Artisan bread for beginners like me!

Mike F

Member
I’ve always wanted to bake bread at home but have never gotten enough nerve up to do it until now. One of my recent cookbook purchases was “Flour, Water, Salt Yeast” by Ken Fourkish, in which I read how cast iron vessels are able to closely emulate the steam environment created in commercial bakery ovens, and that I could use readily available ingredients (including a Lodge P10D3 that I already own) to do this. So, I decided to take the plunge this holiday season and boy was I glad I did.

Since the recipes in the book yield two loaves, I immediately went out and bought a second P10D3 because I wanted to try to cook two at once. The results were excellent:

After lid removal (prior to crust browning): https://www.flickr.com/photos/139658521@N07/shares/pp8621

Finished product:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/139658521@N07/shares/374115

Mr. Fourkish does an excellent job walking through each step of the process. All of the recipes in the book are engineered to use the same techniques and to yield two loaves, so if you learn the techniques when baking one of the basic bread recipes (as I did) you open yourself up to every recipe in his book. He even has a series of youtube videos that walk you through each step. I am far from an experienced baker and yet felt comfortable and in control of the process using his materials and instructions.

Highly recommended.

p.s. there is another book out there called “Tartine” by Chad Robertson. Mr. Robertson’s techniques are similar but he uses a lodge combo cooker. I mention this for those who own lodge 4 in 1 cookers – “Tartine” includes recipes that are sized for this cooking vessel.
 
Excellent, Mike! Am always happy to see someone else go for bread making; your pictures are great examples of the results one may attain.
 
It’s amazing what those four ingredients can do. The crumb looks great. The crust looks a bit serious but flavorful. Pretty boules too. How was the flavor of the crumb?

Does he use a biga or sponge time to increase crumb flavor in any of his recipes?

Hilditch

PS: When I bake bread I put a cake pan of water on the lower shelf to create the steam environment. Keeps more moisture in the bread.
 
Yes he calls for the crust to be "medium dark brown" so I wanted to get as close as I could to this so that we could experience it. When I compare my results against the color in the book it's almost dead-on. Turned out to be ever so slightly dark for our tastes, but that's not to say we didn't enjoy it as we all over-served ourselves with bread while discussing it. Next time I'll ease up a touch on the browning.

Crumb had excellent flavor for a straight white bread with a nice undertone from the crust. Not sure if lightening the crust next time around will affect this, but we will see.

Sponge is out of scope for the book, but the recipes do progress to using poolish, biga, basic levain and advanced levain (advanced for the beginner I'm sure). He also includes recipes for focaccia and pizza, which I am looking forward to trying. For example, he suggests using the basic white dough that I made as pizza dough.
 
Mike, thanks for the good reply. I found a sponge is a watered down version of a biga. A few hours of either adds more yeast flavor to the recipe. I use my bread dough for pizza & it works great. For NY style I add some olive oil to the dough and work it in. For thick crust I brush the top with olive oil (but not the edges) before adding the sauce to keep the moisture from soaking into the crust. You’re on the right path. Have fun & enjoy!

Hilditch
 
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