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A scheduling tool for bread baking

breadscheduler.com

51–60 of 124 posts

Re: A scheduling tool for bread baking

#51
post #49

Or you could also learn how to make mixed 4/3 rye/wheat sourdough with a natural starter, which requires no scheduling at all. Just mix it in the morning and put it in the oven some time in the late afternoon/evening. I've been doing it for years and it's the only kind of bread that I can make on a regular basis. It's something you can actually do daily, not an additional hobby. Ingredients: * 400g full-grain rye flo…

Most of my breads use a mixture of rye and wheat with a wheat sourdough. I'll have to give the rye sourdough a try.

Finding rye at retail stores in the USA is very difficult. I have to order mine directly from a mill.

Re: A scheduling tool for bread baking

#52
Few appreciate what has gone wrong with regular store bought bread. Regular store bought bread is created with the Chorleywood process, whereby substandard wheat and carbon dioxide can be mashed together to make some dough that can be baked into something that resembles bread.

These loaves of bread-style-wheat things are not made with just the basic ingredients needed for bread. There are the E numbers for preservatives and whatever else is 'needed'. Often the additives are added to the flour rather than the dough and therefore do not have to be listed. Stuff derived from human hair can get in there as an 'E number'. Often people self-diagnose themselves as having gluten or other allergies when there could be problems with the additives rather than the core product of what bread is supposed to be.

Chucking out store bought bread and joining the sourdough club is a popular reaction to the industrial nonsense that poses as 'bread'. However, there are economic factors at play here. Sourdough keeps and it can be sold at a premium.

Actual fresh bread made with yeast and zero additives does not keep and cannot be sold at a premium. It is also less trendy and not on the radar of the hipster crowd. However, if one is sorting out one's bread properly then a bread machine and the ingredients for bread making is a shrewd investment. It takes five minutes to load the machine with 500g of flour, 360 ml of water, 25g of some type of fat, a teaspoon of yeast, a teaspoon and a half of sugar (to make the yeast do its thing) and a teaspoon and a quarter of salt. You can then press the start button to have the freshest bread you could wish for in four hours. Or you can set the timer so it is ready in the morning or when you are back from work.

By taking this approach you have the benefits of pure, fresh bread with none of the downsides of lengthy preparation times. You don't need an app to manage your sourdough. It is also energy efficient as a bread machine is a small rather than large appliance. The Panasonic machines are best as you have recipes based on that machine plus you can get spare parts and the beginners manual uses metric rather than obscure 'cup sizes'.

With home-machine, properly bakes bread you don't need to be chewing on some sourdough rusk that is essentially stale, you can fire up the machine and keep the fresh loaves coming every 2-3 days. You can mix and match the flours to keep your bread varied. You can also focus on what you eat your bread with rather than try to forever by adding ingredients to the bread such as tomatoes, olives, nuts etc.

If you can maintain the routine then you never need join the sourdough club, you can cut your own way with the innovative 'yeast' ingredient used properly rather than thrown out.

Re: A scheduling tool for bread baking

#53
post #49

Or you could also learn how to make mixed 4/3 rye/wheat sourdough with a natural starter, which requires no scheduling at all. Just mix it in the morning and put it in the oven some time in the late afternoon/evening. I've been doing it for years and it's the only kind of bread that I can make on a regular basis. It's something you can actually do daily, not an additional hobby. Ingredients: * 400g full-grain rye flo…

Most of my breads use a mixture of rye and wheat with a wheat sourdough. I'll have to give the rye sourdough a try. Finding rye at retail stores in the USA is very difficult. I have to order mine directly from a mill.

Yes, when I was in the US I used to order "Hodgson Mill Organic Rye Flour, 30-Ounce (Pack of 6)" through Amazon sellers, and later had trouble getting the stuff. The organic version was better than non-organic.

It's difficult to get because nobody knows how to use it :-)

Re: A scheduling tool for bread baking

#54
I feel like that website is slightly counter-productive, because it puts a very strong emphasis on timing, whereas for producing high-quality bread, things like dough handling techniques, dough and oven humidity, or baking temperature have a much stronger effect than timing.

Re: A scheduling tool for bread baking

#55
post #49

Or you could also learn how to make mixed 4/3 rye/wheat sourdough with a natural starter, which requires no scheduling at all. Just mix it in the morning and put it in the oven some time in the late afternoon/evening. I've been doing it for years and it's the only kind of bread that I can make on a regular basis. It's something you can actually do daily, not an additional hobby. Ingredients: * 400g full-grain rye flo…

Most of my breads use a mixture of rye and wheat with a wheat sourdough. I'll have to give the rye sourdough a try. Finding rye at retail stores in the USA is very difficult. I have to order mine directly from a mill.

FWIW, if you're in Minnesota, it's in every Cub Foods supermarket.

Then again, Minneapolis is AKA the Mill City!

Re: A scheduling tool for bread baking

#58

I’m from Australia, and this site uses a weird imperial mix and metric measurements. Weights are in grams, but temperature is in fahrenheit (I think, doesn’t actually say). Please use one measurement system make it consistent, as well as switchable. Thanks.

Grams have become kind of standard for baking, even in the US.

I think this is due to the use of "baker's percentages", which specify the weight (not volume) of all ingredients in terms of a percentage of the weight of flour used. So for example, "3% salt" just means 3 grams of water for every 100 grams of floor.

It's a lot easier to do this using grams uniformly, than some mix of lbs, oz, cups, tsp, etc. The system really takes advantage of the ease of conversion between units in the metric system.

But the oven temperate doesn't change even if you add more flour, so there's no need to do any scaling conversions for that. This let's people get away with using antiquated units for temperate.

Re: A scheduling tool for bread baking

#59

I feel like that website is slightly counter-productive, because it puts a very strong emphasis on timing, whereas for producing high-quality bread, things like dough handling techniques, dough and oven humidity, or baking temperature have a much stronger effect than timing.

You're right that it's important to observe the dough and modify timing as needed.

I think, however, that for many folks who are trying out baking sourdough for the first time, it helps them a lot to start with a fully detailed recipe that includes timing. The instructions on that bread scheduler will AT LEAST get you to the right ball park (assuming you use similar flour to the instructions).

For those starting this out, I would recommend following one of these detailed recipes, do it several times or more, and that way develop some sense of what factors to tweak.

Taking a closer look at the instructions, I see they're not emphasizing dough temperature during bulk ferment. Household kitchen temperatures can vary quite widely and this temperature is an important factor in how long the dough takes to ferment. That's why it's valuable to press the dough with your finger and gauge readiness prior to shaping steps.

Re: A scheduling tool for bread baking

#60
At least personally, when my sourdough is ready (by appearance and feel) for the next step corresponds to the "time" from the "recipe" so infrequently that I'm shocked when it does

Following a schedule exactly is a great way to make Frisbees (short dense loaves)

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