Mason Cash Terracotta Bread Forms Form
User Manual: mason-cash-terracotta-bread-form Fante's Kitchen Shop
Open the PDF directly: View PDF 
.
Page Count: 16
| Download | |
| Open PDF In Browser | View PDF |
How to Season a Terracotta Bread Form 31/08/2012 This tutorial will show you how to season your Mason Cash Terracotta Bread Form. Instructions Before using your bread form for the first time, hand wash in warm soapy water. To season – don’t worry, you only need to go through the seasoning process once. 1. Immerse the bread form completely in clean, warm water and let it soak for up to half an hour. 2. Remove the bread form from the water, wipe and leave it to dry for up to 2 hours. 3. Rub the bread form with vegetable oil to coat the baking surface entirely. 4. Place it in a cold oven and increase the heat to 240°C to 250°C. Bake the bread form for approximately 20 minutes until the oil is dry. 5. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool completely. Repeat steps 2 to 5 again. Please note that unglazed terracotta will soak in fats and oils so will stain when seasoned. This is a design feature that improves the performance of the stone every time it is used. The more you use it, the more the non-stick performance of the bread form improves. • • • • DO NOT use the bread form on hobs or under grills. DO NOT place the bread form directly onto work surfaces or tabletops. Allow to cool before washing in warm soapy water. DO NOT put in a dishwasher or in a microwave. How to Season a Terracotta Baking Stone 20/08/2012 Instructions Before using your Baking Stone for the first time, hand wash in warm soapy water. To season – don’t worry, you only need to go through the seasoning process once. 1. Immerse the stone completely in clean, warm water and let it soak for up to half an hour. 2. Remove the stone from the water, wipe and leave it to dry for up to 2 hours. 3. Rub the stone with vegetable oil to coat the baking surface entirely. 4. Place it in a cold oven and increase the heat to 250°C, Bake the stone for approximately 20 minutes until the oil is dry. 5. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool completely. Repeat steps 3 to 5 again. Please note that unglazed terracotta will soak in fats and oils so will stain when seasoned. This is a design feature that improves the performance of the stone every time it is used. The more you use it, the more the non-stick performance of the stone improves. • • • • DO NOT use the stone on hobs or under grills. DO NOT place the stone directly onto work surfaces or tabletops. Allow to cool before washing in warm soapy water. DO NOT put in a dishwasher or in a microwave. © The Rayware Group 2012 www.rayware-trade.co.uk Baking Bread - Preparing your ingredients 25/09/2012 Instructions Flour Decide how much flour you want to use. A kilo is always a good, manageable quantity as it is a comfortable size for kneading and will provide two large loaves, three smaller loaves or a bakers dozen rolls or buns. You can always freeze the loaves you don’t need immediately, but if you really like making bread you can use 500grams of flour for one large family loaf. Either way, take the weight of the flour as being 100%. All other ingredients will be a percentage of this. Water Different flours absorb different quantities of water, but for a strong white flour the rule of thumb is to add 60% water. So for 1 kilo of flour, add 600ml water. If using a wholemeal flour, use 65%, or use 80% for a ciabatta for instance. Always use warm water, but not boiling water. Yeast With different yeast options available at supermarkets or bakeries, this may get a little confusing. As a rule of thumb, use 1.4% (14g per kilo of flour) fast acting yeast, 1% for dried yeast and 2% for fresh yeast. Salt Salt measurements may not seem important, but if you add too little your loaf will taste quite bland. Add too much and it will be too salty. Ideally you need to add 2% salt, no more and no less. Oils or Butters You can add oils or butters to bread dough if you like, but it is not necessary. Adding oils or butters gives a slightly softer crumb, allowing the bread to keep better. Again, the rule of thumb is to add 2%. Mixing Dough 25/09/2012 Instructions Mixing the Dough You can mix dough in 3 ways, but the quickest is the one mix method. The One Mix Method Simply add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl and knead immediately. Add the flour, salt and yeast to the bowl first and mix, then add the water and oil. Mix with a wooden spoon or your hands, then use your hands to form a rough, soft dough. If the dough is dry, add more water drop by drop. The Two Stage Mix Method This takes a little longer, but the results are worth the wait whilst kneading effort is reduced. Mix the flour and water first to form a rough dough, cover and let it rest for half an hour or so. This allows gluten to develop making the dough easier to develop which is useful if you have a batch of loaves to make. Then add the salt and yeast (and oils if required), Knead them all together then knead. Sponge Mix Method This method requires patience and time, but if you start the process before you go to bed, you will have a wonderful dough to work with in the morning. Begin by creating the dough mix of half the flour with all of the water and yeast and leave it for several hours which will allow the yeast to strongly ferment giving a more flavoursome loaf. Once fermented for long enough (once you have woken up), add the rest of the flour and the salt and mix it into a dough, adding oil or butter if required. Kneading 25/09/2012 Instructions Always knead on a flat, smooth solid surface with plenty of room – ideally a wooden surface with little wood grain. To start kneading, tip your dough out of the mixing bowl onto the work surface. It’s good to clean your hands after this. Don’t worry if your dough sticks to the work surface or your hands – it’s supposed to in order to stretch the glutens in the dough. The quicker you knead, the less it will stick. Firstly, press down on the dough with your fingertips about a quarter of the way up the dough. Then in a smooth motion use the heel of your hand to press into the dough just above your first hand, pushing down and away (until you run out of room or arm length). Then cup your hand and scrape the dough back on top of itself and turn it 90 degrees clockwise. Keep doing this over and over again. You will notice long, thin strands of gluten forming in the dough as you stretch it. With each stretch, the dough becomes less sticky and after 5 to 10 minutes (depending on how fast you knead or the type of flour used) it shouldn’t stick to anything and it becomes less flaky and more solid. When this happens, use shorter stretches until you are only stretching it to double its length. Every couple of minutes, try stretching the dough to thinly to form a skin. It should get thinner and thinner before breaking. When the dough “skin” can’t be stretched any thinner, it is ready. The rule of thumb with strong white flour dough is that you should stretch it thin enough to let light through. If you have over kneaded the dough – and you shouldn’t overknead in 10 minutes it will revert back to a soft and sticky state. If it does this, it is no good. Another Note – if you are making a fruit or nut bread, knead the fruit or nuts in at the end of kneading. Stretch the dough out on the work surface, scatter over the ingredients, then fold, roll and knead briefly, to disperse them. Shaping a Round Loaf 25/09/2012 Instructions When you are satisfied with your dough, you should shape it into a round. It will then rise evenly, and you can easily gauge its progress. This also encourages the yeast to work for you during rising. As it ferments, the gas bubbles gently stretch the strands of gluten and this stretching is most effective if the strands are taut to begin with, which they will be, if you do this. Lay your dough, smoothest side facing down, on the work surface and prod a little with all your fingers to flatten it. Now, with one or two fingers and a thumb, lift an edge, fold it into the middle and press down. Make about an eighth turn of the dough, pick up the edge at the side of the fold you just made and press into the middle. Repeat this step until you return to the edge of the dough where you started. Now flip it over. You should have a nice, smooth, round dough. Put your hands flat on the work surface, palms up, either side of the dough, one forward, and one back. Now, in a fluid motion, bring your hands together under the dough, at the same time sliding the forward hand back and the back hand forward. This both spins the dough and stretches the upper surface down and under. Repeat this ‘spinning’ action two or three times. With practice, you can start to cup yours hands around the dough; the point of the flat hands is to discipline yourself t use the inside edges of your palms and little fingers to do the stretching work. Proving 25/09/2012 Instructions First you need to find a container in which your dough can comfortably double in size without billowing over the top. This may well be the mixing bowl you started off with, but give it a quick wipe first and dry with a tea towel. We find the best equipment for dough rising is the Mason Cash bread baking set, which encorporates a mixing bowl and a proving lid. Now, you can either flour the dough all over, or oil it. If you added oil to the dough, it makes sense to use the same type of oil, but any oil will be fine. Oiling is slightly better than flouring, as it makes an airtight coating, which prevents the dough from drying out. It also enables you to oil the container, which makes it easier to turn the dough out later. (Don’t oil the container if you have floured the dough, though; you will just make oily flour lumps.) Either way put the dough into the container and cover it. I find the simplest way is to put the container in a bin liner and tuck the opening underneath. This makes a lovely environment for your dough – a little humidity from the fermentation process and a little extra warmth from the bag (black absorbs and radiates heat) Covering the bowl with cling film would be nearly as good, though a little more wasteful, as you cant reuse it. Now you need to leave your dough to rise in a warmish place. A pleasantly heated kitchen is ideal, but a slightly cold room is still fine – the dough will just take longer to rise. An airing cupboard, with the boiler going, is likely to be too warm. On top of the Aga is too warm. For a really slow overnight rise, you could put the covered dough in the fridge, but you will rarely want to (unless you are making brioche) During this period of rising, we want the gluten to be stretched by the activity of the yeast to the limit of its elasticity, at which point the dough will have roughly doubled in size. Beyond this, the dough noticeably loses it structure and elasticity; it will start to look flaccid and a bit holey. This is not a disaster, but the dough will be a little weaker for it. Once the dough has risen sufficiently, uncover and tip it out on to your slightly floured work surface. Gently press into the dough with your fingertips and squash it all over until it is roughly the size you started with. A common term for this is ‘knocking back’ which suggests punching and battering – a level of domestic violence not conductive to a happy relationship with your bread. You have spent a long time loving it, don’t ruin it all now. You can now leave your dough to rise a second time, following the same spinning and shaping process as before, in order to further mature and improve it. You can even repeat the rising and deflating process three, four maybe five times, Each time you’ll notice the dough becoming more satiny and pillowy. You cannot do this indefinitely though. Eventually there will be no sugars left for the yeast to feed on, and you need it to have enough oomph for the final prove before baking. Shaping, Slashing & Baking Shape the Loaves You can make any shape of loaf you like, but I tend to just stick to four shapes; a round, a tapered baton, a baguette type stick and a sort of stubby cylinder. I rarely bake bread in a loaf tin, because I much prefer the appearance of a naturally formed loaf; also I don’t much like the texture of the pale lower crust of a tin loaf. A Baguette Type Stick I usually make four of these long, thin loaves from a kilo batch, so they weigh about 400g each. With the dough smooth side down on your work surface, prod it flat, and then roll it up towards you fairly tightly. Now working with both hands flat, roll and stretch the dough like a plasticine snake, as thin and long as you like, remembering, of course, that it still has to fit in your oven. You can leave the ends rounded. A Tin Loaf With your dough smooth side down, prod it fairly flat with your fingertips until it is as wide as your tin is long. Now roll up the dough towards you as tightly as you can, then press along the seam with your fingers and lay seam side down. Smooth and stretch the ends down and tuck ten underneath. Lift up the dough and drop it into the loaf tin. Rolls Weigh or slice off pieces of dough between 100g and 150g, according to how large you want your rolls to be, but do try to keep them roughly the same size. Choose any shape you like. To shape rounds, simply follow the technique for shaping a batch of dough; for tapered batons, shape as for a large loaf. Leave to Prove Proving is the final rising of your shaped loaf before baking (the fact that your dough rises a final time ‘proves’ that it is still active) If you are not baking in a loaf tin, you will need to sit it in a basket, or on a cloth or board, Whichever you use, dust it generously with flour. Loaves in proving baskets should always be smooth side down. With linen cloths or wooden boards, I suggest proving loaves the right way up, as they will keep heir shape better this way. If you are using cloths, you can ruck them up a little to give some support to the sides of the loaves. This is particularly effective with baguettes. Always cover your dough with plastic bags. Giving precise times for proving is not helpful but, again, you want the dough to roughly double in size; this could take as little as 20 minutes, or as long as 2 hours, depending in the vigour with which the dough is fermenting. Keep an eye on the dough as it proves. When it’s looking significantly bigger, give it a gently squeeze at the sides. Do this every so often and you will feel it getting lighter and airier. If, after such a gently squeeze, the dough springs airily back to its original shape, and if it has almost (but not quite) doubled in size, it is about right. It is hard to describe the perfect moment in words. The best I can say is that a really well shaped, tightly moulded, perfectly risen loaf has a certain look and feel about it, as if it is just bursting to be baked. If the bread is over proved, the gluten will lose its structure, the dough will start to look a little saggy, and the finished crumb will end up coarse, and too ‘holey’ Under proved bread will be a little dense and heavy, and also prone to the dreaded ‘flying crust’ syndrome, whereby the top crust deceitfully balloons away from the rest of the dough in the oven. You should err on the side of under rather than over proving, though; it will rise some more in the oven. Slash the Tops Making cuts in a loaf helps it to expand in the oven. Proved bread already has a slightly dry crust from contact with the air, which inhibits rising, and slashing through this crust exposes the soft, stretchy dough inside. I nearly always slash my bread, but there are a couple of exceptions. I usually leave round rolls just as they are – they stay rounder that way. And low gluten breads, such as rye, rise very little in the oven, so the slashes are, in effect redundant – they would open only a little, which looks ugly. Low gluten breads have a beauty all their own. During proving, because of the low surface tension, the dough crackles all over as it expands, like a shattered windscreen. Many bakers use an old fashioned razor blade for slashing. I prefer a sharp, long bladed, serrated knife – a bread knife, in fact. Don’t just pile in. Imagine a line on the dough ten cut along it, using your spare hand just to hold the loaf in place. Use long strokes and be controlled, but confident. It is crucial that you don’t press down when you cut – you will squash the dough, and press out precious gas. Work swiftly, but don’t rush – you will end up snagging and stretching the dough. Slash up to 1cm (half an inch) deep, using two or three strokes on each cut if you need to. Make your slashes evenly deep and evenly spaced. Your slashes should be simple. Beautiful though they can be, they are not made purely for decoration – they have a job to do, which is to help the bread expand. And they will do their job that much better if you let the gluten help, too. Let me explain how. When you shape the loaves tightly, you put tension on the gluten; now you can use this tension to pull the slashes open. Round loaves have equal tension all around, pulling outwards and downwards, so a cut in any direction will open well. All the longer shaped loaves have lateral tension. They have been rolled up, like a carpet, or a coiled spring. The more you cut across (perpendicular to) this tense gluten, the more the cuts will open, So a lengthways cut opens most, crossways cuts open least. Experiment with the different options and decide which you like the look of best. Scoring the loaf on the diagonal is a good compromise. Slashing is a very good test of the quality of your dough. If it is well kneaded and perfectly risen, the cuts will open out, even as you make them. Bake the Bread Once you’ve slashed your loaf, spray it all over with water, if you want to. Now either put the baking tray in the oven or slip the dough from the peel on to the baking stone. To do this, lay the front edge of the peel in position, resting on the stone, and then pull it away, like a tablecloth party trick. As soon as all the loaves are in, pour a good slosh of boiling water from the kettle into the roasting tray (keep your face back) and shut the door. Do all this as fast as you possibly can, to keep the precious heat in. Now, for a few minutes at least, you must leave the door shut, to keep the heat in; this is the time for ‘oven spring’ the final rise before the crust hardens. After 10 minutes, have a look. Shuffle the bread about of its colouring unevenly and lower the temperature to 200oc / Gas Mark 6 – if the crust is still very pale 180oc / Gas Mark 4 – if the crust is noticeably browning 170oc / Gas Mark 3 – if the crust seems to be browning quickly These temperatures apply to fan assisted ovens. If you are using a conventional non fan assisted gas or electric oven, you will need to have your oven approximately 15oc / 1 Gas Mark hotter. Continue baking, adjusting the temperature as you see fit. The total baking time will depend on your particular oven and the size of your loaves. If during baking the crust appears to be fully browned, cover it loosely with foil to prevent over browning. Use the following timings as a guide, but rely on your own judgement. These represent total baking time in the oven; 12 rolls – 10 -20 minutes 3 small loaves – 30 – 40 minutes 2 large loaves – 40 – 50 minutes When your bread is fully baked, it will feel lighter than when it went in. This is because it will have lost about 20 percent of its weight through evaporation. The crust should feel firm (though less so on rolls) and it should sound hollow when tapped on the base. This is no definite test though; a loaf will also sound hollow when it could really do with another 10 minutes baking. So, if in doubt, bake for a bit longer. If your bread is a little over baked, all it will have is a slightly over thick crust, and there is nothing wrong with that. Leave to cool If you have a cooling rack, put your bread in it. If not, a propped up oven shelf would do fine. Now leave it alone to cool. Your bread is full of steam, and is in fact still cooking. You must let it finish, in its own time. If you cut hot bread, it will be steamy, heavy and doughy. Hot rolls are about the only exception to the leave it alone rule, but only if you pull them apart. Don’t squash or cut them.
Source Exif Data:
File Type : PDF File Type Extension : pdf MIME Type : application/pdf PDF Version : 1.5 Linearized : No Author : The Rayware Group - www.rayware-trade.co.uk Company : Microsoft Create Date : 2014:10:25 09:49:07-04:00 Modify Date : 2014:10:25 09:51:16-04:00 Source Modified : D:20141025134854 Subject : Instructions for seasoning and using Mason Cash terracotta bread forms Tagged PDF : Yes XMP Toolkit : Adobe XMP Core 5.2-c001 63.139439, 2010/09/27-13:37:26 Metadata Date : 2014:10:25 09:51:16-04:00 Creator Tool : Acrobat PDFMaker 10.1 for Word Document ID : uuid:1d73158b-37a3-41fc-8d6d-34300d767f80 Instance ID : uuid:c5abd0c2-02c3-4208-b55d-9d58dd7a5dcc Format : application/pdf Creator : The Rayware Group - www.rayware-trade.co.uk Title : Mason Cash Terracotta Bread Forms Description : Instructions for seasoning and using Mason Cash terracotta bread forms Producer : Adobe PDF Library 10.0 Page Layout : OneColumn Page Count : 16 Warning : [Minor] Ignored duplicate Info dictionaryEXIF Metadata provided by EXIF.tools