BREAD baking

[GLC1968]

I have a fresh batch of semolina bread rising right now.

Can't wait to hear how that turns out!

I just organized all my fours, seeds, nuts and 'flakes', most from Bob's! My pantry looks so gorgeous that I'm inspired to make bread. I think I'm going to try that peasant loaf tomorrow.

[NoNo]

I had gotten the book My Bread for Christmas. It's a no-knead formula, but it requires a much longer rise (12-18 hours) than the 5 Minute a Day recipe. But it is about specifically baking in a cast iron pot, which I also got for Christmas I was having my family over yesterday, so I decided it'd be a good time to try it out. Made the dough Saturday night and after 19+ hours rising I shaped it for its second rise. Heated the pan, dumped it in, and this is what came out :

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Nono, that bread look perfect texture- was it delicious?...it looks really tasty and springy.

is there a reason you did not slash it just before baking?- I find the slashing really help the loaf expand beautifully in the oven, sort of like bursting out of it's own skin. Plus the expanded slashes add a pretty visual pattern and a wonderful texture variation in the crust.

[Catrin]

That bread looks incredibly tasty! nom-nom-nom

Sigh, since developing this little pre/early diabetes problem bread just sends my blood-sugar through the roof - and I LOVE bread... However, I love the pictures though - at least I can look at it

[NoNo]

Nono, that bread look perfect texture- was it delicious?...it looks really tasty and springy.

is there a reason you did not slash it just before baking?- I find the slashing really help the loaf expand beautifully in the oven, sort of like bursting out of it's own skin. Plus the expanded slashes add a pretty visual pattern and a wonderful texture variation in the crust.

The method in this other book is a bit different. Let it rise, then when you do the second rise you wrap the dough in a towel. When you place it in the cast iron pot, you're supposed to invert it into the pot. I don't know what the difference would be if you didn't flip it over, but it was my first time with this recipe, so I wanted to follow it exactly.

My family loved it, (and being Italian, we LOVE our bread!), but I wish I had a loaf of the 5 Minute bread so I could compare side-by-side. The crumb of this bread looked a bit more textbook, but I don't know if it had more taste. The crust was perfect, you had to give it a bit of a tug between the teeth to bite a piece off. The interior was dense and moist, really nice texture. Maybe I just need a bit more salt to fit my personal taste preference. I'll certainly be trying again!

[Tuckervill]

My son gave the book to my daughter-in-law for Christmas. One day this week she made the sweet rolls, and some of the sauce over flowed onto the broiler pan in the oven, which she didn't clean up.

The next day she made challah, which I think goes in on parchment (haven't tried it). Yep, you guessed it. The cinnamon sugar sauce started to smoke, and then when she opened the oven to check the bread, the oxygen caused it to flame, and the parchment caught on fire! WHOOSH! Big flames and smoke!

She was peeking in the oven while talking to her mother on the phone, and she screamed "I'll call you back, the oven's on fire!" and my son grabbed the fire extinguisher while she took the kids out of the house. My son said the smoke was so bad he had to crouch to get out of the house after he put the fire out and the house still smells horrible. It could have been really bad if the fire extinguisher had not been there--it was left by the previous owners!
It's a funny story now, but it must have been pretty scary.

The moral of the story is: Clean up the spills in your oven!
Karen

[tulip]

And keep a fire extinguisher handy! Glad everyone is safe!

My parchment paper box says the paper good up to 420F. My oven is new, and therefore clean, so I'm not worried about putting it in a 450F oven. However, I will be sure to keep it clean! Thanks for the reminder.

Just a note--when I was a kid, my mother always put a layer of aluminum foil on the bottom of the oven when baking messy things (like lasagne and pecan pie) so that it would be easy to clean up. That's what I always thought I should do.

BUT, if you have a very fancy oven that has a ceramic interior, DO NOT put foil in there! I did this at a friend's house, and the foil melded to the ceramic. This particular oven is a Wolf with blue ceramic interior. You definitely don't want to ruin someone's very fancy oven, trust me!

[Susan Otcenas]

Semolina bread!!

[NoNo]

Oooooh that looks yummy!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Semolina bread!!

BINGO!!! OMG, that looks absolutely perfect.

Did you use all semolina flour, or did you mix semolina with a little white flour?

It's gorgeous.

[Susan Otcenas]

BINGO!!! OMG, that looks absolutely perfect.

Did you use all semolina flour, or did you mix semolina with a little white flour?

It's gorgeous.

I followed the recipe exactly. 3.25 cups white all purpose, 3 cups semolina. It has such a pretty yellow crumb when baked. The flour is not as elastic as the basic boule when forming the loaf, but it bakes up beautifully.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I followed the recipe exactly. 3.25 cups white all purpose, 3 cups semolina. It has such a pretty yellow crumb when baked. The flour is not as elastic as the basic boule when forming the loaf, but it bakes up beautifully.

Your loaves look wonderful. Yes, I used the same recipe for my semolina too, with 1/2 white flour and 1/2 semolina.
I used black sesame seeds for the topping, so I could call it my 'tiger semolina' bread when I slash stripes in it. I think the black looks really pretty with the yellowy semolina color.
Here my 'tiger semolina' loaf, alongside a plain white boule I made a few months ago. They were baked on my stone, before I switched to the Dutch oven iron pot method.

[Susan Otcenas]

I made a loaf of Challah for Christmas (I know, I know) since my dad likes sweet breads and it turned out picture perfect and delicious. Unfortunately I forgot to take after pics. Here's the before, right after I braided it:

My dad knows I've been baking bread lately, and asked me to find him a good challah recipe. What recipe did you use for this?

[Tuckervill]

There's a challah recipe in "the book".

Karen

[Susan Otcenas]

There's a challah recipe in "the book".

Karen

Sure enough! I didn't remember seeing it the last time I flipped through. I have a batch rising right now. Will bake it tonight! The recipe says it will make 4 loaves, but those would be some teeny loaves... I think I'll use all the dough to make two instead. Will post photos if they come out well.

Susan