Greetings. Long time baker, but first time on this forum (from Bucks County PA). I've picked up a lot of useful information and perspectives here and I figure it's time to give back. I saw a post awhile back in which a newer baker asked how to determine when their bread has risen by a given percentage during bulk fermentation. Anyone who's watched dough rise in a wide bowl knows that it's really guesswork if done by eye. Below is Google Drive link to a PDF I created showing how to do it simply and accurately every time.
To forestall a post saying I could just use a dough bucket with volume markings, I prefer a ceramic bowl because it's much easier to do coil folds, and it releases the dough far easier compared to a plastic bucket (without breaking the skin on the upper surface). I do, however, use a dough bucket for my initial mix until bulk fermentation starts, at which point I transfer to my bowl.
Art
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UNIL_58VgTyClE-qe1MVYUY04iM3eQQj/view?usp=sharing
Nice work. The density of water does vary with temperature but according to https://www.csus.edu/indiv/m/mackj/chem1a/docs/h2oden.pdf between 0 - 30 ℃ the variation is in the 3rd decimal place, ie., who cares (for bread baking).
I use a marked 3.5 l / 4 qt square plastic container, two of which conveniently fit in the B & T proofer; my 4l cylindrical containers are just a little too tall. The 3.5 l will generally manage 2 kg of dough.
I used to snicker at Reinhart for all the spray oil he uses, but it turns out that a spritz of spray oil in the plastic containers saves a lot of scraping in awkward corners (which isn't that bad with a plastic bench scraper).
If you need a simpler method you can take a ball of dough from the dough you are rising and put it into a straight sided glass and flatten it down then put a rubber band around the glass at the top level of the dough. Set it next to your covered bowl of dough where ever you put it to rise, and when it doubles in size the dough in the bowl will also have doubled. Then put it back into the big ball of dough and have at it. :-)
Once in a while you may see the sample of dough called an "aliquot".
This isn't a strictly correct usage of the word, unless you measure the size of the sample exactly.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
Exactly what I meant and I have that same anchor hocking cup too. Wish I had the stone counter top.
You don't have to be a sourpuss about it.
I bake Hamelman's 100% Workday whole wheat and various rye breads from "Bread" and "The Rye Baker". I'm not sure what the bulk fermentation and proofing volume increases are supposed to be with high whole grain breads. I usually just go with the timings in the formulas. Bread Formulas. Going back to using an aliquot probably isn't a bad idea just to see what it does.
BTW, I missed my usual baking weekend last week because a medical issue limited what I was allowed to lift. So I stopped in at the local Bruegger's Bagels where I used to be a regular but had not been since I started baking rye. I always thought their bagels were OK to pretty good, but after a few years baking with whole grains, my breads have a lot more flavor than white flour bagels.
I am wondering if you are from NY? I have the rye baker, and also inside the Jewish bakery. I love both. That being said, inside the Jewish bakery is my go to for things like NZY deli rye, bagels, and onion rolls. I was not being snarky. Sometimes the spirit of a post doesn't come though how it is ment.
Will F.
"Sourpuss" was just a humorous (well, I thought it was) reference to your lemon squeezy. I apologize if it came off incorrectly as any kind of criticism.
I am from Boston originally, but I lived and worked in NYC for two years. The last year I lived in NYC, it was in the Lower East Side before it was gentrified (1980) and when you could still get into Katz's (which serves embarrassingly cheap rye bread around the world's best pastrami). Yonah (pronounced YOY-neh) Schimmel's, which I had read about possibly in a book by Harry Golden, was already a disappointment.
I left NYC for San Francisco, and thought I had died and gone to heaven. No snow and no humid sweltering summers. And spectacular food culture including great artisan bakeries like Acme et al.
I eventually retired to San Diego, CA where Stanley Ginsburg of "The Rye Baker" and "Inside the Jewish Bakery" lives. I emailed him once, never got a reply. It was here where I started bread baking. While I usually try to emphasize fresh and local food, I still have a weakness for chowder (which is great with the local seafood) and rye bread (which appears twice a week at an artisan bakery here, only as a light deli rye). It was only during covid that I finally tried to bake sourdough, specifically for the sourdough rye chapter of Hamelman's "Bread".
I baked some tasty frisbees working from "Bread" and a sourdough book by Mark Bittman, who claimed to have a simpler technique. I was about to give up when I found "The Rye Baker". I got the rye culture going on the 2nd or 3rd try. My breads don't always look great Culinary Photos but the ryes taste pretty good.
If you scroll through this album Food Paintings & Photos to Aug/Sep 2024, you can see some rye breads in Scandinavia and the Baltics. The hotel breakfast buffets always had smoked fish and rye bread, which is what I usually have for breakfast at home.
Nice. I was born and raised in Canarsie Brooklyn. I owned a Pet shop in Canarsie at the last stop of the "L" train, Rockaway Parkway. After that I found myself in building service. I ended my working days as a resident manager in a NYU faculty housing building. Directly across the street from the Washington Square arch. Now I am happily retired in San Tan Valley Arizona. Nice meeting you.
Will F.
Would that be Sun Tan Valley?
No doubt you remember the film "The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3". The retired transit operator working with the hijackers told the cops that he used to drive trains on the Canarsie Line.
I'm guessing that there aren't many artisan bakeries where you live, so if you want good bread, especially rye, you have to bake it yourself.
I collected the formulas I use and a bunch of tips from various books and websites: Bread Formulas
Your food/ bread photos are outstanding! I'll have a look at. Your formulas. Bread, pizza, I love my own anyhow!