The Bread Topic (2015-2016)

[Franci]

My old dough weakly refreshed was looking better and better until I dropped the jar on the floor...at least I made bread yesterday night. Made awesome bruschetta tonight 

 

 

[Ann_T]

Nice Crumb Franci.

 

I still had one batch of dough in the fridge from Tuesday.    

 

Took it out last night and baked a pizza and three baguettes of various sizes.

68% Hydration

Sliced this morning for breakfast.   Lots of shine to the crumb.

 

This same dough makes a great pizza crust.

[DianaM]

I call this one Scorch Trials.

It is a 100% wholegrain spelt sourdough pan loaf with walnuts (recipe from Josey Baker Bread). 

 

I mixed the leaven on Friday evening, and Saturday morning, when I needed to toast the walnuts, the oven would not start. Toasted the nuts on the bbq, and decided if the oven continued to misbehave, I'd bake the bread on the grill too.  

All attempts to resurrect the oven failed, so I preheated the grill and lay the bread inside with some trepidation. 

About 30-35 mins into the bake, the gas in the propane tank of the bbq ran out, and I watched as the temp indicator started its slow descent towards zero. A few choice words were uttered. 

 

So I started the broiler (oddly, the broiler function of the oven was still working), and basically pre-heated the oven with it. 

I put the bread on the lowest rack, broiler on low, but after about 10 mins, the top was so scorched that I decided to end this crazy-a** experiment, whether the bread was baked through or not. 

 

It is a delicious loaf, the crumb is spongy and tender, with just a bit of sour when you first bite into it. I love whole grains! Spelt (wholegrain) makes such an interesting dough to work with, stretchy and obedient. I will be making this one again. 

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2016 by DianaM (log)

[Franci]

Oh Diana, what an adventure this loaf! I'm glad it turned so well despite everything working against it. What a lovely crumb.

[DianaM]

Thank you, Franci! It was a very entertaining experience, although at the time it didn't seem so. 

To be honest, I expected the worst when the gas ran out (like gooey, raw bread) and I was pleasantly surprised by the crumb when I cut into it. 

 

 

[Shelby]

Made my first ever whole wheat bread.  I had been craving ww toast with lots of butter for some reason.  Used a KA recipe with their flour.  Turned out ok.  A little heavy but certainly edible.

 

 

 

[pbear]

Hey Shelby.  FWIW, what I do for that sort of bread is use whole wheat pastry flour (finely milled), subbing out part of it with gluten.  So, for example, my basic sandwich loaf uses 450 g bread flour (1 lb).  For whole wheat, I'll use 420 g WWPF plus 30 g gluten, which as I measure them come in at about 3-1/2 c and 4 tbsp, respectively.  For scaling purposes, I call both together "the flour."  The flavor and texture of this mix is excellent, albeit a bit light for color.  The latter can be boosted if desired by adding a little kitchen bouquet (1 tsp, 6 g).

[Captain]

G'Day everyone,

I've been enjoying making my own bread for a month or so now, as I find the time. So far I think I've been lucky as the results have been great.  Definitely room for improvement but I'm keen to keep things simple.  I have lots of questions that need to be asked but for the mean time....

Edited June 7, 2016 by Captain (log)

[Captain]

Thanks for looking

[kayb]

Very nice!

[DianaM]

I've baked two batches of bread this past week, one was the pain au levain with whole wheat flour from Jeffrey Hamelman's "Bread," and the other a 66% rye sourdough pan loaf with caraway seeds. I loved both, for different reasons.

 

The pain au levain could have used a bit more proofing, I think, judging by the look of the crumb. 

 

As for the rye, I was very happy with how it turned out, except that the dough was a bit too much for the pan. You can see how it "muffin-topped" instead of remaining below the rim of the pan to get a nice, neat loaf. I expected it to be much denser, but I am glad I was wrong. What I love most about it is its keeping qualities: it was 2 days old today and if anything, it was better than the day before. Had it with tapenade and soft-boiled egg for lunch and it was so good! 

 

 

[shain]

@DianaM Beautiful loaves. I love the shape of the rye bread. I always imagine sliced bread as having this form.

[chefmd]

Half white and half whole wheat bread following King Arthur no knead crusty white bread recipe.  Made a few yummy sandwiches with it.  

 

[cakewalk]

I like working with sourdough and love the results of a slow rise and baking in a high heat oven. But there's something unbeatably gratifying about starting a loaf at 6 pm and pulling it out of the oven at 10. (Not to mention slicing into it before 11.) This is my regular Pullman loaf.

[DianaM]

Thank you, @shain for your comment. 

 

I made some cinnamon rolls and, of course, more bread. 

The rolls are made entirely of spelt, I had some light spelt at the bottom of a bag nearing the best before date, and added some wholegrain spelt too. I subbed coconut oil for the butter, and coconut milk (from a carton) for regular (son's eczema is aggravated by dairy). It worked really well, fermentation went really fast, so either yeast looooves coconut, or the wholegrain spelt gave it a boost. Either way, bulk was 1 hour, and proofing took half hour. Oh, and added some chai spice into the cinnamon mix, thought it'd work well with all the coconut. Not an easy dough to work with, they looked a bit ragged going in the oven, but it all worked out. They were so light in the hand, lotsa yummy air in those alveoli.  

 

And again the pain au levain with whole wheat, it's my husband preferred bread, so I wanted to be nice and made it for him. 

[Anna N]

Inspired by @zend (in the Dinner topic) cemitas from a recipe on Serious Eats. 

 

Hard to imagine anything bread-like that is easier to make. 

[keychris]

sourdough with spelt and rye

 

[keychris]

Same formula, but with a lot longer proofing - I let the sponge go for 24hrs before creating the dough, then the dough had around 6hrs before shaping, then around 90 minutes before baking. 15 minutes under a casserole pot to keep the steam up, then another 25 or so with the pot off

 

[DianaB]

Magnificent loaves @keychris!  Any advice on the method you use for slashing the dough prior to baking? I just can't get the technique at all.

[DianaM]

Olive levain from J. Hamelman's book, with some changes. Built yesterday, cold proofed, then baked today. 

 

I used a mix of Kalamata, salt-cured and regular black olives, and also added lemon zest and herbes de Provence. 

@DianaB I, too, stuggle with scoring. I scored the two loaves differently and learned what a dramatic effect it has on the final shape. These two are the same dough, same quantity (I weighed each), treated in the exact same way apart from scoring. 

The slices are from the loaf on the right. It must be my lucky day, I don't usually get a crumb like that. 

 

 

Edited June 20, 2016 by DianaM (log)

[Franci]

Beautiful bread Diana, you have a very good hand!

 

I am back into making the focaccia I grew up with...sometimes I miss those flavors. I'm very pleased with how this turned out. I used an old dough made from durum flour (that I'm using to make durum bread as well) and made also a biga with AP flour, potatoes in the dough and a good amount of extra virgin olive oil. This is not supposed to be a tall focaccia at all, tender, with good taste of olive oil. Love it. Next time, I'll make my favorite, with onions. Unfortunately I cannot find the right olives...

 

 

 

[cakewalk]

Franci, that is beautiful. But now I feel that I need a tutorial on focaccia, because I have never seen that type. It looks like something is spread in the middle of the dough? I'm used to focaccia flatbreads with all the dimples in it, this is a new version for me. 

[Franci]

Cakewalk, many focaccias out there. In the US people think as focaccia as a fluffy flatbread mainly, that is at least the idea I got. In reality there are many shapes and kinds. This dough is pretty dense, I cannot call it flaky but the oil and the potatoes make it quite tender, in the middle has cheese, tomato pulp and ham. But my favourite is with onions.

Focaccia genovese, focaccia barese, focaccia di Recco (although this to me is border to the other Ligurian savory pies), gnocco ingrassato, crescente bolognese, sfincione palermitano, just to name a few...

Edited June 22, 2016 by Franci (log)

[paulraphael]

I'm activating my very first sourdough starter and am wondering if anyone has recommendations on the best sources for sourdough bread knowledge?

 

I have Ed Wood's book ... it's alright, but goes out of its way to take a folksy tone and to avoid technical talk. I'm not sure if it's up to date on modern breadbaking techniques.

Also have Reinhart's Breadbaker's apprentice. What's the word on his approach to sourdough?

 

Any other great sources, online or off?

[Captain]

Had to make some crusty bread to go with my soup.

Very happy with the results.