Bread - What are you baking today…..
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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.
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On another note… when you guys autolyse your flour, do you ever find that the amount of water in a recipe doesn’t get all the flour wet?
Yes… I mix by hand then... pincer method. Do you sometimes reduce water? It looks like flour in the US for example seems to have more capacitiy to absorb water then European flour. With Forkish Levain only recipes I usually to reduce the amount of water... minus 5-10 grams.
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I don’t reduce water. Unlike @Giles I took autolyse instructions too seriously. I’ve found a locally available source of spelt and wheat that has quite a high protein content and the spelt especially seems to suck the water in.
Both the recipes I’ve been tweaking these last few weeks have 70% hydration (plus the water in the levain so more like 73%), but the 700g of water isn’t enough to wet all the flour so I’ve added more, around 800g. The result (discussed a few posts back), has been a high hydration dough, that is fun to work with, a lovely moist crumb, but flatter loaves, as the dough spreads on the baking sheet meaningfully.
I’m prepping for a new bake and I’m working out what to do about it.
