11 hours ago, Luc said:

I have some nice artisan bread cookbooks but they're still above my skill grade really or rather I just don't have the ovens and proofing shelves ect.

There are a million and one websites though.

 

A very easy to follow  and friendly site is this one>>>  sourdough  it probably has all you need to start your journey.

 

My go to flour is this one from Gunnedah which you can get through Amazon or a host of stores in Sydney. >>>  Organic Premium White Bakers Flour 12.5KG

Is also available in 25kg bags if you can find a store that stocks them.

 

Absolute beginners beginner recipe is this one using the above type of flour.

(always...always use a digital scale and weigh everything. Do not fall into the tyro's trap of using measurements as in 2 cups of flour, a cup of water etcetera.

So: 400gm of flour,100gm of bubbly starter,250gm of boiled or filtered water(just not tap water) 10gm of salt if you want(I don't use it).

Mixed with a wooden spoon or and electric mixer with dough paddle(I use a bamboo scraper), mix until well blended and the dough looks shaggy. This takes about 5 to 10 minutes of mixing by hand and you'll know when it's 'shaggy' as it's very sticky. Use a stainless bowl and once shaggy cover it with a plastic bag and leave on the benchtop for an hour or so.

Then using a bowl scraper that you wet and also wet your dominant hand(left or right) you scrape the dough off the inside of the bowl and using your hand(wet) stretch the dough upwards(you can just use both hands slightly wet if you want)

 

Stretch and fold four times and rotate the bowl 45degreeseach stretch.

Now cover the bowl again with plastic and leave in a nice warm spot(25c is fine) for 4 to 6 hours. Check on it after about 3 hrs and poke it. If your finger has sticky dough them just cover and leave. When you can poke it with your finger and the indentation stays and it's not sticking to finger...it's right to shape into a boule and place into a banneton or use a bowl and a teatowel dusted with flour. Place in fridge overnight, when you wake up, turn oven up to 250c fan forced and place in a  Dutch oven if you have one and 20minutes at 250, 10 minutes at 200, take Dutch oven lid off and cook for 15 to 16 minutes. Remove and let rest for half hour.I've skipped over the shaping. you can google it all anyway but this is a recipe I can do blind and it nearly always works.

 

And all of the above assumes you have a nice bubbly starter.

 

 

Thanks. I’ll have to start on a bubbly starter this weekend. 

16 minutes ago, PKay said:

Thanks. I’ll have to start on a bubbly starter this weekend. 

 

Sparkling wine doesn't count, sadly

3 hours ago, PKay said:

Thanks. I’ll have to start on a bubbly starter this weekend. 

A week of feeding and discarding awaits you. It's a real mission to make one from scratch, good luck.

Not sure if I can add much here, as I only started my journey a year back with a pack of Laucke "Barossa Sourdough Rye". With only an oven and a KitchenAid mixer, it made a pretty good loaf the first time around and I've only varied it a bit by adding some small additives on various occasions (herbs: Oregano, turmeric; liquids: olive oil, maple syrup; nuts/seeds: blitzed walnuts, sesame seeds, poppy seeds; flours: flaxseed, wheat germ) with a bit of added water to balance the dough - not all at once, mind you!!!

It's been fun so far, and I love the look when people get a slice of the turmeric bread (more colour than flavour - but apparently it's good for you)

A little crack at fruit loaf over the weekend, with WomAdelaide infringing heavily on the time available. A little fine tuning though- up the allspice and reduce the sugar, but tasty as all get up! Somehow toasting it is a bit of a mission, having to set the toaster to "cremate" and give it a second go after that!

Managed to cultivate a rye sourdough starter culture. First loaves of 100% rye, water, salt. Can't get them into that beautiful hard crust with that copper sheen. oven not hot enough, dough too moist? Our oven (gas) could only go up to 270C and that was when it was new probably 20 years ago. Tips welcome.

Oh well, cut one open after cooling, looks and smells like an authentic rye bread, at least.

Beginning to understand my oven's characteristics a little better.

Here aimed for 100% white (overnight sourdough starter dough) with 10g yeast and 2 hours of stretch and fold and rest. Recipes call for a machine mixer but managed to get a supple and smooth dough by 15min hand kneading. Two loaves with less than 1kg of flour--pretty good yield.

 

Same dough, one baked in lidded tin, the other on open tray. Both are that fine copper brown on the bottom. Not enough heat coming from the top. Will see if I can find the heavy tray that came with the oven and use it as a top to for heat radiation.

Edited November 18, 20241 yr by Steff

On 14/03/2024 at 12:17 PM, Grizzly said:

A little crack at fruit loaf over the weekend, with WomAdelaide infringing heavily on the time available. A little fine tuning though- up the allspice and reduce the sugar, but tasty as all get up! Somehow toasting it is a bit of a mission, having to set the toaster to "cremate" and give it a second go after that!

That looks amazing!

On 18/11/2024 at 11:36 AM, Steff said:

Will see if I can find the heavy tray that came with the oven and use it as a top to for heat radiation.

A Dutch oven will solve that problem.

Or you can purchase a baking stone that once heated will do a very good job in getting your bread up to scratch, just spray water into the oven a couple of times during baking and you'll get really really good rise as you need steam to get a proper rise like the commercial bakers ovens do natively.

 

  I've posted these loaf pics before but they do show the results of a Dutch oven and I've recently been gifted an artisan bread book in pdf form that uses exclusively the Dutch oven for all it's recipes which is a fantastic approach as it normalises the cooking process no matter how difficult the recipe.

 

Olives(3 varieties), roasted capsicum, finely chopped rosemary, lemon zest, cayenne chilli diced finely, Parmesan cheese grated through the folds.

 

Nice ear

 

Plaited sourdough foccacia style bread.

Edited November 20, 20241 yr by Luc

On 19/02/2024 at 9:35 PM, Full Range said:

@Luc we know each other on the record spinning thread and have shared our breads 

 

This thread has peaked my interest in a snack bread available on many street corners in Greece 

The bagels above look similar to the bread I had when I lived in Northern Greece 

 

So I will give it a go after I get the recipe from my mum 😋

They are known as Koulouria with sesame seeds 

 

How's that recipe coming along FR.

2 hours ago, Luc said:

How's that recipe coming along FR.

 

I have been doing slow cooked lamb shoulder in yogurt with cob bread lately 

 

This is the ring bread recipe if you want to try it makes about bread 12 rings 

 

500g high protein flour but you can mix it 50/50 with plain flour

( https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/142314/vetta-smart-protein-plain-flour )

2 tsps salt

300ml lukewarm water 

8g dry active yeast 

1 tsp sugar

5 tbsps olive oil

 

To garnish

You need 200–250g sesame seeds 

Brush water over rings and sprinkle the sesame seeds over them 

‘Method

Prepare the mix like you would bread and fashion them into rings,  then let them rise for about 1 hour then place in oven to bake - see photo of results 

 

Bake in preheated oven at 200C for about 15 to 20 minutes, until nicely golden brown and crusty 

 

 

 

@Luc 

 

I baked these today and the slow cooked lamb shoulder will be ready at 5.00pm 

Wife wanted them to be thicker and smaller to have with the roast 

Now on the cooling rack 

 

@Luc this rye made in the Dutch Oven - left the lid on for thirty minutes out of 55min baking time -- or leave it on for all of it?

Having a try of some wheat breads tomorrow...

 

Wheat, milk, honey, yoghurt, sourcream (because we can't get ok quark anywhere), sourdough, yeast

Would still like to get it darker but suspect this is the limit of our (large) gas oven.

Finally starting to get the hydration close to right. Loaves are holding shape and looking like they're meant to! Nothing fancy, just a soft white batard with a small handful of sunflower and punken seeds thrown in.

 

No seeds in the sandwich loaf at the back though, they get caught in little grizzlys' plate.....

Japanese Milk Bread (yeast, no sourdough) using an online recipe

Hot X Buns, 10g fresh yeast, 50g sourdough, glaze: cooked apricot jam

7 minutes ago, Steff said:

Hot X Buns, 10g fresh yeast, 50g sourdough, glaze: cooked apricot jam

Oooooohhhhh lovely!!

 

I had a HCB situation this year, with some apple/cinnamon, double choc chip and traditional fruit dough, plus some plain white bread, on the go- in the oven at 30 degrees to boost things along as time was not my friend. 

 

Ducked out to mow the lawn only to have miss 11 come out and ask what the oven was on previously.... she'd decided to whip up a batch of brownies and mistakenly set the oven at 190 to preheat. Quickly ran in to find the plastic bowl very melty as well as all the shower caps over the other bowls and some partially cooked dough.... all in all a little disaster/lesson.

 

On the plus side, the brownies were🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤

Saw a recipe and then went way off script 😆

300g sourdough predough, 100g spelt poolish - added to water, majority white flour, some rye, some spelt, 1g yeast, 5g honey, 10g milk, salt

kneading for 15-20min, then 4x stretch and fold between rest, and overnight proving in kitchen (unformed), not shaped and fridge proving as per recipe.

Shaping it a bit messy, quite a wet dough.

Also bought an IR thermometer that clearly reveals the oven not getting sufficient heat and a huge difference between bottom (270C) and top (190) of oven. Explains why the tray bakes don't rise much in the oven and don't caramelise on top.

But, fluffy and tasty loaf:

Edited April 29, 2025Apr 29 by Steff

Oven cranked to max, this time some linseed in the mix

We cut this amazing tasting sour dough bread not thinking about taking a photo 

It was baked by a fellow (Jeffrey) in a company I subcontract at, and he gave it to me as a thank you 

 

Tastes amazing especially when it’s toasted 2 times 

My wife and I have it toasted at breakfast with avocado - better than a cafe 👌

 

Photos after cutting

 

 

 

 

The best days for baking and playing records is when it’s lightly raining 

 

Baked in the cast iron Dutch oven today a special recipe of mine 

 

A picture of the result 

Just out of the oven 
 

 

On the cooling rack 

 

Edited May 31, 2025May 31 by Full Range

Now that it has cooled this is the result 

 

‘’Now let me say from the outset this is my special recipe that gives the bread its colour tint 

On cutting it the crust is crispy and moorish 

 

And If you want to try I can send you the ingredients via PM 

 

I baked some Artisan bread in the cast iron Dutch oven again today 

Just had some from the first cut with butter with dinner - and it’s yummy 

 

On 25/11/2024 at 4:22 PM, Steff said:

@Luc this rye made in the Dutch Oven - left the lid on for thirty minutes out of 55min baking time -- or leave it on for all of it?

Having a try of some wheat breads tomorrow...

 

Never thought of doing it in a Dutch over. Thought for food (or food for thought)