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Wednesday, 18 December 2024

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Sourdough starter is your friend... Even with nasty pure whole wheat. Unless you have a health reason to not use it, I prefer King Arthur High Gluten Bread Flour with a good sourdough starter. That will make some serious bread. I had an older than me
Ashkenazi babushka teach me about bread and King Arthur was where we began and ended.

The other thing? Seriously? Make sure you use enough salt. Too many modern recipes go "healthy" and it messes up the taste.

Bread: try adding malt powder (do a YT search for details).

Nicely done!

Also, minor edit.
>> aminals -> animals

My wife has a rustic bread recipe. A couple of ingredients differ in amount and she uses a particular flour brand. Here's the whole recipe:

2 Loaves
PREP: 12 mins
BAKE: 25 to 30 mins
TOTAL: 3 hrs 7 mins

Ingredients
1 cup (227g) ripe (fed) sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups (340g) lukewarm water
1 to 2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 cups (602g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Instructions
Combine all of the ingredients, kneading to form a smooth dough.

Allow the dough to rise, in a lightly greased, covered bowl, until it's doubled in size, about 90 minutes.

Gently divide the dough in half; it'll deflate somewhat.

Gently shape the dough into two oval loaves; or, for longer loaves, two 10" to 11" logs. Place the loaves on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise until very puffy, about 1 hour. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F.

Spray the loaves with lukewarm water.

Make two fairly deep diagonal slashes in each; a serrated bread knife, wielded firmly, works well here.

Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, until it's a very deep golden brown. Remove it from the oven, and cool on a rack.

If your whole wheat loaf tastes bitter the flour may be off. Whole wheat flour doesn't last forever and when it's past its prime can taste bitter.

"I see why people just want to load up a roll of film in a camera that merely takes pictures and head out into the world to go a-hunting."

Yup. Playing with fake bokeh settings has no appeal for me. Although I'm sure others use it to good effect.

I-Love-Good-Bread!

My good bread tip is Acme Bread, one of the few remaining reasons to live in San Francisco... their NY Rye, Olive Loaf and Pain d'Epi are just too good!

I have to say I hate witnessing the wanton yeast exploitation and high temperature flour cooking on a photo blog. I really do... um... hold up... what's that smell? Oh man! Bread! On a photo blog!! OK. We're all good now.

Keep up the outstanding work.

For the bread, flour quality is paramount. As said, the bitterness could stem from ageing, or a random added chemical supplement? The yeast can play a minor role too, sourdough is better but needs some regularity. And I'd advise against putting sugar in there.
I could give you a few addresses in my neighbourhood but I guess it may not help. ;oP

'Any bakers out there, who can give me any tips on making a tastier bread? You go to all that trouble, at least it ought to taste better than what you can buy at the supermarket.'

My go-to resource is King Arthur Baking https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog

The funny thing is, as a company, I'd think they are just your thing, based on their values and mission. But then, you don't cook. You contain multitudes, as it were.

Patrick

There are whole wheat flours made from white instead of red wheat. They don't have that bit of bitter. These flours are sometimes called "White whole Wheat".

It's hard to get good flavor using commercial yeast, as opposed to a sourdough starter, especially when the process times are short. Generally speaking, the longer the fermentation time the better the flavor. You can get longer fermentation times by starting with less yeast, or putting the partly fermented dough in the refrigerator overnight or longer, or at least letting the dough ferment at a cooler temperature than ordinary room temperature.

I didn't take in how much salt the recipe video called for but usually it should be about 2% by weight of the flour weight. For a pound of flour, that would be 9 grams or about 1.5 tsp. If you used much less than this, it would contribute to the blandness.

I have nothing to say about bread, but have you checked out the new Photoshop reflection removal tool? I don't use Photoshop, but I saw a demonstration of it on YouTube, and it's pretty astonishing.

More salt. If it's bitter, add some honey (or more sugar), that also helps shelf life.
And then slather on some good butter. :)

A few weeks ago, I used the "portrait" mode on my iPhone while taking a photo of my wife. The result looked fine on the iPhone but under closer examination with Lightroom it looked really fake.

Your comment prompted me to work on the original and add lens blur using Photoshop** -- and the result was so much better and realistic than the phone.

**Photoshop CS6 (v13.0.6) released in 2012.

I've been baking almost all of our bread for a few months now because what we bought in the grocery store kept spoiling too fast. Plus, the homemade version taste better and is probably healthier. Since I'm retired, it gives me something to do, and I find it relieves stress.

I had to work at it a while to find and edit a recipe to what we really like. Because it's just my wife and I, this is for a small loaf (about 6-8 servings).

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup bread flour (can use all purpose, but not quite as good)
1/4 cup warm water (to activate yeast)
1/4 cup of milk (can be 2% or whole)
1 or 2 tbsp unsalted butter (softened or room temp)
1 tsp granulated sugar (to activate yeast)
1 tsp honey (I use locally sourced wildflower honey)
1/2 tsp salt

I use active dry yeast, but instant yeast will work as well and save you the step of activating it in warm water and sugar. I knead the dough for 8 minutes before letting it rise 90 minutes. After that, I shape it and let it rise another 60 minutes before baking.

I hate heating up a large oven for a single small loaf of bread (utilities are expensive here), so I had the bright idea of using our air fryer. It works wonderfully at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. You need to flip the loaf after 10-12 minutes so the underside gets done and the top doesn't over-brown. You can also bake in a regular oven at 375 for about 25 minutes.

I was nervous at first about the whole yeast thing and whether I'd get it right, but the recipe is very easy and hard to mess up. Andrew mentioned wheat flour gets old quicker, and he's right. The shelf life is about 3 months compared to 6 for white flour. If you cannot use it that quickly, store it in the freezer sealed tightly.

Yes, get the freshest flour you can buy, and keep it in the freezer. Stays fresher longer. Anson Mills is the best, others are very good.

No sugar, more salt, and more time fermenting. With bread, time=flavor. Sugar speeds up the process by giving the yeast something to eat so takes away flavor. Salt slows down the yeast and thus increases flavor. Plus saltier bread tastes better. 2% minimum, and I’ll go up to 3% for pizza and focaccia.

Pre-ferments—where you mix some of the flour and water with a small amount of yeast and leave it to sit 12-16 hours before making your final dough—also add a lot of flavor.

Start there, and if you're so inclined there’s a big rabbit hole waiting for you.

If you want a book, the Jeffrey Hamelman one is the place to start. I’m interested in checking out a new one, Very Good Bread by Melissa Weller, but I’ve read so many pages about bread over the past twenty years that I’m just not sure I need another book. Anyway good luck if you go that route, it’s an adventure, and I mean that in a good way. Mostly.

For a simple yeast bread, flavor is a direct result of time, as the yeast breaks down complex carbohydrates into simpler sugars. Using a smaller quantity of yeast and allowing the dough to rise for a longer time will give the yeast more time to break down the sugars in the dough. I would suggest looking up Jim Lahey's original no-knead dough recipe, which uses a much smaller quantity of yeast (1/4 teaspoon!) with a significantly longer initial proof.

Also, whole wheat contains the germ and the bran, which contains oils, and those oils can go rancid, especially if you are using supermarket flour, which has probably been sitting on the shelf for a while. Usually when I make a whole wheat loaf, it is only about 20-25% whole wheat; enough to provide a wheaty flavor, but without bringing along the sour notes.

Also consider that using pure whole wheat can result in a denser loaf with a tighter crumb. The bran tends to act like little knives against the gluten strands that are being developed.

A couple of suggestions: 1) Make sure to use fresh flour. This is particularly important with whole wheat flour. 2) Avoid using only whole wheat flour. It contains wheat germ which, because of its texture, tends to interfere with gluten development. The result is a much denser loaf. I'd suggest 60/40 white-to-whole. 3) Instead of kneading, let the dough rise on its own overnight. Ideal temp range is 45-60 degrees F. An overnight rise helps develop a lighter, more flavorful loaf. Look up any "no knead bread" recipe on the Internet for more details.

Looking good!
But why add sugar to bread?

It didn't taste good because you used whole wheat flour. I know many will probably disagree with me, but there is a reason "white" bread was invented: it tastes better.

Whole wheat flour is by nature a little bitter. I've been making a no-knead loaf using 1 cup whole wheat and 2 cups bread flour. I use a really quick and easy recipe from Jenny Can Cook. Here is her recipe for a white loaf. Just substitute in 1 cup of whole wheat flour. I also add about 2 tablespoons of honey for more flavor. Make sure you use fast rising yeast. https://www.jennycancook.com/recipes/2-hour-fastest-no-knead-bread/
I might try whole wheat/white in a 50/50 ratio next to see what happens. She has other fast no-knead bread recipes at this website.

"[A] little salt" sounds like too little salt to me, and as a non American I would say that "a little sugar" sounds like too much sugar!

Your loaf looks good, but maybe has too little contrast in its colour. I like to cook my bread in a very hot oven (240°C) so that the edges of the cuts get dark and crusty.

Beyond that, Andrew's suggestion of the wholewheat flour being stale sounds plausible. I is likely that wholewheat flour sits on the supermarket shelf longer than white flour.

I would definitely use half white and half whole wheat flour.

"I see why people just want to load up a roll of film in a camera that merely takes pictures and head out into the world to go a-hunting. Picture hunting;" YES, this is the real thing. Go out into the world and record the photons from scenes that you like. The film won't lie. All the fake bokeh, background, and other manipulation software tools result in ADP, another digital picture. There are a billion of them already. Why bother making another one?

You are missing one very key ingredient: time. If you create (or obtain) and maintain a starter, and if you allow the dough to go through a period of bulk fermentation before shaping, you will have a loaf that is not bland.

I have been baking bread for many years now, and it took a good bit of practice and disappointment until I got really good results.

My favorite resource, and the one that helped me the most: Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson.

More salt may resolve bland taste.

Watch the sell by dates on flour. Whole wheat especially is "whole," which includes the oils that can go rancid. Store the flour in the fridge or freezer to make it keep longer.

try mixing regular or bread flour with the whole wheat. Start with at a 50/50 ratio, that may improve taste. I also take the lid off the oven at the 20 minute mark and reduce temp to about 420F for the last 15-20mins

Does Butters like whole wheat bread? He could finish it for you.

Sourdough rye is the only bread I will countenance.

100% Whole Wheat Bread

Lightly grease a (8.5x 4.5 inch) loaf pan with butter. Set aside while you make the dough.

Put (400gr) of whole wheat bread flour into a bowl – let it warm to room temperature.

Add 1 tsp of salt, 7 grams of yeast, to the flour and mix.

Add 1 tsp of brown sugar to 430 grams of tepid water (90F – 100F) and pour it into a well of the dry ingredients.

Mix together, then beat vigorously until the dough is soft and sticky, about a minute.

Pour the dough into the prepared pan, cover with a damp dish towel and leave in a warm place for about 30 to 40 minutes or until the dough has risen almost to the top of the pan.

Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes or until well risen and brown.

I make 3 of these loafs a week.

Perhaps you've become used to the taste of 'shop bought' bread Mike?
This is 'real' bread, unless you messed up, it tastes as bread should?

With a background of developing film in my own darkroom, I dislike recipes using measurements other than grams/ounces and/or with approximate baking times based on the oven temperature (my oven thermostat is exact to +/- 25°C).

A small scale to measure the ingredients (you need not be as precise as with photo chemicals) and a steak thermometer with a display outside the oven make life easy.

Hi,

I know your readers can’t help themselves and give you lots of advice. I am just piling on. After years of trying various recipes with moderate success, I finally hit the jackpot with this lady’s recipe: https://www.emmafontanella.com/the-easiest-no-knead-bread My family likes this one best and for me it is finally “good enough”. I won’t search further. If it keeps you from wasting years searching for the best bread, why not try it? (I subscribe to the opinion that sugar has no business in anyone’s bread. Water, flour, yeast, salt.)

[Which version did you choose, Luci? --Mike]

For a loaf (sourdough, in my case) based on 450 grams of King Arthur bread flour, subtract 20 grams and replace with 10 grams of organic whole meal rye plus 10 grams of white whole wheat.

Whole meal (or whole grain) organic rye carries along a healthy dose of bacteria which are helpful in boosting taste during fermentation.

Vary the amount substituted 1:1 for bread flour according to taste.

Bob’s Red Mill brand rye is available in 20 ounce bags in case you want to preserve the option of pitching the entire experiment without undue waste.

Hi Mike,
Sorry for a late reply. I went for method 2, stretch and fold. I realize the irony of it, to call this a "no knead" recipe is, well, a stretch. But I am coming from years of kneading dough for at least 15 minutes, so this is indeed very light on the mechanical input into the process.

[Thanks Luci! I'll be baking loaf No. 5 today, Christmas day. it's getting better all the time. I'll try her recipe No. 2 for sretched and folded bread today. P.S. I appreciated your stretch joke, well struck. :-) --Mike]

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