For Bakers Only...

[Joe Valencic]

I've have been baking a lot this year, and one problem I have encountered is maximizing the space in my oven when I'm doing any volume baking. I have been limited to 2 loaves of free-form bread at a time, mainly because of my baking stones and sheets which are about 12" x 17", and my oven will not allow more than one sheet at a time per shelf. I only use one shelf at a time when baking bread.

To remove/reduce this limitation I researched commercial baking sheets and found a 3/4 size sheet which measures 16" x 22", that will hold a double batch of Italian bread or a full recipe of sandwich rolls. It fits nicely on the shelf and allows air circulation on all sides, which is important to even baking.





If you would like to increase the throughput of your oven, consider getting one or two of these pans from your local restaurant supply. I got mine at Bauer Supply in Mentor, Ohio, but this pan does not show up in his online catalog. I just bought the last one in the store, but he'll probably be restocking soon. Call him and he can ship it to you if he has it in stock. I paid $14.50 + tax for each pan, and they are well worth it if you do a lot of baking. You can also get one from here. It's item #4074 and they want $16.99 + s&h.

Joe

[J Castwell]

Joe, how can I make smaller sizes, say maybe 4, from one normal batch of no-knead bread dough? I can't find any pans with covers the right size. Can I just make it up a bit 'tighter' and lay out on a sheet and cover with foil?

[harleybob87]

Joe the bread and rolls brings back nice very nice memories. I know you bake on a stone. Have you ever tried baking on a screen? Add a little steam and you change the whole composure of the crust. The bread looks really good as does the rolls. I think I am going to start a batch of sour and in about March make up a bunch of bread and rolls. I love a good sourdough bread or roll. Baked on a screen with steam it makes the crust chewy. Mix that with a little elk or venison stew, a good salad with a balsomic aged vinger for the dressing and wow this old fat boy will be in heaven. I have watched over time the progress you have made with your baking and I can say if I was still running a bakery you would be someone I would hire without a second thought. Wished I lived closer so we could share some tips and tricks and experiment with different formulas together.

JC I am not joe and I don't know his reciepe for the bread but I would think that if you covered with foil it would not brown as nice on top. Just a thought. I am waiting for Joes answer. I can always learn more that is for sure.

[Uncle Barry]

Good morning Joe.
What about a little special bread for Christmas ????

I cannot see one here yet.

Kind regards,
UB.
Baking bread on the other side of plant Earth.

[Joe Valencic]

Good morning Joe.
What about a little special bread for Christmas ????

I cannot see one here yet.

Kind regards,
UB.
Baking bread on the other side of plant Earth.

Do you mean something like this one I baked a couple of days ago?



Check it out Here.

[Joe Valencic]

Joe, how can I make smaller sizes, say maybe 4, from one normal batch of no-knead bread dough? I can't find any pans with covers the right size. Can I just make it up a bit 'tighter' and lay out on a sheet and cover with foil?

I just learned that you can refrigerate no-knead dough for up to two weeks, and just cut off what you want to bake when you need it (meaning you can make small loaves or rolls from the same dough). I don't have all the details at my fingertips, but I'll know more when I get the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day later this week (I peeked at it in the bookstore on Friday). In the meantime, check out their website for some details. I can tell you that I used their method and it produces fine results in the open oven as a french bread, or in a container as a no-knead bread. You can use a small Corningware casserole dish to bake a mini loaf. This method will allow you to bake fresh bread every day without the extended proofing time, and to have exquisite tasting bread. I have a recipe in the fridge right now that uses 1/2 Cup of my sourdough starter, and I'll bake it in the morning for breakfast. Time from fridge to oven is 45-60 minutes. Amazing!

I know it may seem like I'm teasing you about this, but I've just learned about it myself within the last week. If you can get the book from the library, then you'll be as smart as me on this topic! My library has it loaned with three people waiting, so I'm getting it from Amazon.com for around $18 + shipping.

Joe

[fivedials]

Joe,
I tend to have problems with having to adjust my oven temp to match my pans for what I'm baking; any temp adjustment for those you show?

Second, could these be used as cookie sheets or are the lips to high to promote even heat flow?

Jim
The closet baker

[Kaboom1]

Joe,
I tend to have problems with having to adjust my oven temp to match my pans for what I'm baking; any temp adjustment for those you show?

Second, could these be used as cookie sheets or are the lips to high to promote even heat flow?

Jim
The closet baker

Jim

They use those kind of pans in the commercial bakeries for everything...cookies included. If they are too deep for you, who says that you can't flip them over and use the bottom?

Brad

[Joe Valencic]

Joe the bread and rolls brings back nice very nice memories. I know you bake on a stone. Have you ever tried baking on a screen? Add a little steam and you change the whole composure of the crust. The bread looks really good as does the rolls. I think I am going to start a batch of sour and in about March make up a bunch of bread and rolls. I love a good sourdough bread or roll. Baked on a screen with steam it makes the crust chewy. Mix that with a little elk or venison stew, a good salad with a balsomic aged vinger for the dressing and wow this old fat boy will be in heaven. I have watched over time the progress you have made with your baking and I can say if I was still running a bakery you would be someone I would hire without a second thought. Wished I lived closer so we could share some tips and tricks and experiment with different formulas together.

JC I am not joe and I don't know his reciepe for the bread but I would think that if you covered with foil it would not brown as nice on top. Just a thought. I am waiting for Joes answer. I can always learn more that is for sure.

Harleybob,

Yes, I've baked on a screen. I picked up one at a Thrift store for $1, and it was still in it's factory cellophane. It hold two loaves. Yet another great find from my favorite stores. I do the steam trick with an old baking sheet on the bottom of the oven, as well as using a spray bottle of water on the oven walls. Makes great chewy crust on my kaiser rolls.

My sourdough starter was created in June 2008, and has a nice flavor to it. I've shared it with several people, so if you would like some I would be happy to mail you some to get one going. I made it with pineapple juice from a recipe on breadtopia.com, and have been pleased with its heartiness. I actually had a viable starter in about 4 days, but nurtured and fed it for over a week before making the first loaf of sourdough bread with it. I sometimes use it to make sourdough pancakes, and everyone here loves the flavor and the nice height of the cakes. Yummo!

Thanks for your compliment. I'm pleased with my progress so far, but there is so much more to learn before I can start to be creative. I'm just finally getting to the point where I can read a recipe and begin to anticipate what the outcome will be. I'm getting Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice as a Christmas gift from my son, and with it I'm hoping to learn more of the science behind breadmaking and understand the interaction of different ingredients so I can move forward. There's a lifetime of things to learn and it's just a lot of fun experimenting and trying new recipes. As far as sharing tips and tricks, feel free to do it here where everyone can benefit (we have some closet bakers who have not "come out" yet), or we can do it by e-mail. Mine is flyfishohio@yahoo.com

Time to get moving here. I've got a sourdough no-knead loaf to get started on. I'm going to attempt to shape it into a straight french epi baguette with very sharp points. I'm also going to try this shape later with a sweet yeast dough that I can top with simple icing, cranberries and almond slivers. I wonder how that would taste with a Challah dough? Hmmmmmm...... Almost pastry time! So much dough, so little time.

[Joe Valencic]

Joe,
I tend to have problems with having to adjust my oven temp to match my pans for what I'm baking; any temp adjustment for those you show?

Second, could these be used as cookie sheets or are the lips to high to promote even heat flow?

Jim
The closet baker

Jim,

These are standard commercial baking sheet that are used for both cooking and baking. The sides are barely taller than a standard cookie sheet and the pan is aluminum, so it's going to cook differently than a steel pan. Something I learned from my wife is that she does not adjust the temperature of the oven, but rather adjusts the TIME the pan spends in the oven. Also, darker coated pans will bake faster because they absorb heat quicker than shiny new pans which actually reflect heat. We made cookies on the new sheet pans this weekend and had to increase the time from 9 minutes to 12 minutes to get the cookies to brown on the bottom (your results may vary). It's not a problem because we made a note on the recipe about the difference in time for the different pans, but we still left the temperature at 375 F so the tops of the cookies would not get done sooner than the bottoms. I get the same result with my bread pans...my old dark pans bake quicker than the one shiny bread pan. I really need to put that pan in the next batch of stuff for the Goodwill truck.

Hope this answers your question.