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Yeah maybe I was a bit strong in my wording, I dont mean an extra 8oz or anything. If you are new to bread/sourdough it is disheartening to try and bake loaves that cant hold a shape and never rise properly. It's also very hard to judge dough if you dont have a good understanding or intuition about what shape it is in. The guy's dough is always flattening out and can't hold its shape, so I would suggest experimenting with more flour (2-4 oz per loaf) and then working down if the results are unsatisfactory.
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Aug 20, 2013 11:38
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I upped the hydration in my bread from 60 to 75 and it is a little flat, but the crumb is exactly what I've been trying to get for about a year. It's about 20/80 wheat/white.
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Aug 22, 2013 20:30
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Just started reading this thread the other day and haven't done a lot since. I current have the OP's no-knead and the fridge and just got some of The Doctor's challah out of the oven. This is definitely going to be something I will continue doing!  
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Aug 24, 2013 09:55
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Made some honey wheat 3.5 cups King Arthur whole wheat flour 1.25 cups tepid water 1.5 tps salt 1/4 cup honey 1/4 cup olive oil 1 tbs yeast ( activated in water and a pinch of sugar Rise, pound down, then rise again in loaf pan. 20 minutes @ 350 with a tinfoil tent over the loaf, remove tinfoil and another 20 mins. Rub the crust down with butter as it cools.  It's a little buttery a little sweet and probably the best bread I ever made so far.
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Aug 24, 2013 22:21
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Oh my god, I finally did it. I finally made my ultimate loaf. It is so airy with uniform large holes in the crumb. The crust is flakey and almost pastry like. The flavor is complex and rich (it is a sourdough enriched 80% hydration sandwich loaf). It only took 14 hours of retarding, 8 hours of proofing, and an hour of autolyzing and kneading. Jesus christ. It is so soft and airy I have to place it on its side because the mushroom head is collapsing in on itself. It quintupled itself during proofing.   (Sorry for the green poo poo, it's pesto.) Rurutia fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 23:25
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I try to make pizza dough in my kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook, but it always just kinda either slops around at the bottom of the bowl and doesn't do anything (too wet) or if I add more flour it gets to where like a sort of pool of it is on the bottom while the rest just sticks to the hook and it kinda spins around like a little bread tornado without seeming to knead either. I could add even more flour but at that point I think the dough is too dry. Is there something I can do to help this? Like maybe grease my hook or something? It makes it so I have to knead by hand on the counter, which I can do, but the dough sticks to the counter a ton and I have to add a lot of flour there too to get it to not stick and I feel like that ends up with it too dry also 
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Aug 25, 2013 00:15
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Made my first challah a few days ago.   
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Aug 25, 2013 05:46
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I'm baking my first loaf of bread tonight, well already in progress it's rising or trying to. I used Bob's red mill 100% stone ground whole meat flour with the recipe that I followed. It has a total of 2 cups of water to 6 cups of flour and that seems a bit low to me but again this is my first time. I don't have high hopes for this loaf but who knows. I did watch the "Good Eats" episode 'Dr. Strangeloaf' and Alton mentioned using a starter. That long ago bread makers used to get their yeast from brewers. So is there a difference between a brewers starter and a bread starter? And is a bread starter really as simple as flour and water sitting outside for a period of time and being maintained with 'refreshments'? Well time to 'punch down' again. edit: all is by hand, no machine.
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Aug 25, 2013 06:37
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So a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to make rye-bread following this recipe, and it turned out pretty nice. What I'm wondering is, can I safely replace a fair portion of the bread flour with rye flour in this recipe? The rye flavour was really weak, and I'd like to get a much stronger rye flavour from it. vv I'll try adding more caraway seeds this time and see how it turns out. Einwand fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Aug 25, 2013 |
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Aug 25, 2013 07:05
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What do you mean by "rye flavor"? Eat a handful of caraway seeds. Is that what you mean by "rye flavor"? Caraway is loving delicious, so rock it man! You may just want to add more caraway. That poo poo is good. Adding more rye gets tricky because the dough gets sticky as hell. Really really sticky mess. Vital wheat gluten helps but . . . uuuuhg. If you want more rye, consider replacing some water with a nice tart yoghurt or using a sourdough. That helps with rye.
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Aug 25, 2013 08:28
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Einwand posted:So a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to make rye-bread following this recipe, and it turned out pretty nice. What I'm wondering is, can I safely replace a fair portion of the bread flour with rye flour in this recipe? The rye flavour was really weak, and I'd like to get a much stronger rye flavour from it. Try 20% - 30% rye flour for the final dough. It has quite a strong flavour so you dont need that much for it to pervade. Also look at the colour of the dough. If its still quite dark you will be able to taste the rye. I dont particularly like overly strong rye flavour and I find 30% is too high for me, 20% gives that nice earthy taste and its amazing as toast.
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Aug 25, 2013 14:23
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Rurutia posted:Oh my god, I finally did it. I finally made my ultimate loaf. It is so airy with uniform large holes in the crumb. The crust is flakey and almost pastry like. The flavor is complex and rich (it is a sourdough enriched 80% hydration sandwich loaf). It only took 14 hours of retarding, 8 hours of proofing, and an hour of autolyzing and kneading. Jesus christ. It is so soft and airy I have to place it on its side because the mushroom head is collapsing in on itself. It quintupled itself during proofing. That looks amazing, could you share the recipe?
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Aug 25, 2013 14:24
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Ingredients: Flour (100.00%)- 405.3177691 Milk (50.24%)- 203.6316472 Eggs (30.00%)- 121.5953307* Sugar (12.31%)- 49.89461738 Soft Butter (12.31%)- 49.89461738 Salt (2.46%)- 9.970817121 Starter (37.40%)- 151.5888457 Yeast (2.00%)- 8.106355383 Total 1000g +Vital Wheat Gluten The starter is 50/50 so if you don't want to make sourdough, you can just replace it with just flour and water. Flour is white bread flour. For my 1000g loaf, this is just 2 eggs. I estimate about 50-60g per egg. Sift the dry ingredients together without the yeast, in a separate bowl mix together the wet ingredients in a way that gets them to about room temp. I generally just mix together hot milk/butter and cold starter - mix in the eggs after so they don't cook. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together until barely incorporated and autolyze (let it just sit there) for 30min. Slap and fold until smooth, then if you have stand mixer throw it in with the yeast and about a tablespoon of vital wheat gluten* and let it knead until it not only passes windowpane but it tears smoothly and the gluten strands are very strong (takes about 15min at least) - usually at this stage I'm windowpaning every 2 minutes. All told, kneading should take 45min-1hr. *(The amount of vital wheat gluten depends on the slackness and composition of the dough without. I put in about a tsp at a time and test the feel of the dough and the strength of the gluten strands until the dough really comes together and the gluten holds.) Let it rest for 2 hours, then retard in the coldest part of the fridge for 14 hours (overnight). Take out of the fridge and let it come back up to room temp for about an hour. Stretch it out into a big disc (I do this usually in the air with gravity pulling it down - the gluten should be very strong at this point so that it won't tear even when you make it very thin.) then fold 2 opposing edges in and roll up lengthwise into a jelly roll. Place inside a loaf pan and proof (can take from 4-6 hours). I take a spray bottle and moisten the outside every hour or so - if I'm going out for a few hours I'll just do it before I leave and then when I get back it's not that sensitive. Proof test is just the poke test - it will usually quadruple or more. Heat the oven with a large glass bowl of water on the bottom rack to 450F. Do not trust your oven beeping, wait for the water to start bubbling/simmering. Once it does so, turn the oven back down to 350F, spray the bread one last time, and stick in the loaf pan. Bake for 45min. Note While resting/retarding (not proofing!) you have to deflate whenever it hits 2x inflation. With deflating, you don't want punch down - you want to gently lift the dough all around so that air escapes from the bottom. This helps preserve the integrity of the gluten structure and it prevents yeast from drowning in CO2. This is especially important during the retarding process. I start the retarding process in the middle of the day, then deflate before I go to bed. Usually the dough won't inflate at all again in the fridge, but this gives you extra oomph for the proof. Finally, don't expect much oven spring. Most of the growth and hole formation happens during the proof. Generally speaking the timings aren't super important to get exactly right. What is important is getting that strong gluten structure (kneading) and a healthy colony of yeast for the final proof. Rurutia fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Aug 25, 2013 |
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Aug 25, 2013 14:59
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Shbobdb posted:Eat a handful of caraway seeds. Is that what you mean by "rye flavor"? Caraway is loving delicious, so rock it man! You may just want to add more caraway. That poo poo is good. If you're going to buy caraway, buy it online. It's pretty hard to get it in any decent amounts that don't cost an arm and a leg unless you having a baking supply store near you. I think I paid $12 for 35 oz on Amazon.
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Aug 25, 2013 19:26
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Einwand posted:So a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to make rye-bread following this recipe, and it turned out pretty nice. What I'm wondering is, can I safely replace a fair portion of the bread flour with rye flour in this recipe? The rye flavour was really weak, and I'd like to get a much stronger rye flavour from it. You could replace the bread flour in the sponge with rye and still get a good, light loaf. Any more than that and you'll get a denser bread since rye doesn't have gluten to hold up the dough. Also, don't use light rye flour. It's pretty neutral and won't give you much of a rye flavor. Whole rye will go a lot farther, but like whole wheat, your loaf won't rise as tall. If you can find it, medium rye flour is a good compromise between flavor and lightness.
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Aug 26, 2013 02:08
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Starker44 posted:I'm baking my first loaf of bread tonight Well the update is the loaf tasted like flour it had a very awful taste. Any number of things could have gone wrong. The one thing I do know is that it didn't rise very much so probably had dead yeast even though I just bought the packets from the store. I'm going to try again but this time I want to make a starter as well as making a sponge first. I didn't like the straight dough method. Any tips are welcome.
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Aug 26, 2013 05:50
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Starker44 posted:Well the update is the loaf tasted like flour it had a very awful taste. Any number of things could have gone wrong. The one thing I do know is that it didn't rise very much so probably had dead yeast even though I just bought the packets from the store. I'm going to try again but this time I want to make a starter as well as making a sponge first. I didn't like the straight dough method. Any tips are welcome. When you put the yeast in the lukewarm water to activate it, just watch it for a minute or two. If it's still alive, you can actually see it multiply. Little groups just appear next to the rest of the mass like watching Conway's Game of Life. It was amazing the first time I saw it. Make sure the yeast is alive. Dead yeast leads to disappointment.
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Aug 26, 2013 15:08
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So, I've been reading through this thread and then I saw it. The layered braided bread. How the heck do you get that to rise and cook properly? Also, bread picture. Second day in my baking class(Been doing baking at the family restaurant(You can read how horrible it is in my thread I made about it)) decided to do some braided breads.  My teacher literally said,"That one is mine. You think I'm kidding, but I'm going home with that one." SlayVus fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Aug 28, 2013 |
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Aug 28, 2013 01:29
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I would say the same, that's a beautiful bread!
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Aug 28, 2013 02:15
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SlayVus posted:So, I've been reading through this thread and then I saw it.
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Aug 29, 2013 06:08
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Thumposaurus posted:What thread is this? The bread thread. And I asked a question on how a the layered bread like the one posted earlier in the thread was able to rise and cook correctly. Then I posted a picture of some bread I made.
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Aug 29, 2013 13:04
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SlayVus posted:(Been doing baking at the family restaurant(You can read how horrible it is in my thread I made about it) I meant this part specifically smartass because I'm genuinely curious about it since I'm the bread baker for a restaurant.
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Aug 29, 2013 13:42
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In my quest to bake whatever sounds amusing I've attempted the pretzel recipe from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day. I didn't quite get the brown I wanted on them, although the seeded ones were definitely darker. I'll play with it a bit more next time and see what I get. At some point I need to see if the lye we have down at our lab would work for this, and also if they'll let me snag a bit for playing in the kitchen.
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Aug 29, 2013 14:46
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Thumposaurus posted:I meant this part specifically smartass because I'm genuinely curious about it since I'm the bread baker for a restaurant. I'm pretty sure SlayVus just assumed you were trolling him/her and didn't re-read the post to see that you were actually referring to the other thread he/she posted about.
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Aug 29, 2013 14:53
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SlayVus posted:How the heck do you get that to rise and cook properly? It baked and rose the same as any other loaf of bread. I used http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/09/best-challah-egg-bread/ for the recipe and for the braiding I looked up how to do it on youtube.
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Aug 29, 2013 16:37
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amishjosh posted:
I made lye breads with lye from the lab. It will work just fine. However, make sure that you use the good stuff (99.9% pure) because the lower "reagent grade" lye has lead as a major contaminant. At least, that is what I've been told.
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Aug 29, 2013 17:44
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Baked my first ever loaf of bread today! The yeast was ridiculously out of date and the flour was too, but I persevered and lo and behold I got this thing out the other end. It's really crunchy on the outside and the inside is reasonably fluffy and tasty. Hooray for first attempts!  The baking process: http://pubthenterror.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/um-breaking-bad-is-already-anagram-of.html
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Sep 1, 2013 10:29
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contrapants posted:When you put the yeast in the lukewarm water to activate it, just watch it for a minute or two. If it's still alive, you can actually see it multiply. Little groups just appear next to the rest of the mass like watching Conway's Game of Life. It was amazing the first time I saw it. Baker's yeast has a generation time of 1-2 hours, so what you're seeing is the dry yeast rehydrating from the dessicated shriveled state. Last year I used a packet of dry yeast that had expired in 1999. Just mixed it with the flour without any proofing and it worked perfectly. If the sachet is intact, dry yeast is probably indestructible.
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Sep 1, 2013 11:30
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My dad got given about 3 dozen local eggs, so I decided to make an attempt at brioche using Gourmet Traveller's recipe, it's rising as we speak. The yeast was pretty old but it frothed up well so hopefully it'll come out ok. Will post results once it's done.
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Sep 3, 2013 05:51
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Round 2 after my last failed attempt I decided to make a starter. Left it outside for 24hrs then brought it inside and started to feed it for 2 days. So last night I noticed that it was quite active and decided to feed it then start making a loaf. I didn't follow any said recipe I just added the basics from what other recipe's had and just winged it.  I'm really pleased at how well it turned out. The only thing is that it's dense not fluffy but soft enough to were it doesn't break apart when you bite into it. I noticed that when I was rolling it after the punch down that it would tear some and was stiff I really had to press it back into itself to form it. After cutting through it, it's solid all through no holes or pockets. It tastes amazing.
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Sep 3, 2013 05:53
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Result: Smells great, waiting for it to cool some more so I can try a bit to see if I would make more, but at least I have some egg whites to make meringue or something with. Edit: It's very light and fluffy and tastes brilliant with some butter. Will have to make more because this loaf isn't going to last very long. Ten Becquerels fucked around with this message at 09:03 on Sep 3, 2013 |
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Sep 3, 2013 08:46
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Challah makes me hollah.
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Sep 5, 2013 17:14
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I have a question for you all (and don't have a picture at the moment unfortunately). I've made no knead bread and knead bread (love my kitchen aid) followed by cooking in my dutch oven with the temperature cranked up for the first 10 minutes, then lowering it. I cook the bread till it sounds hollow, and the crumb is always perfectly cooked. But what starts out as a wonderfully crackly crust always ends up sunked in with cracks in it and softer. Am I not cooking it for long enough? I let the bread cool upside down on a wire rack. Any suggestions?
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Sep 7, 2013 02:44
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If it's collapsing I believe you're over proofing it. You should only proof the bread until it doubles in size. Which can take between 2 hours at most and 45-60 minutes at least.
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Sep 7, 2013 14:14
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Does it happen after you have taken it out of the oven, and do you brush it with anything after you've baked it? If you're turning it upside down, the weight of the bread is going to collapse the top any way, if there's any space between the crust and the crumb. If you're brushing it with oil, it will absorb the oil and become soft. It may also become soft if you leave it in a humid spot.
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Sep 8, 2013 02:58
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I don't brush it, and this happens whether i invert it or not. I'm thinking it may be related to over proofing, but thinking back its also happened to bread I know isn't or is under proofed. Its a standard med hydration white bread, cooked in a dutch oven at 500 degrees F for 12 minutes covered with steam, then at 425 for another 45. I take it out of the oven and place it on the rack and hear the crust crackling as it cools. Then inevitably the crust kinda falls in over the whole bread in almost a pentagon shape. Wish I had a picture I could show you. I've been making this bread and having this happen fairly frequently for over a year now. Otherwise though its an amazing french loaf.
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Sep 8, 2013 05:42
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What would happen if I used bread flour in a recipe that calls for AP flour? I'm thinking of making a basic white bread. Am I right that it will just be a little chewier?
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Sep 8, 2013 06:31
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Hawkgirl posted:What would happen if I used bread flour in a recipe that calls for AP flour? I'm thinking of making a basic white bread. Am I right that it will just be a little chewier? You'll get more rise and more chew. You'll also have to add a little more water, as bread flour requries more due its higher protein conent.
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Sep 8, 2013 07:42
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Spikes32 posted:I don't brush it, and this happens whether i invert it or not. I'm thinking it may be related to over proofing, but thinking back its also happened to bread I know isn't or is under proofed. Its a standard med hydration white bread, cooked in a dutch oven at 500 degrees F for 12 minutes covered with steam, then at 425 for another 45. I take it out of the oven and place it on the rack and hear the crust crackling as it cools. Then inevitably the crust kinda falls in over the whole bread in almost a pentagon shape. Wish I had a picture I could show you. I've been making this bread and having this happen fairly frequently for over a year now. Otherwise though its an amazing french loaf. Sounds weird! I have never experienced having my crust collapse. Post your recipe? Maybe it has something to do with being cooked in a dutch oven? I honestly have no idea but maybe what happens is that because you bake your bread with a lot of steam, it ends up under the crust, and then as you cool the loaf, the steam escapes, which leaves a hollow underneath, and simultaneously softens your crust, allowing it to collapse.
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Sep 8, 2013 14:06
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NightConqueror posted:You'll get more rise and more chew. You'll also have to add a little more water, as bread flour requries more due its higher protein conent. Okay, neat. I'm trying to make this recipe a little chewier: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/our-favorite-sandwich-bread-recipe so I suppose I'll have to decide between adding more milk, or more water. I was trying to find a recipe that just plain used bread flour, but I suppose that isn't done very often with white sandwich bread. I just kind of want the texture of good sourdough except I don't have any starter yet.
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Sep 8, 2013 17:43
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