/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[FF No.4853735]

Bread thread.

Have some red potato and roasted garlic sourdough bulk fermenting right now. Anyone bake anything good recently? Any bread questions?

Pic not related: it's another kind of bread.

[Anonymous No.4853749]

Yo WAY Yo

[Anonymous No.4853752]

I made some whole-wheat pita bread a few days ago. I was disappointed because, while they taste fine, they didn't end up with pockets of air inside. I had to wrap my falafel instead of tucking it into the pita pocket. Could this have been caused by the fact that I only used whole wheat flour, or did I screw something else up?

[Anonymous No.4853753]

Too hot to bake bread in the desert right now.

[FF No.4853757]

>>4853752
Getting that air pocket is touchy. I've found that the real trick is to cook them on a ripping hot stone in the oven so that the moisture evaporation creates a big consistent pocket. Once you've practiced it a few times, you can get that pocket with both low and high hydration pita recipes pretty consistently.

[Anonymous No.4853766]

>>4853757

I see. I'm googling a bit now and it seems that I was supposed to let them rise individually before putting in the oven, which I failed to do. How long do you think they need?

[Anonymous No.4853801]

>>4853752
look for chef johns pita video
tried them once with his recipe and instructions, and 6 of the 8 pitas popped perfectly

[cc No.4853830]

I saw a package of gluten something or other I remember you talking about last year or early this year. would you recommend it? ive been working on getting chewy and airy crumbs with my sd and can accomplish similar open airy crumb with just ap flour but its been a while since i used whole wheat flour or and grains and want experiment with that and that gluten stuff

[FF No.4854001]

>>4853766
I can't say I ever proof my pitas. Mostly just rolled out and then straight into a blistering hot oven. I'm sure proofing would be fine, though. A proof of 20-30 minutes should be sufficient for such a thin bread.

>>4853830
I do use vital wheat gluten from time to time. Mostly when using flours that don't have much gluten content, like rye, oatmeal, quinoa, etc. It helps support a little more oven rise, but it won't give you the open crumb structure you're looking for. There's almost no way to get that sort of crumb structure with a bread that is heavy on the whole grain flour, since the bran gets in the way of gluten formation. Adding more gluten isn't going to solve that fundamental problem.

[Anonymous No.4855497]

I tried making baguette just a few days ago, the crust was fine, but it was too compact inside and i don't really know what i've done wrong.
I made a starter, letting it sit for 16h.
Then i added the starter to the actual dough, kneaded it through thoroughly and let it sit (in the fridge) for about 30h.
I carefully loosened the dough out of the bowl, partet and formed them into three baguettes and let them sit for 45mins.
Baked them with boiling water at 230°C for 25mins.
What the hell happened?
I used fresh yeast btw.

[Anonymous No.4855515]

>>4853735
the top of my bread looks funny i can never get my forming right

[FF No.4856513]

>>4855497
Hard to say. I can't diagnose the problem for you without knowing how much yeast you used, how much water you used, etc.

>>4855515
Then bake smaller loaves so you can practice shaping multiple times every batch. Practice makes perfect.

[Anonymous No.4856721]

>>4853757
is that acme whole wheat walnut

i lived off of that for months and i felt great

[Anonymous No.4857347]

Focaccia I made this morning.

[FF No.4857474]

>>4856721
It's a walnut pain au levain I make fairly frequently. For that particular bread I added a handful of flax seeds, too. I've never had any Acme breads, but they look good.

>>4857347
It looks like you needed to make the dough wetter, and maybe proof it longer. I also tend to prefer my focaccias to be cooked swimming in olive oil and covered with a very liberal handful of coarse sea salt. It makes the crust more crispy and gives the whole loaf a really nice color.

[Anonymous No.4857494]

I made some loafs of whole wheat honey bread recently. They were a bit mishapen, but light and fluffy on the inside and delicious.

[Anonymous No.4857507]

>>4853757
This looks so good, I wish I liked nuts.

[Anonymous No.4857512]

tips or advice for someone who has never made bread before?

[Anonymous No.4857513]

>>4857494
that looks pretty dense judging by the scorind not expanding but it looks like it might have split on the side, you gotta work on getting a better, springy and tight loaf before letting it rise. also needs another 10 or so mins in the oven

[Anonymous No.4857545]

>>4853735
Fuckflour, where do you live? I'd like to seduce you some day for some of that bread.

[FF No.4858167]

>>4857507
Nuts take on a pretty different character in a loaf of bread. Walnuts, especially. They become softer and sweeter, which is part of why I like putting them in sourdough loaves so much. They help to balance the tartness.

>>4857512
Just get started! It's all about practice and experience. Pick a simple recipe (read: one with only flour, water, salt, and yeast), and start getting a feel for each of the steps. In general, you'll want to make sure any recipe includes mix, ferment, shape, proof, slash, and bake steps. Otherwise, just have fun. The no-knead recipes are great because they are easy, and they teach a valuable bread lesson: it's all about taking your time. You can mix flour, salt, and water together to a mixture that you like, then add however much (or little) yeast you like. So long as your'e willing to wait till the dough reaches the appropriate volume for each of the steps, it's still going to make rocking bread (which is why the no-kneads take 18+ hours, while many other recipes only take 4).

>>4857545
Los Angeles.

[Anonymous No.4858330]

>>4858167
thanks for the tips! i've heard good things about no-knead recipes, particularly one printed in the NY Times a while back. could you go in depth about the kinds of flours and yeasts i should look for when i go to the grocery store for supplies?

[FF No.4858953]

>>4858330
You should be looking for a high protein bread flour. I don't know where you live, but in the states King Arthur bread flour can be found pretty easily in most major supermarkets. It's high protein, plus it's unbleached and unbromated. It's, in my opinion, the best brand readily available at the retail level.

Yeast doesn't matter a whole lot. Instant yeast, active dry yeast, fresh cake yeast...it's all good.

[Anonymous No.4858979]

Attempted ciabatta for the second time. Its difficult to shape dough so wet, so I kinda just hacked off a piece, proofed it and baked it.

[Anonymous No.4858985]

>>4858979

crumb

[Anonymous No.4858993]

>>4858985
dat braed porn.

[FF No.4859009]

>>4858979
>>4858985
Looks great to me. Ciabatta can be a bitch to shape, to be sure. I've had the best luck handling it after a quick 20-30 minute autolyse, followed by a bulk retard in the fridge.

[Anonymous No.4859286]

>>4857513
The scoring I made extremely deep, perhaps too much so. It was not so dense inside, about the same as commercial whole wheat bread. although more crumbly.

[Anonymous No.4859528]

Who high altitude here

Commiserate with me

[Anonymous No.4859588]

>>4859528
Yeah me too.

[Anonymous No.4859836]

>>4859286
hey after over 4 years of making awesome bread, I still cant get scoring right. no matter how quick and steady, sharp or serrated, the blade always drags the dough with it.

well not always but really only when goiing hi-hydro which probably doesn't need a scoring to begin with

[Anonymous No.4859856]

>>4859836
Have you tried scalpel/ razor blade?

[Anonymous No.4860068]

>>4859836

I use a double sided shaving razor hot glued to a chop stick. Works fine for me, I wouldn't want to use anything less sharp than that though.

[Anonymous No.4860087]

>>4860068
That's a good idea.

[FF No.4860121]

>>4859836
There are a lot of tricks to getting a good bloom in the oven. What sort of scoring do you want to achieve?

[Anonymous No.4860178]

>>4860121
they tend to come out flat but stil with an open crumb so i might just stick to not scoring my wetter loaves. dryer doughs score similar to yours, i just need to get myself one or four of those baskets

>>4860068
i have a safety razor taped to a couple toothpicks that are taped together as a handle. sounds stupid but works fine and it doesnt wiggle or nothing, feels real solid.

[FF No.4860191]

>>4860178
Wetter loaves often collapse after scoring and before oven spring. It's very hard to get a big bloom on a very wet dough. What sort of hydration are you talking about? I can get big open blooms on everything up to about 70%. Beyond that, it's hit or miss.

[Anonymous No.4860212]

>>4860191
i eyeball everything so no clue, i just feel it out. i find that if it feels like a bag of water as i knead, i shouldnt score it.

a good scale is definitely in my future but ive been posting scale recommendation threads for 4 years and still havent got one

[Anonymous No.4860220]

Ciabatta I made a couple weeks ago

[Anonymous No.4860222]

First time making brioche buns last week

[Anonymous No.4860224]

>>4860220
>>4860222
And focaccia

[Anonymous No.4860507]

>>4853735
I...i love you
your breads are fucking awesome

[Anonymous No.4860684]

>>4860224
we need crumb shots mayne