From: utzoo!decvax!microsof!uw-beave!cornell!vax135!ariel!hou5f!npoiv!harpo!seismo!hao!larue
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Title: Re: Wheat Bread
Article-I.D.: hao.449
Posted: Wed Mar  9 10:46:49 1983
Received: Fri Mar 11 08:46:03 1983

  I have had no trouble getting my bread to rise using an electric oven.
  I just turn it on warm for a few minutes, then turn it off, stick my
  hand in to check the temperature (comfortably warm is what I try for),
  then put the bread in and wait. I have been using this procedure
  since my great-grandmother taught me to make bread, way back when I
  was 12 years old. My first few batchs were flops, but since
  then I have never had a real failure. (Any first-time baker
  will have a few batches that just don't seem right. Baking bread takes
  practice...you have to learn what the dough should feel like, and
  you can't expect to get it right the first time.)

  One thing that I find helps give a marvelous texture to the bread is
  to use the sponge method (I use the directions in the Tassahara Bread
  Book) ,in which you first mix up the liquid, yeast, any sweetening you
  are using, and part of the flour. You need to beat this well so it
  is quite smooth, then let it rise until double. From then on you
  proceed as usual (adding the oil, salt, rest of flour, etc), including
  all the kneading and rising. The kneading is, of course, essential
  to the texture of the bread.

  By the way, I have made whole wheat, white, rye, and other breads
  using these techniques with equal success.

  The only problem with the rising-in-the-oven technique is that
  you have to remember to remove the dough before you preheat the
  oven for the actual baking. I forgot this once (only once!) and
  by the time I realized what I had done, there was a huge mass of
  dough expanding all over the oven, spilling over the plastic
  bowl which was beginning to melt into some strange shape.
  Surprisingly, most of the dough was still good, and the bread
  turned out OK.

						    Martha LaRue
						    hao!larue