The Bread Topic (2016–)

[cyalexa]

A friend of mine, Sally, is on the program this season. I thought she was a member of this group but could not find her in a search.  If you want to read about what it is like to be a competitor see her blog,  https://bewitchingkitchen.com/

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 

 

 

Mixed forty minutes in the Ankarsrum.

[heidih]

For anyone who loves baking bread I think this part 2 of Ed Levine with Amy Scherber and Melissa Weller brings out the passion and considerations. Bread = SO important in culture. Even renowned bakers evolve and learn. https://soundcloud.com/user-306003081/special-sauce-kenji-on-eggs

 

[lindag]

I ran across this recipe  this morning.  I won't be making it (although I'd love it).

For those of you more adventurous

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

19 minutes ago, lindag said:

I ran across this recipe  this morning.  I won't be making it (although I'd love it).

For those of you more adventurous

 

While I love Donna Hay, I think that you can simplify this recipe and come up with close to comparable results.    As a concept, I love it.    Many thanks.

[dtremit]

11 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

While I love Donna Hay, I think that you can simplify this recipe and come up with close to comparable results.    As a concept, I love it.    Many thanks.

 

It is sort of interesting that this is a bread containing potato, rather than a more traditional potato bread -- the dough gets kneaded first and then has the potato kneaded in at the end, as you might knead in nuts or raisins. I'd think that would produce a very different texture than your standard potato roll, which has the potato in from the beginning to complicate the gluten formation.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

40 minutes ago, dtremit said:

I'd think that would produce a very different texture than your standard potato roll, which has the potato in from the beginning to complicate the gluten formation.

Absolutely agree.    I was speaking to lindag's response which is not unusual with complicated procedures.    IMHO it is better to modify a recipe to reflect one's time and temperament.although creating a less suave product than to avoid attempting it at all.   Just my MO.    

[dtremit]

36 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Absolutely agree.    I was speaking to lindag's response which is not unusual with complicated procedures.    IMHO it is better to modify a recipe to reflect one's time and temperament.although creating a less suave product than to avoid attempting it at all.   Just my MO.    

 

Oh, totally. 99% sure I'd just make my normal white bread recipe and just use the herb oil.

 

I was just surprised to see a recipe using potato in that way.

 

ETA: I could see it being interesting for a different flavor profile like a potato, bacon, cheddar, and scallion loaf.

Edited December 18, 2019 by dtremit (log)

[kayb]

As I will have several folks around over the next few days who are subject to wanting  a sandwich, I set out this morning to make some King Arthur Harvest Grains bread, only to find that, horror of horrors, I have no harvest grains blend. I improvised with some poppy seeds, some flaxseed meal, and some sesame seeds, which I fear, on reflection, may have been quinoa. I can only hope, if it was, the long rise and the bake will soften them a bit. Should have thrown in some oatmeal, but forgot it. 

 

So that is rising, as is a batch of dough for @David Ross's caramel sticky buns, which I will make and freeze in small pans for future breakfasts and/or Christmas gifts.

 

First time I've baked bread, other than cornbread and one batch of biscuits, in six months. I will report in. Right now, I'm off to make chicken salad, because I have a urge and two chicken breasts I need to use up.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 

 

 

[andiesenji]

I am cooking a tiny ham for my solitary Christmas dinner but there is enough that I will have leftover ham for sandwiches. So I made Onion/Caraway Rye.

 

First I made the rye with caraway dough last Saturday and it has been in the fridge hydrating and whatever.  Monday night I started a poolish which, with only a tiny amount of yeast, fermented actively for 20 hours. Then using my 3-pound bread machine, I cut up the rye dough into chunks, soaked dried onions in just enough water to cover and they took it all up within 30 minutes and I added the poolish, the rye dough and the onion to the bread maching and turned it on the "regular" white bread setting.  In the second LONG knead, I noticed it was a bit loose and gradually added AP flour until it looked and felt right.  

It proceeded through that knead and the two additional short ones, the last with 1.47 still on the timer, at which time I took it out and removed the paddles.

 

It finished baking in the machine and this is the result.

 

[heidih]

52 minutes ago, andiesenji said:

I am cooking a tiny ham for my solitary Christmas dinner but there is enough that I will have leftover ham for sandwiches. So I made Onion/Caraway Rye.

 

First I made the rye with caraway dough last Saturday and it has been in the fridge hydrating and whatever.  Monday night I started a poolish which, with only a tiny amount of yeast, fermented actively for 20 hours. Then using my 3-pound bread machine, I cut up the rye dough into chunks, soaked dried onions in just enough water to cover and they took it all up within 30 minutes and I added the poolish, the rye dough and the onion to the bread maching and turned it on the "regular" white bread setting.  In the second LONG knead, I noticed it was a bit loose and gradually added AP flour until it looked and felt right.  

It proceeded through that knead and the two additional short ones, the last with 1.47 still on the timer, at which time I took it out and removed the paddles.

 

It finished baking in the machine and this is the result.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice seed distribution. Bet it smells wonderful

Edited December 25, 2019 by heidih (log)

[Ann_T]

On 12/23/2019 at 9:33 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

 

 

Great crust and crumb.

 

[Ann_T]

I was totally out of bread. Not sure how that happened.  So I had to make a batch on Tuesday.  The last thing I really wanted to do.

Made the dough in the morning and baked late afternoon.  Five baguettes and one batard.

We weren't having breakfast until later Christmas morning

 

so Moe had a couple of pieces of toast to hold him over.

 

 

[lindag]

Sourdough Raisin Bread is chugging along in th Zo this morning.

I have made this recipe several times and it’s amazing.

I don’t fuss with the filling I just add those ingredients (minus the extra egg) to the dough and it works out perfectly.

I don’t bake in the machine though, I use my big oven.

The best raisin bread I’v ever made.

 

Edited December 28, 2019 by lindag (log)

[ElsieD]

I'm intrigued.  Did you use the new sourdough yeast or sourdough starter?

[lindag]

I used sourdough discard.  I’ve been reviving mr crock of sourdough that was hiding in the fridge for months and not looking very happy.

After a few feedings over the last week it’s now nice and bubbly.

Fixed the above link.

Here’s the finished loaf after slicing (the Cusinart electric knife does a great job with homemade loaves).

;

 

Edited December 29, 2019 by lindag (log)

[Smithy]

We ran out of bread and are at least a week from visiting a grocery store. In the interests of having sandwich bread rather than my usual so-small batards or too-flat boules, I went for a loaf of sandwich bread. The recipe was one I've used from a Peter Reinhart bread-baking class, though I generally use it to make rolls.

 

 

We're set for a few days, and if necessary I have enough raw material to do it again. I'm glad I can do this by hand, even though he recommends a mixer! The loaf came out well and I'm starting to regain confidence in my bread baking after a months-long hiatus.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Another failed attempt at rye.  Unlike last time there was no problem with the rising of the dough.  But the dough was more like a batter.  Getting some of it in the oven made a horrid mess.  Not to mention the stinkbug hiding in the banneton.

 

Let us hope next year will be better.

 

[heidih]

I view bread dough as a living thing. As with other living things they often rebel when we try to bend them to our will. Sometimes ya just have to shrug your shoulders and start over. I do enjoy the interactive relationship of yeast like a crazy funny boy or girl friend   

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I've read rye is considered by some to be a noxious weed.  Nonetheless when I finish my mai tai I plan to cut into tonight's loaf to see what it is like.  Plan B is to try a bit of rye leftover from some weeks ago.

 

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/153755-the-bread-topic-2016/?do=findComment&comment=2224474

 

That batch of rye wasn't bad, it just wasn't good.  And the loaf doesn't look any worse at the moment than it did six weeks ago.  Plan C is a package of store-bought rye flatbreads from a couple years previously.  Those flatbreads are looking pretty good right now.  Plan D is WhistlePig.

 

[heidih]

No rye is magical. A great cover crop in our troubled agricultural times. . Maybe the source of the Salem Witch trials but that was an anomaly  Happy 2020

https://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1037.htm

[JoNorvelleWalker]

In spite of the fact the loaf, if one may call it that, never rose more than an inch, the taste was exquisite.  The texture was light and delicate.  Forgive me for saying, it didn't taste like rye.  Another five thousand years and I will probably have this down.

 

[andiesenji]

That is so strange.  I usually have no problem with rye and the flavor is not as strong as some ryes but that is because I usually add ground caraway, as well as the whole seeds because I want that flavor to come forward.

I do mix the rye flour with the water and oil first and aultlyse for 30 minutes and it is like a batter until I add the bread flour mix and autolyse for another 20 minutes or so.

Then I add the sugar, caraway and yeast and in the bread machine let it run through the first mix and knead then first rise and when the second kneat starts I add the salt.

I have found that the initial boost, before the salt kicks in, gives a better rise.  

 

When I make a "half & half" rye  with white whole wheat flour, I use  a rounded tablespoon of vital wheat gluten, otherwise I don't get the rise I want and the crumb turns out rather dense.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

This was 100 percent rye:  no wheat, no oil, no sugar, no gluten, no seeds, no spices.  The taste was to die for but it looked more like a sun baked jellyfish.  I'm thinking it might work better if I baked the batter in a pan.

 

In contrast my previous rye didn't rise and was not edible at all.  The loaf I linked above looked nice but was dense and did not taste all that good.