Bread Baking (sourdough)

[Mr. Mike]

I made a few dozen sourdough bavarian style pretzels for a non profit event this weekend... oh my.. so good.
Attachment 296788

Those look great. That was one of the sourdough discard recipes that I saw on the King Arthur website and considered, but it called for a couple of ingredients that I did not have in house, so I passed. I need to look back at that and obtain those items so I'll be ready next time.

[grskier]

Well, an unmotivated Friday afternoon but a conf call scheduled for 3:30, resulting in me reading the whole damned thread this afternoon, and I'm in.

I've baked for a few years, but haven't given sourdough a whirl yet, but, thanks largely to KQ's pimpin', I just ordered the KA starter set. It's hot and humid here about 5 months a year, so I'm holding off on the proofamajigger for the time being.

Crumb pics to follow in a couple or weeks. In the meantime, here's some non-sourdough entries.Attachment 294718Attachment 294719Attachment 294720

sourdough pizza crusts are my favorite.

[SB]

Nice! I too tried to look for the various ingredients for the SD pretzels but keep striking out on finding them in the stores here.

[SB]

My last pizza dough was made with SD discard and it was the best so far. Did the over night method and gave it most of the next day to rise and even stretched out the dough and rise again on the pans. Working the dough seems to go the best when its still cold out of the fridge.

[grskier]

Those look great. That was one of the sourdough discard recipes that I saw on the King Arthur website and considered, but it called for a couple of ingredients that I did not have in house, so I passed. I need to look back at that and obtain those items so I'll be ready next time.

What ingredients?

It’s this, maybe a little extra dry active to help, water, salt and flour... baking soda and water for the bath


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[byates1]

hudson ny, oak pizza

no yeast since the beginning,

cool chef, joey and julianna

wood fired af.

[SB]

OK, just found this thread.
I have my starter going for about 2 weeks now.
Seems good and did a float test.
Cant get the damn dough to rise.
Pics coming later.
Fak this baking is hard.
So if I come home and the piece of shit hasn't risen, what do I do ?
Make pretzels ?

I read somewhere on reddit

BREAD : Wait for the right conditions or engineer them.
Be one assertive and confident mutherfucker because dough can feel it if you aren't, and blood sacrifice probably helps. Trust the Gods.

I was folding and pampering that mutherfucker at 6 am this morning before i went to work.

I know I know, pics or it didnt happen.

Use good quality unbleached flour, get one of those proofing bowls made of rattan with the cloth cover.

If you sacrifice virgins we want pics.

[Buke]

I picked up a copy of the Tartine Bread book from the library. I had a couple of very lackluster results following their basic bread recipe.

Yesterday I was stuck at home all day waiting for the internet repair technician (that's a story worthy of it's own thread) so I decided to use the time to give the Tartine Basic Loaf another try. This time I was pretty meticulous to follow all of the technique instructions. I worried that I had over-proved the loaf when towards the end of the initial rise I got held up on a long phone call with the internet company after the service guy didn't show which ultimately resulted in a call to their competitor and voila a new ISP in my house (sorry, I'll save it for the "why are telcom companies so incompetent" thread). Ultimately, the longer prove might just have been what my previous loaves lacked because this loaf turned out just about perfect.

My only complaint is that the flavor is a little bland. I'll chalk that up to the flour that I'm using. I had been using King Arthur AP flour (red bag) but at roughly $1/lb it was killing me to be spending so much money on flour when it normally goes into things that don't matter like cookies, waffles, banana bread, etc, so last time I needed flour I picked up a 10# bag of Kroger brand unbleached white AP flour for something like $3.5. At 3x the cost, it's hard to justify the extra price of the King Arthur flour. On a side note, last summer I picked up a small bag of bread flour that was milled by Cairnspring (a local mill based in the skagit valley) and the results were bar none the best I've had to date with regard to flavor but at something like $2+/lb it's pretty hard to justify. I inquired about buying directly from the mill but it's logistically difficult. Ultimately, the quality of the ingredients make a huge difference.

Some notes on technique, I used some starter from the fridge that I had fed on Sunday, so it wasn't quite to the discard point but it was also not a fresh starter that had been vigorously working away on a warm counter for 12 hours. Also, I used the oven with the light turned on as a proving box. Remarkably, just leaving the light on with the door closed will raise the temperature of my oven to nearly 100 degrees and propping the door opened with a spatula it will still stay around 85 degrees despite it being only about 70 degrees in my kitchen. I was finally able to keep this dough from sticking to the towel as during the rise after the final shaping by mixing rice flour with AP flour and aggressively rubbing it into the towel on the counter before putting the towel in the bowl. This makes a hell of a mess...

Fresh out of the oven, I need to work on my scoring, I don't seem to be able to get my lame to cut the dough without sticking and dragging, so I always end up with a shallow cut.


The crumb

[Mr. Mike]

looks great. Amazing the light heats up the oven that much. I guess that's due to an oven being so well insulated. I'll have to throw a thermometer in mine and see what I get.

I baked my first levain (sourdough) recipe Saturday. Actually, a hybrid because I used a little active yeast also. The difference in how well it keeps vs. a pure active yeast loaf is noticeable. Had a slice this morning, and it still seems fresh. I would be making croutons from a pure active yeast loaf by now.

[KQ]

Re: flour - I switched to Bob's Red Mill Organic and it's made a big difference in rise. Yes it is expensive but worth it IMO. Also of note: King Arthur has a flour recall going on right now for possible ecoli.

Those of you who want more sour in your sour dough should feed it once with half wheat flour and half rye flour. That will up the tang. You can do it again later if it's not enough.

Don't forget that King Arthur has a 24/7 Baker's hotline you can call or text.

Mike - I too have found that the sourdough I make at home keeps much longer than other breads even sourdough loaves I buy from bakeries in town.

[KQ]

Use good quality unbleached flour, get one of those proofing bowls made of rattan with the cloth cover.

If you sacrifice virgins we want pics.

This is what he's talking about:

Brotform and Liner Set

[Dantheman]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that your marital issues run deeper than over-baked bread.

[~mikey b]

Yeah that’s quite a post

[KQ]

Back to sour dough, I am somewhat weirdly happy with my results given my circumstances.

I don't think it looks burnt but then I like dark toast. I'd eat it.

Yeah, the thing is that it was not over baked !!

I'd suggest your wife get baked and chill the fork out.

[KQ]

today is world bread day so here are 50 of the world's best breads

[SB]

[Buke]

I've wanted to make a real dense flavorful whole grain type bread for a while. Kind of like the type of breads that I associate with Scandinavia. One of the many mountain athletes that I follow on instagram is Emelie Forsberg. In addition to being a total badass she's also a baker. Last week, she posted some bs instagram picture of a loaf of bread and some marmalade and apples and roses from her garden with some sappy comment about nature... and a link to her blog with the recipe for the bread. So I figured that I'd give it a try. She was right, it's awesome.

I present, Whole Wheat Sourdough, Rye, Oat, Flax Seed, Sunflower Seed, Apple (sauce) bread. It's dense but not hard and absolutely full of flavor. It's great warmed up with just butter or with some jam. Best of all, I feel like I'm eating some real food. This might become my staple bread for the winter. It makes a nice breakfast.



Some notes, I keep my sourdough starter alive with regular old AP flour so the total flour content is maybe 1/3 AP, 2/3 WW. That doesn't account for the Rye or other grains. I'd be happy to share the recipe if anyone is interested but I had a little trouble with the consistency of the dough and had to add some extra flour toward the end of the final rise so my measurements are a little out there. Plus, the measurements in the recipe that I followed were all based on dL rather than weights so it's really a total crap shoot. I'll try to dial in the ratios a little more precisely on my next go around but I'm guessing that I probably should start worrying more about the feel of the dough anyway.

[SB]

Nice, I would love to try this recipe.

Please share when you can.

[Buke]

Nice, I would love to try this recipe.

Please share when you can.

The recipe is here: https://www.emelieforsberg.com/autumn-bread/

But I modified it just a little. I wasn't quite sure what she meant by grinded apple (chopped, pureed, sauce?) so I used some apple sauce that we had in the cupboard. For the dark syrup I used a spoonful of brown sugar. Also, I only put about 300 mL of water in the mix (200 for the initial flour, sourdough mix and another 100ml the next morning when I mixed in all the other ingredients) but it was still way too wet. Maybe because of the apple sauce? So about half way through the rise I mixed in some more whole wheat flour until I had a more firm (but still very sticky) dough rather than what felt more like a batter originally (I probably added 1/4 to 1/3 cup flour). About an hour and a half before baking I formed it into a loaf shape and let it rise again on a baking sheet. I baked at 475 F for 37 minutes. At 30 minutes I pulled it out because it looked done but the internal temp was only 181 F. Seven more minutes was just right but next time I may push it to a round 40 minutes.

This coming weekend is my family's annual apple cider pressing. It's a good time with several generations and family and friends running around my parents farm picking apples from the bucket of the tractor and working together with the old hand cranked cider press, straining cider, and filling jugs. I think I'll make another loaf of this bread on Friday evening to take as my contribution to the family meal. My late grandmother was the daughter of two Swedish immigrants (she grew up in the scandinavian stronghold of Ballard in Seattle) and she was always baking heavy whole wheat breads. As a kid I really didn't like them but as an adult I absolutely love them. Even when I bake bread that's more in the french style with a light crumb and light flour I am usually trying to get something more like a hearty peasant loaf by adding in some whole wheat and rye flour.

Ultimately, I want to reach that point where I'm baking bread more by feel than any specific hard and fast recipe but I'm starting to realize that it might take a long time to get there. In the meantime, I've been looking for 2 or three recipes that I can pin down and reproduce consistently. This might just be the one to fill the dense and hearty niche.

[Buke]

today is world bread day so here are 50 of the world's best breads

The first bread on that list is Bolani! I spent a few months in Kabul in 2002. There was a guy that had a little cart a block away from where I lived who sold Bolani. I think it was 1,500 afghani for 1 Bolani. At the time, the exchange rate was 60,000 afghani = $1. They were so delicious. Typically stuffed with onions, leeks, and potato. Memories...

[KQ]

The recipe is here: https://www.emelieforsberg.com/autumn-bread/

But I modified it just a little. I wasn't quite sure what she meant by grinded apple (chopped, pureed, sauce?) so I used some apple sauce that we had in the cupboard.

Apples are put through a grinder (smashed into a pomace) prior to juicing for cider using a scratter. I'm guessing this is the consistency the author was looking for. A ricer might also produce the desired consistency.

[SB]

[KQ]

First off let's skip all the questions about why do I need this. I don't need it, I want it. I currently bake bread without it just fine but like many of you with skis, bikes, cars etc. I want to add to my bread baking quiver.

Now, on to my question:

A Emile Henry Bread Cloche







or a Emile Henry No Knead Bread Pot




I'm really on the fence about this. My thoughts are that the no kneed pot would produce rounder loaves (and it come with an additional bowl) but the cloche might be easier to get the loaf onto rather than dropping it into the pot. Cloche also looks like it might do bigger loaves but I can't really tell. Anyone use either of these tools?

[Mr. Mike]

I don't have it, but from looking at descriptions, I like this aspect of the bread pot: "Unlike most bread pans, you can preheat it empty in the oven to create a fabulous, golden crust!"

You noticed that the cloche is much bigger right--like about 30%?

FWIW, I don't have either of these products, but I do have their rectangular loaf baker, the baguette baker and a tagine. I have had been satisfied with each.

[grskier]

That autumn bread is next on the list.. looks delish. need to get some other flours.. which isn't ideal, but with Thanksgiving coming up, I'm sure I'll find use.