Dough rising at room temp overnight. Some nice bubbles already. 
Will go in the fridge tomorrow For baking on Sunday 

 

https://www.xkcd.com/2296/

 

 

*sneaks into  SNA bakery and reports three failed loaves in a row..frisbees to be exact and if you hit someone with them they'd be knocked out or worse. Currently reviewing skill level and  heading back to beginning.

8 hours ago, Luc said:

*sneaks into  SNA bakery and reports three failed loaves in a row..frisbees to be exact and if you hit someone with them they'd be knocked out or worse. Currently reviewing skill level and  heading back to beginning.

 

3 in a row, Lee!   

 

C'mon ... a bit more focus and a few less martinis, I suggest! 

 

Andy

 

FWIW, I'd be closely checking the ingredients to look for the prime suspect.  I just can't imagine going from triumph to disaster being totally down to technique.

 

Breadmaking must be pretty forgiving of less than perfect skills.  I haven't got a clue and yet I've made a few successful loaves in the past and never had one that had to be scrapped.

 

BTW, the pics at the beginning of this thread look so mouthwatering, I've been thinking of giving it a go again - inspired I am! 

On 17/04/2020 at 9:48 PM, sir sanders zingmore said:

Dough rising at room temp overnight. Some nice bubbles already. 
Will go in the fridge tomorrow For baking on Sunday 

 

Forgot to post the end result of this bake:

 

loaf looked great out of the oven

 

 

was still a bit moist in the middle though. But taste was excellent 

 

 

14 minutes ago, Tony M said:

yet I've made a few successful loaves in the past and never had one that had to be scrapped.

I'd question whether they're sourdough though Tony. Dry yeast breads are different beasts from sourdough.

 

*I should add that they're not completely inedible the fails, they make great dunkers. I made a pork meatball veg soup tonight and the slices toasted and sprinkled with a nice dry sheeps cheese soaked up the soup nicely.

 

9 minutes ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

But taste was excellent 

...and that's all you need.

 

Rye starter and flour looking at your loaf there Sir Pangmore.

 

My fails.

and three different recipes Andy, I like to experiment.

I found out that the humidity and the 700metre elevation above sea level affects the flour and the hydration and the autolyse times here. More study and experiment needed!

Edited April 23, 20205 yr by Luc

6 minutes ago, Luc said:

slices toasted

That’s the secret to dealing with “fails”, they usually make good toast ?

1 minute ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

That’s the secret to dealing with “fails”, they usually make good toast ?

Sage advice should always be toasted posted twice....

Been getting back into bread myself now that I'm working from home. For convenience in just using a small bench top oven so compared to the cast iron pot method I'm not getting as good an oven spring. Still happy with the result though.

Great thread Luc and some great looking loaves so far.

 

I'm a lazy, yeast-leavened baker, but enjoy it a lot. I just turned out a batch of bagels. Nice to have the oven on today as it's pretty cold and bleak. 

 

Ohh bagels... here’s my batch from the weekend. Not nearly as pretty as your @Monty but good taste and just the right chewiness 
 

Edited May 7, 20205 yr by sir sanders zingmore

Fresh out of the oven 

 

Lookin good Zingaling?

A quick search for sourdough yields @Luc. Naturally! I've been inspired lately on the same journey, more based on the whole overly processed nature of even basic foods these days. I'm only a few weeks in but aiming at less photo shoot aesthetics and more family friendly end results. Little grizz absolutely loves the bog standard white loaf I do in the loaf tin which works well for school sandwiches and the like. I'm yet to have a crack at a cob loaf type arrangement but will be tempted heading into the cooler months. She's less keen on the 30% rye, which seems to be a struggle to get a good rise on, at least thus far. I'll persevere nonetheless

 

For now I've kept the crust manageable for teeth, might increase the bake time a touch for colour. Mrs grizz complains laughingly about the crumbs adorning every kitchen surface, but I have to remind her that we are those people now!

@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 

 

Overnight proving in the fridge (what exactly I'm not sure, pythagoras' theorem perhaps) then an hour out on the bench this morning and a nice visit to the sauna. All gnarled and lumpy, just like me

This weekend saw some more experimentation- full wholemeal loaf with a touch of rye then another batch the same, split in two before fermentation. 1 loaded up with mixed fruit and a dash of allspice, the other with a couple of chopped Jonathan apples with a hint of cinnamon, and a bit of sugar in each. Both turned out quite well I reckon, taste largely!!

On 19/02/2024 at 1:35 PM, Grizzly said:

A quick search for sourdough yields @Luc. Naturally! I've been inspired lately on the same journey, more based on the whole overly processed nature of even basic foods these days. I'm only a few weeks in but aiming at less photo shoot aesthetics and more family friendly end results. Little grizz absolutely loves the bog standard white loaf I do in the loaf tin which works well for school sandwiches and the like. I'm yet to have a crack at a cob loaf type arrangement but will be tempted heading into the cooler months. She's less keen on the 30% rye, which seems to be a struggle to get a good rise on, at least thus far. I'll persevere nonetheless

 

Just saw this thread. Good on you! 

 

FYI the grains in rye inhibit a good rise by interfering with the gluten network. The solution is to mix the rye dough with a very well kneaded high gluten bread dough, the highest you can find. I knead mine for 15 minutes on the stand mixer. Use about 75% hydration for both doughs. FWIW I don't like the rye bread either, it's plain white bread for me. 

38 minutes ago, Keith_W said:

 

Just saw this thread. Good on you! 

 

FYI the grains in rye inhibit a good rise by interfering with the gluten network. The solution is to mix the rye dough with a very well kneaded high gluten bread dough, the highest you can find. I knead mine for 15 minutes on the stand mixer. Use about 75% hydration for both doughs. FWIW I don't like the rye bread either, it's plain white bread for me. 

 

Dialled back to about 15% seems to make it all work👍

I'm still doing bread on a weekly basis. Great to see you getting into it Ant @Grizzly.

A type of braided pull apart sourdough, Garlic, chilli(Jalapeno so not too hot) and crushed fennel seed(a tiny bit)

We took this loaf on a picnic

 

This is a four olive bread with roasted capsicum. The olives are green Sicilian, dried and salted black olives from Türkiye(oh yum they are), a friends locally grown and fermented Olives(yuge buggers the size of quail eggs) and good old Kalamata.

About 1.5hrs autolyse and then 6 or so hours bulk fermentation and then...30hrs in the fridge and no warming up to room temp but straight out of the fridge and into the preheated oven at 250c fan forced( or whatever your using)

*4 stretch and folds at the beginning or 6 if you have the patience and time as the amount of extras in this dough means they want to fall off the dough as you stretch.

** I don't knead my bread, hence the stretches)

39 minutes ago, Luc said:

I'm still doing bread on a weekly basis. Great to see you getting into it Ant @Grizzly.

A type of braided pull apart sourdough, Garlic, chilli(Jalapeno so not too hot) and crushed fennel seed(a tiny bit)

We took this loaf on a picnic

 

This is a four olive bread with roasted capsicum. The olives are green Sicilian, dried and salted black olives from Türkiye(oh yum they are), a friends locally grown and fermented Olives(yuge buggers the size of quail eggs) and good old Kalamata.

About 1.5hrs autolyse and then 6 or so hours bulk fermentation and then...30hrs in the fridge and no warming up to room temp but straight out of the fridge and into the preheated oven at 250c fan forced( or whatever your using)

*4 stretch and folds at the beginning or 6 if you have the patience and time as the amount of extras in this dough means they want to fall off the dough as you stretch.

** I don't knead my bread, hence the stretches)

Any recommendations for a beginner’s cookbook?

IMO you don't need a cookbook. The problem with that stupid book that I bought was that it did not teach you anything about the essentials of baking bread - instead, they directed you to add x amount of water to y amount of flour without explaining why, and different recipes which were all variations of the same thing.  The rest of the book was stupid anecdotes about the author growing up. Cookbooks like these are useless. 

 

You only need ONE recipe which you know works, and understand why it works. 

 

The variables you need to understand are: 

- flour

- water 

- yeast

- additives (e.g. olives, nuts, fruit, spices, other flavourings, etc) 

- kneading, resting, folding, and proofing 

- baking method - open or closed in a Dutch oven, or a combination of both. 

 

The most critical variables are the first two - what flour, and how much water. Not saying that the others don't make a difference, for sure they do. But IME if you fail to hydrate your flour properly and develop the gluten, you will have zero chance of success. 

 

To learn about those variables, go to Youtube and do a search for sourdough. 

Edited March 4, 20242 yr by Keith_W

1 hour ago, PKay said:

Any recommendations for a beginner’s cookbook?

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.

 

 

I simply found a recipe online (again, with an inane drawn out backstory that, praises be, I could skip past easily. Why they would think ANYONE is interested in this stuff eludes me) and had a crack, then adjusted amounts and proportions to suit my baking tin size and outcomes. So far I've only used cheap supermarket flour (gasp!) but now that I'm getting better results I'll search out something a little nicer locally.

 

As Keith said it's good to have a little understanding of the effects each ingredient has on the other(s) to make the slight changes to your chosen recipe as you go.