The Bread Topic (2016–)

[AAQuesada]

1 hour ago, Kim Shook said:

What is that on your bread?  Is it smoked salmon?  

 

Yes, I cured and smoked some norweigian salmon with apple wood chips. Couldn't be happier how it came out It was based on this recipe from Chef Tetsu, former Exec Chef of Spago. It also tastes great just cured, it's more like something that you would use for a crudo or sashimi, you get an amazing flavor from the veg.

 

Chef Tetsu's Salmon Marinee video

Edited January 2, 2021 by AAQuesada
fix link (log)

[jimb0]

someone didn’t score his bread deeply enough

 

 

[heidih]

41 minutes ago, jimb0 said:

someone didn’t score his bread deeply enough

 

 

Wel that pup wanted to rise for sure.  The beauty of bread baking - never a dull moment as it truly is a living thing.

[jimb0]

tonight's bread. overnight pâte fermentée, 10-hour ferment, 3% salt, 1g yeast, 75% hydration.

 

rear: normal (if poorly shaped) baguette; front: same dough, rolled with bittersweet chocolate, ground almonds, whiskey-soaked currants.

 

 

 

[jimb0]

tonight's bread: one more successful loaf, one less successful loaf. 

 

basically the same formula; 75% hydration, 3% salt. leavened with the scrapings of yesterday's dough bowl.

 

[jimb0]

today’s was a bit sticky as the preferment seems to have built up enough activity to basically liquify the dough. had to add a bunch of extra flour and even then it was still too sticky to cut well. 

 

 

[ElsieD]

Yesterday I wanted a small foccacia to go with our dinner.  I have a rarely used Thermomix and wanted to use that so went googling for a recipe.  I found one that called for 100% hydration.  I reduced the recipe to 25% and I let the Thermomix do it's job.  I then poured the dough into a 6" springform pan, and let it rise for about an hour.  The instructions said to bake at 350F which struck me as low but this was an experiment so I went ahead with it.  Into the CSO it went on the bread setting.  When the time was up, it was baked throughout but the crust was an unappetizing looking white.  I took the sides off the pan and gave it another few minutes.  The results are pictured below.  Since this was an experiment, I wasn't expecting much.  I found the crumb "wet" if that makes any sense, and I arrtribute that to the bread not being baked at a high enough temperature given the hydration level.  The crust was good, the bread needed more salt.  I also need to bake it in a pan with lower sides as i think this too contributed to the lacking of browning.  The size of the bread was perfect for the two of us and I'll continue to play with this recipe to get it where I want it.  This was very quick to throw together and took 5 minutes of hands-on time.  It isn't as flavourful as foccacia made the normal way but for something that can be whipped up in a hurry it's not bad.  It took longer to clean the Thermomix.  If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.  I used 125 gm each bread flour and water, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast.

[jimb0]

today's loaf, with my standard (read: terrible) shaping and scoring. really sticky, which i'm choosing to blame on the addition of fresh-milled rye to the dough, not my incompetence 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 

 

[ElsieD]

I love toasted raisin bread and have been tweaking a particular recipe to get it where I want it.  I'm almost there.  One of the things I have been doing is increasing the amount of cinnamon but found that this loaf has a tad too much, so I'll reduce it next time.  Other than that, it's great.   I also used both raisins and dried cranberries, this loaf has two cups of fruit. The brown colour is from the cinnamon - I used bread flour.

[dtremit]

8 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

I love toasted raisin bread and have been tweaking a particular recipe to get it where I want it.  I'm almost there.  One of the things I have been doing is increasing the amount of cinnamon but found that this loaf has a tad too much, so I'll reduce it next time.  Other than that, it's great.   I also used both raisins and dried cranberries, this loaf has two cups of fruit. The brown colour is from the cinnamon - I used bread flour.

That looks great! Would love to see the recipe when it's complete.

[Ann_T]

On 12/31/2020 at 6:18 PM, jimb0 said:

made some softball-sized dinner rolls for the so for supper tonight. these suckers are like pillows. eaten with butter and a pear reduction (and a broccoli stem soup). 

 

Love the size of your rolls and the shine on the crust. 

On 1/1/2021 at 6:13 PM, AAQuesada said:

This was from 250 g flour T55 and 10% red fife flour (high protien whole wheat) 75% hydration. Very happy with the thin crunchy crust and flavor. 

@AAQuesada great crust and crumb.

 

First bake for 2021.

 

A couple of Home-Style White loaves. Reminds me of the bread my grandmother use to bake.

Matt loves this bread for sandwiches and French toast.

Moe was hungry and wanted a couple of slices while still warm.

 

I also baked 10 baguettes. Dough was started very early this morning.

[jimb0]

56 minutes ago, Ann_T said:

 

Love the size of your rolls and the shine on the crust. 

@AAQuesada great crust and crumb.

 

I also baked 10 baguettes. Dough was started very early this morning.

 

aw thanks friend! that means a lot from you, your bread is always inspiring!

 

your white bread has me dreaming of sandwiches; did you bake butter on top?

[Ann_T]

39 minutes ago, jimb0 said:

 

your white bread has me dreaming of sandwiches; did you bake butter on top?

@jimb0No, but I rubbed it with butter right out of the oven to keep a soft crust. 

[cookingofjoy]

 

I was making the cinnamon challah braid from Breaking Breads and with the other half of the dough tried a chocolate-orange babka with nutella, callebaut 70 and candied orange peel. I diluted the syrup from candying the orange peels for glazing. It can't quite compare to the laminated babka dough, but this was pretty good!

 

Also related to the babka - does anyone know of a reusable 9x2 3/4 x 2 loaf pan? I've only been able to find the paper ones. 

[Smithy]

I just got an irritated text message from my best friend, bemoaning the "artisan bread" she'd picked up at the store. Its crust is so thick that it cut her gums. She prefers soft crust, as does my husband, for the mouthfeel. I like a crunchy crisp crust, but have come to realize that it can be overdone. By "overdone" I mean too thick and therefore too hard, not too brown. I come to the assembled experts here with my question....

 

How does one control the thickness of a crust, so that it's crisp and crackly but not so thick that it's difficult to bite through?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

I just got an irritated text message from my best friend, bemoaning the "artisan bread" she'd picked up at the store. Its crust is so thick that it cut her gums. She prefers soft crust, as does my husband, for the mouthfeel. I like a crunchy crisp crust, but have come to realize that it can be overdone. By "overdone" I mean too thick and therefore too hard, not too brown. I come to the assembled experts here with my question....

 

How does one control the thickness of a crust, so that it's crisp and crackly but not so thick that it's difficult to bite through?

 

Steam.

 

[jimb0]

as jnw mentioned, steam.

 

with that said putting some in a ziploc will make just about the crustiest bread soft in my experience

[Isabelle Prescott]

Bake 2 loaves and spread butter on one.

 

[lindag]

39 minutes ago, Isabelle Prescott said:

Bake 2 loaves and spread butter on one.

 

Brush the finished loaf with melted butter.

[Ann_T]

Fed my two starters last night before going to bed. Poor babies had been neglected. Hadn't fed them since the first week of November.

 

But they are very forgiving. They had almost doubled in 7 hours.

I'll feed them both again tonight before using some of the discard in another batch of dough.

I also made two 500g flour batches of dough with just the remnants from the container that I fed the starters in, along with 1g each of yeast at 72% hydration.

Matt is going to make pizza with one of the batches and the other batch I baked this morning.

Four small baguettes and three little rolls. Since I'm usually up between 2 and 3 AM, it is the perfect time to bake bread.

Split one of the baguettes for Moe's breakfast. 

[jimb0]

goals.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

My granddaughter reports her most recent loaves had a plasticy taste, which she attributes to having kneaded the dough on a silicone mat.  Any ideas what might cause bread to have a plastic taste?  (Other than COVID-19, of course.)

 

[jimb0]

i'm skeptical the silicone itself had anything to do with it but silicone can be hard to clean sometimes  given its structure; i wonder if there may have been some soap left on something somewhere?

[cookingofjoy]

Your granddaughter's stuff probably isn't as old as mine and she probably would have noticed the smell of the flour before baking, but both my mom and I have recently had plastic containers give off a very unpleasant plastic smell. For my mom it was her click clack storage containers, and mine was an oxo salad spinner. They were both probably fifteen years old or so, and we'd also both not used the containers recently (like unused for a month or more). Just an idea!