baking: does it come easily to you?

hmm i think t65 is definitely more bread flour. it's stupidly difficult to get a good read on this via the internet. isn't this exactly the sort of thing the internet is supposed to be good at?? i did find this on a forum:

AMERICAN: Cake & Pastry
 APPROXIMATE FRENCH EQUIVALENT: Type 45
AMERICAN: All-Purpose & Bread
 APPROXIMATE FRENCH EQUIVALENT: Type 55
AMERICAN: High Gluten 
APPROXIMATE FRENCH EQUIVALENT: Type 65
AMERICAN: Light Whole Wheat 
 APPROXIMATE FRENCH EQUIVALENT: Type 80
AMERICAN: Whole Wheat 
 APPROXIMATE FRENCH EQUIVALENT: Type 110
AMERICAN: Dark Whole Wheat
 APPROXIMATE FRENCH EQUIVALENT: Type 150

which seems to pretty much correspond with this page:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/51263/what-are-flour-types-t45-t55-t65-t150-type-0-or-type-00-magic-enzy-flour-rye-flour-t1150

You shouldn't need to be a NASA engineer to make some fucking bread, right? I used T65 with 11% proteins.

Anyway the naans were okay but they didn't bubble when I cooked them, they just stayed flat. I had a better recipe but I lost it.

Making naan in a domestic oven is going to be not quite right regardless, not hot enough.

i've only made naan on a cast iron skillet. It worked well.

Yeah that's what I'm using too

I think I used yeast and also baking powder just to make sure it had bubbles.

yeah i've done it with difficulty getting small bubbles, and the bread just doesn't come out as soft as restaurant naan. it's more pita-like. the recipe i used did have ingredients you'd expect to soften it, can't remember what though. butter, milk, yogurt? i used a skillet.

i let the skillet heat up for ~7-10 minutes I remember. and the dough texture should be very very soft/proofed when you roll it out.

i've had three weeks in a row of failed sourdough - good crust, good taste, but huge air bubbles inside to the point where it's almost hollow. my first theory was that i wasn't getting a good cut in the top of the dough when i put in the oven so the steam was building up inside and inflating the loaf. but then i was thinking back to what i've been doing different recently and i've been doing an overnight fridge proof so now i suspect that's the issue? maybe over or underproofing? next week i'll try shifting my schedule back to allow for a daytime proof outside of the fridge.

Some people covet that oven spring! Like, it seems to be seen as a plus for fancy instagram sourdoughs, even though it's terrible for sandwiches/eating.

Idk what to do about it, but I think Sarah usually does an overnight fridge proof too.

We made banana bread for the first time last week, used this random blog recipe (rather than the BA one, since we don't have a mixer) and it came out great: https://www.katiebirdbakes.com/the-easiest-banana-bread/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9hVpzzHSRJ/

Added walnuts and a chopped up chocolate bar that had cayenne in it, the heat really came through.

This one is even easier IMO and is very moist!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSQyJuMN0d4

NA make sure your starter has enough zing. do you refresh it before making your levain/sponge/whatever?

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9a42fRJ0H6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

lol jackasses.

I always thought there was something a little fascist about the tartine vibe. ‘the one true bread’ kinda thing. now i see i was right!

I made the cookies again and this time did not over-bake and they were moist and delicious! Related question: are those silicone cookie sheet liners worth buying?

i have them but didn't have a good experience with cookies. they are maybe too slippery. this is possibly individual to me, but i bake 6 cookies per sheet. in my oven, the one positioned in the middle back always cooks slightly less than the others. with the silicone mats, that one became misshapen and began to slide so the cookie developed a keyhole shape! i have used them to roast vegetables just fine, though. i prefer parchment for most applications.

I considered buying those but parchment paper is cheap and compostable and more versatile than silicone liners (you can cut it to fit a cake pan etc) and you don't have to wash it.

In the last 30 hours I’ve baked a banana cake, a tray of chocolate brownies, and a loaf of sourdough bread.

I wouldn’t say it’s easy but I do enjoy it.

I did it again

The one on the right is gone already pic.twitter.com/HFoPHCoSjA

— Evan (@silby) March 14, 2020

Protip: to avoid the rambling food blog preambles, I've started bookmarking the printable versions of recipes.

A relative who is a bread expert is teaching me by email and zoom how to bake bread. we zoomed today and now my dough is resting in the refrigerator. I am really excited to bake my first loaves tomorrow

:D

Join the rank amateur bread thread!
long-time reader first-time bread-maker

I only just founded out it's CARDAMOM, not CARDAMON.

hello and welcome

baked my second loaf of bread today

I wanted to be scientific, so I thought I would bake another loaf exactly as I did before with the King Arthur bread flour, but with 25g more water.

It was definitely harder to work with during the first part of the two hours of stretching and folding, it stuck to the countertop and to my hands. I discovered that the bench scraper I have made it much easier to work with. By the 5th time after 2 hours when I stretched it and rolled it out it seemed fine

I baked exactly the same as before. It's still cooling but it looks fantastic

I'm going to try the Antimo Caputo Semola Di Grano Duro Rimacinata Semolina Flour that my cousin has recommended to me the next time, mixed with a little bit of regular bread flour. It's drier so it requires more water

Highly recommend DIY cultured butter with your fresh bread. But get some food service gloves because pressing the buttermilk out of the final butter is gross without them.

Now that I've been baking brownies, cookies, and muffins regularly, I'm looking for a slightly more intermediate baking project. The most difficult recipes I've done so far have been cinnamon rolls (which have been the extent of my working with active yeast) and Instant Pot cheesecakes; would cakes be the next step up?

Try pound cake and see how you get on.

yeah pound cake would be a good step up

Dorie Greenspan has some good ones like this one https://doriegreenspan.com/recipe/a-cake-you-can-take-with-you-anywhere/

Also carrot cake - Mary Berry’s is pretty much a no-fail and includes banana for moistness
https://blog.lakeland.co.uk/recipe/mary-berrys-carrot-cake/
(sub muscovado sugar for light brown, nbd)

I like the spices of that Greenspan cake! An added bonus being that I have all the equipment already (no need for a stand mixer, and it even uses a loaf pan instead of a cake tin). I'm not a huge fan of lemon sponge, but most of what I've been baking has been chocolate whatever so it'd be a nice change of pace.

The carrot cake looks good! I'll of course have to convert from metric, and I'd still need the cake tins. I'm guessing "full fat soft cheese" is Britishes for cream cheese?

made this recently and it absolutely rules, esp with some raspberry jam. easy to make as well, no stand mixer required.

https://www.food.com/recipe/almond-pound-cake-67538

xpost Lee - get a cheap digital scale that does both oz & grams and you will never have to convert again

and yes, full fat soft cheeze = cream cheeze

oh and cake tins you may be able to convert to something you have using this

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/cake-pan-sizes/

i bake almost every weekend now during #Quar for purely reasons of sanity and economics

after years of trawling the internet for decent/average/ok recipes I realized this year that Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From My Home To Yours” book is one of the key goto places where i can always find something that tastes so good & is usually straightfoward to make (not always not-complicated but she lays things out well if they are fiddly)

her book and Mary Berry’s baking bible are my no-fails

and it is v confidence building too, like once you have made a bunch of tasty things it makes you feel good!

that is on my list of books to get, i love her recipes. she made a cookie on a video she did for some publication (it's on the cheese board, i forget) and i put it on my calendar to make for xmas.

i kept making average-ass internet brownies (including fkng gross vegetable oil brownies from kitchn.com that were the worrrrst) and then Dorie was all, girl let me help u, and holy shit I never looked back

she’s the best

if you have 6 hours to spare make her cabbage rolls but follow her recommendation and use savoy cabbage

Someone here should open a bakery called Gang of Flour.

There’s one in West London called Outsider Tart.

Gang of Flour is an awesome name!

I don’t suppose that I should spend too much on cake tins, right?

i don't make cake very often but i got 2 usa pan round cake pans and i love them, great nonstick surface and the metal is thick-ish. i don't think it's worth it to get those cheap thin ones bc the surface wears off and you have to get new ones eventually.

yeah otm
i am into NordicWare but the USA Pans brand are also v good

oh and if you ever decide to buy a bundt pan, dont cheap out, get a good quality heavy one

target has a pretty good supply of basic sizes
restaurant supply places are good too

Valuable advice all around, even if I don't respond directly to you specifically! I will avoid going the cheapo route; as it happens, my neighborhood has more than a few restaurant supply stores, so I'll definitely make a trip when I get my CAKEY INGREDIENTS.

NordicWare was founded and is still based in my home town. The Bundt cake was developed by a local non-Zionist Jewish women’s group; they added the T to distinguish it from/not evoke the fascist German-American Bund.

For Dorie Greenspan's lemon spice cake, the recipe doesn't specify how much zest. Does that mean basically all of the lemon's peel?