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Gersky

Re-visited Forkish's Saturday White recipe today after a slightly disappointing attempt yesterday. The following chart shows my ingredients, process, and an interpretation of the given instructions (with alterations due to limitations in gear, as I don't yet have bannetons):

As I baked the first loaf, the second was in its proofing bowl in the fridge. The first loaf:

With this dough, I tried to export from my proofing bowl onto a piece of parchment paper so I could carefully slide it into the hot DO, but it lost all shape and I gave up and basically threw the misshapen pile of dough in there and it ended up in more of a rectangle shape. Not mad at it, I still think it's pretty, but the part I am bummed about is that small little doughy section in the middle of the loaf! I feared I was underbaking slightly and so gave the next loaf an extra five minutes.

The second loaf:

I was thrilled to see this come out of the oven! 

With this dough I attempted to re-shape on the counter immediately before throwing it into the oven seam side up, which created what I think are some beautiful natural tears and little ears, but my guess is that last minute shaping perhaps created the large holes which are present in the crumb? I wanted to avoid the random blob shape of the first loaf, but ended up with some un-intended caves.

Side by side comparison of the two. Small improvements every bake I think so far! Having fun with it. :)

 

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Gersky

I have now made seven loaves of bread! The learning curve is steep but I'm excited to keep improving. 

Over the last few days I made an "experimental" bread (which was really just an adjusted version of the suggested TFL first loaf) and my first recipe out of Ken Forkish's FWSY, the Saturday White.

First came my "experimental" white:

As with the other bread I attempted to autolyse, I found within my limited timeframe there was not much growth/increase in volume during either BF or proofing process. I found it was a little harder to shape and maneuver in and out of the bowl due to increased hydration %. Scoring was unsuccessful, probably not deep enough. Also, because I stretched and folded during the BF process and baked the bread "seam" side down, there were natural rips/seams on the bottom of the bread versus where I tried to create the weak spots on top. Pros: good oven spring I think, better color on the crust by wetting it before baking.

I found the bottom of the crumb to be a little doughy, as seen above and below. Could have used a little more time in the oven I think.

 

Next was my longest bread bake yet, the Saturday White!

The OG recipe calls for placing the divided dough into bannetons which I do not have, so instead I placed them in oiled bowls and re-shaped them before putting in the oven. Put one loaf in the DO and one on a cookie tray, each "seam" side up. I had some difficulty with the poke test due to the moisture content of the dough, it stuck to my finger and I was unable to tell if it was properly proofed. 

One on the left was cooked on the tray, the one on the right was cooked in a dutch oven. What a difference! Was fun to run a little side by side experiment and see the difference in color.

My first baby ear!!!

The bottom of the loaf that I cooked on the cookie sheet burned. The bottom of the loaf I cooked in the dutch oven did not visibly burn, but was noticeably difficult to cut and bite through. Again, I encountered a bit of the bread that was still fairly "doughy"? Not sure if I just need to cook longer or what my issue may be there.

Goal for next time:

  • Get a poolish going and finally do a multi-day bread!
Gersky's picture
Gersky

I was in pursuit of a relatively cheap hobby and basically entered into the Google search bar: "stuff to do for free." One of the many lists I read through suggested I make some bread. One loaf later, and I was hooked!

My first loaf, not surprisingly, was based off of the Your First Loaf recipe from this forum. I combined 3 cups of AP flour, 2 tsp of instant yeast, 2 tsp of salt and 1 1/4 cups of water that I heated up in the microwave before adding. I attempted to shape it into a boule, but this was prior to any research on how to properly shape the dough, and it ended up being quite a blob-y looking thing with some ugly scores!

First Loaf

 

The result was some fairly dense (but edible!) bread. I was very pleasantly surprised, and inspired to try again and try implementing some "fancier" methods.

For my next loaf, I attempted another white bread, but this time I tried to autolyse the flour (~400g) and water (~300g) for 45 minutes. I think maybe I did it wrong, honestly, or had too much flour, because the flour never became fully saturated with the water and remained quite dry with a lot of leftover flour and dry chunks in the bowl. Not sure if my mixing (by hand) was inadequate or I just had too much flour in the mix.

Regardless, I let it "autolyse" for 45 minutes then added the yeast (approx 1 tsp because I didn't realize that's all I had left in the house) and salt (2 tsp). Tried to slap and fold for around 7 minutes. I almost felt as if the yeast was not enough to start the fermentation process, because this loaf sat for over 3 hours and barely rose at all! I decided to throw it in the oven anyway, expecting an inedible loaf, but after 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven, this came out:

 

I didn't even bother attempting to shape it because I thought it was a goner! Anyway, I was surprised by the interesting color/flour swirls in the crust and was pretty pumped by the holier crumb.

My last two loaves of the weekend were the ones where I felt like I was finally a little comfortable with the process. I weighed my ingredients, shaped fairly well, and attempted to score my loaves and each turned out decent! 

Loaf Three had 360g KA AP flour, 250g 90 degree water, 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp instant yeast. Mixed together, slapped and folded for approximately 10 minutes, bulk fermentation for 90 minutes, de-gassed, preshaped and proofed for 40 minutes, then in the oven for 40 minutes at 375 degrees:

 

Loaf Four had 360g KA AP flour, 250g water heated to 90 degrees, 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp instant yeast, and 1/2 tbs melted butter. Mixed together, slapped and folded for approximately 10 minutes, bulk fermentation for 90 minutes, de-gassed, preshaped, proofed for approximately 40 minutes, scored and in the 375 degree oven for 40 minutes:

 

Overall, I'm happy with my output. Everything was edible, nothing mind-blowing, but I had some toast and some sandwiches and some dinner bread that I made myself, and was very proud!

GOALS FOR THE NEXT FOUR LOAVES:

  • Start autolysing 
  • Score more successfully
  • Attempt the stretch and fold method instead of slap and fold
  • Attempt to make something with a pre-ferment

If any of you expert bakers have any pointers, tips or tricks, corrections or comments, I gladly welcome them. I'm happy to be starting my baking journey!

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