Homemade Bread Thread

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Made some dough with my homemade starter last night. It blew up overnight, almost tripled in size! Starter was whole wheat flour and distilled water. (I've read not to use distilled water after the fact, but worked fine).

A couple things I've noticed while reading up on bread making. People seem to be using these three words interchangeably. Rise, Proof and Ferment. Being a rookie at this it can get a bit confusing. I know they aren't the same. What are your descriptions for those terms?
 
HoppyDaze said:
Made some dough with my homemade starter last night. It blew up overnight, almost tripled in size! Starter was whole wheat flour and distilled water. (I've read not to use distilled water after the fact, but worked fine).

A couple things I've noticed while reading up on bread making. People seem to be using these three words interchangeably. Rise, Proof and Ferment. Being a rookie at this it can get a bit confusing. I know they aren't the same. What are your descriptions for those terms?
Click to expand...

After looking at my photos and reading what this guy had to say about rising sourdough.
http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.php?content=theartoftherise
I realized I was over proofing. So last weekend I tried a shorter proof till doubled. It only took 3 hours. I then dumped it out of the bowl I had it in and refolded and pulled it tight again. The next rise took about 2 hours. I doubt I'll be overnight proofing again unless it's in the fridge.
 
HoppyDaze said:
Made some dough with my homemade starter last night. It blew up overnight, almost tripled in size! Starter was whole wheat flour and distilled water. (I've read not to use distilled water after the fact, but worked fine).

A couple things I've noticed while reading up on bread making. People seem to be using these three words interchangeably. Rise, Proof and Ferment. Being a rookie at this it can get a bit confusing. I know they aren't the same. What are your descriptions for those terms?
Click to expand...

What did you read on using distilled water? I have been using it for years.
 
Made a loaf of Italian bread to go with our spaghetti for dinner. It turned out pretty good.
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I'm thinking about making some crepes with my starter tonight. I keep seeing that ihop commercial and its working by make me want some. I have frozen blackberries from last spring. I have a local lady that's getting a dozen eggs a day and she keep loading me up.

On another note I finally talked to a guy at the local flour mill and he said he could get me 5lb packages of flour to sample for free. I'm not holding my breath but that would be cool.
 
Made these awesome sourdough rolls last night and baked the loaf this morning

the rolls were based off of this recipe:
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/buttery-sourdough-buns-recipe

i subbed an extra 1/4 cup of very active starter that had been fed whole wheat flour for the dry yeast - we used garlic and herb butter when they were rolled up and baked them in a le crueset dutch over without the lid - next time ill spread with softened butter as a lot of the melted butter just squeezed out when i rolled them up. will be trying this recipe with cinnamon rolls next

the loaf was based off of sourdoughhome.com recipe but used more whole wheat flour and baked it hotter/shorter time and used a loaf pan. did a 6 hour initial rise at room temp and then worked it a little and put it in the loaf pan in the fridge for about 17 hours

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my mom gave us her stand mixer this weekend which surely will result in making much more bread

for those with mixers, do you use the bread hook for the same amount of time that you would knead by hand or do you go longer/shorter? just slow/fast enough to mix without straining the motor?

this one is a Cuisinart and doesn't have any preset settings
 
The crepes were a success. They were actually great. Figured I'd share the recipe. No pics, sorry. I do recommend this to anyone looking for something to do with extra starter. I made them in my trusty Cast iron skillet and only ruined one.
1 cup of Sourdough starter
2-3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1/4-1/2 cup Milk
 
what do you guys do to get more sourdough twang?

the bread i've made has a little hint but I want more in your face flavor/aroma of sourdough.

i've tried 12+ hour rise at room temp for one loaf and a 6 hour room temp rise + 16 hour 2nd rise in the fridge - all have included some amount of whole wheat flour as well
 
terrapinj said:
what do you guys do to get more sourdough twang?

the bread i've made has a little hint but I want more in your face flavor/aroma of sourdough.

i've tried 12+ hour rise at room temp for one loaf and a 6 hour room temp rise + 16 hour 2nd rise in the fridge - all have included some amount of whole wheat flour as well
Click to expand...

I read that you need to use a lot less starter with a longer rise. like 18-24 hours. I don't have any experience with it but I got some twang when I had mine by my fireplace. I over proofed pretty fast with it in the 90-100 degree.
 
deadfall said:
I read that you need to use a lot less starter with a longer rise. like 18-24 hours. I don't have any experience with it but I got some twang when I had mine by my fireplace. I over proofed pretty fast with it in the 90-100 degree.
Click to expand...

The term 'room temperature' can be misleading. My room is about 63ºF in the winter months. Like you say, a very small amount of starter will help to prolong the fermentation but cooler temps will also do it. After playing around with my 'wild bunch' for about 6-7 years I find that if I use a minimal amount (less than normal~I know that doesn't help) of starter and just let it go at the 63 or less, it will develop a pretty good twang. You're looking at an all day rise at these parameters though so get it together in the morning and forget about it until evening.

Trying to make bread with big holes got to be kinda frustrating so I quit. This was pretty much just a mistake and I probably won't make many mistakes like this again, ha!

ciabatta 2.jpg
 
I baked a 50/50 white and whole wheat sourdough yesterday, but I just found this thread today and I didn't take a picture of the whole loaf, so a shot of the crumb will have to do. Considering it was 90% hydration, I consider myself lucky it's not a pancake.

IMG_3873 cropped resized.JPG
 
Whaaaa? Dude, you must use GLUTEN MONSTER flour or something. 90% hydration, that's incredible! Very nice~
 
B-Hoppy said:
Whaaaa? Dude, you must use GLUTEN MONSTER flour or something. 90% hydration, that's incredible! Very nice~
Click to expand...

The whole wheat I used (hard red winter) is 12.5% protein, and I think the white is about 12%. I soaked the wheat overnight by itself, which I think helped give the gluten a head start.

Even so, I probably won't go that wet again. Even with corn meal, it really wanted to stick to the peel.
 
Gutpunch said:
The whole wheat I used (hard red winter) is 12.5% protein, and I think the white is about 12%. I soaked the wheat overnight by itself, which I think helped give the gluten a head start.

Even so, I probably won't go that wet again. Even with corn meal, it really wanted to stick to the peel.
Click to expand...

I'm cornfused? Did you soak the actual wheat berries and do a wet mill or something, or just soak the wheat flour? Me, even at about 70%, it's like . . . really unmanageable (I don't have a mixer though).
 
B-Hoppy said:
I'm cornfused? Did you soak the actual wheat berries and do a wet mill or something, or just soak the wheat flour? Me, even at about 70%, it's like . . . really unmanageable (I don't have a mixer though).
Click to expand...

I soaked the whole wheat flour (locally milled, so pretty fresh and thirsty) in some of the water from the overall recipe overnight. That soaker was about 118% hydration, so fairly loose. In the morning, I added the remaining flour and water (plus the leaven I prepared the night before), mixed roughly by hand, autolysed for 40 minutes, mixed in the salt, and folded every 30-40 minutes during the 3.5 hour fermentation, sort of similar to the Tartine method (minus the soaker, and I don't use a Dutch oven). No machine, no real kneading step. The gluten gets developed with those folds during fermentation.

Soaking the wheat was kind of an experiment. This particular whole wheat is pretty hardy, so I thought maybe the extra time with just water would get the enzymes going, convert more of the starches to sugars and give gluten development a head start, instead of just doing it all the same day, which is what I usually do. It was sort of a shot in the dark, but I didn't get a brick, so I guess it worked pretty well. :)
 
Glad to see you do it by hand and didn't end up with a door-stop! I read a book about making artisan breads 6-7 years ago and all the numbers boggled my mind so I went back to my old ways, winging it. Nothin' fancy, just an old stove, some well seasoned baking pans and ugly looking stuff that tastes really good! (The stove also serves well for the 3-tier set up, not that I'm trying to compete with Denny or anything, ha)

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buns.jpg


Detroit Jewel.jpg
 
anybody used semolina flour in a recipe before? I'm trying to find some locally but the places i've seen it online all reference it as for making pasta - is there different types for bread/pasta or is it just more common for pasta so it's labelled that way?
 
terrapinj said:
anybody used semolina flour in a recipe before? I'm trying to find some locally but the places i've seen it online all reference it as for making pasta - is there different types for bread/pasta or is it just more common for pasta so it's labelled that way?
Click to expand...

I use it about 50% of the time... gives a nice flavor to the bread. i can't tell you how much i use (because i rarely measure when baking bread).
try it - it's good.
 
HoppyDaze said:
Plenty of it available. Bobs Red Mill mills great flour
Click to expand...

that's what brought up my question - it says for pasta

from what i can tell from further reading on the freshloaf BRM and others are often a little coarser than the actual durum flour but still should work well - i can find it plenty of places online, i'm still trying to find it locally
 
Last edited by a moderator:
terrapinj said:
that's what brought up my question - it says for pasta

from what i can tell from further reading on the freshloaf BRM and others are often a little coarser than the actual durum flour but still should work well - i can find it plenty of places online, i'm still trying to find it locally
Click to expand...

I see; I misunderstood your post. I'm surprised you can't find it locally...you're only one state away from the source.
 

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