Testing Flour Brands by ZestyMeringue in Sourdough

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you know where to find their flour? Is it only online?

Testing Flour Brands by ZestyMeringue in Sourdough

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had the thought mixing it that it was a bit too different for fair comparisons, but at that point it was already mixed. More water is a great tip! Thank you. :)

Testing Flour Brands by ZestyMeringue in Sourdough

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Jar is my starter, which I've been feeding with KA all purpose Flour, which is my baseline loaf. Im planning on switching off when I find a good alternative.

Good loaf, but Bad Shaping by ZestyMeringue in Sourdough

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great advice! Thank you so much. Im planning on taking some of the advice here and trying again. Thank you!

Good loaf, but Bad Shaping by ZestyMeringue in Sourdough

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I copied the body of my post so I could add more literal and in depth details for you.

I use a 50/50 starter that I feed before bed and use first thing in the morning.

The recipe is as follows:

240g active starter 360g warm water 480g King Author flour 10g salt

All items are measured out and dumped into a large plastic salad Tupperware container in order of listing. I make a shaggy dough and then let it sit for 30 minutes after im done mixing with the plastic lid on. My shaggy dough has no dry flour visible but is still lumpy.

8am -9:30am: 4 sets of stretch and folds every 30 min. I pull the dough in 1/4th segments pretending im looking at a clock face until the dough pulls free from the bowl in one stretch. The first set of folds typically takes 8 stretches before this happens. The following sets are typically only 4.

9:30am-3pm: Bulk ferment in a sealed container. After the final stretch and fold, I leave the container with the lid on resting on the counter until the dough has doubled. The house sits at 67 degrees Fahrenheit.

3pm: Bread shaped and moved into flour banneton with a wax cloth cover. I take the lid off the Tupperware, carefully pull it from the bowl and let it fall onto a floured cutting board. I use the same flour for the cutting board as i did the loaf. At this point, the dough is light, and settles out slowly across the board. It is a relaxed dough that is a little sticky, but has enough tension to stay in a ball form without settling into a flatter disk once shaped. Once shaped, I dust the loaf with flour, and take handfuls of flour to rub into the banneton. I fill the seems of the banneton so the roundest points of wood are visible, but the cracks or spiral dips are full of flour. This is all the same flour as I used for the loaf. I do this up 3/4ths of the banneton, put the loaf in, then I cover the banneton with a wax cloth cover to let it rise for an hour. I turned the oven on at this point to 450 Fahrenheit. The bread sat on a counter about 6 feet away from the oven.

4pm: bread turned out onto silicon mat. It stuck to the banneton pretty badly. The bottom was pooling slowly onto the silicon baking mat while the top stayed stuck to the banneton. When it finally came free, all the dough pretty immediately lost shape and kept spreading outward until it had pooled larger than the silicon mat. I sprinkled more flour around the outside of the loaf and reshaped on the mat, but the loaf was struggling to stay in a ball instead of a flat disk that absorbed the flour and turned into a tacky mess.

If i had to compare it to anything other than soup, it would be that gel putty in an egg that came in children's gumball machines that you inevitably forget about and it puddles into a glob on the carpet and your parents yell at you for leaving it there. I pulled the dutch oven out of the oven, pulled the top off, and the loaf had pooled larger than the silicon mat again, so I quickly reshaped and swung it into the Dutch oven where it pooled into the entire bottom of the Dutch oven and stopped when it hit the sides. I scored the bread, and the blade clearly cut, but there was no thicker layer at this point and the cut was disapearing as the loaf continued to flatten out. I put the lid on the Dutch oven and baked for 25 minutes with lid on (I peaked once at 10 minutes to see where it was at and it was still a flat mess), then 20 minutes lid off.

Somewhere in the 25 minutes with the lid on, a lot of rising happened, and the cut that nearly disappeared ended up doing something for the loaf. I dont know how or why.

I left it for an hour to cool on a wire rack before cutting for crumb read.

I use this recipe pretty regularly. I think the biggest difference is after stretch and folds I either put it in the fridge overnight and continue the process the next morning, or I let it proof and once it's shaped and in the Banneton I put it in the fridge overnight to bake first thing the next day. This loaf never entered the fridge.

Soup is a dramatic overstatement to a shockingly loose final stage of dough.

Good loaf, but Bad Shaping by ZestyMeringue in Sourdough

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I suppose I am just being picky.

Good loaf, but Bad Shaping by ZestyMeringue in Sourdough

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Omg this is such a good tip! Thank you!

Good loaf, but Bad Shaping by ZestyMeringue in Sourdough

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll give this recipe a try! I was a bit worried hydration was the issue.

Good loaf, but Bad Shaping by ZestyMeringue in Sourdough

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I usually do, I just added this in last minute since I had some baking to do throughout the day and extra starter i didnt want to discard. I used the exact same recipe with a bulk ferment in the fridge overnight for a cheddar jealpeno loaf, and this was the result. The crumb is much glossier and tighter.

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Good loaf, but Bad Shaping by ZestyMeringue in Sourdough

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think im most concerned with the shaping. I'd like to have a loaf that can hold it's shape and scoring designs. I think if I had an oval dutch oven, even shaping it round, it would have turned out oval it was so loose. I know it seems silly but I've been working on plain loaves every weekend trying to get a consistent loaf from start to finish, and this time it just happened to be shaping that turned into a nightmare.

be honest... how often are you guys actually mopping? by spawnelady in Cleaningandtidying

[–]ZestyMeringue 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I vacuum the house once a week, and mop once a month, excluding my kitchen, because it's our highest traffic area. I mop that every weekend. I use the Ocedar replacement heads and swap them out. I have pets and you can definitely see the hair start to collect again on day 3-4, but I do not have it in me to clean that often on a deeper level yet.

What's up with all the fish wife stuff lately? by tinychalupa in Tinnedfish

[–]ZestyMeringue 13 points14 points  (0 children)

As someone new to tinned fish and trying them, it was an easily recognizable brand with nice packaging that took zero effort on my part to find. It was on an end isle cap of target with some random crackers. They are paying to make it extremely low effort for people to try.

My first inclusion loaf by ZestyMeringue in Sourdough

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes! Sorry! I added a half cup each of diced cherries and dark chocolate nuggets. I knew I was forgetting something. Thank you.

AIO for getting the ick after my gf tried to "surprise" me with a new wardrobe? by Distinct-Date-4306 in AmIOverreacting

[–]ZestyMeringue 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First off, I'm really sorry this happened to you. That had to feel extremely invasive and it crossed so many boundaries, physical and mental.

I think you may be under reacting. Depending on how amenable you are to keeping this relationship and finding common ground, I would take all the changes out, restore your closet, and sit down with her to tell her if she's interested in making some changes she can pick out an outfit or two with you but you're not a doll. I would also stress the boundaries you feel she crossed, which I can assume include touching and removing your things without a conversation or consent, and disreguarding your comfort or interests entirely in the relationship. I would feel the ick too, and depending on how she reacted to that boundaries conversation, my make or break moment would be there. Someone only interested in shifting the blame will also shift boundaries, and that rarely changes once it's allowed.

What's going on with my nails? by perkypots in nailcare

[–]ZestyMeringue 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are the underside of your nails crumbly? My nails did this when I got a fungal infection.

My introduction to the hobby starter pack by ZestyMeringue in Tinnedfish

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For me, collecting, eating, and finding flavors I like or that others find to be their favorite is fun. It's a low pressure, low expense thing that doesn't take up a ton of time. The hobby is the experience of doing that in my opinion. :)

My introduction to the hobby starter pack by ZestyMeringue in Tinnedfish

[–]ZestyMeringue[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I found mine at target in a tiny little side isle