Bread - What are you baking today…..

[neph93]

I have a levain sat on the kitchen bench at home that I fully expect to have bubbled over by the time I get back to it… baking is fun.

That looks like spelt @Chap?

[neph93]

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?

[Chap]

@neph93:

I have a levain sat on the kitchen bench at home that I fully expect to have bubbled over by the time I get back to it… baking is fun.

That looks like spelt @Chap?

No, wheat only. That was a Forkish 80% Biga. Atm I have a Forkish 50% whole wheat biga proofing in their baskets…

[Chap]

@neph93:

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.

[Giles]

@neph93:

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?

Yep, but I don't worry about it.

[neph93]

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.

[Giles]

[neph93]

Having watched that, my steam, scoring and the starter are all good. Shaping is possibly something I can improve, but I’m thinking it is the length of the bulk ferment that may be the major issue.

There is definitely oven spring happening but the loaves spread so much between the banneton and the baking sheet that the starting point is more diminished than it should be.

Nice video! Thank you.

[Giles]

What I picked up from that vid, was that I am definitely leaving my bulk fermentation to go on way too long….I had been beginning to suspect that because I get bollock-all rise during the proof....

[Chad]

Made my first loaves from pre-ferments this past weekend. Went with the white bread with poolish. I definitely prefer it to the Saturday white from the book.

[neph93]

@Giles same here. My starter is ridiculous and it seems to burn through the flour very quickly. Regardless, I’ve held on to a four hour bulk ferment. I will avoid that today.

[Giles]

Yeah, IMO the Poolish and the Biga are way more tasty….

[Chap]

50% whole wheat biga

[Chap]

… and the 80% Biga

[Giles]

80% Biga with 8 seed flour….(all my loaves tend to look the same )

[Chap]

What really improved my breads was the use of a cast iron pot

[Giles]

I'll give that a go next bake.  I used one for a while, but I have a steam oven and I've been determined to make it work 

[Stuart.T]

I've taken to looking at this thread instead of watching porn. It seems to fulfil a similar desire 

[Stuart.T]

@Giles it's the Regular Chef recipe that I used for my 1st bake. I like his style, very easy going and simple to follow. I didn't get much oven spring, but I think I know where I went wrong thanks to Rueben's help.

[Giles]

Those who have tasted this bake, reckon it's one of my best….I've yet to try....