@Henry Hunter

Hi amazing bakers! As I keep experimenting with open baking, I notice when I place 4 loaves in my oven on my baking steel it takes forever for my loaves to brown. I’m guessing that two things are happening. First, the temperature of the steel naturally lowers with more cold dough in the oven. Second, there is extra steam with more loaves. Would it help if I turned my oven up to 475 for the initial bake with steam? Do I still need both the lava rocks, and water soaked kitchen towels in a pan with the additional loaves??

Hoping sometime tomorrow, I’ll be able to jump in and start the baguettes. A friend of mine dropped me off a case of homegrown tomatoes because I mentioned to her I wanted to make some homemade salsa. That’s the first thing. But baguettes are something I’ve struggled with and shaping. So hoping I can do this. On the second note in three days, Henry has reached 48% of his goal to be able to go see Ryan and Kansas. It’s amazing that and only three days it got to 48% and I’m sure he is overwhelmed. Any amount is appreciated small amounts add up to big amounts. And you can also donate anonymous. So again, let’s help Henry get to Kansas.Thanks

This was the most Monday-ish Tuesday I’ve had in a few weeks! Work is being very “worky” with me logging almost 30 hours in just two days so far. I needed some stress relief this morning after waking at 3:03 AM, so I decided to mix a SD discard loaf around 7:30. The plan was to add salt at 8:30, then four sets of stretch and folds every 30 minutes, at 9:00, 9:30, 10:00 and 10:30. Well…the bottom fell out of the day pretty early. I got the salt added at 10:15, a round of S&F at 10:45, the next set at 12:30. My dough sat on the counter until 4:00! This wasn’t going to be a loaf of bread, so I made the executive decision to shift gears. I had purchased a 14” cast iron pan from Walmart a couple months ago to use for focaccia, and today would be its inaugural use. This pan was less than $20. I added some olive oil to the pan, plopped the dough in it, dimpled and covered for an hour, preheated the oven to 425, added basil, oregano, Parmesan and mozzarella. Baked it for 30 minutes, and this is one of the best focaccias I’ve ever made. I could’ve baked it longer, but this girl was hungry. I grabbed a slice and headed back to my office. I’m so thankful I’ve learned to shift and pivot when it comes to baking. All of this to say, don’t give up your dough! It might seem like it’s all going sideways, but you can shift and pivot and end up with something delicious!! Happy Baking!!

Hello I'm Julianna. I like to bake breads but im fairly new at it. However I dont give up easily. I am following all of these posts. I can't wait to get started with this.