Any Bakers on here?

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Taylor Vanbrewer
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Any Bakers on here?

Post by Taylor Vanbrewer » Wed Sep 09, 2015 2:05 pm

Just wondering if there are any bread obsessed people on here?

I just pulled a couple poolish boules from the the oven and started making a new house levain that should be up and running in a few days.
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Lucas
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Re: Any Bakers on here?

Post by Lucas » Wed Sep 09, 2015 3:38 pm

I used to bake a lot of bread. I really should start doing it again because it is fun and there is nothing like fresh home baked bread. I never got into making my own house culture but it sounds like fun. One of my favourite recipes was this:

Ploughman's Loaf

Saw this made on the TV show The Great British Bakeoff and had to give it a shot. A loaf of this and a few apples is all you need for a delicious picnic lunch.
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Re: Any Bakers on here?

Post by Ruby » Wed Sep 09, 2015 6:51 pm

After years of terrible bread making/giving up/trying again and failing, I decided to do what I did with beer and dedicated some time, did some research, bought a book and really put my mind into it.

I bought Ken Forkish's "Flour Water Salt Yeast" and I've been making a couple of boules of white bread with poolish most weeks for the last couple of months. I've stuck to this recipe cos it's delicious and i want to keep the parameters the same until I get it right. I'm getting better and more confident each time. getting to know how the dough should feel at each stage.

I even have people hassling me to make them a loaf after trying it! Such a change from making door stopper bread!

I haven't started a levain yet, as I don't think I go through enough bread to continue feeding it.

How is your levain coming along?
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Tim Gregory
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Re: Any Bakers on here?

Post by Tim Gregory » Wed Sep 09, 2015 6:53 pm

I go through a baking phase now and then but never anything too complex.

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Re: Any Bakers on here?

Post by B-boy » Fri Sep 11, 2015 1:07 pm

I've had a starter going for about a year and a half now, you can have it dormant for a long while once it's well established. There is nothing quite like kneading a beautiful loaf, as with most others there was lots of questionable loaves in the beginning. Doing slow rise overnight seem to give the best results so I started a sourdough starter and haven't looked back. Check out the artisan in five minutes a day recipe if you are pressed for time.It makes decent bread and you can reuse the scraps over and over to add a little sour flavour. The Ken Forkish book is like the bible, definitely the best guide I have seen. Get yourself a good digital scale and a quality cast iron Dutch oven and you will have amazing bread in no time!

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MitchK
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Re: Any Bakers on here?

Post by MitchK » Wed Sep 16, 2015 5:31 pm

I actually got really into bread about 6 months ago. Have a sourdough starter, a couple rattan bannetons, etc...

I usually bake french breads (boules mostly), pullman loaves for sandwiches and stuff, or brioche.

It was getting knowledge on proofing, yeast activity, and generally managing timescales that made jumping into this whole homebrewing thing finally not seem so daunting (and it helped that I wound up getting to the store to buy catfood 30 minutes before they opened... And there was a homebrew shop next door...)

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Re: Any Bakers on here?

Post by MitchK » Thu Oct 01, 2015 11:09 am

Trying again to get sourdough bread as good as my standard commercially yeasted bread - in no small part because I feel like I should get a handle on this shit before moving on to starters, yeast harvesting, and sours in beer... Trying a three build (starter -> levain -> final mix) basic white sourdough boule today.

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