The Bread Topic (2016–)

[paulpegg]

I haven't been here in a while. Around Thanksgiving a friend gave me a batch of 100 year old sourdough starter that has been passed down in his family. This got me interested and I have been making big, no-knead breads since then. This week I decided to try something else so I mixed up a standard batch of 600 gm KA Bread Flour, a splash of salt and 100 gm each of chopped walnuts, raisins and dried cherries. Added 200 gm of recently fed starter and about 400 gm water, stirred it up and let it sit for a day in the garage. It was sticky as all get out so I folded it a few times,  poured it onto a piece of parchment paper, let it rise again and then picked the whole thing up and put it into a 450F preheated cast iron dutch oven and put it in a 450F oven. After 20 minutes I took the lid off, stuck in the temperature probe and gave it another 20 minutes with the lid off. The crust wasn't as dark and I wanted when the temp got to 200F so I kept it in for a few more minutes until it got a nice color going. final temp was about 210F Talk about good!

 

[ElsieD]

24 minutes ago, paulpegg said:

I haven't been here in a while. Around Thanksgiving a friend gave me a batch of 100 year old sourdough starter that has been passed down in his family. This got me interested and I have been making big, no-knead breads since then. This week I decided to try something else so I mixed up a standard batch of 600 gm KA Bread Flour, a splash of salt and 100 gm each of chopped walnuts, raisins and dried cherries. Added 200 gm of recently fed starter and about 400 gm water, stirred it up and let it sit for a day in the garage. It was sticky as all get out so I folded it a few times,  poured it onto a piece of parchment paper, let it rise again and then picked the whole thing up and put it into a 450F preheated cast iron dutch oven and put it in a 450F oven. After 20 minutes I took the lid off, stuck in the temperature probe and gave it another 20 minutes with the lid off. The crust wasn't as dark and I wanted when the temp got to 200F so I kept it in for a few more minutes until it got a nice color going. final temp was about 210F Talk about good!

 

 

Oh dear God, i want some!

[cakewalk]

@paulpegg - do you notice a difference in flavor, texture or anything at all between breads with the old starter and those with the younger starter?

[heidih]

On 1/27/2018 at 1:44 PM, paulpegg said:

I haven't been here in a while. Around Thanksgiving a friend gave me a batch of 100 year old sourdough starter that has been passed down in his family. This got me interested and I have been making big, no-knead breads since then. This week I decided to try something else so I mixed up a standard batch of 600 gm KA Bread Flour, a splash of salt and 100 gm each of chopped walnuts, raisins and dried cherries. Added 200 gm of recently fed starter and about 400 gm water, stirred it up and let it sit for a day in the garage. It was sticky as all get out so I folded it a few times,  poured it onto a piece of parchment paper, let it rise again and then picked the whole thing up and put it into a 450F preheated cast iron dutch oven and put it in a 450F oven. After 20 minutes I took the lid off, stuck in the temperature probe and gave it another 20 minutes with the lid off. The crust wasn't as dark and I wanted when the temp got to 200F so I kept it in for a few more minutes until it got a nice color going. final temp was about 210F Talk about good!

 

 

Yes!  - with a salty funky cheese please

[Ann_T]

@paulpegg now if only you had left out the raisins I would be all over that loaf.  I love  that you were generous with the add-ins. (except the raisins)

 

Started a batch of Kaisers this morning.   Destined for Hamburger buns tonight and hopefully pulled pork sandwiches tomorrow.

Proofing

First batch out of the little CSO.

 

 

[Eric Srikandan]

2 hours ago, Ann_T said:

@paulpegg now if only you had left out the raisins I would be all over that loaf.  I love  that you were generous with the add-ins. (except the raisins)

 

Started a batch of Kaisers this morning.   Destined for Hamburger buns tonight and hopefully pulled pork sandwiches tomorrow.

Proofing

First batch out of the little CSO.

 

 

Those are beautiful! I'm not ready for such intricacies yet but on my list. What recipe did you use?

[Ann_T]

1 hour ago, Eric Srikandan said:

Those are beautiful! I'm not ready for such intricacies yet but on my list. What recipe did you use?

@Eric Srikandan, you can find the recipe on my blog here.

 

You are definitely ready for this recipe.  It really is simple and can be made from start to finish in around 4 hours.  

[Eric Srikandan]

9 hours ago, Ann_T said:

@Eric Srikandan, you can find the recipe on my blog here.

 

You are definitely ready for this recipe.  It really is simple and can be made from start to finish in around 4 hours. 

The knotting worried me, but the directions linked in the blog are very helpful! Something to try this weekend, And thank you for the confidence boost :-)

 

[Ann_T]

Same day bread.  Handmixed a 500g batch at 70% hydration in the morning before leaving for work.  

My son pulled it out of the fridge around 4:00 PM so I could make pizza for dinner.

Enough dough left for a 10" Batard, baked in the CSO on the Bread Setting. 

Came out of the oven just before bed so wasn't sliced until morning. 

Makes great toast.

[Shelby]

@cyalexa's buns

 

[BetD]

5 hours ago, Shelby said:

@cyalexa's buns

 

 

These are things of beauty!

Edited February 6, 2018 by BetD
Grammer-err (log)

[Duvel]

Improvised "Four grain bread" - 50% wheat, each 16.6% rye, spelt and emmer. 12h poolish, 70% hydration with 1/3 of the water substituted with home-made yoghurt for a bit of tang, 4h bulk ferment with three stretch-and-fold cycles at room temperature. Baked at 250 oC in a preheated Dutch oven for 15 min, then 30 min without the lid at 200 oC.

Moist open crumb with a very crunchy crust; great nutty flavour. Will continue to work on this one ...

 

Edited February 10, 2018 by Duvel (log)

[Ann_T]

@Shelby, I'm not familiar with Cyalexa buns, but I think I need to make them.  

 

I resuscitated my sourdough starter recently. It had been neglected for many months.   Took three feedings to bring it back to health.

Baked a batch last week to which I added a pinch of yeast for insurance, just in case. 

 

Yesterday's bake was from a batch of dough made on Wednesday. No yeast this time.

 

Moe took the dough of the fridge for me so it would be ready to work shortly after I got home from work.

Baked two boules last night and 

sliced this morning.

 

[Smithy]

10 hours ago, Ann_T said:

@Shelby, I'm not familiar with Cyalexa buns, but I think I need to make them.  

 

The post where @cyalexa posted her recipe for hamburger and hot dog buns is here. [If the link takes you to the bottom of the page, then go to The Bread Topic, (2014 - 2015), page 21, Aug. 15, 2015] 

 

She made a slight correction in the instructions here (Aug. 17, 2015).

 

[Okanagancook]

Thanks @Smithy.  I finally put that one in my cookbook notes.  I will be trying these as soon as I am off my diet!

[Ann_T]

Thanks @Smithy.

[kayb]

I think I'm going to call this one "forgotten bread." It's the Classic White Bread recipe from the SoNo Baking Company cookbook. I made up a batch of dough yesterday morning, put it in the microwave to rise (microwave serves as a proofing box more than it does a microwave) and promptly forgot it. Got back to it about 4 p.m., some eight hours later. Punched it down, put it back in the microwave. Discovered it when I got up this morning. Oops. Shaped it into a loaf, put it in a pan, let it rise for another hour, and at least remembered to bake it.

 

 

 

The extended rise didn't seem to hurt it, amazingly. It has a very yeasty taste, which is not a bad thing for me. It's a very soft bread, but it's still pretty sturdy. I think it'll make some primo sandwiches or breakfast toast. 

 

In the interest of good, fresh bread for sandwiches and toast, I sliced the entire loaf, interleaved the slices with waxed paper, put it in a plastic bag and stuck it in the freezer as soon as it cooled.

 

[cakewalk]

Top hat and tails on this one! From Bouchon Bakery cookbook, it contains almost equal amounts of starter and flour. I thought that was a little weird. But when I fed my starter it was so bubbly I felt I had to make bread right now! It does have a nice tang,  (He also adds 1/8 tsp of yeast.) This could have proofed for another half hour or so, but I was tired and just wanted to bake it already and go to bed. Sliced into it this morning. It's good, but it's a bit too chewy for me. I'm sure it will make nice toast. I always find that to be a disappointment. Even bad bread makes nice toast! If I bake a loaf of bread, I want it to be good bread! I think a lack of patience is the worst ingredient in any kitchen. But still, I think I'll have another slice. 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, cakewalk said:

I think a lack of patience is the worst ingredient in any kitchen. But still, I think I'll have another slice. 

 You are so right on the patience.  It is my downfall all too often. 

[kayb]

I've been immersed in medieval Scotland, doing some genealogy, so I took the notion I'd make some bannocks.

 

Learned there are a bajillion different varieties of bannocks, from essentially a cracker to other unleavened breads to pancake-like things. But I thought I wanted yeasted bannocks, so I found a recipe for same. Then I took a notion to make them a breakfast dish, so I added browned breakfast sausage and grated co-jack cheese.

 

Patted them out, cut them like scones, and baked. I'll freeze a couple to a bag, and have them for upcoming breakfasts. They're pretty good.

[ElsieD]

12 minutes ago, kayb said:

I've been immersed in medieval Scotland, doing some genealogy, so I took the notion I'd make some bannocks.

 

Learned there are a bajillion different varieties of bannocks, from essentially a cracker to other unleavened breads to pancake-like things. But I thought I wanted yeasted bannocks, so I found a recipe for same. Then I took a notion to make them a breakfast dish, so I added browned breakfast sausage and grated co-jack cheese.

 

Patted them out, cut them like scones, and baked. I'll freeze a couple to a bag, and have them for upcoming breakfasts. They're pretty good.

 

 

In what way is the recipe you used different from say, a white sandwich bread recipe?  From the description, yeasted bannock reminds me of Newfoundland's toutons, which I love.

[kayb]

53 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

 

In what way is the recipe you used different from say, a white sandwich bread recipe?  From the description, yeasted bannock reminds me of Newfoundland's toutons, which I love.

 

It differs very little, other than the addition of a cup of dry, rolled oats. The recipe I used is here. I used brown sugar instead of white, upped it to 1/2 cup because it seemed to me that'd sit well with the sausage and cheese, and, as mentioned, kneaded in the browned breakfast sausage and grated cheese (about 8 oz of the first, about 4 oz of the second). Very little taste of either in the finished product, which was quite good. I had one split open and toasted with butter for breakfast.

 

 

[Norm Matthews]

I baked my usual sour dough bread in my new-ish gas oven using the lower oven for the first time for bread.  The center came out perfectly baked but the crust was much darker and a little crustier than usual. Not that that is bad, just unexpected.  The only thing I can think that I did differently is put the egg wash on the crust a little heavier than usual. Oh another thing was I forgot to put some water in there for a little steam. I guess I will have to try some different things with this oven to see what makes a difference. 

[Anna N]

That is gorgeous looking bread @Norm Matthews.

[ElsieD]

12 minutes ago, Norm Matthews said:

I baked my usual sour dough bread in my new-ish gas oven using the lower oven for the first time for bread.  The center came out perfectly baked but the crust was much darker and a little crustier than usual. Not that that is bad, just unexpected.  The only thing I can think that I did differently is put the egg wash on the crust a little heavier than usual. Oh another thing was I forgot to put some water in there for a little steam. I guess I will have to try some different things with this oven to see what makes a difference. 

Beautiful bread, Norm!