Bread Baking!

[cim_can]

I just made a pre-ferment, a pate fermentee, this evening and threw it in the refrigerator in preparation for baking tomorrow.
Does anyone have a favorite bread recipe? I recently baked a loaf of pan de campo which came out great, but I'm looking to try out some other kinds of breads.

 

[SiBurning]

There's something magical about kneading your own dough and baking fresh bread. I'm stuck on the basic whole wheat loaf in Baking with Julia. My loaf comes out pretty heavy, but cooked through better than a lot of bakeries and packaged bread.

If you've tried a lot of whole wheat breads, you might know what I mean. I think the trick is to let it rise a lot longer than the minimum. The other thing is to seriously use a thermometer and be careful about the temperature reconstituting the yeast.

 

[cim_can]

I know exactly what you mean. I don't have any machines, so I mix and knead by hand and it's actually really cathartic. When I come home from school, cooking something up is always a good stress release. I'll have to check out the basic whole wheat loaf. My first sandwich loaf was a recipe I found on the King Arthur bread company blog. I don't have ascorbic acid or the special sugar they used, but despite being totally brand-new to baking bread, it came out fantastic. Check it out here
I jokingly say that I won't ever buy bread from the store again... It may very well be true.

 

[rth97601]

My wife makes bread every week, and actually grinds most of the wheat (and occasionally other grains) by hand. It costs pennies to make that bread at home, but the store bought equivalent is premium-priced--bread is definitely worth the time and effort.

 

[SiBurning]

I know exactly what you mean. I don't have any machines, so I mix and knead by hand and it's actually really cathartic. When I come home from school, cooking something up is always a good stress release. I'll have to check out the basic whole wheat loaf. My first sandwich loaf was a recipe I found on the King Arthur bread company blog. I don't have ascorbic acid or the special sugar they used, but despite being totally brand-new to baking bread, it came out fantastic. Check it out here
I jokingly say that I won't ever buy bread from the store again... It may very well be true.

You don't have vitamin C? For the sugar, steal some packs of Sugar in the Raw from a Store Burnt coffee shop. That looks like a sourdough. I had one for about 6 months. Never got very good so I gave it up.

The great thing about doing it by hand is the texture.

 

[Black Adder]

I'm in the middle of moving here soon, but when I get settled in I'll be trying my hand at this time-tested art.

Two friends I know, cooking geniuses and thrift demi-gods, recommended the following for me:

http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Bread...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263012737&sr=1-1

Looks like it's getting good reviews.

Don

 

[Phog Allen]

I'm in the middle of moving here soon, but when I get settled in I'll be trying my hand at this time-tested art.

Two friends I know, cooking geniuses and thrift demi-gods, recommended the following for me:

http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Bread...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263012737&sr=1-1

Looks like it's getting good reviews.

Don

I was looking over that book yesterday at Amazon. Nice choice. I want it. I also saw My Bread at Barnes and Noble the other day. There is much besides the famous no knead YouTube sensation in there. I just need to find some extra cash laying around needing to be spent on more cookbooks!

Regards, Todd

 

[tsmba]

Check out Bernard Clayton's classic bread book. It has great recipes, one of which called "War Bread" has become a family favorite!

 

[ek.310]

checkout http://allrecipes.com/

 

[cim_can]

The book I just received for Christmas (and I'm just using right now) is the Bread Baker's Apprentice. Some of the breads are probably beyond my expertise level, but I'll let you guys know how this bread turns out.

 

[Sullybob]

I'm in the middle of moving here soon, but when I get settled in I'll be trying my hand at this time-tested art.

Two friends I know, cooking geniuses and thrift demi-gods, recommended the following for me:

http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Bread...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263012737&sr=1-1

Looks like it's getting good reviews.

Don

I have this book, I bought it from ABE books for $4.95 shipped!! It had been on my radar for a long time. I had wanted to start making bread for a long time but I do not have a lot of time to devote to the bread making process. All of the recipes that I have tried work very well, is it as good as serious artisan bread from an artisan bakery? No, but it is very good. The biggest turn on for me about the recipes in this book is that it really only takes 5 minutes a day of actual work. When you mix up a batch of bread it may take you up to 5 minutes of work then you throw it in the refrigerator. You make more then one loaf of dough at a time so you can bake bread as needed. When you decide to bake a loaf of bread pull off enough dough to make a loaf, shape it, let it rise and then bake it. You don't knead the dough at all. They tell you which recipes are easily doubled, tripled or halfed so you can make as much dough or as little dough as you need.

The only recipe that we have not really liked was a recipe that had buttermilk in it, it was just too sour for us, and not sour like sourdough, sour like butter milk.

If you're a hard core baker this book may not be for you.

If want to start baking bread and you don't have a lot of time this book is for you. Another thing that I really like about this book is that you make a batch of dough and they you can use that dough for several different end products. For example, they give you a basic Brioche recipe and then they give you several different things you can do with the brioche dough, sticky buns, pecan rolls, brioche bread and several more, that way you can use the dough for more then just a simple loaf of brioche.

The book I just received for Christmas (and I'm just using right now) is the Bread Baker's Apprentice. Some of the breads are probably beyond my expertise level, but I'll let you guys know how this bread turns out.

I also have this book. This book has won multiple awards for a reason, it is a very very good book. I bought this book before I picked up Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day and my plan was to cook my way through this book. I never did, maybe some day I will. I have only made a few of the recipes from this book, they came out fine but they are much more involved and labor intensive then Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

 

[calcustom]

I used this recipe in my machine for the 1st time today.
I omitted the dry milk, used Agave nectar (also called agave syrup) instead of honey and used EVOO instead of shortening.
I had to adjust the dough with a little extra flour to get it where I wanted.
After the 2nd rise I pulled the dough, removed the paddle (so as to avoid a hole in the bottom of the loaf) greased the paddle shaft and punched and shaped the dough back into the pan for the 3rd rise.
Then baked the dough in the machine.
This recipe came out great and will be a keeper.

 

[letterk]

checkout http://allrecipes.com/

+1 My wife, the bread baker in the family, gets most of her bread recipes from that site. I can't say we've ever had a bad one and most are superb.

 

[Gravy]

I'm still pretty new to bread making but I found this site pretty usefull for getting started. http://www.breadtopia.com/
Pretty basic stuff and easy to follow.

 

[Confuzius]

I know exactly what you mean. I don't have any machines, so I mix and knead by hand and it's actually really cathartic. When I come home from school, cooking something up is always a good stress release.

That is definitely true. I think I made half a dozen loafs of bread in the few days following my Grandfather's death. It's great therapy!

These days, with less free time and less stress, I've done the NYT "No knead", and just last week the "Speedy no knead"

The speedy one isn't as porous as the full 24hour no knead, but in 4-6 hours you get a great loaf of bread with literally 5 minutes of actual work. On a Saturday, I'll throw together to dough, go out and do errands and groceries, come home, start cooking supper and toss it in the oven and fresh bread ready with supper and zero effort.

I need to look into some long ferments...

 

[swingerofbirches]

My wife started growing some bread starter last week ...
Due to the affection with which bread is being discussed above this is probably a silly question, but does anyone on here use their own bread starter? If so, how long have you had it?

 

[tsmba]

I've used a variety of starters at one time or another. While I've made great bread with some of them, I've found them to be a PITA to maintain. If I made those breads regularly and frequently, they would be more practical.

What I tend to do with any bread is to use a minimal amount of yeast, cool water, and a long, slow rise. Using a biga, pate fermentee, or poolish, you're doing the same sort of thing. I also like using a bit of malt extract to help with the texture and flavor.

 

[winkydink]

My wife started growing some bread starter last week ...
Due to the affection with which bread is being discussed above this is probably a silly question, but does anyone on here use their own bread starter? If so, how long have you had it?

I started another one from wild yeast this summer that I feed 2x daily. Have you tried Carl's 1847 Oregon Trail starter? It'll cost you an SASE and may be easier to get going than a wild yeast starter. http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/source.html

 

[neal bloom]

I stumbled upon this site and really like some of the breads.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/

 

[JohnDoom]

Today I'm baking a Chocolate Chip Boule' using Ruhlman's Ratio

I just wish I knew why everyone thought it is so hard to bake bread now-a-days. I guess that last 3% adage holds true.