My learning curve

April 4th

April 7th Bread

So far, so good.  I was unable to get photos of my Sunday 9 Apr bake due to the stuff flying off the cooling racks so quickly.  I started out my Sunday baking with BBA's Cinn. Buns.  That one had me a little concerned after proofing, but amazingly they came out just like I had hoped.  My batch only yielded me 7 buns, but that is probably because they were big and fat. They were gone before they even had a chance to cool well.  So much for setting up a photo of them.   From there I took a break for lunch, and then jumped back in and started making a batch of Pretzels  using Floydm's post here on this site.  Awesome, super easy, next time though I am going to have to double the batch size because the 6 I yielded from that batch left the rack before they had cooled as well.  Jeeessh, you would think I never feed my kids by the speed at which they can make stuff vanish.  At dinner we had a nice quiet pasta dinner with Garlic and Olive Oil Toasted Ciabatta from Saturdays bake.  After the kids were put down for the night I started in with a batch of Bagels for Monday. 

Now here we are on Monday and Im most of the way through my work day. I cant wait to get home and pull the Bagels out of the fridge and start the boil/baking of them.  I'll have to beat the kids back with the broom until I at least get a couple shots of them, :-) 

Well here we go again, after Mondays Bagels, Tuesdays Cinn. Buns, Thursday Bread, Fridays Ciabatta's.  At least I got off my butt to get some shots of this weekends Bagels and Pretzels.

Well the bagels were not as pretty as I was hoping for, but they taste good. 

Well it started off as a good weekend so far. Had a few loaves made by noon, and was waiting for my "Baby" to come out of the oven and here she is.

Weighing in at 4lbs. 14.5oz. She's a handful

Oh she is big, let me back up a little.

Here she is next to a 1lb. 4oz. Honey Wheat

Here she is next to a 1 3/4 lb White Split Top

And how does this freak look inside, well here we go...

Well that first piece is gone, the heal, gone.  Wife is happy..

Now on to my others for today, I tried out a Honey Wheat recipe from BBA.   It came out O.K. I think, I really dont know due to the fact that Im not a big Wheat eater.  Crumb is nice.

Boy do I need a new camera, ok heres another but the flash kind of blinds the crumb.

Another Honey Wheat.

And here is a starter from SourdoLadys recipe. Day 1

Ok so back to the kitchen and eat some more of my baby, sure is creamy when only a couple hours old.

TT

Thanks weavershouse, she is quite simple actually. She is Floydm's Lesson 1, Generic Bread recipe formula from this site.  It is the very first bread I ever made and I still enjoy tinkering with it. I have only a few differences

• I multiplied the amounts x3
• I knead for 15 minutes by hand, with a break at about 10 to give my hands a rest for a minute, then finish off the final 5 (I work the dough pretty hard).
• I let set for 2 hours in a s/s bowl with cover.
• I degas lightly, folding it in on itself once, then back in bowl for another 2 hours
• Then I transfer from bowl very gently to a peel with corn meal on it and let rest for a couple minutes
• I score with double edged razor, and let set for 10 minutes while oven preheats to 500' with stone in oven.
• I transferred from peel to stone (lots of corn meal needed for that)
• I spray misted the oven with water in 30 second intervals 5x
• Then dropped the temp to 400' for 45 minutes

I know Im not good at the whole recipe part looking neat like most folks, Im still learning.

I appreciate your compliments.  I enjoy my breads and such, but they are nothing fancy compared to the many skilled folks here. And my slashing is just a double sided razor in my fingers and I cut whatever comes to mind. Again Im only a month in and still learning.  But I do appreciate your kindness.

TT