78 Dr. Wo Get His Baker’s Groove Back From:   drwo@woteki.com Subject: Dr. Wo gets his baker’s groove back Date: November 20, 2004 6:45:59 PM EST To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Security: Signed As some of you know, I come from a line of bakers on my Mom’s side. My grandfather, who arrived from Poland, was a very successful baker and his 4 sons, my uncles, took after him. My Mom eventually joined the business after my Dad died. the bakery, Royal Bakery, was located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, down the street from a live poultry market and around the corner from a Jewish bagel baker. It was somewhere on the spectrum between an artisanal and a commercial bakery. They baked a variety of delicious, wholesome whole grain breads, such as onion rye and pumpernickel, and Kaiser rolls and sold to small groceries, sandwich delis and restaurants. I used to work the register in the retail shop and helped my uncle John on the graveyard delivery run delivering still-warm rolls and breads to the delis before tin time for morning sales. My uncle John and I would have our coffee “sweet and light” (not an idiom familiar to Starbucks barristas as far as I know) and eat our way from one delivery to the next. A Krispy Kreme doughnut has nothing on a French cruller, by the way. So I have some sort of claim, genetic or otherwise, to being a baker. Those who know me, know I favor making big crusty, chewy loaves that are more likely to be found in Italy than they would in my Grandfather’s bakery, but that’s just a matter of taste, not of quality. But.... the last few times out my loaves had been insipid. What should have been large loaves with an airy crumb consisting of a network of large and small holes were small, compact and dense. Too uniform, dull, insipid. They just didn’t rise up right. Was it my starter? Or tired yeast? Or water temperature, or what? I tried varying all these things. No avail. Time to check out Harold McGee’s classic “On Food and Cooking” and read the chapter on bread and “how it works” and the excellent discussion of the 2 amino acid chains that are the glutens: glutenin and gliadin. What I deduced is that i wasn’t kneading my dough enough. I relied too much on a brief mechanical kneading using my Kitchen Aid mixer resulting in too short a kneading and not enough of the right kind of folding of the dough. It is amazing to me that the macro action of folding and compressing dough has  such an important effect at microscopic level on the configuration of protein chains. Did you know that word knead comes from an Indo-European root meaning “to compress into a ball” and that related words are gnocchi, quenelle, knoll and knuckle? That’s something else I learned reading McGee. Anyway, I got my baker’s groove back and I feel much better for it. Try baking a loaf of bread this winter. Your house will smell really, really good. Yours, Dr. Wo From:   leslie.borden@comcast.net Subject: Re: Dr. Wo gets his baker’s groove back Date: November 20, 2004 7:32:05 PM EST To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Congratulations, Doctor!  It  must feel good.   As to length of kneading time, while I am not a baker (except pinch hitter for Rob on the pumpernickel cocktail bread), I do make pasta. I find that I get a much nicer, more elastic, silkier dough if I knead it by hand for a full 15 minutes.  I’ve never gotten into the zen of it, though, and it’s almost as boring as the gym, so I set a timer and prop up a book to read while I work. Now, if I could just talk someone into pasta for Thanksgiving. . . .   just kidding. See you around the (glutenized) kitchen, lb From:   blunding@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Dr. Wo gets his baker’s groove back Date: November 20, 2004 9:44:30 PM EST To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info ok Dr. Wo, I understand about the amino acids, elasticity etc..but your attachment says Blunding certificate-say what you geeks?   I am making Dr. Wo bread for Thanksgiving, a pumpkin cranberry yeast bread and homemade oatmeal crackers and gingersnaps to accompany New England artisanal cheeses.  My first course will be New England lobster and corn chowder.  I will serve a boneless turkey, cornbread,white and whole wheat stuffing with fresh ground sausage, soft whipped potatoes and autumn roasted root vegetables.  The dessert table will have a pecan yam pie, frozen pumpkins with pumpkin mousse and an apple spice cake with caramel sauce. .  Reservations must be made in advance-so come on up with the Dr. Wo attachment !!!!! From:   Messingm@aol.com Subject: Re: Dr. Wo gets his baker’s groove back Date: November 26, 2004 8:43:56 PM EST To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Tom -- Now that the initial flurry of holiday cooking and eating is over I wanted to thank you for your note on getting back to baking.  I was about to ask you for one of your bread recipes several weeks ago (rather than looking around for it in my unfiled files) and decided, instead, to just resume bread making on my own.  So for the past month I’ve been making breads again on the weekends.  The first started I started didn’t start right, and I turned to yeasts, but this week or next I’ll start a starter again.  That should mean sourdough breads in January and you should expect a call or visit sometime soon after to discuss the subject over chewy breads and smelly cheeses.  Happy holidays and keep on rising!.  Marc From:   blunding@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Dr. Wo gets his baker’s groove back Date: November 27, 2004 7:08:17 PM EST To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info speaking of baking-if any one is looking for the ultimate pie crust, try November 2004 Gourmet p 98-101.  As Mdme Gourmand it’s all in the FRAISAGE when the ingredients “leap” to flaky dough.  Of course, as everyone knows, streaks of butter, give you higher marks from the “Iron Guests” albeit the nutritionists will require you to change your dessert menu.  Perhaps we can cheat by eating just a sliver of Prudhomme’s Sweet Potato Pecan Pie.  Wear your monocle to provide high satiety value.    Regards, Barbara  From:   Mkingston9@aol.com Subject: Re: Dr. Wo gets his baker’s groove back Date: November 28, 2004 8:41:14 PM EST To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info I am tuning in late but, this is such a great Thanksgiving story.  I can almost smell that bread, and feel that it’s now time for me to get back to baking BREAD, if only for the wonderful perfume of yeast and flour, not to mention the first sneak of a taste right out of the oven with the best unsalted butter!   In my past bread making, I have found that kneading to the right music (Brazilian salsa, perky classical, snappy jazz) has been the best way to enjoy all that upper body exercise.  Thanks Dr Wo. Margo From:   dominus@comcast.net Subject: Re: Dr. Wo gets his baker’s groove back Date: November 29, 2004 7:38:30 PM EST To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info I will also chime in on how a few basic orgasmic/organic ingredients (yeast, flour, salt) can titillate the senses on a cold winter’s night. And to think, I thought making bread in a bread machine was “homemade.” As we’re on the subject, I had the honor of having dinner this past Saturday night with a wonderful gentlemen (see link below). Some people bring wine or dessert for the guests. He brought a selection of breads and rolls. Needless to say, I asked a “few” questions regarding his career and the inner workings of the CIA. Yes, the real CIA. It was truly a joy. Hope all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. http://www.ciachef.edu/about/staff_schorner.html Dom