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WW Sourdough

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Tried a whole wheat sourdough for the first time with my current starter.

 

Certainly not the kind of crumb I can get with regular bread flour, but not bad for something purely leavened with a starter.

 

 

Vegan Rye Bread

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I made my very first Rye loaf today, and it turned out wonderful! I used a recipe from "The Practical Encyclopedia of Baking", which someone let me borrow. The bread turned out moist and not too heavy which has been a problem with some heavy grained breads.

Anyway, the only changes I made to the recipe was to do it all by hand- without a bread machine or mixer. I prefer the way completely handmade loaves come out. The rise is usually better and the taste is extremely superior.

Here is the recipe, as well as pictures should any of you like to try it out =)

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

Profile picture for user JMonkey
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

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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!

Profile picture for user JMonkey
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

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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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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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%.