Another Good Sunday

[70chevelle]

Celebrated my dad's birthday yesterday. I had him out for dinner (3 bone prime rib roast), and my wife and I decided to make some bread. Saturday afternoon we put together 2 batches of dough, about 7# each. Let them bench rise for 2 hours, punched down, and put in the fridge for a long ferment/rise. I got the oven started around 6:30 am on Sunday, threw on a few more pieces of wood as I left for church and came home to a white oven with a little ash left over. Grabbed the dough out of the fridge, shaped and let it rise until the oven cooled. While I was waiting, I dried the rib roast, coated it with some EVOO and a dry mixture of sea salt, pepper, coriander, rosemary & garlic. The oven came down to temp, I misted the tops, steamed the oven and loaded the first batch, which was 6 - 500g round hearth loaves. They rose beatifully and the tops were nice and brown.

(Question - do you cut the tops of the loaves pre-rise or post?)

I shaped the other batch of dough into 4 more 500 g loaves and 12 - 100g buns. I decided they needed more rise time, so I loaded the rib roast and a pan of red potatoes seasoned similar to the roast. My probe thermometer alarmed about an hour later when the internal temp of the roast hit 125*. The potatoes stayed in while the roast rested in the kitchen.

I loaded in the 4 loaves after I pulled out the roast and then the buns when I pulled out the potatoes. The only problem I had was that I had to leave my piece of prime rib to take out the rest of the bread. Along with the roast and potatoes I mixed up some dipping oil for the bread.

This was our test run for friends and family xmas gifts. Our intention is to put together a nice linen and basket with a hearth loaf, bottle of wine, and my wife wants to make linguine noodles to tie up & put in the basket as well.

Another question - Proper use of a banneton (sp?) I assume you put the dough in and let it rise in the banneton and then pop it out before it goes in the oven?

Thanks

[ERASMO]

Re: Another Good Sunday

What type of probe thermometer are you using? Do you like it? I thought it would be nice to have one in the oven when im waiting for the temperature to come down to bread baking temperature. The only problem I can see is finding one that goes up to a high enough temperature to work in the WFO.

[70chevelle]

Re: Another Good Sunday

I have a drawer full of thermometers. The one I used yesterday has been my goto probe therm. It's an Accu-Rite from Walmart ($14). It's simple, in that you pick the temp to alarm to and when it gets there it will alarm. It doesn't talk, or call out different meats & temps, it's just a thermometer. I use it exclusively for meats. I have a wireless Oregon Scientific that I don't even use anymore. It only alarms at preset temps for meats, and tops out at 199*. You can't even test it's accuracy in boiling water. Now, not all the OS wireless are like this, but mine is. I also have an Accurite probe, 'instant' thermometer. This is my bread therm. It's not instant, but is accurate. When the bread is getting close, I sink the probe to the center of the bread and when it hits 205*, I take them out. I also have one of the bbq fork therms. It works ok, but the the Accurite probe is easier and quicker. Polder makes a therm that is a single probe, but has a secondary sensor for the ambient temp. My local Linens & Things is going out of business and has them on sale. I may pick one up. Here's a link Amazon.com: Polder Dual Sensor Thermometer and Timer: Home & Garden Be careful though, there are some pretty bad reveiws there also.