Bread - What are you baking today…..

[jordanscollected]

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

[neph93]

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

[Giles]

No need

[neph93]

@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.

[Giles]

Shit happens

[neph93]

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

[Stuart.T]

@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.

[neph93]

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

[neph93]

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.

[neph93]

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!

[Giles]

80% Biga with 80% Eight- Grain and 20% Dark Rye

[neph93]

@Giles:

80% Biga with 80% Eight- Grain and 20% Dark Rye

Any major deviations from the white recipe in the Forkish book?

[neph93]

So the first ever Biga bake was a success, even with some iffy percentages.

I feel like learning how to make sourdough from scratch is the baking version of learning the acoustic guitar. You master everything properly, giving you all the skills needed to have fun with the electric version (or Biga, if the analogy wasn’t clear enough).

[Giles]

Looks great, congrats.

No great changes.  In this instance, I made the Biga with 80% eight-grain and then added 20% dark rye for the final dough.  I'm sure if I knew what I was doing, I could frig around with hydration and timings, but I don't bother…

I like ringing the changes flour-wise for the Biga and the final dough.  I open up the flour drawer and choose a couple that take my fancy on the day....

[neph93]

I decided you were onto something G. I just went ahead with the same recipe as above, but played with the ratios. So….80% Biga, with 50/50 wholewheat/white. Tasty and straightforward. I’ll try wholemeal spelt tomorrow, I think.

[neversummer]

Haven’t posted in a little. I’ve been making this recipe the past few weeks:
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/best-sourdough-recipe/
But subbing central mills’ type 85 for the whole wheat. They describe it as halfway between whole wheat and bread flour, so I guess you could split the amount 50/50 and get something comparable.
Anyway, pretty tasty!

[ROman]

Looks great. All of the above.

[Giles]

I was in a rush, because I had to catch the tide, so I left almost nothing for as long as I should have.

But boy, it is tasty.

80% Biga with 100% Bio Kamutmehl courtesy of @Chap 

It would actually be a perfect sandwich bread.  Fine crumb and soft crust…..

[Chap]

Oh how cool you did a 100% Kamut Biga… now I will have to give it a try too. Glad you like it @Giles

[ROman]

^^ That looks superb.