Personal Oven != Professional Oven

So now that I've been baking for a while I decided to try and produce more baguettes. I have a Baguette pan that holds two loaves, but it's a bit misshapen and it only holds two loaves. I mix and bake 4+ pounds of dough every weekend, which is enough for 4 to 6 baguettes. My 2 baguette pan has started to feel a bit small.

I did some basic research and found that you can only buy 2 or 3 baguette pans. Why not 4, 5 or 6? I did find a great 4 baguette pan on Amazon and immediately ordered it.

That's when I discovered the truth -
- Commercial oven rack: 26" x 18"
- Personal oven: 24" x 17.5"

My new 4 baguette pan just wouldn't fit! It was commercial grade intended for commercial bakers. Bummer.

I returned the 4 baguette pan and ordered the 3 baguette pan instead (16" x 9"). I'm hopeful that I might eventually be able to get two of these in at the same time for 6 total loaves, but after being wrong once (and not paying close attention to the size) I want to test it out first.

The lesson I learned here is that no matter how much I think like a professional baker, I still have a personal oven. For now.

-Matt the weekend baker

Always baking

True to my self-imposed nickname I'm a weekend baker.

Every Wednesday night I take the sourdough out of the refrigerator and feed it. Thursday morning, Thursday night and Friday morning I feed it again. Every Friday night I make two batches of sourdough bread with my slow-rise technique. Every Saturday morning I wake up, pre-heat the oven and shape & proof the loaves.

This sort of routine has almost turned into a ritual. Last night I recited my recipe (listed on the right) from memory for my wife who was helping me mix the batch. There's something very satisfying about the smell of fresh baked bread to me. Cutting into the loaf and savoring the complex aromas and flavor that I coax from just four ingredients.

I may not be a weekend blogger, but I am and always will be a weekend baker.

-Matt the weekend baker

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Sorry its been a while since my last post. I've been busy with studying for a professional certification for my day-job. I wish it were baking related but it's not.

My only tip for the winter baker is to ensure your sourdough starter stays warm overnight (at least 68 degrees). I've noticed my rise-times have extended since my house gets cold at night. A good trick my mom taught me is to put the starter someplace odd, like an interior bathroom. A fellow baker friend of mine says he likes to use his dishwasher. Whatever works for you, just keep the sourdough warm :)

I also recommend trying a few good cookie recipes in-between baking bread (more on that later).

Cheers & Happy Holidays!
-Matt the weekend baker

Tools of the Trade

I always smile when people ask if I have a bread machine when the topic of baking bread comes up. I normally don't advertise that I'm a weekend baker, but inevitability over some sort of meal the topic of baking will somehow rise to the surface (pun intended).

When I answer "no" to the bread machine question the predictable response is "oh, wow, so do you have a big mixer?" This is where the conversaton can go one of multiple directions. I DO have a mixer and I have used it to make dough in the past, but I don't use it now.

Most people have seen documentaries on TV where they see bakeries with huge stand mixers making hundreds of pounds of dough at once. They also have the experience of seeing the bread machines in the appliance isle of their local big-box outlet (Target, etc...)

99% of everyone out there has NO IDEA that bread baking can be so simple. To them bread is something they think very little about and the barriers to entry appear to be too high.

My tools:
* Large bowl
* Large Spoon to mix
* Measuring Cups (dry & wet)
* Ingredients (Flour, Water, Yeast, Salt)
* Saran-Wrap (or equivalent)
* Parchment Paper & Rice Flour [Optional]
* Non-terrycloth Towel
* Dutch Oven (cast-iron pot with a lid) [Optional]
* Oven capable of 450 degree heat for 2+ hours

The irony is that 90% of most homes have everything on this list already in their house. The only exception is usually yeast, which is an increasingly rare item for people to have.

Walking into a friend's home and baking bread with items they had on-hand is a great magic trick (if you aren't staying overnight I recommend my Focaccia Bread Recipe.

The whole point of this entire post is that baking bread kept humanity alive for thousands of years and is easier than you think it is.

-Matt the Weekend Baker

Never too busy to Bake bread...

Things have been crazy busy at work recently. A good friend of mine (who is also a baker) commented that he hoped I would have time to bake bread this weekend (the last two weekends I've had to work).

My response was simple - I'm NEVER too busy to bake bread, but sometimes I just don't find time to post to my blog.

We talked for a bit about baguettes and the time & temperature techniques for them. I've been so enthralled with the dutch oven concept that I had almost forgotten all the tricks I learned for baguettes.

Basically the same recipie for sourdough (or regular dough) works. When you are shaping the loaf be sure to cut it in half and roll it into a baguette form, pressing a seam down the middle with your thumbs and then folding it over so the seam side is down. They bake at 450 for about 35 minutes, but in the first three minutes you must spray water into the oven every three minutes. This is where having a large hot iron pot in the oven is helpful because it instantly turns the water into steam. This helps develop the crust for the baguettes.

Give it a try yourself!
-Matt the weekend baker

A new Sourdough starter feeding strategy

So I've been experimenting recently with a slight modification to my sourdough starter mixture. I've blogged about my sourdough starter several times before and if anything I think this is just another argument to the axiom that sometimes there is no right answer.

I noticed that my standard:
Save 1/4 cup starter, mix with 1 cup water & 1 cup AP flour
Seemed to be a bit 'soupy' which after rising for 8-16 hours seemed to be well mixed, but not quite as active as I am used to seeing.

My alteration is by trying:
Save 1/4 cup starter, mix with 3/4 cup water & 1 cup AP flour
This makes a thicker starter, more the consistency of play-doh. I've noticed that the ticker mixture rises better (easily doubling or sometimes tripling), plus it holds its shape more.

This thicker starter adds a richer more developed taste to my bread, which is always a welcome addition!


-Matt the weekend baker

An update to a revolutionary recipe

The original Jim Lahey recipe for no-kneed bread published by Mark Bittman published in November 2006 (covered in this post) kicked off the revolution. Home bakers (like me) everywhere were inspired to give it a try.

Now Mark Bittman has revisited the technique and has talked with Jim Lahey about publishing an updated version of the recipe that started it all. Here is a link to the story:

No-Knead Bread: Not Making Itself Yet, but a Lot Quicker

Jim Lahey didn't approve of toying with the ratios and I think I agree.

The basic idea is that the more yeast you throw in, the shorter the rise-time. This is fairly basic "baking 101", but for the experienced baker the longer the rise the more developed the flavor of the loaf.

Of course there's always a trade-off when baking good bread vs baking quick bread. I've even blogged about this in the past. If you want a good quick bread then choose a recipe that's suited for it (and heavily flavored already). The whole point of fresh baked bread (french, sourdough or wheat) is to really TASTE the nutty flavor of the flower.

-Matt the weekend baker