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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.
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Dec 28, 2019 03:33
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 16:19 |
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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.
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Mar 2, 2020 07:40
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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.
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Mar 5, 2020 09:26
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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
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Sep 11, 2022 05:59
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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.
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Apr 14, 2023 10:06
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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.
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Apr 16, 2023 02:55
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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.
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Apr 24, 2023 06:00
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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.
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May 3, 2023 07:14
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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.
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Oct 22, 2023 03:49
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magnificent
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Feb 13, 2024 04:14
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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.
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Mar 27, 2024 03:58
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 16:19 |
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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.
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Apr 29, 2024 01:03
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