Bread Thread - Page 16

No book - Michael Ruhlman's bread baking app + this post http://www.styleforum.net/showpost.p...&postcount=112

I just had some time, felt like trying to make bread, and went ahead and did it.

Flour: King Arthur unbleached bread flower

Oven was wet, and poured boiling water into a cast iron skillet in the bottom. There was a lot of steam.

I let it rise for ~2 hours, punched it down, let it rise another hour, rolled it out with a rolling pin (was this wrong - maybe this is where I squeezed out the air), formed into baguettes, then let rise another 45 minutes. So about 4 hours total.

No pre-ferment.

Used a pizza stone. I assume it's the same thing as a baking stone.

Scoring: I didn't even think that maybe there was some functional reason to score the bread. Also, I just cut straight down.

Maybe a baguette to start is a bit ambitious. I may try a boule next.

Proper baguettes are very high-maintenance, and fairly high up the learning curve. I would start on boules or bâtards using similar dough to the dough you'd use for baguettes.

King Arthur Flour runs and honest-to-God artisan bakery at their headquarters in Vermont, and they have a series of videos about the various steps in bread production recorded there and narrated by their bakery staff up on their website. I've found them very useful -- the shaping and scoring ones in particular taught me more about how to do it than lots of verbiage in lots of books.

Speaking of books, my favorite bread book is Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman, the master baker who runs the KA bakery. It's more like a textbook for professional bakers, but I've found it excellent for home use.



If I recall correctly, Ruhlman's ratio for bread calls for 60% hydration (5 parts flour to 3 parts water). That's not enough water to get the open crumb that you're looking for in baguettes. You really want something in the neighborhood of 65-67%. The shortage of water in your bread is exacerbated by using the KA bread flour -- the higher the protein content of the flour (KA bread flour has 12.7% protein), the more water it can take. Regular old KA AP flour works fine for most artisan-style bread. I pretty much just use the KA bread flour for things that need extra chewiness, like bialys.

(Additionally, I think that you would probably improve your results by folding the dough an hour into the bulk fermentation -- see the KA mixing and folding video at the link above. You don't need to worry about de-gassing the dough while shaping. That's exactly what you're supposed to do, although using a rolling pin isn't the best way to do it.)


Are you getting the KA French-style flour or real Type 55 from France?

Well I finally made something today that I was really happy with. First time I was able to get some real air pockets, I think the key was using a starter that I prepared the night before. Ate this for dinner with some brie and fig spread, it was delicious. Fresh out of the oven: Slices to show texture: (I loosely followed this recipe if anyone wants to know)

Texture looks great, but the crust is a little too dark for my taste. Making a loaf right now, currently preheating the cast iron pot in the oven, and I think it's going to be a great one. Will post pictures afterwards. Edit: all right. Not so pleased about the texture, but the crust is super crunchy and delicious. I think I used slightly too much yeast, it smelled somewhat of yeast when I took it out, so that's a bummer. Anyways, I'm planning on using a slice or two as a side dish to my dinner tonight, I'm thinking buttering up one side with garlic butter and putting some cheese on the other side and grill them in the oven.