Bread Porn

[Blind Dog]

Maybe the right way up this time?

 

[Danwood]

I preferred the former, BD...it gave the impression of an extremely light and airy loaf, so much so it defies gravity.

 

[Airgead]

Made my usual 7 loaves yesterday. 20 year old sourdough culture. All hand kneaded. Give it a go Bribie... you'll never look back.

 

[Bribie G]

I'll make up some sourdough culture soon. So far I have been getting to grips with bread machine using more conventional ingrdients. Every time I switch on the oven I've done a couple of bucks so I'm keen to use the machine instead.

Friend presented me with a very old Breville machine from her old mum so I have been experimenting. I'm using Golden Grain stone ground Atta flour (from the mighty Grewal Bros) as I have a sack.

It's a bit different to supermarket flours and seems, as found to my grief, to absorb water differently so experimenting is very much the order of the day. It also contains less gluten apparently, as it's more geared towards chapattis and parathas rather than Western bakery bread, so needs a bit more kicking along with yeast etc.

Batches:

#1 turned out like a brick and could be used for smash and grab raids at Prouds Jewellers. Binned.
#2 turned out about the consistency of blu tack. Binned.
#3 - massive readjustment of the recipe, swelled up like the blob, rushed up from the pan and filled the whole void and stuck to the inside of the glass lid and baked on. It was edible but more like brown Madiera cake than bread.

How do I clean this up? I wonder if I can remove the lid for cleaning. Wiggle jiggle, ancient perished plastic gives way with a snapping sound and lid is detached, various washers and spacers drop out.

#4 No probs, stick lid back on. I've finally hit the sweet spot of the recipe, I think. Come back after the final beeps and take the lid off. Instead of bread there's a lump of slightly warm dough. Obviously I've destroyed the seal and it won't bake properly. Binned.

Binned the Bread maker as well. h34r:

#5 Go to Bing Lee. Buy latest model. Follow instructions. Batch #5 is in there now :lol: :lol:

Will post.

As I said, (ed: using the domestic..) oven is pretty expensive and these things don't use a lot of power so I want to get pretty smooth with operating it. Any half decent bakery bread round here is around five bux a loaf. I only have to bake twice a week and the new device will pay itself off after three months. Grewal's flour is only about a dollar a kilo if you can find it in sacks.

Now where have I heard that sort of DIY logic before ??? :beerbang:

 

[Bribie G]

Hey airgead that Grewal's is at the Hornsby Indian store in the street right next to Westfield, have ten kilo sacks if you are interested in trying for twelve bucks.

 

[Crouch]

Well ... the wife wanted a Thermomix so given all the money I've put into my brewery I had to oblige. I forget to get a shot when it came out of the oven, but it was a little over done but still tasty. We made some butter earlier in the night (with the thermie) so used the buttermilk in this loaf ... first loaf of bread ever, pretty happy with the result. Far from being 'traditionally made', but using that machine is so easy and chasing a 9 month around I couldn't see another way to do it.

(yes, the oven needs a clean)

 

[Airgead]

Hey airgead that Grewal's is at the Hornsby Indian store in the street right next to Westfield, have ten kilo sacks if you are interested in trying for twelve bucks.

I might have a look. I tend to use Demeter flours. I buy them in 12.5kg sacks in bulk from a wholesaler. Great organic, stoneground, unbleached flours. I have 6 sacks to get through before I need to buy more. I think the missus might just have a small fit if I add more flour to the pile.

I know that indian grocer well. We go there a lot.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Not For Horses]

How many people here use malt flour in their sourdough?

 

[primusbrew]

How many people here use malt flour in their sourdough?

I haven't but I have been wondering recently what the effect would be.

My bread making is mostly sourdough using wheat and rye stoneground wholemeal flours. Would adding malt flour result in any starch conversion at proving temperatures (18c) over say 6-10 hrs? If so this could add a slightly sweet note that might go well with the wholemeal loaves.

I think I've just convinced myself to give it a go.

I'd be keen to hear if other people have any experience with this.

 

[Bribie G]

I ran up a small batch of wheat malt flour in my Marga and kneaded it in with wholemeal flour to make some bread buns, maybe a third wheat malt to wheat flour. They turned out pretty sweet and sickly, the malt completely overwhelmed the taste and I'd guess there was some conversion during rising. If using malt flours, I'd go a very small amount.

I seem to remember that the good old Hovis brown bread in the UK had a bit of malt.

 

[Bribie G]

Well, first batch in the new machine turned out really stodgy and I have come to the conclusion that the Atta flour isn't suitable for bread baking as is. Airgead please note.. B)

I could get some gluten flour and add that as an experiment, but I'll keep the Atta for pizza crust (spectacular) and parathas etc.

So I trotted me round to BiLo and got a five k bag of Laucke wholemeal bread mix, and checking through the viewing port it's doing a really good job in the machine right now.

The mix has improvers etc built in, and comes with a generous pack of their own yeast. I checked online and this mob seems to be the "Coopers of home breadmaking": fantastic resource for recipes including Turkish Bread etc.





The back of the sack is a course in Bread101 all by itself. $1.30 per 1000g loaf for base ingredients, can't complain.

Now for the sourdough. Rolls sleeves up.

 

[Not For Horses]

Yeah malt flour to about 2% is all you need bribie! Although I think malt biscuits are probably higher than that.

I was talking to a local baker here who is now using my malt across his whole bread range and he was explaining the reasons to me.
Basically, in a sourdough culture, you have lactobacillus and saccharomyces competing together in the same medium.
Adding 2% malt flour adds a bit of maltose (or maltoriose, can't remember which one he said) which the saccharomyces love to munch on. This evens the playing field for the two bugs and apparently makes for better rising.

I started using it in mine and noticed a big difference in the rise time. It also seems to be a bit less sour, maybe due to the decreased time that the lacto is working. Not sure on that bit.
I'd recommend it though.

 

[primusbrew]

NFH is that 2% as baker's percentage? I might give it a go in my next batch.

Personally I prefer my sourdoughs to only have a little sour character so this sounds like a good option.

So did notice an increase in sweetness at all?

 

[primusbrew]

NFH is that 2% as baker's percentage? I might give it a go in my next batch.

Personally I prefer my sourdoughs to only have a little sour character so this sounds like a good option.

So did notice an increase in sweetness at all?

 

[Not For Horses]

What do you mean by bakers percentage?

Just 2% by weight compared to the flour. So for my usual loaf of 400g, I add 8g of malt flour.
I didn't really notice an increase in sweetness. Two reasons, it's such a small quantity and those complex malt sugars aren't really that sweet tasting anyway.

 

[Bribie G]

Might try some LDME in my next loaf.

 

[Blind Dog]

Might try some LDME in my next loaf.

Each to their own, but treat it like super strength crystal. I tried it once, but find I prefer a handful or 3 of spent grains to add texture and flavour, although the husks can be a little annoying

 

[primusbrew]

What do you mean by bakers percentage?Just 2% by weight compared to the flour. So for my usual loaf of 400g, I add 8g of malt flour.I didn't really notice an increase in sweetness. Two reasons, it's such a small quantity and those complex malt sugars aren't really that sweet tasting anyway.

Yeah that's what I meant by bakers percentage. % weight compared to the weight of flour rather than % weight compared to the weight of the final dough.

 

[brewologist]

Reading this thread make me want to break out the bread machine next brew day.

Love your work fellas.

 

[Airgead]

Well, first batch in the new machine turned out really stodgy and I have come to the conclusion that the Atta flour isn't suitable for bread baking as is. Airgead please note.. B)


Now for the sourdough. Rolls sleeves up.

Yeah... I did wonder. You want a high protein flour for bread and I'm pretty sure Atta is pretty low.

If you want some sourdough starter to get you going, give me a yell. Fred (my starter) is about 20 years old now and travels well through the post.

Cheers
Dave

 

[indica86]

No, Atta is not low protein and it works fine as a bread flour.
I have used it in pizza bases and bread with sour dough no problems.

 

[Airgead]

All I have on it is from wiki -

Most atta is milled from the semi-hard wheat varieties, also known as durum wheat, that comprise 90% of the Indian wheat crop, and is more precisely called durum atta. Hard wheats have a high content of gluten (a protein composite that gives elasticity), so doughs made out of atta flour are strong and can be rolled out very thin. Indian wheat are mostly Durum wheat, which are high in protein but less in "bread forming gluten" so the bread when baked with this flour does not rise as well and tend to be dense.

I suspect that atta is pretty variable. It may be real Indian atta in which case maybe not so good for a risen bread (but great for a chapati or for pasta given its durum wheat) or it might be just flour in which case it may be good for bread. Atta is just Hindi for flour so I guess you could get a bunch of stuff labelled as atta.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Bribie G]

This is made in Mildura by the Grewal brothers who imported a stone mill from India. I'd guess they select local varieties of wheat that are best for Indian breads but not so much for Western style bakery goods. When I get my sourdough happening I'll definitely give it a go again with some extra gluten added.

Dave are you likely to be at the State comp next weekend?

 

[Airgead]

Dave are you likely to be at the State comp next weekend?

Nope... don't do the competition thing.

 

[paulyman]

This thread makes me hungry! There are some awesome efforts on here.

I switched to making a bread known as "Fred Bread" quite a while ago. The method makes the most amazing bread, with a remarkable depth of flavour and the most amazing crumb. It also fits well into a work schedule as you make up the preferment, leave it for up to 48 hours on top of the fridge to work its magic. I generally make it in the evening on a thursday and its ready for me to start on saturday morning.

Once I work out how to post pictures I'll add a few.

 

[Bribie G]

Well I must admit to being impressed with my $90 bread machine, this thing puts a new slant on the dollar loaf



I also used the dough setting to make a pizza dough with the atta flour and it turned out brilliantly.

 

[Crouch]

Loving this olive bread! Just need to work on the rise for a 'full size' loaf

 

[DeGarre]

OK, benders, let's take this thread back to the topic...

Today's no-knead ciabatta.

 

[jyo]

Finally, after being inspired by this thread, I made my first sourdough. Really happy with the results. I've been nailing slices of it fried in olive oil and dipping it in balsamic, and eating bruschetta for breakfast everyday! Just made sourdough pancakes with the kids and we'll never go back to normal pancakes after tasting these babies.

 

[panzerd18]

Hi all, looking to make my own bread, should I buy a bread maker, or a benchtop mixer to knead the dough and use my oven to bake bread?

I am leaning to the side of buying the mixer and oven.