[Sca-cooks] Baking for feasts (was Newby to the list)

[Decker, Terry D.]

Welcome aboard.

If you want to prepare and freeze dough, let me recommend you to you the
section of Stefan's Florilegium containing previous discussions of this.  To
can find these at:
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BREADS/idxfood-breads.html

I find the idea of not baking fresh bread for a feast humorous.  I do it all
the the time and I sometimes serve as baker for other cooks.  The chief
requirement for baking on site is a good oven.  It is also nice to have a
heavy dough mixer, but dough can be produced by hand if necessary.  On site,
I normal do the baking on Friday and use Saturday to prepare the feast.

If the site can't handle the baking, it usually takes me two days to handle
the baking (about 40 loaves each of two different breads and possible a
sweet good for the average feast).

I use frozen doughs only when the size of the feast threatens to overwhelm
my oven capacity.

Bear


> This time around, one thing I'd like to do differently is
> *make* the fresh baked bread--the last time I was advised by
> the autocrat and others, to use the purchased frozen bread
> dough, and just dress it up. This was not unsuccessful, but I
> did feel as though I were cheating a bit.  This time, I'd
> like to make my own dough to freeze.  This would give me the
> convenience of having the dough readily available on the day
> of the feast, yet still feel I did it myself.
> AElfwenna of Shrewsbury