The Home Made Bread Thread

http://www.artisanbakers.com/percentage.html

Excellent!! Since I'm a beginner I might as well develop good habits from the start.

I just want to spend some time perfecting a loaf of plain bread. Might experiment with varieties much later. But I'd just love to get the skills down to do that basic loaf well whenever/whereever I happen to want to.

It's a great tool. Esp. when used metric since it makes so much more sense than American. We're all metric at the bakery, and wouldn't consider switching. Bakers percentage allows you to keep things in check. The most important being salt which should always be 2-2.2%. That's a pretty hard and fast rule that should be followed. There are times when it may be different, like our olive bread for example is less than that, but that's because of the olives. Right around 2% of the total flour weight (including pre-ferments!!!) is perfect for flavor and controlling fermentation.

going to start simple with the no knead type and see what happens.
My mum use to make fresh bread when I was growing up and that smell of the kitchen is like a time machine!

... and fresh sizzling bacon. Just can't top the basics sometimes.

This looks like one of the best loaves of bread I have seen. GREAT WORK

Great thread. I've been making bread for a long time but only recently started using a levain. It's a lot different than using regular yeast.

Finally made a great baguette this weekend after temporarily giving up on some of the varieties of doorstops I have been making. I'm guessing that since I am used to a dough that is a lot drier, I am not using enough water in the dough.

I would venture to guess that 99% of the bread made at home could have alot more water in the dough. Pretty much if it's not pretty sloppy after mixing, you can get away with adding more. Watch that video on folding to get an idea of what needs to be done. Just don't beat the hell out of it. It really doesn't need much man handling at that stage. A simple fold over onto itself and you're done. key is plenty of fermentation time to give time between folds for a rest.

Thanks. We just had some professional pictures done, so I enjoy showing them off. This photographer did a GREAT job with our products!

I love this one of that bread coming out of the oven from above

nice pics!
Bread is doing whatever it does for 12-18 hours. only thing there is no where in my house that is 70degrees so I wrapped the bowl and put it in the oven (off of course) to see if that helps keep it at a constant temp or as close as I can get this time of year. was a rush throw it together when I got home so I forgot the pics, will take some tomorrow when I see if it raised up or not

Great. I'd love to see what it looks like tomorrow! Take some pictures of your process as you go along if you can.

How do you feel about the pan o' hot water in the stove to keep the temps up for rising/proof/etc >?


I've been leaving it in for the actual baking too, as my house induces nosebleeds with it's level of non-humidity.

That's hard to answer without knowing the temperature, and what you're trying to achieve. We keep the bakery 75F year round, and our mixing window is 75-77. Generally, bread fermented in mid/high 70's is best for control and flavor. Just warm enough, but not too warm.

Humidity in the oven is crucial for expansion of the final loaf. Without it, you get alot of busting out all over, and you won't achieve correct volume. I don't have much experience baking at home unfortunately. Any humidity you can get into the oven in the first 15min or so would be a good thing!

The no-knead method as well as Chad Robertsons method described in Tartine use a covered dutch oven. That seems like a great technique to me. What is going to happen is all the moisture being driven off from baking will be trapped in the pot, and steam the bread. You'll need to take top off towards the end of the bake to drive off that moisture so you get a crust, and it obviously only works for round loaves.

In the house, generally around 70. The heat pump does pretty well at keeping that within a degree or three. Differences in rise time outside of the oven and inside with a pan of hot water is about 2:1. That's for a double volume.

My oven should be shot and then buried at sea. It's a travesty.

I don't have a dutch anything at the moment. I'll give it a try once I do though. I'm going to try some dark bread this weekend.

my house is about 62-66, what can I say I am too cheap to heat the place.

will snap a pic when I remove the wrap this evening, got to dig out the big dish with lid for this one. But you could always use foil I imagine just making sure it is tight around the pot.

I live in an apt, and it's surprisingly well insulated. I keep it about 65 in the summers, usually for less than $50(us) a month.

It seems to double in winter no matter what I do, so I go ahead and jack it up.

That is a great shot!

If you need a warmer spot to rise, put it in the oven and turn the light on inside. You may need to crack the door open a bit to keep the heat down. My oven has a 40w bulb in it that really throws off some heat.

Ok, my latest attempt based on my 'simplified' recipe was bust. It made one heck of a good doorstop for the rest of the winter.

I read the reviews on "bread alone" and then went to the library and read some of it and was not encouraged.

Some more research garnered huge support for this one..


It was out but I reserved it when it returns.

Jim.. you mention fermentation, moist dough, and dutch ovens (for those of us that don't have humidity controlled bakery ovens).

Can you share a recipe for basic crusty aromatic italian peasant bread?

And my aplogies in advance to you for ever suggesting that this was so damn easy. I must have just gotten really lucky the first time.

My second attempt at no-knead bread, after a long hiatus:

Verdict: Not bad. Decent crust, if a little thin. Nice flavor, good crumb. Certainly a huge improvement over the first one that I baked on Tuesday night, which could be used for a hockey puck. I think I used rye flour in that one, and did not add enough water.

On this one, the dough came out a little too sticky... I'll have to try a tad less water next time around. Also, for some reason the top crust has a very glossy look to it Finally, and this has been true of all of my breads baked in a dutch oven, none of them seem to rise very much or exhibit much oven spring. I'm not sure why that is -- I certainly would like them to have a slightly less flattened shape.

I don't know anything about that book. Sorry.

I should note that I don't have any experience with the dutch oven, other than that one time I plopped some dough into it and was impressed. Both of the bakers (unlike many, these two ARE bakers first, authors second-important distinction) recommend them, and in theory at least the concept is sound.

Ideally, you'd use a pizza stone, thicker the better, preheat your oven as hot as it'll go for an hour and find a way to introduce steam. The dutch oven seems to address that. Keep in mind the dutch oven must be preheated as well, and a few minutes isn't good enough. Put it in your oven. Turn it on as hot as it'll go and forget about it for an hour.