💾 Archived View for stack.tilde.cafe › gemlog › 2023-07-31.bread.gmi captured on 2023-09-28 at 15:51:52. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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I've been making bread for a long time now. Since I currently don't have a real oven (only a small electric mini-oven and an electric pizza oven), my options are pretty limited. I have a breadmaker I use largely to mix and knead the dough. I then either make a round loaf for the oven or some kind of rolls, flatbread or pizza for the pizza oven.
Lately I've been concentrating on bread that can be used for sandwiches (tomato mostly). That means that the dough has to rise enough to passably fit stuff. Since I am not equipped to keep a running yeast culture I use instant yeast which tends to go fast and collapse. So I've been experimenting with various ways of slowing things down so the bread can rise and remain firm enough. Lowering the moisture helps currently 290mL water for 500g flour. This results in a heavy lump of dough which keeps its shape as it rises. Punching it down a couple of times and letting it rise slowly for the final time in a moist environment helps. I put it right into the little oven with a wet paper towel draped along the door to keep the air moist.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, focaccia works with a high-moisture dough, sticky (and a bit hard to work with). I shove it into baking trays for focaccia sicilian-style pizza and let it rise (regular little oven); otherwise I chop it up into small pieces and shape into rolls for the pizza oven. The trick with the pizza oven is to flip the rolls quickly so they don't expand up and burn in the electric element above.
I've been experimenting with making a poolish of sorts by starting the yeast, sugar and 150g flour with 300ml water and letting it rise and bubble up first, then adding the rest. This makes for a firmer dough and more delicious bread.