Tag Archives: baking

Do You Really Need All That Fancy New Equipment?

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As I returned to baking bread in earnest after a long hiatus, and “in earnest” that meant baking every single day, not just the same kind of bread, but many diverse kinds from French to Italian bread. For instance, I learned to make ten distinct kinds of baguette. I learned to make several traditional Italian loaves. I had four active starters that were optimized for different outcomes (sourness, fast rise, etc.). But here’s the thing: Other than buying simple implements such as a Danish dough whisk or some good scrapers or getting a baking stone. I didn’t get a new mixer or other high-end equipment. I baked everything in my standard electric oven.

I mostly mixed by hand but also used a mixer for specific kinds of dough. For that I used my trusty KitchenAid Artisan 5-quart mixer; yes, even for large batches when I had to make bread for a shelter. In those cases, I had to make several small batches of dough. And since I only had two ovens to work with, I had to work out timing. And though I was tempted to get a spiral mixer (I still dream about it) and a dedicated bread oven (I will get that in the next year or so), I still got by with what I had. And I made some incredible bread. My thought was that if I learned how to use what I had on hand, there wouldn’t be much I couldn’t do.

But I think a major reason keeping me from getting higher end equipment was that I had worked out a process and got so proficient and efficient with it that I didn’t feel a pressing need to buy new gear. Honestly, I’d forget the new stuff and would only remember when I deliberately thought about how nice it would be to have a spiral mixer or dedicated bread oven. And that leads me to the reason I wrote this post in the first place.

There’s an urban legend about the famous violinist Izthak Perlman who broke a string during a concert, then proceeded to finish the concerto playing only on three strings. At the end of the piece, he spoke to the audience and said, “You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.”

No one knows whether the story is true, but the quote is inspirational, nonetheless. And I think of it when I’m evaluating buying new equipment. Granted, there are times when there is an absolute necessity to get some new gear, especially if you’re replacing broken equipment. But for other, more aspirational items, can you still perform with what you have? I will be honest with you that that quote has saved me thousands of dollars, not just in bakery equipment, but also in guitar and golf and even home appliances.

Look, I’m not saying that you must be cheap. If you have the means to get the top-of-the-line stuff, go for it. But will those aspirational things improve your process to a significant degree? At least for me, as I had my process down, I didn’t think they’d help to a large degree. Even with my micro-bakery where I was baking more bread than most home-based bakers, the higher end gear became more “nice-to-haves” rather than “must-haves.”

And to be honest, in the end it’s all about the dough. A great mixer will help in mixing the dough, but after that, there’s no other equipment you need to develop you bread dough. A dedicated bread oven will certainly provide much more consistency than a normal home oven, but if you know your oven and you’re only baking limited quantities, the benefit of a dedicated oven will be minimal at best. Besides, if you screw up your dough, no amount of high-end gear is going to help you.

An early batch of baguette from the holidays. Whew! I was little rusty!

Over holidays, I baked quite a bit of bread; mostly baguettes, but I made other types of loaves as well. But here’s the thing: All the mileage I put on my ovens completely messed them up and one oven no longer holds temperature consistently and the hinge on my other oven broke so I couldn’t use it. I tried to make baguettes on my stone, but they turned out horrible. So I had to turn to my old metal baguette pans. Those never produce great results, but they’re what I had on hand. And I trudged forward thinking about the Izthak Perlman quote.

And I was okay with the results, even though I knew they wouldn’t be as optimal as I would normally get with a stone. I was making music with what I had left!

Baking on Vacation. No, I Don’t Bring My Starter.

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I’ve gone to my house in Hawaii and so far, I’ve already baked a couple of times and will bake bread yet again for a Labor Day party in couple of days. I got a special request for Labor Day by the host of the party, and my wife’s friend invited us to dinner tonight and asked if I could bake some bread to bring to the dinner. Then my daughter asked me to bake some bread for her because she hadn’t had any of my bread for a year.

It is never a problem for me to bake. I love it and enjoy baking when I have the time; yes, even on vacation. But one thing I haven’t done is bring my starter with me. I suppose could bring a little starter and grow a levain if someone specifically wanted sourdough, but my thinking is that I can make so many diverse types of bread that it seems almost pointless to bring a starter.

Plus, I refuse to let my starter rule my life. Holy crap! I’ve seen people proudly post pictures of themselves in their hotel rooms proudly holding up their jars of sourdough starter that they took on vacation with them so they can feed it. To each their own, but if I’m on vacation, I don’t want my activities limited by my freakin’ starter feeding schedule! I feed my starters (yes, I have anywhere from two to four) before I leave then put them in the fridge. They’ll keep for weeks.

So what did I bake? I made two batches of ciabatta, one for us and one for the dinner party with our friends. For the Labor Day party, I baked two dozen Hawaiian rolls that went perfect with the BBQ short ribs we had. Both of those types of bread just required regular old yeast. For the ciabatta, I made an overnight biga preferment. Wow! Were they delicious.

And the Hawaiian rolls were the hit of the party! They didn’t last at all! They were rich with butter and soft and pillowy. I’m going to have to make more!

Anyway, the point to this is that if you want to bake on vacation and have the means to, go for it. But just remember this: It doesn’t have to be sourdough.

Baking with Steam

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Almost all the recipes I post here say “bake with steam” for X amount of minutes. For commercial bakers that have steam-injected ovens, that’s a no-brainer. But most home ovens don’t have a steam injection function (unless you have a Miele). For those of us who don’t have that, our only alternative is to use a vessel of some sort to hold water that will evaporate in the high temperature of the oven.

I use the bottom tray of my broiler pan as my vessel. Others use a cast-iron skillet. I actually prefer the broiler pan as a cast-iron skillet requires preheating. No matter what you use, it should be able to hold at least 1-2 cups of hot water.

Here’s how I “bake with steam”:

  1. About 3-5 minutes before I place the loaves in the oven, I pour about 1-2 cups of hot water into my pan. This gives the water a bit of time to heat up and creates a steamy environment for when the bread gets loaded.
  2. Immediately after placing the loaves, I splash a few tablespoons of water near the outer rim of the pan to create a cloud of steam to make up for the steam I lost when I loaded my loves.
  3. When the time comes to vent the steam, I simply remove the pan from the oven and then finish baking dry.

Note that to avoid losing too much oven temperature. You have to be real quick because you don’t want to leave the door open too long. Also, some books, like “Flour Water Salt Yeast” will say to use just a single cup of water. That’s never enough for my oven because it has a built-in fan that will quickly evaporate the water. So I almost always use twice as much water as listed in the recipe. You’ll have to experiment with your own oven.

In the words of the great Jacques Pepin, “That’s it!” It’s not perfect. Most ovens like mine are built to naturally vent moisture. When I’m baking, I actually plug the vents using some foil and Gorilla tape. This serves to both retain the steam and helps maintain my oven temp.