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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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    • neph93N
      neph93
      見習いボス
      Joined:

      Looking forward to seeing the results @Chad
      Getting my Biga on soon. Picked up an 8 quart baking bowl with a lid today. Should be big enough, no? Forkish recommends 6 quarts….

      «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
      • C
        Chad
        Joined:

        @neph93 I'd say that's more than enough. I couldn't tell you what size this is. I just use this bowl to mix my pre-ferments before adding to the final dough.

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        • neph93N
          neph93
          見習いボス
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          I have a five/six quart baking bowl I use for bulk fermenting my sourdoughs, but the Biga’s can grow I think. Better to be on the safe side.

          «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 typically only get 3x overnight and 2.5/3x at the end of the bulk ferment….

            "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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            • C
              Chad
              Joined:

              Yeah for sure. I believe Forkish says to expect this to triple in volume.

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              • Stuart.TS
                Stuart.T
                Raw and Unwashed
                Joined:

                A bit more success on Sunday, spelt, rye, and white. It was delicious. I didn't expect as much oven spring. @neph93 the slashes were made using my Spyderco UKPK, not a lame… Just to show how razor sharp they are

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                • GilesG
                  Giles
                  IHUK Crew
                  Joined:

                  That looks great…..

                  "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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                    Well done @Stuart.T  that is coming along nicely. Exciting application of your pocket knife too [emoji1]

                    I’m increasingly aware of the role the composition of levains play in oven spring and timing. Knowing your starter and the resulting levain seems important for predicting results.

                    Breads made with my rye starter almost always do well, but my spelt starter acts in a very different way and the timings need to be different. Also the levain I make from my spelt starter gives different results depending on whether I use wholemeal spelt to feed it or finely milled spelt. The former takes more time to ripen and allows for longer fermenting and proofing, while the latter seems much more volatile and peaks earlier.

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

                    • Dame Vera Lynn
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                    • jordanscollectedJ
                      jordanscollected
                      啓蒙家
                      Joined:

                      I had my starter in the fridge for a week and almost forgot about it. However i fed it last night and this morning it was very lively.

                      I've dabbled with full boules, dinner rolls, bagels, pizza crust, etc. all in the sourdough camp.

                      this is a 950 gm batch that i added caraway seed and granulated garlic and salt, divided into 4 mini loaves and dusted the bottoms with toasted corn germ for texture.

                      Bread

                      world tours:
                      888 Fat guy chocolate WT
                      Mad Red x2
                      Wabidashery

                      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • neph93N
                        neph93
                        見習いボス
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                        They look lovely @jordanscollected. Did my last spelt sourdough before the coming Biga-geddon this weekend.

                        This is the levain based on finely ground spelt just before it went in. 350g flour and 350g water. This is a 3 liter bowl:

                        Mental.

                        The bread came out well but I decided to do two doughs with different hydration to see what differenes occured.

                        75%:

                        85% (to the right):

                        There was a lot more spread from the banneton to the oven plate with the higher hydration. The texture of the 85% bread was much more moist and light, despite the spread, and the crumb was still good:

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

                        • Dame Vera Lynn
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                        • jordanscollectedJ
                          jordanscollected
                          啓蒙家
                          Joined:

                          that bread was very happy, with a desirable variation in holes for some texture differentiation.

                          world tours:
                          888 Fat guy chocolate WT
                          Mad Red x2
                          Wabidashery

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

                            Is autolyse not considered necessary with the Forkish Biga? I notice he doesn’t mention it in his recipe.

                            «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:

                              No need

                              "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
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                                @Giles:

                                No need

                                Thank you sir. On another note I find myself having to wrestle with a first world problem deluxe. Both your zoom meeting times are in conflict with my carefully planned first ever Biga schedule.

                                «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:

                                  Shit happens

                                  "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
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                                    It does. The Bigageddon will be delayed by 24hrs.

                                    «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
                                    • Stuart.TS
                                      Stuart.T
                                      Raw and Unwashed
                                      Joined:

                                      @Giles those last 2 loves look great. 3rd time lucky for me today. I adjusted a bog standard Jamie Oliver recipe that required neading, so my 1st non non-nead (I hate a double negative). I used a stoneground wholewheat starter, rye and spelt, and white. It didn't last long when sliced over breakfast.

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                                      • neph93N
                                        neph93
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                                        Joined:

                                        Well done @Stuart.T . Looks great… plain sailing from now on 😉

                                        «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
                                        • neph93N
                                          neph93
                                          見習いボス
                                          Joined:

                                          Sunday morning Biga-geddon! Early doors yet and the end result could still be a catastrophe, but so far working with Biga is a lot of fun.

                                          The Biga this morning after 12 hours:

                                          After the last fold:

                                          Bulk ferment will be done soon.

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

                                          • Dame Vera Lynn
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                                          • neph93N
                                            neph93
                                            見習いボス
                                            Joined:

                                            More deets while it is in the oven…. I’m following the Forkish recipe for 80% white Biga. It is ridiculously warm here at the moment, (due to decades of excessive consumption of fossil fuel), anf Norwegian homes are built to retain heat. The room for the pre-ferment was 20C overnight, my kitchen is over that. It has meant I have needed to shorten times.

                                            Forkish calls for a 14 hour pre-ferment, a 3.5 hour bulk ferment and on hour proofing, all at room temps.

                                            The Biga got 12 hours and probably could have had 10-11. The bulk ferment was about 2.5 hours and the proofing only 30min.

                                            I’ll mention that this was over-hydrated, which seems to be an issue for me. My scales glitched when mixing the water for the Biga, then I was heavy handed when mixing the bulk ferment. I added a little more flour, but the percentages are definitely off.

                                            I’ve just removed the foil (I don’t have a Dutch oven), and I have oven spring!

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

                                            • Dame Vera Lynn
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