Hi Cotehele, I do not have the plastic blade on my foodprocessor so I use the metal one for pasta and it works great. I only find that if I make a wet dough I never get the the pasta on the right consistance afterword. I can always add a little more water but never comes out right if I have to add flour... Cynara.

Lou, I hope that you're not offended. I had already started both her dough and sauce before asking for help. I do want to try yours, seriously. And hoping that I'm not misreading, too. I hate forums and emails for trying to interpret what someone really means. Thank you so much, Lou, for the emails and the forum posts. I will be working on my pizza/calzone/stromboli expertise many times in the near future with four kids ages eight and under. And using your posts for guidance. Nancy

Everyone has their own way to do this, which is better. But! I like to cook and bake using easier ways, long as the end results are the same. I've used this recipe since I got out of the Army, a very long time ago and converted it from Army Baking (Large amounts )to Home Baking. It wasn't easy going from 4 Quarts to 4 cups , etc. But I worked it out. I got the results that I wanted and I'm passing it on to everyone . Here is the recipe: Luigis - - - Braided, Plaited Bread or Dough for Cinnamon Buns Etc. 2 cups of milk, (warm ) - - Sometimes I sub Powdered Milk 1 1/3 cup of Sugar 3 large eggs- beaten (save ½ egg w. a little milk for basting ) 1 tablesp.+ of Vanilla - - ½ cup + of oil - - ½ teasp. Salt 2 packs of Fleischmans Active dry yeast AP Flour - 3 cups to start ( probably about 6 total ) enough to knead into a soft ball that doesnt stick to your hands. I now substitute a cup of WW Flour. Makes it more tender. Stir the yeast in a 1/3 cup of warm water w. ½ spoon of sugar, to test it for raising. In a large mixing bowl, or (KA mixer) place the warm milk ( not hot ) add the sugar ,vanilla , salt & eggs Beat until the sugar is dissolved and add the Yeast and mix well. Add 1 cup of WW flour and 3 cups of AP flour and mix with mixer a few minutes. Add flour until you make a " soft " Ball of dough that doesnt stick to your hands. Dont make it too stiff , try to keep it a "soft dough." On the Work Top, Sprinkle some flour under the ball and Knead it until smooth. Place it in a large bowl, Rub some oil on top. Cover with a damp towel and place in a warm spot ( until double.) I usually turn my oven on for a few minutes to warm and shut it. Place a pan of hot water on the bottom shelf. Then place the dough bowl in the oven to rise. When ( doubled ) deflate and put it out of the bowl onto a floured worktop. Punch it down and knead the dough again. Then cut into 2 pieces ( 2 loaves ). Divide each piece into 3. Roll each of these 3 pieces into the shape of a sweet potato ( about 12 in long ). With the basting ( egg ) mixture and wet the tips of the 3 pieces and stick them together at one end . Then spread the other end the shape of an arrow While keeping the stuck ends down and away from you , twist each piece clockwise about 8 times and lay them down so you can Platt or Braid them and stick the other ends together There are other ways to Braid ( 6 Strands ) but I take the fast easy way to do things. Place the 2 shaped loaves on lightly oiled cookie tins, or in loaf pans. Preheat the oven to 400 deg. Spray some Pam on the loaves or brush with oil. This will keep them from drying while raising. When doubled in size (about 20 min.) place in the oven , top shelf and bake until slightly tan. Baste them with the egg mix and rotate them back into the oven and ( Turn temperature down to 325 deg.) Baste again when they are a dark tan. Cook till a rich brown, mahogany color. Take them out of the pans onto a rack to cool. Control yourself !!!! Let them cool !!! This sounds like a lot to do but it is easy and should take only 10 minutes to mix and shape. The most time is in the waiting for the dough to rise and for the bread to cool . But it do look great !!! & Professional This dough can also be used for Cinnamon Buns . I use it for Bagels too. I like the Hardly Noticeable, sweet taste.

If you use a "modern" version of a starter that uses baker's yeast in the recipe, it will eventually die out due to the acidic environment, and if there has been sufficient inoculation of natural yeast from the flour, the baker's yeast will eventually be replaced with natural (aka wild) yeast. This method isn't right or wrong, just one of the endless choices for starter recipes. When it comes to developing a starter with a strong colony of yeast, choose wholegrain flour for the first 2-3 feedings and then you can use whatever type of flour you wish. The outside of all whole grains are covered with yeast so that is your best source for yeast, more so than the air. If you want to mill small quantities of wholegrain flour yourself you can use a coffee/spice mill. Rye flour ferments faster than wheat or spelt (and rye starter also smells pretty bad but works like a charm). Spelt flour has more carbohydrates and is a good choice. All flour, including bleached/unbleached flour, will work. You can even make gluten-free starter with rice flour. There are recipes that use grapes in the mixture in the mixture as an additional source for yeast, and the gray sheen on grapes is naturally occuring yeast and the grape juice adds more sugars for the yeast to feed on (although there are more than enough "sugars" (carbohydrates) in flour for the yeast to feed on. Other sources for yeast in starter recipes can be found on cabbage leaves (the gray dusty sheen on the leaves is yeast; and I have recipes that use peach leaves in the starter as a source of yeast). Starter is a study of contradictions. All you need to do is do a search on the "care and feeding of sourdough starters" to quickly see the contradictions. My best suggestion is to try a number of methods until you find one that works best for you. When one starter dies, there are plenty more recipes to choose from. I use a starter called "Everlasting Yeast" that was popular just over 100 years ago and is just a little different from traditional starter. Helpful hints: -If your starter doesn't double in bulk when fed, it probably won't double your bread dough. -Until you know how your starter acts/reacts when resting in the refrigerator, you may want to place it on a deep-dish pie tin/dish. It's not completely unheard of for a starter to occasionally escape the confines of the jar/container while in the refrigerator. It's a lot easier to clean the pie dish than the entire refrigerator. I cover my pint jar with a small Quick Cover (looks like a tiny shower cap) with some holes poked in the cover for the fermenting gasses to escape. -If you don't have all day to make sourdough bread and you need to speed things up a bit, add 1/8 t. of SAF-Instant Yeast to your dough. -When I don't want to make bread and hate to waste 1-cup of starter to feed it, I make 8-crumpets per King Arthur Flour Recipe entitled "Sourdough Crumpets or How to Resurrect a Neglected Starter". For each 1 cup of sourdough starter, sprinkle over the surface: 1 t. sugar 1/2 t. salt 1/2 t. baking soda [Grainlady note: I use a 4-cup measuring cup because this mixture foams-up quite a bit and it's easier to pour the batter from the measuring cup.] Whisk these ingredients in thoroughly. Preheat your griddle and grease your crumpet rings. Place rings on the pre-heated griddle and add 1/4-inch of batter to the ring. Cook over low/medium heat until the tops are set and full of holes (the batter also looses its glossy sheen). Remove the rings (twist back and forth with a pair of tongs to loosen the crumpet and then lift the ring) and flip the crumpets over for a minute or two. [Grainlady note: if you only have 4 crumpet rings like I do, I flip the rings so the side that didn't have the baked crumpets on is now on the bottom. Now you don't have to clean and grease your rings for the second batch.] To serve crumpets you pop them in the toaster to brown and crisp. Top with butter and your favorite jam/marmalade/jelly.... I like to add flavorings to the crumpet batter, such as orange/coconut or King Arthur's Fiori di Sicilia. I sometimes add some herbs and finely chopped ham or sausage crumbles for something a little heartier for a brunch crumpet and toast them flat in the toaster oven. Crumpets freeze well. Cool separately on a cooling rack, then quick freeze while laying flat. Separate the frozen crumpets with a square of parchment paper, stack and place in a freezer bag. Don't stack crumpets like you would pancakes off the griddle because they tend to stick together. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Sourdough Primer - King Arthur Flour