Substitutions to use Fresh Yeast where Instant or Active Dry is Specified

The bread recipes I encounter most often assume the baker does not have fresh yeast. Because I have a ready supply of fresh yeast, I use it. To substitute:

1. Instant yeast is 40% of fresh yeast
2. Active dry is 50% of fresh yeast, but requires hydration

Thanks, Stan, for this info ...

KitchenAid Artisan Mixer

What I like:

1. Fairly strong
2. Easy to use
3. Doesn't take up a whole lot of space

What I don't like:

1. The dough hook and paddle don't reach to the bottom of the bowl, so I have to stop and scrape from the bottom of the bowl. With a typical bread dough, the ingredients are gather up much more quickly so it is not an issue.  But it is a problem with cake batter.
2. The motor oil gets into any batter that wraps around the top of the beater.
3. The tilt-head lock always works it way up, so I have to hold the lock when mixing bread dough.

Requested "Recipe" for Vegan Roasted Squash Pasta

Someone requested the recipe for Roasted Squash Pasta, which happens to be vegan. Not much of a recipe, really. It is simply roasted winter squash and flour, but the ratio used must work with your pasta maker.

Step 1: Roast Squash. I use an unglazed clay roasting pot by Romertopf (http://www.romertopfonline.com/). In this case I used a portion of a Tahitian squash that my friend, Leynette, grew in her backyard. A Tahitian squash is like a butternut squash, only really, really big. The piece I roasted was 10 inches long, but was only half of the top of the squash! I also have beets in the pan for another pasta. Olive oil has been added to prevent sticking.

 

 

Step 1: Roast Squash.

Step 2: Remove roasted vegetables when knife or fork can be easily inserted in multiple places.

Step 2: Squash is done when soft throughout as indicated by inserting a fork.

 Step 3: Peel Squash; discard peels but do not discard caramelized brown areas, which will add lots of flavor.

Step 3: Peel Squash.

 Step 4: Puree Squash. In this, I had 489 grams of roasted squash.

Step 4: Puree Squash

 Step 5: Add flour and mix with dough hook until dough forms a tight ball and cleans side of bowl. I add flour (GM Durum Patent Flour, 12.2% protein, 99% ash) until I could get a good tight ball, which was 582 grams of flour, which was roughly 6 parts flour to 5 parts squash. This will vary based on the moisture content of the squash. However, the final test is not the dough moistness in the bowl, it is the ability for the pasta maker to extrude and cut without tearing. I use an Atlas 180 pasta maker, which does NOT have any of the attachments of its "150" cousin (at least it has a motor!). However, I just found out that my Kitchenaide Artisan does have pasta attachments like a ravioli maker. (Hint to Santa)

Step 5: Add flour and mix until dough forms tight ball

Step 6: Extrude and Cut. The first picture below shows what happens when more flour is needed as both extruded sheets and cut noodles will tear and bunch up if not enough flour is added. The dough can be re-mixed with more flour, but in this case I simply dredged the malformed pasta sheet in flour and re-extruded. I extruded these sheets first on "1" a couple of times, then "2" and ended with "3", as I was making Fettuccine. For Angel Hair pasta, I usually end with "5".

Step 6: Extrude (This dough requires more flour)

Step 6a: This sheet had enough flour to properly extrude.

Step 7: Hang noodles to dry. These noodles can immediately be boiled, but I like to dry them slightly whenever possible. Add salt and oil to the water prior to boiling.

Step 7: Hand noodles to Dry (optional)

These noodles are being packaged as gifts.

Packaged noodles (8 ounces each).

Where to get Fresh Compressed Yeast in the San Diego Area

Where to get Fresh Compressed Yeast in the San Diego Area: Stan at NY Bakers ships fresh yeast from his warehouse located South of San Diego. I pick some up every 1-2 months. Refer to http://nybakers.com/index.html

From http://www.food.com/library/yeast-62:

Substitutions: 1 (1/4 oz) package dry active yeast = 2 1/4 teaspoons = 1 (1 oz) cake compressed fresh yeast

More of NYB's Farine de Campagne Flour

I've decided that a staple in my pantry is NYB's Farine de Campagne flour. The flavor, the color, the crumb, the rise, etc. I picked up my order of flour from Stan (my bread mentor) and mentioned to him how much I love this flour. It is, after all, his own private blend. This flour contains rye, whole wheat, and other great ingredients in perfect proportions. (http://nybakers.com/)

Bread to Share with the Encinitas Ale House

I promised Tomas at the Encinitas Ale House that I would bring him some bread. I used two different Artesin flours, Guistos's and NYBs, with 25% of added hi-gluten and 60% hydration, but after recently using NYB's Farine de Campagne Flour, the bread was at best underwhelming. However, they formed well and browned nicely. I will next work on getting a crisper crust.

Little Loaves

Most of my recent doughs have been made with the same recipe: 1000 grams of flour, 60% hydration, 2% salt, 2% fresh compressed yeast. This make 2 really good sized loaves (820 grams of dough each) or 4 little loaves (410 grams of dough each for a final 336 gram loaf).

Formed and Final Rise

Baked

Sliced

I Love NYB's Farine de Campagne Flour!

This flour has 12.0% protein and a whopping 66% ash (typically Artisan flour is up to 65%). Ash is an indicator of the milling process. A higher ash content indicates that more minerals are in the flour, which provides more food for the yeast. This impacts, among other things, crumb, color, leavening, etc. Stan's NYB Farine de Campagne flour really performed well, and the bread has great color and is very tasty.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour: The word "flour" is originally a variant of the word "flower". Both derive from the Old French fleur or flour, which had the literal meaning "blossom," and a figurative meaning "the finest." The phrase "fleur de farine" meant "the finest part of the meal," since flour resulted from the elimination of coarse and unwanted matter from the grain during milling.^[1]

Looking at the cuts, I would call this bread a little over-developed.