Bread Boss Help

Contents

List recipes
Viewing recipes
Recipe settings
Stages
Soaker stage
Increase starter stage
Sourdough stage
Final dough stage
Reminder alarms
Copy recipe
Share recipe
Starter calculator
Water temperature calculator
Clock functions
Night clock
Countdown timer
Timer
Editing a recipe

Main Screen – List Recipes

The main screen for the Bread Boss app is the list of recipes, both supplied and those created by you. Your recipes will always be at the top in alphabetic order and the supplied recipes below that.

You can long press a recipe to get a list of actions to perform against that recipe:

• View recipe is the same as clicking/selecting a recipe.
• Editing is only available for your own creations and not for the supplied recipes.
• Turn alarms on/Switch alarms off to toggle the alarms for the recipe.
• Copy any recipe to create a new version or to use it as a starting point.
• Delete “recipe name” to delete your own recipes.
• Share a recipe with other Bread Bosses.

From the action bar you can select:

Clock action opens the clock functions.

This action will open the Clock functions activity.

Add action opens the edit recipe screen for a new recipe.

The action allows you to add a new recipe. It brings up the edit recipe activity. In this activity you can freely alter all the aspects of the recipe to make any recipe you want.

Click the menu button to get extra actions:

• Help… launches this help in your browser.
• Tips… shows you the next Bread Boss tip. You can disable the tips by unchecking the Show tips? box when viewing tips or from the Settings screen.
• Refresh starter… shows you a dialog for refreshing your starter.
• Settings… allows you to change major controls for Bread Boss for example switch the weights from metric to US imperial (grams to ounces, etc.). Show all base formula ingredients in view mode. Switch tips on/off. Set the clock timer sounds. Set the screen timeout. And others.
• Send feedback… launches your email app to allow you to send any suggestions or ideas our email address BreadBossApp@gmail.com.
• Getting started… opens the getting started dialog that gives you an overview of Bread Boss and how to get started with it,
• About… shows you the latest changes for Bread Boss and information about the app.

Select Recipe

Scroll the list of recipes and select the one you’d like to make. When you select a recipe the recipe view will be presented.

View Recipe

You’ll see an image of the bread for the recipe followed by a detailed description. As you swipe or scroll down you’ll see recipe settings, dough making stages and at the end reminder alarms. Lets work our way down the screen.

Recipe Settings

Each recipe has settings, specific for it, to tell Bread Boss how large you want to make your bread (Unit size) and how many units or loaves you want to make (Number of units). These are used to calculate how much flour you’ll need and will affect all the dough stages.

If you only have a certain amount of flour then you can enter that in the Total flour field and Bread Boss will adjust the Unit size to best achieve the Number of units you’d like to make.

Required starter shows the amount Bread Boss has calculated that you’ll need to make the desired Number of units at Unit size. If you click on the Required starter link you will be taken to a web page showing how to make your starter from scratch, using wild natural yeasts and micro flora.

Available starter allows you to tell Bread Boss that you have less starter than is required. Bread Boss will use the amount you have and insert an additional dough stage into the recipe. This will increase your starter to the required amount.

The final setting is the Variation. Recipes can have variations designed into them to cater for different climatic conditions under which the bread is made, or for alternate ingredients. The supplied recipes have variations that work best for summer and winter conditions. You’ll have to experiment to find what works best in your part of the world.

Stages

Following the recipe settings you’ll find a set of soaker and dough stages presented in the order in which they should be made. The following types of stages will be present:

Soaker Stage

When including grains and various non-flour ingredients into bread, a soaker stage is need. This allows the ingredients to soak in water, hydrating and softening the ingredients. For example when using kibbled wheat in your grain bread, it will need up to 24 hours of soaking in water to soften and fully hydrate. If you don’t fully hydrate then the bread will have poor mouth-feel and poor keeping qualities. The grains also will remain hard, it’ll be like gravel – it could end with a trip to the dentist.

Tip: Locking the screen while working on the recipe...

When making your recipe you’ll often be looking at your device for long periods of time without touching or interacting with it. Most devices will automatically turn off the screen and/or lock it to save power after only a short time of inactivity. Click on the lock screen menu icon at the top of your recipe view to instruct Bread Boss to keep your device on while you are making your various bread stages. The settings option Maximum time that screen is kept on defaults to 45 minutes but can be set to as large as 60 minutes.

You can click on the How to make a soaker link to visit the page explaining the details on how all soakers are made. Keep the soaker covered at all times to prevent the water evaporating during the soaking stage.

Tip: Click SHOW NOTES to expand specific instructions ...

Whenever you see text like SHOW NOTES aligned to the right of the screen, you can click on it to expand or collapse a section with more details. For example to show notes for a stage or settings for the alarms.

The Soaking time indicates how long the ingredients need to soak before being added into the final dough. Achieving the Required soaker temperature will often require the use of warmer or colder water, depending on the temperature of the ingredients and the room temperature. Temperature is the most difficult to control in a home environment and hence the need for variations in the recipes.

You can click the Use water temperature field to open the Water Temperature Calculator. The calculator helps you to determine the water temperature to use to ensure that you get the required soaker temperature. See Water Temperature Calculator for more details.

Increase Starter Stage

When you have less starter on hand than is required for the recipe (given the size and number of units), Bread Boss will add an Increase Starter stage. Using much of the available starter you’ll combine the ingredients just like making a sourdough. You can click on the How to increase your starter link to visit the page explaining the details on making sourdough stages.

The Fermentation time is how long the stage needs to stand before being added into the next stage (usually the sourdough). Adjust the water temperature to ensure that the dough starts at the Required dough temperature indicated. Always keep the dough covered and in a warm location away from draughts to maintain the target temperature.

You can click the Use water temperature field to open the Water Temperature Calculator. The calculator helps you to determine the water temperature to use to ensure that you get the required dough temperature. See Water Temperature Calculator for more details.

Sourdough Stage

This is an intermediate stage in the bread making process. The culture that you have started with (your starter) needs to be increased such that there will be enough to complete the fermentation of the final dough (or the next stage if your bread has multiple sourdough stages).

Use the How to make a sourdough link to visit the page explaining how to make a sourdough. You’ll use the ingredients in the recipe to make the sourdough. Adjust the water temperature to ensure that the dough starts at the Target temperature.

Once completed, cover the dough and leave in a warm location away from draughts to maintain the target temperature. It will need to be left to ferments for the duration of the Fermentation time specified in the recipe.

Remember you can click SHOW NOTES to expand specific instructions for the stage of a particular recipe.

Final Dough Stage

Once all the proceeding stages have been completed you are ready for the final or bread dough stage. The recipe defines the ingredients you’ll need to mix (ensuring that you adjust the water temperature to achieve the Required dough temperature). There are two possible views for the final dough, the default shows just those base formula ingredients that are required for the final dough. If you check the “Show all in final dough?” setting in the settings screen then you see all the base formula ingredients as shown below.

Making the final dough has two processes. The first is mixing the ingredients and the second is kneading the dough – or technically referred to as dough development. For rye breads (or breads with particular gluten proteins) dough development is usually not required.

Tip: Clock functions while you work or bake...

While developing/kneading the dough you can click on the clock menu icon to show the clock view of Bread Boss. In this view you can keep an eye on the time you are spending developing the dough. The metronome can be set to remind you to give the dough a rest at regular intervals. During the rest phase, the gluten protein in the dough, cross bonds to form effective structures for trapping the gas produced during fermentation. This gives your bread a light and open crumb.

Click on the How to make a bread dough link to visit the page explaining how to make a bread dough. You see pictures and videos to help you with the process of making the dough and baking the final bread.

Remember to click SHOW NOTES to expand specific instructions for a particular recipe.

The final dough stage can have several fields that include fermentation periods and temperatures, depending on the specific recipe. The exhaustive list is:

Use water temperature: click this field to open the Water Temperature Calculator. This calculator helps you to determine the water temperature to use to ensure that you get the required dough temperature. See Water Temperature Calculator for more details.

Required dough temperature: this is a target temperature for the completed dough. To get the optimum fermentation for the specific recipe the dough should finish development at this temperature. You can use the water temperature calculator (see above) to help you to achieve the required dough temperature.

Dough to oven time: this is a calculated value that shows you the total time from mixing the dough to putting it into the oven. This can be helpful when planning your start time or setting your alarms.

Bulk fermentation time: the duration during which the dough is fermented as a whole, before individual units have been scaled off. For example if you make three loaves, you’ll have one large dough that will sit in a container for the bulk fermentation time. If this time is multiple hours then you’ll need to turn over and fold the dough every hour.

Intermediate proof time: Once bulk fermentation has completed, you’ll typically scale off the individual units and mould them into balls, leaving them on your kitchen bench (covered with a tea towel) for the intermediate proof time.

Retardation time: There are two reasons for a retardation time. One is to alter the flavour characteristics and the mouth-feel of the final bread and the other is to assist in timing the production process. Some breads can have a long enough process time that it becomes inconvenient to complete in one stretch. By retarding (refrigerating) the dough you can draw out the process over multiple days to fit a busy modern life. After the intermediate proof, the loaves are moulded and placed into bannetons and then placed in your fridge, usually overnight or for strict recipes for the exact retardation time.

Final proof time: Once the units have been moulded and placed in the bannetons they need to stand in a warm, draught free location for the final proof time. If the recipe includes a retardation time, then the final proof occurs after the units have been removed from the fridge. If your oven cannot bake all the units at one time then you’ll need to stagger the time you remove them from the fridge so they are ready to be baked in a sequential order.

Bake temperature: This shows you the recommended baking temperature for the recipe. This temperature will also appear in the generated alarms as a guide when the alarm triggers.

Water Temperature Calculator

When you click on any of the fields labeled Use water temperature then the following dialog is opened:

To get a quick overview or reminder on how to use the calculator click the Help button.

The water temperature calculator has two main functions:

Calculate the Friction Factor – this only needs to be set once and is subsequently used in calculating the required water temperature.

Calculate the Water Temperature – used to calculate the actual water temperature to use for the largest water ingredient so that the required dough/soaker/mixture temperature is achieved.

Note: This calculator gives an approximation of the water temperature to use.

Friction Factor

Before starting the dough/soaker/mixture, measure and enter the temperatures for the substantial ingredients (those about 20% or over), including the main water ingredient (to enter a temperature just tap on the ingredient’s temperature column and a dialog will pop up to let you enter the value). Also enter the room temperature.

Once the dough/soaker/mixture is fully developed/mixed, enter the final dough/soaker/mixture temperature into the calculator.

Note: You can save the temperatures entered at any time to view the recipe and the value will be remember. When you re-enter the calculator you can continue entering temperatures such as the Final dough/soaker/mixture temperature.

Once all the field needed to calculate a friction factor have been entered then the Calc button next to the friction factor will be enabled. Press the button to have the new value calculated.

Note: the friction factor will be remembered and only needs to be recalculated if conditions in your kitchen change. If you have already calculated your friction factor you can manually enter it by tapping on the input field.

Water Temperature

Ensure that you have first calculated (or manually set) the friction factor at least once.

Before starting the dough/soaker/mixture, measure and enter the temperatures for the substantial ingredients (those about 20% or over), excluding the main water ingredient, which is what you’ll be calculating (to enter a temperature just tap on the ingredient’s temperature column and a dialog will pop up to let you enter the value). Finally, enter the room temperature.

Once all these have been entered the Calc button next to the water temperature field will be enabled. Press the button to have the new value calculated. Now use this temperature when making the dough/soaker/mixture.

Note: the water temperature is remembered and shown in the recipe view for reference. You should recalculate the water temperature each time, unless the conditions (temperatures) are identical to the last time it was calculated.

Reminder Alarms

One of the most powerful features of Bread Boss is the alarms. Although the bread making process is not particularly difficult, it is very dependent on timing. Because you are working with a live culture of yeasts and other micro flora, temperature, moisture and timing are key factors in successful sourdough bread making.

When you have decided to make a particular bread and set the recipe settings (units, size, variation etc.) the best practice it to scroll down to the alarms section and if needed click on SHOW SETTINGS, make any adjustments and regenerate the alarms (individual settings are explained below). Note that all your existing alarms for that recipe will be deleted and new ones created based on the settings and number of units.

When the alarms are generated Bread Boss uses your starting time together with your preferred final dough start time as the starting point, working backwards to determine when to start the sourdough, soaker etc and forwards for the remainder of the activities. Once the alarms have been generated you can adjust them further to meet your needs, using the adjuster controls. Adjust all the alarms at once plus or minus days, hours or minutes.

Note that ONLY the checked alarms are altered. You can also use the check boxes to adjust groups of alarms.

For example suppose that you look at your dough during the final proof and decide that it needs another hour or so; just uncheck all the alarms using the check box on the title:

Then check all the alarms to do with baking the bread off and click the + above the hour to increase them all by one hour.

You can also add additional alarms that Bread Boss does not generate by clicking the plus alarm button:

A simple alarm is created from which you can change the action needed and time by clicking on them. A dialogue will open to allow you to adjust the action:

and the time:

You can also long press/click an alarm to get a menu of actions to perform on the alarm.

You can delete or copy alarms. Setting an alarm as first, is a way of shifting all the alarms relative to that first alarm. All alarms before the alarm occur after the last alarm.

Important Note If you regenerate your alarms then all the existing alarms (including those created manually) will be deleted and a new set created based on the current recipe settings. So be careful out there.

With the alarms adjusted to your personal schedule, check the Alarms active? box to activate the alarms for the recipe. A notification will appear in the notification bar of your device indicating the next alarm to trigger.

Tip: Night clock

You can use the clock view functions as a night clock, showing the time and when the next alarm will ring. If your device is plugged into a charger the screen will remain on showing the time. You can use the brightness toggle in the top right to control the clock intensity for your needs.

There are many settings dealing with the generation of alarms. Once set for your particular situation for a particular recipe you’ll probably not need to change them.

The Regenerate alarms button will use the above settings, together with the recipe’s specifications, to generate the required reminder alarms for making the recipe.

WARNING: When you regenerate the alarms, all the existing alarms are deleted and new ones created. So if you had made changes to the existing set then those changes will be lost.

Additional Actions on View

Copy recipe

You can copy any of the supplied recipes and create your own version or even something completely different. By copying a recipe you get to start with a working recipe and can make changes as you see fit. The recipe details are copied and the edit recipe activity opens to allow you to alter and save the new recipe.

Share recipe

Once you’ve created your own special recipe you can share it with other Bread Bosses via email. Clicking the share icon will convert the recipe into a .bbz file and attach it to an email that you can address to another user that has Bread Boss on their phone or tablet.

Starter Calculator…

When you click the overflow action or your devices menu button, you’ll get an addition action to open the starter calculator. Select this action to bring up the starter calculator:

Select the required and/or available starter fields and change as needed and a quick recipe for the stage will be generated for you:

Note: You can also use the Available starter field in a recipe’s settings to include an Increase starter stage.

Clock functions

Night clock

The night clock is a great display for showing the current time, when the new alarm and/or timer is to ring. You can use it as a night light by tapping on the soft light switch at the top right, with three settings – normal, bright and dim. I use the bright setting when I get up early to cycle to work and don’t want to wake up my wife.

The metronome can be used to play a sound at the given interval – useful when developing your dough to a rhythm of kneading and resting.

The display will automatically be prevented from turning off for 45 minutes (this can be changed in the Bread Boss settings). If the device is connected to a charger then the display will remain on until manually turned off.

Countdown timer

Perfect for when baking your break! Set the duration by clicking the buttons below the digits and press the Play, Pause and Reset buttons to control the timing. The timer will ring when the set time runs out to zero. The Bread Boss settings allow you to override the ringtone used. This timer will remain set regardless of whether you are in the app or if the screen is one or off. You must manually stop/reset the timer to disable it.

Timer

A simple timer function to keep track of how long you’ve been kneading, if that’s the way you do. Just click the Play, Pause and Reset buttons to control the timer. When you leave the clock function the timer will be automatically reset.

Editing a recipe

For copy or add of a new recipe you’ll initially start with the cursor in the recipe name field. Enter a unique name for your recipe. If you want to set an image for the recipe then click on the thumbnail image beside the recipe name and you’ll be presented with a choice of applications for choosing your image (for example your gallery app, camera or photos app; the app selection is dependent on what you have installed on your device). Below the recipe name you can enter additional description or notes. These fields are shown in the recipe list and help you to remember what the recipe is about or any special requirements you’d like to remember to do before you use it. This is especially helpful if you are planning to share your recipe; you can enter information that would not be obvious to your fellow bread bosses.

You can scroll through the recipe definition, altering various properties for the recipe. They are grouped as settings and dough stages.

The main recipe properties (name, image and description) can be changed by clicking on them. For the name and description the keyboard will appear and you can enter the new values as text. For the image you get the standard image selection app launched to select an image from your device. If you long press the image then a menu will appear that allows you to reset the image to the app default or to the same image of an existing recipe.

Recipe Settings

Some of these controls can also be changed from view mode, but here you can set your initial values.

Click on a field to update its value. A dialog box will open with details about the field and what you should enter. Click in the field area to open the keyboard and enter a new value.

The Variation shows you what the name of the current variation of the recipe is called. Click the plus to add a new variation.

The add variation dialog appears and you can enter the new variations name.

When you create a new variation all the dough stages are copied as a starting point for the new variation. So it’s always best to create a base or normal variation and once you are happy you can create alternatives. If you want to rename or delete a variation, just long press/click the name and a context menu will popup with a choice to rename or delete. Of course you must have at least one variation, so you can’t delete the last one.

The Pause calculations toggle switch allows you to stop Bread Boss’ automatic recalculation of the recipe whenever a change is made. The reason for doing this is to allow you to enter a recipe using weights instead of percentages. You switch the pause calculations to Yes and then enter all the ingredients and their weights. Once complete you switch calculations back on and Bread Boss converts all the weights into percentages and you will have a recipe expressed as proper baker percentages.

Base Formula (Final dough) and other stages

The base formula must contain ALL the ingredients of the whole recipe, including those ingredients that may only be used in other stages. When you look at the base formula then you can see the whole recipe and what it contains. Stages will naturally sort to the top of the list, followed by flour or seed ingredients, other and finally water.

You can create your recipe in two different ways: firstly by creating all the stages and ingredients in the base formula and then copying the applicable ingredients to the other stages; or by creating all the stages and then adding the ingredients directly into the stages. Bread Boss will automatically add to the base formula any ingredient added to other stages, saving you time.

To create a new ingredient click on the plus in the stage title.

This will present a dialog into which you can put the details of the ingredient.

There are two fields you needs to set:

Ingredient type – this field defines how the ingredient should be treated in the recipe. The types have special meanings as follows:

• Flour or seeds – flour or seed ingredients are the fundamental ingredient from which all calculations are made. All flour or seed ingredients are treated in the same way, regardless of the name. Flour must be consistent across all dough stages. Thus if you have ‘bakers flour’ in the sourdough then you will also have it in the final dough. You’ll see messages appear as you enter ingredients indicating any errors, don’t worry about these until you’ve finished entering all your recipe ingredients, then you can fix the details as highlighted by the error messages.
• Sourdough – when you select a sourdough type, a new stage will be added to the recipe. This can then be edited just like the base formula (final dough) stage.
• Starter – a starter ingredient represents the initial culture to be added to a stage. Starters can only be added to a sourdough stage. Bread Boss automatically calculates the dough amounts such that the starter is again removed from the stage before being incorporated into the final dough.
• Soaker Stage – soaker stages will also result in a new stage being added to the recipe. This is a special stage designed for ingredients that need to be soaked in water for a period before being added to the final dough. Soaker stages can only be added to final dough stages.
• Production Stage – a production stage is a convenience for timing other activities needed for the complete production of the bread. For example if you were making a Ciabatta or Pan Francese you need to prepare some water, olive oil and salt for a double hydration process. This can be specified in a separate production stage scheduled some time before starting the final dough.
• Yeast – if your bread is not a sourdough or you are just including a poolish stage then you can add a yeast ingredient.
• Water – like flour, water is a fundamental ingredient and must be present.
• Other – all remaining ingredients are treated the same and have no special requirements.

Ingredient name – the name is used to identify the specific ingredient being added. It is important that you use the same type and name for the same ingredient in different stages so that Bread Boss can match them up.

Once you’ve completed the details the new ingredient is added with a 0% amount. You can tap/click on the ingredient’s percentage value to get a dialog for setting a new value.

In bread manufacturing all ingredients are specified in percentage of flour weight. Thus if you enter a percentage value of 10 then the ingredient’s weight will be calculated as 10% of the total flour weight. Remember that the total flour weight is set in the recipe settings via the unit size and the number of units. Thus depending on the amount of bread you are making the weights will be adjusted using the entered percentages.

If you are converting a cooking recipe to a bread recipe then you need to ensure that you have all your ingredients expressed as weights. Thus you would need to measure out any volume specified ingredients and then weigh them. Once you have all the weights you can pause calculations on the recipe, enter all the weights for all the ingredients and then switch them back on. Bread Boss will convert the recipe to a bakers formula, showing the percentages.

You can long press an ingredient to see the simple context menu that allows you to delete the ingredient.

For ingredients in the base formula you can also copy it to another stage.

The various stages have additional properties that need to be specified after the ingredient list. These vary depending on the stage.

All stages have two additional fields related to the production method:

Stage notes – Enter any specific details needed for preparing the specific stage. For example our supplied recipes contain the basic steps for making a bread dough, sourdough, soaker and starter etc. The notes can contain basic html tags for formatting. The following tags can be used

• <b> to <b>bold</b> text
• <br/> to break to a <br/>
  new line
• <i> to <i>italicize<i> text

When you copy a supplied recipe you’ll see how this is used. You can just enter plain text and it will be formatted as a simple paragraph.

Override method link – There are links for making your starter, increasing your starter, making your soaker, making your sourdough and making your final dough. If you want to link to some other page on the internet you can enter the link in the following format:

text-to-display-in-view->web-page-url

For example if your method link contained:

“My blog about semolina white->http://www.sourdough
breadrecipe.com.au/sourdough/project-semolina-a-less-
sour-sourdough/”

This would appear in the recipe view as:

When you click on that link then the page will be opened in your browser: