baking: does it come easily to you?

our small kitchen is also our small living room, my shortcrust game is killed dead by the heat

baked challah today

Challahhhhhh pic.twitter.com/1qCBjrJmED

— Evan (@silby) March 7, 2020

pic.twitter.com/MVH1w1WUi9

— Evan (@silby) March 7, 2020

looks fantastic. now i want some french toast asap

that looks beautiful.

i am very impressed!

☺️

I tried the Bon Appetit chocolate chip cookie recipe and it seemed to take forever to hold its shape when I was poking it, and when they were finally done they ended up bone dry. I probably added 6+ movies too the baking time. I want a softer cookie for sure, so any ideas on how to tell when they're done?

Cookies that are done don’t seem at all done until you’ve baked cookies a bunch of times and can tell the difference between done and not done cookies.

i haven't done that particular recipe but i looked at it. i have the following questions.
1. how are you measuring the flour?
2. have you tried resting the dough overnight?
3. is your oven temperature accurate?
4. yeah try taking them out earlier than you think the center should look very light and underbaked. it'll continue to bake itself after you take it out.

resting dough in the fridge, i mean

Ah, my post is a little misleading, the dough itself held its shape well when I mixed it, I was poking it on cookie sheet after baking to see how done it was. Next time I think I'll try scooping one up with a metal spatula to see how it holds its shape out of the oven.

i'm not sure i understand what you mean, but you shouldn't judge by touching or moving them when they're hot. they're all going to be very melty upon removing from the oven and will have better shape when cooled. a cookie that is that firm coming out of the oven is gonna be overdone. they will take about 5 min to cool enough to move from the sheet to cooling rack. (i am a savage and sometimes just let them cool on the sheet entirely.)

I generally just do a toothpick test when in doubt. I agree with harold's rec to just let them sit for at least a few minutes after taking them out of the oven. And yeah, confirming the accuracy of thermostat is key

harold lol v good autocorrect

Ha!

what challah recipe did you use? I have never made it before but think I am going to do it tomorrow.

My Oma’s, mostly, wherever she got it from however long ago. I was careful about activating my yeast since we had active dry not instant and she’d specified margarine but that’s pretty passé. It’s enriched but not bordering on brioche like challah can be.

I’ll type it at some point

hmmm. ok most of the recipes online seem pretty similar and I am sure I will improvise since I can't help myself. I am excited to make this tomorrow. I am going to braid it like subway party loaf bread.

Nice looking challah! I need to revisit the hotbread kitchen raisin challah recipe now that my general dough skills have improved

Jesus I suck so much at everything involving dough... How do people do it? It's so sticky and messy your hands become useless after a minute and you never know if you have the right texture, and oh no I need to add more liquid, and oh God now there's too much I need to add more flour it fucking never ends. I'm trying to make naans for tonight and it's a fucking nightmare and my kitchen is a battlefield and fuck American measurements and fuck all the confusing kinds of flours and yeasts. Ugh.

if things are too sticky all the time for you you need to be more prudent with adding liquid to flour. maybe you live in a humid climate so won't need as much as recipe calls for, or something. and if you have to mix by hand, leave one hand out of it so you can reach for other things? "all the confusing flours and yeasts", wot?

Well every country seems to be using different names for types of yeast/flour as well as different types of yeast/flour altogether and you can't always be sure to find an equivalent. I'm French and using an American recipe which states 'all-purpose flour' and nothing more but here our flours are named T55, T65, T80, T100 etc. depending on how much it is refined (except it's actually not that easy and some brands do whatever the fuck they want). Yeast is just as confusing.

“All purpose” is like cake flour, I think it’s T-45

I am pretty good at mixing dough by hand. I take listed measurements as a suggestion. I think the key is to keep moving your hand ( I have never used a mixer) as you slowly pour in the liquid and you just kind of get used to what it should feel like when you need to stop adding liquid and then adjust as you go along. I only add about a tablespoon at a time to adjust liquids afterwards.

this is an interesting guide to baking ingredients in france. says AP flour will be T-65. for naan you would want to be closer to bread flour.
some of the flour links are dead but this one worked https://www.chowhound.com/food-news/53455/you-say-farine-i-say-flour/

hmm i think t65 is definitely more bread flour. it's stupidly difficult to get a good read on this via the internet. isn't this exactly the sort of thing the internet is supposed to be good at?? i did find this on a forum:

AMERICAN: Cake & Pastry
 APPROXIMATE FRENCH EQUIVALENT: Type 45
AMERICAN: All-Purpose & Bread
 APPROXIMATE FRENCH EQUIVALENT: Type 55
AMERICAN: High Gluten 
APPROXIMATE FRENCH EQUIVALENT: Type 65
AMERICAN: Light Whole Wheat 
 APPROXIMATE FRENCH EQUIVALENT: Type 80
AMERICAN: Whole Wheat 
 APPROXIMATE FRENCH EQUIVALENT: Type 110
AMERICAN: Dark Whole Wheat
 APPROXIMATE FRENCH EQUIVALENT: Type 150

which seems to pretty much correspond with this page:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/51263/what-are-flour-types-t45-t55-t65-t150-type-0-or-type-00-magic-enzy-flour-rye-flour-t1150

You shouldn't need to be a NASA engineer to make some fucking bread, right? I used T65 with 11% proteins.

Anyway the naans were okay but they didn't bubble when I cooked them, they just stayed flat. I had a better recipe but I lost it.

Making naan in a domestic oven is going to be not quite right regardless, not hot enough.

i've only made naan on a cast iron skillet. It worked well.

Yeah that's what I'm using too

I think I used yeast and also baking powder just to make sure it had bubbles.

yeah i've done it with difficulty getting small bubbles, and the bread just doesn't come out as soft as restaurant naan. it's more pita-like. the recipe i used did have ingredients you'd expect to soften it, can't remember what though. butter, milk, yogurt? i used a skillet.

i let the skillet heat up for ~7-10 minutes I remember. and the dough texture should be very very soft/proofed when you roll it out.

i've had three weeks in a row of failed sourdough - good crust, good taste, but huge air bubbles inside to the point where it's almost hollow. my first theory was that i wasn't getting a good cut in the top of the dough when i put in the oven so the steam was building up inside and inflating the loaf. but then i was thinking back to what i've been doing different recently and i've been doing an overnight fridge proof so now i suspect that's the issue? maybe over or underproofing? next week i'll try shifting my schedule back to allow for a daytime proof outside of the fridge.

Some people covet that oven spring! Like, it seems to be seen as a plus for fancy instagram sourdoughs, even though it's terrible for sandwiches/eating.

Idk what to do about it, but I think Sarah usually does an overnight fridge proof too.

We made banana bread for the first time last week, used this random blog recipe (rather than the BA one, since we don't have a mixer) and it came out great: https://www.katiebirdbakes.com/the-easiest-banana-bread/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9hVpzzHSRJ/

Added walnuts and a chopped up chocolate bar that had cayenne in it, the heat really came through.

This one is even easier IMO and is very moist!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSQyJuMN0d4

NA make sure your starter has enough zing. do you refresh it before making your levain/sponge/whatever?

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9a42fRJ0H6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

lol jackasses.

I always thought there was something a little fascist about the tartine vibe. ‘the one true bread’ kinda thing. now i see i was right!

I made the cookies again and this time did not over-bake and they were moist and delicious! Related question: are those silicone cookie sheet liners worth buying?

i have them but didn't have a good experience with cookies. they are maybe too slippery. this is possibly individual to me, but i bake 6 cookies per sheet. in my oven, the one positioned in the middle back always cooks slightly less than the others. with the silicone mats, that one became misshapen and began to slide so the cookie developed a keyhole shape! i have used them to roast vegetables just fine, though. i prefer parchment for most applications.

I considered buying those but parchment paper is cheap and compostable and more versatile than silicone liners (you can cut it to fit a cake pan etc) and you don't have to wash it.

In the last 30 hours I’ve baked a banana cake, a tray of chocolate brownies, and a loaf of sourdough bread.

I wouldn’t say it’s easy but I do enjoy it.

I did it again

The one on the right is gone already pic.twitter.com/HFoPHCoSjA

— Evan (@silby) March 14, 2020

Protip: to avoid the rambling food blog preambles, I've started bookmarking the printable versions of recipes.

A relative who is a bread expert is teaching me by email and zoom how to bake bread. we zoomed today and now my dough is resting in the refrigerator. I am really excited to bake my first loaves tomorrow

:D