Post Punk Kitchen Forum

This book is great! Julie and I just posted reviews and giveaways, so if you're interested, please check them out!

Julie's: http://www.juliehasson.com/2012/11/glut ... -giveaway/
Mine: http://kitteekake.blogspot.com/2012/11/ ... ecker.html

xo
kittee

are you not having trouble with excessively long baking times/extremely high temperatures? I'm baking bricks! I love the book, but I have to rely on my own instincts for time/temps.

not really, no! i overbaked the kalamata loaf a bit, but it still came out great. have you tried using an instant read thermometer?

I'll have to pick one up. And, review the book for the optimum internal temp. Baked the basic sourdough today, took it out 20+ minutes early, still looks too done. And I really think these breads need to rise!

maybe try one that's not a sourdough? i've stuck with the sandwich loaves, quick breads and round european style loaves with great success. they're not overbaked and they rise plenty.

Yes, I'm doing better with the sandwich breads now. Thank you!

Do all of these breads use xanthan gum or guar gum? I'm interested in the book but don't want to purchase online and then not be able to use the recipes.

most, but not all of the recipes include xanthan gum. the sourdough recipes, generally speaking, do not.

but I have found a couple of tricks on my own to eliminate it = that aren't in the books!

First is, gf oat flour seems to not need any xanthan gum. it's a bit gelatinous, like flaxseed meal or chiaseed meal, it holds itself together. So, if a portion of your flour is oat, and you include flax and chia in the mix, you may be able to skip the xanthan.

The second is, throw about 1/2 c of large lima beans, butterbeans, in your blender (canned is fine, drained). Add that to your baking or flour processes, whatever they are. Breads, cookies, sauces. I haven't found anything it's bad in. You don't taste beaniness. It just adds a nice soft texture. Legit! It works shockingly well.

Honestly, IMHO the recipes without xantham don't turn out. SOOoooo.
There's also an errata for the book, which you can see here (for those with the book).
http://jenniferkatzinger.files.wordpres ... errata.pdf

xo
kittee

OMG! And it all becomes so clear! Thank you for the errata. Just as I suspected, every one of those times/temps was wrong! They must have released that book way too soon or something... but now it makes perfect sense. I was just about to throw the book out. I'm going to give it one more chance with the time/temp corrections and see how it goes. thank you, kittee!