A proofing basket is a nice object and it is not required. What it does is hold the shape and wick a little moisture from the surface. Several ordinary things do both. Substitutes that work A bowl lined with a clean tea…
Crumb is good, flavour is good, rise is decent. The scoring is where it falls apart. What happens: the blade drags through the surface rather than cutting it, so the cut is ragged. In the oven the loaf does not open…
Started on whole rye, moved to white bread flour at day 4, 100% hydration, one feed a day, kitchen sitting around 26C. Day 3 was spectacular, bubbles, doubled, smelled like beer. Days 6 to 9 it has been flat liquid that…
Been baking a year and this only started in the last month, which is also when my kitchen went from 20C to 26C. Same recipe, 75 percent hydration, strong white flour. First two coil folds are fine, dough is smooth and…
1:1:1 feeds with supermarket plain flour, kitchen is 19 to 20C through the winter, and it rises maybe 30% before it stalls and slowly sinks. It smells pleasantly yoghurty, no hooch, no funny colours, so I don't think…
Starter is 100 percent hydration, fed 1:5:5, reliably triples in about four hours at 24C and passes the float test. Dough is 500g bread flour, 350g water, 100g starter, 10g salt. Bulk about five hours with four sets of…
Started from just flour and water 15 days ago. It rises and falls predictably now, roughly doubling in six hours on a 1:1:1 feed at room temperature, but the smell has gone from pleasant and yoghurty around day eight to…
I work shifts and the only window I reliably get is about six hours from mixing to out of the oven, which my starter alone cannot do in a 21C kitchen. The starter is healthy and I'm not trying to replace it, I'm…
Loaves look great from the outside, good ear, decent oven spring, but every one has a dense slightly sticky layer along the bottom third that smears on the knife. Cooling on a wire rack for four hours before cutting.…
Work schedule is out the door at 6am, home at 6pm, and I want bread on weekdays rather than just weekends. Option one is mixing when I get home, bulking in the evening, shaping around 10pm and retarding in the fridge to…