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I began cooking/baking in my WFO 3 weeks ago. I've done pizza on 3 consecutive Fridays, and a re-fire Sunday pizza bake in there too. I have cooked about 50 pizzas... they are getting better. On the three Saturdays following pizzas I have tried making bread. The first Saturday I made 9 loaves from a recipe that had a poolish, etc. I did not steam the oven, I did not let them proof properly... so I ate dense bread. The next week I made 14 loaves of bread, some english muffins, and scones. Much better results with week 2, but still not getting the oven spring I had heard so much about. Nevertheless the bread was not dense and it was tasty.
Today I went for 23 loaves of bread (40lbs.?). The recipe I used for 19 of the loaves called for a 100% poolish 12-14 hours before and then mixing/kneading the dough and about 4 hour total rise/proof time before going in the oven. (bear with me I am still trying to figure out the vocabulary of bread making). 10 of the loaves were 50% bread flour and 50% AP flour. 3 loaves were rosemary/garlic, 3 were kalamata olive/thyme, 2 had sesame seeds on top, and 2 were plain. 9 other loaves were made from 50% bread flour, 25% whole wheat flour, and %25 rye flour. I formed these into boules. The other 4 loaves were a recipe without a poolish, with 50% bread flour and 50% whole wheat, more yeast and the addition of honey. I added some walnuts and peanut powder to these loaves and they came out ok, a little dense, but good enough.
I baked all the bread between 570 F and 500 F. So based on the pictures and my attempt to describe what I'm trying to do: what do you notice? what can I do to improve? All advice/critique is welcomed.
I know I need to learn how to incorporate the added ingredients (olives, garlic, etc.). I didn't add them until I was shaping the loaves and these ingredients are not integrated evenly.
Thanks,
John
Today I went for 23 loaves of bread (40lbs.?). The recipe I used for 19 of the loaves called for a 100% poolish 12-14 hours before and then mixing/kneading the dough and about 4 hour total rise/proof time before going in the oven. (bear with me I am still trying to figure out the vocabulary of bread making). 10 of the loaves were 50% bread flour and 50% AP flour. 3 loaves were rosemary/garlic, 3 were kalamata olive/thyme, 2 had sesame seeds on top, and 2 were plain. 9 other loaves were made from 50% bread flour, 25% whole wheat flour, and %25 rye flour. I formed these into boules. The other 4 loaves were a recipe without a poolish, with 50% bread flour and 50% whole wheat, more yeast and the addition of honey. I added some walnuts and peanut powder to these loaves and they came out ok, a little dense, but good enough.
I baked all the bread between 570 F and 500 F. So based on the pictures and my attempt to describe what I'm trying to do: what do you notice? what can I do to improve? All advice/critique is welcomed.
I know I need to learn how to incorporate the added ingredients (olives, garlic, etc.). I didn't add them until I was shaping the loaves and these ingredients are not integrated evenly.
Thanks,
John
) in the crust. I think you will have better browning if you bump temps up a bit for your sourdough...my gut reaction is that the 500F start temp for the "light" loaves was just too low to achieve good color in the time allowed. Definitely use a temp probe to determine the timing necessary to achieve 205-210F internal loaf temps. My best baguettes are done in the 550-575F range (15 min total bake time). My normal procedure is to make sure my oven's equalized in my preferred temp range and then bake the baguettes & Pugliese first, followed by my sourdough boules and wheat based breads in the 525-535F range. In my experience, over proofed dough will also result in paler brown colors (less sugar).
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