bbegley's blog

500g KABF 100%

100g Oven roasted Sweet Potato 20%

14g Sea Salt 2.5%ish

1/4tsp DA Yeast

400g Water

In stand mixer, combine flour, water, and yeast.  Autolyze 20 min.  Add salt and Sweet Potato mash and mix on speed 2 for 10 minutes until gluten is formed.  Form into ball and put into greased bowl, S+F every 20 min for an hour.  Put in covered container and refrigerate over night/12 hours.  Pull out of fridge in the morning, let it come to room temp and shape into boule.  Proof for an hour.  Bake in Dutch Oven at 500 degrees for 25 min.  Remove lid and drop temp to 450 and finish baking for another 25 min.  

I was pleased with the flavor, texture, and crumb.  I need work in keeping the oven spring vertical, vs horizontal.  It always seems to flatten out in the process, most likely a shaping issue.

And the last pic.  Cheers!

(Not sure why it's displaying horizontal instead of vert.)

I've been working on the same formula for a while.  I think I'm slowly getting there.

Fresh pesto.

Ready for the freezer and a week's worth of toast.

Happy Easter!

While I'm raising my first sourdough starter, it won't be ready for another week or so,

I thought I'd try a loaf with a little Rye and Whole wheat.

My "formula" was:

40g Rye flour

40g Whole Wheat flour

420g KA Bread flour

350g water

10g salt

1/4 tsp dry active yeast

-Autolyse for 30 min

-Pincer mix in the yeast and salt.  I added the salt on top of the dough during autolyse and dissolved the yeast in a tbsp of water.  I think I read that you need to compensate a little to achieve hydration % when working with Whole Wheat and/or Rye.

-4 rounds of half hour S&F.

-1 hr bulk rise, followed by 26 hours in the fridge...mostly because I got a new job and had to work, which threw off my bread baking schedule.

-I shaped loaf directly out of fridge and let proof for 1 hr.

-Baked loaf at 500 degrees covered 30 min, dropped temp to 450 and finished uncovered for 30 min.  Internal temp read 210 on removal from oven.

I tried to go a little darker on the crust.

Crumb shot

BLT shot

Over all I was satisfied with the loaf despite my amateurish score job, but what ever.  It tasted really great and made the best sandwiches and my wife was happy.

Baking a loaf of bread for a buddy, so he can have roast beef and swiss cheese sandwiches.  I thought a beer bread would be tasty.

Here is a picture of the final proof.

Formula:

500g bread flour

350g dark beer

50g water

13g salt

1/3 tsp dry active yeast

30 min autolyze

30 min stretch and fold, 4x

1 hr bulk rise

overnight cold ferment

come to room temp 2 hrs

shape boule

proof 1 hr

bake 500 with lid on 20 min, 450 with lid off 25 min

Smelled great out of the oven.

The crumb was weird as hell.  My thoughts are that I am cooking the loaf in a pan that is to short.  When I took the lid off the top of the loaf was flat.  I think that is why the crumb is more dense in the middle.  When the bread is sliced it doesn't look as noticeable.

Texture, flavor and aroma are spot on.  I think I'm going to need to invest in a proper dutch oven, but who's got the money for that.  

Any opinions on the irregular crumb?

I've been craving a little burger action this week and thought why don't I try my hand at baking some buns.  After all, everyone knows that you can't have a good burger with out a good bun.

These were done with just bread flour and 75% hydration.  I used the Ken Forkish method- autolyse, pinch and fold salt and yeast into the dough and several rounds of stretching and folding.  I bulk fermented in the fridge over night and shaped and proofed in the morning.  I think the cold ferment is why I got some good blistering.  The crumb was a bit dense in places, but over all they weren't bad.  My wife and I both prefer softer buns, so I ended up going in a different direction today.  

I used eggs and milk with the next batch.

Here's the recipe I used:

500g bread flour

100g water

200g whole milk

1 egg, plus 2 egg yolks

10g salt

1 1/2 tsp yeast

20 min autolyse with flour, milk and eggs.

Add salt and yeast, use pinch and fold to incorporate.

30 minute rest followed by stretch and fold.

30 minute rest followed by stretch and fold.

1 hr bulk rise.

shape in to rolls, 1 hr proof with dimple test.

Baked in wider dutch oven at 450 degrees.  20 min with lid on, 20 with lid off.

It was interesting baking them in the dutch oven, I just loaded them in there like rolls.  They got a pretty big oven spring and developed crack on the top as you can see.  I was surprised how crisp the crust was considering the eggs and milk in the recipe.  The flavor was great and the crumb was really tender.  I ended up using more yeast in the recipe just to move things along so we could eat them for dinner.  All in all I was pleased with the result, especially for winging it on the recipe.

I do have a question for the community.  Do I need to be cautious with using eggs and milk in a longer proof if I wanted to dial the yeast down?

I was pleased with the results.  The beer came through big time.  The crumb was moist and chewy.

1 1/2 cup Whole wheat flour KA

1 1/2 cup bread flour

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 Guinness beer

1/4 t yeast

1 1/2 t sea salt

-18 hr ferment

-baked in dutch oven at 500 degrees, 20 min lid on, 18 lid off.