Bread - What are you baking today…..

[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.

[Giles]

I perhaps did not post this link.

If I did, I would have said the guy is super irritating, but this really is a great place to start.  His approach is to start simple and then move up through a couple of levels of complexity.  And you will learn a lot.

The 3rd level makes a really great prefermeted bread.  Once you have that one dialled in, then you can start experimenting with different flours.

I would 100% steer clear of 100% wholewheat to start with (unless you want to make bricks) 

[Chris]

@Giles:

I would 100% steer clear of 100% wholewheat to start with (unless you want to make bricks) 

I can confirm this outcome.

[zhivago]

Like most things in married life so much of what I decide to do is out of my hands…[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
Dr. Zhivago is slightly or should I say quite opposed to white bread. Right or wrong reasonable or not it’s what I’m working with. The battle for 100% white bread will be won but it’s gonna take a few calculated efforts

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[neph93]

@zhivago:

The battle for 100% white bread will be won but it’s gonna take a few calculated efforts

With all due respect to the good doctor, there is a long way and many variations between 100% white and 100% wholemeal. I would argue that as soon as you leave 100% finely milled wheat flour, it is no longer white bread. Even then, there are «white» wholemeal flour variants with lots of fibre and less gluten, like spelt or other heritage corn.

The main argument for doing at least one 100% white will be research. You need to know how it behaves so you can get the best possible bread when you start doing blends.

Cooncidentally I’m doing a 100% white full levain bread and a full levain bread with about 25% whole wheat today. 25% isn’t masses but it ups the fibre meaningfully. You can use that and then add bran germ and wheat germ, even some seeds. This will give you a whole meal/granary loaf which still uses more that 50% white flour. You’ll have a light airy crumb, masses of fibre and taste. No other ingredients than FWSY.

Here are the two doughs after mixing, bulk fermenting and shaping. It will proof in the baskets for another couple of hours:

[neph93]

While I’m waiting for the proof to finish, I’m indulging my Britishness with PG Tips and the Cornish Fairings I made yesterday…

[zhivago]

Definitely agree and dang do those doughs look lovely!! I am feeling confident I've got enough ammo to pull off a 100% white loaf this week, it's research after all