The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Great Toasted

tommy d's picture
tommy d

I love making bagels ! I been a cook my whole life however I started baking bagels 1 years ago and the guy that trained me was really good and on the third day I was doing it all by myself , my boss said she never seen any one learn so quick !

now I'm trying new things cause I'm not tied down with the corprate bullshit ! I am starting to create my own yeast ,new bagels and expanding into other areas of baking ! I feel like I have great desicion making when it comes to baking and I want to start learning other types of breads and pasteries how ever I dont want to go to school for it !

I am also conflicted cause although I want to do these things and I can see myself doing it for the rest of my life I also want to be an addiction speacalist ! well these are my thoughts !

pumpkinpapa's picture

How big is a batch?

January 9, 2007 - 6:58am -- pumpkinpapa
Forums: 

I have read so many pieces about this bakery or that where they say this oven makes so many batches over a certain period or this bakery holds the record for consecutive batches...

So, having not been trained by a school or a professional baker, how big is a batch? Is it 2, 10, 20 or what? For me 10 loaves in a row at 2 pounds each was a great workout kneading but the time really flies when you are having that much fun!

 

Happy baking!

breadnerd's picture

Anadama intrigue

December 16, 2006 - 7:58am -- breadnerd

I made the BBA Anadama yesterday (thanks to the cornbread thread that put me in the mood!).

I spaced on one of the soaker steps and added the molasses in with the rest of the ingredients for the 1-hour "pre-ferment". Anyway, all turned out well, though the bread is a lot darker than I remember from the last time--do you think the molasses stained the crumb? I did throw a bit of WW flour in the mix, but only about 4 ounces out of 20 total, so I don't think that would add much color. Interesting, anyway :)

 

I baked it free form rather than in a loaf pan, and think it turned our rather pretty:

gianfornaio's picture

Excited to come across this site, and excited at the prospect of coming back repeatedly!

December 13, 2006 - 6:03pm -- gianfornaio

Hello all, glad I can join you, and glad you're here for me to join!

I'm John, from Iowa (Windsor Heights currently, at Des Moines). I love baking lean hearth loaves. I've tended to make a loaf with varying portions of whole wheat, unbleached white and semolina flours at about a 65% hydration, but am looking forward to working with even wetter doughs after reading about other people's ways of working.

I was a little surprised at people's reaction ("pretty standard for artisan breads") to the no-knead casserole loaf's 75-80% hydration, because I'm accustomed to looking at recipes with much less liquid when I bake my own bread-- although, that said, I don't ever really follow recipes, I just consult them. I'm not a terribly disciplined baker-- I'm more artist than scientist, I guess, in an ab-ex, thrash-around-in-the-dark sort of way-- but I do take percentages and weights to heart, and do lots of research.

beenjamming's picture

Fig and Fennel Bread

December 3, 2006 - 7:48pm -- beenjamming

I spend an embarassing amount of time wading through online recipe collections, mentally baking things that sound good. One afternoon I came across a fig and fennel bread recipe at epicurious.com, *actually* made it and rather dissapointed. The flavor combinations had so much potential but the bread was pretty substandard. I fiddled around with their recipe until it hardly resembled the original at all and the results have yielded a tasty staple.

Fig and Fennel Bread

Suiseiseki's picture
Suiseiseki

This is just a draft; I have yet to try it. Using the amounts in brackets should theoretically make one loaf with approximately 70g fibre. Please forgive me if I got the percentages wrong; I'm still trying to switch from measuring in cups.

Ingredients 58.75% (240g) All purpose flour 2.08% (1 tbsp) Vital wheat gluten (80% protein) 39.17% (160g) Dark rye flour 77.11% (315mL) Water 0.88% (1.5 tsp) Yeast 1.79% (1.25 tsp) Salt 4.99% (1 tbsp) Honey (will probably use molasses instead as soon as I get some) 3.43% (1 tbsp) Butter 3.00% (85g) Wheat bran

Method (written for one loaf) Sponge 1.2g yeast 125mL water 120g AP flour Combine yeast with water, then stir in flour until evenly mixed. Cover & let stand at room temperature for 5 to 5.5 hours.

Dough Everything else Mix evenly into sponge. Knead until dough passes the windowpane and/or knuckle tests. Let dough rise covered in a greased bowl until doubled in bulk and passes the poke test (dough does not recover from poking/dimpling). Shape into loaf and let rise covered until doubled. Baking time and temperature have yet to be determined because I honestly don't know.

Hockey puck? Door stopper? Slimey pancake? Miraculously wonderful? What do you think?

Floydm's picture

Struan Bread

June 13, 2005 - 1:30pm -- Floydm
Keyword: 

In the 15 years since I first tried Brother Juniper's Struan Bread, I've tasted a lot of great bread, but I still don't think I've tried anything that makes as great toast as Struan Bread does. Nor have I tried any bread is so universally enjoyed: everyone who tries it agrees that this bread makes killer toast.

It isn't bad for sandwiches either.

I have to admit though that this bread occasionally gives me nightmares. Click "Read More" to learn why.


The Nightmares

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