Bread Baking (sourdough)

[skaredshtles]

Good point about the parchment /or freeze separately before bagging. I do that when I freeze fruit from the garden so it doesn't turn into a giant block... forgot I would need to do that for these so thank you!

Yup - I cool them on a wire rack, then put the whole thing straight into the freezer. They freeze in less than an hour, IIRC. Then into Ziplocs and back into the freezer.

For me this resulted in less moisture released in the Ziploc and extended the life of the frozen waffles a bit.

[old goat]

Not SD but since we're talking waffles

Liege style Belgian waffles
2 cup AP flour
1 cup pearl or Hawaiian sugar (Sugar in the Raw, found in ordinary supermarkets)
1 cup melted butter
3 eggs lightly beaten
1 pkg active dry yeast
1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 tbs granulated sugar
Vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

Mix water, yeast, granulated sugar, salt vanilla. Sit 15 minutes.
Make a well in the center of the flour, add the yeast mixture, eggs, butter, knead. Rise until doubles, 30-60 minutes
Mix in pearl sugar, sit 15 minutes. Make balls of dough and cook. The waffle should be a little gooey on the inside, crisp on the outside with the pearl sugar carmelized. It takes a little practice to get the timing and temp of the waffle iron right.
Serve with topping of choice. The traditional topping when served as Belgian street food is powdered sugar.

[snoboy]

My best looking loaf yet! More aggressive stretching of the dough as I roll it into the final boule seems to help.

[KQ]

My best looking loaf yet! More aggressive stretching of the dough as I roll it into the final boule seems to help.

Mighty fine!

[pureantigravity]

I also baked a loaf of bread for the first time in roughly a month now that things have gotten back to more reasonable temps.

I had some spelt and rye in the pantry so I just winged it and threw this together. It's 55% AP Flour, 15% Rye Flour, and 30% spelt. I also put in a little Wheat Germ. It's not too bad. A little denser than the real airy loaves that you get with higher percentages of AP flour. The Spelt and Rye give it a bit of a sour funk that's not unpleasant. I also used a somewhat over-ripe starter so that could have contributed to it. Overall I'm happy with it but I think I'll do something different with the next loaf. It was also probably a little under proofed, given how it cracked weird, or maybe I just needed to score it more to give it room to expand.

Attachment 338278
Attachment 338280

That looks good. Just the right crumb if you ask me.

[pureantigravity]

I got the oven steam thing working just right. Problem is, my 500F goes to 450F with the pan of water in there (2.5 cups of water in 12" square pan).
I'm going to try and use a smaller pan with some lava rocks in it to increase the evaporation surface.

[KQ]

I got the oven steam thing working just right. Problem is, my 500F goes to 450F with the pan of water in there (2.5 cups of water in 12" square pan).
I'm going to try and use a smaller pan with some lava rocks in it to increase the evaporation surface.

I know someone who uses paver bricks in his oven.

When I do sourdough I bake the boules on a preheatd (2hrs @ 500° then reduce to 450°) rectangular stone that takes up most of the oven. I do have the rounds on parchment which helps them slide off the peel and protects the bottoms a tad. I spritz the loaves with water prior to putting them in and then twice again within the first 5 mins.

I use an Emile Henry baker and/or a le crueset for other types of bread. My sourdough recipe is a 24hr affair with an overnight cold rise and a 2hr. room temp warm up.

[pureantigravity]

I know someone who uses paver bricks in his oven.

When I do sourdough I bake the boules on a preheatd (2hrs @ 500° then reduce to 450°) rectangular stone that takes up most of the oven. I do have the rounds on parchment which helps them slide off the peel and protects the bottoms a tad. I spritz the loaves with water prior to putting them in and then twice again within the first 5 mins.

I use an Emile Henry baker and/or a le crueset for other types of bread. My sourdough recipe is a 24hr affair with an overnight cold rise and a 2hr. room temp warm up.

>I do have the rounds on parchment which helps them slide off the peel and protects the bottoms a tad. I spritz the loaves with water prior to putting them in and then twice again within the first 5 mins.

Ha! Doing the same thing. Seems to be working. I guess what I need is the mass from a baking steel or stone/brick to get the temps up through the steam phase.

[old goat]

I've been using a dutch oven, but I wanted to make long loaves I could cut into sandwich rolls so I had to use a baking sheet. I was disappointed, but I realize I have a perfectly good cast iron griddle that should work fine if I do one at a time. I want to get a baking stone but apparently everyone in America beat me to it. There's one I could get but the review says it smelled so bad of chemicals their kid left the house.

[Mr. Mike]

I've been using a dutch oven, but I wanted to make long loaves I could cut into sandwich rolls so I had to use a baking sheet. I was disappointed, but I realize I have a perfectly good cast iron griddle that should work fine if I do one at a time. I want to get a baking stone but apparently everyone in America beat me to it. There's one I could get but the review says it smelled so bad of chemicals their kid left the house.

Emile Henry to which KQ refers makes a rectangular baker that does a great job with sandwich style loaves.

[old goat]

Emile Henry to which KQ refers makes a rectangular baker that does a great job with sandwich style loaves.

Thanks. I'll consider if I'm not happy with the cast iron griddle.

[KQ]

Emile Henry Italian Bread Loaf Baker

[KQ]

Emile Henry to which KQ refers makes a rectangular baker that does a great job with sandwich style loaves.

Hey Mike! How do you shape/tighten your dough when you use the rectangular baker? I only have the round baker and know how to tighten the dough up for that but have never tried a rectangular loaf.

[old goat]

Emile Henry Italian Bread Loaf Baker

I'll ask my wife if I can have one for xmas. If I order it myself she'll kill me. And at this point all my kitchen storage space is overflowing. At least a baking stone takes up no room.

I watched a few videos on shaping long loaves and baguettes--basically flat oval and fold the edges into the center and fold the ends over, and do it multiple times. The one time I've done it the loaves looked pretty irregular but after they had risen they looked better. It wasn't easy and I didn't get the nice smooth tight surface you get with a round loaf, but I wanted the loaves to be pretty flat anyway, for sandwiches. I'll keep practicing.

[Skidog]

1st attempt at focaccia will try to post inside pics later just came out. Resting now. Ann burrell recipe.

ETA: I did infuse the oil with garlic. 3 cloves. I'm not a huge straight olive oil fan so. Smells delicious.


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[old goat]

I did a couple of long loaves on the cast iron griddle. The first on the lowest level, the second on the next lowest. Pan of water with both, removed at 15 minutes. Both came out much darker on the bottom than the top. Both were perfect in the inside, good crumb, tasty. Think I'll just use a regular baking pan next time. Because these are for sandwiches I don't want the crust to be as crunchy as for a round loaf.

[Buke]

The weather has cooled and I've been getting back into baking a loaf of bread a week. I've got a recipe dialed that I really like, so normally I don't stray much from that. But, I had spelt flour that needed to be used so I put together a loaf with 40% spelt, and 60% AP. It turned out great.



But this time of year, I start thinking about more hearty food. I was thumbing through the Tartine 3 book and saw the recipe for René's Rye. It's uses a bunch of sprouted rye berries along with seeds of all sorts. It doesn't use any wheat flour. The Flour is 80% spelt, 20% rye. There's as much sprouted grain and seeds as there is flour. For liquids there's buttermilk and some dark beer along with water. I figured I'd give it a try. Since it was my first time using sprouted grains I decided to follow the recipe almost to the letter. All in all I'm happy with the results. The recipe made a ton of bread and it's so hearty that you can't eat more than a couple thin slices at a time so I'm going to cut it into small bits, vacuum seal it, and store it in the freezer.




Now I'm feeling inspired to try some of the other oddball things in that book. Porridge breads sound interesting. Maybe I'll do that next.

[KQ]

The weather has cooled and I've been getting back into baking a loaf of bread a week. I've got a recipe dialed that I really like, so normally I don't stray much from that. But, I had spelt flour that needed to be used so I put together a loaf with 40% spelt, and 60% AP. It turned out great.



But this time of year, I start thinking about more hearty food. I was thumbing through the Tartine 3 book and saw the recipe for René's Rye. It's uses a bunch of sprouted rye berries along with seeds of all sorts. It doesn't use any wheat flour. The Flour is 80% spelt, 20% rye. There's as much sprouted grain and seeds as there is flour. For liquids there's buttermilk and some dark beer along with water. I figured I'd give it a try. Since it was my first time using sprouted grains I decided to follow the recipe almost to the letter. All in all I'm happy with the results. The recipe made a ton of bread and it's so hearty that you can't eat more than a couple thin slices at a time so I'm going to cut it into small bits, vacuum seal it, and store it in the freezer.




Now I'm feeling inspired to try some of the other oddball things in that book. Porridge breads sound interesting. Maybe I'll do that next.

That's a lot of good looking "bread." You'll be set when civil war sets in on Nov 4.

[yogachik]

I'm only using Artisan Organic Bread flour now that I can easily find it:


This is a combination of Bob's Red Mill Artisan and King Arthur Organic Bread Flour, with 50g of KA Wheat Flour:

[mrswhyturn]

I'm only using Artisan Organic Bread flour now that I can easily find it:


This is a combination of Bob's Red Mill Artisan and King Arthur Organic Bread Flour, with 50g of KA Wheat Flour:

Drool worthy! Beautiful boule!

[old goat]

Not sourdough, but was watching an old Bake with Julia (Child) episode yesterday. She had an American-living-in-Paris baker demonstrating how to make batards. She kneads 800-850 times (not all demonstrated on the show) and each knead involves slamming the dough on the bench. Think I'll stick to my no-knead SD recipe.

[mrswhyturn]

Not sourdough, but was watching an old Bake with Julia (Child) episode yesterday. She had an American-living-in-Paris baker demonstrating how to make batards. She kneads 800-850 times (not all demonstrated on the show) and each knead involves slamming the dough on the bench. Think I'll stick to my no-knead SD recipe.

800?!!!! That's one way to sort out some emotions

[Flounder]

Sourdough pretzel bread. KAF recipe for the dough. Braided into loaf shape. Insanely good.

[pureantigravity]

^^^ This is why TGR should have a LIKE button.

[skaredshtles]

My oven has decided to start acting up. Additionally, it's almost *impossible* to find a new range that fits my current requirements... at least one that I can get before T'giving, which I'd really like to do.