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New here and to baking bread.  I've been using all purpose unbleached flour are there any adjustments I should be making when a recipe calls for bread flour or all purpose flour?  Aslo is there any conversion charts on this site, I've noticed some recipes are given in pounds instead of cups, how many cups in a pound, grams in a tablspoon, etc?  Thanks in advance

I just had one of those "duh!" moments, and wanted to share.

If you have become enamoured of converting recipes to grams, as I have, you probably have noticed that there are no conversions tables that cover everything an adventurous baker might want to use. I've been relying on actually weighing out things and keeping notes. Then it hit me -- a resource I have used for other food calculations is available right on the Web and it covers everything you can possibly think of -- or almost.

Go to http://www.nutritiondata.com/

and you have easy access to the USDA tables of food data.

At the upper right on the Nutrition Data home page are two boxes where you can enter the food you are looking for. Suppose you want to convert 1/4 of pistachio nut meats to grams. Type in pistachio and pick the category Nuts and Seed Products in the drop down list, then hit Search. you will come up with 3 listings for pistachio nuts. Click on the one you want, and you will be taken to a page with all sorts of information, much of which is not relevant to bakers, but right near the top you will learn that 1 cup of pistachio nutmeats weights 123 grams. If your recipe calls for 1/4 cup, divide by 4 and you are there -- 31 grams.

i checked on what types of flours were listed; there are several dozens. From experience I know that must common ingredients are covered. I've used this resource for purposes other than baking for years, and there is very little that is not listed. I find the organization here much easier to deal with than the USDA site.

I'm just embarrassed that it took me so long to realize I could use it this way.

Mary in Hammondsport where sunshine is finally melting the half inch of ice that fell yesterday.

This is a picture of some really big ( for me at least) 5  pound miches that I baked for my Boy Scout troop's dinner, these were 10%
whole wheat, 90% bread flour,made with 'Mikey's NJ' starter, and a big hit at the dinner.

Not the best photography, but you can see how pretty these were

I like using part whole wheat ( or rye) in my sourdough, it makes a bread that is definitely not made with plain white flour, but it is white enough  to use as an everyday bread, rather than being a whole grain type of specialty bread. I have been making these loaves with both my own starter  and with one from Carl's friends, both work well, the 'Carl's Oregon Trail'  starter rises a little faster and makes a less sour bread with a rather pale  but tasty crust, the 'Mikey's NJ ' starter rises slower but makes a more  sour loaf, with a richer golden brown crust that I love.

My procedure is to refresh the culture the day before, then after 14 hours  make the dough. About a 4 or 5 hour bulk fermentation with 2 foldings during  it, then the boules are shaped, risen for an hour, and then retarded  overnight. The next morning I take them out of the fridge ( or garage..in  the winter I retard there), give them 3 or 4 hours to warm up and finish  proofing, then into the oven at 550 with steam, reduced to 450 after 5 minutes. These big ones I baked for an hour, then lowered the heat since they were getting dark, and left them at 400F for another 20 minutes to make sure they were done. Internal temp was 205 when I took them out of the oven, the crust was crackly and delicious and actually stayed that way, instead of softening as it cooled. I guess that extra baking time helped.

 Mikey in New Jersey

        I have heard from the board owner that a few members have had a few unkind things to say about some of the postings that I have placed here.  Thinking about this I kind of thought that those that people deserve an explanation.

I      don’t normally talk about this but it is nothing that I am ashamed of its just personal but here goesI was forced to leave the baking industry due a really serous illnessA few years back I was diagnosed with colon rectal cancer. This was not a polyp but full blown stage 3 cancer.

       Well I was not about to let this stop me being a tough old some bitch I fought this with all I had The result is I’m still here my even though the last blood tests were not great.Well the drugs that I took to fight the cancer 4 years ago were relatively new on the market and there side effects were known but did not really have any long term studies done yet.

     The drug combined with the borderline diabetes I also have cause a neurologic condition which make my feet feel like their in cement buckets making being on my feet for any length of time impossible.  It also has the same effect on my hands which are num most of the time.  If you notice most of the typos are a missed the key I am trying to press and hit the key ether next or underneath. I also had a small stroke during the chemo-rad treatments

     Sympathy  I don’t want like I said I’m a tough old some bitch and 4 years after the diagnoses I’m still here with the five year survival point just around the corner. I since all this happened I have been trying to pass all that have learned to others that, like myself love to bake.

   I have already done this with my 20 something year old son who is presently employed at Peter Kelly’s latest 4 star restaurant in Yonkers as the pastry chef.

     With all this extra time on my hands I needed to something to keep myself from going crazy. I started a small consulting company setting up and designing of computer systems for bakeries.  I expanded that to other markets and a small retail computer service business, also consulting on some new projects for product development that because on contracts a cannot talk about

      Without a professional kitchen at my command and thinking about my early days when baking I started doing research on ways the home baker could get the same results from a home kitchen using professional formulas that have been reduced to amounts that can be handled in a home kitchen.     And modified methods and equipment that can be found or made  with easily located materials ( all though some things specific to recipe or two that you just can’t do without  (like making chicken soup without chicken you just can’t do it)    A book is in the works but I don’t know if I have to time to finish it.

    So that’s it,  If i offend it is not my intention to do so,  if I talk as though time is short it’s because it is.  If I post something that you don’t understand, ill explain it  all can call me on Skype or email or phone.

    I offer My experience here to expand the already large base of information from all the other bakers here   And if you do not want my help feel free to ignore me I don’t offend easily.   

      With so few young people going into the baking industry  (they all want jobs behind a desk with nice clean hands)  soon the only way you will ever get to taste something other than wonder bread and ho ho’s will be to make it yourself. 

   How would you even know about it if you never saw, smelled or touched it  (children born today will never see touch or listen to a 33 rpm record)  and while there are many good books there. Most of them (that I have read) seem to hold back a little something or not explain with adequate detail so the home baker never really has a chance to make something as good as the author can. 

    So that’s all folks I just want to help and pass on what I have so it does not get lost and the generations to come don’t end off living off of wonder bread.

Ps:  if any one reading this does not know where the expression “that’s all folks” came from ask your parents better still if you’re lucky enough your grandparents to explain it to you am sure they will happy to!

PPs: this was copied and  paste from microsoft word and it would seem that all the formating was lost. i formated it.