I use my favourite French Baguette recipe to make cheddar and roasted garlic bread. My son loves it with olives so I occasionally make it with olives as well. This bread is even better if the dough is given a long cold fermentation for three or four days in the fridge before shaping and baking. French Baguette Julia Child 1 package dry active yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons) 3 1/2 cups unbleached flour (bread flour) (NOTE: I use 4 cups) 2 1/4 tsp salt 1 1/3 cups cold water plus 1/3 or so additional water Place the flour, yeast and salt in the bowl of the food process. Pulse to mix. Add 1 1/3 cups of water and process until the dough comes together. If the dough doesn't form a ball, add a little of the extra water. Process for about 60 seconds, turn off machine and let dough rest for 5 minutes. Turn on the machine again and rotate the dough about 30 times under the cover, and then remove it to a lightly floured work surface. it should be fairly smooth and quite firm. Let the dough rest for 2 minutes and then knead roughly and vigorously. The final dough should not stick to your hands as you knead (although it will stick if you pinch and hold a piece); it should be smooth and elastic and, when you hold it up between your hands and stretch it down, it should hold together smoothly. Preliminary rise - 40 to 60 minutes at around 75°F. Place the dough into a clean dry bowl, (do not grease the bowl), cover with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place free from drafts. (note the French do not grease the bowl because they believe the dough needs a seat to push up from). This first rise is sufficient when the dough has definitely started to rise and is about 1 1/2 times its original volume. Deflating: Turn the dough onto your lightly floured work surface roughly and firmly pat and push it out into a 14 inch rectangle. Fold one of the long sides over toward the middle, and the other long side over to cover it, making a 3 layer cushion. Repeat the operation. This important step redistributes the yeast throughout the dough, for a strong second rise. Return the dough smooth side up the bowl; cover with plastic wrap and again set to rise. Final rise in the bowl - about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or longer. The bread should be 2 1/2 to 3 times its original bulk. It is the amount of rise that is important here, not the timing. To Shape, Cut the dough in half. Set one piece aside and cover with a towel. On a lightly floured work surface pat the dough into a 14 inch rectangle, squaring it up as evenly as you can. Fold the rectangle of dough in half lengthwise and using the heel of your hand, firmly press the edges together whether they meet. Seat well. Pound the dough flat. Now repeat - patting the dough out again and folding it over and sealing the edges. Pinch the edges well and Rotate the dough so that the sealed edge in on the bottom. Repeat with second piece of dough. Cover with plastic wrap or loosely with a towel and let rise to more than double again at about 75°f. Place stone in oven and Preheat oven to 450°F. Slash three long cuts into the loaves and place on the hot stone. Immediately toss a number of ice cubes on to the bottom on the oven to create steam. Bake until bread is golden and has an interior temp of 200°F. Takes about 30 minutes. Making Dough in a Mixer or by Hand When you are making dough in an electric mixer with a dough hook, proceed in the same general way with the rests indicated, and finish by hand. or mix the dough by hand in a bowl, turn out on a work surface, and start the kneading by lifting it up with a scraper and slapping it down roughly for several minutes until it has body. Let it rest several minutes and then proceed to knead.

1. This is as good as my presentation on making whole wheat bread gets. Realistically, I'm unable to put what I present as an all-day workshop as a post on a message board about how to make 100% whole wheat loaves. I teach information about the grain, milling, and bread making. The details are important - at least I think so, but I will add these sources and tips FYI. 2. Soaked flour method is found in the book, "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. I use a modified version of this. 3. Retarding dough is a method where you "park" the dough in the refrigerator. This essentially stretches the time allowed for fermentation which helps develop the flavor during the primary (or bulk) fermentation. The final proofing stage is when the dough develops lightness and texture. The longer fermentation breaks down the whole wheat flour which also helps make a lighter loaf. 4. I never add vital wheat gluten to 100% whole wheat bread, but that doesn't mean it's wrong to do so. I just happen to know the type of wheat I use has a fairly high protein level that will make excellent yeast breads. I also mill a fine grind of flour (coarse flour = coarse bread). The finer the flour, the smaller the shreds of bran and the higher the gluten level. You can also sift the large shreds of bran out of flour. Use it as a topping on the loaf. Adding too much vital wheat gluten will cause the bread to be tough. It also takes longer to develop gluten in breads with high-gluten levels. I've worked with 16% protein wheat and all that additional protein only means more time kneading....so more is not necessarily better. The only time I add vital wheat gluten is if I'm using a large amount of low-gluten flour, such as barley, oat, or rye. 5. As pointed out in "CookWise" (by Shirley O. Corriher), "Give ten bakers the same flour, yeast, salt, and water and have them make bread with just these ingredients and they will make ten different loaves of bread." I'd suggest reading the first 100 pages of "CookWise" for a lot of general information concerning all kinds of yeast/sourdough bread information. I make bread no one else makes using unusual ingredients. I use bits and pieces of information from a wide source of "experts". I change what I'm doing when I read new information I think will make better bread. Not all methods work for all people for a lot of reasons. Mostly time is the factor. 6. There are three basic methods for making bread - straight dough (aka direct-mix), sponge (aka pre-ferment), or sourdough. 7. The straight dough method is a modern method based on modern commercial flour, yeast, and quick mixing methods. This method is fine for most modern (white) breads, but you'll get better whole wheat bread using the other two methods. 8. Sponge/pre-ferments come in a wide variety of methods. I'd suggest checking out a copy of "Crust & Crumb" by Peter Reinhart for more information. 9. Sourdough is also a method that takes a lot more time than than the straight dough method. 10. BREAD MACHINE BREAD Luisa Perkins of Cold Spring, New York, has supplied us with the following soaked recipe for a bread machine. She uses a Zojirushi bread machine (available from the King Arthur flour company), which has a "homemade" cycle. 1 cup purified water 3/4 cup homemade whey 5 cups freshly ground hard wheat flour, preferably white wheat, not red 3 tablespoons Rapadura or Sucanat 4 tablespoons lard or butter 2 teaspoons sea salt 2 teaspoons yeast (SAF brand recommended) Put the water, whey and flour into the bread machine loaf pan. Set the homemade cycle to the maximum time allowed on preheat and rise cycles--this should be at least 6 hours. The baking time should be set to zero. After preheating and kneading, the dough has about 6 hours at about 100 degrees. Add the remaining ingredients and set the machine to the wheat cycle, which should be another 3 hours at least. The two cycles together give the dough more than seven hours for the whey to do its work. The bread comes out nicely browned, risen to the top of the loaf pan and flat on top. It has a good, even structure and texture. If you start in the morning, the bread is finished by early evening and will be cooled off and ready to eat the following morning. Makes a 2-pound loaf. (Source: http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/sourdough_egg_noodles.html - towards the end of the page) 11. Another good method is called a two-stage method by Sue Gregg (www.suegregg.com). This includes an overnight soak/sponge. 12. I use an overnight sponge in my bread machine and mix the dough the next day on the dough cycle which is similar to the recipe above. This is one example of what I do for lighter 100% whole wheat bread. 3/4 c. (homemade) kefir 3/4 c. barely warm water 2-1/2 c. freshly-milled Prairie Gold Spring Hard White Wheat 1/4 t. ascorbic acid powder 2 t. SAF Instant yeast Add to the sponge the next morning: 1/3 c. agave nectar 1 egg approx. 2-1/4 c. freshly milled whole wheat flour (you may have to adjust hydration during mixing/kneading) 3 T. coconut oil - I add fat late in the mixing along with 2 t. salt - AFTER the gluten has developed. * There's a science about when to add the fat and the salt (see: "CookWise" for this information). If you want a loaf that has a cake-like crumb (close-grain) and that also yields a shorter loaf, then add the fat and salt early in the mixing. If you want more loft and an open crumb, add the fat/salt late in the mixing - after the gluten is developed. Adding the salt late also makes kneading easier. Once salt is added, the gluten strands really tighten up. 13. Don't add ascorbic acid when making sourdough breads. They are already acidic enough. -Grainlady

I had heard about the NY Times bread recipe when it came out a few years ago, so googled it and found the following: Recipe: No-Knead Bread 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting teaspoon instant yeast 1¼ teaspoons salt Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed. 1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. 2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes. 3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. 4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack. Yield: One 1½-pound loaf. From: Newsvine.com, here is a review, by someone, of this recipe: I pretty much followed the instructions to a "T" with some very minor adjustments stemming from comments that I read in other reviews. Friday Night, 7:00 PM: Mixed together bread flour, yeast (Fleischman's rapid rise), salt and water in a non-reactive bowl, covered with plastic wrap and placed the whole kit n' kaboodle in the oven, leaving it there overnight and through the next morning. Saturday Afternoon, 1:30 PM: Heavily dusted my work surface with flour, poured the dough onto the surface, heavily dusted the top of the dough with flour, and following Alton Brown's instructions for "punching down" dough, performed the wallet folding pattern three times. I let that rest covered with plastic wrap for fifteen minutes. Saturday Afternoon, 1:46PM: I rolled the dough into a "ball", and placed it on a sheet of heavily dusted parchment paper instead of a towel, and let it rise for 2 hours. *Note: the dough didn't really hold a ball shape, but rather looked more like an in-the-dough reincarnation of Jabba-the-Hut. Translated: it was little more than an amorphous blob, which I covered with a towel, nevertheless. I set the timer for two hours, over the course of which the dough spread moreso than rose. Saturday Afternoon, 3:16 PM: I placed my 5.5 qt. Le Creuset enamel coated cast iron Dutch Oven in the oven and preheated both to 450-degrees. Saturday Afternoon, 3:46 PM: When the timer went off signaling the expiration of the two hours, I carefully removed the very hot Dutch Oven and placed it on the counter. I dumped the dough blob from the parchment paper into the Dutch Oven and wearing oven mitts, covered the pot with aluminum foil, since the metal replacement knob that I ordered to replace the plastic one that came on the dutch oven lid -- and is only rated to 375 degrees -- had not yet arrived in the mail. My preference here would have been to use the lid that came with the pot. I baked the bread, covered (with foil) for 30 minutes, removed the foil and baked for anther 20. I then removed the pot from the oven and dumped the bread onto a wire rack where I let it cool for one hour before slicing. The bread turned out great, very crusty, very artisan. I will definitely make it again. The main thing is to remember to start it the night before, else there will not be enough time to develop the glutens and more complex flavors as fully as necessary to make for a great loaf of bread and still get the bread baked at a decent hour. The recipe can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html

Most rapid rise yeast has Ascorbic Acid added to make it rise faster, it is basically vitamin C. I'm fine with that. I don't know if the funky smell and too rapid rise (for active dry yeast ) was from the additive or the new process they are using. I don't think they are adding corn syrup, but from the article Robin quoted above, it sounds like they are actually using the corn syrup to make the yeast. "Yeasts are grown in the industry in big tanks with sugary water in the presence of oxygen. When the desired amount of yeast is reached the liquid is pumped out, and the yeast is then dried. Nothing else is added in the production of yeast." I found this after searching on the Internet. So I would guess instead of using a sugar/water solution, Red Star now uses corn syrup to grow their yeast. I just can't understand why they felt they needed to add an emulsifier. I can't say I have ever had a problem with my yeast staying solid. If it worked for so many years I can't see why they would change it. I'm guessing the funky smell is from the corn syrup base they are growing the yeast from, and the undesirably rapid rise is from the emulsifier.