Friday 29th August 2014
Hello my friends, hope you are all well and busy. This is one of my quick and slightly amateurish posts to point you to the BreadStorm site where you can play with a couple of dough formulae if you have a spare moment and explore what it can do.
I had hoped that WordPress would let me embed this interactive version of the kefir levain on the blog direct but it looks as if I have to upload it to BreadStorm’s site, which I have done and if you use the links below they will take you to their site and you can see how the magic of their BreadStorm scaling works.
So no longer is one stuck with pen and pencil or calculator and rusty maths trying to figure out how to make a recipe smaller to make only one loaf, or bigger to feed a house full of guests, or even deal with the sometimes baffling mysteries of bakers percentages, this is an easy way round it.
Now I dare say if you are a wizard with spreadsheets and formulae you can do this all for yourself and I have tried a few spreadsheets over the years that other people have made, but for people like me, with mid-range maths and a habit of making errors who are baffled for the most part by spreadsheets, (ok I admit it, I loathe spreadsheets) this is a gift.
You can do it on the site the links take you to and print it off or write the numbers down once you have used the nifty scaling boxes to suit yourself. I have the BreadStorm reader app which is free on my iPhone and on my Ipad. You can find these on the App Store. You can download the free readers and download the formula and other formulae that have been published on the web. There are details on the BreadStorm site. I have the fully fledged paid for version on my desktop and that means I can write and edit my own formulae and read and scale them. The free BreadStorm reader versions don’t give you the ability to write and edit formula but they are perfect for scaling up and down. Here is the Date Kefir Rimacinata formula in a bun file for you to play with :-
I used it yesterday as I was baking to scale up my formula to make 2.5kgs of dough. It’s a versatile and useful addition to my small baking life, and now I have got the hang of it I suspect I will use it more and more.
… and if all that is just too much and a bit too geeky, here is one of Brian’s photos of tamarisk planted along the seafront at Burnham. You can see the wooden lighthouse on stilts in the distance. We walked out and the rain sailed behind us and inland and it warmed up nicely and we had a lovely ball chasing time with the dogs. As you can see it is in full crazy pink bloom right now!
Apparently it is used as a windbreak plant. It was crawling with bees of all shapes and sizes and scented the air with honey. I recommend a walk on the beach to clear your head and put life in perspective, but to each their own. Have a lovely weekend all!
Disclosure -( I believe this is what one should write yes?)
(I am not paid by BreadStorm in any shape or form. I beta-tested their iPad app for a couple of months this summer for fun, and I have the paid for version on my desktop, paid for by me and they have not asked me to write anything about their software or promote it. I do this for love of bread and because I like their apps.)
NB … Just thought I would add a bit, (told you this was an amateurish post!). …. To see the scaling working on other people’s sites, which are either self-hosted or allow embedding of .bun files unlike this one : Try visiting MC Farine or Karin’s Brot & Bread for lots of good information and examples of how it works for them. MC has written extensively about how she uses BreadStorm software and a delightful post about the bakers behind the project Dado and Jacqueline Colussi in her Meet the Bakers series.
Zeb Bakes 
Awesome and thank you for sharing have a blessed week
Hi Linda, thanks !
I love the tamarisk, we have one in our garden, the bird feeders are attached to it. The hoverflies adore it, the bluetits and sparrows love the various insects that lodge in it, and I love the colour and delicacy of the blossoms. Ours is a softer pink than your fuchsia one, I’d love one that colour!
Only downside is clearing away all the debris when it sheds at the end of the summer, but it is well worth it for that :)
They were very bright and cheerful. I didn’t realise they bloomed so late in the year Lynne. Always something new to see and learn about :)
I love this type of review that is NOT-SPONSORED. Just yesterday I was telling Phil that it is becoming harder and harder not to fall on blog posts that are sponsored, and have that usual disclaimer: the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Now have I ever read a sponsored review that says: this post was sponsored by so-and-so, and let me tell you, their product SUCKS. Sucks big time. Don’t buy it, stay away from it ;-)
oh well – I will definitely investigate Breadstorm that was also recommended by Farine a while ago – I don’t normally do that many changes in recipes, at most I cut in half, but it seems like an interesting tool to play with
Have a great weekend, my dear!
I think that bloggers in general are so very nice that they hate to say something mean. I remember once being sent a breadbook to ‘review’ after I had rashly said I was interested and realising that I hated the book and their methods and so I sent them the book back and said I wasn’t able to review it rather than write what I actually thought of it. I learnt a lesson there about what I was comfortable with doing and what I would prefer not to do. Personally I like this software, as I often end up wanting to make a bit more dough and can’t be bothered to scale up or down, so end up with too little or too much, and I like the way I can access the formulae if I was staying somewhere else and wanted to bake a little loaf or something like that. I think it is all quite personal, like how one stores recipes and indeed whether one turns always to a book before baking anything or carries stuff in one’s head a bit. Anyway, you have a good weekend too Sally !
Hello, my friend! Love your pictures. Your bread is as always so lovely! I will go and check this out although lately I am not getting along with any technology (Except my Kindle.) WordPress has let me down- I can’t even put up a post- it keeps telling me they are published- but they never appear. Anyway- thanks for the tip and the photos- walking on the beach is great therapy and just a perfect pastime.
It is all a bit techy Heidi, and funnily enough the Kindle is the one thing I can’t use because I read very fast and the flick of black on white does something funny to my brain as the pages change, so I read Kindle books on the iPad rather than on a Kindle where they don’t flicker. If it didn’t flicker I would have one too. I am sorry that WordPress isn’t working for you. I am not really that much into blogging at the moment, would rather be outside, especially in the better weather. Big hugs from me xx
I tested the BreadStorm for Mac. Even though I thought I didn’t really need it, and it was more about catering to my urge to play around, I bought a key for the paid version, because I wanted to show my appreciation for something developed by a couple of software geeks and fellow bread enthusiasts.
I never regretted the money I spent on it, it helped me developing my Cecilienhof Vollkornbrot (http://hanseata.blogspot.com/2013/10/cecilienhof-vollkornbrot-when-taste.html), and several others. And I love downloading within seconds recipes from my dear fellow bloggers, of course :)
Hi Karin, I have updated the post with a little note at the bottom about you and MC Farine. I am very rusty on my blogging skills these days. I love the idea that we can share recipes so easily too and maybe it will encourage a new openess, who knows?
Joanna,
Thanks for sharing the Breadstorm app information. I am rather intrigued with the application and thinking of purchasing as It seems a very useful tool. I too hate spreadsheets.
The tamarisk is quite beautiful , lovely to see the sea and beach in the background.
Fran.xx
Thanks for reading Fran, I am glad you like the photo, it was quite windy yesterday and it was waving around a bit making it hard for Brian to do nice close ups of the bees. x Joanna
Lovely photo as usual Brian.
I investigated Breadstorm when you first mentioned it but unfortunately it is only available for Mac and ipad so not for me. Pity, as It sounds very useful.
HI Ann, thanks for reading anyway. I will tell Brian you like his photo xx
Thank you for mentioning Farine, Joanna! You did an excellent job of encouraging readers to go and discover what BreadStorm can do for them, even the free version. And the bread pictures are gorgeous. As is Brian’s photo of tamarisk… So poetic and lovely!
BTW I tried to comment on your latest post but couldn’t find the comment box… Could be just me!
You are welcome, I love your blog MC, and I read every post and drool over the photos in an unseemly way. I had the comments off but I have put them on now, so it wasn’t you! xx
Very clever. Anything that makes maths easier is A.O.K. by moi!