Bread Thread
- Thread starter Gary Knowels
- Start date
Going down to a friends place today to fly my high performance kites. She has a windy 20+ acres on the bluff here where she has established kind of a boutique farm and B&B. She and her husband grow lavender and apples for their new cidery as well as grains developed for this climate by the WSU Breadlab. Made her a loaf of whole wheat sourdough with sunflower seeds baked with flour from her fields and mill. First time using the Bread Mat (thanks perfessor). They are getting better.
wanderingrichard
Life of the Party
Do any of you use stoneware loaf pans ? Is that even advisable?
I use an oblong clay baker (and a Lodge cast iron). I like the clay baker but you have to start the dough in a cold oven.
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Really nice! You are a quick study!
I want zero credit for those, you've put in the work and been very thoughtful about things. The loaves look amazing. Did you bake back-to-back in the challenger?
I tried to but I think my oven runs a little hot and at 465 darkened the first loaf too much while baking the second. When baking one loaf I have been starting off at 465 but then going down to 425 to finish which I obviously couldn't do this time. Maybe I just have to cut way back on time when finishing the first loaf. Here's yet another question for you. Do you think the inside of a loaf is fully baked after the covered time in the oven and the uncovered time is just to get the color wanted? I think 465 scorched the bagel seasoning a bit even though it was only in for about 8 minutes.
wanderingrichard
Life of the Party
Pardon my ignorance, but what is a "challenger" ?
The Challenger Bread Pan. About as niche of a kitchen tool that exists, but does it's job exceptionally well.
Home
Challenger Breadware empowers you to bake the best bread with its revolutionary Bread Pan that gives the right amount of heat & steam for the perfect loaf.
challengerbreadware.com
I don't think the middle is done at the end of covered baking, at least not for me with 21:30 minutes covered, as I've underbaked before. I think my oven runs about 5-10 degrees cold. I used to bake at 525 to start then drop to 450, but I didn't want to wait for things to hear back up if I was doing 2 loaves. I started experimenting with temperature, starting at 500 degrees and dropping the temp 10 degrees at a time in successive bakes to find the maximal temp that would allow me to consistently bake a loaf with no temperature variation and it be caramelized the way I want and be fully cooked.
You can always temp the loaf with an instant read thermometer, I find 208 is my preferred crumb doneness. When cooking at higher temps, I only did 20 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered. now I'm up to 21:30 covered and 17ish uncovered.
wanderingrichard
Life of the Party
Thank youThe Challenger Bread Pan. About as niche of a kitchen tool that exists, but does it's job exceptionally well.
Home
Challenger Breadware empowers you to bake the best bread with its revolutionary Bread Pan that gives the right amount of heat & steam for the perfect loaf.
I'll be ordering some flour from Cairnspring soon as I'm nearly out of bread flour. Aiming to order by 5/19 for pickup on 5/24. Cairnspring flour is expensive in local stores, in small packages, or shipped, but 50 lb sacks picked up locally are quite reasonable.
If anyone wants to add on to my order, I'd be happy to pick up and work out a way to hand off. @mcswny or @albula, interested?
If anyone wants to add on to my order, I'd be happy to pick up and work out a way to hand off. @mcswny or @albula, interested?
Starting to get the idiosyncrasies of my oven more in control. As expected it runs hotter than indicated by the oven gauges. Turned the temp down to 450 for a covered bake of 23 minutes then down to 400 uncovered for 13 minutes. I'm liking to looks and taste of the result and the consistency. Baked a couple M's Day loaves for my girls this morning. Never realized how satisfying it is to give away a loaf of bread. 
So I ended up scoring pretty big. A good friend of mine has been in the process of starting a small batch baking company and has a wholesale account with cainsprings distributor. So I’m now able to order and pick up from the distributor that’s about 30 minutes from home now.
Score for you!