The Bread Thread

[ceeaton]

I've said it before and will continue to say it. Buy this book. It will up your bread game.

https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-...=1671836279&sprefix=flour+water,aps,87&sr=8-1

I bought it, I bought it, I bought it! Wonderful book, still working through it...



The book on the right is also must buy in my opinion. Great dough recipes to work with, they have one called Enzo's Pizza dough which is a same day dough if you get up early enough in the morning (a 10 hour rest). Uses a scant amount of yeast but pulls easily and my wife said it made the best tasting, thinnest base/crust that I've made so far. Add some sourdough discard and it's out of this world good. BTW, he changes up some of his pizza concepts from the back of the first book in the second Elements of PIzza book in a big way. He said the changes were from doing it every day and learning as he went. I subscribe and use the concepts in the second book for pizza dough and they work out pretty well, still an experiment in progress...

Joe Beddia's Pizza Camp is also a good one for pizza, plus he's a Philly phan and has his pizzeria there as well. Made a mushroom "white" pizza from his book. It has a mushroom cream sauce as the base, a bit of cheese and some sautéed shitake mushrooms on top.



It was yet another experimental dough, was held at 33*F for 144 hours proofing... It was the best pizza I think I've ever made.

 

[bstnh1]

A Google search for "Enzo's Pizza dough" will get you several sources for the recipe.

 

[wood1954]

I have the flour salt water book, but it teaches a very foreign method compared to how I’ve always made bread so I stuck on the shelf and forgot about it. After starting this post and getting encouragement I opened it up again used his methods and made some bread. Turned out good , I let the dough get too cold so it didn’t rise very well and I ran out of flour and time so it’s kind of flat. At 11 pm I put it in the oven. Much holeier than any bread I’ve made before

 

[winemaker81]

It was yet another experimental dough, was held at 33*F for 144 hours proofing... It was the best pizza I think I've ever made.

Of course it was the best pizza you made! After waiting 144 hours, you were starving and would have eaten anything!

 

[sour_grapes]

Much holeier than any bread I’ve made before View attachment 96724

Maybe because it was Christmas Eve?

 

[ceeaton]

Overnight Country Blonde bread (FWSY pg 168) using pure levain in place of any commercial yeast. Also bulk rests at room temperature overnight (60 or so where I had it in the kitchen) and is shaped the next morning in the banneton for four hours. Definitely softer and takes the shape of what it is proofed in at the non-refridgerated temperature. Was tough to score as well, just a bit "floppy". Cooked in the dutch oven as I normally do.

Crumb not as open as I thought it would be, flavor was good but not overly sourdoughy. I used a culture I've had going at room temperature that I made up a few weeks ago from my main starter, have to feed it much more often. When I fed my main starter from the fridge, I noticed it had a much sharper acidic nose than the room temperature starter. Wonder if the constant feeding made it "too happy" and less stressed, so the flavor mellowed out?

Either way a good bread, daughter who says she doesn't like sourdough bread will eat it if I don't tell her it's sourdough bread, lol.





Working on a batch of bagels at the moment, will do pizzas later this afternoon/evening. I love having a weekday off work!

 

[wood1954]

it's amazing how fast we eat homemade bread!

 

[Kraffty]

Saw this recipe on The Kitchen presented by Katie Lee and Lori wanted me to give it a try. Basically it's a cinnamon roll dough recipe but the filling is cream cheese, scallions and everything bagel seasoning. Great brunch or dinner roll. I cut the recipe in half and ended up perfect for us.

if interested link:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/katie-lee/everything-bagel-cream-cheese-rolls-13326511

 

[winemaker81]

I receive a silicon bread pan for Christmas and had to test it. I made a white bread from a secret recipe known only to people who own the same bread machine I do and looked at the side of the machine. I used the machine to knead the dough, and baked in the new pan plus a conventional pan.



The new pan is a bit smaller, and while the color is different, the crust and interior texture are identical.

 

[vinny]

Sooo. My brother came up for a couple of days after Xmas. He brought me a sourdough starter. That was the easy part, my most poignant question at the moment..

What now?

I have seen some amazing loaves on here, so I know I won't be lead astray. What do you guys recommend? Buns, a round loaf, sandwich style, bagels?

I am happy to start in the beginners section. I have made a few round loaves in the past, but it's all new appliances since so other than a slight clue I really have nothing to work with. I have a ceramic coated dutch oven, and my oven has a steam bake mode. I don't have anything else like proofing baskets or specialty tools. Is there a must have order list? I imagine the recommended books I have seen here are well worth the read?

Should I give the starter a few 'regeneration'? cycles to get used to my flours before making a bread? Any good recipes for the discard? I hate the throw away.

@ibglowin Sorry for the call out, but you have set the bar!

 

[ibglowin]

Sooo. My brother came up for a couple of days after Xmas. He brought me a sourdough starter. That was the easy part, my most poignant question at the moment..

What now?

I have seen some amazing loaves on here, so I know I won't be lead astray. What do you guys recommend? Buns, a round loaf, sandwich style, bagels?

I am happy to start in the beginners section. I have made a few round loaves in the past, but it's all new appliances since so other than a slight clue I really have nothing to work with. I have a ceramic coated dutch oven, and my oven has a steam bake mode. I don't have anything else like proofing baskets or specialty tools. Is there a must have order list? I imagine the recommended books I have seen here are well worth the read?

Should I give the starter a few 'regeneration'? cycles to get used to my flours before making a bread? Any good recipes for the discard? I hate the throw away.

@ibglowin Sorry for the call out, but you have set the bar!

I would poke around on the KA website they have tons of recipes that are tried and true for sourdough and everything else baking. I always use a dutch oven and parchment paper for boules. For baguettes I have used a baguette pan. I have proofing bowls and use them for both boules and baguettes. Its a 2 day process that starts by taking your starter out of the fridge in the morning and then letting it warm up for a couple hours. Then you start weighing things out and working the dough. Day one ends around 5PM with your dough in your proofing bowls, and a produce baggie and a twist tie of sorts to keep the dough from drying out. I place the bowls to proof overnight in the garage (this time of year) or fridge in the warmer months. Next morning I preheat the oven and the DO at 450F. Place your first boule on parchment paper and score. Then pull your DO out and quickly pop it in and get the lid on top and into the oven. Baguettes I use a water pan in the oven for steam. Your steam bake sounds like it would work well. The DO really helps to hold in the moisture/heat with the lid so you get max spring/rise during the 1st step (closed) bake.

I use discard to make sourdough pizza crust (KA Recipe)

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/sourdough-pizza-crust-recipe

I have tweaked this recipe to my liking but it is a great recipe to start with:

https://www.ediblenm.com/the-perfect-loaf-beginners-sourdough-bread/

Amazon sells lots of "starter kits" for bread baking.

I would defiinitely get

Proofing bowls (rattan with cloth liner) for both boules and baguettes
Kitchen scale for accurate weighing of ingredients
Bread Lame
Dough scraper (plastic with straight edge and rounded edge is my favorite)

An oven with a proof setting is really nice to have as well.

You can make some great sourdough pancakes with the discard as well.

 

[vinny]

Thank you!

I'm off to check Amazon.

 

[ibglowin]

Forgot to mention I feed my starter every 2 weeks. Kept in fridge in a mason jar with lid (loosely on) Every two weeks bake something and use up ~190gms starter and then I feed by adding back 100gms AP flour and 100gms water. Mix well and then let it sit for 3-4 hours on the counter until it shows bubbles and rises to towards the top and then you can place back into the fridge. You don't want to bake then just dump off the 190gms starter and feed as usual.

 

[vinny]

Forgot to mention I feed my starter every 2 weeks. Kept in fridge in a mason jar with lid (loosely on) Every two weeks bake something and use up ~190gms starter and then I feed by adding back 100gms AP flour and 100gms water. Mix well and then let it sit for 3-4 hours on the counter until it shows bubbles and rises to towards the top and then you can place back into the fridge. You don't want to bake then just dump off the 190gms starter and feed as usual.

This is good to know. I was told to leave it out and feed every four days or so. I don't think I will bake often enough, so I was going to look for a fridge method to slow it down. 2 weeks will be a much better cycle.

 

[ceeaton]

This is good to know. I was told to leave it out and feed every four days or so. I don't think I will bake often enough, so I was going to look for a fridge method to slow it down. 2 weeks will be a much better cycle.

I do the same as Mike but feed every week. And if you invert the inside part of the lid (the flat part) you can tighten down the whole was and the excess gas can still escape, FYI.

Recently I've made a second starter and left it out, feed it every three or four days. It just doesn't have the same acidic punch that the refrigerator starter does, not too sure why, but I'm sure there is a logical explanation, I'll have to text Spock and ask...

 

[BigDaveK]

This is good to know. I was told to leave it out and feed every four days or so. I don't think I will bake often enough, so I was going to look for a fridge method to slow it down. 2 weeks will be a much better cycle.

King Arthur Baking is usually the first place I check for a recipe. Great info, experienced bakers.
They have good info for starting and maintaining your starter.

Maintaining your sourdough starter

They also have some sourdough discard recipes. Pizza, banana bread, and pretzels are pretty good but the pancakes are definitely my favorite.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/collections/sourdough-discard-recipes

 

[vinny]

King Arthur Baking is usually the first place I check for a recipe. Great info, experienced bakers.
They have good info for starting and maintaining your starter.

Maintaining your sourdough starter

They also have some sourdough discard recipes. Pizza, banana bread, and pretzels are pretty good but the pancakes are definitely my favorite.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/collections/sourdough-discard-recipes

Nice, are your bagels sourdough?

 

[BigDaveK]

Nice, are your bagels sourdough?

Haven't made sourdough bagels but bagels are in my near future. I ordered some high gluten flour (from King Arthur!) over the weekend as a matter of fact.

 

[JBP]

In addition to the KA discard recipes, I utilize this one constantly for making crackers - change the flavors as desired, sometimes sea salt/garlic, other times herb blends or "everything bagel seasoning". Occasionally even a slightly sweet version with cinnamon sugar. These disappear quickly in our house.

My sourdough feeding schedule depends on how much 'tang' I desire...

 

[vinny]

My sourdough feeding schedule depends on how much 'tang' I desire...

I like a sourdough with good tang so I will have to experiment with the ranges.

When is it too late? I have made starters in the past and let them go WAY too far after not getting great results. They have been a pain to start so I would like to make sure I know my outer limit to keep this healthy. Is 2 weeks pushing the time spent in the fridge, or if I got distracted for a week could I bring it back easily?