/ck/ - Food & Cooking

eat the whole thing right now.

>>5520331
Can someone explain the difference in bigas and starters to me and how I get them going?

>>5520338
Seconding.

I made croissants! They had a marzipan, dark chocolate, and marinaded cherry filling. They had the most wonderful layers, and a nice crunch on the outer layers. I dipped them in a rum simple syrup and dredged them in almonds. And the recipe only took like 4 hours to make!
Next time, though, I'll definitely toast the almonds.

>>5520380
Nice job!

crumb shot and second loaf on the rear

>>5520338

a biga is a type of preferment, basically a mixture of flour water and yeast (or starter) you throw together the night before and let ferment for 12 hours or so. it adds flavor to your final bread. you'll mix it into the rest of the recipe.

a starter is a yeast culture that you feed with just water and flour until the natural yeast out competes other bacteria present, which you can then use the started to make bread with its yeast for the leavening.

as for starting a starter, no advice there, i keep putting it off myself :V

soon though..

theres plenty of guides around the internet

>>5520380

this sounds fucking amazing. tell me you live in florida and will bake me some

>>5520411
whats the point in prefermenting just a piece instead of just doing the whole thing like that?

>>5520423
keeping a fermented bit around lets you throw together a loaf with a day or two's notice rather than a fortnight. It won't be as...ripe... as a loaf of entirely sour dough, but it will definitely have an improved flavor and texture.

>>5520440
so if i have started i dont need biga

>>5520445
right, chances are your starter recipe has more developed/better flavor. But again, on short notice, biga will be better than nothing

>>5520460
Ok thanks

>>5520445
Just because you have a sourdough starter doesn't mean every loaf you make should be sourdough. A starter can take on lots of taste/leavening profiles, but it's never exactly the same with a biga/poolish or straight dough.

On that subject, does anyone know if there is a well-defined distinction between biga and poolish? Hamelman has lots of instances where he makes x with poolish then x with biga and none of them really look any different.

>>5520338
>>5520411
The best luck I've had with starting a starter is:
-Take whole rye flour
-Mix with water at 100% hydration
-Let sit 12-16 hours
-Make a new mixture using 50% starter, 100% rye, 100% water.
-Repeat until it rises rather quickly--the typical standard is doubling within 4 or 6 hours, though some people have much more active starters.
-After this you can change your water and starter percentages to fit your needs. Ideal feeding is 2x daily, but I am lazy and usually stick with 1. There are also the times I am lazier than that....luckily mature starters are extremely resilient and come back in a few regular feedings.

>>5520471
Also I made 3 18-oz (0.5 kg) loaves of ciabatta with poolish today. No pictures because I didn't think of it :V

Sunday is bake day.

>>5520471
so do i need to feed it every day forever? do you just keep it out on the counter?

what things should i use biga over starter for?

>>5520519
When I will be using it within the next four days or so, keep it on the counter and feed it regularly. For extended periods of not using it, into the fridge it goes. Four days is plenty (in my experience) to get it back up to activity. I wouldn't recommend leaving it on the counter without feeding for extended periods on purpose, but if you forget it exists for a few days it's not the end of the world (or even the starter).

>>5520554
so fridge without feeding until 4-5 days before using then pull it out and feed daily for 4-5 days prior to using?

>>5520554 here

>>5520519
Bigas are good for a few things. If you decide that you want bread in 16 hours, then you can make a biga right now and have bread in 16 hours. You'll mix some commercial yeast with some flour and water (some salt to retard it if your schedule demands) and it will be ready to leaven in 12 hours. It will be a little tart and very nutty, but retain some of the fragrance of a straight dough (think baguette). A sourdough is a pain to keep in large quantities if you only bake once a week, so it will take a few days' feedings to increase volume to how much you'll need. It can be very tangy if you give it a longer rise--especially if you retard the final dough in the fridge.

>>5520562
What I mean is that if I were to bake twice a week (say Sunday and Wednesday) I would keep the starter on the counter and feed it once/twice a day.

If I were to bake once a week on Sunday (which I do), I leave it out on the counter, neglect it a bit on Monday and Tuesday, then return to regular feedings on Wednesday or so. Yes, keeping it regular would be ideal.

If I were only baking, say, once or twice a month, I would definitely keep it in the fridge up until five days before I bake.

>>5520380
Can you post a recipe? the last one I used was fucked up, ended up nearly burning my kitchen down

>>5520406
>>5520411
Thank you so much!
I'm not in FL, but I can share my source, which I'm sure such gorgeous bakers won't have any trouble with. It's the post by "lazy baker"
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/19699/do-you-know-how-make-excellent-croissants-minimum-effort

Bumping with my go-to bread recipe. Not a sour dough (I made a starter once and it was great, but I'm so lazy!), but it has a great tang. I also make bread cats from it, lol.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/02/sour-cream-sandwich-bread-recipe

>pic isn't my bread cat, but shows how to do it!

>>5520477
Finally took a picture.

>>5520331

That looks magnificent and I am impressed.

>>5523429
did you ever figure out the difference in poolish and biga

>>5523517
No, so I just grabbed my copy of Bread. Looks like (according to Hamelman) poolish is always 100% hydration and biga is a catch-all for pre-ferments.

>>5523813
what does that mean? like 1:1 water flour ratio or til it wont hold any more water?

>>5523832
OP here, the bread i made is made with a poolish. it is 100% hydration meaning equal parts water and flour.

for this particular bread i mixed a poolish of 500g flour and 500g water and a teeny bit of yeast, let it ferment about 12 hours before mixing that into the rest of the dough.

>>5523832
Ah yeah, 1:1. Everything in bread-baking is done by weight, and specifically by baker's percentages. Take the sum of weights of all flours, and that weight is 100%, everything else is measured relative to it. E.g. typical baguette dough might be 100% bread flour, 65-70% water, 2% salt, 1.2% yeast.

>>5523845
is the ratio the same for the rest of the dough

>>5523861
Almost certainly not. 100% hydration doughs are really unworkable, probably more around 70% range.

I've recently been having trouble getting my breads to rise when baking. My yeast is good, I don't use too hot or cold water, I don't do anything I don't normally do and now it's not working..

What do?

Also, how do I get a big ass loaf like in the OP, using a free-form shape I mean? I use my bread pan a lot because I like the shape of the loaf afterwords and usually use it for sandwiches and the like.

One last question, whats the best what to get a big thick crunchy hard crust?

>>5525351
>get a big thick crunchy hard crust?

humidity in the oven.

>>5523861
No, for this dough the poolish contains 500g of flour and water (and the small amount of yeast)

when the poolish is ready its added to 500 more grams of flour and an additional 250g of water (and salt and a bit more yeast), making the total hydration 75%

>baking your bread round as a bun
What, are you some sort of pervert?

Why are you niggers so good at baking bread holy shit.

>>5525466
I have admittedly described working with dough as "sexy" many times.

>>5525471
because its cheap as fuck to make. 7$ gets you a 25lb bag of flour.

>>5525478
I just wind up making shitty tortillas, it's difficult mane.

>>5525466
>what is boule

>>5525478
That is....not the case. Not where I am anyway. Can't find 25# bags apart from Amazon, and 5# bags are about $3.something. For flour that's not shit, anyway.

>>5525491
i live in CO and our grocers carry 25lb sacks all the time. were big into baked goods up here.

bump