“I also patronize any restaurants that have a separate menu for gluten-free diners,” Cassidy said, noting that P.F. Chang’s and Pei Wei offer safe options.

Scherff-Norris has had success finding gluten-free dishes at Sonterra Grill and The Olive Branch.

“Cere’s Kitchen in Briargate sells prepared meals (to be cooked at home), which are great since we can’t order a pizza when we don’t feel like cooking,” she said. “We also enjoy Galileo’s in Pueblo and Deby’s in Denver.

Lobo added Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano, Luigi’s and Wild Ginger Thai Restaurant to the list of safe places for celiacs to eat.

“Some local restaurants accommodate us,” she said. “However, some of the local restaurants have never even heard of the disease.”

Johnson is not one of those chefs.

“We keep a menu reference posted in our server station, which lists our gluten-free menu items and dishes we can easily modify so that it is a relatively smooth process for our servers to accommodate the guests with minimal hassles,” he said. “We want them to have a comfortable and relaxed dining experience and not feel as though they are making a special request.”

While preparing for the gluten-free-dinner group, Johnson networked with other chefs. “In comparing notes, many common misconceptions were unearthed and wrangled over,” he said. “Destruction temperatures and practices for gluten-contaminated equipment and surfaces seemed to be a common theme. We also found that some restaurants just are unable to reliably take care of gluten-intolerant guests due to food and food-handling practices: a great amount of airborne gluten being present, gluten contact with cooking surfaces such as griddles and broilers.”

Fortunately for local celiacs, there’s Lobo searching out new locations where chefs are willing to take the challenge of feeding a safe meal to the growing number of members in the dinner group.

Source: http://www.gazette.com/articles/gluten_40882___article.html/free_dinners.html