Bread Maker Wanna-Be

[Tonyp]

Re: Bread Maker Wanna-Be

Hi John,

Hmm 69% seems pretty decent, unless you are over flouring while kneading. It's hard not to want to use more flour when everything is sticky! It gets less sticky as you knead but the rye and whole wheat will be more sticky naturally and tend to stay stickier. I do have a recipe that goes all the way to 79.5% hydration for these really thin baguettes, so you might try a bit more hydration?

So if I understand correctly you did a bulk proof 12-14hrs. Then kneaded while adding your various other ingredients, followed by shaping and proofing for roughly 4 hours, then baking? How was the final proof? Perhaps they didn't rise enough before baking? That would cause them to be dense. Being too rough with them while removing from the proofing container and deflating them could also be an issue. You might also try scoring them a bit deeper.

I do a LOT of steaming when I use my gas oven. There is a heavy tray on the bottom of the oven that I pour a cup of water into just after putting the loaves in. I also steam with the pump up sprayer opened up to nearly a stream for about 10 seconds at 30 second intervals 3 or 4 times within the first few minutes of cooking. The gas oven though has tremendous gas exchange so moisture is sucked out of it very quickly. I have not tried cooking bread yet in the WFO other than naan while the fire was active. The WFO holds the moisture so you shouldn't need to steam much, especially if you are loading it up with loaves. One thing you can try which I have done with my other oven, is to have a very heavy preheated pan to which you toss a cup of ice cubes into at the start of the bake. They will produce a nice steady stream of steam for a few minutes.

Look forward to your sourdough attempt! I have not tried it myself as my wife prefers yeast breads..

[JohnR]

Re: Bread Maker Wanna-Be

Tony, thanks for the reply.

The dough was 69% hydration (and I probably over floured the surface I was kneading on as well). Should I try higher hydration?

I mixed in the added ingredients (garlic, thyme, etc.) between the bulk proof and the shaping/final proof. I just "folded" them and didn't really work them into the whole loaf. Maybe I should mix these ingredients in before the bulk proof/rise.

I steamed the oven for 10 seconds (using a garden pump sprayer) and then closed the oven for 10 minutes. Opened the oven loaded the loaves and steamed to the count of 10 again. Maybe I should add more steam during the baking?

I'm working on a sourdough starter now... it will be 12 days old by next Saturday. Hopefully mature enough to bake some sourdough.

[Tonyp]

Re: Bread Maker Wanna-Be

WOooo fun stuff!!! I am anxious to start making bread in my oven but haven't built a good insulated door yet. I have been baking bread in my regular oven on the pizza stone and running 500-525 temps with steaming at 30 second intervals for the first few minutes by using one of those pump up spray bottles.

What % hydration are you using in the dough? I am also a little unsure at which stage you are adding your other ingredients. If you are using containers or boules to do the final proofing there shouldn't be any shaping required. Once they are proofed they are turned out onto your peel as gently as possible, scored and put in the oven. You want to handle them as little as possible so as to not deflate the dough. Working with the whole wheat and the rye will also make it more difficult because of the lower gluten. You could add some extra gluten to help these loaves rise more.

[JohnR]

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