The bakers' thread

[Reynard]

That's called OCD, I think there are treatments for that .

It's how my brain works. Ho hum...

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I’m having a go at using a poolish for the first time. Fingers crossed!
I’ve just put it together and will finish it in the morning.

 

[Dave 123]

Yesterday I started a sourdough loaf. That spent the night in the fridge.
I cooked it when I got up.

I then made an oregano loaf, an onion loaf and a blob loaf.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

The poolish method seemed to give me a very wet dough which was almost impossible to shape. After a lot of work it began to come together but when I took it out of the proving basket it just wanted to spread as flat as a pancake again.

@Reynard is this normal? The recipe is here https://www.breadexperience.com/sing-to-me-my-bread-crackle-sweetly/ and uses a 75% hydration level.

Anyway, it wasn't a disaster and rose fairly well when baked. Once it's cool enough I'll cut a slice to try.

 

[Reynard]

Cripes! 75% hydration is heading towards ciabatta territory - surprised you managed to shape it at all... American recipe though, so you probably do need to tone the hydration down a fair bit.

My basic bread uses a poolish / preferment, and I work typically with hydration mark between 60 and 65%, depending on how much / little wholegrain. I'm not a big fan of big holes in my bread, you see, as stuff falls through the holes.

I sometimes go up to a 50% quantity of preferment to final dough (end result is truly lovely), but it's so slimy and oozy that it's a pain to mix into the rest of the dough that I tend to go for around 20% preferment, purely for ease-of-use.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Cripes! 75% hydration is heading towards ciabatta territory - surprised you managed to shape it at all... American recipe though, so you probably do need to tone the hydration down a fair bit.

My basic bread uses a poolish / preferment, and I work typically with hydration mark between 60 and 65%, depending on how much / little wholegrain. I'm not a big fan of big holes in my bread, you see, as stuff falls through the holes.

I sometimes go up to a 50% quantity of preferment to final dough (end result is truly lovely), but it's so slimy and oozy that it's a pain to mix into the rest of the dough that I tend to go for around 20% preferment, purely for ease-of-use.

I knew I should have asked you *before* I started!

I was 45 minutes slapping it around, using Richard Bertinet's method, and a lot of scooping with two dough scrapers. Knackered by the end of that.

The bread tastes fab, particularly the crust which has a nice initial crack to it then beautifully chewy. Reminds me very much of a bread I had in Sorrento a couple of years ago and unsuccessfully tried to replicate. It doesn't have the big holes though.

 

[Reynard]

That looks good @glasgowcyclist

Crumb's tighter than I thought it might be to be fair - but then if you spent 45 minutes trying to get the dough to behave...

Now time to crack open a nice ripe brie, or a pate d'ardennes, methinks...

 

[Dave 123]

On the left is a seeded whopper! 12x6 inches

Top right is onion bread
Then cinnamon and sultana
Then rosemary bread

 

[benb]

No idea what the hell happened to mutate this monstrosity. I didn't use any more yeast than normal. Should taste nice though.

 

[Reynard]

No idea what the hell happened to mutate this monstrosity. I didn't use any more yeast than normal. Should taste nice though.
View attachment 481034 View attachment 481035 View attachment 481036

That's oven spring and a half!

Bigger tin next time, maybe?

 

[benb]

I can confirm it tasted nice, despite being a genetic abomination

 

[benb]

I mean look at it, it's insane!

 

[Reynard]

I mean look at it, it's insane!
View attachment 481087

Definitely a bigger tin next time...

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Definitely a bigger tin next time...

TWO tins!

 

[Proto]

Thoughts on bread makers - Panasonic, Sage etc.?