I like TJ's herb pizza dough. I used to buy that everytime I was at Trader Joes..which was every few months. Now that we have pizza every Friday I make my version of Lou's dough. I par bake it. I put it on a cold stone in a 425 oven. It's only raw in the center if I don't par bake..but we like thick crust so one "dough" recipe is used for 15" pizza. BTW, HI LOU...It's good to see you!!!!!!! Here's the way I make it. 1 c warm water 1 T honey (Lou calls for 3T sugar) 2 1/2 t yeast (mix and let set until it starts to bubble) stir in 1/2 t salt 1 T EVOO (Lou calls for 1/4 c oil) 1 c wheat flour 2 cup white flour (Lou calls for 3 1/2 c white and 1/2 c wheat) Blend until all the flour is absorbed, formed into a ball in the bowl..Let rest for 10 or so minutes while I get everything else together. It will start to rise.. When I'm ready, I start to shape it on the counter, then finish on a cold corn meal dusted stone.

Feeding the birds is a good use of bricks, too, especially when they're surprised by early Winter weather. :) Here (SoCal), we've had a couple of brief entries into Autumn weather, but always quick rebounds into general Summer. It's very confusing since it still gets dark when it feels like it should be light until a couple of hours later. If KAF actually put the recipe on the back of the bag, it's probably foolproof. That is, it's probably meant to be successful even with variations in temperature, humidity and oven climate. Edie, I just tell the truth as I see it--I'm happy to be supportive, but won't mislead you to do so. Baking bread is a normal kind of thing. Everyone with ordinary physical and mental acuity can bake bread, can dance, can sing. Perhaps there will be differing levels of natural giftedness, but all can learn to a level of competency, no matter the age. The homely arts belong to all of us. Not everyone can engineer a skyscraper that won't topple in an earthquake. Even among those well trained to do so, there's a level of magic, that is, intuitive synthesis of massive knowledge, that is necessary as well. I read once that a German master baker, who grew up in the trade, said that there was no way to learn what he knew without dedicating decades starting from puberty. I'm sure that's true. But if you're not in the business of making loaves by the dozens daily, and requiring a level of perfection that comes from professionalism, you can still bake bread. Same as someone who only has middling control over productive pitch can still learn to sing a song that won't make listeners put their fingers in their ears. Practice and familiarity with one bread, or one song, and from there to a repertoire, substitute for the lifetime of study of all breads or all vocalizations. Going wrong sometimes helps. I would never have landed on WTF Bread if I hadn't been out of it on baking day. :) And WTF is the closest I've come yet to what I've been aiming for. :) I'm not far behind you in age, or far in front in experience out of my comfortable recipes. I've learned scads in the last six months, and have learned far more from my "failures" than my roaring successes. At a certain age we have the time and head space for contemplation and a more interesting kind of learning. And we can have, oh, so much fun!

* Posted by coconut-nj (My Page) on Sat, May 30, 09 at 11:27 Sally, anywhere that has alot of British imports would probably have it. I was checking out who had it online the other day and while you might not want 6 bottles of it.. smiles... Amazon has 6 bottles for $27.05. It's free shipping too. Most places sell it for between five and six or up to eight dollars, so that's a great price. They say they're 15 oz bottles. Maybe somebody else would want to go in on it with you?? I've always heard of it described as a mayo with more vinegar and also with a mustard taste. Sounds good. Smiles. My DW used it when she used to travel to the UK all the time for buisness. Surprised she didn't bring any back. I have a head of savoy cabbage so I'm going to make my easy 'stuffed' cabbage casserole that I described above. It makes it so easy and quick which is just what we want on a Saturday night. Steam the cabbage briefly, layer it with dirty rice, pour some tomato juice mixed with onion and garlic powder between layers and on top and bake for about 40 minutes. I'll see if I can manage to take a picture. I seem to be terrible at that. The camera is always in the other room and it's a kind of big house and by the time I'm done cooking I'm not walking very well. LOL.. We will see. Oh btw, I always make two dishes of this because Christy gets burnt out on "red" since I always have something made with red sauce around I make her a version with just some broth on it. I do stuffed peppers for her the same way. No red. I do love the red on it but prefer tomato juice since it's nice and light although I'll just water down tomato sauce or puree with chicken stock/broth, if I don't have any handy.

I never put sourdough in a dutch oven. You need that for ultra high hydration dough because it’s goop that won't hold its shape. Your starter is ready to use if it will double in size, after feeding, reliably within eight hours and hold its top height for several hours. You might get a decent loaf before then, but you might have trouble. i posted my easiest, most reliable recipe, along with other things, in this thread: https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5924521/fun-with-sourdough. Do a protein wash (egg or milk) for prettier crust, and don't forget to slash the surface to control the let out of steam, preventing cracking. Any recipe where you feed up a potion of your starter, and let it get all bubbly, then add flour, water and salt, should give you good bread. A smaller proportion of water to flour will keep it out of the pot. BTW, if you're not trying to make high hydration “artisan” bread, but your dough is too wet to stand, you can bake it off in any vessel, such as a saucepan, springform or bowl. Clay works if you don't want to use metal. Good luck!