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Real Life Cooking Mama: Share Your Cooking Projects!

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  • edited February 2014
    We assumed we had not put enough yeast in. I'll check out what you have linked. The crust was excellent, cast iron FTW. Also, while hockey puck bread is not so great as bread, it's excellent for dipping in soup.
    Post edited by George Patches on
  • We assumed we had not put enough yeast in. I'll check out what you have linked. The crust was excellent, cast iron FTW.

    Oh, you made a loaf in cast iron. I bake in the oven on a stone. The key to crust is to use a spray bottle to steam up the oven after putting the bread on the stone.
  • Apreche said:

    We assumed we had not put enough yeast in. I'll check out what you have linked. The crust was excellent, cast iron FTW.

    Oh, you made a loaf in cast iron. I bake in the oven on a stone. The key to crust is to use a spray bottle to steam up the oven after putting the bread on the stone.
    A cast iron way easier, it literally steams itself. Also, read over your link, that wasn't our problem. We like whole wheat bread, we expect it to be a little tougher. Our bread just didn't rise properly. Gonna try again today and take care to warm the yeast in water first and let it rise in a warm oven.
  • I use a spray bottle to directly spray the surface of the bread. Crust is the result of differential cooking rates.

    Cast iron and baking stone accomplish the same thing - dense substrate allows for slow, even distribution of heat.
    Apreche said:
    That article is full of bits of bullshit that I can't be bothered to debunk.

    Different wheat strains do indeed have different levels of protein, which affects bread rise tremendously. However, most commercially-available whole-wheat flour will work just fine. For all of those words, do you know what the most important part of that article was? Extending the rising time when dealing with whole wheat flour.

    You also can't let it go too long. Sourdough processing will eventually denature the gluten complex and completely collapse your bread. I have done this exact thing, and you'll get pottery shards from it.

    Try throwing some distatic malt in with your whole wheat. One of the issues is that wheat proteins are very very hardy, and take quite some time to break down effectively. The gluten proteins form a starch storage and protection matrix; you need to break down that structure somewhat to make the starch available as a food source. Distatic malt has already had its gluten structure denatured, so the starches are available.

    And I don't know what the big deal is with using vital wheat gluten as an additive, unless you're one of those "additives are bad" fucktards. In which case, don't be. Vital wheat gluten is just the protein and vitamin component of ground wheat flour; you wash the starch away with water and dry what's left.

  • I'm following a no-knead recipe, because lazy. I think our problem was that we mixed all the dry ingredients (flour, salt and yeast) together before we added the water. This time I added the salt and yeast to the warm water and let it sit for a while before adding flour. I also doubled the amount of yeast (to a whole gram), and I'm letting it rise all day in a 100F+ degree oven. Pretty sure it's gonna rise like crazy this time around.
  • You're gonna over-proof your bread.
  • Andrew said:

    You're gonna over-proof your bread.

    Also, be careful of humidity when proofing. If it's too wet or too dry, it can cause issues. My apartment is too dry, so the surface of the dough can get crusty during proofing. Might get a humidifier.
  • edited February 2014
    I'm not gonna rise it as long. Last loaf was risen over night (12 hours ish). I'm trying to get this to happen in 6 hours. If it over-proofs, fuck it. I'll change something and try it again. It's just 200 grams of flour, I've got plenty. :P
    Post edited by George Patches on
  • If I have a piece of dough fermenting in the fridge, how can I tell if it's still good or if all the yeasties have died?
  • Apreche said:

    If I have a piece of dough fermenting in the fridge, how can I tell if it's still good or if all the yeasties have died?

    You should smell alcohol and the dough will be slack if the majority of yeast have died.

  • Apreche said:

    If I have a piece of dough fermenting in the fridge, how can I tell if it's still good or if all the yeasties have died?

    How long has it been in there? Yeast are hardy fuckers.

    Let it warm up and see if it rises. Or bake it and see what happens.

    Dead yeast don't really taste any different until they start autolysing (rotting); then they start to taste something like old meat or soy sauce.

  • Toasted hazelnuts. Cashews. Caramel. Shell chocolate. HELLZ YES.

    Made awesome turtles last night. Made caramel-nut logs today, sliced 'em up, and going to dip them in chocolate once they've chilled.
  • Apreche said:

    If I have a piece of dough fermenting in the fridge, how can I tell if it's still good or if all the yeasties have died?

    How long has it been in there? Yeast are hardy fuckers.

    Let it warm up and see if it rises. Or bake it and see what happens.

    Dead yeast don't really taste any different until they start autolysing (rotting); then they start to taste something like old meat or soy sauce.

    The instructions to say to refresh it after 7-10 days. I won't have time to bake or do anything with it until Sunday. I put it in the fridge on... February 2 or 3. So it's been 12 days at least.
  • The yeast are probably dormant at this point, and depending on the strain and/or bread ingredients, they may have produced some alcohol.

    But I also bet it'll be delicious. What are you making? Sourdough starter? Friendship bread?
  • The yeast are probably dormant at this point, and depending on the strain and/or bread ingredients, they may have produced some alcohol.

    But I also bet it'll be delicious. What are you making? Sourdough starter? Friendship bread?

    I'm still working on regular boring bread.

    I'm also planning on going to rye bread next, but I can't find rye flour. You would think it would be easier to find in NYC.
  • My grocery store has a whole section of that brand with like a zillion types of flour, but not any rye!
  • Amazon is best grocery store.
  • Amazon is best grocery store.

    Seriously, it's not like the flour will spoil. I bought my curing salt for making bacon on amazon.
  • Flour does actually go bad/suboptimal over time. It just depends on how demanding you are going to be on it. Always use your oldest flour, and bake a lot. American commercial breads are full of sugar anyhow.
  • Yes, especially whole grain flour. It contains fats which can become rancid.
  • Nuri said:

    Flour does actually go bad/suboptimal over time. It just depends on how demanding you are going to be on it. Always use your oldest flour, and bake a lot. American commercial breads are full of sugar anyhow.

    Seriously? WTF, why would anyone put sugar in bread? (Wait do you mean like a coating such as cinnamon / sticky / hotcross buns?)

    My Mum makes a chocolate bread but that is with bits of milk, dark and white chocolate through a bun which has cocoa and chocolate mixed through the dough that is sweet but it is more of a special morning tea thing to have but no sugar.

    I just feel as if this is bad for your health to just put sugar in random foods.
  • While not about personal cooking adventures, I did want to mention The Taste in a cooking related thread. I normally hate reality TV but I actually enjoy this show. There have been a few interesting moments where contestants and judges have mentioned game theory concepts (in non technical terms) as relates to the game of the show. Good stuff.
  • sK0pe said:

    Nuri said:

    Flour does actually go bad/suboptimal over time. It just depends on how demanding you are going to be on it. Always use your oldest flour, and bake a lot. American commercial breads are full of sugar anyhow.

    Seriously? WTF, why would anyone put sugar in bread? (Wait do you mean like a coating such as cinnamon / sticky / hotcross buns?)

    My Mum makes a chocolate bread but that is with bits of milk, dark and white chocolate through a bun which has cocoa and chocolate mixed through the dough that is sweet but it is more of a special morning tea thing to have but no sugar.

    I just feel as if this is bad for your health to just put sugar in random foods.
    Helps proof the yeast if you use it in small amounts. I often use a bit of milk and honey to rehydrate dry yeast. Adds a nice smooth richness to the bread.

    But you need to use it sparingly.
  • Today I turned this:

    image

    Into homemade ricotta cheese:

    image

    It's surprisingly easy to make and tastes amazing.
  • So the store finally got the rye flour. But they no longer have the yeast! The block of fresh yeast I have has some white fuzz growing on it, and they didn't have any more...
  • sK0pe said:

    Seriously? WTF, why would anyone put sugar in bread? (Wait do you mean like a coating such as cinnamon / sticky / hotcross buns?)

    F'serious, it tastes like cake. Not good cake, but like that shitty bi-lo/home brand sponge cake.

  • Churba said:

    sK0pe said:

    Seriously? WTF, why would anyone put sugar in bread? (Wait do you mean like a coating such as cinnamon / sticky / hotcross buns?)

    F'serious, it tastes like cake. Not good cake, but like that shitty bi-lo/home brand sponge cake.

    My mind is blown.

  • So I made some breads. I put in some of the overfermented ferment from lats time. It was definitely alcoholic, but I don't think the yeast in it was dead yet. I couldn't use fresh yeast because the grocery store didn't have it, so I used active dry yeast for the first time. To my surprise, I think it actually worked better than the fresh yeast. Also, instead of making large breads, I made fewer smaller ones, which was much easier.

    There was one more bread not pictured because I ate it.

    Check out my breads. Awwww yiss. #baking pic.twitter.com/h1W9WhsZxd

    — Apreche (@Apreche) February 16, 2014
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