Bread - What are you baking today…..
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Lovely stuff @Chap Haven’t baked since last weekend. Getting withdrawal symptoms and the freezer is emptying out. I’m considering cranking out six loaves tomorrow, four levain and two Biga…just trying to work out the logistics.
How was your six-loaves-Sunday @neph93 did you manage the logistic challenge?
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How was your six-loaves-Sunday @neph93 did you manage the logistic challenge?
It went pretty well mate. Another week without shop bought bread.
Here’s the schedule:
Saturday:
1000 - mixed a white flour levain
1900 - autolysed a 100% white flour dough and a country brown dough
1930 to 2100 - mixed the final doughs with the white flour levain, folded them three times
2000 - mixed a poolish
2230 - last fold on the two levain doughs then put all three down for fermenting/bulk proofing.Sunday:
0800 to 1000- mixed the poolish for a 100% white and folded it three times.
0900 - formed the two levain doughs into four loaves, the country brown proofed on the bench and the white went in the fridge.
1000 - the country brown went in the oven, formed the poolish, and put it in the fridge.
1045 - the white levain loaves went in the oven
1130 - the white poolish went in the oven.The only slight issue was that the proofing of the poolish was a little long. It wasn’t over-proofed so I got decent oven spring, but it did spread a little and didn’t split at the seam in the oven. I like that aesthetic and it annoys men when it doesn’t work out.
Country Brown:
White Levain:
White Poolish:
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It isn’t all that tricky. A couple of hours on Saturday evening and then most of Sunday morning. The timing works out OK.
I don’t use dutch ovens but make foil «hats» instead. I also do one boule and one baton from each dough. This means I just use a baking tray and can do two loaves at time in the oven.
We are currently speccing the kitchen for the new house. While it has a smaller area than the current one it won’t be open plan (thank fekk), and having four walls there will be lots of room for storage. I’m currently making an argument for having two ovens, meaning I can either increase production or do the above with dutch ovens.
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Well back in my early hipster-baker days I thought it’s got be Levain and Levain only is the Holy Grail of bread baking… then Mr. I don’t-give-a-fuck slapped out his amazing Biga‘s... since then I started baking Biga breads usually once or twice a week... finally got some routine being quite happy with my results
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That Biga loaf looks excellent. I’m going to get back in Biga next weekend.
This weekend I had an apprentice with me. Jesper has a girlfriend called Hedda who politley asked mentor teach her how to make bread. She balked at the 8am Sunday morning start but like a trooper joined me for making the starter, to mixing the dough and the form and bake. She did great work and produced two Forkish Country Brown’s under my tutelage. I forgot to take pics [emoji849]
