Dinner last night and bread

[paddy]

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The past few months I have jumped right to it when I get home and start a batch of bread. Have almost always had homemade bread on hand every night.

Made bread Thursday and Friday I was in the mood again to mash on some dough so I made pizza. It was good timing since the wife was stuck at work and needed to leave soon after getting home to go to a quilt group. She was so happy to see dinner fresh out of the oven when she walked in the door.




I have decided to change my dough technique. I think the dough has been too dry. I increased the water content and what a difference. I need to measure by weight on of these days.
Baked the pizza at the hottest my oven will allow 550F.
about 10 minutes it was done and turned out not bad.



paddy

[mizshelli]

Homemade bread is the best thing ever invented, even before they started slicing it

[Eeyore]

Bread-making is my favorite thing ever. I wish I could do it more but we dont do breads at the shop I work at and Im dieting again so I dont do it at home much either.

My question for you is: What time do you get home and what time do you usually eat?

The reason I ask is, dough really needs alot of time to develop if it is going to have alot of flavor.

Maybe you already do this, but just in case:

Whenever you make a lean dough (little fat and sugar), save a piece. Oh maybe a 1/2 cup to 1 cup. Leave it out, covered well, then add it to your dough when you make bread or pizza the next day. This will add alot of flavor with no extra work.

If you aren't going to make bread for a few days then wrap well and refrigerate. Then add it to the dough the next time you bake. However since it will be cold you need to adjust for that by either increasing the temp. of your water (not exceeding 100 degrees of course) or better yet take it out several hours ahead of time.

This is generally called a pate fermente. (pot fermuntay)

Let us know how the baking goes. and if you have any questions I know one of us here will be able to help.

eeyore

[mizshelli]

I stay at home, I am unofficially the housemom, and I babysit my 3 year old niece so we do alot of cooking and baking during the day. I was told by my mother in law to use my breadmaker, and I don't want to, it takes the fun out of kneading the bread, which is my favorite part.
As far as your diet goes, you need some carbs in your body to sustain life

[Eeyore]

IM with you there. You wont find me using a machine. I love dough. I love to feel it and watch it change from one thing to something completely different.

As far as carbs go: Dont worry about me. I get more carbs than I need. I dont have any prob getting enough. It seems everything I want is high in carbs. Gotta cut back somewhere.

ARGH!!!

eeyore

[paddy]

Originally Posted by Eeyore

My question for you is: What time do you get home and what time do you usually eat?

The reason I ask is, dough really needs alot of time to develop if it is going to have alot of flavor.

eeyore

Usually get home by 2:30pm. And jump right to it.
Basic recipe is 5 cups flour, 1 tablespoon kosher salt, two tablespoons dry yeast and a little more than 2 cups of cold water. All goes into the Kitchen-Aid mixer for about 10 minutes. Then I knead the dough by hand for about 3-4 minutes. Place in a bowel coated with olive oil, cover and let rise for an hour. Remove and knead for a minute every hour for two or three cycles.
On the last cycle about 4:30-5:30 pm I transfer to a Brotform-Bread-Mold for the last rise. Fire up the oven to 500 F. Turn out the dough onto a corn meal coated peel, cross the top of the dough with a lame and transfer to a baking stone in the oven. Spray inside of the oven with water just before and a few more times during the first five minutes. turn the oven down to 450 F and bake for a total of 50 minutes.

When making pizza, have to have things ready for dinner at 6pm.
When making bread, I lengthen the process and the final product isn't finished until about 7:30pm.

The pizza bakes for only 10 minutes at 550 F.

I need to turn this into a two day process and use a sourdough starter someday, but this seems to work for a one evening process when pressed for time.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

paddy

[Eeyore]

Sounds like you are quite the bread maker.

From 2:30 to 7:30 is 5 hours. Subtract at least 1.5 hours for prep and baking. That's 3.5 hours. I would say that is borderline. Im sure your bread is great and that you're quite happy with it.

But I suggest you just give a pate fermente a try and see what you think. Like I said, it's no extra work.

eeyore

[paddy]

Originally Posted by Eeyore

Sounds like you are quite the bread maker.

From 2:30 to 7:30 is 5 hours. Subtract at least 1.5 hours for prep and baking. That's 3.5 hours. I would say that is borderline. Im sure your bread is great and that you're quite happy with it.

But I suggest you just give a pate fermente a try and see what you think. Like I said, it's no extra work.

eeyore

Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely try it.
I think I will mix a small batch tonight just for that purpose and plan on baking on Sunday.

paddy

[Eeyore]

Cool!

Cant wait to "hear" if you can tell a difference.

eeyore