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Savories: What are you making & baking?


glennbech

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You are working too hard. Leave Mother in the fridge in a covered jar between bakes. No need to feed her. She will be quite all right, May separate into two layers, but just stir them together before use.

12- 24 hours before you want to bake  take the preferment, either a poolish (liquid - 100% hydration - equal quantities of flour and water by weight) or a biga(stiff - 50% hydration, twice as much flour as water by weight) plus a spoonful (about 10% by weight of flour) of Mother. It doesn't take much to seed the fermentation. Put Mother back in the fridge. Let the preferment ferment for 12-24 hours at 90F/30C Temperature is important.

If Mother is looking a bit skinny and thin because you have used most of her make a double batch of preferment when you next bake and use half to replace Mother.  If you do this every few months, when the starter is getting used up you prevent a build-up of acid and other fermentation by products that can inhibit growth.

If you are baking large volumes, then you might consider a two or even three stage build. First stage is as above. After 12 hours multiply by at least 3 or even 5 - the preferment so far plus five times its weight in flour and five time its weight in water. Ferment for 12 hours and you have 10Kg of preferment. Repeat and  12 hours later you have 100Kg of preferment, enough for 500lbs of bread and an industrial bakery. 

If you are baking at that scale we should discuss handling systems, flourbrew or systems, and pumped levain....

Thank you. No need to worry about large quantities... This is bread for little old me and my friends baked in my home oven. As always, I appreciate your help.

Just a simple southern lady lost out west...

"Leave Mother in the fridge in a covered jar between bakes. No need to feed her." Jackal10

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Last weekend, I partially catered a surprise 40th birthday party. While the host provided dinner, I brought along some breads and dips and this focaccia to be served with dinner:

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I used a poolish in this dough as well as doing a second fermentation overnight in the fridge. It's topped with a mix of olive oil, fresh rosemary, and chopped garlic. It was definitely a hit as I made two half-sheet pans of it and by the end of dinner only about 10 squares remained. I was definitely jazzed to see the nice irregular hole structure when I finally cut it up for service.

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I've been playing with baguettes, made with a sponge and with sourdough. The thin loaves and cut one on left were made with sponge, cut one on right with sourdough (went a bit long in the rise).

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Just made these sourdough baguettes below. They had a two hour rise, 11 hour retard in refrigerator, shaping and then 90 minute 2nd rise. The darker loaf had an additional 20 minute 2nd rise and slightly higher oven temp (480 f vs. 475 for the lighter loaf).

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Here's an epi from the same sourdough batch,

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Just bit into the sourdough. Very nice and light.

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I've found in a home kitchen it's difficult to get a consistent preferment temperature (not sure how I would get 90 degree for 24 hours, during the fall out East). I'm also curious since I've read that the ideal temp. for sourdough is 74 degrees? Mother, by the way, is wonderful....

You are working too hard. Leave Mother in the fridge in a covered jar between bakes. No need to feed her. She will be quite all right, May separate into two layers, but just stir them together before use.

12- 24 hours before you want to bake  take the preferment, either a poolish (liquid - 100% hydration - equal quantities of flour and water by weight) or a biga(stiff - 50% hydration, twice as much flour as water by weight) plus a spoonful (about 10% by weight of flour) of Mother. It doesn't take much to seed the fermentation. Put Mother back in the fridge. Let the preferment ferment for 12-24 hours at 90F/30C Temperature is important.

If Mother is looking a bit skinny and thin because you have used most of her make a double batch of preferment when you next bake and use half to replace Mother.  If you do this every few months, when the starter is getting used up you prevent a build-up of acid and other fermentation by products that can inhibit growth.

If you are baking large volumes, then you might consider a two or even three stage build. First stage is as above. After 12 hours multiply by at least 3 or even 5 - the preferment so far plus five times its weight in flour and five time its weight in water. Ferment for 12 hours and you have 10Kg of preferment. Repeat and  12 hours later you have 100Kg of preferment, enough for 500lbs of bread and an industrial bakery. 

If you are baking at that scale we should discuss handling systems, flourbrew or systems, and pumped levain....

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Leave Mother in the fridge in a covered jar between bakes. No need to feed her.

This would make a wicked little signature line.

You just gave me the best laugh I've had in days...thank you! But, seriously, I'm going to use it :biggrin:

Just a simple southern lady lost out west...

"Leave Mother in the fridge in a covered jar between bakes. No need to feed her." Jackal10

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  • 1 month later...

I'm finally getting back in the baking and cooking business after a long period of moving and getting used the life as a family father :-)

This is what I call "leftover bread" since it's made up of all those "almost empty" bags in my kitchen cupboard. I ended up with a dough of about 2500g. I mixed everything together with short kneads and lots of rests. I then put the dough outside (5-10 degrees c). for about 12-18 hours. Before baking, I rested the dough for about 1-2 hours to take the chill out of it.

Contents ; Whole Rye, Whole wheat (fine), Whole wheat (coarse), AP Spelt flour, regular AP flour, fine reye and finally a touch of durum wheat. I have no Idea of the proportions other than regular white wheat fliour makes up about 50% of the dough.

Baked on hot hot hot stone with water thrown into a pan underneath.

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My, what big ears you have! (Couldn't resist -- I just learned this term while reading The Breadbaker's Apprentice for the first time. Nice-looking bread!

~ Lori in PA

My blog: http://inmykitcheninmylife.blogspot.com/

My egullet blog: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=89647&hl=

"Cooking is not a chore, it is a joy."

- Julia Child

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Working on a new recipe for Pumpernickel Raisin bread. Here's my first attempt.

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I've adjusted the recipe a bit more, adding a little more salt, and more water. If you're interested, you can find the recipe and step by step pictures at http://www.recipesonrails.com/recipes/show/532

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I'm not a frequent bread baker, and certainly not as talented as many of you. But I thought I'd share my Thanksgiving challah.

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It's a stuffed challah, filled with shallots, garlic, rosemary, and parmesan. I use my regular challah recipe, but before I braid it, I flatten out the ropes and stuff them with the sauteed shallot mixture. It's a show-stopper and one that the family has come to beg for. This year, my yeast wasn't very active, and the dough took about twice as long to rise as normal. It gave me headaches in the moment, but the flavor was fantastic.

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The Kitchn

Nina Callaway

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Wow, now that is one beautiful Challah bread.

I've just recently got into baking sourdough. Started the process to grow the starter about 3 weeks ago using the recipe from Amy's Bread Cookbook. My first couple of attemps to make bread using the sourdough starter I also added 1/2 teaspoon of yeast. But this last week I have been making bread using a sourdough Levain starter and giving the dough an overnight cool rise in the garage.

Today's baking:

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Last weeks attempts:

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Edited by Ann_T (log)
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  • 2 weeks later...
Ann, they look like great baguettes. And after only 3 weeks, congratulations, really open texture in the crumb and that blistering on the crust is a good sign of a long cool rise.

Dan

Dan, Thank you. I've alway wondered how to acheive the blistering, but didn't know that it was a result of a cool rise.

I made sourdough rye for the first time yesterday.

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Ann

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  • 3 weeks later...

These pictures are about a year old, but I just came accross them on my computer and figured I'd post them here. My (then 4yo) daughter loves to help me in the kitchen.

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and the finished loaf...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here is a country French loaf based on Thom Leonard's formula in Maggie Glezer's Artisan Baking. I made two oblong loaves of about 900g each instead of one larger boule as the book recommends. This cut the baking time from the recommended 70 minutes to about 55.

I was very happy with the crust development--it actually looks a fair bit darker in person than in these photos--and relatively satisfied with the crumb. I think I'll definitely use this formula again.

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Chief Scientist / Amateur Cook

MadVal, Seattle, WA

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Here is a country French loaf based on Thom Leonard's formula in Maggie Glezer's Artisan Baking.  I made two oblong loaves of about 900g each instead of one larger boule as the book recommends. This cut the baking time from the recommended 70 minutes to about 55.

gallery_1327_4139_35403.jpg

gallery_1327_4139_38227.jpg

Vengroff, what a beautiful loaf. I have so many bread books, I hate to buy another one, but I just might have too look for that one.

I baked two different batches of sourdough bread yesterday. Morning's bread was made from a sourdough biga I started on Sunday night. Made the dough on Monday and refrigerated it overnight for a long cool rise. I filled two of the loaves with roasted garlic and cheddar and one with roasted garlic and kalamata olives. I mixed up another biga yesterday morning and made bread with it later in the day and baked two more regular sourdough loaves.

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