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HolHorsejob posted:Recommend a good starting resource for learning to bake bread. I'd like to learn how to make a delicious chewy boule with a nice crust. I make pizza dough and am experienced with baking pastries and quick breads The breadbakers apprentice by Peter Reinhardt is the best bread book ever published, bar none
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Nov 25, 2021 03:38
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HolHorsejob posted:Recommend a good starting resource for learning to bake bread. I'd like to learn how to make a delicious chewy boule with a nice crust. I make pizza dough and am experienced with baking pastries and quick breads You can start really easy with a no-knead bread using 70% white AP flour and 30% spelt, baked using a Dutch Oven in the oven. Aim for 65~68% hydration, more and it becomes a bit hard to handle (sticky). https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread This is basically how I make all my breads and my family scolds me for it as it is too good and we overeat on it.
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Nov 25, 2021 08:13
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Made a Sesame seed Pullman loaf 
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Nov 25, 2021 18:18
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HolHorsejob posted:Recommend a good starting resource for learning to bake bread. I'd like to learn how to make a delicious chewy boule with a nice crust. I make pizza dough and am experienced with baking pastries and quick breads Just start with a basic no-knead and move on from there. efb. Didn't see this page of posts.
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Nov 25, 2021 18:27
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I moved on from no-knead (Standard) bread and have been making Flour Water Salt Yeast poolish bread for the last few months. When I wake up 12 hours later and check it, the poolish is never as active as it should be. Last night I couldn't sleep and went to check on the prepared at 8pm for 8am poolish, and what do you know, it was bubbling like they always say it should be bubbling, at 5am. I'm making focaccia this time which I've never done before, so the overall recipe was different but the poolish was identical, and the poolish is the only source of yeast in the recipe (none added later) so if I hadn't caught it at the right time it probably would have been pretty bad. I tried mixing it by hand to get all the flour mixed, then with a dough hook in my mixer this time, and it just never formed a ball, but with all of the recipes in the book, they're really wet and it's not a huge surprise. I'll post a pic later if the focaccia turns out well. But yeah... Poolish is ready at 8 hours rather than the 12-14 that is claimed in the book. I don't think I used too much yeast either, but maybe the altitude is causing the early poolish development. The thing is, when I was at sea level I also had not-bubbly poolish so this seems to always happen to me. The recipe says to use a scant 1/8th of a teaspoon of yeast or .4g. Does anyone use a scale that can measure this stuff or do they eyeball 'scant 1/8th of a teaspoon'? I have a set that has 1/8ths and 1/16ths so I can actually fill up a 1/8th and then just tap it a few times to make it scant. Is there any real definition for scant? Like '80%' or '60%'? The definition says something like 'lacking part of the whole' which is not very exact.
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Nov 25, 2021 19:40
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Scant means it's just barely reached level, not domed at all. I have a scale I use for tea that does tenths pretty well. It's an American Weigh Scale off of Amazon - they have several different versions to different precisions and total weight needs, so take a look to see what you'd like and grab some calibration weights too. For the scale, go a decimal place past what you need accurate to be safe. But less than half a gram of yeast?  I feel like I got that just floating around in my kitchen as part of the biome. I mean, I get it. Sometimes you want that real real slow rise. I'd just use the teensy spoons, maybe go up or down a size based on results, and call it good though.
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Nov 25, 2021 19:59
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Ok. So currently I get a level spoon and then tap some off, making it like .75 of scant. For high altitude you're supposed to use only 75% of the yeast in the recipe. So if I want it to rise 1.5* later which is what the recipe says (12 hours vs 8) I need to use even less yeast then. Next time I'll try 1/16th of a spoon.
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Nov 25, 2021 20:10
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redreader posted:I moved on from no-knead (Standard) bread and have been making Flour Water Salt Yeast poolish bread for the last few months. When I wake up 12 hours later and check it, the poolish is never as active as it should be. Last night I couldn't sleep and went to check on the prepared at 8pm for 8am poolish, and what do you know, it was bubbling like they always say it should be bubbling, at 5am. I'm making focaccia this time which I've never done before, so the overall recipe was different but the poolish was identical, and the poolish is the only source of yeast in the recipe (none added later) so if I hadn't caught it at the right time it probably would have been pretty bad. Do you feel like there is a material improvement over no-knead? If so, how much more effort is it?
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Nov 25, 2021 20:35
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It's more a general guideline as to when a poolish is ready. The temperature of everything (flour, water, room temp) will affect it you can slow it down with cold water when mixing it or throwing it in the fridge if it's getting close to ready and you aren't ready yet. If you miss that window of readiness it will affect your final dough. Keep a log and you'll be able to figure out when you need to mix it the night before to have it be ready when you want it to be.
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Nov 26, 2021 00:09
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Think I watered down my egg wash too much. That and my oven loving sucks. I wanted these a bit darker. Taste good though. I used this recipe
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Nov 26, 2021 02:30
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Thumposaurus posted:It's more a general guideline as to when a poolish is ready. The temperature of everything (flour, water, room temp) will affect it you can slow it down with cold water when mixing it or throwing it in the fridge if it's getting close to ready and you aren't ready yet.
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Nov 26, 2021 03:24
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poo poo, maybe I'm doing things completely wrong, then. I always assumed that a preferment was ready when it was lacey and inflated. Typically I mix it up the night before, toss it in the oven with the light on, and when I get up at about 9 hours later, I consider it ready. Are you telling me that I have to use it at a very specific time? If I let it go too short or too long, what are the bad outcomes, respectively?
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Nov 26, 2021 16:03
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Adding an egg really does make a difference in the softness.  Pay no attention to the goofy shapes; a.) my cutting implements were non-standard, and b.) I gave the best six to my parents before they went home.
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Nov 27, 2021 01:17
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today i learned that if you aren't careful with your score your bread will look like a dickhead
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Nov 27, 2021 01:28
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You could always try two parallel cuts on top, that's what our bakery uses.
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Nov 27, 2021 01:36
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null_pointer posted:poo poo, maybe I'm doing things completely wrong, then. I always assumed that a preferment was ready when it was lacey and inflated. Typically I mix it up the night before, toss it in the oven with the light on, and when I get up at about 9 hours later, I consider it ready. That sounds about right it's when you go to use it and there's a high water mark above where it rose up to and collapse in the container that it's not optimal to use. It won't kill you or anything but there are enzymes and poo poo that are produced in the process that can hamper the final dough if it is too old. Unless you're baking bread everyday it's hard to get a feel for it. There's s noticeable smell that a fully ripe poolish has that unless you're smelling it every day is also hard to know how it's supposed to be. I was always told at the bakery I worked at that too young of a poolish is better than too old. If it's too young you can bump the yeast up a bit to help it rise.
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Nov 27, 2021 02:43
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Mister Facetious posted:You could always try two parallel cuts on top, that's what our bakery uses. i probably will but i gotta admit i really like the look of a single big wide score and it gives me a pretty good rise too 
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Nov 27, 2021 05:21
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Got a double ear for the first time on this loaf from this morning 
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Nov 27, 2021 17:38
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To answer the "should I use a poolish instead of making the standard no-knead bread" question from earlier, I haven't been on a computer much the last couple of days and am phone posting now so I'll go into less detail but, yes. If you've tried making bread machine white bread and been disappointed, or just haven't made poolish bread ever and are making no-knead, please try it. The taste is definitely better. I'm going to ditch flour water salt yeast for a bit and go back to the bread baker's apprentice, which has a different poolish recipe: use more yeast, wait 3-4 hours for it to start bubbling, then put it in the fridge overnight. He also has directions for kneading with a dough hook in lots of the recipes. The fwsy recipes are so wet that I can't really knead them properly (or.. I can't, I'm sure a better Baker could) I also found a "Denver bread" recipe which says to only let dough volume increase only by 1/3rd instead of doubling, before shaping, and I'll try that in my recipes. I made the flour water salt yeast focaccia from pizza dough, and let it rise to 2.5x the initial volume then when I divided it in half and put it in the pan, it was completely hosed and I had to use about 80% of the dough instead of the half I should have used. As with all of my flat failures, it tasted great.
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Nov 27, 2021 18:05
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does anybody have a decent technique for shaping batard because i'm absolutely dogshit at it
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Nov 27, 2021 21:35
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redreader posted:To answer the "should I use a poolish instead of making the standard no-knead bread" question from earlier, I haven't been on a computer much the last couple of days and am phone posting now so I'll go into less detail but, yes. If you've tried making bread machine white bread and been disappointed, or just haven't made poolish bread ever and are making no-knead, please try it. The taste is definitely better. Thanks a lot. I’ll look into it.
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Nov 27, 2021 22:22
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EightFlyingCars posted:does anybody have a decent technique for shaping batard because i'm absolutely dogshit at it I generally follow this: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CVqVqACp6-V/?utm_medium=copy_link
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Nov 27, 2021 23:31
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I had a lot of eggs, milk and butter that needed to be used up Brioche is the answer   The problem is with brioche is I eat it in bread like quantities, but it is essentially cake
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Nov 28, 2021 16:47
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Dacap posted:Got a double ear for the first time on this loaf from this morning God, I hate you 
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Nov 28, 2021 18:53
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I made a second batch of focaccia using the 30% or so of the dough I had left from Thanksgiving and it rose a lot. Maybe the stuff on thanksgiving needed more time. Bread is a complete mystery to me.
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Nov 28, 2021 19:06
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null_pointer posted:God, I hate you 
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Nov 28, 2021 20:35
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I've really been struggling with the high hydration of the Flour Water Blah Blah recipe with poolish, so this morning I took matters into MUH OWN GOD DARN HANDS and didn't put as much water into it. It didn't give me that open crumb that folks cry about, but goodness gracious it rose like a champ and tastes good to me and literally three other people. I probably went too far on the un-hydration, but it felt good to get this out of it. I think my room temp is warmer than I thought, also.
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Nov 28, 2021 20:54
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A Big... Dog posted:I've really been struggling with the high hydration of the Flour Water Blah Blah recipe with poolish, so this morning I took matters into MUH OWN GOD DARN HANDS and didn't put as much water into it. It didn't give me that open crumb that folks cry about, but goodness gracious it rose like a champ and tastes good to me and literally three other people. I probably went too far on the un-hydration, but it felt good to get this out of it. I think my room temp is warmer than I thought, also. so it looks like you bake the loaf seam-side-up instead of relying on scoring, right? how's that work for you?
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Nov 28, 2021 21:11
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Tried my pain de campagne, again. Dropped the water by 0.5 ounces, which gave me a tacky, sticky dough, but one that wasn't absolute goop. I tried something different and shaped it on the peel, then covered it with a banneton and couche, to dry out the exterior, a tiny bit. The recipe calls for putting it in the couche, inverted, then turning it out, which I often found results in the dough spreading out too much. As soon as the dough had risen to the point where it was pressed up against the banneton, I dropped it into my preheated dutch oven, sprayed the surface of the dough, then, with the lid on and slightly cracked, sprayed a bunch more water in. Thirty minutes with the lid on at 445F, then about 10-15 more with the lid off.    Still no ear (darn you Dacap), and would have liked more spring, but in think it's gonna be good.
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Nov 28, 2021 22:08
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Time posted:The breadbakers apprentice by Peter Reinhardt is the best bread book ever published, bar none I would recommend Bernard Clayton's Book of Bread, which covers many, many styles of bread from all over Europe. It'll tell you not just how to make a boule, but how to make a babka, and limpa, and lots of rolls, too.
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Nov 28, 2021 23:12
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A Big... Dog posted:I've really been struggling with the high hydration of the Flour Water Blah Blah recipe with poolish, so this morning I took matters into MUH OWN GOD DARN HANDS and didn't put as much water into it. It didn't give me that open crumb that folks cry about, but goodness gracious it rose like a champ and tastes good to me and literally three other people. I probably went too far on the un-hydration, but it felt good to get this out of it. I think my room temp is warmer than I thought, also. Thanks for posting this! How did you mix it? Same as in the recipe or did you work it a bit more? and here's my second focaccia from the first batch. I had about 20% of the dough left and managed to make this, it was AWESOME. 
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Nov 29, 2021 05:50
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The supermarket has finally started supplying khorasan flour again, and it's such a joy to work with I made a 100% khorasan bread, and it turned out really pretty.
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Dec 3, 2021 18:05
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Lots of awesome bread here lately! Great work everyone! I am continuing on the sourdough train, I have made over 80 loaves at this point and keep finding ways to tweak it. Some recent loaves:    Also, I tried a brioche that I really liked, it made the best french toast I have ever had. So insanely buttery, it's almost criminal how much butter is in it.   
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Dec 3, 2021 19:31
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Psst. How much butter *did* you use?
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Dec 3, 2021 20:42
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Oh hell yes
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Dec 3, 2021 22:01
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Mister Facetious posted:Psst. Here, have the recipe: 75g whole milk 15g fresh yeast or 7g instant yeast 500g AP flour 12g salt 300g eggs 350g soft unsalted butter 30g caster sugar Add the flour, salt and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with a dough hook. Add in the milk, eggs and yeast, and knead on low for 5 minutes, then on medium for 10 minutes. Slowly add in the butter, a piece at a time, occasionally scraping down the bowl After adding all the butter, knead on medium for another 7-8 minutes, or until the dough is glossy and shiny. Lift into an oiled bowl and proof for 2 hours. Knock the dough down, shape into a rough ball again, then lightly oil the dough and refrigerate overnight, covered. Split the cold dough into 65g balls Place 8 balls per pan, then egg wash and proof for 1.5 hours. Preheat oven to 390F/200C Egg wash again, bake for 15 min at 390, then reduce heat to 365F and bake for another 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!
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Dec 4, 2021 00:08
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Arsenic Lupin posted:The Bread Baker's Apprentice is great if you want to make one specific substyle of bread. If you want to make babby's first boule, a focus on multi-step starters is a lot to commit to. I salute sourdough, I love sourdough, and I love breads made with storebought yeasts, too. BBA is an in-depth passionate guide, and for the breads it covers, it's the book you want. Thats a good book too. BBA newest version has an easy starter in it too. But, tbh, if you are just looking for how to make a starter watch a 5 min YouTube and be done. Then watch a shaping video too.
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Dec 4, 2021 00:23
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I've been unimpressed with the crumb I've been making from long rolls lately (as a general category). I stretch the dough out into a rectangle such that the left-right distance is longer than the near-fear distance in front of me. I then fold the near and far sides into the center, fold left and right into the center, and the fold either left or right over again. I seal the ends, let it rest a few minutes, and then roll that out. The result is has very small bubbles even with wetter stuff. I was pretty surprised. So I'm looking for another method.
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Dec 4, 2021 09:21
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Ishamael posted:Here, have the recipe: 37% butter by mass. Probably ~30% straight butterfat by mass. Hell. Yes.
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Dec 4, 2021 16:14
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We packed up our house in June. We moved in July. There are many, many boxes. I discovered on Thanksgiving that, although, we'd unpacked one of the two mixers and the bowls, we had not yet found the beaters. I made rolls anyway because Thanksgiving, but I want my beaters. And the Fannie Farmer Baking that is actually by Marion Cunningham. And (sob!) my cooking scale. Someday. Someday we will find them.
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Dec 4, 2021 18:29
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