Bready

This time I decided to make cinnamon babka.

The dough turned out a bit better but I had a harder time shaping it properly

I let it rise in the oven with wet paper towels and it seems to have helped immensely!

Not really sure why the cinnamon filling spilled out the way it did though. Did I not roll it tight enough? Not enough flour?

I haven't baked anything since highschool, kinda overestimated my abilities lol. Definitely a learning experience!

At least it's edible :)

A few mistakes I noticed:

Didn't activate the yeast before mixing in

Messed up the chocolate by accidentally mixing in some water from the steam from the double boiler

Shaped the dough prior to chilling

Didn't roll out the dough to the correct length. Had to smush it to get it to fit in the loaf pan

Forgot to buy vanilla paste for the dough

Forgot to premake simple syrup, didn't have any to apply after baking :(

Hopefully my next attempt goes better :)

Instead of using a baking steel I stacked 4 steel baking sheets and filled a smaller sheet with water on the bottom. According to my iranian father, it tastes accurate and good.

I'd been following instructions to take stand 2 and put it between 3 and 4 etc, and I could execute the steps but not understand what was happening.

But this finally clicked for me, hope it helps others. (1) Twist the two center stands. (2) Twist the two outer stands, but (3) lay them down overlapping the center two, so the new center stands are one from the first twist and one from the second twist.

I just started baking bread a few months ago and after starting with overnight no-knead boules, I decided I also wanted to make sandwich bread. So I looked up some recipes and made them a bunch of times and got to where I can make a pretty good loaf of sandwich bread.

The thing is, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed when I started with the sandwich bread recipes, which need to be kneaded as the total rise time is under 3 hours. So I didn't look up any technique, and I knead by just picking up the ball of dough and kneading it with my fingers sort of like how a cat makes biscuits. Typically I do this for 10 minutes.

I saw a video later with a very different kneading technique. But mine seems to produce a bread that holds together fairly well and has reasonably uniform bubbles throughout, though a little denser at the bottom than the top.

Thoughts? Am I a heretic who should renounce my wildcat ways, or is this fine?

This week I'm doing three different individual pizzas every night for four nights. Because the world is burning, but my oven is pretty hot too.

The crumb. I never appreciated how important it is to buy the nice flour.

Crumb shot

Made a dark loaf using a rye sourdough starter, bread flour, and cocoa powder for color. Pretty happy with the result!

Used this serious eats recipe, love their detailed explanations of each step.

Didn’t have whole wheat so subbed with all purpose. Will probably add more salt next time (but we’re salt fiends)

Finally, don’t have a pizza steel/stone so just used an upside down ceramic at 245-250°C

Also, sorry, only snapped this one pic when I saw it blow up. Sadly, once baked every single one got devoured before another pic could capture the crumb.

Bottom shelf is right over the light bulb, so that one was way over proofed and deflated further when I brushed on the egg wash.

They both tasted good, and actually the flat one makes for nice breakfast sandwiches. At least the better proofed one was also my better plait!

Made 2 basic white bread loaves for the first time and they came out pretty decent, despite being a tad lopsided.

Todays lunch was grilled cheese.

Making bread tonight, and it rose really well!

I'm not sure if it's a tad dry, or if that's just how challah works, this is only my second attempt. Still tasty though!

I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe which calls for an internal temperature of 195F after 35-40 minutes, but I got to about 210F at 30 minutes.

Cabinet details cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27518175

Plywood for the main box (3/4" sides, 1/4" back, rabbet and dado joints). Cut the door 1" too narrow so I added a handle from cedar scrap. Shelves and sheet pan brackets are reclaimed bed slats, planed. Window hole is routed with plexiglass insert, my first time doing any significant router work.

The brackets for the baking sheet have a cutout to accommodate two bowls. My goal was either two bowls or two baking sheets.

An obvious improvement would be to install an under-counter outlet so the cord is less prominent.

Heating is from a 45W incandescent bulb (which was the hardest part to find). It's in the top of an old desk lamp. Adding an 8x8" pan of hot water kept the humidity high so I didn't have to cover the rising bread. Temperature/humidity logging is from an SHT30 (plus two DS18B20s) running Tasmota and reportig to HomeAssistant, viewed in Grafana. I expected to have to cycle the light, but just keeping it always on seems to give me the right temperature range.

Crumb shot to follow in a couple hours

Tartine no knead method, 75% hydration. The kitchen smells like heaven

Cinnamon raisin version of sourdough. Didn't rise super much. Needs some sweetness. Still decent.

Many stretch and folds (almost pretending I was making pan de cristal) later, this is a stupidly soft crust. Like a Neapolitan style.

I'm going to try this again soon with slightly lower hydration, more oil, more heat, and a pre-bake of the crust without toppings so it gets more of a chance to grow. Any suggestions are very welcome.

Sourdough, 70% hydration

I suspect I should knead more (thoroughly)

One of my goals this year is ot make more bread. Super happy with this one, taste really good too. Can post the recipe if someone is interested.

Pictures from the process: