The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

My first loaf

FrankP's picture
FrankP

My first loaf

Hi all.

 

Had a go at the NYT no knead recipe.

 

Plus and minus:

 

+ A loaf was produced

+Very edible

+ Delighted to get a result

 

- I made a couple of little errors of method (even thought it' so simple).

- 2nd rise wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be.

- A little too salty.

- Not 100% sure that it was cooked through as it should be. My wife thought it was, so that's probably got to be good enough for me, too.

 

I'll pop an image up, if I can manage it.

 

Cheers,

Frank

SlekkerBread's picture
SlekkerBread

Really lovely.

If you have a thermometer, the bread is done at b/w 190 - 210 degrees. Makes it much easier when you know for sure. But yours looks perfectly done!

FrankP's picture
FrankP

Re temperature - I'm thinking I might get an oven thermometer today.

 

I have trouble with understanding temps because we are Centigrade in Australia, plus the standard oven is 'fan forced' - convection, I think it's termed in the US, so there's a bit of figuring to do.

This loaf was set at 230 degrees C throughout.

 

Cheers.

WatertownNewbie's picture
WatertownNewbie

An oven thermometer is not what you need in order to check the temperature of the bread.  My suggestion is a Thermapen, which is not cheap, but a fabulous product.  Not only can you quickly check the temperature of the bread (i.e., without leaving the oven door open for a while), but you can also check the ambient temp of your kitchen as well as your flour or levain, and this is very useful when calculating the temperature of the water you need to hit your target dough temperature.  And best of all, you can hold the Thermapen under the running water from your faucet and adjust up or down until the thermometer indicates the water temperature is what you want.  A very handy tool.

As for oven thermometers, they are important also.  I have two and used them to learn that my ovens run about 5.5% on the cool side.

FrankP's picture
FrankP

Thanks for that info. I'll certainly give a thermapen some thought. Every step will be new worlds opening up, I think.

I think my oven might be a little on the cool side also.

Cheers.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Wow what a crust!   

FrankP's picture
FrankP

Thanks so much, Mini. First thing I'm going to do is spoil things by trying to get complicated - some rye and seeds.

 

Could be flat cakes.