With the world on pause, it seems like everyone is stress baking and I am not exempt from jumping on all the trends. There has been a surge of banana bread and Dalgona coffee everywhere but there has also been a rise in bread (here is where you acknowledge that great pun!)
Now that I finally have the time, I am determined to bake my own bread, filled with those picture-perfect holes that are Instagram-worthy and indicate a good rise. First up was the search for white bread flour which it turns out (in Nairobi) is not available in anything less than 10kgs. I don’t need that much bread flour just yet so I opted for brown bread flour.
I am still working on my recipe for it but I did manage to shoot my two unsuccessful attempts so far. I kept the styling simple because I wanted the bread to stand out. The first loaf was a rich golden brown that I thought would go well with a moodier shoot so I used a basket and fake leaves to fill in the background while focusing on the bread.
For the second loaf, I sourced a proofing basket because I wanted to have those rings you see on sourdough loaves. Sure enough, I managed to get them but my dough was too wet and my oven temperature too high so the final product was a hard-crusted loaf that was not any less dense than the previous one. I kept the styling minimal and focused closely on the bread.
Both loaves were shot using my Nikon D5600. The first was shot at ISO 100, Shutter speed 1/13 and f/1.6. The second was shot at ISO 100, Shutter speed 1/10 and f/5.6.