long-time reader first-time bread-maker

for pre-shaping your “boules”, this guy is my god:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEG1BjWroT0

i don’t do what he does for the final shape, but his pre-shape is so unbelievably satisfying and efficient and it’s not hard to get down.

one big tip for that pre-shape? put ZERO flour on your countertop. this will help create that tension you need. otherwise it just slides around.

Soda bread in our house today, came out just right

https://i.imgur.com/3a3tb9f.jpg

Nice, texture looks great. Is that a mix or did you have a recipe?

Uh id need to ask the house tbh, shes currently waspish over an email tho

Oh i read the question again, no shes mixing her own from some recipe

Nice loaves fizzles! On the mystery lack of spring - Tracer otm about making sure your starter is at the right point & lively. Maybe try cutting proofing time too, just to check on the over-proofing? Or work the dough a bit more early on to develop gluten and build the strength to handle the proof.

That is a very useful pre-shape video Tracer - I've generally just done 'shaping, but less so', but will try that pushing-around with the scraper next time.

I've found shaping the hardest part to nail. It's got better incrementally with a few factors changing - mature starter, I've got better at building strength, learnt how to handle dough better (flour hands over and over, don't be timid with it and work quickly - treat it like you're confidently handling something very hot, I read somewhere).

I used to go seam side up in the banneton, but I was reading the Forkish book late last year and he says seam side down, bake with seam side up. I've been trying it - not sure there's a huge difference. Slightly better crumb in the middle maybe.

Had been thinking about getting a thinner crust & got lost in this thread yesterday. Fascinating gluten knowledge.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/54803/chasing-thin-crispy-not-thicktough-dough

Other random notes -
I've been giving it 30 minutes in the dutch oven, at the oven top temp (which says 260 but is more like 230 from the oven thermometer I bought to investigate), then ~20 with eyeballing with the lid off. I actually don't really know what difference the lid on/lid off split makes - ie, what does less steam do?
Relatedly, I have gone from 'haha baking nerds measuring temperatures, f that, it's probably about right' to monitoring several thermometers.

getting rid of the steam means crust will start to form. 20 minutes or so is about right. if you did, say 40 mins of steam and 15 mins without then your bread will be 'done' but your crust won't be a nice deep golden brown

yeah floury hands for shaping - but wet hands for stretching/folding!

Thank tracer - makes sense when put that simply. One of those things I want to experiment with - I don't really get things till I've f'ed around with them a bit.

on starter comments - yeah my starter this time around was v borderline imo because i’d been forgetting to feed it. almost threw it away but decided to go ahead and pleased i did. but yes, can see how that would be an issue for spring.

i enjoy the initial shaping process, a bit of swishing around and tension building. v nice pre-shaping technique in the video and will go for that approach next time.

woof - your temperature comments feel right for my (very bad) oven (ie lower than it should be). i’m going to extend the dutch oven phase a bit longer and see what happens. also dig out my oven thermometer.

i used to use an oven thermometer but it just stressed me out tbh. now what i do is 1) steam phase: maximum heat for at least 45 mins BEFORE putting in the bread. the whole appliance retains its heat better like this, so that when you open the door to put in your dough it can recover quicker. bake for 20 mins or so. like i said above i usually change to just bottom element for this part, but i use a stone rather than a dutch oven. 2) dry phase: turn down to 230C until it gets the right shade of brown. for me this is usually another 35 minutes but i like it really dark. i also remove the parchment paper for this phase so the bottom gets nice and brown.

crunchier crust tip: once you’re finished baking, leave the loaf in the oven for 10 mins after you’ve turned the heat off.

if you want to bake on a stone, you can put a pan of boiling water in the bottom of the oven about 10 mins before putting in the dough, and leave it there until the dry phase.

worth saying some people don’t turn down the heat for the dry phase, and bake for less time. they just keep it blasting. if i do that my loaves are a little gummy inside.

ALL OF THAT SAID fizzles your bread is beautiful and the crumb looks sensational and i bet it tastes great

ha ha it *is* great but i love the tips and am looking forward to applying them all and coming back here when things aren’t quite satisfactory for more tips until it is PERFECT.

worth saying some people don’t turn down the heat for the dry phase, and bake for less time. they just keep it blasting. if i do that my loaves are a little gummy inside.

Thanks for this tip, tracer. I had done this the last few times because I liked the brown crust, but was getting some gumminess so I think I will stop.

yeah! if you reduce the heat to about 230C and bake for maybe 10-15 minutes longer than you usually do that should get you there. i too like it very 'bien cuit'

by the way, my last two loaves i pre-shaped and left of the counter for the usual 20 minutes or so before final shape and into the bannetons.. except.. i ended up playing two and a half hours of NBA2K21. i let out a yelp when i went to the kitchen. the dough had developed a bit of a skin. i shaped as normal, put into the bannetons, which went straight into the frige, baked the next morning per usual.... and they were absolutely fine

suggest banneton

haha had an almost identical experience a couple of months ago after deciding to find out what World of Warcraft was like nowadays.

by no means perfect - the leaven was somewhat lacking in... jouissance, so it's not quite as buoyant as i'd like, and it's overfloured, but this loaf is great. crust is crackly and delicious as is the crumb. tracer's shaping video is really great for the pre-shape, and decided on woof's timings of half an hour in dutch oven and 15 minutes uncovered.

because the leaven hadn't risen quite as much as i'd hoped in the morning, i gave it another couple of hours in a warm area. this didn't make it any more bouncy as such, in fact it became a rather elasticated, not v holey substance, so i was worried about the outcome. i've heard i think that the longer you leave the leaven the more sour your bread tastes? If that's the case the leaven may not have been great for bounce, but was fantastic for taste.

https://i.imgur.com/nDnsEls.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/xgEQKxG.jpg

that looks EXCELLENT

yeah the “aeration” in there is magnificent

Looks great, bet it will toast really well in a few days when you’re down to the last of it

it’s nice getting back into the rhythm of doing a loaf a week habitually. really got to work on my final boule shaping which is a bit slapdash (surreptitiously looks to tracer for more magic videos or tips).

might start trying some other loaves and options soon as well.

Slightly frustrated - my head's not in the game. Just went back to Forkish's White bread with poolish - which I've successfully made a few times & is delicious - and had a flat disaster. Barely any rise.
Unripe poolish I think - normally I'd wait & maybe give it a little heat but I just threw it in, barely checking.
Now I must eat a dense, ugly loaf before I can trying again. This is my punishment.

the only way to learn is to eat the mess you’ve made, no question.

I neglected my starter in the run up to xmas, thought I got it going again but baked over the weekend and it felt closer to a ciabatta rather than a boule. Think I need to keep feeding that little dude even more than I thought.

people say you can let it go a month but ime if you leave it longer than maybe 10 days you really have to work to get it strong and active again

We were away for a few days after Christmas. Forgot to put the starter in the fridge & I suspect the kids had the heating on full blast, because there was pink mould on top once I got back. No smell, and very liquid. Seemed dead.

Got a couple of tbsp from the bottom and fed it a good mix of wholewheat, white and rye. Nothing after 24 hours. Tried to convince myself that it would be healthy and unsentimental to start a new starter from scratch & that I should get better at baking with instant yeast anyway.

But then! Tiny little bubbles the next day. Took about a week to actually recover, but it's alive & is baking as well as ever.

Taken it as a warning - I slowed down on baking since I got a dog, but I enjoy it & I was so glum when I thought the starter was gone. Made me realise I need to pick up the rhythm again.

(& of course I discarded & fed every day till it was back to its usual winter self - sluggish, 8-10 hours to ripen)

pink pink pink pink
pink mold