Hi all, love this site, found it by chance.

I live in Dublin Ireland, I am a married man with 2 teenage daughters, I have been cooking homemade pizza for nearly 3 years now, and I love it, I love it when the family say, "YES" I can smell dad's pizza, they seem to really love them, they never leave a slice.

Can somebody please help answer some questions I have.

The recipes on this site say "a cup of this" "a cup or that", I have not tried to cook like this yet. I have to use Pounds and grams. How will I get around this problem?

Also my oven only goes up to 260*C.

Kind Regards from Ireland

Regards

Brian

Help! I baked Yogurt Pumpernickel bread today from Beth Hensperger's Baking Bread, Old and New Traditions. I followed the instructions to the letter. The bread seemed done in the recommended 45 minutes--the internal temperature was 190 degrees. The crust seemed hard and brown, as I had hoped. The loaf sounded hollow. But then, on cooling, the top softened, and the bread inside seemed to collapse, so that it was about 1 1/2 inches below the outer crust. It was very disappointing! The texture seemed fine--no ribbons of underdone bread inside. The cooled loaf had a soft top crust. Not what I was looking for!

I did open the oven very briefly after about the first 20 minutes, to throw in a sweet potato. But by that time, the top crust seemed to have set. Could this have caused my trouble?

Okay, I'm new at this.  This is my third attempt at baking sourdough.  I'm a long time home bread baker, but like others am bamboozled by this 'sourdough thing'.  I've got a great 100% hydration white bread flour and filtered water starter going.  There are so many conflicting instructions about sponges, recipes, how-to's etc, I don't know quite what I'm doing wrong.  My sourdough doesn't rise as much as my commercial yeast bread and to be honest it's a little 'brick like'.  hem.... I increased a recipe that used two cups of sponge and three cups white bread flour, the usual sugar, salt, oil and no extra water.  Instead I used about 3 1/4 cups sponge, 2 cups wholemeal and 2 cups white.  The first proof is really nice, rises double, and has no cracks.  Then, when I shape it and set to rise the second time, it rises quickly and cracks develop all over it. With this one, I thought it looked too wet and was full of cracks about twenty minutes into the proofing, and I also thought it was rising too quickly, so I re-shaped it and let it rise over a longer period.  It went so much better, but I don't think it's rising double and the texture seems quite heavy.  Am I expecting too much?  I want my bread to be PERFECT NOW!!!  : )  This bread comes out nice and shiny and golden brown, but can you add anything by what I've said, and by the photo?  Please..... anybody.....????

I just have removed my bread  from the oven. I baked in Romertopf for the first time. I oiled the pot  but I can`t remove the bread from the pot . Could anyone advise me in this matter? I would be grateful . I baked another one in  cheap oven safe pot and I removed the bread easily.

sometimes the loaves don't rise correctly and have several rough splits on top...and aren't worth keeping

Hello im a new user just started making bread. Im a student and as part of our project we have been asked by a company called kenwood to improve and re-design a bread machine i was wondering if anyone had ever had any problems with a bread machine or has any tips or anything to do with them tbh would help. Any problems you could share would be a huge help thank you.

I realize I probably need to toss what I did today and start over.

But before I do, I thought I would check with this group.

I was trying to make the starter from Nourishing Traditions.  On the first day, she wants you to grind 2 C. of rye flour, which I did.  However, I ground 2 C. of rye, which made a lot more than 2 C. of flour.  I used it anyway (so I'm actually not sure how much flour I used, maybe 4 C?), and instead of addingthe 2 C. of water called for, I ended up using 4 C. to make it "soupy" as she described.

So, the moral of the story is don't make sourdough starter for the first time when you are babysitting two extra little kids in addition to your own, trying to do some school at home with the older ones, and dealing with a crisis on the phone.

Anyway, is there any salvaging this?  Can I just follow the directions from there (for the next 7 days adding 1 C. of rye flour -- measured after grinding -- with water) or do I need to toss half of what I did yesterday and then follow the directions?  Or just start over?

Help!

Anne

Hello,

I am sort of a novice maker, I am trying to make all of my bread at home for all our needs. I am having problems with my sandwich bread which always comes out with a huge crack in the sides. I have tried to proof first, I have tried baking with a pan of water in the oven at the same time. I have tried staggering the pans.

Can anyone suggest something? The bread tases ok, but looks and cuts bad.