/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>5327203
Yikes. Hard to remember. It was probably pretty light rye based on the looks of the loaf. I'd guess something like 100% flour (80/20 bread/rye), 90% sourdough starter, 65% water, 3% salt.

>>5327207
I wish. I could do that.

>>5327208
I never knead by hand unless I have to. I use a Globe SP10 mixer, though I used to use a Hobart A200 for big batches in the past. The problem with residential mixers is they all break. It's just a matter of time. I've gone through probably 3 Kitchenaids in the last 5 years. They never last. That's why I finally downsized from the A200 to the SP10: a 10 quart mixer is just about perfect for my needs.

>>5327213
I did, but I haven't had much chance to read through it. It looks great, though, from my first cursory read through. I'm glad it finally came out. Got tired of getting e-mails from Amazon telling me that it was being delayed again.

>>4749006
There are some things that are gravely incorrect about this bread recipe.

>>4748948
It would be near impossible to make a bread dough out of white wheat flour that would work for rolls, cinnamon buns, pizza, or loaves. You can certainly make a single dough that would knock it out of the park for rolls, pizza, and/or loaves, and you could make a single dough that would work for rolls and cinnamon buns, but doing it all in one is going to be very difficult. Most cinnamon buns are made with a variant on the brioche method, which means they use an enriched dough that is filled with some form of fat (egg yolks and butter, commonly). This fat is antithetical to pizza and artisan bread, since it prevents gluten formation and a strong oven spring. Equally, if you tried to make cinnamon rolls from a lean dough, like the one you'd use for pizza and artisan bread, you'd wind up with a very tough, very chewy cinnamon roll. Dinner rolls are kind of the odd-ball, since they can be made chewy and crusty like an artisan loaf, or soft and delicate like a cinnamon roll. It sounds like it would be best for you to make two different kinds of basic doughs. Just be sure to freeze after bulk ferment.

Rye flour has very low gluten content, and the gluten that it does have is relatively short and less likely to stabilize the air-dough interface that is generated during oven spring. This is why the dough is like mud, rather than an elastic mass like white flour doughs. It is also why it is so fragile after proofing.


Either add in some gluten or cut your rye flour percentage down so you can include high-gluten bread flour. It will give you a better rise and a lighter crumb.

>>4241733
There are a few tricks to getting a good oven spring.

1. Make sure to work enough gluten into the dough. Gluten supports a rapid oven spring and stabilizes it.
2. Make sure not to use any fat in your dough recipe. Fat is more surface active than protein, and will move to the interface of air/dough more rapidly. Unfortunately, fat cannot form intermolecular bonds, so you don't get any volume stabilization.
3. A more highly hydrated dough will rise more than a drier dough due to increased steam production.
4. Don't over or underproof your dough. Underproofing won't allow sufficient seed air bubble formation. Without seed bubbles, there is no cavity into which steam and gasses can be injected, thereby reducing dough expansion. Overproofing will weaken the structure of your dough and increase the likelihood of collapse during baking.

>>4096711

This book is really exceptional.

>>4026032

There are a million and one kinds of brioche, but the most classic French brioches tend to be less delicate and more like a sandwich loaf. Challah might be more up your alley, since it tends to have a crumb more like your photo.

For a fluffy/soft bread, try this: 100% flour (95 bread/5 whole wheat), 40% water, 20% buttermilk, 3% oil, 2% salt, and 0.8% yeast. It's a lot like my formula in >>4025868, but geared more toward a softer and more delicate crumb. It makes really killer rolls.

I did go to culinary school and I did work in the industry for a while. The real education came from my food chemistry undergrad, where I spent a lot of time in a cereal chemistry lab, working on bread. Before medical school, I did a fair bit of consulting for medium to large-format bakeries, as well. Nowadays, I bake 6 loaves a week, sell 5, and keep 1 for the wife and 1.

>>4026036
What do you mean by fillings? I do experiment with spiced breads every now and then. A couple weeks back I made a fennel and mustard seed artisan loaf that was OK. Needed more spices, to be sure, since the flavor was lacking. I also make a saffron bread from time to time.

>>4008380

That's not sufficiently acidic to cause problems, would be my guess. By the time your starter is fully colonized with lactic acid bacteria, it will become far more acidic than 6.5 when fully activated and ready for baking.

Are you seeing any activity? Is it rising at all? What's the ambient temp where you keep your starter?

>>3863638
Different strokes for different folks. They are entitled to their own opinion. I'm not sure why that justifies them shitting on this thread, but it's cool. I'm a big boy and can handle it.

>>3863647
Thanks! I don't jive on the whole "secret process" thing, so I'm excited to share how I make my bread.

>>3863661
That, my friend, is a beautiful, beautiful loaf. Do you have a formulation for it? Baker's percentages would be preferred.