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Bread is good and awesome. Having way too much fun making and sharing sourdough loaves with friends.   
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Mar 19, 2017 21:19
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baquerd posted:Pretzels came out looking pretty neat: Not what I would expect going in to pretzels, but those look delicious.
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Mar 22, 2017 00:14
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Shovelmint posted:Not what I would expect going in to pretzels, but those look delicious. I would eat the poo poo out of those. Much better than the bagels I attempted last year.
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Mar 22, 2017 00:17
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Anyone have a recipe or method for cuban bread? Also while were at it, I would like to make a loaf that had a softer crust, in a 12" boule shape. Ive only made bread in my dutch oven using Forkish methods.
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Mar 22, 2017 03:33
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For the pretzels were you hardcore enough to use lye or is that baking soda?
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Mar 22, 2017 04:04
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I just got a bottle of food safe lye in from Amazon. Planning on making some pretzels soon.
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Mar 22, 2017 04:20
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Stefan Prodan posted:For the pretzels were you hardcore enough to use lye or is that baking soda? That was a 5% lye solution at room temp, 30 seconds each side per pretzel. My theory on the patterning is I used a cooking spray on the pretzels when I proofed them and this prevented the lye from making contact with the dough in that pattern.
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Mar 22, 2017 15:36
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baquerd posted:That was a 5% lye solution at room temp, 30 seconds each side per pretzel. My theory on the patterning is I used a cooking spray on the pretzels when I proofed them and this prevented the lye from making contact with the dough in that pattern. To me it looks more like stretch marks from the oven spring, where the lye bath only treated the surface to a minimal depth, and the over spring revealed untreated dough. If that makes sense. I'm not sure what the solution would be though...more time in the lye bath or a longer proof before baking both seem reasonable (especially the latter). Regardless, would eat. edit: Looking back at them, the cooking spray could be the culprit too. Need to make many more batches to test. And send them to random internet posters.
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Mar 22, 2017 15:52
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uhh 5% is ridiculously high. That gives you a PH of 14, a .5% solution will give you a PH of 13, .05% of 12. Baking Soda will give you roughly 8 or 8.5, you really really really don't need 5%.
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Mar 22, 2017 16:02
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Submarine Sandpaper posted:uhh 5% is ridiculously high. That gives you a PH of 14, a .5% solution will give you a PH of 13, .05% of 12. Baking Soda will give you roughly 8 or 8.5, you really really really don't need 5%. Seems to have worked reasonably, I typically see 2-5% recommended in various recipes. That's by mass with granules. Not sure what my starting tap water pH was. I've tried baking soda in the past in boiling water and it never approaches the level of brownness I want. edit: I could probably cut down the lye percentage easily if I heated the water, but room temp is a bit safer. Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:To me it looks more like stretch marks from the oven spring, where the lye bath only treated the surface to a minimal depth, and the over spring revealed untreated dough. If that makes sense. I'm not sure what the solution would be though...more time in the lye bath or a longer proof before baking both seem reasonable (especially the latter). Regardless, would eat. I see some stretch marks certainly, but some was more surface patterning. I'm planning on doing some more testing next week. baquerd fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Mar 22, 2017 |
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Mar 22, 2017 16:10
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Submarine Sandpaper posted:uhh 5% is ridiculously high. That gives you a PH of 14, a .5% solution will give you a PH of 13, .05% of 12. Baking Soda will give you roughly 8 or 8.5, you really really really don't need 5%. All I know is that every recipe I've seen recommends a 1:20 ratio of lye to water, so that's where the 5% rule of thumb is coming from. If it's true that you could get away with 1:200, I'd have enough lye to make pretzels for life.
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Mar 22, 2017 16:12
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I use between 1-2% generally so I don't need to use two scales. My first bagels were at 1:200 and they were still much better than soda. 5% is just such a minuscule gain; 3% will give you a PH of 13.9 and the extra .1 won't give you many more mallards. I do boil though rather than cold poach or spray bottle like that one goon does.
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Mar 22, 2017 16:36
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Does anyone have any bread knife recommendations? Nearly took my finger off trying to get through the crust of a five day old loaf.
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Mar 31, 2017 01:53
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Mercer Culinary Millennia 10-Inch Wide Bread Knife https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PS1HS6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_7QA3ybBCMB26Q This one is on a pretty great sale on amazon. Otherwise I would just recommend the Victoranox one.
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Mar 31, 2017 02:05
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I have a Chicago Cutlery, long job, I picked up at a hardware store for not a lot of money and it works great. I find the tricks for a good bread knife are: Length, you want at least 1.5x the width of your loaves. Sharp teeth, some bread knives have kind of a wavey serration, and they suck. you want sharp, very pointy and fairly narrow and deep teeth. It should look like a saw, basically. Ergonomics, if you use a flat board, the offset handles are great for making sure you're not busting your knuckles up. I use a pretty thick board though so I found a straight knife worked fine for me. Don't spend too much, you don't need super high end steels like you'd want in a good chef's knife. I think I got mine for $20 or so.
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Mar 31, 2017 07:33
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Stringent posted:Does anyone have any bread knife recommendations? Nearly took my finger off trying to get through the crust of a five day old loaf. Tojiro ITK 270mm - This is easily the best bread knife I've ever used. http://www.chefknivestogo.com/toitkbrkn.html
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Mar 31, 2017 12:31
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angor posted:Tojiro ITK 270mm - This is easily the best bread knife I've ever used. Ah that looks promising. I was thinking a tighter serration might help.
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Mar 31, 2017 12:33
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Finally got the pretzels the way I wanted. Also pictured is beer cheese sauce and an OK beer. 
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Apr 1, 2017 21:06
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Looking awesome!
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Apr 1, 2017 21:29
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What'd you poach them in?
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Apr 2, 2017 17:49
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Cymbal Monkey posted:What'd you poach them in? Same as last time, slightly warm 5% lye solution. My barriers were under-proofing and using cooking spray/oil to prevent sticking. This time I made sure that I really closed the seams well after pre-shaping and avoided creating new seams when rolling out. Putting them in the fridge for 2 hours is very important too, so that the pretzels firm up before dipping in the lye. I followed http://www.kingarthurflour.com/professional/bavarian-pretzels.html with 450 convection for the 15 minutes (obviously I skipped the salting and scoring too).
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Apr 2, 2017 20:03
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How do I make rye bread?
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Apr 14, 2017 17:40
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rye do you want to know? /e- here's a good rundown of a 100% rye: http://tartine-bread.blogspot.com/2014/02/sidebar-sunday-happy-accident-100-rye.html Submarine Sandpaper fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Apr 14, 2017 |
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Apr 14, 2017 17:51
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Made some tsoureki for Easter. Turned out really good.
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Apr 15, 2017 10:04
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Dear Bread Thread, I have a really nice sourdough colony going that I got from an uncle, who got it from great grandma, but I basically only use it to make pancakes. My uncle also only uses it for pancakes, so he is useless when it comes to bread. My wife tried making bread with it, but it was always a little flat and chewy, and she is in grad school now and laughs at me if I suggest she cook something. She has, however, been dropping subtle hints such as "Where is my sourdough bread?" "Go make me some bread." "Where is that loving bread I was promised?" and "If you love me you will make some sourdough bread for me, otherwise I will divorce you, just joking, sort of of but not really." I have a full time job, a seven year old, and a toddler, I do most of the cooking (mostly ok at this but not great) plus I am super duper lazy and/or tired. The one thing I have going for me is that I work from home, so I am able to prep a little on my lunch break. I have a bread machine, which I understand is frowned upon, but being as lazy and time constrained as I am it it saves me half an hour I am willing to sacrifice quality. I have also heard of people using it just for the kneading. I am open to adding yeast if it will not affect the flavor, though I gather some regard this as cheating. Any good recipes or advice for my situation re: bread made by lazy people? I should add that while I have made bread before, it has been a long time and I was never very good at it. My thanksgiving rolls the other year ended up not being fit to feed to people outside of my immediate family. My best results date seem to have been from the bread machine.
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Apr 17, 2017 05:49
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therobit posted:Dear Bread Thread, What kind of bread do you want to make? Almost anything can be made with a sourdough starter, with results varying from delicious (sourdough shokopan was a huge success) to disappointing - I haven't made any sourdoughs I'd call failures, but I wouldn't imagine that pao doce, for instance, would be very good with a sourdough starter. If you do a little math, you can convert any bread recipe to use a different starter. For an active starter like a sourdough mother, you take out any yeast in the recipe and add 1/6 (or more, or less) of the total flour+water mass in starter, then remove an amount of flour and water that keeps the hydration consistent. For instance, if you have a 1200g recipe, you'd use 200g starter. If your starter is at 100% hydration (that is, 100% of the flour mass in water; 500g of flour and 350g of water is 70% hydration) then you'd remove 100g each of flour and water from the recipe, along with the yeast. Keep in mind that naturally leavened doughs tend to rise a little bit more slowly, so just keep an eye on it. When it's doubled in volume, it's ready. As far as specific recommendations that would take to sourdough conversion well, I love this recipe, and it'd be great with a sourdough starter. That recipe is delicious, and you should definitely make it. Your bread machine will be able to handle the kneading, and it'll bake it well enough. If you do want to bake in your oven, it helps to know the exact temperature; if you don't have an oven thermometer, get one, they're cheap. Another tasty, delicious bread that will give you more of an 'artisanal' loaf (that is, more crusty and a more open crumb) is one of the many no-knead recipes out there. Jim Lahey's is reliable and simple: 400g flour 320g water 8g salt 1g yeast This recipe uses very little yeast (0.25%, down from the usual 0.5-1% I'd expect from this sort of recipe), so we're going to use very little starter (call it a third of the usual amount). 380g flour 300g water 40g starter 8g salt 1) Mix dry ingredients together. 2) Add wet ingredients and mix until you have a wet, sticky dough. It takes about 30 seconds to a minute. 3) Cover and rise for 12-18 hours. It may take longer depending on temperature. The surface will be dotted with bubbles and slightly darkened. 4) Generously flour your work surface. Dump the dough out onto the floured surface, and fold in on itself a few times from the outside in. Make it kind of round. 5) Flour a cotton or linen towel or cotton muslin sheet (something that won't give off fibers, so don't use terrycloth) and place on another surface, then put the dough on top of the towel, seam side down. This is for easier handling later. Flour another towel and cover the dough. Rise for about 2 hours, longer if it's cold. When you poke it lightly, it should hold the impression of your fingertip; it'll more than double in size, but it shouldn't look blown out. 6) Preheat the oven to 450F before the second rise is done. Put the oven rack in the lower third and put a covered 6-8 quart heavy pot (ideally, a cast iron dutch oven) in the oven to warm up. This will take some time, so you might want to start this preheat early. 7) Carefully remove the pot from the oven and uncover it. Lift up the dough and quickly turn it into the pot in one smooth motion. Cover the pot, place back in the oven, and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 15-30 minutes longer, until internal temperature is 190° and it both looks and smells delicious. 8) Let it cool fully on a wire rack, or otherwise prevented from resting on any side (which will grow soggy). Don't cut into it until it's fully cooled, because it's still finishing cooking. You will regret letting out the steam. If you want a simple sandwich loaf, this is tasty and easy. Really, in general, bread takes very little minding. It takes time to rise, but it's hands off for the most part. It's perfect for lazy or busy people. It's a good idea to grease and flour your baking container. I use the PAM stuff for baking, it has both flour and oil in the same spray can. The best way to know when your bread is done is to test its temperature. Once you've made a loaf a few times and know how it's supposed to sound, tapping it will do just as well, but as you might imagine, different recipes sound different to varying extents. A digital instant read thermometer has many other uses, and I'd say it's the best $20-30 you can spend on your kitchen. As far as bread baking tools, though, the most important thing is definitely to bake by weight. You can make good bread by feel, but it takes experience to know the texture that it should be before or while kneading. It's so much easier to just weigh out your ingredients and know what you'll be getting - and how to change it, if you want to. Adding more flour makes dough stiffer and denser, with a finer crumb and tighter texture. Adding more water makes dough looser and messier, baking up with a lighter texture and a crumb that's more open (has larger holes). SymmetryrtemmyS fucked around with this message at 08:38 on Apr 17, 2017 |
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Apr 17, 2017 08:35
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Advice needed: My apartment came with a lovely antique oven that will burn the bottom of just about everything I put in there. Even in a well-preheated dutch oven (like a good 45 minute preheat), my loaves burn on the bottom before they get a decent crust on top. I'm not talking a pleasant char, I'm talking solid-disc-of-black burned. Anyone else with antique oven woes? Would a baking steel or two help even things out?
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Apr 17, 2017 21:10
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Maybe invest in an oven thermometer? If things are burning up and the oven is old, it might be your temperatures are running a lot higher than what's marked.
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Apr 17, 2017 21:15
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I want to try modifying a pizza dough recipe, using heavy cream to substitute for the olive oil and maybe some of the water. Is this a bad idea? I typically use 1 1/3 cups water and 2 tbsp olive oil with a tbsp salt, packet of yeast, and 3 3/4 cups flour. I'm not really sure how to do the substitution math, but I'd like to try.
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Apr 17, 2017 21:19
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Argyle posted:Advice needed: My apartment came with a lovely antique oven that will burn the bottom of just about everything I put in there. Even in a well-preheated dutch oven (like a good 45 minute preheat), my loaves burn on the bottom before they get a decent crust on top. I'm not talking a pleasant char, I'm talking solid-disc-of-black burned. If you're putting your dutch oven on a lower rack, try more of a middle rack, and put as much metal on a top rack as possible (baking steel would be great). I've had similar issues and moving up racks helped significantly.
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Apr 18, 2017 13:00
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Shovelmint posted:I want to try modifying a pizza dough recipe, using heavy cream to substitute for the olive oil and maybe some of the water. Is this a bad idea? I typically use 1 1/3 cups water and 2 tbsp olive oil with a tbsp salt, packet of yeast, and 3 3/4 cups flour. I'm not really sure how to do the substitution math, but I'd like to try. Why? Pizza dough is just bread dough so you should be fine. The fat in the cream will retard gluten like the oil while the sugars in the cream will help the yeast more than your current recipe and may brown quicker depending on your cook due to those sugars and milk solids. Just look for an existing bread dough recipe that uses the ingredients you want near your 60%ish hydration; I don't know what ratio you'd sub offhand. The crumb will likely be more dense but I don't really bake with cream at all.
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Apr 18, 2017 14:16
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I'd say go for it if you want, bread is pretty forgiving. Drop the other oil since you are adding fat in the cream. Adjust hydration to make the dough the consistency you expect.
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Apr 18, 2017 15:59
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Hello bread thread! I just recently received my fiancee's grandmother's old kitchenaid stand mixer and decided to try out breadmaking for the first time. This past weekend I made two loaves, one regular white sandwich loaf (the 'your second loaf' from thefreshloaf.com) and a seed bread loaf with oatmeal and sunflower seeds, taken from King Arthur Flour's website. Both of these turned out tasty, but fairly dense. They rose well for the initial rise, but didn't rise up above the edge of the loaf pan on the second rise. Does anyone have an idea as to what might cause this, or how I could achieve a more airy loaf? 
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Apr 19, 2017 14:15
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How long were the rises? You might just need to wait longer.
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Apr 19, 2017 16:06
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taqueso posted:How long were the rises? You might just need to wait longer. The were a few hours each, but my kitchen was a little bit colder (upper 60's F). I might need to either let it go longer, or figure out how to heat them up!
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Apr 19, 2017 16:26
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Dr. Light posted:The were a few hours each, but my kitchen was a little bit colder (upper 60's F). I might need to either let it go longer, or figure out how to heat them up! The top of the refrigerator is usually a good place for things that need to stay slightly warmer.
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Apr 19, 2017 17:19
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therobit posted:The top of the refrigerator is usually a good place for things that need to stay slightly warmer. When I lived in colder climates, I would put my dough in the oven with the oven light on. The gentle warmth from the bulb made for a nice little proofing chamber. Now I live in Los Angeles and I have the opposite problem -- in the warmer months, my doughs will double in as little as 30 minutes. They'll overproof if I get distracted. I'll be exploring more overnight-in-the-fridge rises this summer.
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Apr 22, 2017 04:28
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Every time I try to do some warm spot hyjinx I end up overproofing My kitchen runs hot in the summer and cold in the winter, and I compensate by mixing w/ hotter water in the winter and cooler in the summer. The sweet spot for yeast is like 78-82 so you just want to start at such a temp that it'll drift through that range as it rises and creeps toward room temp. Before you start trying to change the temp of mixed dough while it rises just try to start with warmer/cooler dough and maybe stick it in a cooler or something to keep it from warming/cooling so fast. here's a bread  (dried cherries and blueberries) just got a few more baskets, gonna sell some breads this summer poverty goat fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Apr 22, 2017 |
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Apr 22, 2017 05:08
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I'm trying to make Forkish's overnight country brown, and no matter how much flour or what kind of towel I use when proofing, the dough always sticks so it tears when I try and remove it to put in the dutch oven, resulting in a dense, barely risen disappointment. What the hell am I doing wrong?
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Apr 23, 2017 16:52
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door Door door posted:I'm trying to make Forkish's overnight country brown, and no matter how much flour or what kind of towel I use when proofing, the dough always sticks so it tears when I try and remove it to put in the dutch oven, resulting in a dense, barely risen disappointment. What the hell am I doing wrong?
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Apr 23, 2017 18:21
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