SC - Breads

[Decker, Terry D.]

>Bear said:
>> ><< Being curious, I ask, why should you go crazy making 17 loaves of
>>bread?
>> >  
>{snippage}
>> 
>> I was just curious about why 17 loaves of fresh bread presented any
>> particular problem.  I view it as an evening's baking.
>
>As the one that she is baking the bread for, I think I can answer that.
>This is the first time that she has helped run a feast... and the event
>has been causing me stress which she is getting the side effects from.  I
>came up with an idea for a nice fun small event, which has ballooned into
>EK K&Q Bardic Champions.... And we just found out that our one autocrat
>will not be able to attend the event due to a family emergency.
>
>Besides that, she's planning a wedding and will be co-autocratting an
>event later this year...
>
>We're just a little stressed *twitch*twitch*  And the thought of making
>that much bread at once is a little daunting the first time.
>
>kael

I can empathize.  I'm baking bread for a feast tomorrow and I think some
of the panettone has a rising problem (real fun since a batch takes
about 12 hours with the traditional techniques I'm using).  To add to
it, I can't attend the event, I'm scheduled in to work.

If it were me, and I had a kitchen on site, I would probably bake the
loaves on site and put fresh bread on the table.  If I didn't have an
oven on site, I would bake it the night before.  

I assume you are planning to  bake a plain white or whole wheat bread
and make 1 to 2 pound loaves.  If you can get your hands on a couple of
13 quart stainless steel bowls, you can mix up most of the dough you
need at one time.  A 13 qt. bowl can handle 8 to 12 loaves of bread.  As
a field expedient, you can use a stock pot or a roasting pan.  Don't try
to do this two loaves at a time when the standard home oven can handle
8.

If you are short of baking tins or sheets, buy some aluminum pie tins at
the grocery.  They are usually packaged about 4 for a dollar and they
hold a round cottage loaf quite nicely.  They can be washed and reused
for several events.

One of the nice things about bread is you can go work on other things
while it rises.  The bad thing is, it does take oven time.

BTW, I wouldn't worry about the Bardic Competition.  Find a place for
them to perform and turn the mess over to the Kingdom Bards to run.
They dropped it on you, put them to work. :-)

So, how many do you plan to feed and what do you plan to put on the
table?

Bear 



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