/ck/ - Food & Cooking

pane toscana con sals

>>4687210
Looks fucking good OP

>>4687220
prove it.

How the fuck do you get fluffy bread??

I make it, but it eventually turns hard.
I've tried people's suggestions, but then it ultimately turns into a bread that has enough fluff to be edible, but still not "artisan" where there are big holes in the bread.

What am I doing wrong?!

What is that shit you put all over all your bread.

>>4687249
Probably everything, getting really nice bread like that takes a lot of practice to achieve consistently.

>>4687262
That'll be flour from the banneton used to keep the loaf from sticking.

>>4687249
Fluffy bread is the result of multiple variables. To make it easier to achieve, use white bread flour, make it high hydration (at least 65%), and knead till windowpane. Bake in a preheated oven that is as hot as it will go on a baking stone with steam. You'll get a nice wide open crumb that way.

>>4687262
It's all semen.

>>4687249
kneading and water content

The biggest problem I have is knowing when it's done baking!

Anyone got any pro tips? I know the old "tap it on the bottom" trick but is there another way without removing it from the oven?

>>4687284
trial and error.. i find i take it out too early, let it go a little longer than looks right

>>4687210
How do I get into baking, anon? I'm so interested.

>>4687237
You said recently. It's almost 1 am in Italy. I don't take photos of my baking, but it was done this morning.

>>4687273
>>4687276

How long do you let the bread rise?

Do you punch it then put it on the stone right away? Or do you let it rise and then slide it onto the stone without letting it reduce in size from it's yeast-rise?

>>4687284
Poke it with a long toothpick or wooden shishkebob stick. If it comes out clean, it's prob. done.

>>4687284
You CAN therm bread, but I don't like punching holes in my bread. I think the target is like 190-200F. I just bake till the crust is dark brown at high temp for lean doughs, and lower temps for enriched doughs. I find that by the time the crust is well-caramelized, the bread is always done all the way through.

>>4687305
Just start. It's super easy to get rolling with really basic bread recipes. Flatbreads are sometimes easier for people to wrap their heads around when they're just getting started, since they can griddle them in a pan and they cook quickly and consistently.

>>4687319
Sure.

>>4687323
I bulk ferment till doubled, shape, then proof till about 1.75x in size. At that point, I gently slide the loaf onto a screaming hot stone and bake at 550F with steam for 2 minutes, then drop down to 475F till the bread is done.

>>4687284
you can get one of those thermometers

>>4687331
does it go directly from the banneton to the oven? what method do you use for steaming?

>>4687363
From the banneton to the peel, then slashed, then to the stone. I pour boiling water into a cast iron pan on the floor of the oven that has been preheating along with the stone.

I wish I was better at baking bread..

Usually make bread once a week because I don't want store bought. They turn out okay but not that great. I don't get any air pockets ever. Maybe It's because I don't use sourdough, idk.

I think the recipe I use is 50g yeast, 1kg wheat flour and 200g whole grain flour. Might be because I use one of these bread pans that I cover with foil because I like the shape it makes, and I don't want a hard crust (I remove the foil for the last 5 or so minutes)

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here. Fuck.
I wish I could do great bread.

Can anyone recommend a good recipe for simple loaf breads and/or one for "artisinal" loafs

>>4687387
you mean pullman bread?

>>4687398
When you say "simple" do you mean fewer ingredients, less work, shorter time, etc... what?

The simplest "bread" is soda bread. It requires little time, little effort, few ingredients and no kneading. I don't personally consider a bread as it contains no yeast, but in the widest use of the term "bread," soda breads most certainly fit the bill.

>>4687416
i mean basic

>>4687402
yeah sort of, except I don't have one of those cover slides. I'm not looking for an artisan type bread, I just want similar pockets to pic related.

also I'm not using a flour with flour treatment or what it's called. So it doesn't help with the rising.

>>4687418
500g flour
3dl water at body temp
25g yeast
knead
rise for an hour or so
bake in oven, 180C for 30 minutes

>>4687428
>25g yeast
>no fats in that recipe
>1 hour of fermentation
>no cold overnight ferment

Have you ever made a milk dough? Ever? Or bread for that matter?

Fuck, 4/10 you got me going a little.

I thought that was a disgusting rotting watermelon by the thumbnail

Yo!

FF, what do you think of those no-knead recipes where you can just pull a chunk off and bake that shit? I'm interested.

>>4687210
My bastard everyday loaf cobbled together from various sources.

>>4687926
looks just like my stuff

>>4687210
That looks like a watermelon got so rotten the puss and maggots spewed the rind open

I would not eat that bread in a million years

>>4688105
Backwards redneck wal mart pleb detected

>>4688105
Here's something a little more your speed.

I don't always bake bread, but when I do, I follow the Victorian milk bread recipe. Not particularly unique, but it gets the job done for events.
This isn't my prettiest bunch, but they were pretty good. I'd like to get back into the artisan breads... maybe I'll have a go on my next day off.

>>4688153

You have to admit the outside looks a lot like a watermelon. Bet it tastes good though.

Recently started making bread too, it's quite addictive. Made this brioche, experimented a lot on the shapes and all. Looked good but tasted like shit cause I messed up a lot of things, but it's actually a bit more edible now that its been sitting for a while.

At first I was terrified because I thought it was a rotten watermelon.

Then I realized it was bread and it immediately became delicious looking.

>>4688940
>tfw cannot unsee rotten watermelon

I've been working on perfecting my sourdough. I don't have any pics, but my last loaf had that perfect crust which cracks all over once it cooled. I currently have a sponge outside in the warm air growing so I can try to duplicate it.

3 years ago, my first sour dough bread was heavy as a brick and twice as hard. Now, my neighbors and family ask me for bread on a weekly basis.

As an extremely novice baker I decided to try something with very few ingredients, so I made Yorkshire pudding with some blueberries chucked in (they were about to go bad) for breakfast.

I overfilled the muffin tin and they came out more like airy popovers, but they still tasted great. I had two with raspberry jam already, fantastic combination.

Girlfriend loved hers too, so hopefully roommate will enjoy it when she wakes up.

>>4687878
The no-knead breads seem to produce really great loaves. I've been really happy with the results of these low-knead doughs, so I can't imagine they're much different.

>>4688105
The good news is that you don't have to eat it.

>>4688960
It's the plight of the capable baker, I think. People don't even ask if I'll bring bread anymore. They just expect it.

>>4688970
Looks like nice bread, but that's a hell of a handful of spices on top. Fennel? Maybe caraway?

>>4689031
mostly caraway yes, and some aniseed. makes the bread so good that i prefer to eat it with nothing but a little butter.

>>4689031
Those are fennel seeds

>>4688960
You're making me want to pick up baking

Here's some "Italian Bread" from Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice.

The few tablespoons of enrichments and the malt powder lend this bread a great looking, dark crust. It's nice and chewy inside and a fun diversion from the sourdough and french loaves I generally make.

My dough

My crust

Crumb shot

>>4689700
those aren't crumbs

>>4689706
>being this new

>>4689696
It looks ill.

>>4689696
looks like the bottom of my feet

oh man this thread makes me want to try making bread
does this require any kind of special equipment? is it a lot of practice to get right?

>>4690259

Technique > equipment.

Baking good bread does require practice. You have to learn how the dough "feels." You have to make mistakes are learn what went wrong. When you've got it down, however, you can whip up loaves of bread with very minimal equipment.

>>4690272
can great breads be made from cheaper ingredients? like if you get a cheaper brand of yeast or something, will the bread reflect it?

>>4690301
The best breads are made of free yeast - the environmental kind.

The problem is that requires some advance planning and diligence to maintain.

When it comes to flour, get the good stuff. It's worth it.

how hot should the baking stone be? does it take about 10 minutes or so to heat up? would it be better to get a thin one for faster heating? or would that burn the bottom?

>>4689706
fucking retard

>>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.

>>4690398
damn 1 hour? i could make less quality stuff in 1 hou- oh....

>>4690398
if i wanted to make different types of bread is that all in the flour? like rye, sourdough, pumpernickel

>>4690405
That is one way, but to be pedantic, sourdough is a method of leavening, and pumpernickel is a kind of rye bread.

Also different flours tend to require different amounts of moisture and fermentation time and whatnot, so you usually can't just replace one flour with another and get good results.

After I started with no-knead bread and high moisture doughs I really never stopped. These days I only make for me and my family that fluffy, crunchy, delicious, earthy sourdough no-knead rye bread we love so much.

>>4690458
Snark incoming:

If your bread is fluffy, it probably doesn't have enough rye in it to warrant being called rye bread. Also:

>earthy

>>4690398
Hey FF have you ever experimented baking in campfires under ashes?
I was thinking what would be the possible effects it would have other than charring the outside (which I would of course remove)

>>4690470
never head natural bread straight from the earth?

>>4690472
I am very interested in wood fire baking (whether in an oven or in a campfire). I have not, however, experimented with it at all. I can't imagine baking directly under coals/ashes would be particularly effective in producing great bread, but certainly in a preheated dutch oven, then covering with charcoals.

Alternatively, you could, in theory, make flatbreads by tossing them directly on top of a nice even bed of coals, then flipping halfway through.

>>4687210

i would fuck the shit out of that bread

great work OP

Boule Beurre masterrace bread.

>>4688960
Thankfully I'm not that good yet. They do expect me to bring a loaf at dinner parties and picnics, though.

i work as an apprentice baker at a sourdough bakery

i like it just fine, but i will probably never find work i really LOVE you know. But i'll probably keep baking for a long time.

>>4690472

There is a British special called "In Search of the Perfect Loaf"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rm55q

The guy and someone else make a loaf as people would have made before ovens, worth a watch.

>>4687249
Sounds like you are killing your yeast before it gets to the oven. Salt kills yeast, don't let salt directly touch the yeast. Mixthe salt into the fflour and then add the yeast. Make sure your yeast is not old. Do not use hot water to make the dough something that feels lukewarm is good.

Another thing is make sure you are mixing your dough enough. Look up the windowpane test for more info.

>>4687210
i once baked some really good bread with 50/50 whole wheat and white flour both organic, came out so good. next, i took the whole loaf of bread and ground it up in the blender until it was the size of bread crumbs (i let it get stale first) and then i mixed it into a second batch of dough and baked the bread again. i repeated this process until i had made breadbreadbreadbreadbreadbreadbreadbread and then i made a sandwich reminiscent of scooby doo with lettuce tomato avocado etc. to my hearts delight


it was good

>>4692559

You so cray.. But really, how does that affect the process of it all?

I just blew the dust off a passed-down breadmaker and threw in a box mix.

Damn that required literally 30 seconds of work and now I'm enjoying 9 grain bread and honey. Tasty.

I need to not buy a box next time, shit was like $3.

>>4693573
For that matter anybody have a favorite 1.5 lb breadmaker recipe?

>>4689517

That guy's name pisses me off.