The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

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Kjknits's picture
Kjknits

I love how artisan bread gives you the opportunity to do something creative with your scoring. I think Santa is my favorite—he got the full glamour shot treatment! 🎅🏻 

Mark of the Yeast's picture
Mark of the Yeast

First post!! 

I'm so excited to have found a cool community where I can talk/read about baking bread without an algorithm to decide to put other random crap in front of my face.

 

Anyhoo!

I use a pretty basic sandwich bread recipe for pretty much all the bread I've ever made

Warm water and honey to bloom the dry active yeast

Butter, flour, salt to form the dough. 

This time around, I made a loaf with a swirl of bacon bits and shredded cheese! It was a massive hit and we used it to make breakfast sandwiches the next day. 

 

From this same batch, I made a parmesan flake swirl loaf as well. Whenever I make this recipe, I tend to do one plain loaf and one with inclusions. The parmesan loaf was for our dinner tonight, toasted and dipped in French onion soup. YUM. 

 

I'm working on bringing up a starter from scratch right now, I'm on day four! Can't wait to make some tasty sourdough loaves, hopefully I can give it a couple tries and get to a point where I'm satisfied gifting a loaf or two for Christmas to my husband's family. I have no expectations of truly getting the hang of it that quickly, though, so call this a reach goal 🤣

Benito's picture
Benito

So I needed to bake more presents and planned to repeat my star shaped bake, but last minute decided to use a more traditional rolled bun shaping.  I also made some creamed cheese icing to top these.  My partner and I got to quality control this bake as I cut one bun out and can report that they are quite yummy.  although you definitely get the cinnamon, the ginger carries through the finish.  As expected, the crumb is fluffy, shreddable and so soft.  I’ll keep this recipe for another Christmas to bake again.

Ingredients

3¾ to 4¼ cups all-purpose flour 480 g (4 cups)

4 tsp. ground ginger

4 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground cloves

1 pkg. active dry yeast (1 ¾  tsp. IDY or about 4.9 g)(if use osmotolerant yeast then can ferment a bit faster.)

¾ cup milk (184 g)

1 cup plain mashed potato

⅓ cup butter (76 g)

⅓ cup molasses (93.3 g)

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

 

½ cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup butter, melted

Powdered sugar (optional)

 

HANDS ON 30 min.
RISE 1 hour 15 min.
REST 10 min.
BAKE 20 min. at 375°F

 

1. In a large bowl stir together 480 g flour, 3 tsp. of the ginger, 1 tsp. of the cinnamon, ¼ tsp. of the cloves, and the yeast. In the bowl of your mixer stir milk, mashed potato, ⅓ cup melted butter, the molasses, eggs and salt. Add flour mixture to the liquid mixture. Mix until gluten is well developed.

2. Turn dough out onto and shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning to grease surface of dough. Cover; let rise until doubled in size (60 to 120 minutes).  Can do a cold retard at this point.

3. Punch dough down. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. Lightly grease a 13×9-inch baking pan. Prepare filling in a small bowl stir together the brown sugar and remaining 1 tsp. ginger, 3 tsp. cinnamon, and ¼ tsp. cloves. 

4. Roll dough into an 18×12-inch rectangle. Spread with softened butter and sprinkle with filling, leaving 1 inch unfilled along one of the long sides. Roll up tightly, starting from filled long side and pinching seam to seal. Cut into 12 slices; arrange in pan. Cover; let rise until nearly double in size (30 minutes).

5. Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Invert to remove from pan; invert rolls again onto a platter. Spread with Cream Cheese Frosting. Makes 12 rolls.

 

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

 

In a medium bowl beat 3 oz. (85 g) softened cream cheese, 2 Tbsp. softened butter, and 1 tsp. vanilla with a mixer on medium until combined. Gradually beat in 2½ cups powdered sugar until smooth. Beat in enough milk, 1 tsp. at a time, to reach spreading consistency.  Next time add some lemon juice to make it tangier and can probably skip the extra milk.  Say about 2 tsp lemon juice.

My index of bakes

Benito's picture
Benito

I’ve wanted to make a bread done with this star shaping for quite sometime so decided that Christmas baking was the perfect time to try it out.  It is fun and pretty easy overall to do.  Because I needed this to be done fairly quickly I didn’t convert this recipe to sourdough and instead just used IDY.

Makes 2 stars (8 servings each) or 12 rolls.  

 

Ingredients

3¾ to 4¼ cups all-purpose flour 480 g (4 cups)

4 tsp. ground ginger

4 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground cloves

1 pkg. active dry yeast (1 ¾  tsp. IDY or about 4.9 g)

¾ cup milk (184 g)

1 cup plain mashed potato

⅓ cup butter (76 g)

⅓ cup molasses (93.3 g)

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

 

½ cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup butter, melted

Powdered sugar (optional)

 

HANDS ON 30 min.
RISE 1 hour 15 min.
REST 10 min.
BAKE 20 min. at 375°F

 

1. In a large bowl stir together 480 g flour, 3 tsp. of the ginger, 1 tsp. of the cinnamon, ¼ tsp. of the cloves, and the yeast. In the bowl of your mixer stir milk, mashed potato, ⅓ cup melted butter, the molasses, eggs and salt. Add flour mixture to the liquid mixture. Mix until gluten is well developed.

2. Turn dough out onto and shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning to grease surface of dough. Cover; let rise until doubled in size (60 to 120 minutes).  Can do a cold retard at this point.

3. Punch dough down. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into eight equal portions. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

4. For filling, in a small bowl stir together the brown sugar and remaining 1 tsp. ginger, 3 tsp. cinnamon, and ¼ tsp. cloves.

5. For each star, on a lightly oiled surface roll one portion of dough into a 10-inch round. Place on a prepared sheet. Brush with some of the ¼ cup melted butter. Sprinkle with a slightly rounded Tbsp. of the filling. Repeat two times, stacking rounds. Top with another dough round for a total of four. Brush with melted butter. Place a 2½-inch round cutter in the center of the dough stack, making a slight indent. Use a sharp knife to cut 16 strips, cutting from the cutter to the edge of the stack. Gently twist one of the strips two times. For the strip next to it, twist the strip in the opposite direction. Repeat to make eight arms to the star. Remove cutter. Repeat with remaining four dough rounds and filling. Let rise until nearly double in size (about 30-60 minutes); brush with additional melted butter.

6. Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake 20 minutes or until golden. Once cooled on a rack, dust with powdered sugar (if using). Makes 2 stars (8 servings each).

 

 

I haven’t eaten this yet so cannot report back on my personal experience with it.  However, everyone who has tried has raved about it.  I still have a couple more of these to bake so perhaps I’ll have a chance to actually eat some.

 

My index of bakes.

mwilson's picture
mwilson

Formula:

Pandoro A Due Impasti di Giorilli
  Original1x1Kg
 Primo Impasto(g)(g)
 Flour2000286
 LM50071
 Sugar60086
 Whole eggs✝1650236
 Butter700100
 Salt40.57
    
 Secondo Impasto  
 Flour35050
 Malt253.57
 Egg yolks35050
 Salt223.14
    
 Emulsion  
 Sugar35050
 Honey507
 Butter750107
 Cocoa butter✝✝17024
 Flavourings*  
    
 To Finish the mix  
 Fresh cream14020
    
Total 76611094

* Additional flavourings were added: After mixing the primo impasto, honey from the recipe was mixed with vanilla, lemon zest and a splash of dark rum. This was left to infuse overnight before being mixed into the emulsion the following day.

✝  A splash of milk (UK: Semi skimmed) was added to 4 whole eggs (UK: large) to make up the desired weight of 236g.

✝✝ Cocoa butter was substituted with quality white chocolate.

Method:

Per il primo impasto, begin by mixing the flour with the leaven and almost all the eggs. When the dough becomes smooth, add the remaining eggs. After a few minutes incorporate the sugar, the salt and the lastly the butter. Let it rise at 25-26C for around 12 hours or when it reaches triple the volume.

Per il secondo impasto, mix half of the first dough with the flour and the malt. When the dough becomes smooth add the other half, the salt and lastly the egg yolks, a little at a time. When the dough is elastic and homogenous incorporate the emulsion, prepared in advance by creaming the butter with sugar and amalgamating well the other ingredients. Finish the mix adjusting the consistency with the fresh cream.

Transfer to a container and let rest for around 30 minutes at 28C. After this time, scale pieces of the desired weight, shape into a boule and place on butter boards and hold them at 28C for around 60 minutes. Shape and place in the moulds. Allow to rise at 28-30C for around 6 hours or until the dough reaches the edges of the mould.

Baking times:

500g: 30 minutes at 170C
750g: 40 minutes at 170C
1000g: 50 minutes at 170C

Remove from the oven and let the pandoro cool for around 60 minutes before removing from the mould. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


LM - Not fully tripled but pleasant alcohol aromas within.



Primo Impasto - After12 hours the primo impasto more than tripled in volume!


The leavening power of my lievito madre is proving very potent. However acidity issues persist. Primo impasto pH: Initial: 6.27 End: 4.21. It just goes to show that simply pushing the yeast potency is not enough to mitigate acidification.

The risen primo impasto had quite a strong acetic aroma emanating from it while on the counter, however the taste was very different and tasted completely non-sour with just a very pleasant carbonic fizz.

The final mix was relatively easy to do and went without issue. By the end of the mix the finished dough was supple and elastic and when removed from the mixing bowl was a very extensible and relaxed to cover a large part of the counter. pH = 4.5 (too low - should be >5).

I rounded the dough a couple of times during the rest period to encourage it to hold a higher form before performing the final round and placing into the pandoro mould.


Finished dough - After mix rest then rounded (pagnottella)




Finished dough moulded



Fully proofed

The proof was done at a slightly lower temperature of 24-25C than the 28-30 prescribed. Proof time 9 hours instead of 6 but that's about right considering the temperature difference.




Baked

 

Just in time for Christmas, I wanted to get a Holiday bread bake in before the festive season began. It's been years since I baked a Pandoro and I'm glad I did. Being less dicey than Panettone since it doesn't require hanging which can be make or break!

 

Happy Christmas all.


Michael

Jaschreiber's picture
Jaschreiber

Let me say at the outset that I've been reading this site for nearly 20 years but never felt compelled to post anything until this week... I've also been baking professionally for a long time and never encountered a challenge quite like this... they don't call it the Mount Everest of baking for nothing!

I've made non-sourdough (read, inauthentic) panettoni before and been satisfied with them until last year, when I purchased a copy of Sourdough Panettone and Vienoisserie by Tefri-Chambelland just before New Year’s Eve, looked it over, and quickly put it back on the shelf. Damn that book is technical! 

November rolled around and I decided to give it another go, reading the book cover to cover (multiple times) before trying my hand. I built a pasta madre following the instructions from Eva's Blog which no doubt many are familiar with, and things went pretty smoothly despite some initial problems with temperature control in a “cozy” Brooklyn apartment. Once the weather cooled and our apartment regularly started dropping to 65 degrees at night things felt like they were taking off, with a slight hiccup somewhere around Thanksgiving when I switched from Caputo's Manitoba Oro to Petra 6384 flour. I also decided to switch from the water storage to the bound method at around the same time, because I was hoping to get away with keeping a smaller starter (the water method seems to require a larger feedings—at least 200g—and I wanted to stick to 100g for efficiency’s sake).

I tried baking with the starter for the first time about 3 weeks ago even though it was clearly not strong enough. I did the three preparatory warm refreshments and I knew a panettone would be out of the question so I chose a recipe from SPAV with fewer ingredients (Sourdough Brioche) and, as expected, it never rose. It came out of the oven more like an omelet than a bread. I pressed forward, this time doing 3 days of preparatory warm refreshments and decided to attempt another bake. I knew it was risky, but I decided to make a panettone this time, and chose a recipe from SPAV more or less at random. I built a little proof box out foam core and a seedling heating mat, but the 1st dough still failed to rise. I made the second dough anyway (I know) and... you know the drill.

I tucked the starter away in the fridge for a week to regroup, and when I brought it back out I proceeded with four days of warm refreshments before attempting another dough. Things were really going smoothly! The starter was consistently reaching a pH of 4.15 after about 3h 45m at 28C and nearly tripling in volume. It seemed like the stars were aligning.

This time I decided to take everyone's advice and use the Giorilli formula which is supposed to be very reliable and forgiving. The dough came together beautifully; the primo impasto has a higher hydration than the previous dough I had tried and so my Kitchenaid thanked me as well. I set it in the proofer at 25C.

Got up in the morning to.... nothing. At best, the dough had risen by about half, but it had only been about 8 hours and people say it can take 14 to 16, and 25C seemed cold compared to other recipes I'd read, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and bump the temperature up to 29C. Wouldn’t you know it, but the dough had tripled by 1pm! But, unfortunately, the pH had dropped to 3.6 and when I took the temp of the bottom of the container (which I had foolishly set directly on the heating pad in the proofing box) it was 32C.

The dough was a little sticky, but it still had a decent structure, so I once again threw caution to the wind and pressed forward. I had read that if your dough is too acidic it can be nearly impossible to incorporate the yolks and butter into the second dough but was pleasantly surprised at how easily it came together. The pH after mixing the second dough was unsurprisingly low at 4.8, but there was nothing to be done about that, so I divided it into two molds and set them back in the proofer at 28C, this time being sure to elevate them so they weren't in direct contact with the heating pad.

5 hours. 6 hours. 7 hours. Nada. The cool sheet pan and the mass of the dough had dropped the temp in the proof box when I put them in and the 40 watt heating element was having trouble getting the temp back up. Maybe the dough’s just too cold? I'll keep waiting. By 9pm we're finally up to 28 degrees, and the dough is nearly halfway up the molds. 10pm rolls around and I'm confident the dough could climb to the top of the mold if I gave it more time, but I'm losing steam. At 10:30 I decide to throw them in the oven. I tried to score the top of one, but the dough is sticky and soft so it didn’t bother scoring the second. I didn’t bother glazing them, either. 

I sat on the floor in front of the oven and watched them climb the top of the mold, so maybe all’s not lost. After about an hour of baking they had reached an internal temp of 200F, so I flipped them upside down to cool and headed to bed, not sure what I'd wake up to.  

To my surprise, they're not so bad! Under proofed sure, but soft and surprisingly not sour. I want to do better next time but this is exhausting! 

So what’s my path forward here… more warm refreshments? More purifications? Go back to the water storage? A better-insulated proofing box? Better luck next time? Would love to hear from the experienced panettieri here!

 

  TimepH
 Into Bagnetto10:00 AM3.9
Refresh 1 (100/100/40)End of Mix10:15 AM--
 Into Proofer10:25 AM4.85
 End of Ferment2:00 AM4.15
Refresh 2 (100/100/42)End of Mix2:10 AM4.8
 End of Ferment5:55 PM4.1

Refresh 3 (100/100/42)

End of Mix6:05 PM5.5
 End of Ferment9:15 PM4.19
1st DoughEnd of Mix10:10 PM5.5
 Out of Proofer1:00 PM3.6
2nd DoughEnd of Mix2:00 PM4.8
 Into Oven10:00 PM--

 

Yippee's picture
Yippee

 

Please see here and here to learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS). 

 

 

I've been mulling over what to do with that hefty 50-pound bag of durum berries I stowed away during the pandemic. Noodle-making was my go-to, but it became a chore after a while. I even considered buying a noodle machine for convenience: the kind that extrudes noodles once you add all the ingredients, but guess what? Nature stepped in and saved me the trouble—bugs invaded the bag, and that was it for my durum berries. Here's the final loaf I made totally clueless about those bugs:

 

 

 

Ingredients:

 

Pre-dough

Prepare a puree with

23% milk

46% overripe bananas

 

95% fresh whole durum flour ground in the Vitamix

5% whole durum flour from durum CLAS

7.5% water from durum CLAS

17% egg

0.2% gold yeast

 

mix until a moist dough forms; do not overmix

28C x 240mins using Zo's "Rise 1"

 

Dough

predough

➕

0.5% gold yeast

1.5% salt

1.5% ground cinnamon

10% butter

mix until incorporated, then 

➕

38% toasted mix of 

walnuts

hazelnuts

almonds

pecans

➕

38% craisins 

 

mix in extra banana-milk puree if needed

 

Total dough weight: ~750g

for a 19cm x 11cm x 8.5cm tin with a lid (holds 1000ml)

 

Bulk

using Zo's "Rise 3"

38C x 50mins

 

Shape

place the dough into the tin lined with parchment slings

smooth the top with a spatula (optional)

 

Prove

using Zo's "Rise 3"

38C x 40mins

 

Bake

using the 6Q Instant Vortex Clear Cook Air Fryer

line parchment paper on top of the dough

close the lid

 

375Fx10mins

350Fx15mins

flip

350Fx10mins

 

 

click to enlarge

 

 

 

 

 

 I🧡💛🩷that I can bake two loaves in the air fryer at once whenever I feel like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy it the ball-law-yau style

 

I have another 100% durum bread, but this time it's made with refined, extra fancy durum flour.

 

Teebella's picture
Teebella

It had action on day 2 & 3 after that it slowed down then stopped .. using King Arthur bread flour .. was feeding once a day for 3 days then twice a day.. I accidentally discarded on day two… it’s in my microwave with a paper towel and rubber band … the first few days I had the lid on then switched upon reading .. maybe that’s the problem? Is it saveable? 
my hair accidentally dipped into one of them just a few mins ago should I throw it out? Did I poison them? 

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

Eureka! Though trial and error I have successfully recreated the authentic, iconic NYC Kaiser roll. Brought to America by our German Jewish neighbors. These are the big ones of breakfast sandwich fame. 

Check another one off the list.

Kaiser rolls-✅

WatertownNewbie's picture
WatertownNewbie

This is a variation on the Infinity Bread from the recent Community Bake.  The original used emmer as the third flour, and in a subsequent bake I posted a bread with einkorn.  This time spelt became the third flour, and I am pleased with the result.  Not as much oven spring as with the other two, but that seems typical of spelt.  The flavor is great, and the crust has a nice crispiness.

For this bake I increased the amounts by 30% to achieve larger loaves, one of which was given to the crew at our local veterinarian office.  We kept the other, and here are photos of the two loaves as well as the crumb from ours.

The loaves weighed 1172 grams and 1145 grams and each was in the oven for 44 minutes.  Thanks again to PMCool for shepherding the Community Bake that began this adventure.

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