BREAD baking

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Originally Posted by smilingcat

and Hi Lisa,
I guess I'm doing something wrong because it gets moldy after two days :( I wonder if it has to do with all that extra water in the dough and not allowing it to escape when I'm cooling it off on a cooling rack. :confused: :confused:
After you finish baking yours and comes straight out of the oven, what do you do??

If I try to bake my dough at 400+ F, the crust would get burnt black. I have a convection oven where the fan can not be turned off. I bake mine at 375 for about 10 minutes then drop the temp down to 325 then down to 275. Maybe I still have wayyy too much moisture in the bread.

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Cat-
when my bread comes out of the oven I just let it sit on a cooling rack. Sometimes we eat some after 3o minutes or so. I leave it out open until we go to bed, then I just loosely put it in a plastic supermarket bag, loose and not airtight, and that's how it stays on the counter til it's eaten. Perhaps if you are keeping it in an airtight plastic bag this encourages mold. That's why old fashioned tin bread boxes had little holes on the sides- bread needs a bit a of air circulation to avoid spoiling, I think. Same technique applies to storing lettuce and veggies in the fridge- leave a bit of an opening in it's container and it will stay fresh longer than if you seal the tupperware or plastic bag completely.

Aside from that though, your oven temps sound less than ideal and I'm sure you would do better if you were able to bake your bread more 'normally' at +/- the 450F range. Are you sure you have it set for bake (not broil) and your bread is centered in the oven? I don't know why your crust would burn black at 400F- something doesn't sound quite right there. Perhaps get an oven thermometer at the store and check to see if the settings are really accurate. I know my 1970's oven runs 50 degrees hotter than what the dial 'says' it's set for. So when i set the dial to bake at 400, the oven is actually 450 degrees. I found that out when i bought a thermometer to check it- I was glad to know that, I always suspected it was runnning a bit hotter than what I set it for.

If any of you use the Artisan Brad 5 Minutes a Day technique, then you can use any of the doughs to make a quick Indian flat bread, Naan:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=582
I made it once and it was VERY delicious and VERY easy. I used a piece of the usual white boule basic dough to make it. Trouble was, it was pretty buttery and tasted so good we ate it all up immediately and felt like we used up our entire day's calories and fat at once! :rolleyes:

Keeping bread in the refrigerator encourages mold. Keep it out of the fridge, preferably in a brown paper bag. I also agree with Lisa's observations about the baking temperature. 400 should not burn the bread, so your oven might be off.

It's also been suggested to me to just invert the bread, cut side down right on the cutting board without any kind of bag. This is what I do. Cut side doesn't get dry and outside stays crisp. But then, my artisan bread doesn't last long on my countertop anyways.

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Originally Posted by mudmucker

But then, my artisan bread doesn't last long on my countertop anyways.

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Because of big two legged bread eating monsters??? :D

My kitchen is soo old and the opening for the oven is way too small for any new ovens to fit. The original oven died several years ago. so I have my "portable" convection oven on a counter top. I like it a lot since it doesn't radiate so much heat into the kitchen. I've taken temperature inside it front, back, corners and its fine. And I've used several thermometers to take the reading. One thing though, it is bit small to be baking a full size loaf in it. It's just under 1.5 cu feet of space.

It's portable in quotation marks. Its about as big as it can get and still be called portable. It does hold three standard half sheets. 13"x18" baking sheet.

moldy problem?? I store both kinds, the no-knead and traditional, the same way and the no knead seems to get moldy faster. And yes I do have a cooling rack so not sure what is the difference. Or maybe its just my partners perception.

So, I've had the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book for a few months, but have only this weekend had the time to sit down and read it. (Yes, I can read a cookbook like a novel... :D )

Anyway, last night I whipped up the basic Boule recipe. This morning I pulled the dough out and made 2 loaves. Oh. My. Goodness. This stuff is amazing. Never have I made bread this easily, that tasted this good! My waistline is in deep trouble. ;)

And, just like the book said, the loaves audibly crackled for a good 5 minutes or so after I pulled them out of the oven. I was dancing around the kitchen like a little kid, I was so tickled. Jeff was outside building a new fence around our garden, and I made him come all the way inside so he could listen to it. :)

ok, ok, I'll try it.

Here's my 1st attempt at Artisan Bread in 5 minutes. They turned out alot better than I expected since my bread baking skills are still in their formative stages.

So cool that you guys are now doing this! :D

I think I need to try this. DH loves bread.

well, Bleek, it's one thing when a talented woman who has lots of time at home can do it. But when all these other biker gals who work fulltime or more and spend millions of hours on their bikes can do it too, then I am feeling a bit more like it's a possibility.

I have dough. hopefully it was mixed enough.

Seriously, Mimi, I'm shocked at how easy (and quick) it was to pull this together. I used the dough hook on my Kitchenaid to mix this dough. Mixed it just until it was all combined. Then I just plopped it into a big plastic bucket, let it rise a few hours, then stuck it in the fridge.

That is a book I must get.....

Here are some basics on this bread from Mother Earth News.

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Originally Posted by Susan Otcenas

Anyway, last night I whipped up the basic Boule recipe. This morning I pulled the dough out and made 2 loaves.

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Well it's about time, lady! ;)

Your loaves turned out gorgeous!

I think I need to make a concerted effort to clear out some milk so that I can fit a batch of dough in our fridge. I don't think I've made this since we freshened Sass because I can't spare the fridge space!