Bread

[splinky]

you are making me miss bread

[StephanieL]

On 3/29/2024 at 12:56 PM, StephanieL said:

A woman who used to run a brewery with her husband outside of Boston until the pandemic put them out of business is now based in the Bay Area and running classes on how to make bread using brewers' spent grains.  N and I went to a class at Almanac Brewery in Alameda a couple of days ago and had a lot of fun.  I made chocolate-cherry and she made rosemary & sea salt.  You first tour the brewery and learn about the breadmaking process, and then make the dough, which gets its first rise in the car on the way home and at home while you're getting your oven and such set up.  Then you knead the dough, give it its 2nd rise, and bake it in a Dutch oven.  The breads are huge, but they came out quite well.  We took more spent grains home and froze them for later use (they go moldy very quickly, so you have to freeze them right away).

Grainbakers Breadmaking Classes at California Breweries

I finally got around to making the first of the loaves with the frozen spent grain.  It's a little wonky looking, and I think some of our yeast is out of date, but it rose fine and it smells great.  We'll see what it taste like.

[small h]

Can someone eyeball this recipe and confirm for me that the hydration is way too low? My poor loaves are like bricks.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/extra-tangy-sourdough-bread-recipe#review-section

[MitchW]

I think I'd be aiming for somewhere between 68 - 70% hydration.

Not knowing what the hydration % of your starter is, I'd venture a guess that you could definitely up the hydration level of the overall dough.

In their (King Arthur's) main baking book, their sourdough has a hydration level of 69%.  Their starters tend to be 50%.

 

Edited February 2, 2025 by MitchW

[small h]

Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm pretty sure the starter is 50% hydration. The dough turned out like a rubber ball. Looks like there is panzanella, crostini and strata in my future!

[Anthony Bonner]

50% is a pretty dry starter. I bet they spec 100% hydration - which gets you a total hydration of 63% which is about right.  Especially given the overnight ferment. 

 

ETA: yeah the starter they spec is 100%

[small h]

So what does that mean in grams? My starter weighs about 250g. I just fed it 250g flour & 250g water. How hydrated is that?

[Anthony Bonner]

100% assuming you used the same 1:1 ratio originally.

[small h]

Okay, thanks. I didn't start the starter, so I'm not sure how it started. It's pretty soupy and very lively.

Edited February 2, 2025 by small h

[MitchW]

38 minutes ago, Anthony Bonner said:

50% is a pretty dry starter. I bet they spec 100% hydration - which gets you a total hydration of 63% which is about right.  Especially given the overnight ferment. 

ETA: yeah the starter they spec is 100%

Truth - I was looking at something totally different when thinking I was looking at the starter info. 

However, their classic sourdough recipe (at least as it existed when this book was published over 20 years ago) still seems to be like 69% hydration.

My sourdoughs tended to look like this...

[small h]

Not gonna show anyone the whole loaves, because I want to preserve the illusion that I know how to bake, so here's a picture of an egg & cheese sandwich made with dense-as-a-black-hole bread that a knife can barely cut through, and also it takes a month to toast.

[StephanieL]

On my urging, N has revived her sourdough starter.  She's made one loaf so far, which came out a little gummy but otherwise tasted good. So far, the discard has gone into English muffins and possibly the best gingerbread I've ever had. 

Edited January 3 by StephanieL

[MitchW]

I thought I might have taken this bread a little too far:

I think I actually raised the oven temperature 25°, rather than lowering it when I took the cover off the Dutch oven.  But it all turned out okay:

Ken Forkish's same-day white bread.

[backyardchef]

Beautiful crumb @MitchW

 

[MitchW]

43 minutes ago, backyardchef said:

Beautiful crumb @MitchW

Thanks!  Tastes good, too, but I really need to try it in more of a loaf form, because this is basically not great to use for sandwiches.

[backyardchef]

But I bet, toasted and rubbed with garlic it would be great with some olive oil or a soft egg and some roasted asparagus. 

 

I'm hungry. Need lunch. 

[small h]

On 2/2/2025 at 5:23 PM, small h said:

dense-as-a-black-hole bread

I am failing with sourdough bread again, and I don't think it's the hydration - the damn dough refuses to rise. I make focaccia and pizza and rolls all the time and never have this problem - just with bread! My dough has been sitting in a loaf pan in my warm kitchen since 10am and has not budged. 😡FML.

[small h]

Okay, I may have over-reacted a little bit. The bread expanded in the oven. So I was able to realize my intention of Golden Diner tuna melt.