Just saw a reference to a sourdough podcast from one of the newspapers I subscribe to.
I've not listened to it, so I can't give an opinion to the pod casts.
From a quick scan of the web site, the content looks to be quite good though.
Hello bread lovers I want to know how many hours you work per week.
I ask because I live in Greece and here you need to work around 10 - 11 hours a day, 6 days a week.
And you get paid with the minimum wage.
Is this the same all around the world?
Even on countries like Germany or Denmark?
I' m just very curious to know.
Thanks in advance..
I'm looking for a 3 litre, square plastic container about 20 cm square and 12 cm deep for Ciabatta bread, that
I saw Paul Hollywood from the UK use on public television. 20cm is about 8 inches square, and 12cm is about
5 inches deep
Thanks,
poilanelover
Greetings again. I've really enjoyed finding this community of bakers with its interchange of recipes, ideas and suggestions - especially the considered and thoughtful responses to so many people's questions.
We had a friend coming round for brunch this morning who is wheat intolerant, so I thought I'd buy some spelt flour to try. Lucky I checked first - she has never tried spelt and didn't want to risk it - so I made something else for her, but I decided to try baking with the spelt anyway. I had a quick look at a few posts on here and then charged ahead with the recipe below. It wasn't a total disaster!
Any suggestions for improvement? I'd like the crumb to be a bit more regular - I could probably have degassed a bit more vigorously, but having read about the fragility of the gluten in spelt doughs I was trying to handle it gently. There were a few small solid gummy areas in the centre of the loaf. Of course, I should have paid more attention to what I was reading and put the dough into a tin straight away, instead of trying to prove it in a banneton and bake it free-form.
Oct 2019.
Updated Nov. 2021.
Updated Sep. 2020.
Prices include domestic shipping if order total is at least US $25, or if you have Prime.
Lodge 10.25" (O.D.) pan/skillet with 2 short handles. Fits in my Ambiano (Aldi) toaster oven. Standard straight-angled (ie, not curved sides like a chef pan) sides of a regular skillet, so it takes a lid, or you can use foil. Inside inner bottom diameter 8-1/2" or 8-5/8" if you measure just slightly up the curve to the side.
https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L8SKL-Cast-10-25-Black/dp/B071VT8PL8?tag=froglallabout-20
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Lodge 3.2 qt combo cooker. Regular price US$ 34.90. Can sometimes go on sale for $29.99 to $32.99. Lid/Skillet's inner inside bottom diameter, 9". Pot's inner inside bottom diameter, 8". Use inverted, with "lid/skillet" as base, and pot as a "hat", to easily load the dough, and score it with less chance of burning hand/arm on the pot. Or, for a smaller diameter boule, use pot as the base. I like using this for boules. Have done up to 3.1 pounds of WW dough. This is my favorite for loaf/boule bread.
https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Cooker-Pre-seasoned-Skillet-Convertible/dp/B0009JKG9M?tag=froglallabout-20
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Lodge 5 qt combo cooker. Regular price US$39.90. Sometimes go on sale. I do not have this one. The skillet/lid is same diameter as the 3.2 quart model. But the pot is deeper, and has straight, not angled, sides.
https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L8DD3-Cast-Iron-Dutch/dp/B000LEXR0K?tag=froglallabout-20
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Lodge 14" pizza pan, griddle. Regular price US$39.99. Sale price, or with coupon, $29.99. I have one, but have only used it for pizza so far. Has a small lip, but not enough to put a lid/cover on. 14" is outer diameter, not counting handles. Has "Pro-Logic" style handles.
https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Baking-Pre-Seasoned-Round-Handles/dp/B0000E2V3X?tag=froglallabout-20
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Lodge 9.25" (O.D.) round handle-less griddle/plate. One of my work-horses, frequently used in toaster oven for baking bannock and pitas, or toasting bread.
https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Logic-Round-Griddle-Handles/dp/B00I4XNEE4?tag=froglallabout-20
or Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lodge-9-25-Round-Handleless-Seasoned-Cast-Iron-Serving-Griddle-L7OGH3/879308493
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Lodge 8" (O.D.) long handle skillet. Fits in toaster oven, diagonally:
https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Skillet-Pre-Seasoned-Skillet-Stovetop/dp/B00008GKDG?tag=froglallabout-20
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Lodge 9" (O.D.) long handle skillet: https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Skillet-Pre-Seasoned-Skillet-Stovetop/dp/B00063RWTS?tag=froglallabout-20
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Lodge 10.25" (O.D.) long handle skillet, with short assist handle, $14.88: https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Skillet-Pre-Seasoned-Skillet-Stovetop/dp/B00006JSUA?tag=froglallabout-20
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Lodge 15" (O.D.) skillet. Normal price US $49.90. Sometimes goes on sale for $40. This was an impulse buy when it was on sale. Haven't used it yet. It does fit in the kitchen oven. Has a long handle and a short assist handle on opposite side.
12-1/4" inside diameter at bottom.
https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L14SK3-Skillet-Cast-Black/dp/B00063RWUM?tag=froglallabout-20
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Lodge round 10.5" (O.D.) cast iron griddle, with one long handle. $14.88. Get it at Walmart for $14.88 when Amazon is out of stock.
Interestingly, Amazon does have 3-packs of this 10.5" griddle for $38: https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L9OG3-10-5-Round-Griddle/dp/B00NE55E7M?tag=froglallabout-20
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(links are coded to give the site owner referral fees, like with books. It doesn't, or shouldn't, increase the price.)
Dear TFL folks, As a first time poster, I just want to start off by thanking you all for the awesome advice and information you share. My love and focus is sourdough breads, but I was recently asked to try and figure out GF baking for a friend who is has celiac. For some reason, I was drawn to teff, and proceeded to begin a teff starter. I began 5 days ago with 1 part teff flour, 1 part distilled water, and a few sun-dried cherries (I thought perhaps these would have more ‘bugs’ on them so to speak). On day 2, I removed the cherries, and fed the starter every 24 hours since. I have seen considerable evidence of fermentation since day 3, but I wonder how much of an increase in volume I should expect from a healthy 100% teff starter. This one appears to have increased by around 30% (the hard-to-see blue pen mark was where it was at roughly 13 hours ago after feeding).
What do you think? Am I ready to use this starter? And what volume can I expect to reach for a 100% teff starter? And how often should I expect to feed it? Thank you in advance for any advice you have to offer.
I prefer and like to mix my doughs to full-development and think most here don't mix anywhere near to that level of development.
Yesterday I made an 80% hydration dough. Initially as part "fermentolyse" at 55% hydration (5 mins mixing) before adding the rest of the water and salt (another 5 minutes of mixing). At this stage the dough ingredients were combined but the dough consistency while appearing smooth-ish, it easily shredded as it fell from the hook. I knew the gluten wasn't developed very much...
After this, I set my Kenwood Chef mixer to a speed between min and 1 and set the timer.. It took 25 minutes + to reach full development at this relatively slow and gentle speed!
The good news... I think mixing gently does little to oxidise the dough as my formula included 25% khorasan wheat flour and the yellow hue was quite apparent in the finished loaf.
EDIT: So that's 35 minutes of mixing!
I see in many recipes that during the bulk fermentation stage it requires a series of 3 or 4 sets of "stretch & folds" at say 30 minute intervals.
My question is...
For how long would you typically stretch and fold or for how many folds would you do?
As I understand this develops the gluten an also incorporates air in much the same way as folds and butter do in puff pastry, so my train of thought is thus...
In puff pastry it's usually around 6 folds to get a nice amount of layers going. So does similar apply here with bread ?
Thanx in advance
Stig
i heard that today was world bread day, so i thought i'd bake a loaf - one a bit different from anything i've tried before. i put together 400 grams of whole spelt flour, 50 grams of barley flour and 50 grams of oat bran - my first time, btw, baking bread with oat bran. then i went to find my yeast.
i had run out of yeast last week, so i had bought a bunch - packets this time. but i couldn't find them. after half an hour, i still couldn't find them, and couldn't remember anyone bringing them in. so i decided to make my loaf into a soda bread - well, baking powder bread. i added baking powder, plenty of it - 14 grams. then i put two small scoops of light butter in a measuring cup, melted them and poured buttermilk in to one cup (ultimately i ended up using about 1 1/3 cups of liquid). btw, i find adding a little barley flour not only tastes good but it seems to have stronger gluten than spelt and makes the dough work a little more like wheat flour.
i've only ever done soda bread by hand, but tried it in the stand mixer. it worked out okay, but i finished it by hand, and i only went just passed a rough stage, formed it into a ball, put it on parchment paper on a pizza pan, flattened the ball, made the X on the top and popped it in at 450 till it reached 207 f inside.
it smelled heavenly while baking, and while the finished loaf is pretty ugly and smelled not so inviting to me while still warm, cold it really is the best-tasting whole grain bread i've ever tasted with a crunchy but not too crunchy crust, a slightly but reasonably soft crumb. but it's the taste that's driving me wild. i can't stop nibbling!
i have friends who love whole grain bread, but i never got it till now. move over, white bread - you've got some serious competition!
Back once more from roaming the earth and, within way less than a day home, my wife coaxed me into thinking about a next bake. I left it to her imagination what would be next, but she deferred to me.
In the past I'd baked the Hamelman black olive levain a few handful of times, particularly in response to our building's chief engineer's constant "whining" about when I'd bake it again and slip him a loaf.
A 65% hydration dough with 25% olives makes for a hearty if not particularly open crumb. In keeping with my M.O. of mostly avoiding posting the same thing twice here on TFL, there was just enough tweak to qualify for this post.
Changes from the original included using 100% LL instead of his 125% LL, changed to AP flour from higher protein bread flour, substituted rye flour for WW, and used rather large quarter-sliced "spears" of large green Spanish Queen olives rather than smaller and diced Kalamta flecks. Otherwise I abided by the original formula.
These olives are quite salty, so they were scaled and quartered, placed into a water bath for a while to remove some salinity, and then toweled dry.
Abel Sierra posted somewhere that baguettes should be couched seam side up. I did so with one of the two. But then in my infinite wisdom, once loaded into the oven, I neglected to track which of the two loaves were which since I rotate loaves a few times during the bake.
I can't check what the crumb looks like on either the batard or the more open grine baguette as they were both delivered to the chief engineer and our office manager. Intact!
One does exhibit a more open grigne than the other, but I am clueless as to which was which. The batard was couched seam side down.
At 65% hydration and weighed down by the mass of olives, the crumb doesn't exhibit a lot of openness. The old saying is you can't eat the holes.
The formula normalized to 1000g
| Olive Levain with 100% AP Liquid Levain | |||||||||
| alfanso, based on Jeffrey Hamelman | |||||||||
| Total Flour | |||||||||
| Total Dough Weight (g) | 1000 | Prefermented | 18.00% | ||||||
| Total Formula | Levain | Final Dough | |||||||
| Ingredients | % | Grams | % | Grams | Ingredients | Grams | |||
| Total Flour | 100.00% | 522.2 | 100.00% | 94.0 | Final Flour | 428.2 | |||
| AP Flour | 90.00% | 470.0 | 100% | 94.0 | AP Flour | 376.0 | |||
| Rye | 10.00% | 52.2 | 0% | Rye | 52.2 | ||||
| Water | 65.00% | 339.4 | 100% | 94.0 | Water | 245.4 | |||
| Salt | 1.50% | 7.8 | Salt | 7.8 | |||||
| Green Olives | 25.00% | 130.5 | Green Olives | 130.5 | |||||
| Starter | 3.60% | 18.8 | 20% | 18.8 | |||||
| Levain | 188.0 | ||||||||
| Totals | 191.50% | 1000.0 | 220% | 206.8 | 1000.0 | ||||
1x600g batard, 2x425g long batards/baguettes.
