|
Is there any risk with trying to revive a sourdough starter that's been refrigerated in a sealed mason jar for like 2+ years? I haven't looked closely but I'm guessing there is a small amount of mold. Just curious if that can be salvaged safely by isolating a small clean portion to create the new starter.
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2019 03:33
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 18, 2024 00:42 |
|
|
Have been using old shithouse flour for my past few loaves out of necessity. Each loaf has been an awful pale color on top with a dense and tight crumb and zero oven spring. Today I got some new flour and the results are so much better I can't believe it. Now I'm wondering how much of the poor results were from the old flour being bleached vs the unbleached new stuff, it being like 8 months past the best by date on the packaging, or a result of over kneading. I must have let it go for 25+ minutes at speed 4 in my kitchenaid just trying to get it to pull away from the bowl. The old flour is in the garbage now, so I just want to learn something from the experience of making some terrible, terrible (still ate it) bread.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2020 07:40
|
|
|
Thank you both for the really helpful posts. I got really intro bread for a while a few years ago but still know very little about wheat and flour in general. Bread is cool, hopefully some day in the far future I can get good at bread.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2020 09:26
|
|
|
Anyone have wisdom to share about getting good even slices. I’m using an ancient bread knife but not sure if that’s the issue or it’s a technique thing. Why is slicing bread hard god dammit
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2022 05:59
|
|
|
I keep having an issue with a pale top on the basic lean loaves I make every week. I assumed it was over proofing, but got the exact same result with a shorter proofing time (30m autolyse, 1 hour bulk ferment, 1 hour final rise). Got a better oven spring but still have the ugly pale top. Not sure what to try tweaking to fix it, I got fresher yeast and higher quality flour a few bakes before and have the same issue. I use cold tap water left out overnight to allow it to come to room temperature, might try bottled water if I get really desperate I guess.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2023 10:06
|
|
|
EightFlyingCars posted:what oven temperature do you bake at? browning a loaf of bread is like browning any other food, you need a high temperature for it 475 for 10-15 mins then 425. I pretty much ruled temperature out as I’ve had the odd loaf come out perfectly at these settings. Even in a loaf pan the sides and bottom in the have zero issue browning nicely, just the top is noticeably pale.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 16, 2023 02:55
|
|
|
I’ve had pretty good results with kneading in the mixing bowl by grabbing some dough from the bottom, stretching it up and over to the center and repeating around the whole mass of dough. Also I wonder if your dough becoming stickier is a temperature thing as your hands warm it up. Maybe incorporate more rest time during kneading. If you aren’t on a time crunch it’s really amazing how much just leaving the dough alone for 10 minutes will cause gluten development. I do this a few times between stretching my dough in the bowl and it’s noticeably changed each time I come back to it. Also your flour could be a factor. I have tried using some flour past it’s prime before and the result was the dough never developed past the sticky stage even with a ridiculous amount of electric mixing. Or if it’s not a freshness issue, switching to a higher gluten bread flour could make it easier to work with.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2023 06:00
|
|
|
Tumble posted:You'd think so but yesterday the loaf came out perfect, while today I (think) I actually added the recipes stated amount of water and the loaf is WAY too fluffy and moist compared to yesterday when I'm pretty sure I accidentally added 320ml instead of 1.5 cups and the loaf came out perfectly dense but I'm only half certain I did that. I‘ve recently had loaves using identical proportions come out hugely different just because of the ambient temperature. Yeast development is really dependent on temperature/humidity. Like a loaf I made on an 85F day was dramatically more airy than one I made on a 65F day. Skilled bakers compensate for this but I am not a skilled baker, so it’s just an observation I made in my recent loaves. Seems like you’re using a bread machine so I really don’t know what proofing is like with that baking method. Just a thought since more airy bread is probably related to yeast development at the point of baking.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2023 07:14
|
|
|
What kind of pot are you using? It looks relatively light weight from the photo. I assume the recipe instructs you to pre heat the pot. In that case if you aren’t using something heavy like cast iron the bottom and sides will probably be pale relative to the exposed top. My favorite kneading style recently is to leave the dough in its mixing bowl and grab the side and top of a section and stretch it up as much as it will allow. Then fold and push the flap down into the center and try to capture some air in the process. Rotate the bowl and repeat until it resists stretching. Let it rest and repeat until it windowpanes nicely. Usually 3-4 rounds for me with 100% white flour recipes. It’s slower than other methods because of the rest times but not much is active time. Ideally the dough is sticky enough to cling to the bowl and counter the stretching so you can just use one hand to stretch and one to rotate the bowl. Get your hands a little damp to prevent most of the sticking from working with it. I’m probably way over complicating this, any combination of stretching and/or resting will work. I just really like not having to clean the counter after kneading dough.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2023 03:49
|
|
|
magnificent
|
|
#
¿
Feb 13, 2024 04:14
|
|
|
What is the temperature of your kitchen like? The babish recipe looks like it has 0.4% of active dry yeast during bulk fermentation, all of that from the preferment. If your kitchen is cold (like <75F) that will take a long time to double in my experience. You also can’t really adjust your dough temperature during mixing because 100% of the water is in the preferment. I usually have a low 60s kitchen and nearly had to double the fermentation time in most recipes I’ve used. In my kitchen, I’d probably just add an equal amount of yeast during mixing so it’s at 0.8% and it would still probably take well over two hours.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2024 03:58
|
|
|
Anyone have tips for cooking pita on the stovetop? First couple attempts today ended with no pocket forming, despite having the same thickness as my successful batch using the oven. I took the bulk fermented and divided dough straight from the fridge, shaped it and threw it on a sizzling hot cast iron skillet. Let it sit 30 seconds, flipped it and gave it two minutes on each side from there. Would prefer not heating my oven up just to make 1-2 of these so I’d like to figure this out. Got two more dough balls ready, if nothing else I’ll let them get closer to room temp and proof slightly after shaping and see if that helps.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2024 01:03
|
|
|
Nettle Soup posted:You need a lid on it I've found. Or you could try turning it with a tea towel like you would chapatis. Take a tea towel, press on the edge, turn it a little, repeat, pressing down the edge and turning the thing until the middle puffs up. Thanks for these suggestions. I tried the towel technique and didn’t have any success, maybe because my dough is much thicker than those chapatis. But it’s just as likely I was doing the technique incorrectly. Will put chapati on the short list of new breads to try making. I used a heavy lid for my next one and got a modest pocket on about 80% of the pita, enough to make it easy to open up for a sandwich so I was very happy with it. Letting the dough warm a bit out of the fridge helped in both cases I think. Next time I think I’ll let the lid pre heat with the pan since it’s also cast iron, and see if the extra heat from the top helps. Solarin fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Apr 29, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2024 22:49
|
|
|
I’ve been trying to get a good english muffin recipe down after trying two and having them come out feeling way too dense. Last batch was King Arthur bread flour at 82% hydration with 80% of the liquid being whole milk with no other enrichment. Didn’t even intend for that hydration but over poured and went with it. I bulk proofed it overnight in the fridge then shaped and cooked it in two batches to see what cooking them at different points in the final proof would look like. They were still cold from the fridge so they weren’t proofing quickly 1h proof  1h40m proof  The right one is the shorter proof. It's noticeably smaller but looks nicer  I think the longer proof was overdoing it because some huge bubbles migrated to the surface, but I still liked them more than the shorter proof just on account of the extra volume. The dough was extremely delicate and had to be moved around using a spatula like a peel. There’s probably a lot I could improve just on handling the dough once it’s in the pan. It gets a huge spring from the slow heat, but has to be flattened somewhat so the final shape and browning is even. Got them in the freezer now ready to be defrosted and topped with some poached eggs this week. Solarin fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Apr 30, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2024 23:53
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 18, 2024 00:42 |
|
|
I just wrap my sandwich loaves tightly in plastic wrap after they cool. High hydration breads take a while to cool completely so I tend to leave them for a couple hours. With crusty breads I’ve heard a paper bag is your best bet. Something that can breathe but also absorbs moisture. Might work well combined with a breadbox. If your goal is to slow bread staling and you don’t want to freeze, look at tangzhong or yudane/scald methods. I was really impressed how long my sandwich loaves were staying soft when I scalded 20% of my flour with no other adjustments.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2024 05:53
|
|