Bread thread

thanks for remembering! the culture is killin' it (i've named it "my smol microbial sons", and i'm contemplating a name for the rye splitoff).

nice loaf, this looks delicious. do you find a longer autolyse works well with ww?

Did a nice polish Rye today in the dutch oven.
Been experimenting with different flours and ratios, this one was about 1.5:1 dry to wet with a 50/50 rye to bread flour ratio. I used half and half, water, and a splash of vinegar instead of buttermilk.

do you find that the higher protein of the bread flour compensates for the lower ratio in the rye? this looks like a nice oven spring. how's the crumb?

White bread best bread.

>tfw your ball of dough is properly kneaded
is there any food that's more fun to make?

>that surface tension
niiice

It's pretty dense but very good. Honestly I haven't worked with rye flour a ton, but I think 50/50 is the optimum ratio.
I usually cut my bread flour with a small amount of AP for a little extra fluffyness, although I don't know if there's really a measurable difference.
Still very new to bread here, definitely a lot to learn still.

I definitely enjoy the process. The change in the dough over those 10 minutes of kneading and feeling when it is just right is nice.

Aww that's adorable. My vote is for Rye Fieri, but make your own choices.
Thanks, it was very good with some apple butter. I find that it's really diminishing returns after 2-3 hour autolyse, so if I want more than that I just use really miniscule amounts of yeast and do a cold proof. I haven't experimented with a poolish/biga yet but I really want to.
Not him, but a bit of acid (vinegar, in this case) helps activate the gluten-analogue (called secalin) in rye and can help form a more open crumb. That's why it's used for sourdough so much--the lactic acid bacteria help create an acidic environment that gives it beautiful crumb structure.

Rye guy here, do you think adding a little more vinegar would help the crumb structure? I only really added a small splash to my liquid after the yeast was activated.

oh shit, that made me laugh and snort my whiskey. Rye Fieri it is. also, the chemistry of the rye in sourdough makes sense, thanks for the info.

here's the loaf i just pulled out of the oven.

You ever make that perfect loaf and find yourself unable to make it again?

jesus, that's beautiful. and yes. i keep trying.

i gave up on making bread as a kid because my loaves would always be g*ddamn hardtack. After recently seeing a video of a sweet British woman ruthlessly beating her dough against the kitchen countertop, I finally learned to develop enough gluten to get that airy crumb.

Any good intro guides for breadmaking?

How do you guys eat your bread? just with butter?

i don't often make kneaded bread, i tend to stick with "stretch and fold" type boules. can you still get a nice open crumb with kneaded loaves?

start with a simple "no knead" bread (NY Times has a good recipe, but also just google it and you'll find plenty of ideas.)

it's excellent with a nice salty butter or with cheeses, but i tend to make a lot of soups/stews that i serve it with. i also use leftover slightly stale bread to make panzanella

shit im hungry now

>mods are asleep, post """"bread""""
Get your stega CP off this board pedos

Chef John's always the best for getting the basics down for basically anything. I made some cuban bread the other day according to this video and it was delicious:
youtube.com/watch?v=Qr2FlrUBs4E
the hardest part for me was learning how to knead properly, but this vid was a great guide:
youtube.com/watch?v=KlFgc0ETNn8

also my dad sprinkles granulated sugar on his butter, I don't know why he does that when we have honey. The crunching sounds are gross.

thanks breadbros

From what I understand, the whole process of kneading or stretching and folder or autolyse-ing is for your dough to create a strong gluten network.
Strong networks allow for the dough to retain more gas before deflating, from my experience, airy crumbs are limited by the density of the dough rather than the strength of the gluten network. a dough at 60% hydration may be easier to knead but will not be as 'cavernous' as a dough at 70% hydration. Dough at 70%-80% hydration may be more difficult to knead due to the sloppy stickiness of the dough which requires different methods of building gluten, slap and folding or stretch and folds.

np, user. if you own a dutch oven, you can make some amazing bread! if not, be sure to incorporate steam in some way when you bake!

Ehh...generally if you're kneading rather than folding the dough is pretty stiff and you end up with a pretty tight crumb. I'm sure there are exceptions but that's a pretty standard rule in my experience.
Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast is a good one I'd recommend, by Ken Forkish.
Looks good! A deeper slash can help prevent burning due to smaller sections breaking off, but some people say it decreases overall oven spring so it's a pickem. Make sure to post crumbshot once it's cooled!
Definitely, though don't add too much. Commercial yeast can tolerate a lot, but even it has its limits when it comes to acidity. Buttermilk or lemon might be a better choice when it comes to flavor, but it's up to you.

will def post a crumb shot tomorrow morning if this thread is still alive.

seconding FWSY by Forkish, it's what got me into baking bread!

best bread

...