Bread

sorry am I supposed to understand this

http://www.wraithnj.com/breadpics/rise_time_table/bread_model_bwraith.htm

without reading his longform article first?

It's confusing as fuck at first glance but not as complex as it seems, horizontal axis you´ve got percentage of starter from 0 to 25% (divided into two sections, one for 0% salt and another for 2% salt), then vertically it's ambient temperature from 10C to 29.4C. So you choose the corresponding cell for your starter percentage and temp, which then tells you (from top to bottom) doubling time, bulk time, proof time and total time from mix to bake.

I mainly posted it because when I started baking it was the middle of winter and I couldn't figure out what was going wrong with my loaves, turns out none of the recipes I looked at ever mentioned the importance of temperature.. at 12C a loaf will take 5 times longer to rise than at 22C. You can also bin the chart and figure out timings intuitively based on how long it takes your starter to double.

Been playing around while Kate's away, as she normally does the bread. Third batch of two is getting somewhere! Still think I need to develop a little more strength before/during bulk, and shape and cut a bit better. They're ballooning a bit, rather than rising properly and splitting where I want them to.

^^ Trying to pay attention to dough temperature using the oven as a proofing box, but I'm not ready for spreadsheet levels of bread geekery

Those look great!

This is not a criticism at all but you can see in the top pic you posted that the dough has snagged as you have scored it (this is very easy to do), this might be why it's not quite opening up the way you want. Sometimes the dough can develop a bit of a tough "skin" which snaggs more easily, sometimes it's down to the angle/depth of the blade as you score. I still mess up scoring all the time, it's not something you get to practice much.

Those look fantastic!

The first loaf of sourdough I've baked in a few months.

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Fuckin' 'ell, another beauty to grace the thread!

Thanks, I'm pretty happy with the crumb - Consistent, light and fluffy.

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This is all wheat?

80% white, 20% wholegrain

Cool, looks fantastic.
Ever tried spelt? I understand that it's much more difficult to get an open crumb with that and other elder grains.

Chocolate Challah I helped my girls make for school tomorrow.

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Over-proofed as it forgot about it whilst watching a film last night. Lost a bit of the airation in the crumb and it's slumped a bit. Should be ok still hopefully. Feel like I'm getting consistent results now and I have more idea what went wrong when it does.

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My efforts the yesterday fell a little flat, so I tweaked and tried again. These actually shaped nicely and scoring felt good! Think I'm getting the hang of it

More bread pix pls people

I had shelved my starter in the fridge for the past few months as I didn’t feel so much like making bread anymore; but having guests over provided the right incentive to take it out of retirement and it sprang right back into life.

I guess baking is a bit like riding bikes; hard to learn and hard to forget.

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Been following these with interest on the hipstergram, am I right in thinking you've got beer in the dough mix?

No, the beer was in my bloodstream and caused me to shift the schedule a bit (eg overnight autolyse...). Turned out alright anyway (they’re the loaves on the 3rd photo)

I’ve actually tried to substitute water for beer once, tasted a bit like soy sauce in the end.

Did you take a shot of the crumb?

Looks great.

Haha I asked because I tried doing a beer sourdough once with similar results. They all look spot on!

Gonna cut into one soon when I get home! Can't wait

Nice one, the crumb is ideal!

moar budder plz

This looks so good!

My starter is dead, anyone have any to share?