Thread: Who bakes bread?

Nice looking loafs

Originally Posted by cudarunner

So says the man with a recipe for a bread called Challah in the Recipe Box Sticky---------------------------

https://sharprazorpalace.com/plate-g...ml#post1455329

That's right I put it there and it's a great bread and there are zillions of other recipes but what I'm saying is you gotta be adventurous and try your hand at other stuff, blaze new trails.

Just remember every one of those recipes was created by someone who experimented and came up with it. Be that maverick, the creator.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

That's right I put it there and it's a great bread and there are zillions of other recipes but what I'm saying is you gotta be adventurous and try your hand at other stuff, blaze new trails.

Just remember every one of those recipes was created by someone who experimented and came up with it. Be that maverick, the creator.

I'm still working on the simple stuff.

The bread is a sourdough white bread sandwich loaf, baked last night, and
somebody ate half of it before I could get a picture of it.

The sourdough pancakes were made this morning from the bread starter "discards".

Someone once described baking bread as an inexact science but it's more art. It's also very easy. The basics are flour, yeast, salt and water. So you start with different mixes of flours. Start simple with AP and bread then go to whole wheat. Try adding vital gluten. Vary the salt in the mix. Then experiment with some oil and maybe some honey or molasses or eggs. Use your imagination. With basic artisan breads try some herbs of various kinds.

It's all fun and educational.

I live in high altitude country so I have to modify things for them to come out so I'm used to experimenting with all baked goods.

I love my sourdough pancakes and they freeze pretty well.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I live in high altitude country so I have to modify things for them to come out so I'm used to experimenting with all baked goods.

What adjustments do you make?

I have seen suggestions to change the amount of flour. That doesn't make sense with the higher hydration rates used in sourdough.

Increase baking temperature. I am at 450° and don't want to go higher. The seasoning in cast iron skillets starts to go bad around 500°

That leaves using a higher protein flour. Is using 20% whole wheat flour going to suffice?

I don't have much experience using sourdough. Using some whole wheat flour is left over from making artisan breads. I modified the receipt (sorry for the expletive).

Suggestions comments?

Adjustments for high altitude can be complex. The factors you need to address are the amount of leavening agents, (talking in general here not so much bread), amount of sugar, baking temperature, fluid amounts. Each recipe can react differently to these factors so you just have to experiment to decide.

With bread baking dough tends to rise rapidly often times too rapidly so you might want to use less yeast or with sour dough less starter. You might also want to use more salt since salt retards rising in the dough and also in baking the dough can bake too fast and dry out because of the thinner atmosphere. In general with cakes and such you increase baking by 25 degrees and cut the time. Otherwise the cake rises and then falls in so you want it to rise and set faster.

What altitude are you at Splendor?
I’m at about 4500 feet a.s.l. here.
Never considered altitude variances.
Today I made a couple of long loaves that while they looked far enough apart in the stone, clearly were attracted to each other.

Was able to seperate them for the last 10 minutes of the bake.
Ahh well, lil ugly but still tasty. With sesame’ seeds on top. Black and regular..

I'm at 5600 feet.

Usually at 3000 feet high altitude issues start.

I had to look this up and I am at about 909 ft.