PatrickT

Thank you @Dave R! My wife reminded me that the dish was actually $4.99, but I consider it money well spent regardless. 😂 I appreciate your kind words! One of my upcoming projects is going to be trying to bake Japanese Milk Bread in one of your Pullman pans.

Thanks for your kind words, @heidih - really appreciate that. I only wish I would have discovered the "simple joy" you refer to earlier in my life. Then again, perhaps it really is best to save the best things for last. 😉 Cheers!

Today's bake, celebrating several personal firsts: First attempt with a mixed flour sourdough (80% bread flour, 15% whole wheat, 5% dark rye) First time using a levain (50/50 bread flour and whole wheat, along with a bit of my normal starter) First batard First time cooking in a Pampered Chef stoneware Dutch Oven, which I snagged from Goodwill for $2.99 😂 I'm pleased with the way this turned out.

Lots of fruit in every bite - that's my kind of raisin bread! 😃 Really lovely, @ElsieD.

Mine - baked yesterday.

First sourdough loaf - basil coriander. A bit disappointed in the crumb structure, but I'll keep working on it. Forgot how much I love that sourdough tang!

Paul Hollywood's Bloomer. This recipe was one of my very first bakes a few months back (before I joined here), but did NOT turn out well. This time, I minded my water temperature and kneading time, thanks to your suggestions from the Malt Loaf bake I posted recently. HUGE difference! Absolutely delicious, with a paper thin, crackly crust. Very pleased with this. Thank you again for your tips!

Thank you! I'll definitely experiment with that.

OK - the next time I try this recipe, I'll monitor all of my ingredient temperatures and ensure that I'm kneading the dough 10-15 min at medium speed in the Ankle. I'll let you know how it goes. Thank you all so much! 👍

From that picture, I'd agree with you! The picture in the book has more volume to it, which is what made me wonder.

Upon closer examination, the amount of salt appears to be the only difference - 8g in the book, vs a "pinch" in your linked recipe. Seems strange - wonder if the 8g might have been a misprint?

Yes - really excellent, Dave - thank you! It's funny how often bread recipes don't include those points, but I'm sure that most accomplished bakers just know and follow them as a matter of principle. Good habits for me to develop.

Ahh - excellent tip! Thank you.

Warning: Newbie bread baker post ahead, still learning the basics. 😉 Tried baking the Malt Loaf recipe from Paul Hollywood's "Bread" book today - also my inaugural bake using my new Ankarsrum mixer. The problem: insufficient rise. Wondering what thoughts you have on what I should do differently next time I try this same recipe. Details below. I won't list Paul's recipe here, as I'm assuming that's a copyright violation - is that correct? I can provide details on that if it's helpful for problem solving. In accordance with the process for the Ankarsrum, I used the dough roller/bowl scraper and added all of the wet ingredients to the bowl first. I then slowly added the flours, the yeast, the raisins, allowed the machine to mix everything well, then slowly added the salt. I allowed the dough to knead on the low setting for about 5 minutes. It was sufficiently "pulling away from the sides of the bowl" at the end of that time. When I took it out of the mixer, it was still quite sticky but after turning it out onto a lightly floured surface and forming the dough into 2 sausage-shaped rolls for rising in the bread pans, it was quite manageable and held its shape well. After 3+ hours of proofing (first with a tea towel over the top of the pans on the counter for the first hour, and then - when it seemed like little if anything was happening - with a shower cap over the pans in the oven on the Proof setting for the remaining time), both loaves barely reached the top of the pans. And both actually fell a bit during baking. Pictures before and after baking appear below. I'm new enough to all of this that I've maybe baked a dozen loaves of bread so far. Interestingly, I would say that all of them suffered from insufficient rise to some degree or another. Initially, I was using regular flour. When I made the switch to bread flour, that definitely helped - but I can't say that I've fully solved the problem yet. In brainstorming a list of things I did with this bake that might have been wrong, I came up with the following: I never actually take the temperature of the water I'm using. I have an instant probe, so it's really silly that I don't simply check it each time. I feel like this is probably my first and best opportunity for improvement. I use instant yeast but I don't activate it in any way before using it. I just add it in with the rest of the dry ingredients, as that seems to be the commonly accepted practice. Should I dissolve it in the warm water first for a few minutes before proceeding? I understand that salt is a yeast killer, so I'm always hesitant about how and when to add that in. I thought my strategy today was going to be ideal, since it basically went in last - and slowly - but it somehow still felt wrong to basically be sprinkling salt on the dough as it was mixing. Since this was my first time with it, I wasn't sure about the kneading time in the Ankarsrum. Paul's recipe says to "knead gently but thoroughly for a few minutes to bring the dough together," but I wondered if perhaps I should have allowed it to knead for a few minutes longer. Thoughts? What else am I missing? The best part of this process so far is eating my mistakes because WOW - this recipe is definitely delicious, my horrible baking skills notwithstanding! 😂 Thanks for your thoughts.

THANK YOU! 😃

Thanks for the warm welcome and info, @curls! I'll definitely share my progress - looking forward to learning from all of you. Cheers!

So many delicious looking breads I've never even heard of before - including your Bialys, Dave. Found what appears to be a decent recipe online. Perhaps I'll give them a shot this weekend and see how badly I mess them up. LOL Any tips for the rank novice? 😃

Thanks so much for the tip, Kim! I'll check it out.

Warm greetings to all of you from Milwaukee, Wisconsin! Thanks for letting me join your little community. I'm a brand new baker with an interest in breads. I hope to learn from all of you and share some of my attempts for your feedback. I'm also the proud owner of a new Ankarscrum mixer and welcome any tips any of you might want to share about that. I did read this thread, which I found very helpful and prompted me to join here - but other than that, I'm still exploring. Thanks for allowing me to introduce myself. Cheers!