Bread - What are you baking today…..
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Thanks Rueben. I'll give it another feed tonight. I'm going with the 1/4/4 ratio. When I fed it usually rises and drops by double. Next weekend I might give a loaf a go! Thanks for the advice folks.
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The eternal tweaking continues. 30/70 spelt and refined strong wheat, and 82% hydration today. Not overproofed (12 hour fridge ferment after four hour bulk).
I really enjoy working with the high hydration dough now, but that and the combination of relatively high amounts of spelt make it hard to get pleasingly formed loaves. The oven spring on these was meaningful but the spelt and hydration means that the dough spreads readily on oven plate.
I’m expecting a great taste and a decent crumb nonetheless.
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Look great. No planning done and we are out of Bread, so I'm going to do a Forkish Saturday bake. Which is just a bread that can be made on the same day. Autolyzing happening as I type…
Nice… i’m going to order that book, and look at the biga recipes you tipped me on soon. But it will be a summer holiday project I think.
As for my spelt loaves, the pics are somewhat flattering. When they come out of the bannetons they have a thick «skin» with a decent amount of surface tension, but they are very loose inside. The spread outwards is immense so even with the oven spring which doubles height, they become formless.
I’ve just had a slice and it tastes amazing. Wonderful soft texture too. But they are essentially a tasty failure in terms of hipster baking. Not sure what more I can do to build strength into the dough. These had four folds in the first have of the bulk ferment which did their job.
Next tweak will be a shorter (8-10 hour) bulk ferment and less water, but I’m finding the autolyse phase with spelt requires a higher hydration than 70-75% if I’m going to get all the flour wet. We shall see...
I am also getting into a wholemeal wheat starter for the first time. It is in the cupboard now and will be used next Saturday alongside the next spelt experiment.
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Seriously? How time and labour intensive is this? Bread making really does not fit with working 10hr days, household chores, and a super active 5 year old!
Yep, rings true… https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jan/26/hobbies-british-class-survey#main content
My mum used to bake when we were kids, out of necessity, then it became cheaper to buy baked goods than it was to buy the ingredients... Starting to think lack of time x cost is where I'm at now! Must... Persevere...
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Working from home while learning the hang of it was ideal for me. When you get the routine sorted you can do a lot of stuff while you are making the bread as long as you are home.
I now do a weekly bake, with the autolyse, mixing, and bulk ferment on a Friday afternoon/evening, and the bake Saturday morning after the fridge ferment. I make four big loaves in a session and it lasts all week. Planning is important though, regardless.
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@neph93 this was my dough after 40 mins autolyse, mixing, a 2 hours resting, folding every 25 mins. It is a 70% hydration recipe. It has reasonable gluten content but just seems too wet and sticky, not holding its shape well. I was hoping to prove for 8 hrs overnight. Not likely now.
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And this sticky, wet mess, is meant to be ready for shaping. We'll that was a waste of 10 hrs!
Recipe was…
700g water, 900g unbleached white, 100g wholemeal, 20g salt/50g water solution, levain (50g starter, 40g wholemeal, 40g unbleached white, 80g water).
People swear by this on YouTube!
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That recipe gives more than 70% hydration. But I don’t think that is the problem. Looks like it hasn’t fermented. You could try sticking it in a bread tin and baking it, see what happens.
Regarding hobbies and class, I’m a high school teacher and middle manager with six kids. Two of whom are aged 3 and 5. Also, that article is 9 years old.
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Sarah said the same thing, prove it over night and stick it in the oven. Nothing to lose I suppose. I'll post a pic of the resultant gloop tomorrow
I thought I could fit bread baking in my Saturday routine. Didn't quite work out.Sarah and I switch between home working and out in the community. We both work in social care and it has been bonkers this last 10 weeks. I start work at 6.30 am, shower at 7.30, work, drop Sennen off at school at 8.15, then don't finish work until 6.30 at the earliest. We used to go for a 1 hr walk at lunchtime. Don't even get lunch now. Our LA has court cases coming out of it's ears, and I have to prep for our Barristers. I love it but we just need a holiday now… Please, just a little one...
Sennen has been off school for half term this week, as they are prepping for full reopening on Wednesday. We've both had to carry on working as leave was denied. He has been assessed as an 'accelerated learner' and needs lots of activity and stimulation. Being an only child he only gets that from us old farts.
P. S, most of my IH posts are made when I'm using the loo... This one included... Must go!
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@neph93 I believe you a correct, I don't think I left the levain long enough, and the mixture was to wet. That said, though the texture was way too dense, the crumb was good and the flavour great. That's for the advice dude, I think there may be a next time..with a proper schedule!
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That doesn’t look bad at all old boy. Way better than my first effort which you’ll find a way back.
Your recipe gave way more than 70% hydration and sticking around 70-75% while learning worked well for me. I now do over 80% and prefer it. But you need a lively starter/levain for that.
My levain stands for somewhere between 12 and 16 hours so it is both ripe, but still young. Use that and even 85% hydration dough gets fat and wobbly.
Well done!
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As a high school teacher you would have been within you're rights to correct all of my sausage fingers typos in my last post. Shocking.
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As a high school teacher you would have been within you're rights to correct all of my sausage fingers typos in my last post. Shocking.
Have a look ar this before your next turn: https://bread-magazine.com/sourdough-bread-recipe/
It’s a bit wordy but it works for me.
