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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
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      Pizza looks good @Steffen I made
      Pizza on a Forkish biga dough this weekend. Six of them in fact.

      @Giles  I need to look into the cost effectiveness of bulk buying like that. It may not work out given import costs…

      Did a morning of home office work which allowed me to do a cheeky bake. 100% white, and 70% white, 30% eight corn, both based on poolish:



      «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
      • Matty123M
        Matty123
        Raw and Unwashed
        Joined:

        You guys are on another level now. Jesus Mary and Joseph

        Maybe so. Maybe not

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        • D
          dan79
          Raw and Unwashed
          Joined:

          Hi all,
          Great inspiring bakes!
          I’ve been using the Forkish method for a while now and have been getting great results using bannetons and a dutch oven as recommended.
          Weekly bakes have settled on firm family favourites like a 50% white poolish with grain & rye flour and a simple “Saturday white” but with about 40% malted grain added (“Cotswold Crunch”)

          One bake schedule I’ve struggled with it the overnight proofing in the fridge as the dough sticks to the bannetons. I’m pretty sure the bannetons are well ‘seasoned’ and I add extra flour each time I use them. Any additional advice/ tips?

          Thanks in advance
          Dan

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          • GilesG
            Giles
            IHUK Crew
            Joined:

            Nice looking loaves Dan…

            I'm a just-chuck-more-flour-into-the-banneton kind of guy.  Sometimes it works, but if it doesn't, it just adds an additional layer of rustic-looking to the loaf  🙂 And sometimes I brush the excess flour off before placing in the oven, but usually, I don't bother.

            My goto is Forkish 50% Poolish with 500gms white in the Poolish and 500gms eight-grain in the final mix.  I get the eight-grain from Matthews, which I suspect is where you get your Cotswold crunch...

            Yesterday's effort....

            "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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            • D
              dan79
              Raw and Unwashed
              Joined:

              Cheers Giles.
              Yes, I usually bulk buy white, 8 Grain & Cotswold Crunch from Matthews and then I use some random Rye flour (only about 100-150g per 1kg bake) bought from a local supermarket.

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

                https://www.ironheart.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=14110.msg658678#msg658678

                "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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                  @dan79:

                  Hi all,
                  Great inspiring bakes!
                  I’ve been using the Forkish method for a while now and have been getting great results using bannetons and a dutch oven as recommended.
                  Weekly bakes have settled on firm family favourites like a 50% white poolish with grain & rye flour and a simple “Saturday white” but with about 40% malted grain added (“Cotswold Crunch”)

                  One bake schedule I’ve struggled with it the overnight proofing in the fridge as the dough sticks to the bannetons. I’m pretty sure the bannetons are well ‘seasoned’ and I add extra flour each time I use them. Any additional advice/ tips?

                  Thanks in advance
                  Dan

                  Those are two very nice loaves of bread @dan79

                  With sticky doughs I sometimes used hard wheat semolina to season the bannetons

                  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
                  • neph93N
                    neph93
                    見習いボス
                    Joined:

                    @dan79 my best tip is in the vein of “mo’ flour” but specifically I season the bannetons but also the formed dough, before I place it in the banneton. This seems to help although whether it is just more flour making the difference I do not know.

                    Another good idea is to wet or flour your fingers and loosen the dough carefully before removing it. It doesn’t damage the form of the bread and allows you to discover the sticky bits and deal with them before any damage is done.

                    Finally I would also recommend the Forkish levain method, specifically the one for the Country Blonde. This calls for the bulk ferment to be done overnight and the banneton proofing to be done the next morning for about an hour or two.  It allows you make great fruity, buttery bread and to otherwise dodge the whole issue of sticky bits  [emoji1]

                    «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
                    • ChapC
                      Chap
                      見習いボス
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                      Same recipe as last week… new kitchen(-colour)

                      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
                      • D
                        dan79
                        Raw and Unwashed
                        Joined:

                        Looks amazing! @Chap
                        Thanks for the kind words and tip; I'll try and get hold of some semolina and give it a try.

                        @neph93 I'm always pretty delicate when tipping out the bannetons, but will give your technique a try next time. As for the Country Blonde, I figured I'd try to perfect the pre-ferments and basic recipes first before moving to the advanced recipes, but as you say, the schedule for a levain bake is pretty convenient (much like the Poolish)

                        You guys have set such a high standard!!
                        Thanks for the advice.

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

                          Judging by the look of your bread @dan79 you have all the skills you need to move on. If you go back to the start of this thread you’ll see some of my early “efforts” (disasters). I started with levain breads bodged together from internet recipes, then got my hands of FYSW and learnt poolish and biga techniques. With the exception of making your levain you know all you need to already.

                          Giving the bread a gentle fingering to check before  twatting it out of the banneton by slamming the banneton onto a baking tray (I warm my fam when I’m going to do it it makes that much noise), helps a lot. It doesn’t damage or de-gas the dough at all, happily. I read somewhere that home bakers treat their doughs with a lot more reverence than they need to.

                          «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
                          • ChapC
                            Chap
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                            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
                            • D
                              dan79
                              Raw and Unwashed
                              Joined:

                              This afternoon’s bake; 60/40 white & Cotswold Crunch, done as a one day bake (Forkish “Saturday white bread” schedule).
                              The sandwich tin loaf was still proved in a banneton, and then moved to a solid iron 2lb loaf tin, then covered with foil instead of transferring to a dutch oven.

                              For anyone interested, the loaf tin was from Netherton Foundry:
                              https://www.netherton-foundry.co.uk/shop/baking-tins

                              last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • neph93N
                                neph93
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                                Lovely looking loaves @dan79

                                Busy weekends and hungry family meant a slightly creative baking schedule for me. Saturday morning I prepared two poolish and a levain starter and yesterday evening I was mixing and folding three lots of dough at the same time, a 100% white and a 80/20 eight corn, on the two poolish, and a Country Brown on the levain. I was baking the two poolish doughs around midnight and the Country Brown this morning.

                                The four Poolish loaves have been sliced and frozen and will be for breakfasts and lunch boxes this week (or at least the first half of it), while the two levain loaves were breakfast, lunch and dinner today.

                                The poolish:





                                And the Country Brown:



                                «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
                                • ?
                                  A Former User
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                                  Incredibly Impressive

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                                  • ChapC
                                    Chap
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                                    Master Baker

                                    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
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                                      Yes, brilliant…..

                                      "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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                                      • SeulS
                                        Seul
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                                        Pass the wine…

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                                        • ChapC
                                          Chap
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                                          I know it’s getting boring… but after struggling quite a while when I started baking bread earlier this year to get some good results, I am very happy now that it became routine...

                                          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
                                          • neph93N
                                            neph93
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                                            Wow. Thank you @adam313  @Giles  @Chap  really too kind. I have to admit that I was struck by the resemblance of my Country Brown to the jacket photo of FWSY, and it made me quite proud.

                                            @Chap as for boring, personally I get as much pleasure looking at the same pictures of all our bread, as I do from looking at men in jeans all the time. Wait, that came out wrong…  ???  😃

                                            Seriously you guys have set the standard that I am just trying to match.

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

                                            • Dame Vera Lynn
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