Making bread

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The coconut bread is delicious.

[Woofage]

This calls for a lightly kneaded dough again to be proved in the fridge for minimum 12 hours (mine was 2 days). The bottom part of the dough was more sourdough starter like than I would have expected (wet, slimey, gassy), but the taste is amazing. I can believe how easy this is!.
10 minute initial mixing/kneading work, place in fridge. Then on baking day, you need to plan a little ahead.
Take dough out of fridge, shape in to breads, prove for 1.5 hours, bake. (Patiently wait for it to cool down enough), enjoy!.

What do you store the dough in when it's in the fridge? I've (sort of) done this method but the dough ends up almost overflowing the container.

[sas]

This calls for a lightly kneaded dough again to be proved in the fridge for minimum 12 hours (mine was 2 days).

What do you store the dough in when it's in the fridge? I've (sort of) done this method but the dough ends up almost overflowing the container.

I use a normal mixing bowl, it shouldn't increase in size by more than double. If it's overflowing then maybe there's too much yeast, insufficient salt, or the water was too warm to begin with.

[Mrs Pingu]

I should have some bread making ingredients coming from Mr Sainsbury tonight, so hopefully I will get baking this week. I will report back on the consequences.....

[Pingu]

Pic of the noms:


IMG_0216 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[Mrs Pingu]

It's Delia's Walnut & Raisin bread and I think it's quite good if I say so myself!
It appeared to get the flippers up from Pingu too

[Mrs Pingu]

So, glossing swiftly over the pizza incident....
On Saturday I bought Bread Matters. I consulted it for what to do about rolls, as I'd decided I wanted to use the 2nd half of a bag of Doves Farm Barleycorn Flour to make rolls. Sort of burger size rolls I was thinking of, rather than small dinner rolls.
So I did as suggested, made spheres, flattened them out a bit and put them 2cm apart to make them batch. It also said to put the heat up a bit to try to get it to penetrate & cook the middle without turning the outside into a biscuit.

My observations: when I first took them out they weren't done in the middle. I popped them back in and turned the oven down cos the outside was fine.
When I took them out for the last time they: a)looked like scones or rock cakes, b)were quite golden, c)tasted ok warm, d) they hadn't batched'
But after they'd cooled they were a bit too biscuity on the outside and wanted to fall to pieces if I tried to cut them in half.

My thoughts now are that I should have cooked them at a cooler temperature, despite what the book said.
Any roll tips?

[Ham]

What temperature were you using?

[Kathy]

Leiths' says to cover rolls with a damp tea towel for the second half of their baking, in order to get nice soft floury baps.

So far for me, this has merely resulted in crispy brown tea towels.   

<----- Not very good at bread.

[Mrs Pingu]

What temperature were you using?

Good question. Do you want the quoted temperature, the increase for rolls, the subtraction for it being a fan oven or the extra subtraction for it being hotter than it says on the tin?
I can't remember, sorry

[Mrs Pingu]

Leiths' says to cover rolls with a damp tea towel for the second half of their baking, in order to get nice soft floury baps.

So far for me, this has merely resulted in crispy brown tea towels.   

<----- Not very good at bread.

How long did you crisp your tea towels for?

[Ham]

Well, you shouldn't really have to bother. If you aren't aiming at Baguette stylee (altogether another experience involving flour, temperature, moisture) it really doesn't matter.

You will not achieve a shop bought steam-driven crispness, for the most part, and it is easiest ensured by a quick crisp up before you serve, if that's what you want.

Stop worrying about temperature. Find the one that works with your over somewhere between 180 and 200 for most fan ovens) and take the bread out when it's done. Rolls would be around 15-20 minutes, bread around 30 - 35. When it sounds hollow it is done. If it is in a tin, put it back in for a couple of minutes after taking out the tin.

Oh. And turning the heat up to cook the middle while not burning the outside may possibly have been printed on April 1st.

[Mrs Pingu]

Well  jI was quite happy with temperature for my loaves, it was just the rolls.
The Bread Matters I just bought says very hot oven (230C) for 5m then down to 210, as little as 12-15m. Bollox. I wish i'd stuck to Dan Lepard now.
I shall have another experiment again. Just cook rolls at the same temp as loaves then?

[Ham]

I would, certainly.  For a lighter texture, you need to keep the outer crust elastic for as long as possible, that's what (commercial)  steam baking does. I have experimented with a tin of boiling water in the bottom of the oven to try to simulate that with some success, but a commercial style long lasting, light, crust is nigh on impossible to achieve. I got my best baguette simulacrum using 50 - 70% Italian pasta flour. The only issue of using a constant lower temperature for baking everything is that the moisture inside the loaf will soften the crust on leaving, which putting back in the oven for a couple of minutes before serving will sort.

[Ham]

If I post this picture perhaps it will be cool enough for me to slice now...

[Ham]

Yes