Simple Bread

[boxerboxer]

We really want to hear about that oven bro. Someone start a pizza thread yo. FWIIW I almost went down that road with pre-cast oven parts from a MN supplier. The only thing that stopped me was the time required to heat the oven. I'm hoping my lifestyle will someday support having the time to sit around the oven and get smashed on homebrew. Someday maybe.

While we're talking about no-knead and pizza, I just made a pizza a couple nights ago with a no-knead dough (1:1 flour/water by volume and a bit o' salt). After the long wait, I just covered my hands in herby butter and pressed it out in a 12" cast iron skillet, topped it with some left over sauce from the VSalon spaghetti recipe and some pepperoni and mozz (this was for the crowd, not for me), burner for a few minutes, oven hot as it can go for 10 or so.. Pretty unbeatable for junk food-style pizza.

[Too Tall]

I'm pasting Cookietruck's instructions below. I've got a dough doing it's thing and will bake tomorrow. There was not much action so I moved into the oven using the 100F "bread proofing" setting.


Cookietruck


sure, it's pretty easy and baking in the dutch oven is the key.

dough:
500 grams flour (all purpose)
390 grams water @ 90-100F (78% hydration means...500g X .78 = 390 )

mix flour and water and let sit for 20-30 mins...Autolyse

Then add a pinch or two of yeast and 11 grams salt.
pinch it all all together, combine, stretch, fold...
over the next 30 - 60 mins get 2 or 3 folds into the dough. the dough is mega sticky so wet yr hands as you do this. just stretch the dough out and then fold it over itself back into a ball.

Then cover the dough and let it sit for about 12hrs at room temp. it should double or triple in size and have some air bubbles on top. if it looks like it's gained some size but not very noticeably, let it sit for another hr or two.

now you need to make a dough ball, pull the dough out and take care not to boing boing boing it or smash it, you want all those air bubbles.
use a bit of flour and use yr hands to form a dough ball, kinda stretching the top to create tension and pushing the dough back into the center on the bottom.
put that into a basket, seam down and let it rise. (a few hrs at room temp, or an hr or two at room temp then into the fridge, or right into the fridge and then let rise more after pulling out)
i think i got this basket. Amazon.com: Forsun 1pcs 8.5" Round Banneton Brotform Bread Dough Proofing Rising Rattan Basket & Liner: Home & Kitchen

to bake,
heat oven to 475F
stick dutch oven in there to heat
plop the dough out of the banneton on just a bit of flour and then gently (actually i just toss it) put it in the heated dutch oven, a little flour dust on the dough will keep it from sticking to the counter or dutch oven.
lid on the dutch oven and into the oven for 30 mins, then pull the lid off and bake for another 20 mins or until you get a nice dark crust.
it should rise and break open where the seam was if you don't have the linen in the banneton, if there is not a
visible seam then you probably want to cut the top of the dough a bit.

let it cool and get our yr beurre de baratte , et voila.
seriously making two of these a week. kitchen remodel almost done, back to bike commuting. so nice.

[rwsaunders]

TT...for 500g of flour, I'd be adding 7g of yeast (1 packet typically) and I'd use unbleached bread flour and not all purpose flour. That may be the reason for no rise...your pinch of yeast may not be 7g. Some folks also proof the dough in the oven with the lightbulb on.

CT's recipe is close to the French Guy's, albeit 1/2 the recipe. The video is worth the watch and fail safe as well, if only for watching the folding technique. You'll never go back to storebought bread and I'm "bread buddies" with all of the ladies in my wife's circle of friends.

[dgaddis]

TT...for 500g of flour, I'd be adding 7g of yeast (1 packet typically) and I'd use unbleached bread flour and not all purpose flour. That may be the reason for no rise...your pinch of yeast may not be 7g. Some folks also proof the dough in the oven with the lightbulb on.

CT's recipe is close to the French Guy's, albeit 1/2 the recipe. The video is worth the watch and fail safe as well, if only for watching the folding technique. You'll never go back to storebought bread and I'm "bread buddies" with all of the ladies in my wife's circle of friends.

The Ken Forkish recipes really only call for a pinch - his pizza single dough ball doubled calls for 0.05tsp. The theory being that you can use just a little, and give it a long time to do it's thing, you get more complex flavor. Most of his recipes call for 12+ hours of fermentation/proofing. In my experience you don't start seeing much rise until the last ~3rd of that (and the first few hours you're giving the dough folds to build strength).

He also calls for using all-purpose flour, though I typically use bread flour simply because it's so much easier to work with when doing a high hydration.

As with all things, lotsa ways to skin the cat!

Other news - fed my starter last night after taking it out of the fridge. This is after about 8hrs. Also picked up an oval banneton. I'll be baking some bread sometime this weekend.

[rwsaunders]

I’m not as patient with my white breads and light whole wheats as I am with the sourdough. Par for the course I guess due to the nature of the sourdough yeast beast.

[Too Tall]

I turned off the oven before bed last night. This morning the dough was nicely risen so I added a few folds and it is resting again. Should have it baked for lunch.
Thanks for the video, that cat is on point.

[dgaddis]

I do all my folds before it's risen much. That way you build the gluten network to trap the gasses (and get a good rise) and you don't knock the gasses out with folds and whatnot.

Not saying that's the best way...just what I do, I'm still learning LOL.

Also, y'all should follow this guy (and over here on FB). I mean, geez. He's got an e-book over on his website (which has some good info), I've bought it but haven't had time to read it yet.

#breadgoals (pics borrowed from his FB page)

[Too Tall]

How did I do? The shape will improve once I get a decent mold. The dough, as predicted, is pretty wet so I'm happy it did not come out flat!

1 hrs. in the oven total time@ 475: 40 mins. covered, 20 mins. lid off the dutch oven

b1.jpg

b2.jpg

[dgaddis]

Solid! The crumb looks good, how'd it taste?

I'd say you don't need that much flour on the outside of the loaf though.

[Too Tall]

Solid! The crumb looks good, how'd it taste?

I'd say you don't need that much flour on the outside of the loaf though.

Yeah I used alot of flour to help insure a drama free "dump" from my ceramic bowl into the Dutch Oven.

I could not ask for a better taste. Nice crusty crust and chewy bread. Maybe beginners luck?

If I can rinse and repeat with some small changes I could get total prep and cook time down to something I can tolerate.

[dgaddis]

If you're using a ceramic/glass/etc bowl (not a banneton basket) try to oil the bowl instead of using flour. I did that before I got a basket and it worked pretty well.

[Cookietruck]

^ yeah i was doing that with pizza dough. I really like the Banneton with no linen, dough seam down in the Banneton and then cook it seam up in the dutch oven and you don't have to score the dough at all.
As dgaddis said, a few folds right at the beginning before any ferment, but I think TT was talking about a gentle fold to form a decent dough ball because alot of times the dough comes out of the bowl like laffy taffy or something and it has to be shaped a bit. I'm very gentle with it and try to incorporate all the air bubbles into the dough.

snagged this pic from cookiewief, she was regularly saying let's not eat bread so much, too many carbs blah blah blah. Then I made the first loaf from the Forkish book and now, as soon as we finish one she's saying, hey we are out of bread can you make some more pretty plz...



and as I previously mentioned, I like the long ferment. It's a nice schedule for making dough in the evening, ferment over night, dough ball into banneton in the morning and into the fridge (in a plastic bag to keep moisture in) for up to a full day. I usually pull the dough out of the fridge when I get home from work and let it warm and ferment an hr or two longer then bake it...

[rwsaunders]

Yes....looks good and tasty! I'm with Dustin and CT regarding the bannetons. Get an 8-9" oval and a couple of 8-10" oblong units on Amazon. That way, you can make 2 more manageable loaves or one large loaf based on your need at the moment. Lightly dusting the banneton before placing the dough ball with the seam down, will give you some nice impressions and a light flour ring, especially if you can let the dough proof in the fridge in the banneton. Being a natural fiber product, they also allow the dough to remain not too moist and not too dry when proofing. Cover with a cloth in the fridge so you don't dry out the dough.

Slice the top of the loaf and spray lightly with water before you place the dutch oven lid, as the slice(s) will allow for a manageable oven spring, and those nice "crust bubbles" via the steam generated by the dough and the water. Some folks use parchment paper on the bottom of the dutch oven, but I just go for flour or cornmeal.

[dgaddis]

Some folks use parchment paper on the bottom of the dutch oven, but I just go for flour or cornmeal.

With my enamel coated dutch oven I don't need anything to keep the dough from sticking - as long as the dutch oven is properly pre-heated. It needs to be fully up to temp, otherwise it will stick a bit.

[Too Tall]

C.T. yep that's what I did re folds. Your schedule for making dough/bake is the right stuff. I'll see how that goes. Mrs. TT is a bread fiend. Unfortunately, her thing is whole wheat. I'll see what I can do about that.

I've got a 9" Banneton inbound.

When you DO use commercial yeast what is your go to? I'll assume King Arthur is your weapon of choice.

[dgaddis]

I just use the stuff in the blue packet from the grocery store, it's the only brand of yeast I've ever seen for sale.

[rwsaunders]

I've been using Red Star for years, Comrades...it comes in packets too. You get about 16-18 loaves (500-600g flour) from a jar and the expiration date seems like it is just a number if you keep it in the refrigerator. I do buy King Arthur Flour at the store...warning, don't subscribe to their magazine as it will take you down a giant baking rabbit hole of goodies and accessories.

[Cookietruck]

i've been using fleischmanns active dry yeast, no rehydration or anything. literally just a pinch. I even have it in the freezer which might be a no no.

I was messing with the sourdough yeast but I haven't nailed a loaf of that yet, most end up too sour and I'm really enjoying that dough recipe I posted.
The Forkish book has all the info about Biga and Poolish fermentations so I might read that section once again and give a sourdough or levain a shot..

Yeah I use King Arthur flour, also used a mix of all purpose and 20% pastry flour. used 10% wheat once, it worked the same, tasted a little nuttier.
I've also used straight "00" from the bulk section of a store down here, results were fine then too.
I think the biggest factor in flavor is how dark you get the crust. Gotta get it a little burnt to get that caramelization thing going on I guess.

[Too Tall]

Using CT's directions suppose I wanted to add cracked grain, seeds, wheat berries or (rehydrated) whatever to the loaf. Would I simply subtract AP from the recipe 1:1 and maybe up the hydration a wee bit?

FWIIW Mrs. TT loved the bread...I live another day ;)

[rwsaunders]

Most recipes just call for a fold of the material into the dough from what I've dealt with, as my family complains if there are too many ingredients in the bread...ymmv of course. If that's too much, you can dust the crust with a topping of seeds and nuts, just like an everything bagel. I'll find a video for you too.