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Bread journal -- prehistory (what I've been doing)

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man_who_eats_bread on 22 Oct 2017 at 08:14

No idea if this is the right place to do this, but I want to start keeping better track of my bakes. Before I start, I want to clear my brain of the hazy memories from the past couple months of bread baking.

Phase 0: Bob's Red Mill loaves

On a whim I decided to try baking bread from one of the bagged kits from Bob's Red Mill. Multi-grain, or 9 grain, or something like that. Throw the ingredients in the Kitchen Aid, follow the instructions, and tasty bread results! 

Phase 1: Whole Wheat Sandwich loaves

Moon Cake

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Laowai on 21 Oct 2017 at 20:03

It's been a while. Baked a bunch of Moon Cakes the other day, we even found a matching box. 

Since it is customary to give them away I only had the opportunity to eat 4 and I am pretty happy how they turned out. 

 

Mohnstritzel (Poppy Seed Roll)

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Laowai on 21 Oct 2017 at 19:56

Just a quick shot of the Mohnstritzel (Poppy Seed Roll) I  baked today.

The hardest part was finding poppy seeds, my wife had the ingenious idea to check the local Halal store and voila, a bag a poppy seeds.

 

 

Croissants - one step back

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kendalm on 21 Oct 2017 at 17:05
As we all know, progress is not made without setbacks. A few weeks ago I did croissants and saw more separation of layers and got really excited. On top of the visual improvement, the eating experience was also significantly improved. So, trying to recall what I did on thay bake and trying to replicate, layers barely separated - real bummer. Tried using the same butter and other ingredients but for some reason it just wasnt the same or better. The frustrating part about a new project like this is not havong enough experience to both know and guage progress during each phase.

Almost moving on

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kendalm on 21 Oct 2017 at 16:52
So the plan was to do a sourdough bake this week but realized the starter hadnt been fed in a while thanks to a lot of travelling. Dropping this as usual bake today - emphasis on shaping and finding it easier and easier to get straighter loaves as can be seen here 2 of 3 came out really nice and runt of course is the crumb model. Just crazy how a little deformity in cylinder shapes is increased in thr final and goes to show how tricky it is to get nice appealing long full size baguettes (each of these btw are always 350g wet and about 270g baked and 54-55cm in length)

Chasing the dragon

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thirdworldbaker on 20 Oct 2017 at 10:47

Hi Everyone. I am from Pakistan and the only bread we have here is the simple pan loaf that is super bleached and super cottony. i became obsessed with bread in 2014 while over at a breakfast at my friend's house in the UK. he cut out a little toast out of a far brown looking bread that him and i had bought the evening before from a small bakery in Coventry, UK. I wasnt expecting anything special as he buttered a slice for me but since that day i cant cant forget that little piece of bread.

Another 20% Whole Grain SF Sourdough Style Bread

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dabrownman on 17 Oct 2017 at 14:58

The 2nd bread back from no bread for months, is similar to the one 2 weeks ago but the 20% whole grains were made up of only 7 different grains, the hydration was up a bit to 80% and we retarded it for 12 hours with no autolyse but did put the Pink Himalayan in the mix instead of on top of the autolyse.  We dropped the Emmer and Einkorn because Lucy said E’s are no longer the it in breadmaking anymore-  plus the pooches pantry was bare for them.

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