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Success! with NYT/Sullivan St. Bakery technique with sourdough

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JMonkey on 19 Nov 2006 at 07:07
Well, my first attempt with 100% whole wheat flour was pretty much a bust. But I thought I'd give it one more shot with sourdough and regular bread flour.

Wow. As you can see, my daugther is proud of her work (she helped me mix, which, with this technique, is about 75% of the work):
Sourdough bread

I've never had an "ear" like that on a loaf, and I've never had such a wonderful, crunchy crispy crust. Here's a shot of the crumb:

Continued experiments with NYT and southern mexico temps

Toast
beanfromex on 19 Nov 2006 at 06:04

This last batch of the NYT bread has worked out wonderfully for me. Kitchen temp a brisk 26C.

I used 3 cups AP flour and 1 cup WW.

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp yeast

1 7/8 cups of room temp water.

Mixed as per the video,then into oiled bowl and covered with plastic and refrigerated 24 hours. 

Removed from fridge and brought to room temp for three hours.  

Folded twice at 1.5 hour intervals., after the above 3 hour climatizing.

Holiday bread!

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JMonkey on 17 Nov 2006 at 22:23
This week, one of my colleagues volunteered our team at work to host the monthly Happy Hour. Thanks, bud. Anyway, it was a Thanksgiving theme and since I'm "The Bread Guy," they wanted me to bake something. I thought it would be a good excuse to convert the Bread Baker's Apprentice's Cranberry Walnut Celebration Loaf into whole wheat. So I did. Here's how it turned out:




Soggy Bagels

Profile picture for user Thegreenbaker
Thegreenbaker on 17 Nov 2006 at 18:39

Well I tried the Bagel recipe, and they flopped. Big time. :(

 

I use spelt flour so I already know that it alters the breads texture.

I think the dough was too wet. The recipe said that the dough will be stiff, but mine was wetter than normal dough. The bagels also didnt cook well.  Even after they had cooled they were very moist and even uncooked in some places. :(  Thats what makes me think the dough was too wet.  I am determined to try again and again until I get them right! Next time with more flour or less water.

 

BBA & Crust and Crumb question

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breadnut on 16 Nov 2006 at 06:22
I recently ordered both BBA and Crust and Crumb. I haven't received them yet. I guess I should have asked this question before ordering them. Anyway, my question is whether these 2 books are similar. Does anyone have both of these books and if so, are they similar? I definitely want BBA but was wondering if crust and crumb is to close to BBA, and if so, I would assume it would be better to get a different book instead. Thank you

Cracked Dough - Some Help Please

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breadnut on 16 Nov 2006 at 02:58

I've been  making bread for a while. Yesterday for the first time, I saw the dough cracking while beeing fermented and proofed. Never had that problem before. All the steps I took yesterday have been done before, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why it happened (well maybe because of mixing, but not sure). I took pictures of the process and I will post them.

The recipe: Starter (very active), flour (70%), Rye flour (30%), Water, Salt. Hydration was 68%. I've baked with hydration levels before ranging from 60% to 85%.

Ramona's first loaves- basic white bread

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beanfromex on 12 Nov 2006 at 13:41

 

This is Ramona proudly showing her first ever loaves. Nobody in her family has ever made bread this way. Mexico is not a country where loaves would have been easily accesible some years ago. The corn tortilla reigns. This is now changing with more people having access to stoves, and wheat.

Ramona has now cooked bread at her mothers home in Macuspana. She is eager to learn and cant wait to experiment with the loaves .

"Times" bread in southern mexico..stage one

Toast
beanfromex on 12 Nov 2006 at 11:24

In preperation  of the "times loaf experiment tomorrow,
we went to "el centro" (downtown) to a store known for its selection of enamel pots. I bought a wonderful 4 qt. baby blue one with lid and a handle for the equivalent of $7 US.  There were larger ones that may have been 20qt pots for 17 US dollars.

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