BREAD baking

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hey, you're welcome!

Be sure to sprinkle LOTS of corn meal on the parchment paper before you put the dough ball on it- it will keep the paper from gluing itself to the bread when baking.
The iron pot technique gives the BEST crust- twice as good as baking on the stone with the annoying steam pan, I found.
I actually bake two loaves at the same time in two Dutch oven pots, which just barely fit in my oven together diagonally.

[papaver]

This is my attempt

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Papaver,
that looks like very yummy bread!

From the photo, it looks like maybe the dough was a bit more moist than necessary, thus it formed itself around the folds in the paper after being placed in the hot pot.
Did you preheat the pot in the 450-500F oven for at least 20 min before placing the bread in? That's important to get a quick puff up and seal the crust right away so the dough can't creep around once it's in the hot pot and covered.
The other thing is that you only really need one layer of parchment.

How did it taste?

[papaver]

it tasted great!

[sgtiger]

it tasted great!

That's the most important part.

[papaver]

That's the most important part.

[MommyBird]

What type of flour do you use for your artisan breads?
Do you mill your own?

[tulip]

I use regular unbleached flour that I find at my grocery store. My store does not carry unmilled flour, although if they did I'd be tempted to try to mill it.

I've also mixed whole wheat flour with white with good results.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I use King Arthur brand unbleached all-purpose flour.

I think if I tried milling my own flour I'd have to give up doing some other thing I enjoy doing more. Plus, then I'd start feeling like I had to grow my own wheat or something....

[tulip]

Yesterday I made a loaf for a friend. She brought it to her sister's for dinner and it was a big hit. Today I made another loaf and just had a steaming slice (with butter, of course). It's so good!

I'm making bread for holiday presents.

[papaver]

Yesterday I made a loaf for a friend. She brought it to her sister's for dinner and it was a big hit. Today I made another loaf and just had a steaming slice (with butter, of course). It's so good!

I'm making bread for holiday presents.

put a little fleur de sel on the butter... that's even more yum!

[GLC1968]

On Saturday I pulled out my big tupperware that I use to store the dough. My plan was to mix up a batch to bake on Sunday and for the rest of the week.

Then I realized that it was a big mistake. I'm trying to lose weight and having fresh baked bread in the house is a really, really bad idea. I cannot eat this in moderation! So, I put the tupperware away last night and decided that I'll save bread making for another day. So sad!

[tulip]

Can you make just one little itty bitty boule a day?

[Susan Otcenas]

Here's the photo of my broken pizza stone.

I'm sure it was the bread that broke it. Basically, the cool-ish bread dough sucks the heat disproportionately out of the spot it sits on. Get a big enough temp difference and it will crack.

As I thought more about it , I realized that not only was this loaf cooler than the first time I baked (this loaf having only been out of the fridge for 45 minutes vs. 1.5 hours for the first batch), but also that I only made 1 loaf, instead of 2 the first time. The first 2 were larger and warmer, and would have cooled the stone less dramatically.

I've been emailing back and forth with Pampered Chef. I don't have any of my original purchase info, but it looks like they are going to make an exception for me and replace it.

Susan

[GLC1968]

Can you make just one little itty bitty boule a day?

I could - but then I'd eat it! It's ok...when I'm not in active loss mode, I'll be baking artisan bread again. AND, I'll be baking regular loaves for my H's sandwiches next weekend, so I'll get to taste those, of course!

Susan - Can I just say that I love that you thought to take a photo of this event?! I do one loaf on my pizza stone all the time - and my house is normally freezing (as is my dough) so there was probably a defect in your stone. That seems pretty extreme!