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• #1602
what did you order - I am seeing all the bigger bags out of stock except Matthews plain white which is £25 for 16kg. Maybe I'm a cheapskate, but I wasn't expecting to pay more than a £/kg if buying in bulk!? Is there another section for bulk?
I am thinking of doing a bulk order at the end of this week if anyone wants to share (I am in NW10)... -
• #1603
Biologique t65
and then smaller amounts of diastolic malt, malt flakes, wholemeal, spelt etc
what i am learning is you get what you pay for and organic flour has more flavour and seems to develop more in autolyse too
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• #1604
hmmm... I might just go with the Shipton Mill Organic white no 4, and the Organic wholemeal rye as Shipton does free delivery over £30 rather than £75 at Bakery Bits...
I see you were saying previously you weren't getting the results from Shipton Mill flour that you wanted, but I reckon I have lower standards, and probably aim for slightly denser breads anyways! -
• #1605
I have also been reading Vanessa Kimble’s Sourdough School book, it may have been I was adding all the water too soon in high hydration doughs. I followed her bassinage method at the weekend and made an 80% loaf (80% white 20% wholemeal) that had decent structure, so may have been a case of bad workman blaming. Will be trying a plain white high hydration loaf where I add the water more slowly to see if that reduces the liquid dough effect.
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• #1606
you get what you pay for
100% this. I may be paying £1/kg for caputo from an Italian wholesaler, but it's worlds apart from any other 00 thats readily available.
Shipton no 4 is ok, but not that reliable - although it's deffo a lot better than what you get from supermarkets.adding all the water too soon in high hydration doughs
Two stage hydration definitely makes things easier IMO. A lot easier to build the strength needed to hold more water when you mix below 70%. You just have to be careful to add the second load of water slowly/bit by bit as you can wreck the dough if you add it back too quickly.
Corona isolation has me baking at home for the first time in a while. Has anyone else found that the FWSY overnight recipes never have enough yeast to generate sufficient activity? I've not done one of these recipes for ages and I've been having the same problem I always did where the dough doesn't come up at all overnight. Will probably just fold in a wee bit more yeast so it's actually ready to bake today.
Also got a new starter on the go with 00 caputo. I seem to have a fair bit of activity after only a few days - was quite surprised to have it bubbling on day 3! Might even see if I can get it active enough to make a preferment for a sourdough tomorrow!
/csb - can you tell I'm stuck at home and bored out my mind?
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• #1607
The number 4 is ok but unreliable, I quite like their t55 baguette flour tho.
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• #1608
Bakery bits sold out of fucking everything as well. I don't really have room for a 25kg sack (I live with others) but if anyone knows where I can get some Marriages Strong/Very Strong Bread in a 5 pack where it doesn't cost a load for delivery it'd be much appreciated...
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• #1609
Has anyone else found that the FWSY overnight recipes never have enough yeast to generate sufficient activity?
We have a very cold kitchen at the moment, but I have found that using the same measurements but letting it bulk ferment in an oven with a pan of boiled water underneath is almost fool proof. Recipe most often used is Field Blend 2
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• #1610
made my first sourdough over the weekend. turned out ok!
as all the supermarket flour shelves are empty, where do people usually buy their flour from online? (or locally - I'm in brockley)
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• #1611
That’s fantastic, especially for a first effort!
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• #1612
Kitchen was 17c overnight but will give your trick a go next time for sure. The dough has started to move a bit but I folded in some yeast anyway as I want some bloody bread.
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• #1613
shipton mill, bakery bits
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• #1614
Stuck at home in lockdown. Is it possible to make my own sourdough starter?
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• #1615
Add 100g of flour to 100g of room temp water in a tupperware/kilner jar/jam jar. Mix and leave lid ajar. Add flour and water in equal proportion each day, 10-25g of each, and stir in, leaving lid ajar.
After a few days you should have bubbles. If the jar is too full, empty some out before you do your daily top up. You're trying to get activity in the mix, so you're not really losing anything by throwing excess away. You should have enough activity after a week or so. When the mix is bubbly, drop some in water - if it floats, this is a sign that it's sufficiently active for use in baking.
This is my new starter on day 3.
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• #1616
Great, thanks! Do you leave the jar in the room initially? If so, when should it love to the fridge?
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• #1617
No fridge until you've got an established starter. Once it's happy, if you're not going to bake for a couple of days or longer then feed it up and store it in the fridge. Once you want to use it again, remove it from the fridge and feed it up so it's active before using.
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• #1618
Leave it at room temp. The yeast bacteria will develop/thrive at room temp if you start and feed it at room temp. It will act slightly differently as room temp changes tho. Many bakeries have trouble with their starters as seasonal temperatures change. And getting a consistent sourdough is reliant on getting consistency with your starter, and that consistency will make trouble shooting easier too.
You can refrigerate if you're not going to be using it for a few weeks, and then to prepare for use again simply take it out and start feeding it for a few days and it will become active. Depends how often you're going to be using it, but I'd say keep it out as long as you're feeding it. Once it's established, you can also reduce the feeding schedule if you're not planning on using it. -
• #1619
I'm in Edinburgh and I don't think we have had heating since the start of November. The kitchen can easily be single digits early in the morning! The pan of just boiled water has the oven from about 35deg to 20deg over a few hours, then I transfer to banneton and into the fridge overnight.
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• #1620
Cool (quite literally). Cheers for the tips. I've just gone a bit rogue and topped up the dough (80% hydration with seeded malthouse thingy from Shipton that was given to the bakery as a sample) with some 00, hydrated at %60, a bit of yeast and salt. It's brought the whole thing together a lot better, and it has some life in in, just hope it comes up properly before I go to bed!
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• #1621
Never heard of this method - sounds interesting! At what stage during bulk fermentation are you supposed to add the extra liquid; is this a general thing, or just for very high hydration doughs?
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• #1622
It’s detailed in her book.
It’s sort of retaining some water and adding it incrementally during stretch and fold.
Am just in the process of making a loaf which will be over 80% and by adding the water slowly I have avoided (so far) from making a liquid dough.
Am doing stretch and fold and then sprinkling the ball of dough with water
By the time I do the next stretch and fold it seems to have absorbed the fluid and the action on the dough kind of makes it thirsty again.
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• #1623
Hmm ok - will have to look at that. My strategy for high-hydration doughs is to do the Dan Lepard thing of minimal kneading and handling, and relying on time and the wet dough for gluten formation. I then bake in cast iron; doesn't always make for a particularly photogenic loaf, but gives decent enough structure.
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• #1624
https://www.sourdough.co.uk/glossary/bassinage/
The chef I recently spent a day with baking used to work with Dan Lepard. He only recommends two books on baking, Kimbell’s and Lepard’s
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• #1625
An example of too much water added early from last week, it was a delicious Turkish style loaf by accident
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I'm only pulling your leg. It's only panic buying if it's not what you usually buy, like the hordes of people suddenly deciding they need a load of flour and thus clearing everything out.