Saro Makes Bread: A Baking Thread

Discussion in 'Make It So' started by Saro, Jan 20, 2018.

  1. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    I just watched four seasons of The Great British Baking Show and cried about every finale, so I'm going to be attempting to bake something every weekend for the foreseeable future. Maybe more frequently but that's unlikely. This is an accountability thread for me but I welcome anyone in to talk about baking in basically any regard!
     
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  2. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    First recipe uses a sorta cheaty starter! Here it is, after sitting and doing yeasty stuff for about 4 hours. It got huge, I may have used too small a bowl.

    0120181715_crop_747x838.jpg

    Here's the recipe: French-style country bread
     
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  3. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    The bread rises.... It did its first rise on top of the fridge, now it sits on a baking sheet, growing large and airy....

    Waiting is hard. I was watching it sit there for five minutes and nothing happened and so I got paranoid that I screwed it up. A watched loaf never rises?
     
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  4. Codeless

    Codeless Cheshire Cat

    trust me it´s not gonna rise in 5 minutes. Maybe go read something or do a chore or play a game to pass the time?
     
  5. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    I know it's not :b I'm just impatient! And I wanna see it grow
     
    • Like x 1
  6. Codeless

    Codeless Cheshire Cat

    awww -pats-
    My breadmaking is ususally less ambitious, i just make plain yeasted white bread cause least amount of specialized ingedients and processes
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2018
    • Like x 1
  7. chaoticArbiter

    chaoticArbiter an actual shiny eevee (destroyer of worlds)

    ....camps out in this thread because even if I can't bake bread myself right now I can live vicariously through others
     
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  8. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    The times I've made bread that's what I usually do too! This is possibly the fanciest recipe I've tried, and it's still pretty basic. I might try to find something more exciting for future weekends.
     
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  9. shmeed

    shmeed plant me

    *camps out here*
     
  10. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    FRENCH-STYLE COUNTRY BREAD RESULTS!!

    so I was too tired to do this last night but I have a loaf of bread! We've already eaten about a third of it because it's fresh bread.

    0121181400_crop_854x690.jpg

    It's not the prettiest bread, and it's flatter and less airy than I thought it would be. This is very possibly my fault, I may have deflated it too much when I turned it out for its second rise. The texture and flavor are good though!i wish it had gotten a little more golden but I didn't want to overbake it and it was 10 degrees over the recommended internal temp.

    In general, next time I would be more careful, bake it maybe a little longer, and let the starter go overnight. Maybe split it up into two loaves too, this one is hard to cut.

    So! I'm gonna find a recipe for next time sometime soon. If anyone has any suggestions or anything, if he happy to hear them!
     
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  11. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    We finished up the previous loaf on, I think, Tuesday, lol. I've been missing homemade bread ever since but have been busy. I've been looking forward to the weekend, which is BREAD TIME! (it may be cookie time or scone time or maybe even cake time in the future, but right now my desire for chewy, holey bread has not been quenched.)

    I will be making some RUSTIC ITALIAN CIABATTAS this weekend! I think I might spice up the recipe with some herbage. (I keep going with KAF because they don't have 5 million recipes to wade through....)

    I might try making a sourdough starter too! Last one I had I murdered, somehow (sorry to all the yeast and bacteria in it....) But I love sourdough bread more than life itself, I'd like to make some for myself at least once. If that means destroying a couple starters, I'll do it.
     
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  12. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    I need to make something more quick next week because I'm being impatient again. My "starter" is resting on top of the fridge, making bubbles, and I want to get to the part where it becomes bread already.
     
  13. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    Bread obtained! Very pretty golden color, nice texture, nice crust. Dough was tough to work with though, it didn't get mixed quite as much as it probably needed to. Oh well! There was no kneading and my shoulders are thankful for that.

    0128181643a_crop_658x836.jpg

    I'd definitely make this again, it was pretty hands-off. In exchange, it had to rise like three separate times, so it's a looong process.
     
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  14. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    Despite all evidence to the contrary, I did make bread this weekend! Cannot get off this bread kick, specifically a KAF bread kick. I just want bakery quality fresh bread in my life without paying 5 bucks a loaf or more. ;.;

    Anyway, I made a variation on a no-knead bread this weekend, but one that doesn't need to sit for two days or be cooked in a huge pot because otherwise it can't support its own weight. (Recipe here.)

    Aaaand it turned out fucking great, possibly my most successful bread yet! I made a loaf with ~1/3 of the dough yesterday (and ate it all), and I'm baking the rest today. The crumb is perfect, chewy rather than crumbly, and the crust is just... Mmmmmm. Here are my dough lumps, waiting for baking (I promise they will look a lot better when they come out).

    0204182147_crop_828x354.jpg
     
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  15. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    MY BEAUTIFUL BREAD

    0206181051a-531x299.jpg
     
    • Winner x 6
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  16. chthonicfatigue

    chthonicfatigue Bitten by a radioactive trickster god

    That look so good. I have Bread Envy.
     
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  17. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    Today I made a non-bread! My first one!

    This is a bit of a cheat because I've made the recipe before but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    I made (US style) biscuits because I didn't feel good and wanted comfort food to eat with stew. I was really lazy and didn't even measure the salt AND SO my biscuits are not salty enough! But that's okay because the texture is so good, I actually did a good job not overworking it. Plus with toppings they are divine. Breakfast tomorrow: scrambled egg on biscuit with whatever tasty thing I can find in the fridge to dress it with.

    Next week, provided I feel up to it, I want to do something more ambitious and maybe document it a bit more. What I really want is a cheese bread, holy crap, there are so many recipes out there that sound amazing and good christ I just want to eat cheese. (it's a bit of a disappointment that a lot of the more challenging/interesting/complex bread recipes out there are nutty or seedy or fruity or dairy-laden, and those options are just not on the table for me right now.)
     
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  18. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    So I missed last weekend for various reasons (although I did actually bake something, but it was a repeat). Decided to do something simple to get back on the groove, the flow, the swing of baking alchemy. The perfect thing for my chocolate-craving self: KAF cake pan cake! No dairy! No butter! No... eggs? Hmm. Vegan's not usually my thing, but I'll give it a shot!

    Well, I have it a shot. And it's not too bad, all things considered: it's an adequate vehicle for sugar and cocoa, it has a pretty good chocolate flavor, and it's not dry. But the texture is just... A little off. Another issue: baking in a cupcake tin, each cupcake has a kind of "skin" on top: the crust is a bit rubbery, and the sides are too, a little. This probably wouldn't be as much of an issue in an actual cake pan, but I didn't have an appropriate one. And it just lacks the fatty mouthfeel that I generally expect from cake.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ well! They can't all be amazing, and I very possibly might have been the one to fuck it up, but I probably won't be making this again. Much rather just have brownies or something, lol.

    They look pretty nice though. Very dark and rich.
     
    • Like x 4
  19. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    I completely forgot to post last weekend. Despite my unkind words about the chocolate cake recipe, I actually made it again because my husband really liked it when I made it the first time. Unfortunately, he did not like it the second time! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ So I ate it all.

    I checked out a bread cookbook from the library, so this weekend is the first recipe NOT from KAF!

    I have chosen to make a variation on Pusstabrot, a Hungarian white bread with fennel. I have no fennel so I'm either gonna make it plain or substitute some other herb. (Recipe courtesy of Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads.)

    This bread starts out kinda oddly... You make a sponge in the middle of the flour by just pouring in the water, yeast, and oil, mixing in a little bit of the flour, then letting that rise before actually making the dough.

    I took a picture but... It's really gross-looking! I don't know if I was successful making this "thin batter": the flour didn't mix well, the water flowed over the sides of the flour, the oil made everything kind of clump up on the surface. I feel like it would have been better to make the sponge separately the add it to a well in the middle of the flour. Also this recipe calls for a fuckton of yeast. I hope my bowl doesn't overflow. I think it might be too shallow.

    Anyway, time to leave it for an hour.
     
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  20. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    My bread!! No idea how it is, I have to let it cool, but it looks very attractive. It'd probably look better if I'd used the recommended egg wash, but fuck if I'm wasting an egg for that. I put rosemary in (chopped very fine) and it smells incredible.

    0311181738_crop_747x597.jpg
     
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