SC - cheddaring process

[kat]

>Now, I should also point out that the recipe I posted was in response to
>a request from a lady looking for a bread recipe for an event,
>presumably to be baked in bulk. Yes, an experienced baker can get by
>with much less yeast, given things like sufficient time to start a
>sponge the night before, a six-hour rise time, give or take an hour, and
>a proper oven. And, yes, there are certainly ways to make the recipe
>produce a loaf that would be closer to some forms of period bread. This
>was an informed compromise, since I don't yet have a recipe scaled to
>make fifty loaves using freshly washed ale barm ;  ), and I would want
>to be a bit more experienced in the technique before spending event
>money on it. 
>
>Adamantius
>______________________________________
>Phil & Susan Troy
>troy at asan.com

I'll second your statements.  Almost any basic bread recipe is close
enough to be period, especially those which use only flour, yeast, salt
and water.  I bake quite a bit when I have free time and for most event
baking I tend to use about three recipes a basic "white" bread, Finnish
cardamom bread, and a basic brioche.  I use 13 quart stainless steel
bowls to make the bread in eight loaf batches (what a standard home oven
will handle comfortably) spacing the start of each batch about 1 hour
apart.  I also have enough baking equipment to hand to produce 3 to 5
batches without cleaning and reusing.

In my opinion, the two critical components of baking for an event are 1)
make sure the yeast (granulated dry active is what I use) is frothing
before adding the flour and 2) make dough for your oven capacity,
allowing time for your oven reheat between loads.  While I would love to
try running up the fifty loaves with fresh ale barm, I've never had
access to enough oven capacity to handle that much dough in a timely
manner.

Unless one is after a specific effect, I'd recommend staying with fast
rising breads.  For the Namron Rapier event, I am trying to approximate
two period French breads, one a plain wheat loaf, the other a dessert
bread.  In the process, I will produce the equivalent of 96 (1 to 1 1/2
pound) loaves of bread, at least half of which will require a sponge and
a six to eight hour total rise time.  I expect the baking to take two 14
hour days, almost twice the time of an equivalent amount of fast rising
bread

Bear.  
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