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    Iron Heart Fall/Winter 2025 Collection Preview - Now Live

    Bread - What are you baking today…..

    Hobbies and Pastimes
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    • 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

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      • 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

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        • 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

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          • 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  😃

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            • 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.

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              • 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

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                • 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

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                  • ChapC
                    Chap
                    見習いボス
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                    😃 😃 😃 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

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                    • 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

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                      • neph93N
                        neph93
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                        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
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                        • 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.

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                          • 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
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                            • 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

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                              • 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
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                                • dinobarnesberlinD
                                  dinobarnesberlin
                                  啓蒙家
                                  Joined:

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                                  • LewisStonehouseL
                                    LewisStonehouse
                                    啓蒙家
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                                    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!

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                                    • neph93N
                                      neph93
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                                      @LewisStonehouse get in there lad. Looking forward to seeing how that goes…

                                      @dinobarnesberlin "Breaking Bread"… I like that a lot. Quite accurate. I do feel like a wannabe chemist who doesn't know his ass from his elbow at times. I'm Jessie from season 2 in other words...

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

                                      • Dame Vera Lynn
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                                      • dinobarnesberlinD
                                        dinobarnesberlin
                                        啓蒙家
                                        Joined:

                                        @neph93:

                                        @LewisStonehouse get in there lad. Looking forward to seeing how that goes…

                                        @dinobarnesberlin "Breaking Bread"… I like that a lot. Quite accurate. I do feel like a wannabe chemist who doesn't know his ass from his elbow at times. I'm Jessie from season 2 in other words...

                                        but in the end, Jessie wound up to be a pretty decent cook @neph93 .
                                        yours already look very tasty –-and that goes for all you guys baking in your kitchens.!

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                                        • steelworkerS
                                          steelworker
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                                          @neph93:

                                          @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.

                                          Whoa big fella, easy now… 😃 😉

                                          Those are my principles, and if you don't like them…
                                          Well, I have others.

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                                          • neph93N
                                            neph93
                                            見習いボス
                                            Joined:

                                            @steelworker:

                                            Whoa big fella, easy now… 😃 😉

                                            Don’t worry, Ed, it says tweaking, not twerking.

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

                                            • Dame Vera Lynn
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