Bread

Today’s efforts. I’ve got one long and one round banneton and they don’t quite for in the oven together.

I followed the Nicole Jolly video on YouTube. Although my loads didn’t have much surface tension as you can see by the pancaking. And didn’t rise a lot. A common theme with my loafs.

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much spring, so rise

might try a different scoring method

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What recipe did you follow? Lots of spring

https://homesteadandchill.com/simple-sourdough-bread-recipe/

Works really well

OCS (obligatory crumb shot)

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Brioche buns for tea

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And the result of my Brioche X HCB colab.

Made them aetheist (or just ran out of plain flour). V light compared to regular ones.

Interestingly, the bloke in Tesco told me that the yeast they use, of which he gave me a chunk, is high action, which explains why I was getting loaves going over in the time it took me to heat up the oven.

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Today’s effort. One ripped along the light scoring so has two ears. The tidier loaf I am giving to a neighbour.

Today's no knead loaf. 5 minutes of effort and ever reliable.

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Gonna get stuck into this over the weekend I think, lovely looking book

This week's no knead loaf much the same as last week's. Made with Wessex Mill flour which seemed to be a good and cheaper alternative to Shipton.

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Today’s loaves. Have found a happy place of 75% hydration

520g starter
710g water
350g home milled spelt
675 organic white
27g salt

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Does it have bread recipes too?

Not really, a few brioche/breakfast pieces; there's this bacon and egg bun thing that looks delicious.

Making the Morning Buns, but essentially involves making a dough for croissants so it's currently in the fridge. Ah, the joy of the butter block

Oo, I like your scoring. I’m going to steal that for tonight’s loaf...

I proved the bread in a basket lined with a couche cloth (tea towel) and then dusted with flour before scoring. It helps create a bit of contrast.

There are bread artists who cover the dough in a thick layer of flour before scoring and cooking but raw flour is pretty indigestible

@dancing james are you still enjoying the Mockmill? Any pros or cons to consider?

Pros
Grain lasts for years so you can get huge sacks of it
Grau is cheaper
Much improved flavour it’s like grinding coffee at home
Freshly milled flour is much more biologically active so starter comes to readiness much faster
You can sift flour to get something a little more refined and keep the bran for other recipes
Can use it to grind spices (eg when loads are needed for bbq rub) or making rice flour

Cons
The Mockmill for stand mixers isn’t that fast it takes a few minutes to do 300 grams.
Some recipes will need a little tinkering I use something like t65 as my base flour and add freshly milled to it as the fresh flour doesn’t always have well developed gluten.
Timings for proving are generally faster so a little learning curve

Both look banging. Can you share your recipe if you don't mind?

Yeah no worries, it's such a quick and easy way to make bread.

600g Decent White Bread Flour
7g Instant Yeast
15g Salt
435ml Water

Mix it all up in the evening and cover (I use a big tupaware).

Then following morning put a cast iron dish in the oven on full wack. Whilst that's heating shape and prove the loaf (I leave it for 45 mins ish whilst the oven gets the pan super hot). Then put the loaf inside the hot cast iron pan and bake for 30 mins with the lid on. If the bread needs a bit longer take the lid off, reduce the oven to 180 degrees and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes.

It's super easy and aside from a few minutes in the evening and a few minutes shaping the next morning it's no effort. Baking paper can be useful in getting the loaf into the hot pan

That's great, ta.

Do you use it for pizza flour too?

We do have a KitchenAid but it's not much extra to get a stand alone unit - is that a better option?

Not a bad first effort, wish they weren't so bloody big

Stand-alone has longer guarantee and can go faster.

I think roller milled flour is really useful so I have that as my base (though do on occasion make 100% home stoneground wholemeal loaves).

Stoneground white isn’t as pure white as roller milled. So I still use caputo blue for pizza. But this is more because I fucking love pizza and don’t want to fuck around with something on the rare occasions I get to make it. One day I should make two batches of dough - caputo vs sieved home ground and do a side by side comparison but it’s difficult as they’d both prove at very different rates.

Look shit, send me your address and I’ll save you from the over sized noms.

I baked two loaves this morning. I’d left one in the fridge over night and another on the kitchen work top.

No difference in oven spring at all.