Breadmaking
- Thread starter miss minnie
- Start date
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
I've certainly seen things not to different when I've been in France! What's the crumb like?
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
As I understand it, baguettes are actually quite hard without a commercial oven. The traditional baguette is sort of like what you've made, but what even the French expect these days is something else entirely. They generally sacrifice a crumb that you could care (even in France they're mostly spongy, I believe they don't use bread flour for them) about for thinness and crust.
PSA: Waitrose have some 25% off flour options.
Spelt @ £1.49/kg
Dark rye @ £1.11
I’m intending to stock up, at some point!
Yeah.
What is it that they’re doing?
Our Neff is basically Neff’s domestic bread oven. Up to 275 degrees, with assorted steam functions inbuilt up to about 250. And an inch-thick baking stone.
If I can find out what they’re doing, I’ll have a crack at it :lol:
Spelt @ £1.49/kg
Dark rye @ £1.11
I’m intending to stock up, at some point!
They were fine, tbh. Not explosive, but ok, all things considered. Puffy white.
Yeah.
What is it that they’re doing?
Our Neff is basically Neff’s domestic bread oven. Up to 275 degrees, with assorted steam functions inbuilt up to about 250. And an inch-thick baking stone.
If I can find out what they’re doing, I’ll have a crack at it :lol:
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Organic Spelt and Rye can be had cheaper in Aldi 
Ours has repeatedly blown our downstairs fuses, and we need to get a new dedicated circuit installed to handle it. Which is, you know. Less than ideal. In electrical terms.
But pizzas @ 275 / baking stoned are properly awesome
Assume from this that it’s the heat (v v hot) that the French use...? (Also understand that I should probably get some t55 flour if I want to make a proper go of it. Going by our baker, that’s, like, 45% wholemeal?! Or sth. Which baguettes don’t look like
I should probably read up on this!)
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Whilst I don't have the time to practice, that you have, when ever I crank my oven to max, I end up with really black crusts. Which is quite nice for toast, but if I'm making sandwiches I I quite like something softer.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Brought my starter out of hybernation last night with a decent feed for starting a loaf tonight. I don't know with the new one in if it's excellent linage, that I'm keeping its hydration down to 80% or the organic white I'm now using for it, but it really looks like something I want to work with, as opposed to the last one, that looked, frankly, grim. It smells a lot nicer as well.
White spelt! Interesting.Organic Spelt and Rye can be had cheaper in Aldi
I have 3kg of 30% white spelt proofing.
It’s... idk. Interesting. TBH.
After the autolyse / first mix, it looked properly spoogey. But it’s tightened up ridiculously as it’s cooled, and puffed up like billy-oh, too.
All in all, it’s behaving a lot like a slightly weird all-white loaf, with a bit of a tendency to tear.
I’m kinda looking forward to seeing how this turns out - both in taste, and in texture
It’s... idk. Interesting. TBH.
After the autolyse / first mix, it looked properly spoogey. But it’s tightened up ridiculously as it’s cooled, and puffed up like billy-oh, too.
All in all, it’s behaving a lot like a slightly weird all-white loaf, with a bit of a tendency to tear.
I’m kinda looking forward to seeing how this turns out - both in taste, and in texture
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Folding is bloody magic isn't it? I can't believe how a gloopy mess can take structure I'm front of your eyes like that. Done my first overnight proof in the fridge and results are in the oven. Hopefully the taste will be worth while.
I'm at a bit of a loss with temps at the moment. I know my oven is very badly behaved and can be 20 to 30 degrees higher then then it says. So my roasts as well as my bread has got a lot better for buying an oven thermometer. Except I just turned the oven to max (250) left if for a bit and it's reported back at 290. Which seems on the high side and I honestly don't know what temp I'm baking at.
I'm at a bit of a loss with temps at the moment. I know my oven is very badly behaved and can be 20 to 30 degrees higher then then it says. So my roasts as well as my bread has got a lot better for buying an oven thermometer. Except I just turned the oven to max (250) left if for a bit and it's reported back at 290. Which seems on the high side and I honestly don't know what temp I'm baking at.
Had 1 person potentially wanting spelt, one potentially wanting rye. So made 2*2kg, and separated off 4*1kg loaves. But as I’ve only got 2*1kg bannetons, had to bake the remaining 2*1kg together. (Or proof 1kg loaves in 2kg bannetons, which would’ve caused fridge space issues). Quite like the result!
Edit: they separate off quite easily, too.
Edit: they separate off quite easily, too.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Bloody hell mrs quoad that's a lot of flour. How long do you think it will last? I'm still working through one of those 16kg sacks.
My other half stands on a market and most weeks is able to swap some her veg for a nice sough dough loaf from another stall holder. She mentioned to them that I do a bit of baking and they said they would be happy for me to join them for a bake. If I could get bread half as nice as theirs I'd be dead chuffed.
My other half stands on a market and most weeks is able to swap some her veg for a nice sough dough loaf from another stall holder. She mentioned to them that I do a bit of baking and they said they would be happy for me to join them for a bake. If I could get bread half as nice as theirs I'd be dead chuffed.
Ballpark, 6 months? But I’ll probably run out of different things at different rates.
Don’t expect 10kg of spelt will last, but 25kg of rye could plausibly outlast >100kg of white. Even if used for dusting, too.
Edit: most of my spelt / rye oriented loaves are 60-70% white, and white feeds my starter. So it’s the substrate for most things.
Made a raisin, orange and fennel 30% medium rye last night.
It is tremendous.
I don’t quite know what’s going on behind the fruit, but the rye tastes properly gentle / creamy. Which isn’t a flavour I’m used to getting from rye. At all.
Actually tempted to make an otherwise unflavoured 30% rye, to get a clearer taste of it. First thoughts are that it is properly interesting / lovely tho!
It is tremendous.
I don’t quite know what’s going on behind the fruit, but the rye tastes properly gentle / creamy. Which isn’t a flavour I’m used to getting from rye. At all.
Actually tempted to make an otherwise unflavoured 30% rye, to get a clearer taste of it. First thoughts are that it is properly interesting / lovely tho!
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
I was a bit drunk last night and used chilli oil instead of normal in a loaf and put some maple syrup in. It's remarkably tasty, although I can't taste the chilli.
I fucked up last night's loaves. German colleague had asked for a fruited and a normal rye for over christmas, but I over-hydrated, over-warmed, and over-proofed them.
Probably could've gotten away with it if I'd baked them separately; but I tried to fit them on the same baking stone, they completely spooged. The fruited one (thankfully) held together, but the non-fruited one spilt over the edge of the baking stone on two sides. It's literally a pie-shaped loaf. For certain values of pi. #lol
Probably could've gotten away with it if I'd baked them separately; but I tried to fit them on the same baking stone, they completely spooged. The fruited one (thankfully) held together, but the non-fruited one spilt over the edge of the baking stone on two sides. It's literally a pie-shaped loaf. For certain values of pi. #lol
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
That's, umm, rather flat. Croutons?
An enthusiastic German took half of it, despite my protestations. She now wants the other half, which I’ve said she can have for free.
Have some baguettes on the go. Think they’re already overproofed (kept cool, but not fridge cool, and were started this morning.) And they are not neat.
First time I’ve used t55 flour tho! Feels... interesting!
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
I got a proving basket for Xmas. First attempt yesterday. One of those mixed up loaves where I began with starter, got bored at some point in the afternoon and added yeast.
It certainly felt quite committing loading it. It seemed like it would stick as I just couldn't flour it heavy enough (I normally use oil in the tin and the huge pan I use for resting/folding). Dropped on to the peel ok, but had a slight flop on its was into the oven. Can see that will be the tricky to master. Thought it was well folded, but more maybe? Also maybe my peel is wood... Would oiled metal be better maybe?
Tastes really really good though, can see the advantage over tin, crust is really nice. Not the most practical shape mind.
It certainly felt quite committing loading it. It seemed like it would stick as I just couldn't flour it heavy enough (I normally use oil in the tin and the huge pan I use for resting/folding). Dropped on to the peel ok, but had a slight flop on its was into the oven. Can see that will be the tricky to master. Thought it was well folded, but more maybe? Also maybe my peel is wood... Would oiled metal be better maybe?
Tastes really really good though, can see the advantage over tin, crust is really nice. Not the most practical shape mind.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
So was looking on a forum about bread (yes I know) I saw that one person suggested adding extra gluten to wholemeal and rye flours, so as to get the flavours, but without such a dense loaf, which I thought was an interesting idea. However given that I've not read about it anywhere else, I'm slightly skeptical. That said it's cheap enough and I'm wondering if worth an experiment to see if I can get a light loaf that's made from rye and wholemeal.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buy-Whole-Foods-Online-Gluten/dp/B007CX0ZSK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buy-Whole-Foods-Online-Gluten/dp/B007CX0ZSK
