April 5, 2019 - 3:40pm
Newbie with a question
hi.. I just began baking sourdough bread, and I make it once a week. I just tried a recipe on this site but I did not understand it very well. Can someone tell me if this recipe (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/25107/ryeeinkorn-bread-two-sourdoughs-and-one-ayw) is for two loaves ( which I made) or just one. They came out smaller than I am used to. :)
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The person who posted that recipe definitely made two loaves out of it, and they do look small-ish in the pictures.
Of course there's a limit to how big you can go on one loaf (oven size, making sure it cooks all the way through, etc), but there's no reason why you couldn't increase the total size of the recipe next time, or try putting it all in one loaf. The very worst you could get is some disappointing bread - and there's always a next time. ?
Note that if you're making a much bigger loaf than the recipe counted on, you may need to adjust the oven temperature and/or the baking time.
PS: Good name you chose. ?
Thank you for the response... it was difficult recipe to follow for a beginner.
Glad you like the name :)
You can always learn through trial and error. That's what most of my baking experience sums up. Lol.
If you want to learn how to scale bread so you can adjust anyone's recipe to your liking, you need to learn Baker's Math. There are many posts on this site about it and if you google it you will find some great tutorials as well. I also use a program called BreadsStorm which allows you to also scale recipes. You can find some other programs that are free or spread sheets some people have created that work great too. Most of my formulas use around 800-900 grams of total flour including the starter which makes 2 decent size loaves.
Good luck.
I need to learn this math, it looks really important and useful. Thanks for the suggestion!
The main thing to "learn" is that the total dough is not 100%. Instead, the total flour is called 100%, and everything else is calculated relative to that. Beyond that, it's just a few details.
I use two cups of water as a guide and add flour until the dough reaches the "correct" consistency. This way I know what will fit into my pans.
Interesting site, thanks for hosting it.
deanraf: Your method of proportioning is effective, but it isn't the standard one. It no longer matters why the standard method became "the one", but it is important to use the standard style of calculations when describing your recipe to others. Of course you measure your bread ingredients any way you like, in the privacy of your own home. ?