The Bread Topic (2016–)

[liuzhou]

Just now, PatrickT said:

Looks and sounds delicious! 😋 Can you please post a pic of the crumb when you slice it? Curious to see how dense it is. 

 

 

Will do. It arrived just after I finished dinner, so probably tomorrow. By the weight, though, I guess rather dense. The bread; not me!

 

[PatrickT]

4 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

By the weight, though, I guess rather dense. The bread; not me!

 

🤣

 

Thank you! And is that an egg wash on that, do you suppose?

[liuzhou]

1 minute ago, PatrickT said:

 

🤣

 

Thank you! And is that an egg wash on that, do you suppose?

 

That or something similar.

[PatrickT]

I wonder if this might be a loaf version of "Bulochki" - a Russian sweet bun made with raisins? I found this recipe on YouTube for Bulochki. When you have a chance to cut it and taste it, I'd be curious to know if it sounds like this might be close to the dough in your bread.

[liuzhou]

10 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

 

Will do. It arrived just after I finished dinner, so probably tomorrow. By the weight, though, I guess rather dense. The bread; not me!

 

 

Here you go. The inside.

 

 

[PatrickT]

46 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Here you go. The inside.

Did NOT expect the swirl! Very cool - thank you. The dough looks pretty much the same as the vid to me. Might have to try this sometime!

[PatrickT]

First focaccia. I would have preferred a more consistently airy crumb, but the flavors are just outstanding. This is roasted garlic, green onions, black cherry tomatoes, black olives, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, olive oil and basil. The tomatoes and basil are from our garden. 
 

 

[PatrickT]

Roasted red pepper sourdough mini loaf with shredded Parmesan Reggiano cheese. I made this with “lunchbox peppers” from our neighbor’s garden. They are very small, bright red peppers that have a bell pepper shape and are as sweet as sugar. Absolutely incredible aroma and flavor with this loaf! Will definitely make this again.

 

 

[Smithy]

6 hours ago, PatrickT said:

Roasted red pepper sourdough mini loaf with shredded Parmesan Reggiano cheese. I made this with “lunchbox peppers” from our neighbor’s garden. They are very small, bright red peppers that have a bell pepper shape and are as sweet as sugar. Absolutely incredible aroma and flavor with this loaf! Will definitely make this again.

 

 

 

Beautiful! Did you do anything to the peppers aside from cutting them and removing the seeds? I'm thinking of blanching, roasting, peeling or nothing at all....? They look great in there.

[heidih]

26 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

Beautiful! Did you do anything to the peppers aside from cutting them and removing the seeds? I'm thinking of blanching, roasting, peeling or nothing at all....? They look great in there.

It sure looks beautiful I agree. He did call it "roasted red pepper loaf" 

[PatrickT]

@Smithy @heidih Thank you both! I cut the peppers in half, seeded them (and saved the seeds so I can try growing some myself next year 😃), roasted them in the oven and then puréed them with a drizzle of olive oil (but forgot to remove the skins - newbie mistake). They were incredibly flavorful!

[heidih]

37 minutes ago, PatrickT said:

@Smithy @heidih Thank you both! I cut the peppers in half, seeded them (and saved the seeds so I can try growing some myself next year 😃), roasted them in the oven and then puréed them with a drizzle of olive oil (but forgot to remove the skins - newbie mistake). They were incredibly flavorful!

Good move on seed saving!  Some of those small peppers have a thin skin so no harm in not removing.

[PatrickT]

7 hours ago, heidih said:

Some of those small peppers have a thin skin so no harm in not removing.

These were noticeable in the final purée, so I just finely chopped up the ones that remained. More vitamins! 😂

[Ann_T]

On 8/23/2023 at 3:50 PM, liuzhou said:

 

Here you go. The inside.

 

 

 I wasn't expecting the swirls either.   Raisins fall into the same category as carrots for me, BUT Moe would love your bread.   

 

On 8/24/2023 at 8:30 AM, PatrickT said:

First focaccia. I would have preferred a more consistently airy crumb, but the flavors are just outstanding. This is roasted garlic, green onions, black cherry tomatoes, black olives, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, olive oil and basil. The tomatoes and basil are from our garden. 
 

@PatrickT, great looking focaccia and wonderful toppings.  I love this photo. 

 

 

[Ann_T]

 

Fed both of my starters yesterday morning and made a sourdough Levain

with some of the discard. 

 

 

They had all more than doubled and the levain was ready to go into

a batch of dough.  

 

Left dough out on the counter until just after 3:00 AM.

Eight early morning sourdough baguettes. 

Sliced while still slightly warm.

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by Ann_T (log)

[Deephaven]

After reading a ton on thibeaultstable (thanks for the link and efforts Ann!) I followed Ann_T's overnight proof from 9pm to 4am although I flipped mine to 9am to 4pm and then baked fresh for dinner.

 

 

It turned out rather well for a guy who has only shaped tubular breads twice before with a much higher failure rate.

 

Basic recipe was 500g flour, 315g water (63%), 15gram salt (3%) and 1 gram of yeast.  My kitchen was a bit cold for such a little amount of yeast so at 1:30pm I put the dough in my oven with the light on to speed up the proofing.  It was perhaps still a little underproofed when I let it fly in the oven.  That's on me and my house though.

 

I do have a question on your hydration choice Ann.  I see in your blog that you have tried lots of different hydrations and seems to have you settled at 63% (if I read  things in the right order anyways), but have also done  upwards of 70% for baguettes.  I had a difficult time stretching this dough for the stretch and folds.  Wondering if I need more hydration to make that easier.  I had to pick up the dough ball and literally pull on it to stretch.  I am used to doing gravity coil folds on my sour doughs, but there I rarely go under 80% and often am in the 90% range of hydration so they are super droopy.  That being said I've done no experimentation with hydration and see you have.  Wondering what changed when you did.  I expect that perhaps I am using stronger flour (I used 14.2% protein Sir Lancelot bread flour) which made the stretch and folds difficult?  Any thoughts?

 

The overnight or one day ferment is genius btw.  Lots of times I don't think far enough ahead in my cooking.  Thank you!!

[Ann_T]

6 hours ago, Deephaven said:

It turned out rather well for a guy who has only shaped tubular breads twice before with a much higher failure rate.

 

Basic recipe was 500g flour, 315g water (63%), 15gram salt (3%) and 1 gram of yeast.  My kitchen was a bit cold for such a little amount of yeast so at 1:30pm I put the dough in my oven with the light on to speed up the proofing.  It was perhaps still a little underproofed when I let it fly in the oven.  That's on me and my house though.

 

I do have a question on your hydration choice Ann.  I see in your blog that you have tried lots of different hydrations and seems to have you settled at 63% (if I read  things in the right order anyways), but have also done  upwards of 70% for baguettes.  I had a difficult time stretching this dough for the stretch and folds.  Wondering if I need more hydration to make that easier.  I had to pick up the dough ball and literally pull on it to stretch.  I am used to doing gravity coil folds on my sour doughs, but there I rarely go under 80% and often am in the 90% range of hydration so they are super droopy.  That being said I've done no experimentation with hydration and see you have.  Wondering what changed when you did.  I expect that perhaps I am using stronger flour (I used 14.2% protein Sir Lancelot bread flour) which made the stretch and folds difficult?  Any thoughts?

 

The overnight or one day ferment is genius btw.  Lots of times I don't think far enough ahead in my cooking.  Thank you!!

 

I'd say that your baguettes turned out way better than just "well".   Great crust and crumb.     

I vary the hydration.  I've even gone over 70%. This batch was at 80%. 

 

But I prefer between 63% and 68%.  I still get the same crumb and the dough is easier to work with at the lower hydration.  I started a 1000g this morning with just 2g of yeast at 68%.  It went into the fridge and will come out tonight and be baked in the morning.  

 

Also, depending on your flour and the weather conditions you might have to add more water.   If the dough is feeling  stiff and difficult while I'm doing the initial mix, stretch and folds, I add a bit more water.  And I wet my hand in between each of the stretch and folds. 

 

The flour I use is from  Canadian wheat and it is a commercial flour from Rogers Flour.  

[Deephaven]

Thank you.  Easier to work with I get.  I didn't really need flour at any step along the way outside of a very minimal amount at final shaping to make sure I didn't kill the tension.  I will try it up a few percent next time so I can get a little more stretch in my s&folds.

 

I am also curious on your approach with the fridge for the long ferment.  In your blog you state you put it in the fridge after the last stretch & fold.  How long before baking do you take it out?  If you have a multi-loaf dough do you split it and pre-shape right away or what's the process?  I've found with doing this with my pizza dough that my sweet spot is about 3 hours in my house.  Those balls I separate before putting in the fridge though and plan to experiment having it be in one big ball to save containers in the future...

 

I really appreciate the help.  Your posts here gave me the confidence to finally just go for it!

[MaryIsobel]

11 hours ago, Deephaven said:

After reading a ton on thibeaultstable (thanks for the link and efforts Ann!) I followed Ann_T's overnight proof from 9pm to 4am although I flipped mine to 9am to 4pm and then baked fresh for dinner.

 

 

It turned out rather well for a guy who has only shaped tubular breads twice before with a much higher failure rate.

 

Basic recipe was 500g flour, 315g water (63%), 15gram salt (3%) and 1 gram of yeast.  My kitchen was a bit cold for such a little amount of yeast so at 1:30pm I put the dough in my oven with the light on to speed up the proofing.  It was perhaps still a little underproofed when I let it fly in the oven.  That's on me and my house though.

 

I do have a question on your hydration choice Ann.  I see in your blog that you have tried lots of different hydrations and seems to have you settled at 63% (if I read  things in the right order anyways), but have also done  upwards of 70% for baguettes.  I had a difficult time stretching this dough for the stretch and folds.  Wondering if I need more hydration to make that easier.  I had to pick up the dough ball and literally pull on it to stretch.  I am used to doing gravity coil folds on my sour doughs, but there I rarely go under 80% and often am in the 90% range of hydration so they are super droopy.  That being said I've done no experimentation with hydration and see you have.  Wondering what changed when you did.  I expect that perhaps I am using stronger flour (I used 14.2% protein Sir Lancelot bread flour) which made the stretch and folds difficult?  Any thoughts?

 

The overnight or one day ferment is genius btw.  Lots of times I don't think far enough ahead in my cooking.  Thank you!!

Those look pretty darn professional and your timeline for proofing works a lot better for me than AnnT's (who I am convinced is part owl!)

[Deephaven]

I wasn't sure timing wise so I did make the dough at 6:15....s&f were done by 9.  Next time I will either use my proof setting or use 1.5g of yeast to get a bit more fermentation.  My test piece didn't quite even double and the flour was plenty strong for more.

 

I am definitely NOT part owl

[Maison Rustique]

12 hours ago, MaryIsobel said:

Those look pretty darn professional and your timeline for proofing works a lot better for me than AnnT's (who I am convinced is part owl!)

I don't think AnnT ever sleeps at all! I can't believe she does all this and holds a job, too!! Superwoman!!

[Ann_T]

17 hours ago, Deephaven said:

I am also curious on your approach with the fridge for the long ferment.  In your blog you state you put it in the fridge after the last stretch & fold.  How long before baking do you take it out?  If you have a multi-loaf dough do you split it and pre-shape right away or what's the process?  I've found with doing this with my pizza dough that my sweet spot is about 3 hours in my house.  Those balls I separate before putting in the fridge though and plan to experiment having it be in one big ball to save containers in the future...

 

I really appreciate the help.  Your posts here gave me the confidence to finally just go for it!

I usually take a  dough  out of the fridge at least 7 to 8 hours to give it time to warm up and continue rising.

I have a batch  (1000g flour)  in the fridge that went in yesterday morning immediately after its last stretch and fold

and it will stay in the fridge until 8:00 PM tonight.   It should be ready to start shaping around 3:00 AM.  

When I take that one out I will put another batch in.   I often leave them in the fridge for up to 5 days.  

On my days off work, I might take a dough out in the morning and leave it on the counter all day and bake late afternoon early evening.

Or I might just make a dough and give it a long room temperature fermentation and bake later in the day. 

3 hours ago, Maison Rustique said:

I don't think AnnT ever sleeps at all! I can't believe she does all this and holds a job, too!! Superwoman!!

I do sleep, and get 5 to 6 hours between the hours of 9 and 3.   Even if I go to bed late, I'm still awake by 3:00.

So I might as well bake. 😀

[PatrickT]

@Ann_T - couple of quick questions for you. When you make your pizzas:

 

1. What’s the total flour weight for your batch of dough?

 

2. How many pizzas does that make?

 

3. Roughly what size are they?

 

Thank you in advance! 😃

[Ann_T]

19 hours ago, PatrickT said:

1. What’s the total flour weight for your batch of dough?

I use the same dough for baguettes as pizza.

My normal batch of dough is 1000g of flour.

 

When making a dough just for pizza, I usually make a 500g batch.  Matt likes to make large pizzas 16" to 17" and uses 450 to 500g of the dough

leaving around 340/350 for a smaller pizza for Moe and I.  I don't like leftover pizza so I make just a 12 or 13" for Moe and I to share.   

Also if I'm baking our pizza in the Ooni, smaller is better.

 

19 hours ago, PatrickT said:

 

2. How many pizzas does that make?

Depending on the size of pizza you prefer, a 1000g flour batch of dough will make anywhere from 3/4 of the 16/17" pizzas for 4/5 of the smaller 12/13" pizzas. 

 

Hope this makes sense. 

[PatrickT]

22 minutes ago, Ann_T said:

Hope this makes sense. 

Yes - perfect! Thank you so much. 🙏