Bread Progress

I never thought I would enjoy baking bread as much as I do. I thought baking bread was so easy and the hardest part was kneading. I WAS SO WRONG. Well its not hard but all the patience and time to make the perfect loaf is taking lot longer than I wanted it to. I thought it was going to come naturally and easily as cooking has. Guess I’ve found my culinary weakness.. other than my shoddy chopping skills but no one really cares about that at home so that’s OKAY.

I’m also doubting my skills because I can achieve great results with one recipe and the other one fails. User error or am I just rushing through the steps?

Here are some pictures from last week:

 

Then this week using Chad’s recipe:

They both tasted great. The latter just didn’t rise and look the same as last week’s. I did use AP flour instead of bread and I may have over proved it because it was tearing like crazy.

I won’t be able to bake anything for a while because I have 2 failed loaves to finish before then. I pre-sliced the bread so I wouldn’t be too hard to do later on and I stuck them in the freezer so I could eat them gradually.

 

Husband’s Pick: Pretzels

This past weekend my husband suggested that I use my sourdough starter to make something new: pretzels. I’m sure he had intentions to encourage me to broaden my knowledge but I’m also sure that he was probably craving pretzels as well. Either way, we both benefited this weekend.

I actually wanted to bake another round of bread this weekend but I’ve had such a hard time lately that I decided to just skip it. The morning of my levain hadn’t risen as much as I would have liked it to anyway. And just when I decided to discard the whole thing, I decided to use it for the pretzels. After limited searching, I came across a recipe on the King Arthur Flour website and it seemed to fit what I was looking for. Luckily, I had everything on hand. I usually don’t have dry milk on hand but I had to use it for something else earlier in the year (SCORE!).

The recipe I used was this one. I pretty much followed everything listed except the last part when they brushed sugar(?) on the pretzels to achieve the brownish color. I read a lot of the reviews and other pretzel recipes and they all pretty much mentioned the baking soda bath that this recipe lacked. I agree with most of the commentators, how can it be a pretzel if it doesn’t look/taste like one? Then it would just be… bread right?

Starting out was pretty simple. Mix everything and let it rise:

levain

everything mixed

rise

Then it was forming and making sure it didn’t dry out:

I thought I did pretty decent with the twist!! Especially for it being my first time. The only thing I wish I had was pretzel salt. My husband LOVES that! But he’s trying to cut back on salt, so it really didn’t matter that I didn’t have it. Kosher salt it is!

At first, I had taken it out too early. My husband took a bite and we can clearly see that it was still a little under cooked and so back into the oven it went. It looked nicer with a deeper brown color. They were good. I could definitely improve but it was a good first try and it fulfilled a craving. They were chewy and salty. My husband said it was a little sour from the starter but not overwhelming. I wish they were a little bigger like at Wetzel’s Pretzels! I should try making pizza pretzels…

Process: 10/10
Taste: 6/10

Cece

Bake #2

One of the things I wanted to do was improve on my bread and achieve a great oven spring. So I’m going to bake as often as I can to do so. This week, I decided to follow the book in hopes that I could improve on my bakes and read the directions carefully and find what I’ve missed. I tend to rush through recipes and I always miss crucial steps. I know my starter is active and the more I bake and feed Colin, the tastier it gets. I’m not going to go into detail the steps so here are some pictures to document my journey.

Night feed.

Night levain prep

The next morning

Float test

Morning rise!

Float test

Saturday Morning Mixing

levin and water

adding flour

hand mix

resting

Rise

bubbles!

Shaping and fermentation

shaping

resting

The bake

a little crooked

crumb

All 24 hours worth of work only to achieve a loaf that is almost flat as a pancake. I’m pretty sure I under/over proofed (I think more under). I just get so anxious and I start so late in the day. I honestly don’t know how strong it should be or what I’m supposed to be feeling. I guess we’ll have to try again this coming weekend!

Just because it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to in the end.. I had another plan for the loaf:

Pull Apart Cheesy Bread!

slice

add butter and cheese

bake

enjoy!

Notes

 

Cece

First Bake

2018! New year new set of recipes and techniques to learn!

The first week of the year I got sick from a nasty bug going around at work (and the rest of the world apparently), so I didn’t start my year off with any cooking just yet. This past weekend, I managed to revive Colin and get some kind of baking in. Did I rush? Did the excitement of the new year get to me? Because my first bake was HORRIBLE. Like I’ve lost my touch or something.

I decided to try new ratios from this recipe: High(er) Hydration Sourdough Bread. 

Night levain prep

Morning rise!

Into the fridge

Going into the oven

Taste test

Crumb

I’m not even sure what went wrong or if I did anything wrong because I actually followed this recipe to a T! Then after finishing off the last loaf and cleaning my cast iron pans, I realized that I used the wrong POT! I wondered why they turned out so flat and the tops were burning.. they probably didn’t have room to grow!
Process: Instructions were easy to follow.
Bake: Took about an hour to bake each loaf. I baked my first one at 4 am, which is probably why I used the wrong cooker to bake the loaves in.
Taste: Tasted great! Nice and sour. Crispy exterior and went great with butter. If only the crumb was more open and airy.

Oh well.. until the next bake.

 

Cece