/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>5330350
I buy bulk Central Milling flour from a local bakery. Apparently a mill just opened up abut 10 minutes away, though, so I may switch to purchasing from them for local whole grain flours.

>>5330354
It's cool, man. Primary care would be just fine by me. I like longitudinal medicine, and the schedule would allow me to engage some of my entrepreneurial interests.

>>5330360
I'm not really sure what you mean. I think the biggest issue I've seen are people mislabeling the type of bread they're selling. Half the time ciabatta isn't ciabatta, and pain de campagne isn't pain de campagne. In truth, though, I never buy anything other than sandwich bread, so it's been a long time since I've gauged the quality of the artisan bread market here in Los Angeles.

>>5329692
Stretch and fold is, indeed, the key. You'll want a bench scraper and a clean surface for that. You'll also just have to come to terms with the fact that you're going to get really, really messy.

>>5071870
I don't bake a lot of 100% whole grain breads. It's something I'm hoping to move into in the coming weeks. I usually stop at about 80% whole grain, but I'm looking to start incorporating soakers so I can work my way toward a 100% whole grain loaf that still has a great texture.

>>5071918
Don't underestimate the power of high hydration in generating a wide open crumb.

>>5071922
Let's be dirty together, then. The oven spring can be attributed to a number of things, like proper proofing, super hot oven temp (550F + convection for the first 2-4 minutes, then down to 450-475F + convection until done), long preheat times, killer stone for optimal heat transfer, copious steam, etc.

>>5071941
Sounds great. Slow bread is good bread.

>>5018981
No sweat off my back if you don't retard your dough. Doesn't make any difference to me. It does plenty for the dough, though: hydrates the gluten, retards yeast fermentation allowing wheat enzymes to produce flavorful metabolites, improves dough extensibility, etc. There's a reason that places like Tartine retard all their lean doughs. I can understand that you may feel like it's a waste of your time, but to say it doesn't produce a very noticeable result is foolish.

And you're right, there is no reason to let the pizza rest if you're serving the pizza uncut. However, if you're planning on slicing the pizza, then letting it rest to allow the cheese to set will make getting clean slices a million times easier.

I like bread.

>>4690259
As with most skill-based hobbies, the primary component of a great product is just experience. There are a huge number of additional tools that can make things easier or help you achieve a very specific outcome, but they are all negotiable. The fundamental components are the bread ingredients, your hands, a surface, a hot oven, and a surface to bake the bread on.

>>4690301
Yes. Bread can be made with the cheapest of the cheap. High quality flours can result in a better product, but the hobby is pretty flexible on financial input.

>>4690338
The purpose of a baking stone is to deliver immediate heat, and to retain that heat long-term. To that end, thin stones tend to be less effective than thick stones. Equally, the best stones, because they hold on to heat for so long, take forever to get up to temp. With my fibrament stone, I preheat the oven for a minimum of 1 hour once it is up to temp.

>>4677751
I use a combo of high hydration doughs and very hot ovens with copious steam early in the bake cycle. It produces an external crust that almost lifts away from the crumb a bit, which makes it exceptionally crunchy when fresh, then again when toasted after it has staled a bit.

In general smaller loaves, lower hydration, hotter oven temps, longer bakes, and more steam during the bake will produce a crunchier crust.

>>4677868
Okay.

>>4583222
I think the biggest problem with the KAs is that they don't give you a lot of indication that something is wrong. In my experience, they work great all the way up until they just eat it and die. Sometimes, the safety mechanism that prevents overworking or overheating kicks on and the mixer gives itself a time out. In that case you can just wait it out, and the mixer will work the next time you try it. But sometimes, it's toast, and you have to buy a new one.

These days I have the A200 for heavy duty or bulk work (plus meat grinding), and a KitchenAid Professional HD for small batches of higher hydration doughs. It has lasted me 6 years. Unlike the other KAs I've had in that same time period, this one is starting to make grinding noises, which tells me the transmission is probably toast. Time to shop for another small mixer, I think.

>>4088172

Jesus that post is full of spelling errors. I can't believe I used "than" rather than "then", and "weight" rather than "wait". That's embarrassing. Please forgive me for that. I just woke up and haven't had my coffee yet.

>>4025854

I think that depends on what you idea of a good Portuguese roll is! To my knowledge, they are usually lightly sweet, soft, and have a chewy crumb. To achieve this, make sure you have some form of fat in the dough, add sugar/honey, knead to develop sufficient gluten (even in delicate breads this is a key step), and proof appropriately.

>>4025855
It was a very light rye sourdough, filled with flax seed, sunflower seed, walnuts, and pistachios. Crumb pic related.

>>3994794

Aaaaand, the crumb.