Bread

Calamata and Oregano BreadSubmitted by Wingnut on May 21, 2013 - 9:12am. 75% Hydro, 20% HG Flour, 3% Whole Wheat Flour Tasty Bread but since my wife wanted something with "a little less big holes" so her mustard wouldn't drip out, I had to add a little HG Flour. Turned out well.Cheers,Wingnut

Kaiser RollsSubmitted by Wingnut on May 21, 2013 - 6:33am. Kaiser Rolls first try. I portioned the dough out to 4 oz and proffed for an hour but not as big as I wanted them, next time.Cheers,Wingnut

@ Floyd, using new TFL formatSubmitted by RobynNZ on May 21, 2013 - 2:36am. Hi FloydWas using Nexus 7 last night when I queried how to report spam & the like. Checking today on  Macbook OS X, Safari, Firefox & Chrome, the 'report' link was indeed present. However on the Nexus on both Firefox & Chrome there is no such link. If I want to report something, I'll use the laptop.Find the contrast somewhat better on the Nexus for scanning 'recent comments' which for me 'til now has been  the best way to enjoy TFL. Unfortunately there is no contrast adjustment on my macbook, but I have cut back brightness in an attempt to make the pale font a bit more legible. Still wondering why pale font is in use....... surely not a fashion thing.Checking out the various browers, was curious to note that the adjustment you made to contrast in the 'recent comments' section in response to Mini O's request only shows up after logging into the site regardless of browser or hardware.The other thing I discovered was that with Firefox there is more information showing, so slightly less of the white space which has also made scanning 'recent comments' hard for me.Regards, Robyn

Almost Whole Wheat Pain de MieSubmitted by varda on May 20, 2013 - 5:04pm. Recently I posted on a bake of Syd's Asian style pain de mie, and Janet commented that she was going to make it with her white whole wheat home milled flour.   I decided to try something similar.    Instead of white whole wheat, I used my golden flour which is home milled hard red whole wheat with some of the bran and some coarse flour sifted out.    I believe the closest official name to this would be high extraction flour, probably around 90%.I followed the original formula with the following changes:-Added a bit more milk in the biga-Used golden flour in the biga and final dough but not the Tang Zhong-Added a bit more milk and egg in the final doughDuring the intensive mix of the final dough, it acted quite different than the original.   It started out with the consistency of pudding, and stayed that way for quite awhile.   I put it in my Bosch Compact at speed 4 and mixed a long time.   Finally, getting bored, I walked away.   When I came back, the dough had changed and started to lighten and come together elastically.    I let it go for awhile longer, and finallly, when it was still spreading out irregularly but was clearly an elasticized mass, stopped.   Possibly 45 minutes?   I'm not sure, as I wasn't watching the clock.  The dough was still more liquid than solid.   When I took the dough off the hook, it poured slowly down, but sheeted out into an impossibly thin membrane without tearing.  When it came time to shape, the dough was not as manageable as the white version, but still shaped fairly nicely.    The surface was bubbling up a bit, which I figured would mean a more open crumb - not the desirable thing for this kind of bread per Syd.   The upshot?   A bread that is just as decadently delicious as its predecessor, with the added whole wheat flavor.   Healthier?   I let you be the judge.The crumb?   Nothing much to look at.  Just whole wheaty sandwichy.But try this with your basic whole wheat sandwich bread:Inadvertently perhaps, I made some changes to the method:  I've been baking a lot of challah so I ended up following times and temps for challah.   In Syd's version bulk ferment is only 30 minutes, and bake temperature is 350 instead of 375.Formula and method: FinalBigaTang ZhongTotalBPGolden100233 33393%KAAP  23237%Sugar40714813%Milk391502321260%Eggs52  5215%Butter33 104312%Yeast21 20.7%Salt4  41.1%Biga442    TZ 58         Total flour357    Total dough717                Heat milk salt sugar butter to almost boiling  Mix in flour     Refrigerate for 16 hours   Mix ingredients for Biga   Refrigerate for 48 hours   Mix all but butter - when ingredients incorporated add butterMix intensively in mixer until dough is very strong Rest 60 minutes    Shape in pieces    Proof until almost soft - then glaze with milk   Bake at 375 for 40 minutes

Flat bread...Please help!Submitted by CB85 on May 20, 2013 - 3:26pm. I am having a really frustrating problem and I hope someone can help. I can only seem to bake flat loaves of bread. They never come close to round...just thick discs. They taste good but this is making me nuts. I am using the basic sourdough recipe from BBA which didn't seem like a terribly high hydration bread. I played around  with the hydration but I stopped that after I kept getting such flat loaves. My crumb is ok...kind of tight. It was better when I was playing with the hydration and increased it, but the lead was still flat. I have been extending the proofing times because the temperature had only been 70 at most. I think I am decent at telling when the dough has doubled now, although I have played around with this too.My two guesses now.Could my starter just be too sluggish? I only feed it once a day and it is active but maybe I am not letting it go long enough? Or too long? Maybe I am kneading incorrectly, or not enough? I have tried my fair share of machine and hand kneading. Today I thought was my best window pane so far, and still flat flat flat!

Am I 'fool proof,' or a 'proofed fool?'Submitted by Crepecrazy on May 20, 2013 - 2:23pm. That remains to be seen. I have always loved baking. Always. Like, ever since I had to stand on a chair to reach the countertop. I can't say that my family was surprised when I eventually went to work in the culinary field. But, I was very surprised when a shattered leg brought my career to a sudden stop. That was in 2008, and I'm embarassed to say how little time I've spent in the kitchen since then. I had lost my passion.Fast-forward two years and I limped back into my kitchen to make cupcakes for a church fundraiser. One dozen a month for a year to be precise. I forgot how much fun I used to have just baking. Skip forward another year, and I took up cycling to further rehab my leg (it's very low impact...except when you fall). With all of the different meetings, campouts and events that our cycling club held, I quickly realized I had willing lab rats who would never dream of turning down any baked goods after a long ride. So, between that, and the number of my cycling friends who have dietary concerns, the mad scientist/baker has awaken.I've begun experimenting with diabetic-friendly and gluten free baking. It's a learning process, for certain, but I've finally got everyone trained to provide useful feedback. I really want to make things that they can eat that actually taste GOOD, and realize I need to better understand what is supposed to be taking place with my regular baking. Having built some of my culinary courage back up, I am delving back into my first love, bread. I baked my first, simple loaf of bread this weekend for my family, and it was a smash hit. I feel rather rusty, and remember it as I go along, but I couldn't believe I managed to forget how relaxing it is to just knead dough.I'm loving this site and community! Lots of great inspiration and information. More than that, I'm loving seeing my passion return. I can't wait to get back in kitchen and try something new.

Tell me about proofing a pan de mie when the lid is closedSubmitted by clazar123 on May 20, 2013 - 1:48pm. I have a thread in which I have asked the best use of an antique pan that is lidded and clamped shut.http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/33440/any-ideas-best-use-panI decided to use it to make my weekly whole wheat but I have never made a pan de mie type bread. Normally, I'd poke my loaf to see when it was proofed and then bake. Well...this pan is designed to be filled on the bottom half and then clamped shut so the loaf rises and shapes into the top half,producing a torpedo shaped loaf.The dough is not accessible once the lid is shut. I just proofed for 15 min,couldn't open the lid and decided to bake. We may have a boat anchor! Is it that when you work with a pullman pan the recipe generally is adapted to the pan? Is there any way I can calculate about how much dough will fill and produce a pleasing (as in not compacted from pressure) crumb?We had a warm front move in and this is the first time since last summer that my kitchen is over 65F (it is actually 84F). I didn't think to make my dough cooler and as a result, they are rising like rockets! That is why I think 15 min was enough proof time. I had another dough made that normally would be about  1 hour behind-giving me time to proof and bake the first loaf but I have it in the refrigerator to retard it a bit.Huge difference in dough behaviour with the increased temp.

Bread businessSubmitted by soph on May 20, 2013 - 12:52pm. Hi everyone!so excited to be here. Hope you can help. I am strongly considering starting a bread store in my community, which is outside NYC. Problem is I don't know where to start. I have an existing on line sweets business so I do bake.  I have also started making bread - not to sell online But just for my enjoyment and for my family to consume and be happy!So I do have some business and baking experience, but not so much with bread. any suggestions as to where I can start my endevor would be greatly greatly appreciated. anything from what book I can read to start a bread baking business, to someone I can speak to, or anything in between. So many thanks soph

BagelsSubmitted by theprudenttart on May 20, 2013 - 10:38am. I tried making bagels, using Peter Reinhart's tutorial on Epicuious. They turned out alright. Next time I would work the seam a bit more. I was wondering if anyone has picked up any other tips to share.Here's the link to what I did step by step: http://theprudenttart.blogspot.com/2013/05/bagels.html

Retarding pizza dough - flour or oil the bag?Submitted by mini_maggie on May 20, 2013 - 7:50am. Have pizza dough made to retard in the fridge for use later tonight - is it better to oil or flour the bag in which it will be resting?    I've oiled it previously with decent results, just curious on opinions if it would be better to flour?  Thanks for any input!