baking: does it come easily to you?

i aborted my first attempt at bread from "flour water salt yeast" last week because it seemed like it wasn't going right and the timing with thanksgiving was stressing me out. i'm trying again this week and it still seems like it isn't going right but i'm going to push through to the end and see what happens this time. the levain that results from his approach is way drier than i'm used to, like almost the texture of bread dough on its own.

i had some discard levain this morning so i cooked globs of it in a nonstick pan and ended up with something approaching english muffins

They turned out pretty well! The hardest part was getting them on the pan, long story short I made them too big and had to bake them longer (

Oops, I'll just post the thing
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5yQScjn32d

yum!

What do people use the leftover egg for when recipes call to separate the yolk and the whites? I don't like the idea of not using one or the other.

Oh, whites freeze!

so do yolks. ice cube trays

this week's bread: https://www.instagram.com/p/B5yJZ_qFz-1/

That looks fabulous!

Ooooh C has a loaf of the overnight white loaf in the oven right now. Do you like the levain? I don't think he's tried it yet but the reg overnight and poolish recipes have been gorgeous.

thanks! i was surprised it turned out, the dough seemed so dry in every step and didn't rise as much as it was supposed to, but it's a good brownish bread. it's a time-consuming and wasteful recipe (so much discarded levain) so i'm probably going to go back to the more basic sourdough recipe i've used in the past for most weeks going forward. i want to start playing around with some additional flavor elements like seeds etc. in the future too.

try mixing in a bowlful of porridge into your dough, before the stretching and folding. whatever kind you like.

like cooked porridge? or uncooked oats

cooked porridge!

What do people use the leftover egg for when recipes call to separate the yolk and the whites? I don't like the idea of not using one or the other.

I felt bad wasting these, I should have just cooked them up and ate them.

re: unused levain you can save it in the fridge for at least a couple of weeks and use in pancakes among other things

my technique is to warm up a little milk, mix the levain into it, then mox that into the pancake batter. noticeably stronger, tastier pancakes ime

mIx but i do like the word mox actually

what is "porridge" made from?

oats! it is oatmeal. we had this discussion recently in another thread, can't remember which

the kindle edition of the tartine book is free on kindle, probably expires eventually i just closed the pop-up explaining it too fast. i am reading it.

i meant free on amazon prime but you know what i mean

and i just bought flour water salt yeast. i have the bread baker's apprentice, which is quite good. i need to get a bigger dutch oven; mine is 3.5 qt. though i could easily scale everything down slightly by weight.

anyway 2019 was a big baking year for me, but not much bread. i made the cinnamon raisin bread from bread baker's apprentice and some pitas and that was about it. i made about 10 pies. i became a pie crust expert.

how do i shot pie crust harbl

do you have a kitchenaid stand mixer

i... do not. i have a food processor though. and a rolling pin. and a good attitude.

i use this recipe but stand mix it (xpost--food processor works just as well!) https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/all-butter-pie-crust-recipe
they also have one that uses a combination of butter and shortening but i think it's better for a savory pie--imo shortening lends a fried food kind of taste to the dough
the hardest part for me to learn was rolling it. i do better when the dough has a tiny bit more water than is recommended, so i'm not actually an expert in that respect. but the dry spots do take up the water as it rests in the fridge. most important is:

• start with as round a disk as possible and pinch down all the cracks you can find
• roll from the center to the edges--all the way to the edges
• give it a quarter turn after you pass the rolling pin over the whole thing, repeat
• don't let it get warm (this is why pies are such a more difficult challenge in the summer!)
• roll it onto the rolling pin to transfer to the dish, then roll off

It don't come easy!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tebBj42fC3k

i have made pastry dough in the food processor before & it works pretty well!

I am posting this from inside the King Arthur Flour store. There are lots of neat baking sheets here.

I don’t use a mixer to make pie crust and have used a wine bottle to roll out the dough — you can afford to keep it simple, you can’t go wrong bc it’s pie crust!!

yeah i don't use a mixer - because i don't have one - and i also don't have a rolling pin (olive oil bottle or used wine bottle) and making pie crust is easy as pie

keep the fat cold is one thing i tend to try and do. when i was vegan i would use veg shortening or olive oil (would put olive oil in the freezer in a tupperware until it solidified before combining it, now i tend to use butter (though i have a fondness for the olive oil crust and still make that sometimes)

cold butter, ice water, re-chill dough if gets too unwieldy etc ... keep it cool, kids

yeah i didn't mean to imply one was needed! i just find it a lot easier on my brain. i get overwhelmed.

trying to make this https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-100-whole-wheat-bread-recipe and not doing great
i kneaded by hand. i don't love to knead. it started getting sticky and i got impatient. i should have let it sit for a bit but i added more flour. that is always my downfall. it did rise but didn't get as high as the recipe wanted after over 2 hours so i put it in the oven. it'll be ok. i will try again after i eat this one and i promise to let it stay sticky.

I have a bread machine and the very first loaf of whole wheat I made was perfect. It rose like a champ and had a great texture. Every single loaf since then has been a relative failure. Just not rising enough. I don't get it.

the ol' bread machine bait and switch!

if it’s too sticky and sticking everywhere you can add a little water to your hands and/or the work surface. you can also try mixing/kneading in a big bowl instead of on the counter.

the ol' bread machine bait and switch!

yeah, they saw me coming

a lot of people overknead. you usually don’t need much. a few minutes maybe. and you don’t want to be too violent. if you’re really grinding it into itself try kind of slowly stretching and pulling.

eyyy

i suppose it could have also been an overknead and not an underknead. and i probably knead too hard. the recipe said oil the surface, but it took up all the oil twice

i wouldn’t use oil tbh, just a little water.

eyyyy

our small kitchen is also our small living room, my shortcrust game is killed dead by the heat

baked challah today

Challahhhhhh pic.twitter.com/1qCBjrJmED

— Evan (@silby) March 7, 2020

pic.twitter.com/MVH1w1WUi9

— Evan (@silby) March 7, 2020

looks fantastic. now i want some french toast asap

that looks beautiful.

i am very impressed!

☺️