Thread: Who bakes bread?

Tried this recipe for the first time Yesterday sorry no pics

Did it as a Free standing loaf and it came out exceptional.

Will be messing with it more

http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes/h...artisan-bread/

Originally Posted by Crawler

I'm curious if you folks have similar practices, like that of what we do at work? Do you adjust your oven temperature depending on how long the bread has been in the oven?? Having virtually no experience baking bread in a home kitchen, I have no idea if what we do is a normal practice. Some, but not all, varieties of bread we produce will bake at varying temperatures. This would be a difference of anywhere between 5 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here is my understanding of the principal...
The 1st Third of the baking time: tweaked to impact loaf height/"jump" in the oven. Tweaking the temp lower by 5-15 degrees will make a taller loaf; an increase of that much will help "lock-in" the height of a loaf that may be tall enough already.

The middle Third: is for "doneness". The primary focus here is getting the core temp above food-safe. If the temps vary throughout the bake time, this portion will be as high, or higher* than the other two thirds.
*= A couple of oddballs are of a single temp, until the last third where it is 5 degrees higher.

Final Third: mostly impacts color of the finished product. Obviously, a higher temp makes a darker loaf.

Does that "Bread Maker's Apprentice" discuss this?

Sorry, I'm babbling again lol.

For me it depends on the bread I'm making. For baguettes, I preheat the oven to its max, 500. I use the max heat because I'm going to be opening and closing the oven door in the initial part of the baking to spray water in there to create steam (three good shots of water in 30 second intervals). I will lose oven temp during that time and need the hot oven to get that blast of steam. I leave it at 500 for the first 5-7 minutes then drop it to 450 for the rest. I find that if I bake at 500 all the way through the crust gets too dark before develops a good texture. Other breads I bake at one temp all the way through if I am not in need of steam.

First Dutch Oven Loaf very very happy with the outcome this was the first complete try of the recipe I posted above

When does Chez Glen start taking reservations?

Naan breads, just out of the oven.

I found a recipe for dinner rolls that I really like. They are rich with a nice texture so I started using it to make loaves of bread and today I decided to play a bit. Instead of just unbleached flour I used 50% Whole Wheat (sorry but I just can't do 100% Whole Wheat).

I did have to add a little more liquid but it came out very well. Light, tender, not dense at all and a nice flavor--I'm pleased.

Jealous of all the nice loaves I see coming by in this thread. Although I do get niceish loaves mine never come out really nice.
I an now struggling with 100% wholemeal bread. No additives other than a bit of gluten and wheat malt. The wheat we have here is less gluten rich than American wheat. My wholemeal loaves never rise properly and often collapse during baking.

Any suggestions?

Originally Posted by Kees

Jealous of all the nice loaves I see coming by in this thread. Although I do get niceish loaves mine never come out really nice.
I an now struggling with 100% wholemeal bread. No additives other than a bit of gluten and wheat malt. The wheat we have here is less gluten rich than American wheat. My wholemeal loaves never rise properly and often collapse during baking.

Any suggestions?

Wholegrain can be difficult. Try mixing with more common bread and even pizza flour.
Some bread flour wants to rise and bake in a loaf pan. Some can stand by itself.
Measure. Measuring by weight allows simple ratios.

How much water and flour are you working with.

Aloha!

I bought a bread machine about 20 years ago. I used it constantly for about 2 years. Then gave up. SWMBO never could "get it right" for some reason. I had bread duty. I miss fresh home made bread.

It's just sitting on the island counter in the kitchen. I need to put it back into service. Reading this thread has motivated me to get it up and running again.

Glad I saw the thread. Bread on the way this weekend.

Mahalo!

-Zip

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Wholegrain can be difficult. Try mixing with more common bread and even pizza flour.
Some bread flour wants to rise and bake in a loaf pan. Some can stand by itself.
Measure. Measuring by weight allows simple ratios.

How much water and flour are you working with.

70% water, 1.5% yeast 2% salt 2% gluten and 1% diastatic malt. I have tried a lot of things , last thing I tried is this recipe from my local miller: mix all ingredients for a few minutes only, let dough rise all night to develop gluten, punch down in the morning and then allow to rise again. Did not work very well.
I found this vid that has a few tips that I am going to try this weekend. Looks like my punch down was too aggressive and I left it too long before baking.
https://youtu.be/3jDCV_WMSQw