• Home
    • Recent
    • Calendar
    • Register
    • Login
    Iron Heart Forum
    Iron Heart Forum

    Iron Heart Fall/Winter 2025 Collection Preview - Now Live

    Bread - What are you baking today…..

    Hobbies and Pastimes
    76
    1.7k
    241.6k
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • neph93N
      neph93
      見習いボス
      Joined:

      @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.

      «Stevie Heighway on the wing!
      We had dreams, and songs to sing…»

      • Dame Vera Lynn
      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • GilesG
        Giles
        IHUK Crew
        Joined:

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

        "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

        last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • ChapC
          Chap
          見習いボス
          Joined:

          50% whole wheat biga

          God has blessed you richly, so get down on your knees and thank him. Don’t forget the less fortunate or God will personally kick your ass. I’d love to do it for him, but I can’t be everywhere. Willie Nelson

          last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • ChapC
            Chap
            見習いボス
            Joined:

            … and the 80% Biga

            God has blessed you richly, so get down on your knees and thank him. Don’t forget the less fortunate or God will personally kick your ass. I’d love to do it for him, but I can’t be everywhere. Willie Nelson

            last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • GilesG
              Giles
              IHUK Crew
              Joined:

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

              "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

              last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • ChapC
                Chap
                見習いボス
                Joined:

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

                God has blessed you richly, so get down on your knees and thank him. Don’t forget the less fortunate or God will personally kick your ass. I’d love to do it for him, but I can’t be everywhere. Willie Nelson

                last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • GilesG
                  Giles
                  IHUK Crew
                  Joined:

                  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  😃 😃 😃

                  "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

                  last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Stuart.TS
                    Stuart.T
                    Raw and Unwashed
                    Joined:

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

                    last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • Stuart.TS
                      Stuart.T
                      Raw and Unwashed
                      Joined:

                      @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.

                      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • GilesG
                        Giles
                        IHUK Crew
                        Joined:

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

                        "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

                        last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • GilesG
                          Giles
                          IHUK Crew
                          Joined:

                          Problem? Moi?

                          "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

                          last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • ChapC
                            Chap
                            見習いボス
                            Joined:

                            😃 😃 😃 famous vienna restaurant Steirereck https://www.steirereck.at/en/restaurant/
                            has a bread sommelier… if you ever come back to vienna, you got an INVITATION (not only for the bread  ;))

                            God has blessed you richly, so get down on your knees and thank him. Don’t forget the less fortunate or God will personally kick your ass. I’d love to do it for him, but I can’t be everywhere. Willie Nelson

                            last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • GilesG
                              Giles
                              IHUK Crew
                              Joined:

                              😘 😘

                              "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

                              last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • neph93N
                                neph93
                                見習いボス
                                Joined:

                                Arrrrggghhhh.

                                As noted yesterday I am trying to perfect my spelt loaf, and struggling to get the kind of oven spring I have had earlier with spelt, and regularly with wheat loaves.

                                Initially I thought it was too much hydration causing the issue. I lowered this bake to 75%.

                                After yesterday’s discussion I suspected the issue was the length of the bulk ferment. This dough had a three hour bulk ferment (down from four and a half), and a 10 hour fridge retardation (down from 14 hours).

                                There is plenty of life in the dough. The over night fridge proofing saw a 40-50% increase in volume. Straight from the fridge:


                                They came out of the banneton’s just fine, but deflated meaningfully after scoring:



                                There is oven spring. The volume of the dough increases during the first 20min. Here they after 20min. They have been covered and the oven has steam. The problem is that the volume increase is much more lateral rather than vertical.




                                Finished:




                                The crumb is not the greatest I’ve had, but isn’t bad at all:

                                So these loaves turned out more or less exactly the same as my last batch, which had a longer bulk ferment and fridge proof, and higher hydration. What the actual yeasty-fuck is next?!

                                «Stevie Heighway on the wing!
                                We had dreams, and songs to sing…»

                                • Dame Vera Lynn
                                last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • dinobarnesberlinD
                                  dinobarnesberlin
                                  啓蒙家
                                  Joined:

                                  You guys are killing it on the Bread Frontier.
                                  I would pay good money to have a sandwich with that bread.

                                  last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • neph93N
                                    neph93
                                    見習いボス
                                    Joined:

                                    @dinobarnesberlin:

                                    You guys are killing it on the Bread Frontier.

                                    In all honesty, mine tastes great. My mother-in-law who has been baking all her life now weeps in envy when she tastes mine. Buy it doesn’t fekkin look like it should and it is a righteous pain in the ring.

                                    «Stevie Heighway on the wing!
                                    We had dreams, and songs to sing…»

                                    • Dame Vera Lynn
                                    last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • GilesG
                                      Giles
                                      IHUK Crew
                                      Joined:

                                      I'm with you.  I think my bread tastes wonderful and loads of my friends are now using recipes that I have given them.  But I still can't get the oven spring that I would like….A work in progress.

                                      I've watched some tart on YouTube taking about 15 minutes to score the most amazing and intricate patterns into her proofed loaves.  If I a) took that long and b) scored it so much, my dough would be about the thickness of a Rizla paper....

                                      "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

                                      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • neph93N
                                        neph93
                                        見習いボス
                                        Joined:

                                        @Giles:

                                        But I still can't get the oven spring that I would like….A work in progress.

                                        The bastard thing is that if I put the dough into a tin it would be forced to rise upwards and look awesome. But I’ve now become a slightly obsessed, macho «free-baker» and the idea of using tins makes my teeth itch and arse clench.

                                        And the real kicker is that I’ve had good oven spring before, I’ve just lost it somewhere in the tweaking.

                                        «Stevie Heighway on the wing!
                                        We had dreams, and songs to sing…»

                                        • Dame Vera Lynn
                                        last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • dinobarnesberlinD
                                          dinobarnesberlin
                                          啓蒙家
                                          Joined:

                                          last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • LewisStonehouseL
                                            LewisStonehouse
                                            啓蒙家
                                            Joined:

                                            This thread has inspired me to order some flour, fire the starter up and dust off the bannetons. Haven't baked for about two years so probably in for a couple of months of pancakes before figuring it out again, but looking forward to it!

                                            last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright Iron Heart 2025.