Bread baking

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Hi. Newbie here, pointed to this thread by GA.

I've been baking for a couple of years, often pizzas and flatbreads flavoured with whatever takes my fancy, but my mainstay's a sourdough I bake once or twice a week, depending on whether the kids are for or against it. Which varies.

I raised the starter - often referred to as The Blob - from half and half rye and wholemeal, and have kept it going for about 18months, but now feed it 1/4 wholemeal to 3/4 plain, mainly for convenience when I found I kept running out of rye.

I feed it whenever I bake and keep it in the fridge, and it's gone without feeding for a fortnight a couple of times without complaints.

Prompted by GA, here's a link to a pic of Tuesday's loaf:
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I use the 'sponge' technique I found at 'hugh fearnley-whittingstall C4 sourdough' ( I tried to link, but the forum robot said I was being spammy. Impertinent.

Half The Blob gets mixed with a couple of handfuls of wholemeal bread flour and left for a few hours (or overnight, or a couple of days if I forget about it). I've found this step loosens the wholemeal up better when it comes to kneading and really gets the yeasts going. The Blob gets fed and shoved back in the fridge for the safety of humanity.

Then I add white bread flour and 500 ml water, knead until it starts making 'plffp' noises and leave overnight (or a couple of days if I... etc.)

Next day I knock it down, shape and flour it, and leave it from 3/4 to a couple of hours depending on what I'm up to.

I then cut it across the top to let it expand, and shove it in the oven, pre-heated to max (which our thermostat says is 250C, though I don't trust it), over a tray of steam created by pouring some boiling water into the oven tray for a nice crust.

10-15 minutes at max temp (or 20, or 30 if I...etc), then down to 220C for 50-120 mins (if I etc...)

Out, left an hour, and enjoyed!

I've never had less than delicious bread from it, though depending on whether I...etc., it's been flat and/or with a half inch crust. As you can tell, it's a very forgiving process for the short of memory, and once you're in the swing of it, more convenient than baker's yeast baking, because each stage only take 10 mins and you can leave it pretty much as long as you want.

Following the same process and starter, I've made loafs with rye, wholemeal, spelt, granary in varying and probably unrepeatable proportions (limitations of memory again...), caraway, poppy seed, and chilli powder. I particularly recommend using spelt - makes a great loaf with a lovely nutty taste.

I have made it all-white, which has a great texture and nice taste, but I do like a bit of nuttiness in there.

Looking forward to reading about your baking tales...
 
I like the sound of this lower maintenance version... :thumb:

Never done a starter as worried about having to use it all the time blah blah blah, but this seems to fit in nicely.. Hoping to move house in a couple of months so maybe time to start a 'blob' :thumb:
 
I will be baking on saturday so I will takes some photo's as long as its not a disaster. It will have to be a granary as my white tends to be a disaster these days :evil: :evil:
 
@ Hawks.

I don't know whether it's the fact that I gradually changed The Blob's regular food from rye/wholemeal to wholemeal/plain, or that I have always kept it in the fridge, or that it learnt to deal with hunger when I forgot to feed it a couple of times - treat it mean to keep it keen seems the way to deal with The Blob - but it's proved resilient. I froze some and sent it to my sister, who fed it up and now uses The Blob's offspring to make her own versions.

Nice to keep it in the family.

It took me a good few attempts to get my loaves looking good, but they always tasted good, so I kept persisting. Now I don't bother measuring anything - because I hand knead, I can feel if the dough could do with a bit more water or flour. Shaping it tightly before proving takes a while to get to grips with, but makes a big difference to the rise and the look of the final loaf.

I've read that you can post dried out starter which can be reconstituted and fed into good health at the other end. I'd be interested to give that a shot, so if you fancy trying it out, I'd be happy to dehydrate The Blob and send you some.
 
The forum bot won't let me post a link to an external site, so the pic will have to wait, I'm afraid. But Tuesday's loaf was a good one!
 
I think it is because you can't use flikr you really need to use photobucket. :thumb:
 
a4y4uja6.jpg


I'm afraid the dough was a disaster (not enough flour) but the ale barm yeast starter was a roaring success :D

The next one will be better!
 
I aim for about 64% hydration seems to work for me. I prove over night for about 14 hrs. then tip them out of their baskets and give it a quick shape to tighten them up and straight into a hot oven 250c on a baking stone (that makes a difference) with a a hot dish and boiling water to create steam.

Having said all that my white loaves are a disaster. no rise flat as a pankake.

May go back to an original recipe I used to use when I first started out.

:thumb:
 
fumblefox said:
@ Hawks. I've read that you can post dried out starter which can be reconstituted and fed into good health at the other end. I'd be interested to give that a shot, so if you fancy trying it out, I'd be happy to dehydrate The Blob and send you some.

Great offer, many thanks - we are crazy with holidays and then hopefully packing at the moment - if you still fancy it as we calm down I'll drop you a pm :thumb:

Cheers again
Paul
 
Right this is the weekends loaf

Its a Hobz Malti which is a maltese bread.

hobzmalti_zpsc7169186.png


As I said I have problems with white bread so I will probably make a granary as well which I know works well. :thumb:
 
graysalchemy said:
I think it is because you can't use flikr you really need to use photobucket. :thumb:

Is it number of posts as well ? Or have I made that up ... :doh:
 
I make a Malted loaf using 3 tablespoons of H&B LME , I've run out but have some dried M.E., how many tablespoons would be the equivalent? :wha:
 
For a 750g loaf I use the equivalent of 3 tea spoons but sometimes more goes in. :whistle: You don't want it too malty and sweet but just enough.

I also add as you will see from my recipe posted on here (way back) that I use wheat malt, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds and occasionally some porridge oats.

:thumb:
 
Thanks GA , that doesn't seem a lot for the recipe I use -

1 tsp yeast
500g strong white flour
1 tbs sugar
3 tbs Malt extract
1 1/4tsp salt
320ml beer
175g sultanas.
 
No you are right that was what I use for a granary style loaf which has a little sweetness to it but not like malt loaf. :hmm: :hmm:
 
Okay, so it's too warm for any beer to be brewed and looks likely to stay that way for at least a week down here, so I'll get on with some other yeast work and make bread. We're going to brave the beach this evening and so I've made some Italian style bread to go with the picnic; it has some mixed Italian herbs, plenty of olive oil and fennel seeds. Once it's risen, I'll treat it like focaccia and poke some dents into it along with some rosemary sprigs, then a sprinkle of maldon sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil.

I may even get ahead and make the dough for Christmas cinammon buns - a very rich dough that takes forever to rise in cooler temps and freezes very well.

Best do plenty of swimming tonight - all those bread and beer calories!
 
Pearlfisher said:
Thanks GA , that doesn't seem a lot for the recipe I use -

1 tsp yeast
500g strong white flour
1 tbs sugar
3 tbs Malt extract
1 1/4tsp salt
320ml beer
175g sultanas.

I used 3 tbs of dark DME and 350ml of ale instead of the H&B LME , turned out great ,lovely and moist,sticky & chewy.
 
Have been making bread in various guises for the past 30 years. Haven't yet felt the need to use a breadmaker, our old Kenwood takes the agro out of mixing the ingredients and as has been said needing is the most important and satisfying aspect of the operation.

Also discovered sourdough about 20 years ago and we are still using the original culture, makes excellent bread and rolls.

Its is also worth trying soda bread, its quick and the results are excellent especially if taken straight from the over to the plate and smothered in a good butter.

As they say, bread is the staff of life.
 
Well As ever I have been baking.

This weekend I made sourdough crumpets

My usual 2 loaves of granary as per my usual recipe

Trafford-20130831-00022_zps1a6bb94b.jpg


And 2 baguettes, following a sourdough recipe i got here

Basically they are made over 36 hrs however I missed out a step and it took 24 hrs. Anyway they were amazing

Trafford-20130831-00023_zpsee802371.jpg


Finally I made Pizza's for all, sorry no photo they didn't last long enough. :lol: :lol:
 
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