If I am being picky, this is a tiny bit under because i same day baked and have been over-fermenting my loaves lately as it's warm, so i got scared.
This is a post to say that I stripped back complexity, did literally nothing out of the ordinary and got one of my better loaves ever – Great spring, great ear, good crumb, some blisters (longer cold proof would've been preferable, and simpler)
70% hydration, 800g loaf, generic Tesco Finest Canadian flour, 20% (probably not peaked enough) starter, 2% salt.
Steps:
- Mixed all ingredients together from the start in stand mixer, waited 15-20, gave it another whirl
- 2x stretchy coil folds and divided on half (jalapeno and cheddar to bake tomorrow)
- 2x more gentle coil folds all loosely 25 mins apart
- made sure to nail bulk at 25% rise at 30°C
- preshaped and left for 20 mins
- didn't mess around with minimising flour or fancy shaping techniques (something I've been overthinking lately) – just gave it a good dust, stretched sides over one another in thirds and tension rolled it all up (not so tight that it rips or warps – common error) – couldn't have felt easier
- rested for 30 mins, stitched and put in the fridge (probably a bit too cold)
- took out approx 6 hours later and rested on the counter for an hour to proof a little bit more whilst the oven heated up
- probably let the oven and casserole dish preheat for 30-40 mins max at 230°C (my baking temp, no higher or lower)
- a 3-4 small ice pieces, nothing more, and scored with a simple slightly angled slash – not deep, no crazy angle, just finished off the edges on each side
- baked covered for 30 and uncovered for 15 at 190°C
This was a reminder that sometimes we do too much and look for too many hacks/variables to optimise or test and you get lost in the detail
by General_Penalty_4292
8 Comments
I had this exact same experience recently. I had been adding oils, fats, citric acid, etc all in pursuit of a mythic perfect loaf and things just kept getting worse. Stripped back to the absolute basics either my last loaf and it was the best loaf in months.
That looks delicious gorgeous
Looks beautiful! Can you list some of these hacks/variables that are not working or unnecessary go pay attention to?
This is also pretty much how i make bread, almost perfectly 🤣 i have a hard time measuring % rise though i dont have a decent enough vessell to easily measure it
Fantastic looking loaf ❤️
This. Most of the tricks you see on the web is snake oil
Isn’t “3-4 small ice pieces” a trick everyone learned online. I reckon you don’t even need that, just add water, or none at all.
I define it as trick since it is not traditional, not everyone does it, and has only been popularized in the last decade due to content creators labeling it as a trick/hack for oven spring.
Just nit picking on your title. Otherwise, ear looks great!
That is similar to my regular weekly loaf, except I typically mix with spatula and hands instead of mixer (one less bowl to clean). Just an unfussy approach that creates a nice loaf.
Glad you found what works for you.
Looks great, and not overthinking is a good idea. I’ve not progressed to baking in the oven yet and still using the bread machine my partner got me for Christmas, but getting great results. Took a while to get my starter good, but all I do now is
* take my ~100g starter out of the fridge, let it warm up until it starts showing bubbles (seems to continue from when it went on “pause” after the previous bake),
* feed with only about 50 to 60g of rye and the same of M&S Scottish spring water slightly warmed
* stick my wireless monitor on it and keep track, it does a 2x or 3x rise in just a few hours
* mix with white and usually some others flours (buying from M&S and local farmer’s market), start a sourdough cycle, and put the still bubbling starter back in the fridge to go on “pause” again. I discard a little every few bakes only.
* wait a bit or put the dough in the fridge if I can’t bake the same day
* put on the bake cycle, and done.
Once cooled I slice and freeze after maybe consuming a bit as it’s hard to resist.
Overall the prep time is just a few minutes. Yours inevitably has a more open crumb as I suspect my proofing is off a bit, but the results are still really pleasing. Once breaking through the barrier of creating a starter, getting a decent loaf can really be very straightforward, generally with the process all done the same day.