The Bread Topic (2016–)

[dtremit]

2 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Here is a forum question.    How long does your home bake bread maintain its first day flavor and texture?    DH tires of our loaves in 24 hours.    Of course, they have value in different guises, but they lose their ethereal-ness early on.    I don't find this astonishing.   For me, after it loses it virginal bloom, I grill, toast and sop. 

 

Your opinions?

 

Really depends on the type of bread, for me. Most white flour, yeast-raised breads have pretty short staying power, with an edge to the enriched ones. But I find a lot of sourdough (particularly with whole grains) actually tastes better after resting a day.

 

I’m told that tangzhong helps a lot with keeping sandwich style loaves nice for longer, but I’ve only really used it in breads designed for it, so I can’t really compare.

[ElsieD]

Sometimes the second day is 95% as good as the first day, but that's about it.  I normally freeze bread the day I make it unless it is baked late in the day.

[Luke]

We have been baking bread out of Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast and what we have noticed is:

• Breads continue to develop flavor 24 to 48 hours after baking, particularly the large 1.5kg boules 
• The recipes with wholemeal/wholegrain remain moist for longer than recipes dominated by white flour
• The breads do not develop mold - we keep them in a pillow case/bread bag and eventually the scraps become croutons or bread crumbs once they dry out

My wife is also intolerant to Soy, and one would be amazed at how many commercial bakeries use Soy Flour in their bread recipes.

 

My next goal is to replicate Ann_T's Baguette's which look very enticing.

 

Cheers

Luke

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 

I vouchedsafe tonight's baguette a more aggressive bake.  Forty minutes as opposed to half an hour.  Mai tai is almost finished; and I shall assay the result with cheese and fruit.  Couple of new cheeses from amazon.

 

[Ann_T]

Tonight's bake.   Dough given 48 hour cold fermentation.

 

One pizza (on dinner thread) and seven small baguettes and one smaller boule baked in 3 litre Dutch Oven.

[Ann_T]

Finally got around to feeding my sourdough starter this week.

Fed it once to revive and a second time for good measure. Second time I used some of the discard in a 

Biga.  Handmixed a batch of dough on Friday morning before leaving for work and left it in the fridge until

yesterday afternoon.

Baked last night.

Sliced this morning. 

And a simple cheese pizza.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 

Remarkably round boule had run in with top elements of the CSO.  CSO won.

 

[Ann_T]

I decided after 1:00 PM yesterday afternoon to bake.

 

Since I still had baguettes, both regular and sourdough in the freezer, I went with

 

 

Hamburger and Hot dog buns. Used my Kaiser roll recipe. 

 

 

And while I was at it, I baked a couple of home-style white loaves requested by Matt.  

 

 

Sliced this morning.   Destined for BLT's for breakfast.

[andiesenji]

I just took this out of the big bread machine - 3 pound- Black & Decker.  It's the white bread from the machine's recipes and calls for 4 tablespoons dry whole milk powder.

It has to cool for at least an hour before I can cut it.

Note the photo of the bottom with just the two small holes from the drive shafts.

In this machine the last "knock-down" stir is with 1.47 on the timer so as soon at that sounds, I yank the dough, remove the paddles (two in this big pan), re-shape the dough and dump it back into the pan, close the lid and leave it alone.

In this batch, it had risen more than expected so I lopped off a piece about the size of a large orange and put it in a plastic bag int he fridge.  Good that I did because otherwise it would have pushed up the lid.  As it was, it had about 3/4 inch space and even with that one end of the top, nearest the opening, did not fully brown, even with the crust color set on dark.

It's difficult to tell just how large the loaf is when standing so I took one photo with it laying on the cooling rack.

 

Finally, a photo of the crumb and a slice that is twice the size of a regular bread slice.  

 

I don't know why Black & Decker discontinue the 3-pound machine but I love it.

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by andiesenji
Add one photo. (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 

The batard/baguette is destined for this morning's library potluck.  These days I can't get my boules to come out pretty.

 

[Ann_T]

Baked two pizzas and

 one baguette from a 500g dough. Came out of the oven just before bed last night.

Sliced this morning for breakfast. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 

 

 

Large aliquot of dough reserved for pizza.  Top of this week's boule unburned!  Baguette a little wonky.  Rum may sometimes do that.

 

[ptw1953]

I should know better than to cut shapes/patterns with a blunt Lame blade; especially when i have a pack of 12 brand spanking new blades within touching distance. But me? No siree, I do things my way (that is,  the daft way)...

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 minutes ago, ptw1953 said:

I should know better than to cut shapes/patterns with a blunt Lame blade; especially when i have a pack of 12 brand spanking new blades within touching distance. But me? No siree, I do things my way (that is,  the daft way)...

 

 

 

Touching them I would not advise.  Bread looks good to me.

 

[lindag]

7 hours ago, ptw1953 said:

I should know better than to cut shapes/patterns with a blunt Lame blade; especially when i have a pack of 12 brand spanking new blades within touching distance. But me? No siree, I do things my way (that is,  the daft way)...

 

 

It just looks....well, rustic.  actually quite nice.

[Ann_T]

13 hours ago, ptw1953 said:

I should know better than to cut shapes/patterns with a blunt Lame blade; especially when i have a pack of 12 brand spanking new blades within touching distance. But me? No siree, I do things my way (that is,  the daft way)...

 

 

 I like it.  Looks great to me.

I still had one 500g batch of dough in the fridge from Saturday.  Pulled it out early this morning and baked four baguettes.

 

Crumb shot.

 

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

14 hours ago, ptw1953 said:

I should know better than to cut shapes/patterns with a blunt Lame blade; especially when i have a pack of 12 brand spanking new blades within touching distance. But me? No siree, I do things my way (that is,  the daft way)...

 

 

 I think it's stunning!

[ElsieD]

Question:

 

I buy a bread called Belgian Bread from a local outfit called Farm Boy.  It is pretty much the only bread I buy any more and is used exclusively to make grilled cheese sandwiches.  There is no better bread.  It is a white bread that, when grilled, has a shatteringly crisp crust that stays that way until the very last bite, something no other bread I have had does.  The ingredient lists nothing unusual, and lists untreated unbleached wheat flour, filtered water, sea salt and yeast, so standard ingredients.  Does anyone have any idea why this bread would produce such a great grilled crust?  I'll love to be able to make it.

[ptw1953]

On 10/2/2019 at 9:53 PM, Margaret Pilgrim said:

 I think it's stunning!

@Margaret PilgrimI thank you for your kind words.

 

My initial displeasure with the Boule concerned not the shape, or taste, of it, but my cutting with the Lame. The lame blade was tearing the dough, rather than slitting smoothly. I was aiming for a shallow cut, but my first cut went deep (trying to be rid of the ragged edges on that cut). All other cuts then had to be the same depth.

 

Having looked at the photo of it, I am growing towards liking it very much. There is much work to be done on the cutting, but I think a huge improvement (in the number of diamonds at the sides/bottom of the Boule) is possible.

 

Perhaps another 10 Boules will see me happy with the pattern/cutting...

 

Philip

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by ptw1953 (log)

[heidih]

Well I am plebian at best. Finally defied  stepmom and made no knead dough today. Not allowed into fridge so gonna counter rest until tomorrow. My bday then so let thee baking begin! 

[ptw1953]

Happy birthday, when it comes, @heidih...

Edited October 4, 2019 by ptw1953 (log)

[Shelby]

Yes, Happy Birthday @heidih!!!  We are both Libras  

[heidih]

Well I may have  underdone the yeast so

 I think 2 days counter is probably good

[blue_dolphin]

I posted this over in the ancient yeast topic but that's only a relatively small part of this episode of Science Friday.   Francisco Migoya was the main guest and the segment may be of interest to our bread bakers so I'm copying my post here:

 

11 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

The second segment of today's Science Friday on NPR was about bread baking.  Both Francisco Migoya, co-author of Modernist Bread, and Seamus Blackley were guests.  I thought Francisco did a great job answering bread baking queries from the audience.  

He sounded a bit skeptical about the whole ancient yeast business.  He asked Seamus if they had identified the yeast strain(s) and he said they didn't know yet.  I rather wish he'd been given the opportunity to interrogate further. 

 

You can listen at this link. 

Edited October 4, 2019 by blue_dolphin (log)

[lemniscate]

I had some no-knead dough languishing in the fridge and needed to use it or lose it.   I decided to try twisted breadstick style.  Worked out well and the dough has a nice fermented tang that comes through in flavor.   Probably could have used a little more browning.   A couple of these were my breakfast dipped in a pistachio-basil-olive oil mix I had done a couple days back to use up gifted basil leaves.