Bread

Thatgrimguy

As many of you know I bake a lot. I just picked up the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a day and have to say that it's the easiest method I have tried to bake bread! Great results.  I did a bunch of loaves today on the egg. The book is definitely worth buying and is a perfect way to start baking bread.

So, I mixed up a large double mix of the "master dough" exactly to the specifications. I added my sourdough starter as if it were leftover dough and the book describes how to handle it (mix it into the water basically) You don't need to do this if you don't have any.

I gave the dough about 4 hours to rise since it was so much dough. Then put it in the fridge last night. This morning when my brisket I was cooking finished I added a 2nd stone and removed my drip pan and cranked up to 450-500.  While the egg stabilized I made my loaves.  To compare I baked a few loaves of my ciabatta from all starter at the same time (the long loaves)










You can see my big ole bowl of homemade butter I just finished making!




Then I put on my ciabatta and started baking that off



Beautiful day on the River!!




And the money shot! It's our Thanksgiving meal at work! I took this and a Brisket that was AMAZING! No pics of the brisket though... sorry.

blasting

Beautiful loaves.  Really impressive.

johnmitchell

Damn..That looks so good..

SciAggie

The bread looks great. I love making bread as well.

Thatgrimguy

Thank ya'll. This bread came out airy and light. Much easier than my handmade sourdough. Not nearly as flavorful, but for how easy it is, it will become a staple at my house.  I'm going to experiment with using my oven with this bread, then it'll really become a daily bread.

Thatgrimguy

SciAggie said:

The bread looks great. I love making bread as well.

Have you tried any no knead methods? This was my first.

texaswig

I remember the first bread I made from that recipe. I used a Dutch oven inside. I was totally blown away by how good it came out. 

Photo Egg

Really looks great. Do you cook to visual or temp?

SciAggie

Thatgrimguy said:

SciAggie said:

The bread looks great. I love making bread as well.

Have you tried any no knead methods? This was my first.

That's all I do now. I feed my starter and set it out on the counter the night before I plan to bake. In the morning (usually about 5:30AM) I mix about 440g of bread flour, 1/2 cup of starter, 1tsp salt, and 345g water. I put this in a plastic bucket, cover it and go to work. If I'm around at noon the bread benefits from folding in the bucket 3 or 4 times, but it's not essential.
About 5:30 when I get home, I pull it out and fold the dough a couple of times - then let it rest a few minutes before forming a round loaf. I let it rise in a floured banneton for about an hour to hour and a half.
I bake on a pizza stone under a cloche. I usually start at 500 degrees. I remove the cloche after 20 minutes. Usually it has to cook another 12 minutes or so. The cloche is sold by Sassafras http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/781062/?catalogId=92&sku=781062&cm_ven=Google_PLA&cm_cat=Shopping&cm_pla=default&cm_ite=default&gclid=CLLX3IDNp8kCFQ8taQodowME0A&kwid=productads-plaid%5E63150629220-sku%5E781062-adType%5EPLA-device%5Et-adid%5E45527543983
Here's a recent loaf:

Trixie_Belle

I am totally buying that book!  Your bread looks amazing!

SciAggie

@Thatgrimguy That Ciabatta looks awesome. I need to learn how to make that. 

Thatgrimguy

Photo Egg said:

Really looks great. Do you cook to visual or temp?

Visual/sound. I thump the bottom.

I having been learning to bake from someone who learned the "old way" from an old spanish dude. So everything is about feel.  It's so much more difficult so I haven't had consistent results on anything but a ciabatta I have come up with. My sourdough is usually too dense.  I have only been baking for about a year and I'm really just starting to tip my toe in it. I have too many irons in the fire to really dedicate myself to taking my baking to the next level.

Thatgrimguy

Trixie_Belle said:

I am totally buying that book!  Your bread looks amazing!

Thank you So much. It's a wonderful way to start baking

tarheelmatt

Looks great man!  I totally suck at baking and dough work.  

NPHuskerFL

Looks great! Each loaf looks spot on  

Thatgrimguy

SciAggie said:

@Thatgrimguy That Ciabatta looks awesome. I need to learn how to make that. 

@SciAggie are you maintaining a Starter culture? If so I can give you my process.

NPHuskerFL

Do I sense any bruscetta making in the near future?  

ChokeOnSmoke

Impressive.  Been making pizza dough for a while and would love to get into bread making.  Thanks for the inspiration.

SciAggie

Thatgrimguy said:

SciAggie said:

@Thatgrimguy That Ciabatta looks awesome. I need to learn how to make that. 

@SciAggie are you maintaining a Starter culture? If so I can give you my process.

Yes, I keep my starter/sourdough. I just feed it and keep it in the refrigerator. I have been baking at least once a week and that's been often enough to keep my culture healthy. 
What do you do?

Homebrewguy

Looks amazing!

SGH

Brother Grim, the Bread Gods are smiling down with approval from above my friend. It looks spectacular  

nolaegghead

@SGH - I never pegged you as a polytheist.  I totally get it though

Thatgrimguy

SciAggie said:

Thatgrimguy said:

SciAggie said:

@Thatgrimguy That Ciabatta looks awesome. I need to learn how to make that. 

@SciAggie are you maintaining a Starter culture? If so I can give you my process.

Yes, I keep my starter/sourdough. I just feed it and keep it in the refrigerator. I have been baking at least once a week and that's been often enough to keep my culture healthy. 
What do you do?

@SciAggie  Same thing. I try to take 2 tablespoons out and mix it with a table spoon of water and a tablespoon of flour and leave that on the counter for a few hours to get the yeast good and active before mixing my dough. But sometimes I don't even do that.


So to make the ciabatta. I start with taking a half cup of my starter and mixing it in a 1 gallon pail with a loose cover with about 3 cups water and 2 cups of flour.  I let that sit covered for 2 days. It will smell PUNGENT after two days. Like beer. It's delicious smelling.  


Use 4 cups of bread flour (high gluten) and about a tablespoon of kosher salt. The poolish (the starter mix you made 2 days ago) should have enough fluid so that you don't need any additional water. It's a wet dough.  I'll make a bunch of pics of each stage Thursday. 


To make a really nice open crumb you have to mix this by hand, but I have had good enough results using my dough hook on my kitchenaid. If you are mixing by hand you want a small round stiring device. I use the stick end of a stainless paddle I use to stir crawfish.  You want to make large round movements and cross the center every now and then. It's hard work to do right. You want long gluten strands.  I have just been throwing it in my kitchenaid and the crumb is closer but the bread is still really nice.


This bread is a soft texture open bread with a rich sourdough flavor. It's by far my best reviewed bread so far.

Thatgrimguy

Good news. Dutch oven in my electric oven worked great. 20min with lid on then 15 with lid off. Bad news... the handle on the lid of a 450 degree dutch oven burns bare fingers really badly. I can't believe I burned myself this badly the day before Thanksgiving prep day.

theyolksonyou

Dislike

theyolksonyou

The burn part 

Thatgrimguy

theyolksonyou said:

Dislike

yeah, its no bueno.  It's amazing how bad burns can hurt. Blistered on my thumb immediately. 4 fingers total. 2 already showing blisters. Looks like ill be trying to sleep with my hand in a bucket

Jebpot

Looks great!! how did u make the butter?

SGH

@Thatgrimguy
Sorry to hear about the hand brother. 

Thatgrimguy

Jebpot said:

Looks great!! how did u make the butter?

Do you have a kitchen aid mixer?

Just whip heavy whipping cream on high till the butter seperates out (make sure you cover the top with paper towels and that those paper towels don't get caught in the beater). The better the cream, the better the butter. But any cream will be better than typical shelf butter.

The cream will turn to whipped cream first then start breaking down to a cottage cheese consistency. After about 15 minutes? of beating the solid and liquid will seperate violently. You need to be paying attention or it can quickly become a mess. 

Turn the mixer off when this happens. You should have a big clump of what looks just like butter stuck to the beater and a bit floating around in the milk. Time to strain the milk and keep the butter (cheese cloth or a sieve makes this next process easier) I keep the liquid and use it in anything that calls for butter milk. 

Now, using ice water rinse the butter till its free of any remaing milk. I fill a glass of ice water over and over and pour it over the butter to rinse the gray water (milk) out. Keep rinsing the butter over and over till it runs clear. Ice water keeps the butter from melting away and getting messy. Next you need to get as much water out as possible. I wrap paper towel and kind of ring it. Then I put it back in my beater and spin out more water. Don't go too crazy, just get it mostly dry. The ice water will have the butter pretty firm.

Finally it's time to put your butter back in the mixer and beat till creamy and add salt to taste. i put a teaspoon of kosher salt per pint of cream.

Thatgrimguy

SGH said:

@Thatgrimguy
Sorry to hear about the hand brother. 

Thanks Scotty