Bread - What are you baking today…..

[neph93]

@goosehd mine didn’t get anywhere near as brown and I used a higher heat. The oven is new to me however and may not be as good as my old ones. Today’s overnight white was… quite white and I didn’t have time to brown it any more.

[neph93]

Looking good G.

[neph93]

Just for shits and giggles I inverted one of these to use my new lamé and give it an ear. The other went after standard Forkish lore. It’s all a matter of personal taste of course, but which does everyone prefer? Scored or au naturell?

[goosehd]

@neph93 Au naturell but both of them are ending up in my belly. Just commenting to G that I still can't get my poolish to explode open like that. A few cracks are all I can manage...

I'm thinking that I'm not getting the surface tension right. I added moisture to the dough to see if it needed more internal pressure, but that didn't give me the effect that you guys are managing.

[goosehd]

@Giles The craziest part of the pan de cristal was how extremely light they are and that they rose considerably when I placed them on the stone to bake. They almost doubled in size from when they went in to the 15 minutes shift to the upper rack.

[Giles]

I have a lamé, used it once or twice and was underwhelmed with my lamé skills. So now I only go natural. I'm pretty good at getting surface tension into the dough (but nothing like as good as @chap )

[pechelman]

If oven spring is the same it all comes down to preference. I like the thin crispy texture where the bread splits open in contrast to the thicker but they're fantastic looking either way.

[goosehd]

@neph93 100% correct call on the Brie with the bread…It worked but wasn’t the perfect combination. Used the bread last night to clean up my butter chicken dish and that was a much better pairing.

[Giles]

[Giles]

[goosehd]

…much better! How do they taste?

[Giles]

Room for improvement, but better ( or as @Madame-Buttonfly would say “couldn’t be worse”)

[Giles]

@goosehd said in Bread - What are you baking today…..:

…much better! How do they taste?

Tell you after dinner (supper, tea?)....

[goosehd]

@Giles Laura wants to know why it’s still covered up…

Edit: I want to know where the wine is?

[Giles]

Because we have a couple of courses to get through first.....

[goosehd]

In chatting with G about protein content, the flour I’ve been using for the poolish and Pan de Cristal is 13.3%.

@neph93 Any idea what your content is? I’m wondering it that’s why my poolish doesn’t explode open or if it’s my technique.

The one flour that I’m considering buying has a content around 15/16% which seems pretty high.

Love to hear your guys thoughts.

[krebsy]

Just FYI, I've had success adding Vital Wheat Gluten to all purpose flour to boost the protein content. There's a good calculator around somewhere online that was a tremendous help in determining how much to add. I mostly went this route to simplify how many types of flour I had piled up in the pantry. It was getting out of control, ha ha!

[Giles]

Now that is sage advice......

[neph93]

@goosehd I use 13g as a rule as it is the best I can get cheaply. Strong bread flour is a foreign concept to Norwegians as they use so much coarsely ground whole grains and save white flour for buns.

Caputo Manitoba flour (15g), is now available here but costs three time the amount as domestic (about 6USD per kilo), so I only buy it on special occasions.

[pechelman]

For high hydration breads (say anything above 85%) I'd probably want a minimum of 12% gluten. I'm most used to working with ~13-14% in this range and find it works well for me. Most whole wheat/grain flours will have a higher gluten percentage than the average white, ap, or bread flour. These whole wheat flours will/can also take a bit more hydration and I've found make it a little more forgiving and easier to handle at the same hydration. E.g. 90% with a 100% white flour at 14% gluten will be MUCH harder to handle than the exact same hydration level even with ~10% of whole wheat flour in the blend.

Vital wheat gluten also works well, know that it isnt 100% gluten when you're doing calculations. Personally, I'd want a minimum of 12% gluten flour for the breads I like to make, and not worry too much beyond that number. Go by taste from there and have fun mixing/blending flours and, if you can swing it, grinding your own from whole grains.