Baking from "Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza"

[Luke]

I have now settled (for the moment) on the Pain de Campagne as our standard loaf for baking during the week....

 

What I have been experiementing with is flour blends. I was originally using 100% Tipo 00 at 12.5% protein, and while the bread was awesome, the crumb was really chewey. Maybe a bit too chewey ...

 

Forkish recommends a flour between 11% and 12%.

 

So I made a few loaves blending the Tipo 00 with "Plain Flour" which in Australia is cake flour, a low gluten all purposes type flour, my plain flour was 10.5% protein.

 

I settled on blend ratio of 70% Tipo 00 @ 12.5% protein and 30% plain @ 10.5%, for the portion of white flour in the recipe.

 

A couple of observations:

   - Oven spring has increased by 25%. So much now that the loaf will hit the lid of the dutch oven and compress.

   - The crumb is noticably softer. It still has a nice chewy texture, but not the jaw breaking chew of before

   - The crumb cooks out a bit easier. By that I mean it doesn't seem to suffer from undercooking as the previous 100% Tipo 00 flour type did.

   - Taste is just as awesome, however I think my levain has changed its personality. This week our breads have had a more noticable sour twang, subtle but more notificable than before. We love it!

 

I will now scale the recipe down to 75% so the single (combined) loaf fits into the dutch oven with compressing on lid.

 

Cheers

Luke

 

This is a really large loaf! I mean really really large! And that's a big banana for comparison!

 

 

Edited September 10, 2014 by Luke (log)

[lesliec]

Nice, Luke.  The dancing goanna I see on top of the loaf in the first and second photos is a particularly thoughtful touch!

[Anna N]

Half recipe of Saturday bread baked in a clay baker (Romertopf).

[Kerry Beal]

 

Started a couple of loaves of the Poolish White Bread.  Were in their last rise, had the oven preheating - when I got a call from work asking why I was half an hour late.  Well - likely because I had lost track of the shift I had today!

 

So popped the loaves in the garage (about 5º C) and turned off the oven.  Called hubby about half an hour before work ended and asked him to turn the oven back on.  Cold loaves into preheated cast iron - 50 minutes later - I'm listening to them crack like mad.  Of course it's too late at night to eat them!

[weinoo]

The Saturday White Bread - albeit baked in the Cuisinart Steam Oven in a loaf pan. Great toasted this a.m.

 

[rotuts]

what size loaf pan, and what % or Rx / pan ?

 

did you have to loosely cover the top of the bread to avoid burning ?

 

what sort of CSB setting did you use ?

 

many thanks for the inspiration !

[weinoo]

The Saturday white bread recipe I scaled down to 750g flour.  this loaf was 1/2 of the finished dough. Probably could have gone into an 8" x 4.5" loaf pan, but I used a 9" x 5" loaf pan.  Yes, I covered the top of the bread, with foil, at about 30 minutes. I used the bread setting, 450°F, till done.

Edited November 30, 2014 by weinoo (log)

[rotuts]

thank you

 

did you use or have you used the 'proofing' setting ?

[weinoo]

Hmmm - I forgot there is a proofing setting (is there?)!  I proofed in my regular oven with the light on.

[rotuts]

take a peek on page 9 of the manual.  under 'steam'

 

the 'Bread' section refers back to this info 

 

"The lowest temperature (100°F) on the Steam function is ideal for bread proofing. Allow dough to complete at least one rise at room temperature. Shape dough and place on the baking pan lined with parchment and then put directly in the oven in the lower rack position. Set in oven for a minimum of 20 minutes and up to 1⁄2 hour on 100°F to proof. Once time elapses, switch oven to Bread function and set temperature and time, indicated by recipe."

[weinoo]

I'll give that a try next time.

[Dave W]

 

I've discovered that feeding 50 grams of levain with half as much flour and water as called for gives me enough to work with on any given day and it doesn't seem to suffer.  And it appeals to my thriftiness as I don't like throwing out large quantities each day.

 

 

I came to this thread to whinge about the huge amount of levain he has you build and ask about reducing it and there my answer is right in the first post. Gotta love egullet. Thanks Kerry.

The overnight blondes are forthcoming.

[Dave W]

Without further ado,

So much flavor in this bread wow!

[curls]

I have been thinking about joining in for awhile, so glad I did. Made the Saturday white bread... delicious! So much better than what I can get from the local markets. Looking forward to trying out the other recipes in this book. So, what are your recommendations for storing the loaves (especially after you start cutting slices from it)?

[rotuts]

I store loafs, cut side down on a piece of plastic  ( flat ) in a brown paper bag on the counter

 

uncut loafs the same, just no plastic on the bottom of the bag.

[curls]

I store loafs, cut side down on a piece of plastic  ( flat ) in a brown paper bag on the counter

 

uncut loafs the same, just no plastic on the bottom of the bag.

Thank you rotus I am trying out your method. Hoping that the loaf will be good to the last crumb. Wondering how many days we have to finish it before it goes stale.  If this does not work for me, I think I'll cut the next loaf in half and freeze half of it and leave the other half on the cutting board cut side down. Loaf two was given to family to enjoy.

[rotuts]

let us know your your results.    freezing and re crisping always works   just dont keep it in the freezer forever.  tightly wrapped !

[curls]

let us know your your results.    freezing and re crisping always works   just dont keep it in the freezer forever.  tightly wrapped !

An update... Wednesday the bread was still good but it is getting more & more difficult to slice the bread. The interior is still soft but the crust is getting much harder. This morning, Thursday, it was a battle to slice the bread and while it was edible it has reached the point that I would recommend that it only be used for bread pudding or french toast. Next time I will wrap and freeze some of the bread so we only have two to three days worth of bread on the counter. Think I'll try the overnight white bread next, may include some whole wheat flour in those loaves.