A beautiful Blonde!

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Lazy Loafer on 7 May 2017 at 11:19

It's always worth posting a photo when a loaf (finally) turns out to look like the picture in the book. :)

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kendalm on 7 May 2017 at 13:00

Gotta love it when it photo worthy. Btw the way it browned looks apt like what I see of and when things go right and just out of interest are you using gas or electric. As of recent I have been trying play tricks on my oven to make it perform like an electric one. Its quite difficult to get any Browning to show up and just curious about your setup. How 'bout another shot of it sliced open ?

I have an electric oven. I usually bake either on two slabs of granite (in which case I use two foil pans of lava rock in the bottom for steam generation), or in small (3 quart) cast iron pots. These boules today were baked in the pots. I pre-heat them to 475F, then load the loaves and put the lids back on. They go into the oven and I immediately turn the heat down to 450F and bake for 25 minutes. Then I take the lids off, rotate the pots (I had six in at once this morning) and lower the heat to 425F to finish baking for 20 minutes. I think maybe the browning is also affected by the type of bread and how long it has fermented (chemical changes affect the browning of the crust), but others who are more savvy with the science of bread can tell you more about that.

Sorry, no crumb shot. These ones were for customers and they prefer me to not slice their loaves in half. :)

I am sure the ears would have really darkened up if you took that to a more chestnut color. I usually don't go,to dark because the heat distribution is hard to manage especially with long loaves that I usually do. Otherwise it looks like what I see of and when Browning works well. I'm sure the inside looks fantastic and can completely understand the customers point of view :)

more fun?!

That is one stunner of a loaf, and no doubt all of the twin sisters are just as lovely!  I don't know how you manage to now keep at least one of every set for yourself, especially when they look so good (and no doubt smell even more tantalizing).

Thanks for sharing, and keep baking happy!

Laurie

Well, Blondes can be more fun when they turn out like this! That said, the dough was a bit sticky at shaping time, so I was a bit cross.

I bake three or four days a week (or more), and most weeks make eight or nine different kinds of bread, so if I kept one of each batch I'd either have a freezer full of we'd be big as houses! One does get used to the lovely smell of baking bread permeating the house though. Maybe I can live on smell alone... :)

Wendy