Baking with Myhrvold's "Modernist Bread: The Art and Science"

[Robenco15]

19 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:

On my KA 6qt I use 2 as "low", 5 as "medium", and "however high it seems like the machine won't walk off the counter" for "high". Except for very high hydration, then "high" is 10 and I just hold the damned machine in place.

I remembered I owned Bouchon Bakery so I took a look. This looks good. 
 

[Robenco15]

4 hours ago, Robenco15 said:

I remembered I owned Bouchon Bakery so I took a look. This looks good. 
 

So just evaluating as I make the 75% butter brioche, I’d say 2 is low, 4/5 is medium and 6/7 is medium high. I’m at 6 right now for Mod Bread’s medium high and it’s terrifying enough for me. 

[Robenco15]

Made the sourdough again. This time with 30% Glacier Peak and 70% Expresso T85. Used my 120% rye starter, but forgot it was 120% so when I added additional water to bring the dough to 75% I actually brought it to 77.6%. It got a little flat right out of the banetton and I don’t think the second score I added (for some reason) helped it any. 
 

Baking steel was 490F when launched. Baked at 500F for 5 minutes, then 464F for 15 minutes, then 20 minutes at 428F, and 20 minutes at 392F, with the last 5 minutes uncovered. 

Tasted great. 
 

 

In sad news I accidentally fed my 100% rye starter with wwf. I guess I’ll feed 10g of it with 100g of rye when I refresh it, and do that probably one more time, but kinda annoyed with myself to be honest. 

Edited January 7 by Robenco15 (log)

[Robenco15]

75% butter Brioche

 

 

This may be my favorite thing I’ve done. It’s incredible and really easy. The only difficulty part is the bake. It seems to be impossible to keep the top from getting super dark while baking it all the way through. 
 

You can see a slightly undercooked ring (still tastes awesome) which will be easily solved by putting the Pullman loaf pan directly on the baking steel (no preheat after it comes to temp). I might make this dough again to bake for Sunday. Making sourough bomboloni doughnuts tomorrow night (not Mod Bread recipe). 
 

edit: made for pretty incredible ham and cheese melts

 

Edited January 9 by Robenco15 (log)

[Robenco15]

Another sourdough boule from Mod Bread. This time King Arthur Bread Flour, nothing fancy. Also went awhile in the fridge (24 hours?), so I ended up with some great blistering. Lastly, forgot to do the 20 minute rest after shaping it. Put it right in the banetton and into the fridge. 

Making Thomas Keller’s recipe from Bouchon Bakery right now to bake tomorrow. 

[Robenco15]

Used Mod Bread baking times and temps on this one. Things are falling into place. Need to get that crumb open. 

[Robenco15]

Best crumb yet and I figured out why my boules are going flat. Linen in the banetton was too taunt, so it was shaping a shallow boule. 
 

[Robenco15]

Today’s boule. 
 

 

Ear is good. Crumb is good. It’s getting there. Going to preheat my steel for 15 more minutes next time (45 total). 
 

This was mixed in a stand mixer to full gluten development. Then put in a cambro and bulk fermented at 86F for almost 3 hours until it rose 50%. Then preshaped, rested, shaped, and put into a banetton and into the fridge for 25 hours (when I got home from work). Launched at 500F, covered, dropped oven to 470F, 40 minutes, uncovered for 5 more. 

[Robenco15]

Alright, it’s been an educational two weeks and I think as far as my basic education is concerned, I’m there. 
 

I decided to switch to an all rye starter so for this boule I used all 223g of my wheat starter that I began November 2020. One last hurrah you might say. 
 

Using the knowledge from Modernist Bread and a Food Geek YouTube video to assist with shaping, along with a dough calculator just to check myself (ai hate math), I basically came up with this sourdough boule on my own. 
 

It is 1.2kg, 74% hydration, 223g of starter, and 100% Cairnspring Glacier Peak Bread Flour.

 

@scott123, the foil under the steel has basically fixed all concerns with the steel. I accidentally forgot to drop the temp of the oven from 500F to 470F and cooked it covered for 45 minutes at 500F. Fortunately it was a 1.2kg boule, but still, the bottom never burned!
 

That crumb? That’s the stuff. 
 

I think from here I’ll get into high extraction flour and start uping that hydration. 

[Raamo]

I've made quite a few bagels since we got these cookbooks.  My wife got some dried blueberries....

 

 

I used about 56g of them - soaked in boiling water for 2 hours like raisins.  Mixed in by hand after full gluten was achieved.  "Tastes better then a blueberry muffin" is what my wife.  Works well - has some blueberry flavor without being over the top.

 

 

[Duvel]

On 1/17/2022 at 12:28 AM, Robenco15 said:

 

That crumb? That’s the stuff. 
 

Yeap - that’s the stuff. Fantastic !

[Barb Bowers]

Cinnamon and raisin bagels from Modernist Bread. My first!

[Barb Bowers]

Just bought the Modernist Bread books on Amazon. Mine are almost due back to the library, and I don’t want to be without them. I took three of them with me on a vacation to Yosemite just now, and am still reading and flagging pages. Plan to make the Cherry Chocolate Sourdough this week. Daughter is visiting next weekend and requests the cinn-raisin bagels again.

[Mutleyracers]

Good for you. Wish my library in the uk had them as my wife won't let me buy them. Sad face

[Robenco15]

I will not be taking the Brioche loaf out of the pan without parchment paper handles for now on…

 

 

[FlashJack]

Right there is a fabulous basis for a pudding

[Robenco15]

2 minutes ago, FlashJack said:

Right there is a fabulous basis for a pudding

So I put the loaf pan on my baking steel to encourage heat from the bottom into the loaf pan. Not totally sure why, but figured it couldn’t hurt. Well it sucked too much heat as when I cut into this loaf it was completely raw in the middle. Oh well. I’ll make another. 

[Robenco15]

Well this Central Milling Artisan Baker’s Craft Plus bread flour is something else!

 

[Robenco15]

75% Butter Brioche loaf

 

My oven’s convection doesn’t seem to heat properly or something. After 40 minutes at 350F it was only registering 115F interior. I turned it to normal 350F and in 30 minutes it was done. I turned off the auto-convert setting on my oven that automatically reduces the oven temp to compensate for the fan so that should help in the future. 

 

Parchment paper handles to take the loaf out worked flawlessly. Will always do that now. 

Edited February 23 by Robenco15 (log)

[Robenco15]

Made the Pain de Campagne and then another Sourdough

 

[FlashJack]

That is a beautiful loaf. Congratulations.

[Barb Bowers]

Baked a loaf of the 48-hour sourdough rye bread yesterday, after 48 hours in the refrig, then 4 hours proofing the shaped boule at 70 deg F. I used Cairnspring Mills trailblazer bread flour and Bob’s Red Mill Dark Rye. It is beautifully sour. We really love this bread and I plan to bake this again and again, as long as we have room in the frig!

 

Next up will be the Russian Rye, this weekend.