/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>5960936
Break it down to weight and it doesn't seem so crazy. Assume 100oz flour. Sourdough starter is usually 50% hydration, so in 90oz starter there is 45oz flour, 45 oz water. Applying that to the rest of the recipe, there is a sum total of 145oz flour and 93oz water, which is a dough that is approximately 64% hydration. That's actually a very reasonable hydration level that is workable to most novice bakers without being ultra dry.

>>5960977
The red hue is the walnut oil turning the white flour purple. For the crust I preheat my oven to 550F for at least an hour once it reaches that temp with a FibraMent stone in the lowest rack position and a cast iron pan on the floor of the oven. When I deliver the loaf to the stone, I drop 1-2 cups of boiling water into the cast iron pan. After about 2 minutes, I drop the temp down to 440-450F until it's a deep brown. I used to bake at higher temps for shorter periods of time, but I found that the crust wasn't quite as crunchy and delicate.

>>5961649
None. I just happened to have a ton of emmer/farro in the car when I dropped by the local mill a month ago, so they milled it into flour for me. It's nice.

>>5851860
I use sourdough most of the time, I just didn't feel like making a sour loaf. I don't think that levain necessarily means "better tasting, higher quality bread." Commercial leavening has its place.

>>5851926
I tried whole wheat when I was first getting into bread. I prefer the real stuff.

>>5852298
I have a local mill that sells a lot of landrace heirloom grains. They usually have bags of freshly-milled spelt and emmer for pretty cheap.

>>5852340
Looks great, as always. Beautiful bloom. I use high extraction flours regularly. When I replenish my stores, I generally buy a 50lb bag of Central Milling's High Mountain flour (the best bread flour I've ever used, bar none) and Type 80 Malted flour (80% extraction with malt added).

>>5852506
>>5852513
Your photos are pretty clear evidence that proofing is an important step to bread baking. Your first loaf looks underproofed, but your second looks dead on.

>>5340662
>>5340667
Looking good, man.

You can control bread expansion by proofing longer, slashing deeper, or slashing more.

60% hydration will produce a relatively fine crumb, even when all other variables are ideal. If you want the big gaping holes and rubbery texture of a bread like ciabatta, you'll need to increase that number to 80% or so.

>>5340991
Refined carbohydrates are not ideal. Bread flour is a refined carbohydrate. With that said, anything in moderation is okay. If white bread makes you happy, then eat it. Just don't down an entire loaf.

If I'm targeting a healthier loaf, I will often rely more heavily on whole grain flours and will add in things like nuts, seeds, grains, and dried fruits. Even then, moderation is key.

>>5056944
I never understood why companies provide J hooks. If you knead lower hydration doughs with a J hook, the dough climbs right up the hook and doesn't get kneaded. It's a total pain. Spiral hooks are the only way to go for bread.

>>5057033
Nice mixer. I used to have an A200, but got tired of the minimum capacity. I've since switched to a Globe SP10. I can still make 8 loaves of bread at a time, but I can also only make 1 if I'm feeling like it. It also keeps a #12 attachment hub, which means I didn't need to swap out my meat grinding gear to a different hub size.

>>5057127
N50s are the best 5 quart mixers out there, in my opinion. With that said, if I were buying a smaller capacity Hobart, it would be a refurbed C100 all the way.

Here's the crumb from last night's bread. I have to say, I'm sold on the diastatic malt. There's no discernible sugar or malt flavor, but the loaf is significantly more sour, and had a much more consistent rise during ferment/proof. It's pretty excellent.

The purple streaks are what walnut oil does to white flour when it's left for enough time.