Occasionally frustrated baker from the UK
Hi all!
I've been baking (or attempting to bake) bread for a year and a half, ever since someone got me a book by Richard Bertinet. I have a family who to my surprise really enjoy my bread and I generally bake a loaf most weekends.
I'm not afraid of screwing up so I'm happy to go off piste a fair bit. I'd like to get to the point where I'm led by instinct rather than slavishly following instructions, and can adapt to variations in room temperature, flour, oven characteristics etc. So I don't take a particularly rigorous approach, preferring to trust to intelligent guesswork and blind luck.
My crust rocks. My crumb sucks.
Google has often led to these forums and I've been impressed by the passion, pedantry and helpfulness of its members. So here I go!
Looking forward to talking bread!
Another similar-minded UK bod here - north-east Cambridgeshire.
My screw-ups keep a friend's chooks fed and entertained. If you do go "off piste", do jot down what you do. Nothing more irritating than baking a great bread and forgetting how you got there... :-/
What sort of crumb are you looking for? Bertinets stuff is relatively "safe" - good basic/daily bread type of stuff.
Post a picture :)
And welcome!
-Gordon
(in Devon)
who wants to do the same bread over and over again, slavishly following the same methods and instructions. Don't ever change or you might get bored to death eating pumpernickel all the time! Welcome and don't sweat the crumb - it will come around to match the crust I'm sure.
Happy baking
I am in the UK too, I bake bread for 3 years now, mainly Sourdough bread.
I go by instinct, look and feel of the dough these days but must admit that, without baking from good recipes I would not be able to do that.
One needs to know at least the basics and go from there and venture out and change little things like hydrations , swap flours around...
Do dot down what you are doing when you bake a loaf, I do that , it is wonderful if you can recreate a great bake.
Most important is the joy and fun you have when baking, and the crumb will be soon matching the crust, practice is the word.
I created some * monster * breads * but you know what, we ate them too. hehe
Welcome :)
Depends what you are looking for in a crumb. One person's heaven is another's 'yuck'! If you like experimenting, try something from "Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast". I find Forkish's doughs to be very difficult to handle (they usually have the consistency of half-set jello for me), but the crumb is divine. Wetter doughs, long slow cool ferments and gentle handling usually result in 'creamier' crumb for me.
I second the idea of using Ken Forkish's book. I am a brand new bread maker (at least in terms of hand made bread) and have been making some pretty amazing breads using his book. I just wanted to note that I have read on these forums that flour in different countries have different absorbancies and that what is high hydration in one country might be too much for the flour in another country. Specifically, and I sure hope I am remembering this correctly, that a dough at ~65% hydration in the UK would be considered a high hydration dough but in the US/Canada, upwards of 75% would be high hydration because of the differences in the flours. This at least was my interpretation when I read this particular thread. So you may want to cut back on the water in FWSY in order to have a dough that you can handle.
Just my 2 cents (Oops, we no longer have cents in Canada) ;-)
... and use a good strong Canadian bread flour (Rogers Silver Star), but still find FWSY doughs very wet. They're okay for baking in a pot but I'd hate to deal with it on a peel (getting it into the oven before it oozed off onto the floor)! But they do make the loveliest crumb.
The recipes that are proofed in the fridge stay very nicely together so doing that might be an option if you plan to use a peel and baking stone rather than a DO.
Actually, I almost always proof in the fridge, and often bulk ferment in the fridge too.
Wow! My FWSY doughs proofed in the fridge firm right up. And I don't use specialty flour. Robin Hood unbleached or no name unbleached is what I have. My whole wheat is Robin Hood's.
Is pretty well much where I'm at with my 30% wholegrain breads. Much more than that and I end up with sticky goo.
When it comes to crumb, my preference is towards smaller holes so I can keep sandwich fillings in place.
Wow! Thanks for your warm replies! I will be taking a close look to see what I can learn!
I'm dissatisfied by my crumb because it tends to be close, even cakey. What I want is something light and fluffy. I suspect that I don't prove my bread for long enough. I've certainly never overproved it (i.e. had a collapse situation).
Next time I bake some bread I'll post some pictures and hopefully people might have suggestions!