Simple Bread

[rwsaunders]

^ super cool looking boule but the baker should have used a setback seatpost and that's a helluva chainstay.....

[rwsaunders]

We had breakfast at our favorite bakery and restaurant in Athens, Ohio yesterday...the Village Bakery and Cafe. The baked goods and in particular the breads, are their specialties. I took a little backstage tour of the wood fired oven and prep area as I know that you patrons will appreciate the details.

[dgaddis]

My folks came to visit the baby (and me and wife) this weekend, I cooked up some good grub, didn't get any pics though as I was busy getting it done and on the plates before the baby woke up for her next feed. (this is my life now)

My mom brought down some homemade mac & cheese, and we had some veggies, and I grilled a rack of lamb, a pork loin, and baked a loaf of bread. It was a big, but very dang good, lunch!

BREAD. First loaf I've baked in a while. 30% whole wheat, a little dark rye from the starter, 70% hydration. Turned out great and was a hit. Here's a crumb shot from yesterday, this was near the edge so it was running out of height at this point, it had some pretty good spring.

[Too Tall]

Congrats on the Rye and the baby natch. Neither are easy to accomplish I'm told.

RW with the winning shots behind the scenes. I've seen some interesting bread ovens before, that one looks purely homegrown.

[rwsaunders]

TT...the oven was definitely homegrown and the design was based on an old English oven according to the owner...here are some pics of it being constructed and a little more about the bakery. In my hood, Chatham University has constructed one community bread oven in the mill town of Braddock and they are in the process of constructing one on their Eden Hall campus, which is about 30 minutes North of Pittsburgh.

The Eden Hall campus is located on an old farm retreat for factory working women from the original HJ Heinz plant and it's quite the place. They teach food courses there which are also open to the community and every time that I try to register for the sourdough classes, I am waitlisted! Perhaps I'll take my SAT again and try to raise my score...

Della Zona in Athens, Ohio - Village Bakery in Athens, Ohio

Village Bakery in Athens, Ohio - Village Bakery - Della Zona - Catalyst Cafe :: We Love ATHENS OHIO

Chatham University Grad Shauna Kearns Brings the Braddock Community Together, One Loaf of Bread at a Time | Edible Allegheny

The Oven — The Braddock Community Oven

Eden Hall Campus | Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA

[dgaddis]

TT you need to check out the Ugly Delicious episode on Netflix about Pizza. One of the places they visit has this HUGE oven, the peel the guy uses is about 7ft long. It's awesome.

[Too Tall]

TT you need to check out the Ugly Delicious episode on Netflix about Pizza. One of the places they visit has this HUGE oven, the peel the guy uses is about 7ft long. It's awesome.

I've been dabbling that series...have not see that episode yet. Thanks.

RW >> Great details. Love it. There are a couple pizza oven (wood fired) construction retreats in the USA I've been dying to attend. Definitely a bucket list item.

FWIIW The Acorn Inn where I hold Ballers Ride has a massive soapstone bread oven on site. The soapstone that used to come from that county is world famous and no longer. Would make for a he!! of a great bicycle / bread camp nes pas? I'm pretty sure they have only used it a few times. What a waste.

[bking]

So I just got back from two weeks in Italy with my wife, my sister and her husband. Needless to say, the food was a significant part of the adventure. And no small part of the anticipation was due to the breads, including pizza, that I was sure the Italians had mastered. Well, they may have been at it for a few plus millennium, but they need a little more practice. Actually, what they need is a little more salt. As we ate our way from Pompeii to Venice and all over in between, it wasn't until we got to Padua that they started to salt their bread enough to pull the flavor out of it. And while we had pizza at it's birthplace, it was Padua who did it best.
While we had lots of good food, on a whole Italian bread left us a bit disappointed. One could argue French cuisine was born of imported Italian chefs (I believe it was Catherine de' Medici who brought them along with her to France), I think the Italians need a few lessons from French bakers.

[dgaddis]

Got a loaf of sourdough in the works. Haven't baked any since the previous post in this thread.

Gonna use the oval banneton basket, which has less volume than my round, so it's a smaller than normal loaf.

350g of flour total instead of the usual 500g. 40% whole wheat, the rest all purpose white flour. 75% hydration.

Fed the starter last night. Mixed up the dough this morning, gave the flour and water an hour long autolyse, then mixed in the salt and starter.

This is a strong ball of dough! Only given it two folds thus far (~3.5 hours since mixing the dough), not sure if I'll give it any more. Pic was taken after the 2nd fold.

Tonight when I get home I'll shape it and put it in the fridge. Not sure when I'll bake it...maybe in the morning, or I may give it a day or two in the fridge to develop more flavor.

[Cookietruck]

got a nice starter culture and did some hybrid levain (start plus a little dried yeast while making the dough ball), the loaf is slightly sour initially and sours a bit more as the loaf ages.

i went back to doing a poolish, i think that's my fav way to bake a loaf. a nice sweet and fruity/nutty loaf...plus i don't have to feed a starter.

[dgaddis]

Same ball o'dough pictured about, about 7hrs later. I didn't give it another fold. Last pic is after a loose shaping (maybe too loose...) and in the basket. It'll spend about 48hrs in the fridge, and we'll bake it tomorrow night to go with dinner.





ALSO - I've discovered that rice flour is the best for flouring your work surface to keep the dough from sticking. Works *way* better than regular flour, and need a lot less of it it seems.

[rwsaunders]

The French Guy Cooking uses a 50/50 blend of rice flour and regular flour to dust his bannetons...you're on the right track and that dough ball looks nice and gassy.

[dgaddis]

The French Guy Cooking uses a 50/50 blend of rice flour and regular flour to dust his bannetons...you're on the right track and that dough ball looks nice and gassy.

Yeah, my basket has some of both all purpose and rice flour.

I shaped it pretty loosely, trying not to knock out all the gasses. But I think it may be too loose, and may not hold it's shape once turned out. But hell, after 48hrs in the fridge maybe it doesn't matter....

In some ways my bread seems to have gotten worse the more I've baked. Flavor has gotten better, but rise and oven spring hasn't been as good as some of the earlier loaves. With those early loaves I followed the directions in the book precisely...later on I winged it a bit. I think I was giving them too many folds, working them too much. The gluten was well developed...but maybe so well developed it was preventing the oven spring. I also think some were a bit over proofed.

Maybe...I dunno. I'm still figuring this bread thing out haha.

I bought this, I need to take the time to read it....

[dgaddis]

OH YEAH. For my fellow lovers of bread and baking. Tom Papa, the comedian, is also an amateur bread baker. When he goes on tour he'll often visit famous bakeries in the cities he's in or passing through, he's been doing that for a while now. Well, Food Network found out about it, and he's got a new TV show that starts next month. Should be a worthwhile thing to check out.

Comedian Tom Papa Breaks Bread Across the Country in Baked | FN Dish - Behind-the-Scenes, Food Trends, and Best Recipes : Food Network | Food Network

Some of him on Rogan's podcast talking about bread, some of which isn't accurate, I think, tho there's some debate on that among bakers and those more knowledgeable than myself, and, headphones if at work! It goes off the rails a bit about half way through LOL.



And here's his most recent visit w/Rogan. It's 3hrs long, so....good background while at work.

[rwsaunders]

Batching it for two days and while the head mouse is away, the kitchen knave will play...oven fresh simple white bread with fresh homemade pesto and other key side yummies. Boy does the kitchen smell good right now.

[rwsaunders]

0.5 kilo loaf of 25/75 whole grain to compliment the lentil soup that Mrs. RW is whipping up. Dusted the crust with white poppyseed before baking.

[rwsaunders]

We’ve been out and about quite a bit over the last few weeks and there’s been a recurring call for bread from our dinner hosts. No worries from me as it gives me the chance to practice. This pup was a 60/40 white/graham flour blend that was really active and gassy during the proofs (proves). Moist and chewy with a decent crust. You can definitely smell the graham...almost like a rye.

[defspace]

I've been playing around with this for a bit - already through one 5lbs bag of flour. The results have always been tasty.

I've been doing my bake in a steel (?) pot. I know a ceramic container or an iron dutch oven is the preferred tool. I'm trying to get the best results with what I have on hand before I buy anything (my banneton is a rice-flour-dusted t-shirt lining a bowl).

What can I do to reduce the crustiness of the bread? Changes in temp? In time covered/time uncovered?

[Cookietruck]

i like the crust from a boule in a covered dutch oven (or anything covered really) for roughly 30mins, then uncovered about 20 mins...crust to the color you like.
oven temp, 475F

the crust is amazing the first day. the second day it is pretty good. usually by the third day i put the uneaten bread in a plastic bag and usually don't even zip it up. then crust will absorb the moisture and it starts going the other direction...getting softer and thinner...

[rwsaunders]

I've been playing around with this for a bit - already through one 5lbs bag of flour. The results have always been tasty.

I've been doing my bake in a steel (?) pot. I know a ceramic container or an iron dutch oven is the preferred tool. I'm trying to get the best results with what I have on hand before I buy anything (my banneton is a rice-flour-dusted t-shirt lining a bowl).

What can I do to reduce the crustiness of the bread? Changes in temp? In time covered/time uncovered?

Steam. Spray a little water in your container for the bake as it’ll add to the moisture coming from the dough...I use a Dutch oven. Commercial bakers inject steam in their ovens to do the same trick. My recipes all call for temps in the 450F range...typically 30 minutes with the lid and 20 minutes uncovered to finish off the crust. Hope this helps as I just rolled out a killer sourdough boule this morning using the same technique...dusted with rice flour too for effect.