Helping my wife make some bread today… She is extremely by the recipe she follows… So here’s where it gets interesting… The yeast starter is cold… I simply ask her to let me tend to the yeast and she can get the dry ingredients together… “OK”… So I proceed to heat the yeast and starter up in the microwave… 15 second intervals… Pull it out stir with the therma pen… Just trying to get the mixture up to 120*… She now has come unhinged with this… I think pirates would blush…
I really push the buttons, “very active yeast will help make a bit more airy loaf… Not bricks”… The tension is very intense now!!
I best go out to the garage and tinker with something else…
Any of you get this “wonderful” collaboration with your favorite partner?
Sneezles61
I think it’s loading the dishwasher in our house. Sometimes I feel like a dang wizard when it comes to how efficiently I can load the thing. She just throws dishes in there, and wastes about 50% of the space. So I rearrange it, and add more dishes. I think it drives her nuts.
ETA: We actually work quite well in the kitchen, and enjoy preparing meals, etc. together. The problem is being motivated enough on the weekends to prepare meals in advance so we don’t have to worry about it in the evenings after we get home from work.
Not much compares to very warm bread with butter on it…
No one harmed/hurt during this adventure…
Sneezles61
I wish I could help, but have to admit I use a bread machine. You just dump all the ingredients in the machine (in a certain order), dump in the dry yeast and push a button. It does everything else for me except eat the bread.
The dishwasher thing here too. I’m picky on how to load it and she’s not so much. We cook separately since when I’m done you almost can’t tell I’ve been there except for the new food and I know exactly everything she’s used and what was in it. 
Wife knows not to interfere with me when I am making bread, pizza, homemade pasta, sauce. Not that I would get irritated if she did, but I have been doing that for so long she knows to just let me at it.
I too have the dishwasher issues. Can never get the glass in the right spot for her liking.
Well 120 is pushing it I wouldn’t go above 90° my sourdough starter is to dear to me and I’d be pissed if someone tried nukiing it. What I do with mine is warm the water, beer or any other liquid I plan on using to 90 and stir it into the yeast then just let it ferment overnight
I’m the dishwasher wizard at our house. I’ll be damned if we aren’t getting that last bowl or glass in there. 
Bread wise we have a bread machine. I was very excited when we got it figuring you can make good bread easily. Wrong. We have never been thrilled with the bread it makes. The consistency is too dense or something and never tastes light and fluffy.
There is an Italian bakery near our northern home that makes wonderful bread and it is so inexpensive it’s not worth our effort to bake our own. It’s best to put it in the trunk on the way home so it makes it there.
Wife has a sour dough, but didn’t use it yesterday… Some platinum series yeast and the temp for waking/hydrating was 120-130… It took 8-15 second series to get it to 120…
The lighter wheat breads are the quest… We don’t/won’t buy the white bread that’s common in the markets… I know this will be just like brewing…
Sneezles61
I know the issue. Its doing laundry. She is picky. About what got to be in there. I do my own laundery. At 3 in the morning. Easy. I have only black clothing. Metal shirts. So toss everything together. Not even starting talk about food. Me dutch. She colombian. Different kind of food. So most the time. Cook separate. Due to my work schedule. I am most the time never off together. So do my own thing. But if we are together of one day it my thing. The other day hers. But long live my own brew area. When she is doing her thing end up in my brew area.
Re-booting this… Great time for this activity!
Wife has been tinkering with sourdough… Today a new loaf will be made following a simple recipe… I took it out of the fridge… put it on a seedling heating pad which is said to be 10-20 above room temp… All we need to do today is get it in the dutch oven and cook it… If this works well, I’ll “encourage” her to revive the starter again this W/E…
and since the starter jar is quite full… how about some spiced fried bread?
Sneezles61
Well… needs to have the starter freshened up more…we’ll feed it this W/E and try again next week… It is good… baguette style…
Sneezles61
I gave up my sourdough. I always have souring yeast at hand with my brews and I got tired of feeding the sourdough. Also I have been swapping in plain greek yogurt into my breads if I want a rounded sour taste and it really is nice.
Flatbreads are where I’m at now. Very easy to make… Nan, Pita, Chapati, Pizza. All variations on the same theme. Tortillas are even easier as there is no fermentation part needed.
I have a baguette tray with 3 spaces. It’s really a game changer for any bread that shape. I really like using it to make Banh mi.
I watched a guy make a baguette… Seems to be just like messing with sourdough as far as moisture and handling pre-baking… except, no messing with growing the starter… well, no starter actually…
Moisture is the key… Its almost a parallel to brewing on how you handle the ingredients to get to the final product…
sneezles61
Yes, every batch of bread is dependent on the environment around it. A true baguette is a sour dough I believe.
It is fun using beer yeast to make bread as some of the flavor profiles carry over to the bread. Saison yeast or Wheat Beer yeast make some fun bread and I have a surplus of those at all times.
I thought I heard all breads were started in the sour/lacto arena… Then someone figured out there was yeast…
A game changer? Depends on how you like your bread… One thing is for sure… if you even get remotely close to a great loaf, apply some butter whilst warm… I’m drooling now…
Sneezles61
I bake my sourdough by making a sourdough predough then return back to the starter pot the amount I used then int the fridge. Never feed it anything else. I do the long fermenation method. I fermnt the dough for most of the day then form my loaves overnight. Then directly to the oven stone after scoring. Beautiful spring. I do free form loaves so the cold is key.
I’d like to be there!!
Sneezles61
Just got my first set of bannetons. One round and of oval-like. They worked great on my rustic bread.
