The Bread Thread

[Mrs Pingu]

Managed to find my baking accoutrements from various boxes so tomorrow morning will be the first bread in the shiny! new! improved! oven, hopefully.
In other bread news I am finally down to my last bag of Sainsbos multiseeded soggy bottom flour so I should be back on the proper stoneground wholemeal in a month or so...

[Feanor]

I had my first really poor loaf earlier this week.

Same 100% sourdough one I've made dozens of times before.
It's the change in overnight temperature that's the issue.
After the overnight bulk ferment at room temperature, it was super lively and sticky, and difficult to shape and put in the banneton for the final proof.
It was threatening to stick to the banneton after the final proof.

On baking, it didn't get half as much 'oven spring' as usual, and was rather flat and dense.
The resulting bread has a very strong malty smell and flavour.

Basically, it had over-proofed.
The fermentation had gone a bit wild overnight since the room temperature was so high.

I'm going to have to adjust my timings for the warmer weather, I think.
And make more effort with the 'finger-poke' test to determine optimal proofing.

[Mrs Pingu]

Managed to find my baking accoutrements from various boxes so tomorrow morning will be the first bread in the shiny! new! improved! oven, hopefully.
In other bread news I am finally down to my last bag of Sainsbos multiseeded soggy bottom flour so I should be back on the proper stoneground wholemeal in a month or so...

So I've been assuming that new (Bosch) oven would do the same as old Bosch oven and allow me to set it to come on at a certain time, thus letting me lie abed a bit longer on baking days, but I don't think it will, unless the instructions are just very poorly explained.

[Mrs Pingu]

Well, that was not my finest hour. I did manage to get the oven to come on at sparrowfart despite the stupid instructions.
I made 2 of the same loaf. Unfortunately the 1st one I turned into a charcoal biscuit (operator error, I forgot that full blast on this oven is rather higher than the old one, I'm blaming the lurgi), the second one didn't seem to rise well. It was the same sachet of yeast but different packets of flour. I baked it anyway despite it looking a bit weedy.
The charcoal biscuit is ok on the crumb, the crust is just a bit carbonaceous...

[citoyen]

I made a loaf yesterday morning - just an ordinary bog-standard yeasted loaf (1/3 wholemeal), because we'd run out of bread. Unfortunately, we had a power-cut mid-morning, which meant I couldn't put it in the oven when it was ready to bake. So I took it out of the tin, knocked it back, reshaped it and put it back in for a second prove. Luckily, the power was back on by lunchtime.

What came out at the end was an artist's impression of a perfect loaf:
Loaf by citoyen, on Flickr

And it tastes really good too - I guess the extra proving time allowed the flavour to develop.

Got a sourdough loaf on the go right now. The warm weather means it is rather lively, and it should be ready to bake this afternoon, despite only being started this morning.

[Feanor]

That looks perfect.

My last few loaves have been yeast-leavened too, because they prove overnight in the fridge, so a temperature-controlled environment which is unaffected by the seasons.
Yes, time is an ingredient. It is a main factor in developing flavour, and that's why yeast-based doughs are done in the fridge: you don't want it to be ready to bake in 2 hours.

My woes with sourdough recently are because levain-based doughs are much slower, and generally need overnight at room temperature.  But not so much right now!
Yes, you can reduce the time, but that's not really what I want to do; as I said, time is an ingredient.
I want the fermentation to take the full time.
So I need to manage the temperature better.
I've located what I think is a cool enough room in the house to leave it.  Beyond that, it's going to be in an out-building.  And then, a temperature-controlled cabinet, which I don't have the space for!


I've got the levain refreshing right now, and will attempt one tomorrow morning.

[Ham]

Yes, time is an ingredient. It is a main factor in developing flavour, and that's why yeast-based doughs are done in the fridge: you don't want it to be ready to bake in 2 hours.

Too right, 50 minutes before baking is enough

My standard bake uses the raising setting in the oven which delivers consistent results across the seasons: 25 minutes 1st prove, 25 minutes in the tin, turn the oven on 45 minutes, finish out the tin for 5 minutes. Now Citoyen, that loaf does look mighty fine, but mine don't look _that_ different. As it goes, this morning's bake has more variation because (a) I dried the oven out after the 1st prove (lord knows why!) resulting in the surface not being as smooth as normal, and then it ended up being baked for 10 minutes extra so crust is darker. It still has a good texture and excellent flavour. The loaf on the left is Gilchester's unbleached white from bakerybits, picked up short date/reduced and VERY nice.

It might not be obvious but the raise is likely as much as yours, I would have thought the texture would be similar. Don't last long anyhow.

ETA - just to be clear, I am NOT saying mine look as nice as that one!!!

[Tim Hall]

Since I went on a sourdough course (see up thread), I've expanded my repertoire from 1 white sourdough loaf a week.

I've tried:
Seeded rye (baked in a loaf tin)
Porridge (oats and linseed boiled up and incorporated into the dough)
Bagels. O M G.

Ob cycling: Just scoffed a couple of slices of seeded rye with cheese while I watch the Giro highlights.