Baking Thread

Only slightly denser than I like, but ended up decent. Pretty salty though, gotta cut back on that the next time I make this.

what recipe did you use?

I think salty is better than under salted. I usually throw about 2 teaspoons in per large loaf... More than that if its pizza dough. Sometimes a little less if I know I am going to salt the top of it, like dinner rolls or focaccia.

That looks pretty good. I think you could have let it bake another 5 minutes - but that's subjective. Excellent overall! 8.5/10

Alton Brown's No Knead Sourdough. It's not really sourdough but the method cooking in a preheated Dutch oven gave it an deliciously crisp base.

that's a great started recipe! if you're interested in baking, i recommend checking out some of Ken Forkish's "Flour Water Salt Yeast" recipes. they're also no-knead (although there is some folding involved during the first rise, but it's super easy). All of them are Dutch oven baked, and pretty easy (but a bit time-consuming, as all excellent breads are.)

I'll check those out, thanks.

Oh.. I forgot to mention I threw in a handful of wheat bran. I love wheat bran. It's SOOOO cheap and it makes bread taste a little sweeter while giving it an interesting textural element.

I just pulled my dough out for a bit of folding... it was fighting me for sure. I think i've trifolded it 3 times in both directions. So that's like 700 layers of wicked gluten development? It needs to rest overnight. I might have over done it. I added heaping Tablespoons this time. Might have been too much.

I'll let it come to room temp tomorrow morning and then I'll get a feel for the havoc that may ensue. I see long resting periods to allow the gluten to relax being an absolute must tomorrow.

anyone have pointers on how to make a sourdough starter?

There are tons of youtube and web articles on the subject. The key parts are the following:

Use unbleached bread or rye flour.
use distilled water (or any water without chlorine in it)
Add 50/50 water and flour to a vessel of some sort everyday for 5 to 7 days. (you can even do this twice a day if you like)
cover vessel with something breathable that will keep bugs out (i use a coffee filter and a rubberband over a small candy jar)
days 7-14 discard a bit of the starter and replace with more 50/50 water/flour.

You should see bubbles within a couple weeks.
Sometimes for me it takes 5 days, sometimes 15. After it's going you can put it in the fridge and just feed it once a week instead of everyday. If you know you want to bake with it on a certain day, take it out of the fridge and feed it the day before to let it come back up to room temp and get active again. This is not necessary but helps. You can still use commercial bakers yeast in your bread with the sourdough starter, this will give you a good rise and you'll still have a nice sourdough taste.

nice, thank you! so you can start with whatever weight you want? like, if i don't want to discard half the starter every few days, could i start with a few oz of flour and water, and just add to it until it bulks up?

Different ingredients for different breads.
You don't make a dough and then decide what you're making. You make a dough with the proper ingredients.
As in: You don't get to roll it out and shape it in a pan and then call it "foccacia" because you put dimples in the dough.
Actually, do whatever you want. It's just your mouth and Veeky Forums who'll know.

Half white half while wheat

Almost out of the whole, what kind of flour should I buy and work with next?

Yeah, the point is to not discard anything the first 5 to 7 days. You gotta let it get started and just feed it a little everyday. The discard starts to come in because you don't want it to get rotten and you'll have a limit to the size of your container (which has to be large enough for your starter to double from rising)

You're dead wrong about this. You might want to tailor the hydration level for a specific outcome, or salt for a specific application, but once you throw whole wheat into a dough, if you're going to make focaccia or pizza, its gonna be a bastardized whole wheat version anyway. Dough is dough.

Folded again. Dough is feeling pretty good after an overnight cold ferment. It's really cold. I'm going to let it warm up on the counter.

Do you have a razor blade? That'll give you a good top.

After a couple hours, after coming to room temp the yeast have woken up. Time to shape it up. I'm goin focaccia.

Shaped with onions, mushrooms, seasonings, poppy seeds and some evoo.

Time to let rise.

Risen. Waiting on preheat..

Focaccia!

looks fokin dlicious

Holy fucking shit, tell me you put a fuckton of garlic on that bitch.

Here's the first loaf I baked a few weeks ago. I just made another yesterday with rosemary and savory mixed in. Fleishmann's beginner whole wheat recipe.

I had a spice blend that I call "pizza hut bread stick seasoning". I got the recipe for the spice mix from a nice restaurant in Atlanta. It makes bread taste a good bit like pizza hut bread sticks. Anyway, that has garlic powder in it and I used the mix on the focaccia. Its tasty!

That looks great! Flieschman breadworld.com recipes are how I started out. I never had any of their recipes turn out bad, but I stuck to mostly pretty run of the mill bread loaf recipes...

This would be off the charts if it had a crew cheese drizzle...

Bruh I'd eat the fuck out of that

Hoo lawdy

Excellent shape, what kind of pan do ye got?

Thanks, man. I'm keeping things simple for now but I've been thinking I might try some sourdough recipes.

It's juat a tfal pan from walmart.

nicely done

>6 wins
>0 losses
>30 paladin cards
>ranked Wild
Justice WILL HUNT YOU DOWN

whoops, meant to post that on Veeky Forums

Make a calzone OP.

Sweet dude

Rye?

CREAM CHEESE INSIDE OF TOASTED MUSHROOM AND ONION POPPY SEED FOCACCIA!!!!!!

BOOYAH MOTHER FUCKERS!!!!!

(this is the tastiest thing I have ever eaten, ever)

shieeeeeet

I'm still not sold on the day old+ mushrooms there but it looks and sounds unf

To all hand kneaders out there, how physically challenging is a good knead for you?
Regards from an inexperienced baker

kneading isn't too challenging! it's mainly about finding a good rhythm. i have shitty joints (the tendons in my wrists are fucked), but kneading doesn't strain them at all.

SHIT that looks amazing.

All I'm baking tonight is beans. I've been meaning to get into bread, but I just don't have the time. Granted, I don't have the time for these beans either, but I got the hankerin so I guess I'm up until midnight.

Thanks... Its literally sort of life changing. I'm literally trying to figure out some sort of business model so I can share it with the world. Its so good, it makes me want to make the world a better place.

Fuuuuuuuuug. Ssooooooo gooooooood.

What's the recipe?

I'm making a whole wheat sandwich loaf right now. It's rising for another 30 minutes or so, before I punch it down, shape it, and let it do the final proof.

I've made a plain sandwich loaf before and it turned out great, so I'm using that basic recipe but with 1/3 whole wheat flour. I figured I should up the hydration slightly, which I did by eyeballing it. The dough was much more sticky than before, I'm slightly concerned the hydration ratio was too high. We'll see!

The physical work of it is nothing

It's just a bitch to clean up after spreading flour about

Get a bread machine. I dump the ingredients in, push a button, and get perfect dough in 30 minutes.

Hello. I'm baking bread for the first time. I need to grease my bread pan. I have vegetable oil and canola oil and butter. Which one should I use?

Butter up

And then spread some along the top (if not the other sides) when you take it out of the oven to cool

Will help make soft

thanks, buddy

...

>I need to grease my bread pan. I have vegetable oil and canola oil and butter. Which one should I use?

brush veggie oil on all sides of the pan, then dust all sides with cornmeal.

Is there anything wrong with using baking paper?

This isn't bad advice. I would use butter tho, then dust with flour or cornmeal.

Does anyone have any tips for modifying a recipe to make a bread denser?

I went to a cooking class a couple weeks ago for making challah and the challah was really light. I prefer a denser bread that is really satisfying to pull apart. Tonight I tried again and added some whole eggs in place of a couple of the yolks (the recipe just called for yolks). This helped a bit, but is there anything else I should try next time?

lower the hydration ratio! or use slightly less yeast.

What happens if you don't cover the dough while it is rising, before you bake it? I have a thin sheet of plastic wrap just resting over of the dough in a bread pan

the plastic wrap is fine. the idea behind covering it is that the surface will dry out less

I've had paper that, while not actually catching on fire, burned and basically disintegrated when put in a hot enough

Parchment paper seems to get rekt at temperatures around 400 degrees. I bake with it at temps up to 450, but it does turn black and start to flake... it doesn't smoke or catch fire... just... starts to fall apart of disintegrate as said.

most parchment paper is only good to around 430F, while most artisan boule type bread should be cooked around 450F. when i make bread in my dutch oven, i use parchment paper when the lid is on for the first 30 minutes, but remove the parchment when i remove the lid for the final 15-20 min

Nice and hollow thump on the bottom. Curious to see what it's like on the inside once it has cooled, since I was concerned about the hydration ratio.

Well? This is my first bread.

Tuna sandwich

looks pretty good, OP! how does it taste? what recipe did you use?

NOICE.

don't have a crumb shot, but it turned out okay. a little too moist in the middle, so next time i'll cut down the hydration a tad.

Make sure you're baking it long enough. I use a meat thermometer if I'm not sure. Bread might be technically cooked at 160F but it's usually not considered "done" until around 200F. Not baking it long enough could be causing it to be too moist in the middle, which wouldn't be solved with less hydration.

you want alot of gluten in your pizza dough. That's how you get it nice and stretchy.

hello how do I into bread with no bread machines.

Anyone got a good recipe for Brioche Buns?

Mostly for hamburger use.

I personally insert the bread into the oven with parchment paper, but pull the paper out after the bread has solidified, which takes around 5 minutes.

>solid technique

I do parchment on a tray. After the loaf is done and I have shut off the oven, i put just the bread back on the baking stones to develop a better bottom crust. I do this so that the loaf doesn't deflate when moving it into the oven.

After the first 12 minutes or so the crust is usually set and you can start monkeying around with stuff as much as you want.

Good job venturing into the world of making bread! Your loaves look very good for someone just starting off.

You are making a VERY COMMON beginner mistake though. That mistake is that you don't want to burn your bread, and are hyper critical of the color no looking burned. It's OK, almost everyone starts out this way. The beauty of bread is that it is very moist on the inside, and you will not burn the inside unless you try very hard. The inside is warm and steamy and will somewhat help to regulate the exterior temp of the loaf through conduction, heat transfer, steam... Don't be afraid to bake using a high temperature 450 or higher! Don't be afraid to let the loaf get DARK.

The picture I made here is a sample of loaves and your loaf for comparison. The background shades are some of the predominant shades in the crust of the bread. All bakers just starting out are like an anorexic who thinks they are fat fat fat... when in reality they are skin and bones! Same with bread crust and new beginners. "It's too dark" the beginner baker will worry. Trust me... it's not dark enough. This comparison photo calls it out in stark contrast! Use higher heat and let it bake for longer! that is how you will get the internal crumb to come up to temperature and be less doughy too. You can't get a moist crumb, with a nice dark crust unless you are using high temps.

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for the advice!

Who /cakes/ here?

This is good advice. I've only made one loaf of bread, and it came out with a really wet interior. Now I know why.

I guess I'm too used to baking cookies, which you need to take out of the oven before they start to look done.

>How the fuck do you make your own bread?
>Holy shit
>You beautiful bastard
>Sourdough bread at home!!!!!!

aw hell yeah

What do if you want more of a sandwich loaf, where crunchy crust isn't exactly what is wanted?

Make it subscription based so I can get 2 delivered to my door each month.