So,

I finished my WFO earlier this fall and am baking in it now. Breads are great and sell faster than I can bake them, but I encountered one particular issue:

I seem to have a problem gettin that nice, crispy crust on my French Bread. I am told that with my Whole Wheat or even Whole Wheat mix, the crust usually gets softer after the loaves cool off, but I'm a little disappointed that even the French Bread (Reinharts recipe, made with Sam's Club high-gluten bread flour) gets soft after it cools off.

I bake at around 550 degrees, give the loaves a good 5-8 seconds of steam with a brass-nozzled sprayer, and the crust is awesome immediately after baking. Once the loaves cool off, the crust gets soft.

I'm used to the baguettes we made in Germany (where, admittedly, we could add steam very easily and "remove" it after a few minutes) - those loaves would come out crisp and then shrink while cooling off, causing the crust to "fenster". It would crack and splinter.

Is there anything I can do differently to get better crust?

Thanks in advance,

Stephan

Hi, I have a question regarding Publix French Hamburger Rolls.  My hubby likes them instead of regular hamburger rolls.  I would like to try and duplicate the recipe if I can without all the chemicals.  I'm not sure about the slashing.  Since the rolls he buys are super soft, and slashed, am wondering if the dough should be slashed after it proofs or before.  Somewhere, I've seen a recipe that states slash before proofing.  I have never done that and would like some input before I do.  Here is a link for the image of the rolls so you can see how they do it.  Thanks!   http://www.publix.com/food/catalog/ImageDetail.do?id=14

Hi,

I made some Hokkaido Milky Bread using water roux starter - the only formula where I used this so far.

I had about 200g starter left over and wondered what to do with it -

I decided to make the basic white bread which I know quite a bit from porevious experiments.

The overall formula is simple: Flour 100%, water 70%, salt 2%, fresh yeast 2%

The amounts I used this time:

Flour is Shipton Mill No 1

Water Roux starter:

Flour 20g

Water 100g

Dough:

Flour 280g

Water 110g

Water Roux starter: 120g

Salt: 6g

Instant yeast: 2g

Bulk proof: 90min, final proof: 60min in banneton

The result surprised me: This bread has a rich taste (despite the "short" proof), and a light and springy crumb without a gummy feel.

The holes are small to medium size.

I think this is one of my best simple white breads so far.

Here some photos:

Crumb:

Happy Baking,

Juergen

I finally decided to break free of my bread machine and hand make my bread for the first time. I really never liked the look of the loaves that came out a bread machine and felt more of a reward for doing it all by hand. I did use the same machine recipe (3 cups of Flour, salt, sugar, yeast, shortning, water)

Below are two images of my first loaves. I never made any bread by hand before and must admit, it was not easy to work with the dough. Actually, it was down right difficult. When I attemped to stretch and fold the dough, it was far too elastic and would not stretch; it would UNstretch. I also found that, even though the dough did not seem to be over hydrated, while attempting to form the loaves it would stick to my hands and butcher block (also pictured). I did add flour first to the board, but when I attempted to form the shape of the loaves, it still stuck to my hands and board. Forming the loaves proved to be a very difficult task. I guess I need ALOT MORE PRACTICE working with dough.

To my surprise, although I shaped the loaves too short, the loaves came out to my liking. I love a tough crust with a soft spongy inside and that is exactly how it came out. I feel that maybe my dough was over worked because the crumb appearence, but you be the judge.

I just purchased Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice. The first recipe I tried was his French bread recipe and it was a disaster. I used all of his tips for hearth baking, read every page of the introductory chapter, and followed the recipe to the letter. The loaves came out so hard and dense, I could have injured someone with them, if I'd chosen to use them as bats!

I simply cannot figure out what went wrong. With my gut feeling, I felt that when things began to look wrong was at the mixing of the pate fermente with the other ingredients to make the final dough. It was very dry and I had to add a good amount of extra water to get a soft, tacky dough that he asked for. And then, come rise time, it didn't quite rise as quickly or as much as I'd expected it to. I left it a tad longer than the recipe said to, but then shaped it. Once again, the loaves did not rise to what I expected to be their full potential. So sad that I had to throw away the loaves as they were inedible!  

Any insights?

I've spent the last couple weeks working on a french style loaf.  I think my recipe and technique are getting better, so I figured I'd post my efforts for others to review.

Steps available: http://wchernoff.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/feel-that-oven-spring/

Notes:

1.  I've used this recipe with 17 oz of flour and 11 oz of water (a change from 62% to 65% water) which seemed to make a lighter/holier loaf (sorry but not pics).  Has anyone noticed this effect?  Also this change results in a softer dough, so I had to be quick about slashing the tops. 

Questions:

2.  How can one prevent the razor from sticking to the dough when slashed?

3.  My oven doesn't conduct heat correctly when adding water for steam.  How does a spray bottle compare to a cup of water for producing steam?

Hello,

I recently had a bread procured from a neighborhood store made by kings road, like italian/french, darl, almost burnt thick crust, light, soft interior.

My wife loves this stuff. I found a standard Italian recipe in my breadman book but left out the herbs, ran it through the breadman on french cycle until final rise when i took the dough out, had to add extra flour as it was too sticky to handle, (made a note to add more flour next time) shaped it into a narrow and long loaf, let it rise , brushed it with plain water, cooked until medium brown crust in oven on pizza stone at 425F.

It came out really good so i was pleased with result but still need some suggestions to increase crust thickness, should i use higher temperature, (my oven can go to 550F)?

Michael

Hi all,

I was searching the 'net for possible tips on re-creating Boulangier Paul's "flute ancienne" and came across this rather old, but interesting, bulletin-board/blog/discussion. There are some really good posts, there.

Someone asked the question: "Why are French baguettes better than others?" There were some interesting answers. This may be useful to bakers around this neighbourhood. No questions from me, for a change...just posted FYI...

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/44562-why-are-baguettes-so-much-better-in-france/

Cheers,

copyu

I made these today with a chef.  This recipe was meant to go into a bread machine,  which of course,  the machine is me.  I made this all by hand. I tried 2 things today.  1 was to cover the loaf with a claypot to bake,  and another stay in the claypot to bake.  Of course it turned out that the one that stayed in the claypot got a nicer crust - golden brown.

But somehow with this formula,  the bread didn't rise too much,  I might have overproof it - 1 1/2 hours.  Went out for supper during that time,  by the time I got back, the dough looks more than ready.  The one with the claypot covered had a little more rise,  as I baked it immediately after I return.  Here it is:

The one that goes into the claypot,  didn't rise much. Just a little jutting up from the top that I score.  

Both were not as crispy as I like....I still do not have baking stone....sigh....I can't find it in China yet....can someone send me one?!....  But the inside is chewy, soft,  and the taste is a little more salty - I don't know if this is because of the salt I added or the chef that was quite well fermented....weather was good over here in Shanghai...warming up...

The crumbs are well spread out,  not a lot of holes. And the 2 loaves have slightly different taste,  somehow the boule turns out to be less salty,  why?  perhaps I left it overnight in the fridge,  it had absorb what ever is in the dough.

I guess I can say this is a pass?...

Jenny

www.foodforthoughts.jlohcook.com

A beautiful video of a parisian bread shop for those of you interested.  Anyone who loves bread will get the emotion and the love of bread that transpires through these pictures.

Bon Appetit ! J'espere que vous aimerez.

www.dupainetdesidees.com/amidupain.html

Even the name of the site is so well chosen.  Translation: 'of bread and ideas.com/breadfriends'

PS - I have had trouble in inserting the link and ensure it opens but this should work: to open, click on the link above with the right hand mouse button and 'open in new window'.  It seems to work.