Author Topic: Any bread bakers here?  (Read 7200 times)

zxcvbob

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Re: Any bread bakers here?
« Reply #25 on: April 27, 2020, 11:34:01 PM »
I just cut my first baton loaves; out of the oven about an hour.  I started last night and made lots of mistakes, but the bread turned out good anyway.  I thought it would have a very open crumb with big holes in it (75% hydration) but it didn't; perhaps because I overproofed it, then punched it down and proofed it again.  It is nice and chewy, and has a good crust, just has lots of small holes instead of a mix of all different sized holes.

400g bread flour  (it was supposed to be 300 but I wrote it down wrong, but then corrected the water and salt)
150g whole wheat flour
412ml water, divided (the "divided" part was another mistake)
10g salt
1 tsp instant dried yeast

I bloomed the yeast in 62ml water, and mixed the remaining 350ml with the flour and let it rest for an hour.  Then I folded in the salt, then tried to mix in the yeast.  What a mess!  I got it mixed in, but tore the gluten matrix to shreds doing so.  I covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight.

This morning I kneaded it for about a minute, then covered it back up with plastic and let it warm up.  It took a long time to start rising, but when it did it went crazy and rose too much.  I punched it down, transfered it to an oiled bowl (which I should have done this morning) and covered it up and let it rise again.  An hour or so later it was risen again, and I divided the dough roughly in half.  I pinched a little handful off the bigger half and put it in the fridge to leaven the next batch.  I stretched to dough balls into basically fat sausages and put them on a piece of parchment on a cookie sheet and covered them up to rise one more time.  Then I slashed the tops with a razor blade.

I put a lasagna pan half full of water on the bottom shelf of the oven and preheated to 400° (my oven runs hot).  When the oven was ready I put the cookie sheet in on the top rack, and baked it until I could smell it.  My smeller must be off a bit, because I used an instant read thermometer to check the internal temperature of the loaves and they were at 200° already (the target was 190.)  But they are not burnt or scorched or anything.  So I let them cool (let them cool too long) and cut into them and they taste great.

Hopefully the next batch will have a lot less drama.  Next time I intend to dissolve the salt in the water and add it to the flour (I know the salt is supposed to go in later), and use the full measure of water from the beginning.  So I'm not trying to mix a little more water into a stiff kinda dry dough.  Then after it's rested ("autolyzed") for an hour I will either mix it the dried yeast or the leftover dough.

If it turns out the salt *really does* need to go in after the first rest, I will grind up some salt into a powder (like popcorn salt) so it will mix in easier.  Also I think I will cut back the salt just a little; maybe 1.7 or 1.8% instead of 2%.  The raw dough tasted really salty.  The bread tastes about right, but I think it will still taste right with less salt as long as I don't go too far.
"It's good, though..."

Jim147

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Re: Any bread bakers here?
« Reply #26 on: April 28, 2020, 09:18:02 PM »
I need to get a bread machine. My wife hates the mess I make in the kitchen doing bread or pasta.

ETA: thegirl now wants to start making pasta and she can destroy a crowbar in a sandbox.
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