Wednesday, April 30, 2008

My Bread Pantry...Yikes!

I've turned into a pretty enthusiastic home bread baker, with plans to start a bread program at work soon. I seriously consider one day building a wood-fired bread oven and getting out of the restaurant business and into the artisanal baking business. One day; you know, after I learn to do it efficiently at work, and we climb our way out of debt. I keep adding more ingredients, tools, and stuff as well as learning new techniques and background theory. It was looking at all the stuff that I have now that gave me pause and made me want to write this post and see just how long that list turns out to be. So, here it is:

White 100% Hydration Levain
2:1 Rye:Spelt 130% Hydration Levain
Dry Active Yeast
Instant Yeast
Unbleached High Gluten Flour
Unbleached AP Flour
Coarse Rye Flour
Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour
Unbleached Spelt Flour
Stone Ground Grits
Golden Flax Seeds
Brown Flax Seeds
Sunflower Seeds
Brown Sesame Seeds
Poppy Seeds
Bran Flakes
Rye Flakes
Wheat Flakes
Rolled Oats
Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Cereal Mix-a great add-in for Multi-grain breads like Struan
Semolina
Quinoa
Millet
Barley
Farro
Kashi
Vital Wheat Gluten
Ascorbic Acid-haven't figured out where I want to experiment with this, but will
Diastatic Malt Powder-In the mail, looking forward to trying Bagels when I get it
Milk Powder
Spanish Sea Salt
Baking Soda
Caraway Seeds
Cumin Seeds
Fennel Seeds
Maple Syrup-from our Maple Trees
Lame-for slashing dough; it really does seem to do better than a serrated knife
Bench Scraper
5 quart KitchenAid Artisan Series Mixer
Pelouze Gram/Ounce Digital Scale
Long Handled Peel
1 "real" bentwood oval Banneton
4 Oval Wicker Bread Baskets which work great as Bannetons that I liberated from work
2 Round Wicker Bread Baskets-these work better than the "real" ones because they're practically non-stick and require much less coaxing (and coating) than the expensive version
Baking Stone
Plastic Spray Bottle for Misting
5 foot long Butcher Block table with Drawers full of tools and more non-specific ingredients

Yep, that's a darn long list!

Thanks to Potsdam Food Co-op, all of my Flours, Grains, and Seeds are Certified Organic. Excellent!

I think this is about it, for now...until I desperately need some other crazy thing and can afford to buy it. I make bread of some kind 2 or 3 times a week and hope to be doing it every day at work some time soon. I'll start out small with only one type to supplement the products we buy in and build up from there when I can handle more in addition to my other Chef-y duties. I'm researching the oven-building thing and may soon go to the local Chamber of Commerce to see what kind of 3-5 year plan will get me out of the restaurant and into my own bakery. Any advice is welcome. I wonder if our local/regional Community Supported Agriculture network can help. Also if there's an ingredient/tool/whatever that you can't do without, I'd love to hear about that too.

1 comment:

Donica Ben said...

All of the grains in that list are at the co-op? That's fantastic!