The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

My second loaf

GrowingStella's picture
GrowingStella

My second loaf

Hi all,

Here is my second loaf! Even though, it has room for perfection, It's a huge improvement! 

The bread is 66.7% hydration and has a large portion of whole grains in it. Taste, texture, open crumb and crunchy crust were the highlights of the loaf!

I still have to work on the rise/oven spring. The factors are drough handling and scoring - to keep working on...

The dough was fermented, both bulk and proof, at room temretire with 8-8.5 hours of fermentation The bread was baked in the lodge combo cooker.

 

I am a happy camper! Can't wait for my next bake!

 

hreik's picture
hreik

Scoring is so so hard.  I read that some baker said it took him a full year of working in a bakery to learn to score properly.  A full year.  David had some great videos on scoring.  I'll try to dig them up.

GrowingStella's picture
GrowingStella

That would be great!

i saw many videos too but they show a quicker and confident motion and I understand it, but second loaf is not even close to one year lol...hopefully it'll come to me with practice earlier than later ...

joc1954's picture
joc1954

Indeed huge improvement from the first one. Scoring is tough so look David's videos. When you have a lot of whole grains in it you can't expect a very big oven spring / bloom. I would suggest you to do once  just 10% WW flour and 66-68% hydration and try just a simple scoring with one slash across the loaf and I'm pretty sure you will be very happy with the results. I had a one month period baking almost every day  trying to get ears but without success. Then I found that I should shape better and lower the hydration (it was close or even over 80%) and the result came. I know how you feel - you would like to make a perfect looking loaf also from outside. Don't worry, just keep going, it will come. I would be very happy if my second loaf would be like your is. Crust and crumb look delicious and I bet it tastes great!

Well done and happy baking!

Joze

GrowingStella's picture
GrowingStella

Hi Jose,

thank you very much for the nice words!

i agree with you about the ratio of bread flour to whole grains flours. I just read about it. I am planning to decrease the amount of whole grains flours for my next and see what happens. Shaping is very important for the oven spring too! I will keep he hydration level at 66-67%. It's better to better the shaping skills on the stiffer dough. Hope to see better result with every next bake! :-)

 

happy baking to you too!

Ru007's picture
Ru007

Great bake :)

GrowingStella's picture
GrowingStella

i am happy with the progress :-) going to bake my next over the weekend....

 

Happy baking!

breadboy025's picture
breadboy025

For a second, a tenth, or a number 50--this looks great.  Great thing I've discovered with bread--as long as you don't forget the salt (thus making it taste flat and awful), you can pretty much mess it up and it still tastes great.  The shaping I struggle with still, after about 8 years of baking, and the scoring even more so.  One of my friends on Instagram showed me her trick--she uses those cutting blades you get at the utility store and cuts that way.  No lame, no special knife.  Just a short little cheap blade. 

 

Good luck and I can't wait to see your next few loaves

GrowingStella's picture
GrowingStella

i strive for perfection...lol...if it's even possible..but happy with my progress...

also thank you for the trick! Great idea! 

The next loaf might be on the weekend :-) 

happy baking and good luck to you!

Filomatic's picture
Filomatic

Nice work.  Shaping and scoring could be the cause of poor oven rise, but it could also be from over-proofing.

Trevor J Wilson's picture
Trevor J Wilson

You've done very well for just your second loaf! You should be pleased. My second loaf (as well as the first, and many thereafter) were all flat bricks -- and I think that's the experience for many of us. So I think you're off to a good start. 

Trevor

GrowingStella's picture
GrowingStella

Trevor,

 

Coming from a professional as yourself, makes me feel more confident and certainly happy!

My third loaf is in the making! :-)

 

Thank you very much!