Bread

Should making a starter be absolutely impossible to fuck up?

Strong game

If your home is too sterile it could be a problem. Get some starter from someone else while you wait for yours to become active.

Nah that’s not a problem. Had 30 hours and not a sniff of a bubble. 100g Volvic and and 100g bread flour and a tbsp of wholewheat flour

Most recipes for starters suggest longer

Bertinet says 48 hours and resist the urge to disturb it
Kimbell reckons it can be a matter of weeks before a starter is properly ready

Slightly over on the right one as the delivery person rang right when I should have taken it out, wouldn’t have been a problem had they not wanted to inspect my passport for literal minutes. Germany…

Are airtight bread boxes even a thing? Most seem to be for putting bread out of sight rather than keeping it fresh?

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Bread goes stale because the starch sucks up water. This can be reversed by heating eg putting loaves or rolls in an oven or toasting will make the crumb moist again.

An airtight container will sweat and cause mould.

They generally don't last longer than 2-3 days, mould shouldn't be a problem if left to cool properly before putting in the container? Then again eating lightly toasted bread on day 3 isn't too bad so maybe I should just go for something like the Alessi Mattina.

Are you using organic flour and is the jar/whatever open to the air, not sealed?

Organic flours will have more mocrobes on (in?) them anyway so a better start for your colony, and not sealing the container will allow microbes from the air to float in and start a party.

No and yes

I was following some Youtuber whose stuff has worked for me up to now but his starter method seems to give him poolish levels of instant overnight fermentation which from looking at nearly every other method is plainly ridic.

So after 48 hours of it doing nothing and with surface drying out and looking like porridge, I gave it a stir grabbed 75g and added 75g of water and flour last night and I seem to have a very bubbly boi this morning that smells like paint.

My quest to make the viszla loaf equivalent to tiger bread continues.

Am managing higher hydration and better skin tension with machine mixed dough.

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A nice no knead loaf to give that freshly baked bread smell for prospective buyers at our house open day today.

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A bit over on the proof and under on the bake, but I can’t complain if this is a bad day.

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Poached eggs a bit over to continue the theme. My partner insisted on having both on a single slice but saw sense and soon as she started.

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Sunday morning rosemary sourdough

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Saffron brioche.

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Wow. Recipe pls

I used this recipe:

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/brioche

The only change I made is adding crushed up saffron into the lukewarm milk before mixing.
Could have doubled the amount I reckon.

Apparently it's a crowd favourite and already half gone.

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Yeah, that looks seriously good!

Been dabbling in focaccia. First one was a little too well done, second one I kept a closer eye on it. Much better!

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Minor scoring fuck up on the right loaf, still dialling in the decorative scoring.

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Tried this. Definitely didn’t have strong enough flour (12.5% or something was the best they had). It’s currently proving as a focaccia in a tray instead.
Will try again with 7.5% less hydration.

Looks like a success to me!

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Very basic crumb. But tasty enough and has kept the troops happy (and makes me happy that people aren’t just gorging on crap supermarket bread).

Going round 2 with no knead, lowered the hydration a bit and the dough looks a lot more like what I’d expect. Will see how it looks in the morning.
The one that became the focaccia was basically a batter this morning!

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No knead loaf came good. Pretty chuffed considering it was freestyled with the ratios to get the dough consistency right, baked in a crap pan and in an Aga* (no temperature control).

• Holiday home’s oven, definitely not in my kitchen!
  

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