The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

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October 14, 2006 - 2:13pm
qahtan's picture
qahtan

oatmeal bread

This is the bread I made on Friday, I started off by soaking
1 1/2 cups organic oat flakes in boiling water and resting it for 30
minutes from there I added a cup of fresh milled whole wheat, 1 cup
water 1/2 cup milk 1 tablespoon raw sugar and 2 1/2 teaspoons of
yeast, 2 cups bakers flour, mixed well, rest 30 minutes added 2
tablespoon butter and enough bakers flour to make nice dough, kneaded
in DLX 6 minutes adding 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt.
Removed from bowl, kneaded into a ball by hand, rest until double
plus, size, shape rise and bake, 400' 50 minutes.
qahtan



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October 12, 2006 - 7:05pm
Cooky's picture
Cooky

How long will poolish keep in the refigerator?

Mine has been in there for more than a day, after developing at room temperature for 8-10 hours. Still usable? What's the outside limit?

Any advice deeply appreciated. Thanks!

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October 1, 2006 - 7:06am
breadnerd's picture
breadnerd

What tools do you use?

Since I'm a bread nerd, I have picked up a lot of gadgets over the years, but mostly have old favorites. I thought it might be fun to compare what tools we have and how we like them. It might also be helpful for newbies who are just adding to their collections.

So here's a "survey". Feel free to add to this if you think of more, I was just brainstorming here:

1. Mixer: Which mixer do you use, or are you a hands-only purist? :)

2. First Proof: Do you have a favorite bowl or container for rising doughs, preparing poolish, or saving sourdough?

3. Shaping Loaves: Do you use a scale for weighing ingredients or loaves? What do you use for dividing dough and shaping loaves?

4. Second proof: What are your favorite baskets, couches and pans for rising your loaves?

5. Baking: What kind of hearth stone do you use, tools for slashing laoves, and do you use a peel to transfer loaves into the oven? And ovens--what's your preference: Gas or Electric, convection, or do you prefer the weber grill? :)

 

Don't mean this to be serious (or a competition!) but have fun and show my your toys!  :)

 

 

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September 17, 2006 - 9:14pm
Floydm's picture
Floydm

Photo Contest: Harvest Season

Let's try something new: anyone up for a photo contest?

The theme: harvest season, since for all of us in the northern hemisphere it is getting to be that time of year.

If you are a site member, you should be able to upload an image here. I created a new gallery for this contest that your images can go in (click on the categories link while uploading the image to select the gallery). You can also just add a comment to this thread linking to any photo of yours you post on your own site or on photobucket.

My first entry:


At this point, I'd say there aren't any rules because there aren't any prizes. Obviously baked goods should be involved though.

If you run into any trouble posting images, email me your image and I can post the image for you. Just be sure to include your screen name and any comments about it so that I can attribute it to you properly.

Updated 9/19: I'm going to start including some of the cool pics people are uploading here, so people don't have to go hunt around for them.

There is wendyshum's rustic bread full of flax, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds:

and beenjamming's sourdough with NY apples:

Whoa! I just noticed Joe Fisher's loaf shaped like a pumpkin:

(click on the image to see a large pic and what he wrote about it)

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July 23, 2006 - 12:41pm
pmccool's picture
pmccool

Weekend Bake - New York Deli Rye from BBA

My wife purchased a copy of BBA as a birthday present some weeks back and I finally got around to using a formula from the book; in this case, the New York Deli Rye sandwich loaf. It is a definite keeper. I have been admonished to put a big star next to that particular formula.

The bread is a wonderful base for a corned beef and swiss cheese sandwich, to start with. We'll keep experimenting and see what else works, too. The onions in the bread are a a delicious complement to other savory flavors, but somehow manage not to overwhelm the other components.

Since it was my first attempt for this formula, I made sure to follow the instructions closely. I opted out of the use of caraway seeds, since my wife does not enjoy that flavor. Next time I may try either dill or fennel seeds, since it seems either of those would make a good flavor complement.

The use of commercial yeast, brown sugar and buttermilk in the formula were a bit surprising. I think that the buttermilk (and the shortening) contributed to the finished bread's moistness. For the next attempt, I will probably skip the yeast. My starter seems to have plenty of boost, so the yeast really isn't necessary to ensure an adequate rise. I do need to follow some of JMonkey's recommendations for increasing the sourness of the starter. Mine is more mild than wild in the flavor department, even with having refrigerated the second build of the starter overnight. A longer, cooler rise with no commercial yeast would probably increase the sour flavor.

The other thing that I should have done was keep a closer eye on the dough during the final rise. When I came back in from some outdoor chores to check on it, it was almost 2 inches above the edge of the pan, instead of the recommended 1 inch! Warm day plus commercial yeast--who'd have thought it? Anyway, I got lucky in that there aren't tunnels and that the bread holds together instead of crumbling in the middle of the slice, like some other over-risen breads that I have made.

All things considered, this was a very satisfactory experiment with a new recipe. And it will definitely be back for an encore.

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June 17, 2006 - 10:33am
Joe Fisher's picture
Joe Fisher

Pugliese experiment

So I had to refresh my two starters today (Clyde - 100% rye, and Gertie - white flour), and don't have time to bake tomorrow. I remembered reading in the Reinhart book that you can replace the pre-ferment in a rustic dough with the barm from a white flour - no need to feed and activate first. Hey, I'm game!

So here's the recipe, from The Bread Baker's Apprentice (still my favorite book!):

biga 2cp/10.8oz Fancy or extra fancy durum flour and unbleached bread flour, in any combination (such as 50/50 blend) 2 1/4cp/10oz Salt 1 1/2tsh/0.38oz Instant yeast 1tsp/0.11oz Mashed potatoes (optional) 1/4cp/2 oz Water, lukewarm (90-100F) 1 to 1 1/8cp / 8-9oz

So after refreshing Gertie, I had about 9.5oz of leftover barm. I topped it up to 10.8oz with bread flour, and I had what looked just like a biga! Lovely :)

I used 50/50 bread/semolina flour for the second ingredient.

The dough is a very wet, rustic dough. Here's what it looked like after about 5 minutes on the hook:
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

And after dumping it onto my very well floured counter:
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

The dough gets pulled and folded, then allowed to rest for 30 minutes. This gets repeated twice more before a 2-hour bulk ferment.

I'm currently in my second 30-minute rest! More pictures to follow...

-Joe

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June 11, 2006 - 5:03pm
Joe Fisher's picture
Joe Fisher

Swedish Limpa rye with candied citrus and cardamom

Here's a pair of gorgeous loaves from Bread Alone.

I made the candied citrus rinds the night before (4 separate boils and rinses!), as well as activated the starter. This morning I made the dough and kneaded in the chopped rinds. I tried some different scores with my homemade lame. I do like the star pattern :)

It smells unbelievable! I'll post a report on taste and texture when I open them up.

I pulled them after the amount of time suggested in the recipe. When I thumped them, they sounded fair, but a bit off. Remembering my lessons from Reinhart, I put my instant-read thermometer in, and it read 140F! The crust was solid and very, very dark, but the interior was still wet! Back into the oven they went, and I left the probe of my in-oven thermometer in it so I could just set the alarm for 190F. I covered the loaves with aluminum foil to prevent them from burning. They needed another good 10 minutes.

If anyone wants the recipe, let me know and I'll post up.

-Joe

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

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May 27, 2006 - 10:00am
rmk129's picture
rmk129

Flour types?

Hello all! I am hoping someone can enlighten me on this point...

I recently moved to Argentina, so I am trying to familiarize myself with the different baking ingredients available here. The flour here all seems to be classified with varying numbers of 0's. I must admit I didn't pay much attention to flour types when I was in Canada, so maybe it is the same there and I just didn't notice?

In any case, if someone could tell me what the difference is between, for example,
"Harina de Trigo 000" and "Harina de Trigo 0000", I would be very interested to know!

Thank you,
Robyn

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April 26, 2006 - 2:08pm
Sylviambt's picture
Sylviambt

Artisan bread video lessons

Anyone have comments about some of the teaching videos now available?

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April 8, 2006 - 12:36pm
Floydm's picture
Floydm

Leftover starter

This question was sent to me via email:

I have been making bread since the mid 1970's. During the past few years, I have been experimenting with starters instead of using variations on the straight yeast dough method.

More recently, I have been experimenting with starters, sour dough, and
related approaches based on recipes and instructions from several of
Peter Reinhart’s books. The bread usually comes out fine although
the process is labor-intensive and time-consuming.

With all of the reciepes in several of his books, I seem to wind up
throwing away a lot of starter or seed. Starting with a small
beginning batch, I let it rise. After the indicated period of time, I
work on it for a few minutes. Instructions say to let a portion of the
starter rise again and suggest that I can discard the rest that is not
needed. Too much starter retards growth of the yeast and the ripening
of the dough.

Am I reading the instructions correctly--does the starter/sour dough
method always give the cook excess dough at the end of each step or
rise that must be thrown out?

Thanks to whoever can provide an answer or guidance?

FYI Reinhart was on one of the cooking shows on NPR. Either he or the
host offered an email for listeners with questions. I asked this same
question but did not get an answer.

I believe the answer is yes, you always end up needing to discard some extra starter.

The last story I can find on NPR.org that Peter was in was this story about pizza from November. If anyone can find a more recent one, please post it.

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