/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Looks like copypasta to me.

start with easier dishes than move on to the more difficult high-end stuff as you get more comfortable. don't follow a recipe religiously and feel free to experiment. get a cast iron pan.

>>3814212
A cast iron pan, like a sauce pan? People bake bread in those? I'll look for a basic recipe, thanks. Is sourdough basic?

Get some of this then try again.

In general, instant yeast requires no hydration prior to adding it to a dough, whereas active dry is best used after it has been allowed to activate and "bloom" in a warm water bath. I prefer using active dry because it is slower, has a more controllable rise, and gives the dough some time to hydrate while it is getting up to speed. I think that for the average bread baker, instant is probably preferable because of the speed at which it is capable of leavening your product. In truth, I use neither, relying instead on a sourdough starter for almost all of my breads.

There are a lot of really bad bread formulations out there. My suggestion is to find a very simple recipe (flour, water, salt, yeast only, no mix-ins) and start with that. Even better if you can pick a bread that you are already familiar with, so that you can fine tune your attempts to what you know the bread should be. Contrary to popular opinion, baking bread does require a modicum of working by feel. Technique is important, so don't be afraid to get your hands dirty: knead, stretch, and pull the dough so you can begin to get an idea of what everything should feel like.

Welcome to a very, very rewarding hobby!

Pic related. It's some of my bread.

>>3814242

do you always make shitty burnt bread?

You want beginner's bread? Have a bread so simple that if you fuck it up, you waive all rights to not have someone come to your house and shit on you.

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 12 ounce bottle of beer- any kind will do, depending on how you want it to taste.
You'll probably need extra moisture- the dough should be the consistency of thick cake batter by the time you're done, so add whatever liquid you want. Milk, water, more beer, whatever. Go by what you want it to taste like.

That's all you need, but the basic recipe is boring as fuck. Add more shit to it- molasses, coffee, cinnamon, whatever the fuck you want. My best one yet was made with a vanilla java porter, half a cup of vanilla coffee, and a tablespoon of cinnamon.

Mix that shit up, pour it in a greased 9x5 loaf pan, and bake it at 350 for 50 minutes. Pop it out, let it cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack. Cut it up, put some butter on it and eat it.

>>3814243
2/10

>>3814247
>>3814242
Thank you both for your posts, they're exactly what I wanted!

>>3814190
>>3814190

I work in a fullscale production bakery ( factory that makes hundreds of thousands of loafs.

Any retard without a highschool education can make bread.

Get this book and relax. Brown can make a baker out of anyone and you might like the Lord Buddha when it's all done.

>>3814242
I'm always jealous of your bread. I really am.

>>3814295
>production bakery

lol

I highly recommend the book "The Break Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart, it's very good and goes in depth on many of the subjects that you are confused by.

>>3814242

That looks delicious.

>>3814242
Are you the one who also created that gorgeous poppy seed loaf? I tried to find a photo, but couldn't.

I don't bake terribly often, but if I had to pick one item to start practicing with, it would be rolls. Easy, single sandwich-size items that you can work a great deal of individual variation into when you've done the base dough.

>>3814242
How do you get those nice lines on the side of your bread? I assume there's some kind of bowl you rest it in, or something.

>>3814488
Very light slicing.

>>3814488
It's a tool called a lame. It's a pretty cool guy.

>>3814242
your bread looks fantastic!

>>3814243

I will always be the first to admit that I overbake my bread. I just like the crust dark and crunchy. If that's too burned for you, then it's a good thing you don't have to eat it!

To all the rest of you, thanks for the kind comments. I love baking bread. In my opinion, it is one of the most rewarding and affordable hobbies out there. It's also an excellent exercise in patience.

>>3814559
>>3814551
>>3814488

I use a lame for the slashes in the bread, but the light lines come from the banneton that I proof my bread in. Bannetons/brotforms are both functional and aesthetic, to be sure.

>>3814462

Probably me. Pic related, it's some poppy seed bread. It's probably not the loaf you were thinking of, though.

>>3814576

Nigga, you know that's the bread we were thinking of.

>>3814576
That was exactly what I was thinking of. Beautiful. Do you just bake as a hobby, or do you sell, as well?

Here's the last loaf I baked.

>>3814576
Write a cookbook!

>>3814618
That looks like it's really soft. It would make excellent sandwich bread, yes? What sort of flour?

>>3814595

I've posted other photos of poppyseed bread before. This is the only one I have access to on this computer. I'm glad it's the one people were looking for.

>>3814603

Primarily as a hobby. I used to work in the food industry, but got out in order to pursue med school. Now I bake in large batches (4-6 large loaves at a time), and sell almost all of it to local parties.

>>3814618

Beautiful loaf!

I really struggle with sandwich bread. For some reason I can't seem to nail a good formulation/technique to produce the sort of bread I'm looking for.

>>3814576
>>3814627
Well, you certainly have a good imagination when it comes to the aesthetics of baking. I'm tempted to say that it's a shame the culinary industry lost grip on you, but... to be honest, professions attainable by med school are more gratifying, better-paid, societally more important, and hopefully less riddled with dicks.

Please do keep posting bread though.

>>3814623
>>3814630
Just regular all-purpose flour and my sour dough starter. I use 7 cups of flour, a packet of yeast, 2 cups of warm water, tbsp of salt, 2 tbsp of Kerry Gold butter, and a tsp of baking powder. Knead, let it sit for and hour and a half, punch it down, let it sit for another 30 minutes, then bake on 350 until it turns that color. It's wonderfully soft.

>>3814576
I'm this guy
>>3814618
I just wanted to say that your bread looks beautiful. Perfect contrast of colors on the crust, and it almost looks sculpted.

>>3814639

That's very generous of you. I would love to write a cookbook. I need to work on knocking out some youtube videos first, though.

>>3814635

I do miss the industry a lot. It just wasn't viable long-term for the lifestyle I wanted to lead with my wife. I actually pursued food a long way before giving it up: AA in culinary arts, BS in food chemistry, MS in nutrition science, and a couple psychophysical sensory science publications under my belt. I ended up deciding I wanted to be a positive force for change in the intersection between food and health, so going back to my original dream of being a doctor just made sense.

Don't worry. Though time is tight, I'll keep baking bread, taking photos, and posting them here.

>>3814620

Thanks! Your loaf is very attractive, as well. I'm going to give making something like that a shot this weekend.

you shouldn't have any trouble making it if you've been making that other awesome stuff.

Am I doing it right?
Contains oats and rosemerry, 1/2 white 1/2 whole wheat flour

What else can I add?

my first lofe with out a bread machine

>>3814656
Hey breadbro, I think if you want to make some sandwich style bread you need more of a wet dough, and more time proofing.

I have yet to begin my hobby of baking bread, mostly because I'm a poorfag in search of work, and have NO loaf pan, FUCK.

Any tips for no-pan breads? Thanks mang.

>>3815547
Ingredients:
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup warm water (100 degrees F or
38 degrees C)

1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
1 1/2 teaspoons fine salt
all-purpose flour for dusting
1 tablespoon cornmeal
Directions:
1. Stir together yeast, 1/2 cup flour and warm water in a large bowl.
Cover and let sit in a warm spot for about 30 minutes.
2. Stir beer, remaining flour and salt into the bowl. Mix until all
the flour is incorporated and forms a thick sticky dough that pulls
away from the sides of the bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm spot for
2 hours, until doubled in size.
3. Scrape all the dough from the bowl with a rubber spatula, and
place on a well-floured surface. Generously flour the top of the dough
and form into a loaf shape.
4. Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal. Transfer loaf to the baking
sheet and sprinkle the top with flour. Cover loosely with a towel and
let rise for 30-40 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
6. Place a small loaf pan of warm water on a lower rack to humidify the oven.
7. Slash a long slit in the top of the loaf with a sharp knife or
razor. Place the baking sheet on the rack above the pan of warm water
in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes, until the loaf is golden brown.
8. Transfer to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before slicing and serving.

>>3815540
Looks very dense, are you letting it proof long enough? Baking with whole wheat flour is more difficult than white and your ratio is fairly high, I rarely go above 1:4.

>>3815558
SHIT, I have a cookbook and I saw a similar recipe that had beer, I have no beer. Also I'm only 20, and poor so it's hard to get.

Thanks co/ck/ for the try though.

>>3815559

Agreed anon, looks like too much flour.

LOOK AT MY CAPTCHA, LOL my sides!

I'm going to start baking soon. I was in Europe this summer and tried this amazing home made bread at a party. They gave me a recipe and I'm going to try to recreate what they made.

The only issue I have is that they didn't give me a temperature setting. I've read around on some websites that 350-400 is the standard temp. Do you guys have any suggestions on temperatures?

>>3815583
That temperature could work, but it's rather dependent on what kind of bread you're making.

Enriched breads often go at more "standard" temperatures while wetter doughs and crusty breads need upwards of 400.

>>3815540
This is me

I don't think I had warm enough water to dissolve the yeast with at first and I did add a lot of flour during kneading. It rose for 1.5 hours and then it went straight in the oven. Do the loaves need to sit long after I form them? And do I score it before or after rising.

>Breadcat.jpg

Wut. It looks like a fucking rabbit.

>>3815608

Usually my process goes

Preferment ~2hrs
Autolyze ~30 mins
Knead ~6 mins (Try to not use any flour here, there are techniques to avoid it. My doughs usually hover around 70% hydration. Look up Slap and Fold.)
Bulk Ferment ~2hrs or overnight in the fridge
Shape
Proof - till doubled. About an hour
Score
Bake at 500 for 20 mins with steam, then remove steam bath, set to 425 and bake till desired color. About another 20mins. (I also like my bread baked to a level some may consider burnt.)

Pic is a 1 lb loaf of 1:5 wholewheat/white flour.

>>3815546
Look great and tasty

>>3815608
You really don't need to worry about babying the yeast. You don't even need to do the pre-proofing thing in water. You can just add that shit directly to the water you're going to mix with and then toss the rest of the ingredients in and it really does not matter very much. It will activate either way. It doesn't even need to be warm water. In fact heat kills yeast far easier than cold does.

You could probably let it be for a lot longer than 1.5 hours. Twice as long, even. I guess it's up to your preference on what tastes best.

You general let loaves rest for a bit after shaping, yeah. Around an hour is kind of a standard final proof, but it can vary. Main thing is to bake the loaf at a point where it has sat long enough that it has expanded somewhat but not so much that it has gone slack, since some tension is needed to keep the structure sound to optimize expansion in the oven.

You score right before baking for most breads, only exceptions I know of are certain heavy rye breads.

Also, protip: When scoring a loaf like that it's better to think about it vertically rather than horizontally. Horizontal slashes don't do much of anything, as yours did. Relatively vertical slashes down the loaf will expand horizontally and open up in a way that both looks nice and does more to help the loaf expand. In theory, anyway.

>>3814227
>Is sourdough basic?
no

Thread reminds me I ought to start getting into bread baking again. I wish I had some pictures, as I've actually made some surprisingly good loaves considering I have a shitty electric oven.

>>3814227

>A cast iron pan, like a sauce pan? People bake bread in those?

Indeed, specifically a Dutch Oven. Surprisingly, there are a lot of people who don't know you can use it like an oven. You preheat it inside your oven, plop the dough in when its ready and put the lid on.Holds the heal and keeps the steam inside so you don't need a water bath. Don't have an oven? Hell, you can even pop that bitch in a campfire and get the same results. Such a great piece of cookware.

> Is sourdough basic?

It is not. I don't fuck with sourdough anymore. I've only ever managed to get 1 loaf to come out the way I wanted it to after many tries and have not since been able to replicate it. The wild yeasts that live at my house are a bunch of pussies. But by all means give it a s.hot, it still is pretty cool

>>3816009
Do you have any recommended sizes or brands for dutch ovens? Thank you for the information you've provided thus far.

>>3816023

So long as its good heavy cast iron it doesn't really matter. Mine was a 6 quart rusted out chunk of shit given to me by my grandmother who had in turn found it at a garage sale for 2 bucks. With a little sanding and seasoning it was good as new. These things are made for cooking outside and can take a beating.

The thread is back!

Great looking breads guys.

I have 40 oz. of sourdough starter doing it's thing right now. Should give me enough dough to justify firing up the Hobart. I think i'm going to go with a walnut and blue cheese rye bread for two of the loaves, and then a flax seed rye bread for the other two. We'll see what happens, though.

Both vertical and shallow/horizontal slashes do things to the bread during the bake, to be sure.

This is a horizontal slash: >>3814242
This is a vertical slash: >>3814576

I tend to like the aesthetics of the horizontal slash, since i like the ear/grigne look, but the vertical slashes are great for creating large variations in color.

I hope that these satisfy you all more than my others. They were so good

>>3816436
Can you post the inside of your bread?

>>3816009

this is a bread I made in a cast iron dutch oven. My house sourdough bread made with a high-extraction flour (between White flour and Whole wheat)

Crust shot.

>>3817033

That is some fucking sexy crust. I'm jelly.

How do I make that italian herb and cheese bread, like Subway has? Should I practice making a more basic bread first since I don't know shit about baking breads?

how do the breadmakers of /ck/ feel about high-hydration bread? the idea of a bread that doesn't need any kneading (as someone who has no arm strength or mixer) is very appealing to me, unless the results aren't that good.

Hey guys, can I have some help?
I'm making my first yeast bread ever. I made it roughly 40/60 rye/wheat flour, and while kneading I added too much white flour. It is now doing its first rise. Can I do anything to undo the damage?

>>3817030

Dat crumbshot

>>3816993

I have a really hard time taking pictures of the crumb. Once a loaf gets cut open, it seems to almost immediately disappear.

>>3817033
>>3817030

Really beautiful bread. Just goes to show that a cloche does a lot of wonderful things for bread. I have to be honest, I've never baked in one. I do have a couple just hanging out waiting to be used, though.

>>3817282

I almost exclusively make high hydration bread. I find that I prefer the open, but chewy, texture of the crumb better. I can't remember the last time I made a bread with less than 65% hydration.

>>3817243

What damage are you speaking of?

>>3817230

http://www.food.com/recipe/closest-thing-to-subways-italian-herbs-cheese-bread-343216

Google motherfucker

>>3817243
Add more water?

>>3817709
>>3817551
The damage I meant was a dry, dense dough. But after putting in in the oven without adding anything, I got a crunchy, relatively airy loaf! I might post pictures later on.
I tried to make a pretty horizontal cut like fuck flour, but must've done it wrong since the cut had no racked edges.

bump

Totally forgot about this thread again.

Here's the new bread I baked today: >>3819545

>Thing is, I'm terrified
>I am confused
>I am intimidated
>fret
>freak
>Horrifying!

It's fucking yeast, flour, water, salt, etc. Cheap fucking shit.

What is the worst possible thing that could happen?

My kitchen caught fire.

adding my pic into the fold.. I work as a baker/pastry cook and some of my usual duties invole making the bread and pizza dough for the hotel's restaurant. The restaurant was looking to change the menu and our pastry chef wanted to revamp our standard focaccia bread to incorporate cheese, as well as cutting the portion size in half. This was one of our experimentations: mini 1oz Foccacia loaves, rolled with a blend of parmesean and cheddar cheese. Sadly the picture does not do the bread justice, but it was the only one I had!

To the badass breadmaker: TEACH MEEEE + MOOOAARRRR.

>>3820036
Doesn't focaccia already have cheese?

Also, not sufficiently browned would not eat.

Nah it's probably fine, but still. Caramelization is flavor.

>>3814247
Does this end up tasting like beer? Is there a nice sweet beer that would make it taste better?

How about some tips for bread machines, because I got one at a yard sale for $5 a while back and I've been wanting some nice recipes for it.