The Bread Topic (2015-2016)

[AlaMoi]

. . . we need an automatic sesame seeder for the bread stick machine.....  yum!

 

this is my A.M. brunch loaf - it's the classic no-knead approach - 14 hours on the counter at 68'F

it's neat cause I can mix it at night, when I get up

- preheat the oven

- turn out the dough

- 15 minutes covered + 20 minutes uncovered and bingo

- fresh bread for breakfast.

 

when going free form I reduce the hydration to 75% so it does not spread quite so prolifically.

 

[ElainaA]

Baking today - First English muffins - my mother's recipe - no nooks and crannies here, these are pretty dense. I grew up on these and Iove them. Especially with raspberry jam.

 

 

Then a loaf of CI's almost-no-knead bread. I have never made this before because it calls for beer - something we rarely have. But my daughter is a beer connoisseur and we had some left from her last visit home. I really like it. I might have to start buying beer. For those who make this - does the type of beer matter? Since neither my husband or I drink beer the remainder just goes down the sink so I would rather but something cheap. I'm afraid that what I poured down the sink today was not at all cheap.) Now if the recipe asked for wine there would be no problem.....

 

 

Edited February 23, 2016 by ElainaA (log)

[Ann_T]

Elaina, beautiful loaf and crumb.  But it is your English Muffins that I'm wanting.   

Handmixed two doughs before leaving for work yesterday morning. 

One baked last night and one baked this morning.

Both were identical except for the hyrdation. One was at 68% and the other at 72%. Both had 750g flour with 5g of yeast, 22g salt and 100g of sourdough starter (discard).

The addition of just a small amount of sourdough starter added to this yeast dough, gives me a bread with a more developed, enhanced flavour, with a nice light tang, but without the true sourdough flavour that I don't care for.

Both went into the fridge immediately after the last stretch and fold. My son took the 68% dough out at 4:00 pm so that I could bake it last night.

The 72% batch I took out of the fridge this morning at 2:30 AM and it was ready to shape at 4:30. Out of the oven before 7:00AM.

 

 

Sliced for breakfast.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Ann_T (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

4 hours ago, ElainaA said:

I might have to start buying beer. For those who make this - does the type of beer matter? Since neither my husband or I drink beer the remainder just goes down the sink so I would rather but something cheap. I'm afraid that what I poured down the sink today was not at all cheap.) Now if the recipe asked for wine there would be no problem.....

 

Gorgeous breads, Elaina!

 

There is a section in my humble low-end grocery chain store that sells either mixed bottles of more premium beers that you select and load into convenient six-pack cartons in a rack near the beers, or you can buy a single bottle. I never noticed it for years, and if you don't buy beer, you may have one in your own grocery that you've not noticed before.

 

Someone with more beer and yeast bread experience needs to answer your question about whether the type of beer matters. I know when I do drink beer that some of the hoppier, more bitter ones are to my liking, and I can imagine them giving a lot of flavor to a bread, but that's a matter of personal taste.

 

I can say this from my experience with King Arthur's Quick Beer Crust Pizza Dough: I just use one of the cheap beers from my husband's ever-present stash. It still makes a great pizza crust. It calls for the beer at room temp, and that makes sense unless you're trying to retard the yeast, so I always take the beer out of the fridge the night before I make the dough.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I assayed the flatbread recipe Anna N had posted.  I followed the measurements exactly but adapted the mixing to my Zojirushi.  Can't say I had ever weighed out olive oil before.

 

The dough was very nice.  The frying went not so well.  The first round incinerated.  The second merely burned.  The third round was eatable, enjoyable, even, but probably far from ideal.  In the midst of this I suffered a migraine aura and lost much of my vision.  Maybe after I've been doing this for fifty years

 

The bread went with a Paula Wolfert chicken with apricots and pine nuts tagine.  My day consisted of shopping for dinner and cooking dinner, and finally sitting down to dinner at 2:00 am.

[Toliver]

14 hours ago, ElainaA said:

Since neither my husband or I drink beer the remainder just goes down the sink so I would rather but something cheap. I'm afraid that what I poured down the sink today was not at all cheap.) Now if the recipe asked for wine there would be no problem.....

 

You can also use left over beer in marinades for either chicken or beef. Waste not, want not. If you don't have beer on hand, you can sub wine in the marinades instead.

 

Beautiful English muffins, too! 

[kayb]

15 hours ago, ElainaA said:

Baking today - First English muffins - my mother's recipe - no nooks and crannies here, these are pretty dense. I grew up on these and Iove them. Especially with raspberry jam.

Then a loaf of CI's almost-no-knead bread. I have never made this before because it calls for beer - something we rarely have. But my daughter is a beer connoisseur and we had some left from her last visit home. I really like it. I might have to start buying beer. For those who make this - does the type of beer matter? Since neither my husband or I drink beer the remainder just goes down the sink so I would rather but something cheap. I'm afraid that what I poured down the sink today was not at all cheap.) Now if the recipe asked for wine there would be no problem.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are several quick-bread recipes for beer cheese bread, which I love, and I've done a yeasted bread that has beer, cheese and browned sausage that's marvelous with a spread of soft cheese as a snack or appetizer for a crowd, or with a soup.

 

I find that dark beers -- stouts, et. al. -- tend to make better, more flavorful breads. I used to make a bran quick bread with chocolate stout that was just stunning for breakfast. My very favorite beer for cooking is Green Flash Double Stout; hate it for drinking, but it's great in breads as well as in stews. It comes in a four-pack and ain't cheap -- $5 or more for four 12-oz bottles. But it keeps well if kept in a cool, dry place; I'll buy a four-pack in the fall and use it in carbonnades a la flamande, or chili, or just a braised beef dish of some description. 

 

I also tend to, when a recipe calls for a cup of it, to dump the whole 12 oz in and compensate by cutting another liquid or upping a dry ingredient. More good, yeasty taste.

 

I sampled my RLB potato sandwich loaf this morning. This may be the best sandwich bread I've ever made; it's much more moist than her basic sandwich loaf. It did not appear to have suffered from the bleached flour. I was somewhat puzzled by the recipe, which called for a mere two cups of flour and 1/2 cup potato boiling water. And I misread the recipe and used 4 tbsp, instead of 4 tsp, butter, a mistake I think I'll repeat, as the bread is so good.

Edited February 23, 2016 by kayb
fix typo and add photo (log)

[Smithy]

Sourdough pita.  Fluffy pockets, tender crumb.  I'm getting the hang of it again! 

 

[EsaK]

The last bread I made was from Gluten-Free Flour Power, a gluten-free potato bread. Tasted and was all-in-all quite decent I thought. 

 

Now, I hope this is an appropriate place to ask these beginner's questions. I decided to start building a sourdough starter, 100g AP flour + 185g water. 1) when discarding half of it every day, can I theoretically just use it in any baking recipe (to replace 50g flour and 92.5g water, or how does one scale it)? 2) If I want to incorporate for example rye, whole wheat into the starter, should I simply use that flour instead of AP when adding the fresh flour to the starter? 3) I read that if you refridgerate the starter, you should take it into room temp 24hrs before using it. Is there a reason why I couldn't put it in the fridge and then add it, say, to a no-knead dough raised in fridge? Many thanks for the help!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I made Anna N's flatbread again, this time fried at much lower heat.  Didn't come out much like a pita but was very tasty.

 

[keychris]

1 hour ago, EsaK said:

Now, I hope this is an appropriate place to ask these beginner's questions. I decided to start building a sourdough starter, 100g AP flour + 185g water. 1) when discarding half of it every day, can I theoretically just use it in any baking recipe (to replace 50g flour and 92.5g water, or how does one scale it)? 2) If I want to incorporate for example rye, whole wheat into the starter, should I simply use that flour instead of AP when adding the fresh flour to the starter? 3) I read that if you refridgerate the starter, you should take it into room temp 24hrs before using it. Is there a reason why I couldn't put it in the fridge and then add it, say, to a no-knead dough raised in fridge? Many thanks for the help!

 

I personally don't go higher than 100% hydration for my starters (ie. 100g flour / 100g water), but more commonly I work at 66.7% (150g flour / 100g water). I find anything higher than 100% is just too runny and I don't get a great flavour, but YMMV.

You can definitely add the discard to any recipe in place of water and flour - I save my discard for a few days and make pancakes

If you want to change your starter to a different flour, you do exactly what you describe - just be aware that different flours will absorb different amounts of water, ie whole wheat will be a different consistency to rye to white to spelt etc etc

The reason you want to bring your starter back to room temperature is the same as why you use regular yeast warm - the bacteria and yeast in the starter are more active at room temperature. When you cool the dough back down, you encourage the activity of the bacteria that create the acids (they're more active at cooler temperatures) and so give it more tang, but if you start cold, your starter won't be active enough to raise your dough.

HTH

 

[Anna N]

3 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I made Anna N's flatbread again, this time fried at much lower heat.  Didn't come out much like a pita but was very tasty.

 

@JoNorvelleWalker

 

 Not sure they were meant to resemble pita bread  especially not the kind with a pocket.   I did say they reminded me of naan bread. 

[Ann_T]

Two batches of dough started on Tuesday and refrigerated immediately after the last stretch and fold. Had to knock both down before bed Tuesday night as the dough was pushing off the lids on the containers.

 

I should have knocked them both down again before leaving yesterday morning. By the time I got home around 2:00 , the lids were pushed up and the dough had risen about an inch above the top of the container.

 

I gave each another stretch and fold to more or less knock them down again and then left both containers on the counter until they reached the top one more time.

 

Shaped four rounds out of the 1000g batch and four baguettes from the 750g batch.

This is a combination dough with just 4g of yeast and 100g of sourdough starter.

Bread was too warm to put away last night so I left it on the counter to cool, covered with a tea towel.

Sliced this morning. Crumb shot baguette.

 

And one of the rounds.

Moe wanted a couple of slices toasted before heading over to the work shop this morning. Will keep him going until he gets back home and has a real breakfast.

Love the flavour of this bread. More developed because of the starter, but with just a little tang and not the sourdough flavour that I dislike.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Ann_T (log)

[ElainaA]

@Ann_T  Such beautiful bread!

[kbjesq]

@Ann_T could you please show a photo of whatever you use to splash the tops of your bread before baking? Your bread always looks so inviting. Are you a professional baker? If not, you should be!  

[Ann_T]

12 hours ago, ElainaA said:

@Ann_T  Such beautiful bread!

  Thanks Elaina.

 

6 hours ago, kbjesq said:

@Ann_T could you please show a photo of whatever you use to splash the tops of your bread before baking? Your bread always looks so inviting. Are you a professional baker? If not, you should be!  

 

Thanks Kbjesq.  No just a home cook that enjoys baking bread.  

 

 

I have been using this lame for the last four or five months. It was actually a gift from a friend. 

 

 Before that I used another lame  a cheapy one with the curved blade and I've been known to use just plain straight razor blades.  Even a sharp knife will work in a pinch.

 

Edited February 26, 2016 by Ann_T (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

11 hours ago, Anna N said:

@JoNorvelleWalker

 

 Not sure they were meant to resemble pita bread  especially not the kind with a pocket.   I did say they reminded me of naan bread. 

 

The first time through I had missed the part:  "...then reduce heat to low."  Last night's was much more like the picture.

 

I think this recipe will become a staple to serve with my tagines.

[kbjesq]

1 hour ago, Ann_T said:

  Thanks Elaina.

 

 

Thanks Kbjesq.  No just a home cook that enjoys baking bread.  

 

 

I have been using this lame for the last four or five months. It was actually a gift from a friend. 

 

 Before that I used another lame  a cheapy one with the curved blade and I've been know to use just plain straight razor blades.  Even a sharp knife will work in a pinch.

 

Wowser! That is a work of art! 

I've tried sharp knives and razor blades without very good results. But that's probably my fault. At what point during the last rise do you slash your loaves? Maybe I'm slashing at the wrong time? 

[kbjesq]

@Ann_T probably what I need is to attend a course like this at King Arthur Flour Baking School! (photo credit :

King Arthur Flour Baking School

[Anna N]

@kbjesq

 

Or you could save  yourself a great deal of money and look for YouTube videos by recognized bread bakers or look nto the excellent Craftsy course taught by Peter Reinhart (22.03 Cdn).   I know at least one other member took this course.  AND King Arthur Flour offers Essentials of Bread Baking  as a Craftsy class for $33.05 Canadian  and no travel costs involved.  

 

And Richard Miscovich  himself teaches a Craftsy course on homemade sourdough!

 

 

Edited February 26, 2016 by Anna N
To add the sourdough info n (log)

[ElainaA]

I made naan tonight to go with a chicken curry (on the dinner thread) using Meera Sodha's recipe from a NY Times article from last fall. I've made this a couple of times now and really like it. It includes yogurt in the dough which i thinks adds a lot to the flavor.

 

[Ann_T]

4 hours ago, kbjesq said:

Wowser! That is a work of art! 

I've tried sharp knives and razor blades without very good results. But that's probably my fault. At what point during the last rise do you slash your loaves? Maybe I'm slashing at the wrong time? 

 

Kbjesq,  I slash immediately before the loaves go into the oven. 

There are a number of good videos on line (lots of bad ones too).  

This one is good.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Ann_T (log)

[kbjesq]

5 hours ago, Anna N said:

@kbjesq

 

Or you could save  yourself a great deal of money and look for YouTube videos by recognized bread bakers or look nto the excellent Craftsy course taught by Peter Reinhart (22.03 Cdn).   I know at least one other member took this course.  AND King Arthur Flour offers Essentials of Bread Baking  as a Craftsy class for $33.05 Canadian  and no travel costs involved.  

 

And Richard Miscovich  himself teaches a Craftsy course on homemade sourdough!

 

 

Excellent suggestions! Although I do love Vermont in the summer ,  it's more likely that I will take the online course. I tried to take an artisan bread class at KAF while visiting VT two years ago, but I got distracted by the Vermont Cheese Trail and by the time I got around to enrolling, the class was full 

[rotuts]

very nice vid ref @Ann_T

 

I wonder why the third loaf, with the slashes that did not overlap by 1/3d would have a different mouth feel than the ones

 

with the slash that overlapped.

 

Ill have to try this again myself.

[Anna N]

 

Mini baguettes baked on a pizza stone in the Breville smart oven.