Boule (From Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day)

[deb415611]

Debi,

Try this website for beans  http://www.ranchogordo.com/  They are great and can be cooked without soaking.  I haven't ordered for about a year but they charged a flat fee for shipping regardless of the size of the order so I would try to order alot at one time. 

Deb

[teegr]

DEB: I guess the par-baked/frozen dough issue is nationwide...at most major chains...what was shocking was I first learned of this from a high end local chain who boasted an "ARTISAN Bakery".  AH WELL...

If your really short on time...and the chicks have left the nest...there is an even easier way to make a small loaf  of artisan bread to last ya a while...but that isn't suggestive of the subject started concerning ABI5.  Perhaps you have seen or heard of it...I know the NY Times ran it.  "Sullivan Bakery" guy Jim Lahey.  Can't get any simpler as far as time, I frequently use that technique with only 2-3 cups of flour and 1/4 tsp of yeast...and let nature take its course overnight.   I know a bucket of dough from ABI5 can seem daunting to get used if there is only 1 person eating it.  I'm sure you have read that it can be halfed (or doubled) in the original book. 

[teegr]

DEB:  concerning the beans...thanks for the link.  http://www.wheatmontana.com/store/index.php?cPath=24&osCsid=60a82e07dc4806cbb6761b6e16dc5d14  Is where I buy WW flour (bronze chief...I don't like white whole wheat) ...with a phone call they sold me 5-10lb bags for price of 50lb bag in past. Much easier to store...10lb hermatically sealed bags go inside my 5 gal buckets(2 each) and then sealed. Course I also bought 30lbs of other types...LOL.  My closest  food store freq has WW flour that is out of date on the shelve...so I had to do something because nothing is worse than off whole wheat flour. White flour...well it turns over faster for some reason.  IF I can buy local then I do...I chose them over KA for WW cause it was shorter shipping for me and much cheaper as well as the bronze chief is as good or better than KA WW.  I love the recipe in ABI5 pg 76  100% WW Sandwhich bread.  Only change is I like to use some whey instead of mik.  I think it give a more "wheaty" taste as well as is a ..."whey"...to use up some stored whey.  When the recipe says use a NON-STICK PAN...it means it!  If you don't have one...your better off making a round peasant loaf and cooking it on heavy flat cooking sheet, ehh...just remember you have to cook breads with honey (and or milk) at a much lower temperature that the basic bread recipes in the beginning of book.  Don't ask me why I know this.   

As far as your issue with the cooking of your beans...long stored beans will frequently take longer to soften while cooking.  How long would "organic" beans from China be stored before they make it to your local grocery shelf?  Folks here in the Pacific NW don't eat beans like we Texans do.  LOL   Not even close...so turn over of beans is similar to WW flour.  We have to rotate beans (as well as other stuff) so we tend to pressure cook the older beans.

IF they are only a year or so old and your still having issue with hardness...perhaps your water source changed? Hard/water=hard beans. Heavily chlorinated water=hard beans. High Elevations=hard beans...so one has to work with those facts.  AT sea level, as I am now, I can cook relatively short storage beans on top of stove in a third the time I could on high plains with "fresh" dried beans.  High elevation and hard water conditions...well we just have to pressure cook beans unless we wanted to heat house for 3-4 hours or more cooking beans.   (back then there were no electric crockpot cookers)  I use well water or filtered at home  to cook beans... Maybe you need to add more fat to them to counteract their storage age.  I NEVER salt a bean until it has been cooked to tenderness (with exception of canning soaked beans).  Being an old Texas gal, transplanted to WA state, who beans were the biggest part of our diet...beans are most important to store just in case...LOL.

We salt them AFTER cooking tender...about 1/2 hr-1h before serving.  Crockpot beans...some of  my family salt them some don't.  (I'm on the fence cause I add salt pork and then add final seasoning of salt before serving). 

Hard uncooked unsoaked beans can be ground and used as "flour" for breads (I'd rather eat a bowl of hard  cooked beans)...BUT...that coarse flour can be cooked in water in a fraction of the time to make some tasty re-fried beans for hungry kids when money is short. A little bacon fat or lard and even the hubby will eat em.  I've been known to carry some of that bean flour when hiking in cool mountains for just in case issues cause you can mix it in some water and in short cook time you can get warm life sustaining protein and it doesn't weigh much. (Bears don't seem to want beans...however I'd avoid packing any bacon or lard with ya!)   We were so poor once in my childhood we ate bean patties fried for breakfast.  I love beans but I won't eat a bean patty to this day (other than to taste them before serving)...but my son's love them.  I know a lady pioneer that makes black bean bread with her ground bean flour.  So if ya don't want to throw out those hard beans make some flour...LOL!   *Wonder if that new Healthy Breads in Five has bean flour bread in it??*   NOOOO...I aint a gonna add another bread book to my library...I hope!

[DeejayDebi]

Deb - thanks for the link I'll give them a try. I am beginging to think I am the only one in town that uses dried beans anymore. Last 5 or 6 batchs I soaked over night and until I got home from work - probably about 24 hours and they were still hard. I boiled them and they were still hard. After cooking several times they still had a bite to them. I ate them anyways but others were not happy.

teegr- I love any kind of beans but I still make them in a crock most of the time. Sometimes in the smoker man they are good. I like to cook them low and slow with plenty of molases. We ate a lot of pasta, beans rice and cornmeal growing up. I guess it's what yo get used to.  But as I mentioned eariler lately - just the past 6 months or so every bag I buy is rock hard no matter how many days I soak them. I do have clorinated water but I have a filter for drinking and cooking. I checked you link also need to spend some time there looking around - thanks!

I'll tell you a funny story about buying bulk flour.

A few years back I ordered 50 pounds of semolina flour for making pasta. Well it was in nice 5 pound plastic bags. I came in right before I headed out to PA to help a friend with some plumbing problems for the weeekend. Well at the time I had two dogs - one Male Sheltie named Bandit and one female maltese/Piqunese mix named Killer (dumb as a rock). Well I had a friend look in on the dogs everyday and let them out. Got home after three days and came up the stair and heard MMmmmMMMmMMmm...  MMMmmmMMmmmMmm ...  MMMmmMMmmmMMmm .... I walked into the kitchen and there was flour everywhere! every bag and the box was torn open and sprea through the kitchen.  Well I am still hearing this little MMmmMMmm MMMmMmmm MmmmMMm. I'm thinking what the hay?We'' apparently Killer torn open the flour or at least plaed in it and got thirsty so she drank water - must have gone back to the flour and drank a few times because she was a semolina statue! Lucky she didn't sufficate herself but her nose was clear. All her hair was glued solid!

[teegr]

HOLY COW...that is funny...the floured dog that is.  Boy if I had beans that hard I think I'd call them "pie crust weights" and recycle them if I could afford more beans. 

I would have never thought a dog would have any interest in flour...maybe cornmeal.

I can tell you what my mom did when she had a dog that simply would not stop eating chickens or sucking eggs despite some old timey training my dad used...well any ways...Mom put a free ad in paper and said...FREE, egg sucking, chicken eating dog...with description of it's probable mutt status...

She got more calls for that free dog than anything else she ever put an ad for.  Many of callers were laughing so hard they wasn't even able to respond to mom's "hello"...then they would gain their exposure and ask some questions. 
The egg sucking, chicken eating dog went to a nice home with folks with no kids, no chickens, and they didn't mind feeding him their eggs.

I'm not suggesting anything   ...but in such a situation...it helps to be able to blame it on the hubby or the kids as the reason the dog got into it. 

[DeejayDebi]

I suspect Killer liked the taste of the semolina and maybe the clouds it made. She was a very DUMB dog but lovable as all get out! If you put her outside  she would walk around the tree and head in a straight line wherever she stopped turning. The first door she found was home no matter who's house it was. I'm surprised she ever learned to drink without drowning.

[teegr]

DEB:: well I have been blessed unusually smart dogs and cats they never bother MY STUFF...just someone elses.  LOL...
We had this rooster that had all his fine hens that he ruled...and each morning Dad would feed them and then they would follow him up to a gate and walk thru the gate to get up front to the garden where there lots of good stuff.  Now the chickens could simply walk thru the open wire fencing of the back acres...didn't need a gate...but Mr Rooster had his routine to follow day...so the hens followed their rooster.  5pm comes...the hens are ready to go back to the chicken coop...they just walk thru the wire and head on back.  MR. Rooster panics and runs back and forth sqwacking like crazy cause apparantly he can't just walk thru the wire fence holes like they did.  So we'd have to walk out there foul weather or not to open a gate so he could walk thru it.  LOL  Dad keep saying a rooster that dumb probably wasn't any good to eat so we might as well keep him.  LOL

[DeejayDebi]

In theory chickens are pretty dumb. Never found one that proved the theory wrong and I worked on a 4 coup chicken farm from 12 to 16 yrs old 35 hrs/wk.

[teegr]

Don't think anyone could have made me work with chickens at that age...not for money that is.  LOL!

[DeejayDebi]

Hey I was making 50 cents an hour! That was not bad money in 1966. I had my first car bought, paid for and customized and insurance before my 16th birthday! I hated the job but I was an very independent little turd at a very young age.

[teegr]

Yeah that was pretty good money back then especially since we were too young to work...so the new laws say.  I started working as soon as I turned 12 as a carhop...(I don't know about child labor law...didn't seem to keep me from getting a job in a restaurants of some sort thru out jr high and high school.  LOL.  I thought I was doing good to get $5.00 for a few day shifts a week (during school) and a few dollars in tip then in early 70's.  LOL
I also cleaned houses for people, baby sit and ironed, starched, dressed shirts for 10c....usually made $2.40 a day ironing and then at night I cleaned the Quarter Horse Assosiation office building with my grandmother for several years.  And I sold Spudnuts every Sat morning door to door.  So I always had a little money for my school supplies, and material to make dresses, and a bit to save. 

Now days if you try to make your kids work...they now can't work till 15 or 16.  LOL  HECK...my mom had a job for me on my 12 th birthday.  Can't deny I needed to be able to provide for my school and clothing needs or wear my brothers handme downs.  So I didn't mind too much.  Taught me alot.
I think first job she got my little brothers (a year apart) was at a chicken egg farm....so I thought I was pretty lucky she didn't stick me out for that job.  They worked just long enough to find another job to get away for it.  LOL!

[DeejayDebi]

I was always a runt and farms were the only places you could work under 16. I don't know if it was legal but they all did it. The only place that would hire me was the egg farmer. Boy he worked me like a dog! He was not happy when I quit!

[dmiranda91]

That is a beautiful good recipe a bread, you make me feel hungry yummy. I will try to bake it that one day, so I can learn a new bread recipe that I found here.

[fuzziebear3]

Yes, now I am going to have to find some fridge space for this too ...

All kidding aside, it sounds great and interesting and yummy and I will have to make some of it soon.

Thanks for the recipe.

[DeejayDebi]

It's very adaptable to any kind of bread you like. Good luck and don't forget to post you pictures!