Comments for Weekend Bakery

Comment on Our Favorite Whole Wheat Levain Loaf by Miki

Miki — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:08:30 +0000

Hi, I enjoyed this recipe very much. I am experimenting with sourdough, and this was my second bread. The first was the Tartine recipe, which was also very nice but unfortunately the dough got stuck to my proofing basket so I think wiggling it out affected the rise. Nevertheless, the taste was wonderful

The only adaptation I made to the recipe is that I baked it on a pizza stone while the bread was covered by a cast iron skillet for the first 25 minutes at 230 degrees celsius and then I baked the bread for another 15 minutes uncovered. I had a nice oven spring en the crumb was nice as was the colour of the crust. I also used a bit more salt, 9 instead of 7 grams, because I know in general I like my bread a bit saltier.

The only thing I may try is to incorporate an autolyse in order to make the handling of the wet dough easier.

Comment on Our Version of Tartine Style Bread by Weekend Bakers

Weekend Bakers — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:39:12 +0000

Hoi Petra,
Fijn! Eerlijk gezegd zijn wij wat minder fan van de recepten van Reinhart. We hebben zijn boek ook uitgeleend aan een vriend haha. Ben benieuwd wat Levine ervan vindt. Barm is eigenlijk een oud Engelse term die dacht ik gebruikt werd om schuim op bier (ale) aan te geven. Vaak zie je recepten met barm die gebaseerd zijn op bier of zo, dus een voordeeg met alcohol zeg maar.
Heel veel plezier en succes bij de workshop!

Marieke

Comment on Classic French Croissant Recipe by Chris

Chris — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:38:37 +0000

Hello Ed and Marieke
Many thanks for your reply – your comments regarding the flour were very interesting. I have tried freezing cooked croissants before, but I felt that they dried out a bit from their time in the freezer. Like your correspondent Esther, I have been quite impressed with the Waitrose bake from frozen croissants, and thought perhaps it would work well with home made. I guess the frozen dough would need to be brought up to temperature slowly, perhaps overnight in the fridge. I shall give it a go and let you know how I get on! Many thanks. Chris

Comment on Classic French Croissant Recipe by Esther

Esther — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:49:15 +0000

I had a go at making these at the weekend. They were delicious! Thank you so much for the recipe. Here is my attempt: http://estherprivett.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/yummy-croissants-2/

Comment on Classic French Croissant Recipe by Yummy Croissants! | Tasty

Yummy Croissants! | Tasty — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:26:12 +0000

[...] I found the best recipe here: http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/classic-french-croissant-recipe/ [...]

Comment on No Knead Soft Sourdough Rolls by Weekend Bakers

Weekend Bakers — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:22:28 +0000

Hi Raluca,
Of course you can, no problem as long as it is active and bubbly! Thanks for your compliments, much appreciated

Happy Baking,

Marieke

Comment on Classic French Croissant Recipe by Weekend Bakers

Weekend Bakers — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:52:39 +0000

Hello Chris,
We understand. You would rather make more in one go than do the whole process again for ‘just’ 7 croissants. Although we have not tried it ourselves, the freezing of the croissant dough, we have heard from other bakers it works well. Till now we just froze the baked croissants and this works well too. But if you freeze the dough we would like to know from you how well you think it works and if the result is up to par with the fresh batch process.
As far as the flour goes we would recommend using the plain flour or maybe a combination of plain flour and Italian 00 flour. Strong bread flour is not the best option because of the (very probable) higher gluten content and amount of fibers still present in the flour, weighing it down as it were.

Good luck and happy croissant baking!

Ed & Marieke

Comment on Our Favorite Whole Wheat Levain Loaf by Weekend Bakers

Weekend Bakers — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:43:34 +0000

Hi Tini,
We do have a few suggestions for things to look out for with your next bakes. First of all the dough temperature in relation to the proper proofing of the bread. Maybe there is some improvement possible especially with these tips on dough temperature:
http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/a-few-tips-on-dough-temperature/
Also try to keep the use of extra flour while handling the dough to a minimum, because otherwise you will change the hydration and thus the structure of the bread. More tips that may help you in this area: http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/tips-on-handling-high-hydration-dough/
Finely the oven is a big factor in how the bread turns out. Maybe you did not use steam or not enough steam to aid your bread with the important oven rise, the first minutes of of the baking time. Yesss…even more tips on this subject: http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/bread-baking-tips-making-the-most-of-your-oven/

It usually is a combination of these factors that determine how your loaf turns out. You just need to tackle them one by one, make notes and bake a lot to get to that perfect loaf. But in the meantime as you have already discovered together with the 3 year olds, already eat delicious bread!

Happy Baking!

Marieke & Ed

Comment on No Knead Soft Sourdough Rolls by Raluca

Raluca — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:56:37 +0000

Hy,
It is ok to use white sourdough starter? (I don’t keep a rye one because it is quite too expensive (almost double than white one).
Great recipes and instructions, keep doing the same great things…
Thank you,

Comment on Rye Lovers Dark Rye Bread! by Loaf 7: Frisian rye bread from the Netherlands | 100 Loaves of Solitude

Loaf 7: Frisian rye bread from the Netherlands | 100 Loaves of Solitude — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:37:48 +0000

[...] up was Weekend Bakery’s Rye Lovers Dark Rye Bread, a dense moist Dutch traditional bread that takes ten hours to bake. The loaf’s main [...]

Comment on Classic French Croissant Recipe by Chris

Chris — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:51:58 +0000

Dear Ed and Marieke,
I want to try your croissant recipe, but would prefer to make half as many ie about 7, at a go, as we try to eat them only at w/ends! Would it be best to make the full mix, then halve the dough at the start of Day 3, prior to rolling and cutting out, and freeze one half for use the following week?
Also, you talk of using a ‘lighter’ flour to improve lightness, what exactly is this? In the UK we have Plain Flour, which is usually used for pastry, and Strong White Flour, which has a higher gluten content and is used for breadmaking. The Strong White is normally recommended in Croissant recipes, but the croissants do not come out particularly light. Would Plain Flour be better? We can also buy the Italian ‘oo double zero flour which I have not tried. Your comments would be much appreciated. Very many thanks. Best wishes, Chris

Comment on Our Favorite Whole Wheat Levain Loaf by tini

tini — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 12:32:53 +0000

Hi there,

I just got my bread out of the oven and it turned out great. The taste is yummy and the crumb is nice as well, but I didn’t get as much rise as you did and also the “pores” of my bread are smaller than yours. Any ideas?
Thank you! Even one of my 3 year olds wanted some for “coffee”, also she then also switched to cookies, like her twin…

Tini

Comment on Almond Jam Cookies by Weekend Bakers

Weekend Bakers — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 07:37:09 +0000

Hello Vera,
Thank you for your advise. I have not made these cookies in a while and they always turned out with a good texture. But like you I am going to try it both ways and see the difference in texture with and without the addition of sugar to the butter and flour.

Happy baking in Australia!

Comment on Almond Jam Cookies by Vera rudinica

Vera rudinica — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 03:40:58 +0000

I am from Croatia living in Australia and my mum taught me to make these biscuits. What we do is rub the butter with the flour first and then add sugar and last any wet agents. The theory is that butter coats the flour strains first and thus produce a more flaky and delicate texture. I tried it both ways and it’s true. Good luck

Comment on Our Version of Tartine Style Bread by petra woods

petra woods — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:19:40 +0000

Hoi Marieke en Ed,

Bedankt voor t antwoord daar heb ik wat aan!
t Is dus eigenlijk heel makkelijk: als je een recept hebt met zuurdesem dan kun je t idd met een poolish maken (dezelfde hoeveelheid als de zuurdesemstarter in t betreffende recept)
Maar wat nu als t recept al een poolish heeft zoals de recepten van Peter Reinhart?
Hij gebruikt een “barm” wat naar mijn idee gewoon een poolish is die hij bewaard in de koelkast en die je iedere 3 dagen moet verversen (zonde als je niet zoveel bakt)
En die gebruikt hij in zn recepten plus ook nog eens een zuurdesemstarter van een grote hoeveelheid.(die in die “barm”zit) en daarna een voordeeg en de dag daarna pas t uiteindelijke deeg….pff. (bv bij t zuurdesembrood uit The bread baker’s apprentice” blz 233)
Geen idee hoe ik dat kan verlagen naar 20 gram roggedesem.
as Vrijdag heb ik een workshop bij Levine (“Uit de keuken van Levine”) en ik zal het ook aan haar vragen..
groetjes van Petra

Comment on Making a Miche by Weekend Bakers

Weekend Bakers — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:50:31 +0000

Hi Edgar,
Yes you can double everything to make the dough. But because we have never baked such a big bread like you want to try now, we cannot really tell you accurately what the cooking time should be. It is of course more than the 70 minutes for the 1.6 kg, but we do not think it should be doubled, it would be less than that. We would suggest sticking to about the same temp probably. But maybe a bit of research on the web to check with other bakers who have baked 3 kg+ loaves to see about the times involved would be a good idea. Other than that using a thermometer to measure the inside/core is the only way to know for sure if it is properly cooked.

Good luck with it!

Marieke & Ed.

Comment on No Knead Soft Sourdough Rolls by Weekend Bakers

Weekend Bakers — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:40:09 +0000

Hi Sylvia,
Yes they are the same. You can substitute the buttermilk with milk because the buttermilk adds extra sour taste of course. It depends on what you are aiming for. Some people substitute the butter with olive or even walnut oil and also had very good results with that.

Happy Baking!

Marieke

Comment on No Knead Soft Sourdough Rolls by Sylvia Vervest

Sylvia Vervest — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:07:31 +0000

Is Buttermilk Karnemelk?

Comment on Making a Miche by Edgar

Edgar — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 02:22:01 +0000

Hi,

Thanks for sharing all this good info in a really nice format

I will be baking this awesome bread soon and i want to bake the 3.2kg version which is double of what you outlined in your recipe ,
my question is ; do i just double everything you outlined on your recipe , and also would you be able to give me cooking temps and durations….

Many thanks

Comment on Video: Baguette 80% hydration by Weekend Bakers

Weekend Bakers — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:27:07 +0000

Hello JP,
It is the recipe you will find in the comment by EB just above.
And thanks for liking our version of the baguette too.

Happy Baking!

Marieke