Baking: tips, recipes and sharing.. Come join the fun.

[boxerboxer]

Credit to Jim Lahey of Sullivan St Bakery for this idiot proof method:

Mix 430g flour, 1g yeast, 8g salt in a bowl. Add 345g water and stir til barely mixed, 60 seconds tops. Lightly coat another bowl with olive oil, put in the dough, cover and store at room temp for at least 12 hrs.

At this point the dough should look pretty bubbly and smell pretty yeast-y. Pull it out, fold it a couple times and let it sit on the counter for ~15 min.

Form the dough into a ball. Take a dish drying cloth, dust heavily with flour/cornmeal/wheatbran (whatever you like), and set your dough on it, seam side down. Dust the top with flour, cover with the towel, and let it rise til doubled in size (~1hr).

About half way through the hour (or just when you start the rise, if you think you'll forget), preheat a dutch oven or similar thick oven-safe vessel with a lid in the oven at 450-500F.

Once your dutch oven is preheated, pull it out, remove the cover, and put the dough in seam side up.

NOTE: You're going to forget the dutch oven lid is hot as hell and try to grab it without a mitt. FUCKING DONT!!
IMG_1201.JPG

Cover the dutch oven and bake for ~30 min. Pull it out to see how done the top is, then put it back in uncovered until nicely browned. Depending on your oven temp this might end up being 5 minutes or it might be a half hour. Keep watch.

The end result is so awesome, gorgeous crackly crust and super airy inside, and the amount of actual hands-on time is minimal. Probably not super traditional but makes great bruschetta. FullSizeRender.jpg

[Noteddy]

Credit to Jim Lahey of Sullivan St Bakery for this idiot proof method ....
Mix 430g flour, 1g yeast, 8g salt in a bowl. Add 345g
The end result is so awesome, gorgeous crackly crust and super airy inside, and the amount of actual hands-on time is minimal. Probably not super traditional but makes great bruschetta.

I can vouch this will get you a great loaf of bread. I might slash the top as it goes in the oven to get a little more oven spring. Also, adding more mass to your oven will help as well. Throw your pizza stone or steel in the bottom of the oven if you don't' keep it there all the time anyway.

If you want a more fermented/yeasty flavor try doing your initial rise in the refrigerator and extend it up to 72 hours. Or, just replace a little of the water with beer.

But, this, unmodified will produce a better loaf of bread than 97% of what you can buy. Nice job.

[Bkat]

I keep a batch of this dough in the refrigerator most of the time. Although I've moved away from using the dutch oven. I found that putting the dough on a baking sheet with parchment and then covering it with a metal bowl works just as well.

[dgaddis]

Just baked my first loaf of bread yesterday. We've been watching the Great British Baking Show (SOOOOO good if you haven't seen it!), and I bought Flour Water Salt Yeast. I have zero experience baking prior to this. Used the 'Saturday White Bread' recipe from the book, only I halved it, the wife and I don't need two loafs of bread. 500g flour, 360g water, 10.5ish grams of salt, 1/2 tsp yeast. 5hrs bulk rise, two folds, then another 40mins of proofing after shaping. Baked at 475*F on a thick pizza stone for about 35mins.

Hits :: great flavor, good rise
Miss :: Looks. Had some issues moving the dough to the baking stone, it stuck to my hand really bad and I lost the nice shape I had. I got frustrated and was just like 'EFF IT!!" and more or less threw it onto the stone to get it off my hand. So, it's ugly, but it did taste good. I think it could have proofed a bit more.

We have a stoneware dutch oven, but I wasn't sure if it was big enough. I think it is, so next time I'll try that.

Open to tips!! I don't even know what I don't know yet.

[dgaddis]

Bread attempt #2 was a failure. A 40% whole wheat recipe, didn't get a good rise, and the dough was sooooooo sticky it was nearly impossible to work with. It stuck to the pizza stone too, which was super annoying.
I think the error there was that the stone wasn't fully pre-heated. I put it in the oven, set the oven to 475*F, and when the oven was done heating I immediately put the dough onto the stone - I should have left the oven on for another 20 or 30mins to make sure the stone was up to temp as well. It's a thick Big Green Egg pizza stone. I ate half a slice and through the rest in the trash.

Bread attempt #3 was a hit. Went back to the same recipe as #1, but changed some things around and winged it a bit. To speed up the rise I used warmer water + about an hour in the oven set to 'proofing' (which is about 100*F) in addition to several hours on the counter rising. Total rise time of about 5hrs. Used bread flour instead of all purpose flour - it's like totally different stuff! It absorbs water much more readily, I actually added more water because it was too dry. Much easier to work with, not nearly as sticky. During the rise/proofing it didn't rise nearly as much as I expected, but once in the oven it did great. Got a good rise, nice crust, good flavor, and was able to keep the shaped ball in it's shape since it didn't stick to my hands as much, so it looks a lot prettier. Next time I'll use a little less salt though. Baked for 30mins covered, and another 15ish uncovered at 475*F.

Loaf #3

[dgaddis]

Alrighty, first successful sourdough loaf, made with my own natural levain starter, no store bought yeast.

100g levain (50/25/25 water/whole wheat/white flour)
50g whole wheat flour
400g bread flour
337g water
9g salt

AKA :: 15% whole wheat, 77.4% hydration

Bulk rise at room temp (70*F) for 13hrs, with a few folds in the first 1.5hr
Shaped, and proofed in the refrigerator for 8hrs.
One last hour proofing on the counter this morning while the oven was coming up to temp.
Baked on a thick pizza stone w/a pot over top as a cover. 475*F oven, 45mins covered, 15mins uncovered.

Super happy with how this one turned out. Cutting into it tonight.

[bking]

Dustin, I've been using the same book for a few years now. Good book, really good bread results. Fortunately, I don't make bread that often;)

[dgaddis]

That's good lookin' bread bking!

I made another loaf this weekend, best one yet. Next weekend I'm going to re-do this one again, but in a loaf pan so I can easily use it to make sandwiches.

5% whole wheat, 15% dark rye flour, 80% hydration. Found a stoneware dutch oven under one of the counters and used it, worked well, It's not round though. Also, looking at the crumb, looks like if I had one extra score across the top it would have expanded a bit more - it's a bit dense under the 'square'.

[rwsaunders]

It's always interesting when the biochemistry major comes home from college and asks if he can make a favorite recipe...in this case, egg nog. Not what I'd consider to be a low calorie drink considering the eggs, sugar, milk, cream and Maker's Mark, but light and fluffy nonetheless. If anyone is interested, I can post the recipe as it was pretty simple to brew.

[dgaddis]

Baked another loaf this morning. Tried something a bit new :: proofed overnight in the fridge in a banneton basket w/the linen liner. This morning I put a piece of parchment paper on top of a pizza peel, set it over the basket, and then flipped the whole thing upside down and removed the basket - easy way to get it out without handling it. Then I cut the parchment paper back into a bit of a sling, scored the loaf, and used the sling to lower it into the dutch oven. That all worked well. Next time though i'll make the 'handles' much shorter, where they overlapped the surface of the bread it didn't brown up quite as much. I've yet to get a great 'ear'...I was really happy with the scoring on this one and had high hopes, but it didn't spring quite enough.

I baked this one 'seam side up'. I scored it once across the top, the other two openings opened up on their own. I believe the loaf was over proofed a bit, it didn't spring quite as much as I'd hoped for, and it was a bit uneven. Tastes good though!

20% dark rye, 5% whole wheat, the rest of the flour was all purpose. 75% hydration.

Also, a note - the Wusthof Classic bread knife you see in the background of the last picture is effin' sharp!! Twice now I've cut myself with it, thankfully just a nick this morning while moving it around.

[mnoble485]

Damn Dustin, give me a stick of butter, that loaf and leave me alone!!

Mike

[ericpmoss]

Damn Dustin, give me a stick of butter, that loaf and leave me alone!!

Mike

Indeed! Speaking of butter, what is the current favorite for eating with bread (as opposed to baking)?

My favorite ever was a "farmer's butter" from the Milk Pail grocery in Mountain View, CA -- it was sweet butter, unsalted, and super fresh. Since that's no longer an option, I like Delitia cultured butter or President. What I REALLY want to try is Raymond Blanc's favorite, Beurre Echire AOC Butter.