The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

I'm Back ....... From Exile

JamieOF's picture
JamieOF

I'm Back ....... From Exile

A self-imposed exile actually.

First, belated Merry Christmas to everyone, and may your New Year bring health, happiness and prosperity, not to mention lots of bread!!!!. 

OK, back to my exile. I was posting a lot here, and baking a lot. Many will give the advice "Pick a bread or a recipe, work with it, stick with it until you're pleased with repeatable results." Great advice. But my problem is seeing the breads posted here, I couldn't follow that advice, in spite of the fact I agree with it wholeheartedly. It's like I have (as my daughter likes to say) ADOLAS, or "Attention Deficit ..... OH LOOK, A SQUIRREL"!!! So I banned myself from looking at new posts on TFL, but did use it as a reference when I encountered an issue.

So, over the past several weeks, I stuck with "basic sourdough" with the occasional dip into baguettes when the dinner menu called for them. And it worked, I now have repeatable results and have reached the point where loaves a few days or a couple of weeks apart are similar in look, flavour and texture.

Over that period, I experimented with cold, cool and warm fermentation, and the same with proofing, I experimented with times for fermentation, proofing and baking, as well as baking temperatures. So, I got comfortable with and settled on a dough with 100% unbleached white AP flour at 65%, or at times a dough with 5% vital gluten and a 70% hydration. As for temperature and times for fermentation and proofing, I let my schedule determine that, and I'm quite comfortable in the results.

Since I was away, I've picked up some "helpful, maybe some consider necessary" pieces of kit, namely: a couple of cane bannetons, a dough whisk and I got a Lodge combo cooker off Amazon for a killer deal. While these have presented some challenges as well, I'm now comfortable with these.

Christmas morning, my wife blessed me with some reading material. Two of them are well known to most folks here, while the 3rd may not be. The Tartine book is the subject of my next post, and I'm quite proud of that.

So I'll end this post by saying it's good to be back, and I have a lot of catching up to do!

Jamie

 

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I admire your discipline!  It has definitely paid off! Those loaves are gorgeous!

I am having too much fun trying different combos to stick to one bread only although I am sticking to a sort of base recipe and change up the ingredients. 

I am looking forward to you posts. 

pmccool's picture
pmccool

Good for you, Jamie, and obviously good for your bread, too.  Have fun with Tartine.

Paul

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Welcome back! Nice looking bakes.

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Those books are going to be trouble though. You'll find all kinds of new recipes to try. :)

Happy New Year!

JamieOF's picture
JamieOF

I'm amazed with the content of these books, and not just in relation to bread ingredients, recipes and techniques. I am just as fascinated by their lives and what lead them into baking, especially Forkish.

Jamie

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Yeah, I'm like that too. I ready bread books cover to cover rather than just looking at the recipes. I even read the acknowledgements because there's usually a bit of story there too.

Have you read "The Bread Exchange"? It's a fascinating story of a woman's journey around the world with her sourdough starter, trading bread for all kinds of experiences.

Weizenbrot's picture
Weizenbrot

Those loaves look like photos from a baking book!

Ru007's picture
Ru007

Your loaves look brilliant. 

Great post

Arjon's picture
Arjon

As someone who started off by trying to do too much too soon, I'm glad to see you knew how to work around this tendency and had the self-discipline to do so. 

If I may offer a bit of advice, try to stick with learning one step at a time. For instance, you may want to try using a blend of two flours instead of just AP. Maybe start with 10% WW, then increase by steps to 15%, 20%... up to say 35%. After that, you can repeat the process with rye. 

During this stage of my learning curve, I admit I did give in somewhat to my inherent desire to experiment. I mainly addressed it via adding add-ins to recipes I had made before; e.g. after making a successful loaf with say N% WW, I might re-make it with something like flax seed. 

JamieOF's picture
JamieOF

Your advice is spot on, and it's exactly why I "banned" myself from TFL for a while. Not that TFL is a bad thing, there's just so much info here it's hard to stick to one thing.

So for the first part, I stuck with white only, but will a little VWG to compensate for my lack of technique and / or flour (name brand all purpose unbleached white).. I got comfortable at a 65% hydration and then expanded up to 70%, not because I wanted a crumb with larger openings, but I saw it as a test to improve my handling of the dough.

Then I added a little WW or spelt and watched & felt the effects that had on both the dough and the finished product.

I have to say I missed the site but I believe my dough handling skills are better for it.

Jamie