The Bread Topic (2009 – 2014)

[Anna N]

The Saturday White Bread from Flour Water Salt Yeast. I was able to find the recipe on-line. Given these results I will surely buy the book. Seems only fair. Thanks once again to Ann_T for the inspiration.

[Steve Irby]

Definitely a photo worth posting. Very nice loaf. What website did you go to for the recipe?

[Anna N]

Definitely a photo worth posting. Very nice loaf. What website did you go to for the recipe?

karenskitchenstories.com

[Anna N]

Second loaf today. A much more mundane white sandwich bread for my granddaughter.

[Tri2Cook]

Homemade bread is never mundane. Both loaves look awesome.

[quantumcloud509]

Local Bread book recipe for Czech poppyseed croissants seemed simple enough, and the Russian bakery down the street had poppyseeds available for sale so I went ahead and made these little guys, they are in the oven right now and everything has felt like its going fine so far. Pictures not uploading

Edited January 14, 2014 by quantumcloud509 (log)

[Ann_T]

image.jpg

The Saturday White Bread from Flour Water Salt Yeast. I was able to find the recipe on-line. Given these results I will surely buy the book. Seems only fair. Thanks once again to Ann_T for the inspiration.

Wow Anna, your bread is more than picture worthy. Perfect!!!!

[keychris]

Three loaves from Sunday's efforts: the first photo is two loaves that are built from a sourdough rye starter, it's pretty much the perfect sandwich loaf in my opinion - nice crust, tight, soft crumb, tastes delicious

The second picture is a gluten and dairy free loaf for my son. It's inspired by Peter Reinhart's 'Marbled rye' from Bread Baker's Apprentice, however since he has been unable to digest gluten or dairy, I promised him I'd try to recreate his favourite bread - which I feel has been quite successful! This dough also has a seed mix of chia, sunflower, pumpkin and sesame included in the dough for extra flavour and goodness

[Anna N]

Ann_T turned me on to Ken Forkish and his Flour Water Salt Yeast book and I caved and bought the Kindle edition. I love, love bread but when you are a singleton watching the carbs the temptation of huge boules is overwhelming. I give away most of the bread I make. But I decided to try to make a much smaller loaf.

The challenges included finding an appropriate proofing basket and a small Dutch oven.

The proofing basket--two lids from takeout food containers.

Properly lined with a floured tea towel.

A small "Dutch oven".

And voila

A twee loaf of bread.

The crumb.

A slice in which I hope you can see a shine on the gluten walls.

[judiu]

Anna, that is glorious! It's so shiny, I'd swear it was buttered! YUM!

[Anna N]

Thanks, judiu.

Another Ken Forkish bread. This is the Overnight White. One of the things that endears me to these recipes is that they are designed to fit ones own schedule. This one is mixed around 7pm, folded three times in the next hour and a half and left to ferment at room temperature until the following morning when it is baked around 9 am. Nothing starts my day better than knowing there's a loaf of fresh bread on the counter before lunch. This one graced my daughter's table before I could be tempted!

[Ann_T]

Anna, both loaves are beauties. Love the second one with the bigger holes. I like your idea of making smaller loaves. I have two smaller cast iron pots that will be perfect.

[Anna N]

Anna, both loaves are beauties. Love the second one with the bigger holes. I like your idea of making smaller loaves. I have two smaller cast iron pots that will be perfect.

Thanks, Ann. Have his levain growing on the counter. Like others I wince when I look at the quantites that are discarded to get to the small amount needed at the end! I believe it's about 2kg of whole wheat flour that ends up discarded. Fortunately, Kerry Beal found whole wheat flour on sale for $1 for 2 kg! Still.... I have tried to research the reason for such large amounts but apart from Ken's off-hand remark about spent fuel and a comment on The Fresh Loaf website that quantity matters, I came up empty. Like most recipes I use I'll try it Ken's way for the first attempt.

[rotuts]

sooo you make this levain by growing on the counter for a period of time, take a portion to add to new flour, discard the rest, etc?

although a bit different , why not just make traditional sourdough starter when none is ever tossed out?

the final taste cant be that different. Ive used sourdough starter in the past quite a bit.

[Anna N]

sooo you make this levain by growing on the counter for a period of time, take a portion to add to new flour, discard the rest, etc?

although a bit different , why not just make traditional sourdough starter when none is ever tossed out?

the final taste cant be that different. Ive used sourdough starter in the past quite a bit.

Thanks for the suggestion. Perhaps later I might try that but my goal right now is to make a Ken Forkish bread and however good one made with a sour dough starter might be, it wouldn't be the bread I am attempting.

[Ann_T]

Anna, could you not just use the remaining levain to start another batch of dough? That was what I did when I had my sour dough starter. I never threw anything out.

I made the Saturday White Bread again. I wanted to make a couple of smaller loaves like you did, but I only had one small cast iron pot, so I tried something else.

I divided the dough in half, and shaped one large loaf, and then I divided the other half into four smaller rounds and placed them together in a bowl lined with a flour dusted tea towel. Baked in a large cast iron dutch oven.

Looked like one loaf but when cooled,

split easily into four smaller loaves.

The recipe calls for 720g water, but I use 820g.

[teapot]

I love, love bread but when you are a singleton watching the carbs the temptation of huge boules is overwhelming. I give away most of the bread I make. But I decided to try to make a much smaller loaf.

[

The way I deal with the temptation is to slice up one loaf and freeze it. And, if not already spoken for, freeze the second loaf whole. It re-crisps beautifully.

I'm making my first Forkish loaf now -- the Pain de Campagne.

[Kerry Beal]

Forkish Saturday White Bread. Realized that the round Dutch oven I have is not as tall as I thought - so dug out my oval CI pan and a rectangular banneton basket.

Made a half batch and used about 2/3 of the dough - putting the other 1/3 into the fridge for pizza dough.

It's crackling at me from the counter.

[Ann_T]

Kerry, my favourite sound. Love when the bread "talks".

Beautiful loaf.

I just started a batch of the overnight white and will bake before going to work in the morning.

[Anna N]

Anna, could you not just use the remaining levain to start another batch of dough?

If I were to make dough with the remaining levain I would soon be buried in bread! Your idea of dividing the shaped loaf is excellent.

Pain de campagne - a hybrid levain loaf.

[rotuts]

AnnaN:

was this loaf 'Breville'd'

thanks

Edited January 26, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[Ann_T]

Anna, that loaf looks great too. Do you have a preference?

My intention was to do the overnight white, but I realized after the fact that I had added the regular amount of yeast - 4g, instead of the lesser amount of .8g. So I ended up baking bread in the middle of the night. I set my alarm and got up at 12:00AM to shape the loaves.

Got up again at 1:30 to check, but the loaves needed another 1/2 hour to finish proofing. Loaves went into the oven at 2:00AM and I was back in bed by 3:00 AM.

I divided the dough for both loaves this time. So when split I ended up with 8 small loaves.

[Anna N]

AnnaN:

was this loaf 'Breville'd'

thanks

No. It's not feasible to put a large Dutch oven in the Breville. As you see with my current replacement lid doohickey it won't even fit!

[Anna N]

Anna, that loaf looks great too. Do you have a preference?

My intention was to do the overnight white, but I realized after the fact that I had added the regular amount of yeast - 4g, instead of the lesser amount of .8g. So I ended up baking bread in the middle of the night. I set my alarm and got up at 12:00AM to shape the loaves.

.......

This last wins my vote in terms of taste but not in terms of ease and convenience. Can't imagine baking in the middle of the night! I would have tossed the dough in the fridge and hoped for the best.

[Kerry Beal]

Anna, that loaf looks great too. Do you have a preference?

My intention was to do the overnight white, but I realized after the fact that I had added the regular amount of yeast - 4g, instead of the lesser amount of .8g. So I ended up baking bread in the middle of the night. I set my alarm and got up at 12:00AM to shape the loaves.

.......

This last wins my vote in terms of taste but not in terms of ease and convenience. Can't imagine baking in the middle of the night! I would have tossed the dough in the fridge and hoped for the best.

Was thinking exactly the same thing - bung it in the fridge - deal with it in the am!

Working on the Forkish 80% biga bread - I think I was a bit parsimonious with the yeast and left it in a rather cold spot under the window - so this am it didn't have the bubbly alcoholic features I was anticipating. Added a bit more yeast this am - moved it to a warm spot and it's bubbling away. Shall post a report later.