The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

first time post - todays bake

bakerking's picture
bakerking

first time post - todays bake

    As with a lot of others I have been hanging around this site learning as I go. I first discovered atisan bread about 10 yrs. ago, but as we live in nothern Minn. we are about 300 mi. from the nearest bakery. A little over a year ago my wife received her latest copy of 'Martha Stewart Living' with an article about artisan bread baking, we talked about wanting to try it but were a little intimidated. My wife does a lot of cooking and baking and is involved in a christian mentoring program for women that includes cooking and baking lessons. She occasionaly makes quick rise whole wheat with her Bosch bread machine. Too yeasty for my taste.

    Two months ago we decided to jump in. On weekends. We started with Martha's french bread and baguettes a couple times, found Jeff Hamelman's 'Rustic bread' online. We the bought his book 'Bread', Reinharts BBA, found this great site and have been trying French and Rustic to try and get a handle on all this. (Love this site I have read everything.) Everything has turned out quite edible and delicious - no big failures yet.

   We started weighing instead of measuring 2-3 times ago. It makes things simpler but the doughs are now wetter and harder to work with. From the beginning we have substituted 'Robin Hood - best for bread multigrain' -  it has flours, cracked wheat, cracked rye and flaxseed - instead of whole wheat and rye. It has been our favorite and makes great toast. Today I did an 18hr. preferment, I added some Irish oats - not rolled, just cut - and cornmeal as a soaker upped the salt and yeast just a little and adjusted the water. His recipe calls for 69% hydration. This batch was really wet, last week we added more flour but this week I thought I would just go with it and see how it turned out. Looks good, tastes good but not as crunchy a crust as previously. Maybe I'll back off on the salt. Crumb looks good. It seems the wetter dough doen't give as high a rise either. My Therma-pen instant read thermometer had a dead battery today so I did the thump test but I'm sure I hit 200 degrees.Should I back off on the water to get a firmer dough and would that help the crust. I use steam. I also use the bigger heavier stone I see people talking about. We have a 36"oven so I can do 2 loaves at a time.

  Also it seems to me that Martha's recipe for French dough with AP flour and poolish is tastier but not as pretty - golden brown - as Hamelman's 'Baguettes with pate fermentee'.

Thanks for all I've learned here. I'll try to attach photos. My username bakerking is my last name and an aspiration - I haven't arrived yet but am enjoying the journey.

 

Susan's picture
Susan

We're all looking forward to photos from you.  Glad you're having fun.

Susan from San Diego

bakerking's picture
bakerking

I tried to send a photo following directions in FAQ. The file size was 1.52 mb, they will only take 1mb files. I don't know how to make my daughters camera take a different size pic.

ehanner's picture
ehanner

BakerKing,
Welcome to the Loaf! I hope to see your work and follow your progress. My suggestion would be to use the Rustic bread recipe by Hamelman just as it is written and bake it a few times to get the hang of it. Then change one thing at a time so you understand what is happening. From your description you have tried moving all of the key elements.

The salt should be a stable 2% or maybe 1.7%, I use 2% for just about every formula. I wouldn't fool with that to try and improve performance. In general if you look at a Ciabatta which might be 75% hydration, it has a very open structure. I don't think changing the hydration downward will help you in this. Hamelmans formulas are right on and proven.

Give it a try with the flour he specifies and I think you will find it's a great dough and bread. The multi grain mixes don't hold the gas as well especially if you used cut grains. They can be sharp and hard on the gluten.

Good luck and again, welcome.

Eric

bakerking's picture
bakerking

Thanks for the reply. We didn't have rye on hand so we substituted the multigrain and it turned out very tasty, so we have alternated every week with a white or back to our modified 'rustic'. I will get some rye and try Hamelman's recipe. I looked at both his and Reinharts multigrain - one called for millet the other rye chops, which I've never heard of. That's why I thought I would try  my own tweak towards more multigrain by adding a little cornmeal, a little oats... trying to use bakers math to make it work.

It tasted good and came out okay but I will go back and try the original.

I downloade 'Picasa'' resized my pictures smaller, created a web album but still can't get my pictures to this site. Any suggestions would be appreciated

Steve

Finally a posted picture - you can teach an old dog new tricks it just takes a few hours.

rolls's picture
rolls

sorry i have to ask everyone what are u using for scoring? lovely loaves by the way.

bakerking's picture
bakerking

We started with a double edge razor, bought a lame. My wife works in surgury, now we use a scalpel. Works pretty good.

Steve