The Bread Topic (2016–)

[Smithy]

2 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Today I made Jim Lahey's Milk Bread per the recipe that @PatrickTlinked to.  I'm not sure why it has a bit of a yellow tint (in real life it isn't quite this yellow)  but I can say it's delicious.   I plan to scale the recipe up to fit my 13" Pullman pan as i'll be making it again.

 

How does the Pullman pan affect the texture? I imagine the bubbles being smaller because of the confinement of the loaf. Is that considered during the scaling-up process?

[Katie Meadow]

Over the last thirty years i've waffled on buying a stand mixer. But my husband suddenly decided he needed one and spent all of thirty seconds completing the purchase. This all happened because he came home with a Vidalia onion and we had the idea of making James Beard's famous onion sandwich. My husband bakes bread, but has always been happy to knead it by hand. However the sandwich pretty much requires brioche bread, which he's never made. He concluded that the kneading time for brioche justified the purchase of a mixer.  First try was a Julia Child recipe and it was pretty good, but we agreed the taste was a bit blah, although it did make very good French toast this morning. Does anyone have a great go-to recipe for a brioche loaf? 

Edited May 29, 2023 by Katie Meadow (log)

[PatrickT]

5 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

Does anyone have a great go-to recipe for a brioche loaf? 

 

I have always wanted to try making brioche but have been intimidated by all of the steps and all of the mixing. After buying my Ankarsrum mixer, I had resolved that I was eventually going to give it a try. I haven't done so yet and wouldn't you know, earlier this month, Chainbaker posted a recipe and video for making a full-fledged brioche loaf with NO preferments, NO mixing and NO kneading! 😂 It looks ridiculously easy and the crumb is as pillowy soft as any I've seen. I obviously can't speak to the flavor of it - but I imagine it's delicious. 

 

I'm going to give it a whirl this week and will post pictures and my thoughts here when I do.

[lindag]

I'd recommend KAF.  Though I've never made brioche their recipes are very reliable.  Check the French Toast Brioche recipe.

[lindag]

11 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Today I made Jim Lahey's Milk Bread per the recipe that @PatrickTlinked to.  I'm not sure why it has a bit of a yellow tint (in real life it isn't quite this yellow)  but I can say it's delicious.   I plan to scale the recipe up to fit my 13" Pullman pan as i'll be making it again.

Good to know, I'm going to try it too.

[lindag]

8 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

. Does anyone have a great go-to recipe for a brioche loaf? 

 

 

 

this looks like a good one.Serious Eats Brioche

Edited May 29, 2023 by lindag
Forgot to add the link! (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, lindag said:

 

 

 

this looks like a good one.Serious Eats Brioche

Wow. What a great article. It's a great description of the science behind the baking of a good brioche. It also explains all the failures that I have ever had when I tried to make brioche and makes it clear to me that with the ingredients available to me here I can never hope to have any success whatsoever. So for the foreseeable future I will stick to my own recipe for Light Brioche Bread. It's not as buttery nor is it as finally grained but I don't suffer the frustrations that I have had trying to make brioche.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[lindag]

@Shelby

I'd love to see your new mixer.

[ElsieD]

14 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

How does the Pullman pan affect the texture? I imagine the bubbles being smaller because of the confinement of the loaf. Is that considered during the scaling-up process?

As per the recipe, this dough was to rise "to the top of the rim of the pan".  I let it rise until it touched the lid, then baked it.  Following the same procedure for baking a 13" loaf, I expect the result to he the same.  We are very pleased with this bread and I hope the larger loaf will turn out the same way.   

 

 

[Ann_T]

This was an interesting bake.

Yesterday morning I fed both of my starters.

Rather than start a preferment, I just tossed 60g of discard into each of two - 1000g batches of flour along with less than 1g of yeast (1/4 tsp).  

 

Finished the last stretch and fold before 10AM and assumed that the dough would be a slow rise

but should be ready to start shaping around 4 or 5 PM. It was not. 

At 6:00 PM, I cut off a 500g piece for Matt because he had been planning to make a pizza for dinner.   

Reshaped the remaining dough and put it back into the container. 

It still wasn't ready by 10 and besides, since I'm up usually before 3:00 AM,

I wasn't going to start baking at 10 anyway so I just left if on the counter and assumed,

either it would be good to go by 2 or 3 AM, after a 17 hour counter fermentation or it would be a dud and I would just toss it. 

 

Checked it at 2:15 and it had risen to more than double and looked good. 

So I divided it into five pieces,  preshaped it, left it for 20 minutes and then finished shaping and then let it proof for 90 minutes. 

 

Baked 5 baguettes.  

 

Sliced one while still slightly warm and the other half is now in the 

toaster oven. 

 

The second batch went into the fridge to be baked sometime in the next couple of days. 

[ElsieD]

I don't know where to put this but since it involves bread, I'll put it here.  For sandwich bread, I usually make my own.  The other day I made Jim Lahey's no-knead milk bread and it is the best bread I've made except maybe Japanese milk bread.  I slice and freeze the loaf and take the slices out as I need it.  I have, in the past, purchased two items to help me slice bread evenly and they work, sort of, but even with those two tools my slicing skills are lacking.  As I'm standing there looking at that loaf John suggested using the meat slicer.  What the heck, I thought, I'll give it a go.  I got perfect, evenly sliced bread.  The slicer can not only slice a loaf of bread perfectly, but it is fast and, of course, you can control the thickness.  If you have a meat slicer and bake your own bread, you should give it a go.

[PatrickT]

32 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

The slicer can not only slice a loaf of bread perfectly, but it is fast and, of course, you can control the thickness.  If you have a meat slicer and bake your own bread, you should give it a go.

So glad you shared this. I first learned about this from FoodGeek on YouTube. I asked him how he always got such perfectly uniform slices in his pictures. You guessed it - he uses a meat slicer! 
 

Now all I need is to buy one. 😂

[PatrickT]

Results from ChainBaker’s No Knead Brioche recipe. Overall, I’m very pleased. Flavor and crust are excellent. Crumb is soft but not as pillowy as I would like. Next time, I would try using regular bread flour, instead of the Central Milling Old World Bread Flour that I used here. From a process point of view, this recipe could not have been easier. Highly recommended - especially for first time brioche bakers like me. 😃

 

 

[Ann_T]

@PatrickT lovely Brioche loaf. Love all your seeds.  I know this is something that both Moe and Matt would enjoy.

 

This dough had been in the fridge since Tuesday morning.

It was started with just 60g of discard and less than 1 g of yeast.

It was in the fridge until Friday at 11:30 AM and left out on the counter until 4:00 AM this morning.

So for about 16 1/2 hours.

Based on the other dough that was started the same time on Tuesday but left out rather than refrigerated,

that took 17 hours to more than double, I knew that this one was going to be slow as well.

So I planned accordingly.

 

Shaped four small batards.

Started each one under the Spun Iron Cloche for 20 minutes and then finished uncovered.

Last one was out of the oven before 7:30 AM.

[PatrickT]

8 hours ago, Ann_T said:

@PatrickT lovely Brioche loaf. Love all your seeds.  I know this is something that both Moe and Matt would enjoy.

 

Thank you, Ann! Your batards are gorgeous - love the oven spring you always get with them.

[PatrickT]

Aesthetically, this loaf was not my finest hour. 😂 That said, it is positively delicious and I learned something I will definitely add to other loaves I bake. 
 

This is Country Italian sourdough from Maurizio Leo’s The Perfect Loaf cookbook (a recent James Beard Award winner). It utilizes an overnight stiff starter as the leavening agent, includes durum flour in the mix, and adds a wheat bran topping on the loaf before it’s placed in the banneton for the final proof. No overnight cold retard needed for this loaf - it is meant to be baked same day.

 

The crust, thanks to the added bran, is delightfully crunchy. The crumb is moist, tender and positively delicious. That bran topping is a bit of a game changer for me. So simple and a great way to add a different finish to the crust that I hope to use with many other loaves in the future.

 

A friend who saw this bake after returning from a trip to Italy remarked that it looked exactly like the bread they ate everywhere while there. Give this one a try - you’ll thank yourself for doing so! 😃

 

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by PatrickT (log)

[rotuts]

@PatrickT 

 

Im sorry to hear your loaf ' was not your finest hour.

 

I might be able to help :   Ill take all your lesser hours  off your hands

 

so you can keep your eye on the Prize.

[PatrickT]

2 hours ago, rotuts said:

@PatrickT 

 

Im sorry to hear your loaf ' was not your finest hour.

 

I might be able to help :   Ill take all your lesser hours  off your hands

 

so you can keep your eye on the Prize.

🤣 Very kind offer - thank you! That is one great aspect of this little hobby, isn’t it? The missteps invariably taste as good as the standouts! 😋

[Ann_T]

@PatrickT you can't be looking at the same loaf I am looking at.  

I love that look of that loaf.  And great crumb. 

 I need to start adding adding toppings to my loaves.   Really makes a difference.    

 

 

I have often said, especially to anyone that wants to get into baking bread and is afraid of it, that it is very difficult to screw up.

Even it if doesn’t come out looking perfect, it will still taste good.

That said, last night’s bake, should not have turned out at all.

I started a batch of dough before bed Thursday night.

My intention was to leave it out on the counter overnight like I usually do and it would be ready to go between 3:00 and 4:00 AM.

I’m always awake at the time so it is a good time to bake.

This batch was 1000g of flour, 50g of starter that had been in the fridge since the last time it was fed, so for a week, 1 ½ g of yeast and 650g of water.

I got up at midnight and noticed that the dough was ready to blow the top off of the 6 qt container.

Apparently I didn’t need that little bit of yeast.

The starter would have been sufficient. Since I wasn’t going to start baking at midnight, I put it in the fridge and went back to bed.

I was working yesterday so I had Matt take the dough out of the fridge at 2:00PM thinking it would be warmed up and I could bake after we had dinner.

The fermentation really had been too long and the dough did not look promising. Very soft.

It wasn’t until I was shaping the loaves, that I started to think that I didn’t remembering adding salt to the dough.

Wasn't sure so would have to wait to see.

I debated just tossing the batch, but decided what did I have to lose.

Shaped three smaller boules and three baguettes. Wasn’t looking good.

The loaves were not holding their shape well and were spreading out rather than rising.

Went ahead anyway and started the three boules under the iron cloche.

Was pleasantly surprised when I lifted the cloche to find that they had great oven spring .

As for forgetting the salt I wasn’t too concerned.

My grandparents lived next door.

My grandfather was on a salt free diet in his older years and my grandmother would order special salt free white loaves from a local bakery.

As a kid, I loved that bread, sliced, buttered and sprinkled with salt.

So I did definitely forgot the salt, but as you can see the bread turned out well, great shine on the crumb,

the taste is wonderful , just a nice hint of sourdough and when buttered and sprinkled

with salt, brings back wonderful memories of my beloved grandparents.

So see, it really is difficult to screw up bread.

[PatrickT]

2 hours ago, Ann_T said:

@PatrickT you can't be looking at the same loaf I am looking at.  

I love that look of that loaf.  And great crumb. 

 I need to start adding adding toppings to my loaves.   Really makes a difference. 

 

Thank you very kindly, @Ann_T! Toppings really do make a big difference in the appearance and flavor of breads.

 

Your baking story is both wonderful and inspiring. Thanks for sharing it - and your results! Gorgeous, as always. 😃

[Tropicalsenior]

As promised, or threatened in the dinner thread, my Sunday meat bun is Char Siu Bao.

I haven't tried one yet but they look pretty good.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[PatrickT]

15 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

As promised, or threatened in the dinner thread, my Sunday meat bun is Char Siu Bao.

I haven't tried one yet but they look pretty good.

Gorgeous bake @Tropicalsenior! 😍

[Tropicalsenior]

Thank you. It didn't take me long to cut into one and it was delicious. This recipe comes closest to the ones that we used to get in the International District of Seattle. They were always well worth a special trip into Seattle to get.

I used up the extra dough that I had but my Kaiser rolls need a little work.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

23 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

the ones that we used to get in the International District of Seattle

I looked up on the internet the place that we used to go for these. It was called The Piece of Cake, a little Chinese bakery that was outstanding. My grandson said that he had been there about a year ago. I was hoping to recommend it to anyone that might be in the Seattle area but to my dismay I found out that they closed for good on April 30th citing the increasing cost of doing business and the encroachment of chain bakeries. My grandson is going to be very sad to hear this. He had been going there for over 35 years.

[Tropicalsenior]

Well, this is my sourdough bake from yesterday. I know that my method and my recipe would make true sourdough Bakers throw up their hands in horror but it works for me. I am going more for texture and taste and after much trial and error I have finally reached exactly what I want. A sandwich loaf that has a soft interior and baguettes that have a soft interior and a chewy not hard crust. The shaping leaves something to be desired and I still have to work on that but the taste is definitely just what I want.