Bread baking

[mike383838]

Gas mark 8 is about 234 Deg C so no where near 140....

I always get the oven and terracotta stone to 250 Deg at start then in goes bread, water for steam and immediately turn down to 200 for the first 10 mins. Vent stream out at this point and depending on how soft I want the crust I then turn down to 180-160. Learnt this from a full time bread baker. I like my bread really cooked so I prefer 180. If I reheat bread a day later I give it 15 mins at 150-160 deg to get that "just baked" finish. Works great for me. I would only bake at 140 for longer if I wanted to re-bake the bread later as it makes the bread very soft for my liking with no caramelised crust. Each to there own of course. Bakers always cook hot to start from my experience. I might try a slow long bake just to see if it has any benefits, say 140 for 45mins, just so I can be more specific on why I don't do it. LOL If I baked one of my loaves for 30mins at 140 it would simply not be cooked through so I'm not sure how that works for you.

Edit:-

Sounds to me like you have not proved the bread enough if crust is too thick at end of bake with high temps. One fallacy in relation to bread proving is that it should double in size. In the bakery there is some rise at proving time but not double like the books say. Proving should not be too warm or you get the yeast tired for the oven rise. As one baker told me after resting the mix for two hours it should only be handled with the force no more than a hand on a woman's chest :) Shaping the dough should be done with patience and resting the dough each time so as not the break the gluten strands. I prove at room temp with high humidity for 3 hours for sour dough and only after the yeast has fully activated and the dough can perform the window pane or putty test, then I know its ready for shaping and proving. The secret is not exausting the yeast before the oven bloom, and that's an amazing site for a bread baker. I wish I could explain this better, maybe I will do a youtube so you can see exactly what I mean by this.

 

[evanvine]

I hear all you say Mike, and must bow down to your experience!
I am getting very consistant, soft golden crust and the bread cooked through.
I think maybe it's time to start experimenting!
Would be very interested in having the URL for the "Bread Baker" site you quoted.

Jim

 

[theboytony]

How come the recipe books tell you to bake bread at 200C for 30 mins?
My bread always came out a very dark brown!
Have great success at 140C for 30 mins + steam.

How are you measuring your oven temperature?

 

[evanvine]

How are you measuring your oven temperature?

]

 

[mike383838]

Don't worry, they took me away a long time ago. :)

I wonder if you check the calibration on that thing will it tell the truth. Is that a gas oven?

I would love to give you a good bread bakers site but alas the real bakers require coercing to reveal their secrets and they are a dying breed in the UK. I stole my method by annoying the old bakers till they told me the secrets just to get rid of me. So unfortunately even the YouTube videos never really helped me to master the bread technique, I had to learn by 1.5 years of trial and error and a tonne of flour in the bin :) and the small training I could steal from these experts. They really do treat the bread like its alive. The way they talk about it is eccentric and really made me wonder if they all maybe a little mad, LOL, very volatile and can go off at the smallest stress. In Germany its a big big trade. Here we get it all from mass producers, horrible stuff really. That's why I make my own.

 

[graysalchemy]

Well I baked my usual sourdough this weekend and had probably my best loaves to date. I had decided to drop my temps from blistering 240c which i have been using down to about 200c. I preheated at 240c with the stone in, when up to temp i then put the loaves in with steam then dropped the temp to 200c and baked for 50 mins, then turned the oven off and left them in with the door open for 10 mins then took out and cooled.

They have quite good crumb tasty chew crust ( not the hard as rock I usually get) They also didn't spew out as they have been doing and were not full of mouse holes ( bloody big holes). My only complaint was that they were quite flat which i think is due to them being quite high 70% and my proving baskets being to wide.

Anyway my kids enjoyed it even the youngest who had been waning in his appreciation of my bread. :lol: :lol:

 

[graysalchemy]

Would be very interested in having the URL for the "Bread Baker" site you quoted.

I have been on The fresh Loaf also wild yeast and Breadcetera

But the more I read about it everyone has there own way of baking and everyone is different what works for one person may not work for another, and some peoples advice contradicts someone else's.

Just like brewing really :lol: :lol:

 

[evanvine]

But the more I read about it everyone has there own way of baking and everyone is different what works for one person may not work for another, and some peoples advice contradicts someone else's.

I now have a whole new learning curve to contend with!
We are changing from fan assisted electric to a gas oven. :shock:

 

[rich27500]

Plea tell me you are not buying a leisure gas oven

 

[Robbo100]

Hi all

I hope no one minds me (a new comer to the forum) posting on this long established thread.

My sister writes a food blog primarily about making bread. I though that some of you on this thread might find her recipes useful. She has recently moved from the UK to Australia so hasn't posted much in recent months, but will be picking it up again in the near future.

http://breadfortheboys.wordpress.com/

I hope it is useful.

Robbo100

 

[graysalchemy]

I have book marked it thanks :thumb:

 

[evanvine]

Plea tell me you are not buying a leisure gas oven

God knows what a "leisure gas oven" is?
She has opted for the Cannon Carrick!

 

[rich27500]

Made by leisure (beko) we bought a leisure gourmet classic three years ago in a sale for £600 it looked fabulous but was the biggest piece of **** ever. We complained and got nowhere (kept sending engineers out who said it worked) but it would not cook I.e. if you did two pizzas the one on top cooked and the other stayed virtually raw. Swmbo makes loads of cakes and we bought specifically for that, the cakes didn't cook and the large tins didn't fit. we just thought that paying a reasonable amount meant a decent product. My advice would be to read all the reviews before buying, we offloaded the leisure on eBay for £100 with an honest description of this is rubbish but the hob is ok. Now we have a hotpoint electric fan oven which cost a third less and works 100% better.

 

[evanvine]

Made by leisure (beko) we bought a leisure gourmet classic three years ago in a sale for £600 it looked fabulous but was the biggest piece of **** ever. We complained and got nowhere (kept sending engineers out who said it worked) but it would not cook I.e. if you did two pizzas the one on top cooked and the other stayed virtually raw. Swmbo makes loads of cakes and we bought specifically for that, the cakes didn't cook and the large tins didn't fit. we just thought that paying a reasonable amount meant a decent product. My advice would be to read all the reviews before buying, we offloaded the leisure on eBay for £100 with an honest description of this is rubbish but the hob is ok. Now we have a hotpoint electric fan oven which cost a third less and works 100% better.

Damn, we all drop a bollock now and then!

 

[Frogfurlong]

Damn, we all drop a bollock now and then!

This is why I like this forum, not only do folk share success but folk are willing to own up to mistakes and share it with the team so it can act as a warning to others.

 

[rich27500]

One scary fact is that which reviewed this oven as good product.

Anyway sorry for hijacking the thread, loving all the bread baking stuff. I've learned a lot.

 

[Duxuk]

I used to use a breadmaker and made some nice bread. Just as AG is better than kits or extract brews, so is making bread from scratch.
The easy way is to get a big mixer like a Kenwood or Kitchen Aid which will come with a dough hook. Just put some breadmaking flour in the bowl and add some salt and a little oil. Put some warm water in a jug with half a teaspoon of sugar and put a sachet of yeast in. When you see a little activity after a few minutes you add the liquid to the bowl with the mixer rotating slowly. After a few minutes you just take the hook out and leave it in a warm place whilst the dough rises to at least twice it's size.
Make the loaves or rolls of your choice and leave those to rise to twice the size again. If you are making pizzas just roll out and add the toppings.
Put them in the oven at 200 celcius until done. (25 minutes or so.)

Of course you produce a little alcohol during the rising but probably evaporate it during cooking. Bread yeast is designed to produce lots of CO2 so is not great for beer.

Moved to more appropriate thread. 16/01/13 Mod Team.

 

[graysalchemy]

I have religiously made sourdough bread from scratch every weekend for 2 months now, you can't beat the taste and satisfaction of making it and seeing the kids enjoying something other than what comes sliced in a bag. :lol:

 

[BIGJIM72]

Was bequeathed a cheapie Kenwood breadmaker. Results are a bit random but when it's good it's very,very good.
I seem to get most joy when leaving the thing on overnight on the timer.

 

[BIGJIM72]

Have you tried making an ale barm?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/food/2011/07 ... y-of.shtml