The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

My learning curve

tattooedtonka's picture
tattooedtonka

My learning curve

I am doing this after seeing so many create a blog of their efforts.  Hopefully I will be able to look back on this over the next years and see some sort of improvement, hopefully.  Ha, ha

April 1st bread

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tattooedtonka's picture
tattooedtonka

April 4th

tattooedtonka's picture
tattooedtonka

April 7th Bread

sphealey's picture
sphealey

Great looking bread! And I would guess it tasted as good as it looked.

sPh

tattooedtonka's picture
tattooedtonka

So far, so good.  I was unable to get photos of my Sunday 9 Apr bake due to the stuff flying off the cooling racks so quickly.  I started out my Sunday baking with BBA's Cinn. Buns.  That one had me a little concerned after proofing, but amazingly they came out just like I had hoped.  My batch only yielded me 7 buns, but that is probably because they were big and fat. They were gone before they even had a chance to cool well.  So much for setting up a photo of them.   From there I took a break for lunch, and then jumped back in and started making a batch of Pretzels  using Floydm's post here on this site.  Awesome, super easy, next time though I am going to have to double the batch size because the 6 I yielded from that batch left the rack before they had cooled as well.  Jeeessh, you would think I never feed my kids by the speed at which they can make stuff vanish.  At dinner we had a nice quiet pasta dinner with Garlic and Olive Oil Toasted Ciabatta from Saturdays bake.  After the kids were put down for the night I started in with a batch of Bagels for Monday. 

Now here we are on Monday and Im most of the way through my work day. I cant wait to get home and pull the Bagels out of the fridge and start the boil/baking of them.  I'll have to beat the kids back with the broom until I at least get a couple shots of them, :-) 

tattooedtonka's picture
tattooedtonka

Well here we go again, after Mondays Bagels, Tuesdays Cinn. Buns, Thursday Bread, Fridays Ciabatta's.  At least I got off my butt to get some shots of this weekends Bagels and Pretzels.

Well the bagels were not as pretty as I was hoping for, but they taste good. 

tattooedtonka's picture
tattooedtonka

Well it started off as a good weekend so far. Had a few loaves made by noon, and was waiting for my "Baby" to come out of the oven and here she is.

Weighing in at 4lbs. 14.5oz. She's a handful

Oh she is big, let me back up a little.

Here she is next to a 1lb. 4oz. Honey Wheat

Here she is next to a 1 3/4 lb White Split Top

And how does this freak look inside, well here we go...

Well that first piece is gone, the heal, gone.  Wife is happy..

Now on to my others for today, I tried out a Honey Wheat recipe from BBA.   It came out O.K. I think, I really dont know due to the fact that Im not a big Wheat eater.  Crumb is nice.

Boy do I need a new camera, ok heres another but the flash kind of blinds the crumb.

Another Honey Wheat.

And here is a starter from SourdoLadys recipe. Day 1

Ok so back to the kitchen and eat some more of my baby, sure is creamy when only a couple hours old.

TT

browndog's picture
browndog

you're an animal! you about gave my dial-up computer a rupture, but I HAD to see what was coming next. Where were they handing out the compulsive-baker-guys when I was in the market? And I see you belong to the post-something-lovely-and-offer-it-as-subpar club-- those bagels are so tempting. Another of my nemesises (nemisisi?) I make perfectly edible bagels, but never really pretty ones like yours. Love the spiral slash. 4 pounds?!! ( Oh, 'scuse me, I see it's actually closer to 5.) What nice stuff.

weavershouse's picture
weavershouse

Going down the page was like visiting a great bakery. Wish I saw the cinnamon rolls too. That big baby of yours is awesome! What is she? 

Everything is awesome. weavershouse

tattooedtonka's picture
tattooedtonka

Thanks weavershouse, she is quite simple actually. She is Floydm's Lesson 1, Generic Bread recipe formula from this site.  It is the very first bread I ever made and I still enjoy tinkering with it. I have only a few differences

  • I multiplied the amounts x3
  • I knead for 15 minutes by hand, with a break at about 10 to give my hands a rest for a minute, then finish off the final 5 (I work the dough pretty hard).
  • I let set for 2 hours in a s/s bowl with cover.
  • I degas lightly, folding it in on itself once, then back in bowl for another 2 hours
  • Then I transfer from bowl very gently to a peel with corn meal on it and let rest for a couple minutes
  • I score with double edged razor, and let set for 10 minutes while oven preheats to 500' with stone in oven.
  • I transferred from peel to stone (lots of corn meal needed for that)
  • I spray misted the oven with water in 30 second intervals 5x
  • Then dropped the temp to 400' for 45 minutes

I know Im not good at the whole recipe part looking neat like most folks, Im still learning.

weavershouse's picture
weavershouse

 You've only been at this for such a short time and this is what you do??! Amazing. A few years ago I asked the good folks at King Arthur if I could triple a bread recipe and they said "no way, the bread would just collapse".  I wonder if they check out this site and saw that Baby of Yours. Thanks for the recipe, I'm going to try it, I love the texture of that Baby. I'm always trying to get a nice open crumb but I still love a soft close crumb loaf like that too.                                                                                          weavershouse

tattooedtonka's picture
tattooedtonka

I appreciate your compliments.  I enjoy my breads and such, but they are nothing fancy compared to the many skilled folks here. And my slashing is just a double sided razor in my fingers and I cut whatever comes to mind. Again Im only a month in and still learning.  But I do appreciate your kindness.

TT

audra36274's picture
audra36274

You have a talent my boy, real talent! The photos are great! Keep up the good work.

tigressbakes's picture
tigressbakes

you ARE a bread-baking animal. I feel like I am thinking about baking bread more than I can actually bake it! But you are an inspiration...you just go, go, go. And they all look wonderful and so tasty!