Bread - What are you baking today…..

[Giles]

@Chap made a Biga with white, 8-grain and dark rye recently, he was very pleased with it.  So I did a 50% Poolish with 700gms white, 150 8-grain and 150 dark rye.

[Chap]

Well they look pretty brilliant… looking forward to hear how they taste

[zhivago]

Our bread came out better than I expected! I think the kids knew all along they make bread once a week at school and ended up being my teacher!! I learned that if you are using whole wheat, which I was, you are suppose to make some a few minor adjustments. Of course that tidbit of information was at the bottom of the page. I made the classic blunder of not reading all the way to the end before starting, and finishing :D. All good though! Totally tasty, with loads of room for improvement.

I did 450 g of flour (in our case whole meal)
1 1/2 tsp salt
7 g yeast
340 g water (I added it at about 50ish C)
https://bakerbettie.com/four-ingredient-no-kneadbread/

I am happy with how this went and am completely seeing how this is going to evolve. I also get why this topic is 80+ pages long, bread making is awesome!
And my view does not suck…

[neph93]

Looks like a good start to me!

I did not bake bread with the kids today but what we did bake was wholemeal free…

[Giles]

Yep, I'll def take that…..

[Chap]

Oh yes

[neph93]

Lovely jubbly. I have a freezer full at the moment but still want to bake [emoji1]

[zhivago]

Dang G, that looks to die for!
We live in a super small community and belong to a food club. Someone just started putting their sourdough loaves there and I was lucky enough to score one recently. So, since there is no WBAYET (what bread are you enjoying today) thread, I'll post a pic of it here. Bread goals…

[neph93]

Ffs Padmore… yet another bad habit I’ve picked up from you [emoji1]

[Giles]

It's a good habit…...

[neph93]

@Giles:

It's a good habit…...

It’s a great habit. I’m amazed at how straightforward it is, and how wonderful the results are. Thank you [emoji3526]

[endo]

[neph93]

Glorious @endo ! Is that a strudel?

[endo]

a yeast braid (if leo.org does it right) - 'Hefezopf', an Easter tradition here, a sweet bread

[zhivago]

Today's effort. Taste is great but I'm not happy with the density…I am thinking of upping the yeast by a smidge??

[neph93]

Yeast may help, higher hydration may help, but if you are using 100% wholewheat it always going to be pretty dense. I’d consider doing a 50/50 with fine white flour or general purpose flour.

[Giles]

I'd 100% agree.  Get comfortable with the basics, even consider a bread made predominantly with white flour until you understand the dynamics, then start experimenting with different flours.

[zhivago]

I was on the same line of thinking @neph93 so this week I did a 50/50 white/whole wheat and I think this one actually came out with more density than the 100% whole wheat. I will try higher hydration I guess. It felt dry when I was mixing it. And I think you make a good case for 100% white as well. Getting to know the basics is always a good play!

[neph93]

I don’t know what recipe you are following, but a higher percentage of whole corn should mean more water.

Less yeast but longer proofing/fermenting will also mean more gas being produced and better time for the gluten structures to develop.

Finally autolysing is a good idea for less dense bread too. Mix all the flour and water from you recipe, but leave out the salt and yeast. Let it sit for 30 mins, then add salt and yeast and carry on.

[zhivago]

Awesome tips @neph93! Thank you Sir! I will incorporate those next weekend and try not to change to many things at once as well. Here is the https://bakerbettie.com/four-ingredient-no-kneadbread/ I have been following. I was just trying to stick to the absolute minimum of flour, yeast, salt and water for the sake of simplicity/purity etc. So long as it's not eggs or sugar I don't have too much issue adding a few other ingredients though. I have no allegiance to this particular recipe it was just the first one I found that checked the boxes I was looking to check.