Baking Bread in a Casserole Oven vs. a Combo Cooker

...zed by Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread recipe is using a Dutch oven to bake the bread. The Dutch oven harnesses the moisture in the dough to create a steamy environment. This allows the dough to rise rather than toast immediately. Commercial bread ovens (and some high-end home ovens) have steam injection systems that serve the same purpose. A Dutch oven is a lot cheaper, of course. The trick is to get a loose and wet dough into a 500ºF Dutch oven witho...

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Bread Ovens of Quebec Free e-book

...ok forward to having people over to give me an excuse to fire it up. Ovens, in Quebec households were associated with life itself and I understand why. If you’re interested in more information on DIY ovens, I’d recommend The Bread Ovens of Quebec along with Kiko Denzer’s Earth Ovens and Alan Scott’s The Bread Builders (brick ovens). If you’d like to see an oven built in the Quebec style, these folks have posted their experience of building one....

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121 Beekeeping, Fireworks, Solar Power and Extending Wi-Fi with Will of the Weekend Homestead

Will of the Weekend Homestead returns to the Root Simple podcast to talk about how to get into beekeeping without busting the bank, fireworks, rigging up a simple solar power system and extending your wi-fi. During the podcast we discuss: Inexpensive beekeeping. Fireworks. Will’s small solar system. Will on the Garden Fork Podcast discussing his solar power system along with part recommendations. Kill-a-Watt. Cooking with a Sous Vide machine. Bro...

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Don’t Worry About the Boule: Bake Bread in a Loaf Pan

...ooks more like a pancake than an Instagram worthy boule. But if you’re not making bread for the ‘gram, you don’t have to do a boule or batard unless that really floats your boat. There’s nothing wrong with baking in a loaf pan. Sometimes it’s kinda nice to have a square loaf for sandwiches anyways. The pan I have is a Pullman pan made by USA Pan. It’s square and has a lid. The lid is especially handy in that you can do the first 20 minutes of the...

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Does Sourdough Offer Hope for the Gluten Intolerant?

...commercial bakeries cheat and you’re not getting the health benefits of a bread fermented with an authentic culture. You’re just getting quick fermented white bread flavored to simulate a real sourdough culture. To add to the confusion, it’s a myth that there is something unique about the bakeries of San Francisco. Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis has been isolated in sourdough cultures around the world. It’s simply the handling (long fermentation...

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