Reddit reviews The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Bread Baking

Recipe:




Ingredients:


Poolish:

Bread flour 78g/100%

Water 78g/100%

Fresh Yeast 0.1g/pinch/0.1%

Total: 156g/200.1%

For the final dough:

Bread flour 705g/100%

Water 517g/73.3%

Poolish 156g/22.2%

Salt 16g/2.2%

Fresh yeast 6g/0.8%

Total: 1400g/198.5%


Directions for poolish:

Combine bread flour and water with the yeast in a large bowl, stirring with a wooden spoon to blend. When blended, scrape down the edge of the bowl, cover with plastic film and set aside to ferment at 75F/25C for 12 to 14 hours. (I left it for 15 since my house isn't that warm.)


Directions for final dough:

Combine the bread flour with 465g of the water in a bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the hook. Mix on low speed until blended. Stop the mixer and autolyse for 15 mins.


Add the poolish along with the salt and year and mix on low for 5 minutes. Increase mixer speed to medium and mix for about 8 mins, or until the dough has come together but remains slightly sticky. Drizzle in the remaining water and continue to mix until the dough is smooth and shiny. Check gluten development by pulling a window.


Lightly oil a large bowl or container. Scrape the dough into the prepared bowl, cover with plastic film and set aside to ferment for 1 hour.

Uncover and fold the dough. Cover again with plastic film and set aside to ferment for 1 hour.

About an hour before you are ready to bake the loaves, place the baking stones or tiles into the over and pre-heat over to 470ºF/243ºC. If using a pan to create steam, place it in the oven now. (I used neither the stones nor the steam pan, I have a spray bottle of water I sprayed on the loaves before closing the oven.)

Cover a cutting board with the couche and dust the douche with flour, or lightly flour a bagel or bread board.

Uncover the dough and transfer it to the floured surface. Carefully divide it into four 350-gram rectangular pieces (they don't need to be perfectly shaped.) Place on the douche-covered board or bagel/bread board. Cover with plastic film and proof for 30 mins. (I didn't use a couche.)

Line a peel with parchment paper. (I used an ordinary oven tray.) Uncover the dough and invert it onto the prepared peel.

When ready to bake, to make the required steam, add 1 cup of ice to the hot pan in the oven. Using the peel, immediately transfer the loaves to the hot baking stones in the preheated oven. (Or your trusty spray bottle!)

Bake for 35 mins, or until the bread is a golden-brown colour, the sides are firm to the touch and the loaves make a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.

Remove from oven and transfer to wire racks to cool. And very enjoy!

(I highly recommend the book!)

Wow. You're super insecure about this, aren't you? I can't think of any other reason you would be so condescending when someone disagrees with you.

Of course there are many different types of bread, but to say that bread usually has dairy in it is just factually incorrect. Bread cooked with just flour, water, salt and yeast is absolutely delicious. It is the epitome of European bread (or, as we in the west self-centredly call it, bread). Maybe you enjoy it more with extra ingredients, and I'm not going to say you're wrong for doing so. I'm not going to call your bread "taste-less".

What you're doing is pretending that the culinary history of bread doesn't exist, because you're trying to prove someone wrong. Acting as if the bread you learned to cook is the only way that professionals cook is, frankly, astonishing.

Here's a book written by a professional: Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. I'm sure you can guess why it's called that.

Here's a book by the French Culinary Institute: The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Bread Baking. Here's one of the reviews that they list under praise:

> "To make a perfect loaf of bread, the baker needs just five essential ingredients: flour, water, salt, yeast—and this indispensable book!”

>—Iacopo Falai, Owner of Falai, Caffe Falai, and Falai Panetteria"

Of course, these people must be amateurs compared to your experience of:

> hundreds of loaves of bread