The Bread Topic (2016–)

[PatrickT]

Today's bake, celebrating several personal firsts:

• First attempt with a mixed flour sourdough (80% bread flour, 15% whole wheat, 5% dark rye)
• First time using a levain (50/50 bread flour and whole wheat, along with a bit of my normal starter)
• First batard
• First time cooking in a Pampered Chef stoneware Dutch Oven, which I snagged from Goodwill for $2.99 😂

I'm pleased with the way this turned out.

 

 

[heidih]

12 minutes ago, PatrickT said:

Today's bake, celebrating several personal firsts:

• First attempt with a mixed flour sourdough (80% bread flour, 15% whole wheat, 5% dark rye)
• First time using a levain (50/50 bread flour and whole wheat, along with a bit of my normal starter)
• First batard
• First time cooking in a Pampered Chef stoneware Dutch Oven, which I snagged from Goodwill for $2.99 😂

I'm pleased with the way this turned out.

 

 

Congrats - that is a lot of firsts and sounds like successful.  Ah the simple joy of flour + water + yeast + time

[PatrickT]

13 hours ago, heidih said:

Congrats - that is a lot of firsts and sounds like successful.  Ah the simple joy of flour + water + yeast + time

 

Thanks for your kind words, @heidih - really appreciate that. I only wish I would have discovered the "simple joy" you refer to earlier in my life. Then again, perhaps it really is best to save the best things for last. 😉 Cheers!

[Dave R]

@PatrickTreally nice looking loaf! 

 

I've never baked in any sort of vessel other than a bread pan, but it looks like it works very well for you. Money well spent at Goodwill.

 

Dave

[PatrickT]

34 minutes ago, Dave R said:

@PatrickTreally nice looking loaf! 

 

I've never baked in any sort of vessel other than a bread pan, but it looks like it works very well for you. Money well spent at Goodwill.

 

Dave

 

Thank you @Dave R! My wife reminded me that the dish was actually $4.99, but I consider it money well spent regardless. 😂 I appreciate your kind words! One of my upcoming projects is going to be trying to bake Japanese Milk Bread in one of your Pullman pans.

[Dave R]

@PatrickTI look forward to seeing your Japanese Milk Bread. Another thing that I've seen on forums lately that I've never done.

 

I'm still fooling around with my Pullman pan, trying to perfect it. I also look forward to seeing your loaf done in the pan. Hopefully you can pass along some tips.

 

Dave

[Ann_T]

@PatrickT That is a loaf to be proud of.  Love deals from Thrift shops.  Reminds me I have a 

Romertopf that I bought at a thrift shop and I can't remember but I am sure it was under $10.00.  Used it a few times to bake bread.

 

Started a batch of Baguette dough yesterday morning before work.

Used just 1g of yeast in 500g of flour, 320g of water and 12g of salt.

Used the food processor again. 

Processed 45 seconds in FP and did two stretch and folds before leaving for work.

Left out on the counter for a longer slow fermentation.

Dough was ready to go by the time I got home at 5:30.

Baked three long baguettes.

Sliced this morning for breakfast.

[PatrickT]

1 hour ago, Dave R said:

@PatrickTI look forward to seeing your Japanese Milk Bread... Hopefully you can pass along some tips.

 

Dave

 

Hopefully I'll be able to produce an actual loaf! LOL Your Pullman loaf was gorgeous!

[PatrickT]

24 minutes ago, Ann_T said:

Sliced this morning for breakfast.

 

Where is the "Simply Outrageous!" emoji?! 

 

That Romertopf is a little piece of art! Love it.

 

And thank you for your compliment on my loaf! 🙏

[ElsieD]

2 hours ago, PatrickT said:

 

Thank you @Dave R! My wife reminded me that the dish was actually $4.99, but I consider it money well spent regardless. 😂 I appreciate your kind words! One of my upcoming projects is going to be trying to bake Japanese Milk Bread in one of your Pullman pans.

 

I'll be curious to see how your bread turns out.  I have made Japanese Milk Bread but not baked it in the Pullman with the lid on.

[Dave R]

1 hour ago, PatrickT said:

 

Hopefully I'll be able to produce an actual loaf! LOL Your Pullman loaf was gorgeous!

@PatrickTThank you! I think some of that is because my wife is a good photographer.

 

I mentioned a while back that I have four basic weekly loaves and just add variations to them. This is the only one I haven't posted before. I call it Multi Grain so I can distinguish it from the others. This one is just cool enough to cut for lunch.

 

Like all if my loaves, I give it an overnight cold ferment. Unlike my other loaves it doesn't use a pre-ferment but has a soaker instead. The soaker can vary by what's available, but my usual ingredients are wheat germ, rolled oats and corn grits.

 

Dave

[PatrickT]

21 minutes ago, Dave R said:

This is the only one I haven't posted before. I call it Multi Grain

 

Wow @Dave R - that is a real looker! 👀 I may have to plead with you for that recipe, once I get my wheat legs under me. 😂

[Dave R]

1 hour ago, PatrickT said:

 

Wow @Dave R - that is a real looker! 👀 I may have to plead with you for that recipe, once I get my wheat legs under me. 😂

@PatrickTAlways glad to share. Let me know when you're ready.

 

Dave

Edited May 20, 2022 by Dave R (log)

[ElsieD]

23 hours ago, Dave R said:

@PatrickTThank you! I think some of that is because my wife is a good photographer.

 

I mentioned a while back that I have four basic weekly loaves and just add variations to them. This is the only one I haven't posted before. I call it Multi Grain so I can distinguish it from the others. This one is just cool enough to cut for lunch.

 

Like all if my loaves, I give it an overnight cold ferment. Unlike my other loaves it doesn't use a pre-ferment but has a soaker instead. The soaker can vary by what's available, but my usual ingredients are wheat germ, rolled oats and corn grits.

 

Dave

 

That is a beautiful loaf.  You don't by chance have those measurements in grams, do you?

[Dave R]

13 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

That is a beautiful loaf.  You don't by chance have those measurements in grams, do you?

Thank you @ElsieD! To convert to grams just multiply by 28.35.

 

Dave

[Ann_T]

I've mentioned often that I think that bread is very forgiving. Hard to screw up.

I started two batches of dough on Sunday morning before leaving for work.

 

One was a regular 500g batch with just 1 gram of yeast, 12 gr of salt and 315g of water for 63% hydration.

And it was mixed in the food processor for 45 seconds and then given two stretch and folds over an hour before being covered and left on the counter for an all day fermentation.

 

The second batch was processed the same way but instead of yeast, I used 50g of discard sourdough.

 

By the time I got home from work, I really didn't feel like baking but I didn't want to put the dough in the fridge

so I put it outside where the temperature was in the 50's overnight.

 

Brought it back into the house before 4:00 AM and left it on the counter to warm up a bit.

 

 

Shaped four demi baguettes from the yeast batch

and four slightly longer sourdough baguettes.

 

I wanted to be able to start most of them in the CSO on the bread steam function.

Ten minutes in CSO and then transferred to the stone in the main oven.

All but one of the sourdough baguettes fit on the stone in the CSO.

So that baguette was baked from start to finish in the conventional oven.

 

 

I did spray and add steam to the bake but as you will see the crust on the baguettes started in the CSO have a much superior shine to their crust.

 

 

I did have my doubts about leaving the batch for another 12 hours more or less at room temperature but both batches turned out well.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by Ann_T (log)

[PatrickT]

Your baguettes always bowl me over @Ann_T! They are like little art works. 😊 As much as you say bread is hard to screw up, I'll say that I'd have to work pretty hard to come close to replicating these without screwing them up! LOL

 

You should make a YouTube video showing how you make these - for the baguette newbies among us!

[Ann_T]

@PatrickT, thank you Patrick.

I'm not good when it comes to doing videos, but I have a blog post with pictures of how I shape.   It is what works for me. 

https://thibeaultstable.com/2020/04/02/shaping-baguettes-pictorial/

[PatrickT]

@Ann_T Very informative! Thank you so much for sharing - including the recipes for the bread/pizza dough. It all looks so delicious!

 

Edit: And one quick question, if I may. Roughly how long do you allow the dough to proof after the final shaping? Thank you!

Edited May 24, 2022 by PatrickT (log)

[Ann_T]

2 hours ago, PatrickT said:

@Ann_T Very informative! Thank you so much for sharing - including the recipes for the bread/pizza dough. It all looks so delicious!

 

Edit: And one quick question, if I may. Roughly how long do you allow the dough to proof after the final shaping? Thank you!

@PatrickT, I never go by time as it depends if the dough had been in the fridge for a cold fermentation.  Takes longer to warm up before shaping and sometimes longer to

proof.  Also, because I often use very little yeast,  the proofing can also take longer.   Anywhere from an hour to more than two.  Yesterdays yeast batch only had one gram of yeast so it was a very slow fermentation 

as well, even at room temperature.  Same for the sourdough batch. Just 50g of discarded starter.

 

 

[PatrickT]

Very good - thank you!

[Dave R]

@Ann_T Beautiful bread as always. And I'd also mention that your pictures are really nicely done!

 

I got a bargain on a new Lodge griddle and I've been making pita this morning to try it out. I have a very large round griddle that I usually use to make three at a time on. I'm not used to this griddle yet so I stuck with two. I usually make a batch of small ones (6") that fit in a toaster and we freeze and reheat them for lunches.

 

I use a yeasted starter (poolish) of whole wheat flour. It's small, only about 10% of the total flour, but it adds flavor and helps with extensibility when rolling them out. Pictures are sideways but you get the idea.

 

Dave

[PatrickT]

@Dave R That puff on the griddle is insane! 😃 Really awesome.

[Ann_T]

@PatrickT, are you familiar with Ken Forkish's finger dent test to determine "proofed"?

If not here is his video: 

 

 

[PatrickT]

1 minute ago, Ann_T said:

are you familiar with Ken Forkish's finger dent test to determine "proofed"?

 

@Ann_T I literally just watched that today in between my "stretches and folds" with your recipe! Thank you - it definitely helped.

 

Here's how mine turned out today. Not too shabby for a first go. It was outrageously good - AND - I was able to share one of the baguettes with a neighbor, whose daughter had just come over for dinner. I asked them to please give me honest feedback about what they thought of it. They texted me a few minutes after picking it up and said "We all agree on how you can improve the bread. Make bigger loaves!" 😂 So thank you, Ann! 😊

 

And check out the last pic. imagine my surprise when I spotted that at one of our local Goodwill stores tonight - for $3.99! So glad you posted a picture of yours. I had never heard of Romertopf until then and recognized the name immediately when I saw it on the shelf. Going to have to christen it with a loaf of something. Any suggestions?