Bread - What are you baking today…..

[Stuart.T]

@Giles and @neph93 as you two constantly knock it out the park with bread, have you got any pointers for a reliable sourdough starter? I've looked online at BBC food etc, but as you are getting such good results… Did you use yoghurt, milk, just water?...

[Giles]

Water and flour, that's it.

Try this one…...

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/7-easy-steps-making-incredible-sourdough-starter-scratch/

Whilst you are waiting for the starter to reach maturity, practice mixing, folding and shaping with a recipe like this:

https://www.billyparisi.com/classic-french-boule-recipe-with-poolish/

Don't bother using a Dutch oven.  If you have a cast iron griddle or pizza stone, cook on that.  Put a baking tray at the bottom of the oven and put a cup or so of boiling water in that at the same time as you put the bread in.

If you don't succeed at first, do not give up.  You will learn and get better.

The first loaf I made a few weeks ago caused Paula to almost wet herself laughing when she saw it in the bin....

[Stuart.T]

Brilliant, thank you. I'll give this a go tomorrow. DIY in the bathroom beckons today, so might not be having a shower tomorrow 

[neph93]

I had a chat with my sister-in-law in Romsey before I started with this and she was talking about olives and yoghurt and all kinds of crap. Hot Ingrid has some kind of while food guru who recommends raisins. I’m glad I kept it straight edge. None of it is necessary. The beauty of it all is that you’re making bread from three elemental ingredients.

[Chap]

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/beginners-sourdough-bread/

Autolyse, Levain and mixed dough…

… and coffee break

[Giles]

I've just mixed a poolish…..

So time for a beer….

[Chap]

Ready for the first stretch and fold… cheers

[Seul]

I love all of this shit… Cheers and happy baking, y'all!..

[ROman]

Tomorrows bread hopefully will be a potato bread.

[Giles]

More Poolish white…

The one on the left was proofed in a banetton, the one on the right was proofed with no forming-aid, just shaped and placed on baking parchment with a cloth over it.

I think I prefer the look of the free-form....

[neversummer]

Bread for this week- experimentally 100% spelt, white and whole, even including the starter. Tastes fine though I doubt I’d be able to tell a difference from wheat if pressed. Also as organic spelt flour is about twice the cost of wheat, not sure I’ll repeat this one all that often.
Still fun to try. I’ll post the details in a day or two if anyone wants to try it. Calling it the devil’s loaves, as I used exactly 666 g of water (66%) for hydration!

[Chap]

Yes please @neversummer very much interested…

My today’s bake

[Giles]

A pair of white Poolish - no bannetons used….

[jordanscollected]

Those look phenomenal @Giles, you are baking some great Bread.

Next 2 loaves get and I and an H scored in them.

[neph93]

@Giles:

A pair of white Poolish - no bannetons used….

And mine just turned up [emoji1]

In other news I’m being ambitious today and bulk fermenting to sets of dough…

A spelt dough with my new spelt based starter...

And a wholewheat with my old rye starter:

[Giles]

V nice indeed

[Chap]

Not bad, not bad…. Mr Hipster Baker... Spelt wow, that’s super hipster... next step is Kamut Khorasan or Einkorn

[Seul]

Chia seed!..

[Giles]

Puy lentils….

[kkibbey23]

Working on some more dutch oven sourdough. I really need a proofing basket, and Im learning that I need to cut deeper into them to get a good line. It never really works out right.

Pretty happy with that crumb though