Bread

I just use some IKEA cloth oven gloves, not sure of the material but the non rubber type

I just use the le Creuset double ended double sided oven gloves, never got on with mits as they don’t hang on the oven door rail. The le Creuset ones mean the back of your hand is also well protected and they seem really durable.

Just get some welding gloves.

+1

This.

VAT free as well.

Today’s effort a muddled middle ground between the The Thoughtful bakery method and Richard Bertinet. So higher hydration and a mix of white, spelt and rye.

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Tomorrow a couple of friends and I are spending the day with James Winter who runs https://www.33thehomendledbury.co.uk/

His previous restaurant held a Michelin star and was Michelin’s pub of the year. He is teaching us a couple of his signature loaves, a focaccia type bread made with local oilseed rape and a cider bread. Am also hoping to blag a bit of his starter too. We were all expecting him to charge for the day but he has said because we are all loyal customers it’s his treat for us.

Am rather excite

Ok, the Magimix bread experiment is in progress. Just a standard white loaf. Potato-pic in temporary unfinished kitchen as proof. A couple of things to bear in mind:

1. Since I usually use dough hooks on a hand mixer, I usually weigh the flour and just add the water as I go until I get the dough consistency I want. Can’t do that with the Magimix - you have to dump it all in at once, so work to a recipe.
   
2. It does chop the dough up really fast, as suspected, but it seems to work.
   
3. Unexpected side effect of the mega fast kneading is it generated a LOT of heat. It made the dough hot to the touch!
   
4. 500g flour loaf was a bit too big and it had trouble pulling the top back down into the mixer and kneading the top. It needed squishing down a few times. I think 300g flour loaf is a more suitable size.
   
5. ???
   
6. Profit. Something like that.
   
   

Bake in an hour or so once it’s popped back up...

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Have been keeping my starters in plastic for the last 2 years after nearly losing it all when glass jar broke. Now facing an ultimatum from the anti-plastic brigade (and tbh I agree noone wants plastic leaching into their bread!) - so what should I use? Anyone have a sturdy recommendation?

If it is being used multiple times or permanently then it’s better to continue using the same container than to bin it into landfill just so you can use a new container.

Magimix bread experiment

Texture update. It’s got signs of being a bit under-kneaded. I think this could work, but it needs to be in the machine a bit longer. I’ll try a smaller loaf later in the week.

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noone wants plastic leaching into their bread!

Does this actually happen? Like DJ said reusing plastic is the best thing you can do (environmentally) now it's been made.
FWIW I use old plastic 1kg peanut butter tubs to store mine.

I'm quite proud of this one. :) Especially seeing as I messed up the autolyse stage and left huge lumps in the dough. Tastes great.

Mostly using the schedule here: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/weekend-baking-schedule/

65% hydration, 30 minute autolyse (lumpy), baked in a lodge dutch oven.

Looks amazing! WFH lots this week, so I'm now inspired to pull my starter out of the fridge and get it going again...

That's beautiful, can almost get the aroma off the crust.

Cheers! A new technique I learned this week was how to work high-hydration dough, from this video of Richard Bertinet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbBO4XyL3iM

Tried this technique last night. Either I was doing it wrong or I had way too much water. I watched the vid 3 times whilst I was trying it so pretty sure it was the latter. What sort of ratios are you guys doing when you do high hydration? I just made mine up on a whim - 400g flour to 300g water. The dough was super sloppy even after it had come together with the slap method.

I ended up basically baking a puddle but it rose in the oven and ended up sort of looking like bread but nowhere close to my normal efforts.

Quality and type of flour play a huge part. Some flour will hold huge hydrations, while others will form a batter when used in the same proportions.

I am wondering if that is my problem. My usual recipe produces great loaves with decent oven spring etc.

Spent the day learning to make higher hydration bread, chef tends to use t65 but i only have Shipton mill white. I keep making loaves like Turkish bread. They are lovely but totally lacking skin tension

Ok, I'm using Doves organic strong bread flour which I've been using for ages. The farm is only a few miles down the road from where I live and I like using local flour for local people but should I consider something else?

Bacheldre is good, 75% might be pushing even that tbh. I made a couple of 70%ers yesterday and they came out OK.

Doves is good but doesn't cope with over 65% well IME. I do like their malthouse variety a lot though.

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My latest loaf was 70% hydration, came out fine. That's using Sainsbury's own "strong white bread flour"(tm).

Autolysis for 20-30 minutes before adding the starter helps with gluten formation. But yeah, 75% sounds like it's pushing it. I'll try that next! :)

Tesco stuff is shit, but they do an 'extra strong' which isn't bad. Aldi is surprisingly good for the price too.

I'm on 80% hydration with 50/50 wholemeal rye and strong white. That works really well for me with different brands of flour.

Shipton isn’t particularly consistent which doesn’t help.
Their t55 baguette flour is pretty decent though, lovely yellow unbleached stuff.
Generally, it’s difficult to get hold of decent quality flour in the uk. But there’s loads of factors in how well a flour will hold water. Water temp - higher temps will develop gluten quicker, making it easier to bring together. Autolyse also helping with absorption. You can also hydrate in two stages - autolyse and mix, and then slowly add extra water once you’ve developed the dough sufficiently - careful tho, as it’s easy to shag the dough by adding the water too quickly.
Hand mixing high hydration doughs is a ballache tho. I used to do two stage hydration to get doughs up to 90% for pizza.