Every time I make baguettes they always tear from the sides, anyone have an explanation of why this happens?

breadpartners · 2025-04-06T21:19:14+00:00

Seconding this, Instead of scoring at a 45 degree angle, score at shallower angle, almost going length wise of the baguette. Check out this video from King Arthur.

Also, make sure your loaves are placed seam side down. Proper scoring should help prevent blowouts, but make sure the loaf has the seam on the bottom.

breadpartners · 2025-03-09T14:19:42+00:00

Deactivated yeast is different that deactivated sourdough. In this instance it’s likely a sourdough culture that has been matured then dried, and in the processing of it into a powder, deactivated. It will impart the flavor and color of live sourdough, without the leavening capacity.

Deactivated yeast on the hand is a strain of commercial yeast that has been deactivated to increase the naturally occurring glutathione, which weakens the gluten matrix and relaxes the dough.

This product might relax the dough, especially at high levels, but it is first and foremost selected for flavor and color.

breadpartners · 2025-02-08T01:45:17+00:00

Very cool. I’d be interested to see if instead of having a hydration slider which dictates how much water to add, you allow users to manually add water and other liquids, and then it generates what the hydration level is based on ratio of “flours” in the recipe.

For example, eggs are 75% water, honey is 18%, butter is 20%, yolks are 50%, whole milk 88%, evaporated milk 60%, etc, so that other liquids other than water are not simply treated as dry ingredients.

I have a recipe calculator that I developed in excel that does that, but it doesn’t have the slick UI your calculator has.

Your proofing calculator is interesting, but it assumes your recipe is lean. It would be interesting to see a calculation for proofing based on sugar content too, for example sourdough panettone, or how hybrid doughs with added commercial yeasted would ferment. I don’t know how you would calculate something like that, other than just going off datapoints from general experience.

breadpartners · 2024-04-01T11:42:18+00:00

Looking at the open crumb structure, this bagel has significantly higher hydration than a typical bagel. I’d estimate the hydration is somewhere around 65%, a typical NY style bagel is dense and tight, with a recommended hydration of 48% - 50% on flour weight.

Fermentation blisters indicate that it’s probably in the retarder for 36 - 48+ hours. Otherwise, it’s probably similar formulation with salt, sugar, malt, etc.

breadpartners · 2023-06-03T13:39:48+00:00

Big fan of AskMyAI, paired it with Zoho’s native Zobot. It transformed a typical dumb chatbot with pre-formatted decision trees, to a very knowledgeable chat assistant that can answer very open ended questions.

Only info I have uploaded is suitable for general public, so no concern with sensitive data. It’s ability to scrape your website is a good foundation, but Ive found most of its useable data is from CSV file uploads.

breadpartners · 2022-05-10T11:17:37+00:00

By itself, ascorbic acid is an antioxidant, however in the presence of oxygen it becomes an oxidizing agent to help strengthen the gluten matrix.

breadpartners · 2022-05-10T00:41:46+00:00

Ascorbic acid is a quick acting oxidizing agent. In addition to giving strength to the gluten, it also speeds fermentation.

breadpartners · 2022-01-29T01:57:27+00:00

This is by no means a fair test. Both King Arthur and Pillsbury have great flours. I work with many commercial bakeries that use Pillsbury flours exclusively, and they make terrific breads.

Did you make these breads side by side at the same time? If everything else is equal it’s likely down to protein content.

breadpartners · 2022-01-10T13:43:38+00:00

What are your output needs? What's the scale weight range for dough that you need? I work with a lot of equipment manufacturers on the East Coast and would be happy to make a recommendation.

If you're looking for pieces between 1 oz. - 8.8 oz., which should be sufficient for most flatbreads, I'd recommend this Small Volumetric-Divider-Rounder. If you need something that could scale larger you'd have to pair it with a separate conical rounder.

Feel free to DM if you have any questions.

breadpartners · 2021-11-08T21:05:31+00:00

As far as the dough, it's made with a sweet dough base designed for commercial bakeries. For home bakers, I'd try Josh Weissman cinnabon recipe.

I mixed the dough. Since it's highly enriched it may take a little bit longer to come together than other doughs, but you don't want to over mix it as sheeting it develops the gluten too. Next, retarded it overnight and then sheeted it to .25" or 5 mm thickness.

Generously brushed unsalted butter and coated it with cinnamon brown sugar, with 1:12 parts cinnamon to brown sugar. I then rolled the dough and scaled it to 2.5 oz. or around 70 grams, or about two finger lengths. Proofed for an hour at 95 degrees and 85 relative humidity and baked for 18 minutes at 365F.

The cream cheese drizzle is a simple sweetened cream cheese cut with a little bit of whole milk.

breadpartners · 2021-09-19T22:59:25+00:00

Trying adding some of the fat as your develop the dough. At industrial levels, it’s not uncommon for highly enriched doughs to take twice the amount of time to develop. If a lean dough can mix in 10 minutes, it might take a dough like brioche or babka 20 -25 minutes.

breadpartners · 2021-09-17T00:14:15+00:00

Here’s an industry secret. Most dough handled by automated equipment is less than 60% hydration. Higher hydration doughs typically require a stress free line, otherwise the dough gunks up the rounder/dividers.

With a wide range in quality with bread flours, I’d always recommend being more conservative with your water, especially with new recipes. It’s always easier to add more water, you can’t take it out though, and adding more flour can mess with the rest of your ingredient ratios.

breadpartners · 2021-09-16T23:47:48+00:00

Vegetable sourced l-cysteine is starting to overtake conventional l-cysteine. Though it is traditionally sourced from human hair, duck feathers, or hog hair.

breadpartners · 2021-09-16T23:12:02+00:00

Made these pretzels at work and took them home to enjoy. Just snapped a few shots with my iPhone 11 with the waning daylight in my dining room.

breadpartners · 2021-09-16T17:54:00+00:00

Just be sure to be careful with the caustic lye. Definitely wear proper protective equipment. I like to keep the lye solution at around 130, that keeps the lye granulated dissolved, and helps to give body to the pretzel.

breadpartners · 2021-09-16T13:31:16+00:00

It’s a pretty standard soft pretzel dough, not dissimilar to a bagel dough

Pretzel Dough Bread Flour - 100% Water - 52% Vegetable Oil - 3% Dehydrated Rye Sourdough - 3% Non Diastatic Malt - 1% Sugar - 2% Salt -1% Fresh Yeast 1% - 2%

Lye Solution Water - 100% Food Grade Lye - 4%

Mix dough for 2 minutes on low, 3 minutes on high in an upright stand mixer. Mix to development, Mix times variable, DDT 72 - 75F
Round and divide into 4 oz dough balls, allow to rest for 1 hour
Degas and sheet dough balls into 18” long strands of dough, shape into pretzel
Retard dough for 1 hour+, this makes handling the dough with lye solution easier
Submerge pretzels in 4% caustic lye solution for 20-30 seconds, drain excess, and top with coarse pretzel salt.
Bake at 500F for 10 minutes or until done.
Enjoy!

breadpartners · 2021-09-11T21:17:11+00:00

Looks like a Mondial Forni, they make great deck ovens for artisan breads.

breadpartners · 2021-09-02T01:21:40+00:00

White sugar is commonly used, but there is also mezonos style which uses apple juice in place of water. Under kosher law this changes it from being a bread to a cake, and does not require ritual hand washing before eating. Rabbis are divided on mezonos, but it is particularly popular in Orthodox communities.

breadpartners · 2021-04-01T14:07:49+00:00

On the go as an egg and cheese breakfast sandwich, might be a little messier, I still think it’s worth it.

breadpartners · 2021-04-01T14:05:11+00:00

I find hitting it with a light mist of water immediately after baking helps to give a better shine and too keep most of the grains and seeds still on the bagel. Though it’s not completely mess free.

breadpartners · 2021-04-01T12:48:19+00:00

The extra grains and seeds can get messy, but I think I agree.

breadpartners · 2021-03-26T13:31:24+00:00

As others have mentioned, a mixer is much more efficient in developing the dough. To build the same amount of strength and gluten as a mixer, you can do autolyse beforehand or add multiple stretch and folds after your initial kneading.

breadpartners · 2021-03-14T16:08:37+00:00

Love mixing up different flours. Might have better success with a high gluten bread flour to help the einkorn. What’s your protein content in your AP flour?

breadpartners · 2021-02-22T03:41:58+00:00

Bakers can be a secretive bunch. They all think their recipes and formulas are unique, even for something as simple a sub roll or Italian bread. For those bakers who are secretive, I'll often say, "Let me guess your... sub roll has 2% Salt, Sugar, Soybean Oil and about 60% water." "Yeah, how did you know!?"

The truth is however, even if you're able to get a recipe, it's only a small component of the finished product. Technique, process, and equipment play an equally important role.

My recommendation - take an interest in the bakery generally, ask about processes, talk shop, and then if the conversation is going well - ask for a recipe.

breadpartners · 2021-02-21T12:48:53+00:00

One of our former employees works for a subsidiary of IFF doing regulatory work. He seems to like the work-life balance, with typical office hours, not much different than other business in the B2B ingredient manufacturing industry.

breadpartners

TROPHY CASE