Nice pair.
― krakow, Tuesday, 2 February 2010 10:30 (fourteen years ago) link
i was not able to correctly identify how much of the levain i put in there and b/c of this the loaves are at best subtly sour. i had a sandwich yesterday with salami and mustard and thought the bread tasted like normal bread. then last night i had a slice by itself and still could barely taste any acidity. however my proof times were right in the range which makes me happy about my mother culture. the crumb on the batard is a bit tighter than i would like, but it's soft and not too chewy. i guess i will update again once i cut into the boule.
― Anton Levain (jdchurchill), Tuesday, 2 February 2010 19:38 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah i tried that starter thing and got the fizz and bad smell but it just died after that, even though i followed the instructions
― harbl, Tuesday, 2 February 2010 23:27 (fourteen years ago) link
what starter you tried?
― Anton Levain (jdchurchill), Tuesday, 2 February 2010 23:31 (fourteen years ago) link
flour and water in a jar
― harbl, Wednesday, 3 February 2010 00:16 (fourteen years ago) link
i guess you might be able do it with regular flour, but most of the stuff i have read calls for 'whole' forms of ground grains; either wheat or preferably rye (organic even). them yeasts be on the outsides of them grainz, yo.
― Anton Levain (jdchurchill), Wednesday, 3 February 2010 00:25 (fourteen years ago) link
i dunno i got yeast from the air, it was obvious from the smell and bubbliness but it died after the second feeding. i think i just have bad luck with bread in general.
― harbl, Wednesday, 3 February 2010 00:54 (fourteen years ago) link
"During milling, however, up to 95% of the microbial population may beremoved with the feed fractions (6). When counts are compared (Table I) in flourand in wheat from which the flour was milled, the bacterial population in mostflours was about one-tenth that in wheat. This indicates that modern flourmilling operations are efficient in reducing the number of bacteria."from here
― Anton Levain (jdchurchill), Wednesday, 3 February 2010 20:31 (fourteen years ago) link
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd210/jdchurchil/food%20porn/th_DSC_0016.jpghttp://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd210/jdchurchil/food%20porn/th_DSC_0057.jpg
― Anton Levain (jdchurchill), Saturday, 13 March 2010 15:37 (fourteen years ago) link
erhttp://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd210/jdchurchil/food%20porn/DSC_0016.jpg?t=1268494677http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd210/jdchurchil/food%20porn/DSC_0058.jpg?t=1268494736listening to rndy nwmn now
― Anton Levain (jdchurchill), Saturday, 13 March 2010 15:40 (fourteen years ago) link
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd210/jdchurchil/food%20porn/DSC_0057.jpg?t=1268494877the one on the left is made from the afformentioned muffin recipe
― Anton Levain (jdchurchill), Saturday, 13 March 2010 15:43 (fourteen years ago) link
had a dismal failure this week. forgot to feed my sourdough culture the day before baking and fed it like 3hours before use. this did not work at all. also was trying to maintain it at less than 100% hydration which i think compounded the effect of not letting time go by after the feeding. the loaf i didn't throw away looks sad and limp and tastes like a bagel for some reason. gah! lesson learned damnit
― Anton Levain (jdchurchill), Monday, 15 March 2010 22:05 (fourteen years ago) link
shoulda made soda bread
― Walter Pate On (jdchurchill), Friday, 19 March 2010 00:26 (fourteen years ago) link
DAMN those are beautiful loaves! Your house must smell amazing.
One day I will bake challah. One day. Probably not soon.
― quincie, Friday, 19 March 2010 16:56 (fourteen years ago) link
thanks quincie
― Walter Pate On 'sweetness' (jdchurchill), Saturday, 20 March 2010 00:02 (fourteen years ago) link
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd210/jdchurchil/food%20porn/DSC_0226.jpg?t=12758875208% bran to help the digestion, 12% whole wheat sourdough
― a failed junkie who reinvented himself by eating a thesaurus (jdchurchill), Monday, 7 June 2010 05:16 (thirteen years ago) link
is there any way to measure the hydration of my sourdough starter? i've been feeding it (and using amounts of it) for a couple of months now, but my flour-to-water ratio has been roughly 1:1 (but ROUGHLY), and i'm wondering what hydration it is, as a number of the bread websites i've been checking lately have been varying the hydration percentages for different loaves...
― Worth waiting for the fannypunch at 4.02 (stevie), Saturday, 12 June 2010 08:14 (thirteen years ago) link
Weigh an amount of it, then dry it out in the oven and weigh it again. The missing weight once it's dry is the water.
― Jaq, Saturday, 12 June 2010 15:19 (thirteen years ago) link
jaq as usual otm. also i reckon if you mean 1:1 you talkin volume, and in this situation i would guestimate 125-150% hydration which is to say for every gram of flour theys a gram and a quarter to a gram and a half water. ime it matters very little what hydration one maintains they starter at, just keep the bakers math on point
― legalize gay pot (jdchurchill), Saturday, 12 June 2010 17:09 (thirteen years ago) link
thanks both!
― Worth waiting for the fannypunch at 4.02 (stevie), Monday, 21 June 2010 09:27 (thirteen years ago) link
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd210/jdchurchil/food%20porn/DSC_0110.jpg?t=1278865044anton levain
― posting a CALLING ALL LARVAE message on the Insect Internet (jdchurchill), Sunday, 11 July 2010 16:19 (thirteen years ago) link
big lols
― Grisly Addams (WmC), Sunday, 11 July 2010 17:30 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't belong here but I got a jones to make bread. After research decided chapatis would be easiest to start with. Disaster ensues. My kitchen is covered with flour and so am I. The "breads" looked great stuck to the rolling pin I bought for this occasion but I could not get them off it looking so great. Followed a recipe, WTF. F*ck a bread, so frustrating. I will go back to my NN roots which doesn't include it. Want A+ tasty food homemade. Mad respect for all you eminent bakers, jdc A+. I will continue to admire your skillz. Thanks for showing your pro results and getting the cooking proletariat inspired to try even a little. Baking ambassador.
― soviet, Sunday, 8 August 2010 00:45 (thirteen years ago) link
Odd that this thread gets bumped just minutes after I finished making a loaf of bread for the first time. It actually turned out really well.
I followed this recipe FWIW: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Bread-without-a-bread-machine/
― Janet Privacy Control (corey), Sunday, 8 August 2010 00:48 (thirteen years ago) link
if we're sharing recipes... this is wonderful, idiot-proof white bread (http://www.danlepard.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2593) and a recipe i wish i'd started with when i started making bread, as it is a great, easy loaf, with great results. and these rolls (http://www.danlepard.com/recipes/2010/07/2851/semolina-bbq-buns/) are a little trickier, but so delicious...
― are you some kinda rap version of marc loi (stevie), Sunday, 8 August 2010 09:00 (thirteen years ago) link
Followed the same recipe as before, with better results this time (and cut a fancy X in the center :D)
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs156.ash2/41117_419188966537_687686537_4961523_2906430_n.jpg
I let it proof for an hour, then kneaded it again and let it come back to size on the pan, and later brushed on some olive oil for the last five minutes — the crust turned a lovely brown and is deliciously crispy. :)
― Joanie Loves Shakuhachi (corey), Friday, 13 August 2010 04:21 (thirteen years ago) link
!
― Want A+ tasty food homemade (jdchurchill), Friday, 13 August 2010 13:23 (thirteen years ago) link
for the easiest bread in the world, do soda bread
http://www.howdidyoumakethat.com/content/marnas-soda-bread
― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Friday, 13 August 2010 14:18 (thirteen years ago) link
agree soda bread is mad easy and good to do
― Want A+ tasty food homemade (jdchurchill), Monday, 16 August 2010 01:41 (thirteen years ago) link
I made this buttermilk cluster as two loaves instead of a pan of rolls -- very nice, fine-textured crumb, better for sandwiches than the italian loaves I'd been making. And like all homemade bread, it makes great toast.
― the wages of sin is about tree fiddy (WmC), Sunday, 17 April 2011 17:16 (thirteen years ago) link
for my chi-town peeps i am involved in teaching bread classes as part of http://www.sourflour.org/chicago/
― Das Unbehagen in der Kultur (jdchurchill), Thursday, 2 February 2012 02:24 (twelve years ago) link
How important is putting bread dough into a preheated oven? I use the oven as a proofing chamber because the kitchen stays pretty cold and the pilot light keeps the oven warm but not too hot. When it's time to bake, could I just turn on the oven without taking the dough out? I'm proofing it in the dutch oven that it bakes in.
― oldbowie (WilliamC), Monday, 30 December 2013 17:05 (ten years ago) link
there's a discussion herehttp://community.kingarthurflour.com/content/starting-cold-oven
i think it ultimately depends on if the dutch oven is ceramic or cast iron --- it seems that a cold oven is suggested for ceramic receptacles/baking stones etc so that they don't crack, but if yr using cast-iron or enamelled cast-iron, you wouldn't need to do that & it may change how the bread turns out?
it's been years since I made bread from scratch, so idk
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 30 December 2013 19:40 (ten years ago) link
It's enameled cast iron. It's rising very well in the oven, and I don't want to accidentally de-gas the dough with the impact of moving it around a couple of times, especially into a colder environment, so I'm going to try just turning the oven on. Thanks for that link!
― oldbowie (WilliamC), Monday, 30 December 2013 20:29 (ten years ago) link
It depends a lot on the dough - for most, you want a hot oven so the steam/gas in the dough can puff it up before the crust forms too much. A slower oven dries out the dough more during the rising/crust forming stages, again for most.
― Jaq, Monday, 30 December 2013 20:31 (ten years ago) link
My last couple of bakes have been absolutely beautiful. Letting the preferment sit overnight was not working -- cutting back to four hours tops meant it was still very active and raring to go when I mixed the dough. Finally getting the hang of the Kitchenaid mixer. For this last batch, I had new silicone loaf pans. Got a huge oven bounce.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/aprilbread2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/aprilbread1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/aprilbread3.jpg
― WilliamC, Sunday, 6 April 2014 15:12 (ten years ago) link
Gorgeous!
― Jaq, Sunday, 6 April 2014 15:17 (ten years ago) link
Thanks! I'm learning that little things can mean so much -- barely warming the oiled bowl that the dough rises in, and making a slightly wetter dough. But not exhausting the preferment has been the most important lesson.
― WilliamC, Sunday, 6 April 2014 15:30 (ten years ago) link