Bready

Todays lunch was grilled cheese.

Making bread tonight, and it rose really well!

I'm not sure if it's a tad dry, or if that's just how challah works, this is only my second attempt. Still tasty though!

I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe which calls for an internal temperature of 195F after 35-40 minutes, but I got to about 210F at 30 minutes.

Cabinet details cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27518175

Plywood for the main box (3/4" sides, 1/4" back, rabbet and dado joints). Cut the door 1" too narrow so I added a handle from cedar scrap. Shelves and sheet pan brackets are reclaimed bed slats, planed. Window hole is routed with plexiglass insert, my first time doing any significant router work.

The brackets for the baking sheet have a cutout to accommodate two bowls. My goal was either two bowls or two baking sheets.

An obvious improvement would be to install an under-counter outlet so the cord is less prominent.

Heating is from a 45W incandescent bulb (which was the hardest part to find). It's in the top of an old desk lamp. Adding an 8x8" pan of hot water kept the humidity high so I didn't have to cover the rising bread. Temperature/humidity logging is from an SHT30 (plus two DS18B20s) running Tasmota and reportig to HomeAssistant, viewed in Grafana. I expected to have to cycle the light, but just keeping it always on seems to give me the right temperature range.

Crumb shot to follow in a couple hours

Tartine no knead method, 75% hydration. The kitchen smells like heaven

Cinnamon raisin version of sourdough. Didn't rise super much. Needs some sweetness. Still decent.

Many stretch and folds (almost pretending I was making pan de cristal) later, this is a stupidly soft crust. Like a Neapolitan style.

I'm going to try this again soon with slightly lower hydration, more oil, more heat, and a pre-bake of the crust without toppings so it gets more of a chance to grow. Any suggestions are very welcome.

Sourdough, 70% hydration

I suspect I should knead more (thoroughly)

One of my goals this year is ot make more bread. Super happy with this one, taste really good too. Can post the recipe if someone is interested.

Pictures from the process:

I basically was winging it with this recipe. Did one stretch and fold because it was so wet. Spent an hour in my improvised banetton. Mostly just playing with my new little Dutch oven but it might be my prettiest crusty loaf ever

Aka butt bread.

80% hydration, instant yeast. Tested out the cold oven, cold dutch oven technique. Results, pretty good crumb even if it did spread a bit

Next time I might cut the H2O down to 75% and or give it a second fold

Very pleased with the result. With olive oil I have no complains, plain it may be a touch dry.

The America's Test Kitchen recipe has you heat some flour + water to make the starch absorb more water, in an effort to have a higher hydration dough without sacrificing workability; and the dough was very easy to work with while producing nice light crumb.

Fresh out of the oven (egg white wash + sesame seeds):

I made it staying in an AirBnB. I was trying to figure out where to prove the loaves, lacking my usual options, but the house has sub-floor heating in the entryway. Worked great, and nobody stepped on the loaves!

Infra red image (Topdon camera) below. Quite a treat to put on warm shoes in 10-20F weather, too.

70% Bread flour

20% Eincorn flour

10% Whole wheat

30% 5 Grain hot cereal (soaked in cold water, drained, reserving soaking liquid)

78% water (use reserved soaking liquid for up to half the water)

2.2% salt

4g instant yeast

Method in comments.

Hey all,

I've seen a lot of these posts pop up on my front page and it's honestly made me want to try getting into the hobby, however I tend to jump into hobbies neck deep and drop them shortly after. Is there any way to test the waters without going down the rabbit hole? It seems like you need a lot of equipment and experience to get the best results.

Another thing is that I tend to dislike store bought sourdough as I've found most of it to be too tangy/sour. Do all sourdoughs taste like this, or would it be fairly easy to control when making your own bread?

Edit: sorry, I should clarify. I'm specifically talking about sourdough. I've baked bread before (though it's been a long time) but most of the really good looking breads here have been sourdough.

I’ve got a bit of a back log to post, but I figured I would start strong with one of my better sourdough bakes.

I still need to work on my scoring, but I’m happy with the look otherwise.

Tried simple wheat buns.

They came out OK but the "shell" was slightly hard and I'd prefer a more aired inside, any recommendations gladly taken!

Just found this community and I'm so excited! Here are my loaves from 2 weeks ago - my second attempt at sourdough and I'm pretty pleased. I've lazily been feeding a starter for a year but finally worked up the gumption to use it. (Yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds!)

So excited to see more bread from you all and share recipes and tips! Currently I have a boule of this for my husband in a banneton in the fridge to be baked tomorrow. He's German and lives in America but misses his favorite bread so I'm determined to start making it for him!

Hope everyone's weekend loaves turn out wonderfully!

I’m a noob with sourdough and I have been having a hard time getting information on how to maintain a consistent amount of starter. Is it generally appropriate to discard half and replace that half with fresh flour and water?

Related, is “discard” in any meaningful way different from the starter itself, or are the recipes for discard scones/crackers/whatever just labeled that because you aren’t using the starter for rise?

Spelt loaf. Crumb shot in comments.

I'm thinking this should be marked NSFW...