The Bread Topic (2016–)

[weinoo]

Those are nice, but what about the crumb!!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

18 hours ago, weinoo said:

Those are nice, but what about the crumb!!

 

Day old crumb.

 

 

 

You know what bread looks like.

 

And, yes, this time I wore my Kevlar glove.

 

 

 

[weinoo]

5 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

You know what bread looks like.

 

Every bread is different  special.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

On 2/28/2022 at 8:25 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

 

 

On 3/1/2022 at 4:35 AM, weinoo said:

Those are nice, but what about the crumb!!

A legitimate question, but in JNW I trust.

[Ann_T]

On 1/30/2022 at 7:26 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

I always love your baguettes.   

 

Started a 1000g batch of dough last night with 2g of yeast and a smaller 500g batch with just 1g of yeast. Left out on the counter for a slow rise overnight.

Baked 4 large Batards and Matt used half the smaller batch to bake a pizza

and I used the other half for two smaller baguettes.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 

[ElsieD]

10 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Nice!  What do you use to slash the bread?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Nice!  What do you use to slash the bread?

 

A 40 year old Chicago Cutlery paring knife reserved only for that purpose.

 

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

A 40 year old Chicago Cutlery paring knife reserved only for that purpose.

 

 

Must be sharp.  I have tried scissors, paring knife, bread knife and a lame.  I seem to be incapable of slashing bread.  I'm quite willing to try using a lame again.  Are there any good ones?

[lindag]

6 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Must be sharp.  I have tried scissors, paring knife, bread knife and a lame.  I seem to be incapable of slashing bread.  I'm quite willing to try using a lame again.  Are there any good ones?

I use one of these and it works quite well (and it's cheap).

[JoNorvelleWalker]

21 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Must be sharp.  I have tried scissors, paring knife, bread knife and a lame.  I seem to be incapable of slashing bread.  I'm quite willing to try using a lame again.  Are there any good ones?

 

I have these:  (eG-friendly Amazon.com link).  They are sharp and work fine but I prefer using the aforementioned paring knife.

 

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

 

Must be sharp.  I have tried scissors, paring knife, bread knife and a lame.  I seem to be incapable of slashing bread.  I'm quite willing to try using a lame again.  Are there any good ones?

I do my best work with a coarse serrated steak knife. I've got all sorts of lames that I bought and don't find they work as well for me. 

[dtremit]

I have nothing useful to add — but I'm really glad to know I'm not the only person who can't get a lame to work! 

[Maison Rustique]

16 hours ago, dtremit said:

I have nothing useful to add — but I'm really glad to know I'm not the only person who can't get a lame to work! 

I seem to cut too deep or not deep enough. I just don't have the right touch.

[shain]

Chinese bakery style stuffed buns. Slightly sweet, tender and buttery. Served warm.

 

 

 

 

Cheese, mochi, scallions.

 

 

Anko & mochi.

 

Darkly toasted sesame and brown sugar, a touch of salt.

 

Mixed nuts (cashew, walnuts, peanuts, sesame), dried fruits (Chinese dates, candied Chinese olives), anko.

 

[Matthew.Taylor]

Here’s todays work. Pretzel buns!

[Ann_T]

On 3/22/2022 at 12:01 PM, shain said:

Chinese bakery style stuffed buns. Slightly sweet, tender and buttery. Served warm.

@shain, your buns look amazing.  I keep coming back to the one stuffed with cheese. 

Started two batches of dough yesterday morning before leaving for work. Using the Stretch Fold Autolyze method.

One 1000g batch of dough with 2gs of yeast, at 70% hydration.

Left out on the counter all day for a slow rise and a second 600g batch at 72% hydration also with 2gs of yeast.

This one went into the fridge for a longer cold fermentation and will be used later today to make pizzas.

Baked eight baguettes last night. Last one came out of the oven around 9 PM.

 

Sliced this morning.

Toast and tomatoes for breakfast.

[shain]

26 minutes ago, Ann_T said:

@shain, your buns look amazing.  I keep coming back to the one stuffed with cheese. 

 

Thanks, we enjoyed it too.

[Ann_T]

I had a small piece of dough left from the pizza dough batch.  Just enough to make a small round.

Baked it last night and slice this morning for breakfast. 

Lots of shine.

[ElsieD]

A loaf made with sourdough discard, the dough made in my bread machine  and baked in a pain de mie.

[blue_dolphin]

I recently purchased Cathy Barrow's new book, Bagels, Schmears and a Nice Piece of Fish and decided to try my hand at bagels.  Cathy has the timing all worked out for an evening mix and shape, O/N rise in the fridge with bagels ready to bake in the AM.  Seems like there's a lot that can go wrong with bagels but amazingly, they came out OK.  

I subbed one cup of rye flour into the New York bagel recipe in the book.  Next time, I'll try pumpernickel.  

Also made the lox schmear from the book to go along with:

 

 

[Dave R]

Those look really nicely done! 

 

Does her recipe have you shaping them the "traditional" way with a long strand rolled over your hand or the "hole punch" and elongate method? I ask because my wife usually has my bagels for breakfast and I use the "traditional" method. She saw a King Arthur video in which the "hole" punch" method was used for bagels that are spread more heavily with filling. The smaller hole from that method is supposed to keep the filling in better, and she wants me to use that method for my next batch.

 

Dave

[blue_dolphin]

2 hours ago, Dave R said:

Those look really nicely done! 

 

Does her recipe have you shaping them the "traditional" way with a long strand rolled over your hand or the "hole punch" and elongate method? I ask because my wife usually has my bagels for breakfast and I use the "traditional" method. She saw a King Arthur video in which the "hole" punch" method was used for bagels that are spread more heavily with filling. The smaller hole from that method is supposed to keep the filling in better, and she wants me to use that method for my next batch.

 

Dave

 

Thanks!  Cathy's book shows both the rope and thumb-poke methods for forming the bagels.  Her results look similar in geometry with both methods but the thumb-poke certainly gives you more leeway in how wide you stretch the hole.  

 

Here's a video:

 

[Dave R]

Thank you for posting the video.

 

As she mentions, the rope method is supposed to give the crispy crust due to surface tension, but I'm going to try the poke method. I'll probably have to wait 'till next week, getting prepped to bake my regular loaves tomorrow along with pizza for supper.

 

Dave

[Dave R]

A little background, since this is my first bread post.

 

At the end of last year my wife got me a couple of USA pans because she wanted a pan rye loaf for sandwiches rather than my usual free form loaves baked on an oven stone. That’s about the only way I’ve baked for the last 20 years, except for rolls and griddle breads. Turns out that we ended up liking the pan loaves and since then I’ve resized my formulas to fit the loaf pans we got.

 

Including the rye recipe I make, I have four basic bread loaf formulas that I vary with different inclusions/additions based on availability, current taste and whim. Since I’ve started to use loaf pans I’ve made the addition of about 1.5% oil, just because I think pan loaves should have a little different crumb.

 

This is a variation of my regular Whole Wheat bread. This uses a poolish (which I grew up calling a starter and will use in the future) and is Bread Flour 61.29% Whole Wheat Flour 35.48%, and Rye Flour 3.23%. Went a little overboard with the additions. The additions I made to this are 1.2 oz polenta (corn grits) cooked and 1 oz toasted ground pistachio nuts. It’s a pretty dense but very tasty bread. Great for dinner or for toasting in the morning.

 

Not sure if there’s interest in this, but for the flours I used Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour (new to me), Wheat Montana Bronze Chief whole wheat, and Bob’s Red Mill dark rye. Like most of you, I take what I can get on the local shelves, although the Red Mill Bread Flour seems to be a really nice flour.

 

Well, enough of my rambling, here’s some pictures.
Dave