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Comment by moosehawk | Hacker News Reader

Second "Flour Water Salt Yeast". I've been baking bread for a few years now following his techniques with great success. He also has a 2nd book called "The Elements of Pizza" that I highly recommend.

I had a similar experience when starting. The process seemed time consuming and complicated, but now I can bake a couple loaves any day of the week with a small amount of planning and little effort/thought.

In both books he provides techniques and recipes for being able to start baking bread and pizzas with little or no upfront investment (some containers, a couple bannetons for bread and a peel + stone for pizzas). The best part of the process is experimenting with your own recipes. Here's a couple shots of some recent loaves and pizzas I've baked recently:

https://i.imgur.com/0cKI4ad.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iMkzJJB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZEIlGy9.png

https://i.imgur.com/gr0qO2t.png

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These look great!

The thing that blew my mind is that I've tried making various bread products before, with terrible outcomes...my first attempt to make something from the book was with a Poolish and it turned out astonishing; "That is the kind of thing hipsters would pay big bucks for!" - Amanda (my partner)

Thanks! I was intimidated by the poolish before I tried it, I commend you for going for it first! Now it's one of my go-tos because its timings are really convenient for my schedule (plus it tastes great). I personally like to make the poolish with 20% wheat.

Haha, funny because the first time I made it I did something a novice should never try and made it with 40% whole wheat (because i bought the wrong flour by accident...).

It's certainly a great bread to make in terms of timing, this conversation is going to make me get one started tonight!

I would suggest to score the bread in the middle before baking. That way you will have a higher rise in the oven.

I did an experiment here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BhERhlnDgdQ

Basically it's like cracks in the surface. At an angle the rise can be much higher.

Funny you say this. If you read the particular book we're talking about, he specifically talks about not scoring the bread.

Forkish suggests not scoring your bread. From what I understand it can be somewhat of a contentious issue in the bread-baking community.

I've experimented with scoring with mixed results, although I'll admit I don't have the right tool for it and my technique may not have been correct.

A community is basically defined as a group of people squabbling about something that outsiders find laughable.

He doesn’t suggest scoring because the creases in his recipe end up on the top of the dough, which does the same thing as scoring which controls the rise so it doesn’t blow out the side. Tartine and other recipes suggest scoring because the creases from the dough formation are on the bottom.

At the bakery i worked- we used forks - and only little punctures

The pizza looks great. Do you have a high temperature oven?

WOW dat pizza

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