Blog Archives - WheatBeat

Equipment Review: Japan Kneader RS201 Dough Sheeter, 15.5-inch

Mike — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 17:09:48 +0000

Disclosure: Pleasant Hill Grain provided this Japan Kneader RS201 dough sheeter to me at no charge for review and testing. They asked only that I share my honest impressions. What is a dough sheeter? There’s a reason a perfectly made croissant is so hard to forget. That shattering crisp exterior, the pull-apart layers, the smell...

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Equipment Review: Spiralmac Royal Queen SV12 Spiral Mixer

Mike — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 23:33:36 +0000

Disclosure: Pleasant Hill Grain provided this Spiralmac SV12 mixer to me at no charge for review and testing. They asked only that I share my honest impressions. More spiral mixer options are finally making their way into the United States, and the Spiralmac SV12 Royal Queen is the newest one I’ve been testing. In this...

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How to make round braided loaves of bread – 2 Methods!

Mike — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 04:02:36 +0000

I’ve been baking braided bread for years. Occasionally, I’ve been asked to make round loaves. My last post on this was for a rounded loaf with a hollow center. In this case, we want a solid round. I’ve put together a brief tutorial on two ways to accomplish this. Method 1 – Two Strands This...

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Pizza

Mike — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 19:43:05 +0000

See video below to watch this recipe in action.

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Building a Micro Bakery: The complete series

Mike — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 04:18:02 +0000

Come watch the first installment of my new series on building a micro bakery. In this series, you will get to see everything that goes into creating the ideal baking space in the smallest possible footprint. I’ll talk about the ins-and-outs of ovens, mixers, proofers and other kitchen equipment. Be sure to subscribe to my...

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Baking baguettes in a crummy home oven

Mike — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 23:02:52 +0000

Perhaps the hardest French lean bread to make at home is the baguette. That’s not just because the baguette shape is the hardest to master (tutorial and recipe to follow), but because our residential ovens are so limited in their capabilities. The missing piece in most cases: steam. Without steam in the first part of...

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How to use a vanilla bean

Mike — Wed, 06 May 2020 02:09:47 +0000

Some of you may want to use a real vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract. Doing so adds a more complex flavor and the little tiny vanilla seeds look really nice. Vanilla beans are quite expensive, but I buy them for a fair price at Costco. Amazon sells them too. But as of today, they...

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Pita Experiment

Mike — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 04:02:37 +0000

I love making pita bread and am always looking for ways to improve the ones I make at home. One of the most difficult things to get in a home-made pita is a nice pocket. The next hardest thing is getting that pocket to have even wall thickness. Major variables are how thin your dough...

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Bread Stamps

Mike — Sat, 01 Feb 2020 23:57:16 +0000

Recently I started reading an amazing new series of books related to breads and baking. If you want to propel your knowledge of baking to the next level, consider checking out “Modernist Bread” by Nathan Myhrvold. He is truly an exceptional person with expertise in a wide range of topics from nuclear science to BBQ....

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Enriched Dough Mixing

Mike — Sat, 21 Dec 2019 05:41:41 +0000

This post is dedicated to all those poor souls that made an enriched dough that ended up looking like a messy soup instead of a properly developed dough. This has never happened to me, of course. I’m just posting this for a friend. Oh, ok, fine, I admit it. It happened to me today. I’m...

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