/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>5074356
A good mixer to start is a KitchenAid Professional. Just be careful; try to avoid doing low hydration doughs, kneading for long periods of time, and overloading the mixer capacity. Never knead higher than speed 1.

Books I would suggest are The Bread Baker's Apprentice, Tartine, and Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes. The Bread Bible might also be of interest if you'd prefer a more casual introduction to the hobby.

>>5074704
>>5075070
Looks good.

>>5075454
Bulk retarding is a great way to slow fermentation, allowing the gluten to fully hydrate, and for enzymes to work some magic to improve flavor. It also can make sourdough breads more sour. I rely on it all the time, both because it gives me greater control over when I bake bread and because it produces a really great product.

>>4726114
See >>4726403. It's on the money, though I would argue steam injection is probably more correlated to crust browning and texture than it is to a generous oven spring. You also want to be sure you have a very well preheated oven with a good stone in it to very quickly and efficiently deliver the thermal energy to the dough.

>>4726403
Yeah, this bread was all about laziness. You are correct in that a normal autolyse is only about a 1/2 hour. I forgot about the dough, and it went for 2. Doesn't really matter, though, since more time means more wheat enzymes waking up chomp on the starch, and more complete gluten hydration.

>>4726411
That's me.

>>4726478
Small baking stones suck. A few years back I finally had a custom FibraMent stone cut to fit the full area of the oven, and I'll never go back.

>>4242791
>>4242799
Yeah, it happens to all of us the first time we use a banneton. Lining a banneton with flour is really not enough to prevent sticking. Try a 50/50 mix of rice flour and wheat flour, or corn meal and wheat flour. That might work better for you. Works like a charm for me.

>>4242988
Can't say that sounds particularly attractive to me, but different strokes for different folks. If you don't like the cake-like texture, back off on the flour and don't work the dough as much, or add more egg.

>>4025871
Don't be afraid of a dark crust. I never time nor therm my loaves. Just bake until the crust is nice and dark, and I know it's cooked in the middle. If your loaf is cakey, that's probably an indication that you've added fat to your dough, are not using high gluten flour, haven't developed enough guten via kneading, and/or haven't proofed enough.

>>4025873
Sounds delicious to me.

>>4025876
I really like a small amount of whole grain flour added to my loaves. I find that it adds a lot of flavor. Sometimes you need to supplement with added gluten to regain some structure in the loaf, but it's almost always worth it.

Scales are so dirt cheap these days that you should probably invest in one if you bake with any regularity. As for storage, I usually just wrap my loaves in linen towels and let them sit at room temp on a rack.

Today I did something I haven't done in a long time: used a loaf pan.

Wanted some sandwich bread, so whipped up a quick rye walnut dough leavened by commercial yeast, and dug out two loaf pans.

Bread turned out nicely. Very light, chewy, and consistent crumb. Acceptable depth of flavor provided by the rye. Delicate and crisp crust, thanks to the oiled loaf pans.

Anybody else out there do any bread baking recently?