Hello good people! First time poster here
Im quite into baking but this is my first time ever making homemade bread.
After researching for a couple of days on the interwebs I found what I thought was an ok recipe for a beginner. It looks fine on the outside but I expected a less dense loaf and it is unpleasantly chewy. The crust is amazing though, taste and texture-wise. Any advice from more experienced bakers?
Here's the recipe and what I did:
The night before I made poolish from:
200g AP flour
200ml water
Couple of pinches of dried yeast
I let it sit for about 10 hours
Then in the morning I mixed the poolish and additional 200g AP flour, 100g wholegrain four, 200ml water, 10g salt and the rest of the yeast packet (about 6g).
Mix the dough and did 2 folds, 30 min apart, let it rest for 1 hour, then one last fold and shaped it and put into bowls for proofing, proofed for about 30 min and baked it at ~200°C. 15min with steam, the rest if the baking in dry oven Then allowed to cool for about 30min.
Anyways, sorry for the long post. Thank you in advance to anyone who takes time to write anything 🙌
by Turbulent_Big7384
7 Comments
This is your first time making bread?! Fuck me, can we get married?
Hi, just reading your recipe, I’m faintly surprised your loves are no more flattened.
You have a very high hydration, 80% and AP flour wi tend to give you a finer crumb.
The combination should have made your dough very stiff and difficult to stretch and fold.
May I suggest you start with less added water in the final mix. Hold 50g in reserve, start with 150g, and add a little to if necessary to achieve a soft tactile dough after mixing thoroughly.
Happy baking.
I don’t have a lot of bread experience, but 30 min to cool isn’t enough. It should cool completely before cutting into it. That might have been part of the reason for the unpleasant chewiness.
If possible, try to use bread flour (or “strong” flour) instead of AP flour. AP flour has less protein than bread flour and therefore will create a weaker gluten structure, causing a denser, chewier texture. It otherwise sounds like everything else you did was great.
yes enjoy it
Adding too much flour while shaping can result in a dense loaf, as well as insufficient or over kneading. I’d stick with a flour that has higher protein than AP next time – it will definitely help the gluten develop more properly. Bread flour is great for this! Also, let it cool for longer than 30 min 😉 overall not a bad loaf! Good job 🙂
For a first attempt, those loaves look fantastic! If it’s chewy, try increasing the hydration ratio a bit next time – maybe 220-230ml water for that amount of flour