The Bread Topic (2015-2016)

[liuzhou]

Having now tasted the olive bread above, I'm reasonably happy with one caveat. All the recipes I read suggested that I omit salt as the olives are salty enough. I beg to disagree. This bread seriously needs some salt.

 

Maybe I hit a mother lode of desalinated olives. Next time!

[cakewalk]

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Having now tasted the olive bread above, I'm reasonably happy with one caveat. All the recipes I read suggested that I omit salt as the olives are salty enough. I beg to disagree. This bread seriously needs some salt.

 

Maybe I hit a mother lode of desalinated olives. Next time!

I find that most bread recipes skimp on salt. Not sure why, I guess people are afraid of salt because of health considerations. But I find it maddening to spend hours, and sometimes days, making a loaf of bread only to bite into a slice and involuntarily grimace at the noticeable lack of salt. I tend to follow James Beard's rule of thumb in "Beard on Bread": 1 Tbs of salt (table salt) to 1 pound of flour. He recognizes that others think this is too much, but it's what he sticks to.

[liuzhou]

1 minute ago, cakewalk said:

1 Tbs of salt (table salt) to 1 pound of flour.

 

 I wouldn't go that far but for 500g of flour I'd be looking at around 10 g salt. That is my norm. Next time I do the olive bread, I'll revert to that.

 

Sorry, I'm sensibly metric.

[paulpegg]

One tablespoon of salt weight 17 grams. That is a lot of salt for 454 grams of flour. I use 8 grams for 400 grams of flour which is about right for me.

[cakewalk]

Yes, it is a lot of salt. But I've made many of the breads from that James Beard book, and I've never found his breads to be too salty. I guess it's a matter of taste. For me it's a little strange, as tend to undersalt my food. But with bread it's a completely different story. Besides the health issues, I think there's also a concern that too much salt will hinder the rising process, but I've never had that issue, certainly not when using yeast but also not with sourdough. 

[rotuts]

Modernist Bread   announced :

 

http://modernistcuisine.com/2016/04/modernist-bread/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Campaign2&utm_campaign=Modernist%2BBread%2BAnnouncement

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, cakewalk said:

I find that most bread recipes skimp on salt. Not sure why, I guess people are afraid of salt because of health considerations. But I find it maddening to spend hours, and sometimes days, making a loaf of bread only to bite into a slice and involuntarily grimace at the noticeable lack of salt. I tend to follow James Beard's rule of thumb in "Beard on Bread": 1 Tbs of salt (table salt) to 1 pound of flour. He recognizes that others think this is too much, but it's what he sticks to.

Wow!  That is a lot of salt. But to each their own. I go with 10-12 grams per 500 grams flour which is give or take 2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal. 

[kayb]

Help! I made @Anna N's pita bread the other day, and it was a dismal failure. I didn't get the oven rise she described; and the discs were leaden. On the few that did at least partially rise, the "bubbles" were very one-sided -- most of the crumb on one side, and a very thin layer on the other, not conducive to stuffing with sandwich makings.  I chunked them.

 

I varied from the recipe in two ways:

 

1. I used all white flour because I discovered I was out of whole wheat.

2. I used whey left over from making yogurt, in place of water. I generally do this when I make bread, and it's never proved a problem before.

 

I don't think my anemic oven will consistently hold a 475 temperature; I may have been closer to 450. And I may have fouled up in misting the pitas; I just generally misted into the oven, and I'm wondering if the places where I did get a bit of the rise are where more water/steam came in contact with the dough. Should I have misted them directly?

 

I also had to add more flour to get the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl. I was using Gold Medal, which is a fairly soft flour and generally makes a looser dough.

 

Suggestions for a repeat? I have hummus and tomato-cucumber salad waiting....

 

 

 

Edited April 8, 2016 by kayb (log)

[Anna N]

@kayb

 

 I am quite confused.  Not aware that I have ever used anything but white flour for pita nor can I imagine sprtizing it with water. Help me understand and I will try to help you. 

[Okanagancook]

After rolling out the dough you must cover with a cloth and rest 15 to 20 minutes otherwise the puffing in the oven is not optimal.

[Franci]

I don't let the dough rest after rolling out. In my experience it puffs if I'm very careful not making creases in the disc while rolling it out. It was my fist time trying pita bread in this oven, it was even too hot and I burned a couple breads. But I put them directly on the oven floor, no mist.

 

 

[Okanagancook]

This might be helpful http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/08/how-to-make-perfect-homemade-pita-bread.html

 

 

i read somewhere about the resting for a good puff so have always done it.  Humph, guess I do not need to.  Will try the serious eats procedure next time.

thanks

[Smithy]

@kayb, are you putting the disks onto something like a baking stone or griddle?  I find that I need the heat retention of something solid like that to get my pitas to puff. 

[Anna N]

I recently read that if you flip the discs from their resting spot on to the stone so they land upside down you will get a more even distribution of the crumb. I have not tried this yet and I can't remember where I saw it to give credit. 

[Okanagancook]

7 minutes ago, Anna N said:

I recently read that if you flip the discs from their resting spot on to the stone so they land upside down you will get a more even distribution of the crumb. I have not tried this yet and I can't remember where I saw it to give credit. 

That is in the serious eats article.

[Anna N]

1 minute ago, Okanagancook said:

That is in the serious eats article.

 Thanks for giving credit.   I had simply forgotten where I got the information.

[kayb]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

@kayb

 

 I am quite confused.  Not aware that I have ever used anything but white flour for pita nor can I imagine sprtizing it with water. Help me understand and I will try to help you. 

I THOUGHT it was you who had posted the recipe, which I've saved as a word doc so I don't have the link any more. Perhaps it was someone else.

 

@Okanagancook, I may not have let it rest long enough. The recipe said cover with plastic wrap, but I covered it with a tea towel. That shouldn't make a difference, should it?

 

Am trying the bread with the pureed sweet corn today. Will report.

 

 

 

[Anna N]

48 minutes ago, kayb said:

I THOUGHT it was you who had posted the recipe, which I've saved as a word doc so I don't have the link any more. Perhaps it was someone else.

 

@Okanagancook, I may not have let it rest long enough. The recipe said cover with plastic wrap, but I covered it with a tea towel. That shouldn't make a difference, should it?

 

Am trying the bread with the pureed sweet corn today. Will report.

 

 

 

Perhaps it was this?

 

Click

[kayb]

38 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Perhaps it was this?

 

Click

That's it. My apologies to you and @andiesenji. 

[Anna N]

1 minute ago, kayb said:

That's it. My apologies to you and @andiesenji. 

Whew!  Nice to know I still have a couple of working neurons. 

[liuzhou]

This shall forever henceforth be known as the miracle loaf. For it is written.

 

 

Everything was doing as normal until my clock announced that baking time was over. When I opened the oven I noticed immediately that I wasn't hit by the usual blast of heat. A quick inspection revealed that the oven was not functioning.

 

I checked the loaf's internal temperature. Instead of the 95ºC I was looking for it had stalled at 80º and was cooling rapidly. I then spent around ten minutes checking out the electrics and discovered that a fuse had blown in the power outlet to which the oven is attached. I repaired that while trying to keep the loaf relatively warm, reheated the oven and bunged the loaf back in. It took a couple of checks before it reached the 95º but it got there.

 

I was still concerned about what all this palaver might have done to the bread, but it seems just fine. Miraculously.

 

 

P.S. It also benefited from a 48 hour rest in the fridge after the initial rise. That really does seem to develop more flavour.

 

[shain]

Bagels. Not pictured: cream cheese (also, thinly sliced onion, capers, and cured salmon - to be applied as desired).

 

By the way, what kind of bagel is your favorite? I'm a poppy person, but I also really like an "everything" bagel.

[Okanagancook]

Favourite bagel is cheddar cheese/jalapeño with lots of crusty cheese bits and preferably warm.

[Shelby]

2 hours ago, shain said:

Bagels. Not pictured: cream cheese (also, thinly sliced onion, capers, and cured salmon - to be applied as desired).

 

By the way, what kind of bagel is your favorite? I'm a poppy person, but I also really like an "everything" bagel.

I'm an everything girl.  Runner up would be plain onion and just plain.

[cakewalk]

Beautiful bagels, Shain. As for me, make mine sesame!