Bread

Nearly finished the French flour, it’s different but I think I have got the hang of it

1 Attachment

Upped the amount of starter and it almost ripped itself apart

1 Attachment

Still going strong

1 Attachment

Does anyone know how to sharpen a serrated bread knife?

Or more likely, where to take it to have it done, it's a Global (if that makes any difference).

how to sharpen a serrated bread knife

Any London based people know of a good bakery that do deliveries to NW6. Want to send some baked treats to some friends that've just had a baby.

For all the faffing learning to sourdoughs I enjoyed actually eating a focaccia I made waaaaay more

As far as that goes, I like bannock more than focaccia.

Love home made focaccia. So easy, so good. :)

Haven't done this in a while. Thought I'd finally killed the starter, but it sprung back to life.

Today's is wholemeal and white with seeds, the other one was a few days ago, white with added muesli.

3 Attachments

Had a frustrating period of loaves that splayed out in the oven rather than rising up. Decided to tweak process a little, so reduced how much water I add to the flour and starter at initial mixing stage. This helps form a shaggier dough to begin with, and appears to make the gluten come out a bit more, also the dough becomes warmer with kneading as it is stiffer and requires more effort to knead it. More water is added later in the kneading process.

Process now is flour, water, salt and starter but retain about 10-15% of the water to add later. 5 minutes in stand mixer adding a bit more water as the dough progresses. Leave for 30 minutes and mix again for 8-10 minutes with the additional water.

Has resulted in much better spring and lift. The breads shape more easily and get better skin tension. Previously I had sometimes been getting almost a dough soup by adding all the water at the beginning and it felt there wasn’t enough friction in the mixing process to get the gluten going. Vanessa Kimball refers to the retaining and delayed adding of water as eau basinage.

This change of method has been working well for whole meal, seeded and todays plain white basic Karen loaf.

3 Attachments

First time using rye flour. Went for 2/3 rye and added pumpkin seeds.

1 Attachment

Good work. Usually rye rises poorly (low gluten) so impressed to see your oven spring with the rye blend was not dissimilar to your previous post.

Tiny bread or massive pot?

Massive pot.

I'm quite pleased with it as well. Crumb is a bit more closed looking but it's not dense or anything. Very tasty 👍

1 Attachment

Our machine is on its way out, paddle motor seems to have lost its oomph.

Any recommendations that aren't golf club entry level spends? Current model is Panasonic, this looks to be like4like, anyone using it?

https://www.johnlewis.com/panasonic-sd-b2510wxc-automatic-bread-maker/p5445753

Inverted ratios and just did 1/3 rye rest white with added pumpkin seeds. Had one loaf in a banneton and one in a cloth lined takeaway container. Hard to tell the diff rly.

1 Attachment

Yes we’ve got this one and it’s really good. Happy to try to answer any questions

I don’t know if you committed to a machine yet; I had a Kenwood KMix stand mixer a few years ago and it was useless for dough. The dough hook seemed to be completely the wrong shape.

Edit: click the link Jonny, he didn’t want a stand mixer.

My loaves just wouldn't rise today. Dunno what that's about.

Maybe old yeast but I've never had a problem with that before. I added some more from a different packet at one point but didn't get them going. It isn't a cold day either.

After 10 hours of not much happening, I chucked it in the oven and now have a couple of construction industry loaves on the way.

About the best thing I can say is it's more or less edible.

1 Attachment

A third of rye, wholemeal and white with added figs and walnuts

2 Attachments

.

1 Attachment

Better than last weekend

1 Attachment