Maybe a dumb question, but to the bakers of Veeky Forums -- this recipe book is great...

You need to adjust the yeast, too, but I forget which direction.

You might take a look at Beard on Bread, or Tassajara Bread Book. Pretty sure they discuss this.

too late about the yeast -- the dough is almost done with bulk fermentation. i mixed up a poolish last night, and mixed the final dough around noon. did a few stretch and folds during the first hour and a half, and it should be done rising in the next 15-60 minutes!

i think i am going to divide the dough and try to make two smaller loaves, just for the heck of it. i'm curious to see how it turns out.

if you bothered to read the damn thing you'd see that it can be scaled down to a single loaf

Report back. Am curious too

if you bothered to read my post, you'd see that i was asking if i could divide that single loaf into two smaller loaves

the boules are shaped and sitting for the final proof. i'll keep a close eye on them, since i figure proofing time will probably be less than the usual 1 hour for this recipe, and i'm already preheating the oven.

give the extra to family/friends/indigents

Hey I have that book, it's bretty good. Still haven't been to the guy's actual bakery yet though.

bread freezes perfectly well

first loaf is out of the oven -- it looks pretty good! i retarded the second loaf in the fridge while this first one baked, and just put it in the oven.

I'm from somewhere bread doesn't look like that, how do you guys eat it?, do you cut it in wedges or slices?

either! i tend to cut it into slices and serve it with soup or salad, or with a charcuterie plate of meat, cheeses, and fruit.

slightly stale loaves like this are also ideal for making panzanella.

did you bake that? looks fucking good mate

yep, thanks! that one was another recipe from the cook book at the start of the thread -- it's my go-to recipe (50% biga white bread).

is a slightly different recipe -- it uses a poolish, which is a thinner pre-ferment than a biga. i'll be curious how the crumb turns out, given the different starter and the different size of the loaves

alright! second loaf is out of the oven, with slightly better oven spring than the first loaf (probably because it was refrigerated for part of the final proof). baked them each in a dutch oven for 15 minutes with the lid on, and 12-15 minutes with the lid off.

this was a fun experiment -- i'm curious to see what the crumbs are like! will update the thread when i finally cut into one.

I don't know too much about bread (yet) so these are dumb questions.

do you need to tend to your starters every day to avoid spoilage/loss of quality? when you make a batch of starter do you plan it for use on a single bake day or can you maintain it for on-demand baking? does the ridged proofing bowl do anything for you other than texture the crust?

and what are you going to do with all them dank loaves?

monitoring.

>do you need to tend to your starters every day to avoid spoilage/loss of quality?
Perhaps not every day, but you do need to constantly maintain it.

>>when you make a batch of starter do you plan it for use on a single bake day or can you maintain it for on-demand baking?
The latter. You can maintain it and use portions of it whenever you decide to bake.

Is my bread knife dull or do you cut it some other way, because mine looks like I took a rusty bansaw to it when I cut it.

so the language is a bit...unclear. a biga or poolish isn't a traditional sourdough starter, they use commercial yeast instead of a wild captured yeast.

i haven't made my own sourdough starter yet, but it's way up on my project list. i just have to be home at the same time every day for a week in order to feed/establish it. from what i understand, once you have a fully mature sourdough starter, you can stick it in the fridge or in a cool place and feed it once a week (or when you want to bake with it.)

a biga or poolish uses a small amount of yeast to kickstart the gluten development of dough, which you then combine with a bit more flour, water, yeast, and salt to make a finished dough. they add complexity to the flavor of the dough, and help extend the life of the bread a bit.

here's a helpful primer on the difference between starters:
kingarthurflour.com/professional/preferments.html

mine does too lol. this loaf i took to a friend's house, and her brand new bread knife was incredible. i've been meaning to ask her what kind of knife it was, thanks for the reminder

the crumb of one of 'em, at least, turned out amazing. just had a small slice with some irish butter, it's delicious. the bread is...silkier, maybe?...than the previous loaves i've made. i assume this is because of the difference in the pre-ferments!

i'll give one loaf to a friend, keep half a loaf for myself, and give half a loaf to my sister who lives nearby.

all in all, a successful experiment.

also, i'm not sure if it was the size, the shorter cook time, or the poolish, but the crust is a lot softer and i'm kind of into it

sounds like something I'd be enjoying

it's delicious, user. i cooked up some kale, white bean, and quinoa soup with lemon and ginger, and served it with irish butter slathered on a nice slice of this. i'm already looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Would you mind sharing the recipe on it?

looks really good. Anyone know of a decent quickbread that doesn't require a running starter like sourdough or tons of kneading?
I remember really getting into making french bread but the water+oven thing eventually became exhausting

it's flat as a fucking pancake user wtf

i contemplated typing it all out, but then googled the recipe (forkish's poolish white bread from Flour Water Salt Yeast) and thank fucking god, someone had already gone to all the trouble:

breadexperience.com/sing-to-me-my-bread-crackle-sweetly-in/

it's basically this, but when you get to step 4 (shaping the loaf), i divided the loaf into two very small loaves, and shaped then and proofed them (one in a banneton, one in a linen-lined colander).

i immediately preheated my oven (with dutch oven inside) after shaping the loaves, and after 15 minutes i put one of the loaves in the fridge. i let the other one proof for an additional 10-15 minutes and baked it at 450 for 15 minutes with the lid on the dutch oven, then removed the lid for an additional 12-15 minutes. put the now empty dutch oven back in to reheat for a few min, then baked the second loaf in the same way.

if you have a dutch oven with a lid, you don't have to worry about the steam if you want to make round loaves.

lol okay, so the angle on that pic makes it look flat. it's not really, as the crumb shot shows

i assumed you meant the bread recipe, not the soup recipe (which was also delicious.)

perhaps. this one looked great doe hnggg also, how the fuck do you not burn the bottom? i'm using a gas oven. after burning the first one, i tried placing a baking stone at the bottom but the fucking thing (2nd one) didn't brown properly

I did, thanks user.

look at my burned bottom user what a piece of shit

the two loaves had 1/4 inch height difference, tops! i do thing retarding partially during the final proof helped slightly with the oven spring on the second (crumb shot) one, but the difference between the two was negligible

oh shit that's burnt as fuck. there are probably a few factors:

is the temperature reading on your oven accurate? invest in an accurate oven thermometer to know for sure. my oven runs hot, so i generally bake bread at 450 instead of 475.

what are you baking in? those deep lines are weird. it could be that the thing you're baking in/on is gathering too much heat. instead of preheating your baking surface/dutch oven at the start when you preheat the oven, maybe put it in like 15 minutes after you start to preheat.

honestly, though, it looks like you're baking way too close to whatever heating element your oven uses. can you up the rack a notch?

i also put a plain aluminum cooking sheet upside down on the rack below i put my dutch oven on. it helps to add a barrier from the direct gas heat from my oven.

the blisters are nice, btw

haven't tried reading the actual temp i'll use a bbq thermometer i have lying around thanks mane

using a dutch oven. i placed some flour on the bottom of the dutch oven before i placed the boule so they stuck there. after the initial baking with the cover, i removed the boule and transferred it to a lined rack (not the little squared ones) thinking it might be better for browning...but it burned the bottom. also, one problem i keep getting is the bottom getting brown/burnt and the top isn't even fucking browning so i turn the bread over and guess what it browns normally wtf

ok i'll try placing the oven rack at the top. will remove the baking stone too and try that aluminum shit

thanks for the help user love ya

instead of using flour on the bottom of the dutch oven, you could also try either corn meal or parchment paper.

it sounds like your oven really doesn't heat evenly, or runs hot. you want the heat to permeate from all sides, not just the bottom. definitely use that bbq thermometer to check the temp!

will do thanks user see ya around

here's a shit crumb of the burnt one. it was a bit gummy? or wet even though i the temp inside registered a 205 deg f

not a bad crumb, but dense at the bottom. could be either over or under proofed. what recipe are you using?

didn't follow a recipe i just used percentages. 70% hydration 2% salt 0.8% yeast. bulk ferment for 12 hours then i tuck and fold and shaped it and proof for 30 mins then bake. might try an 8 hour bulk ferment doe

hmm, that's a pretty good ratio. i'm honestly not sure why your bread is doing that! again, my guess is that your oven is running too hot, or your DO is too close to the bottom near the burners.

You can make your own starter culture from water and flour. If you have rice on hand then grind that into a flour and use that.

Been working on a starter for the past few months, for sourdough. I've been keeping it at a good strength(full rise after feeding within 3-4 hours) and can produce consistent loaves, but I need to produce more acetic acid for more tang. I know adding a little rye flour to the feed and the dough can help.

OP here. i've read making a starter totally out of rye flour is an easy way to go for consistent results and good rise. what kind of flour were you originally using when you began your starter? and do you store it in the fridge or what?

I did in fact start out with only light rye flour and water, but I switched to unbleached AP for regular feedings because it's more readily available. Now I've been adding rye back into it, or I should go full rye flour and see if there's a difference.
Also I keep it out at room temperature to rise after feeding, and retard it in the fridge when I can't keep an eye on it.

does anyone know what the rough equivalents for cooking in something like a cake pan instead of a dutch oven like this guy recommends might be? I don't have the money or the space for one right now but i do have some sturdy old cake pans that have like a 2" lip to hold the dough in.

would I just do it on a lower temperature for more time to make sure I don't dry out the outer edge too much because it'll be exposed for the entire cook duration?

awesome, thanks for the info!

so the idea with a dutch oven is that cooking the bread with a lid on creates a miniature steam oven. most commercial bakeries have ovens that inject steam into the oven while bread bakes, helping it to "spring" and get a nice crispy crust.

you could try putting the bread on a preheated cookie sheet and inverting a much larger/taller cake pan or oven-proof stainless steel bowl over it to trap the steam, but that's just a guess -- i've never tried it.

I'm a novice chef and I've only made bread in a bread-maker before. It would collapse in the middle so I wanted to try it myself in the oven. What kind of equipment do I really need? I have no idea what proofing is and what bannetons or colanders are.

depends on what kind of bread you want to make

for a sandwich loaf, all you really need is a large bowl and a loaf pan.

for an artisan type bread, you need a very large bowl or tupperware container to let your dough rise in, a bench scraper as a tool, and some linen to line a bowl or colander with if you don't want to invest in a banneton basket, and a dutch oven with a lid.

but seriously, you don't know what a colander is? it's the thing you drain pasta in, dude. like. seriously. please be trolling.

>live next to a good bakery
>want to eat fresh bread everyday
>buy a loaf
>have a few slices
>no family to share with
>discard old bread

Fresh bread for one please

Oh, I see now. Thanks! Yeah I have a colander I just didn't know it was called that. I just thought of it as a strainer or something.

Been looking at that victorinox breadknife
anyone tried it?

might be worth it, i like their knives. but i'm no /k/ommando or knife expert

yeah! so ideally you'd use a fine strainer (one of the mesh ones with lots of tiny holes) instead of one of the usually plastic strainers that has bigger holes). but really, if you get some tightly woven linen (or a tightly woven kitchen towel) and flour the fuck out of it, you can line either kinds of strainers with that and let the bread rise in it

freeze the extra bread, or use it to make something like a bread pudding or a panzanella, or take it to work with you and give it away

when i defrost it will it be nice and soft like fresh?

you can google this shit, dude. slice it before you freeze it, then you can thaw individual slices. this works best with sandwich type breads.

but seriously bread from bakeries stays good for a few days, stop wasting money on fresh bread every day (or fucking make your own, google "artisan bread in 5 minutes a day" idk if it's good or not but a lot of bread forums recommend it)

An easy way to inject steam into a home oven is to place an empty ripping hot pan on the rack underneath your bread and add ice to it at the beginning of baking. Evaporates consistently, and you can remove it at any time.

would putting a full tray of water under neath and letting it come up to temp as the oven preheats do the same thing? or would that just make the inside super humid and not "steamy" like a real steam oven?

Yes, it would create humidity over steam.
That pan has to be super hot before adding any liquid to it to create an initial blast of steam.
Another method is to spray a hot sheet pan periodically with a spray bottle.

what said. put the tray in on the bottom rack when you're preheating the oven, and then add ice or water when you put the bread in