I took a break from baking bread, but started up again today. I am making my family's favorite ciabatta formula from Hitz. First I forgot to scale down, then I forgot to tare before adding salt and realized that I was adding too much. Luckily I got enough of it out. As for scaling, I will have to prepare half of it and give the other half extra time proofing. It should be okay. I could put it in the refrigerator, but I kind of want to see what the extra stretch and fold + time will be like.
One thing that is funny is that I went into Sam's club and bought more yeast since I was "getting low". Then I realized how little yeast I actually use in a recipe. Plus when I do my sourdoughs I don't use any. But it was less than $5 and you get two packages at 1 lb (454 g) each (so 2 lbs or 908 g of instant yeast for $5). I am still using some really old instant yeast that has been in the fridge. It still works great. I know when I open one of these, it will be even faster so I might have to use a little less. This ciabatta recipe uses less than 3g and I normally only make half. Most of my recipes use about that amount. So really, I should just open up the new bags and start using them since they will last forever and I can just replace them cheap enough if they die out. Too bad I can't buy just 1 lb for half the price haha.
Off to do another stretch and fold. My wife will be happy I am making this. I highly recommend it.
Couldn't tell the difference with the extra stretch and fold. Cooking time made a bigger difference.
Made another batch today. Yeast seemed happier for some reason. Real happy with today's bake. Made 2 one foot long loaves and one sandwich roll size. Nice and crispy. Only did half the dough this time. So about 850g total.
I just figured out how long the yeast you bought would last me....64.9 trillion billion years plus or minus a few million years. Need a good cryogenic freezer for that!
Welcome back and happy baking
doesn't have to go to waste, toss into a bread dough for more vits & flavour. The beasties will devour it too. :)
I received a small jar of abused instant yeast. (didn't smell rancid, the lid wasn't tight.) So I tossed a fair amount into a kilo wheat dough to test it. It sat around all day and didn't rise... so I spread the dough out, misted it and dumped the rest of the yeast (about 2 heaping humongous Tablespoons, give or take another tablespoon) onto the dough, misted again (gosh it was thirsty) and then 2 teaspoons of good working instant on top of that. Worked it all to a paste with wet hands and then into the dough feeling like a yeast monster. It rose nicely in the next hour so I slapped it down (mean like, brutal, got to do that once in a while...) shaped a loaf and turned on the oven (still using electricity.) Final proof was a fast half hour at 29°C Great loaf! I think it was the long drawn out poolish (if you could count it as one) and that made it so good!