SC - Platina Feast Bread Question
Decker, Terry D.
TerryD at Health.State.OK.US
Tue Jan 30 06:04:49 PST 2001
> > > Italian Bread - fresh baked by us without a recipe
> > With or without a bigga?
>
> Educate me, please, I've never heard that term before.
> :)
A bigga is the Italian baker's term for a leaven. In the case of Platina,
it's the sourdough starter from the previous batch of bread. Since a lot of
modern Italian baking uses yeast rather than sourdough, today's bigga is
more often a sponge allowed to ferment for about 24 hours before making the
dough. The bigga improves the flavor of the bread.
>
> > BTW, Platina has one of the four period bread
> > recipes that I've found.
>
> I read through it. A Laurel friend of mine who is
> associated with the church (Mistress Grania ni
> Fhearguis) volunteered to bake the bread and
> simultaneously teach me to bake without a recipe, so I
> jumped at the chance.
>
> - Clotild
Actually, baking bread without a recipe isn't difficult. Basic bread tends
to be 10 ounces of water to 2 pounds of flour to 1 teaspoon dry active yeast
to 1 or 2 teaspoons of salt for about 2 pounds of bread. Bake at 425 F for
40 to 50 minutes. Temperature and time change over 3000 feet ASL.
I recently spent an event in an empty kitchen, baking a couple recipes I'd
never tried before, and producing manchet, honey wheat bread, light unseeded
rye, and stollen from memory. Technically, it was an A&S display, but no
one showed up to discuss the work, so I spent the day playing and the tavern
reaped the rewards.
Bear
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