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Great thread! I love bread. Like, in a sinful way. It has been said that good bread is better than cake. So. True. The admonishment to wait is a good one. Cutting in early will let all the steam escape from your cut face, resulting in a large piece of really gummy bread. That's no fun. One thing to remember - most breads are done when they hit an internal temperature of 205 degrees Fahrenheit or so. If you're baking a loaf, just stick a temperature probe in it, set it to beep when it hits that temperature, and you won't need to check on your bread for doneness ever again. It's been a big help in my baking endeavors. Oh also: as said, bread without salt is just...not bread at all. Certainly not bread worth eating. If you forget to add salt (or even yeast) until after you make your dough, don't worry too much - it's still fixable. Add the missing component to a bit of water, and then really (I mean really) work it into your dough. If the dough is too wet after, add a bit more flour to compensate. I've done this more than once to good effect. It's worth tasting and smelling your dough to make sure you've put in all the things that you wish to put in. P.S. - if anyone is looking for an excellent, excellent book, I have to recommend The Bread Baker's Apprentice. It is a tremendous compendium on how to bake what will likely be the best bread of your life. mediaphage fucked around with this message at 14:47 on Oct 10, 2012 |
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Oct 10, 2012 13:50
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:08 |
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Mr. Wiggles posted:I make all the bread that we eat. Yessssss this.
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Oct 10, 2012 16:14
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baku posted:Please don't over do this you guys
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Oct 10, 2012 21:06
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Voronoi Potato posted:My apartment cannot fit an oven. I can get a toaster oven, or a bread maker. I loved making bread in high school (even though I was terrible at it) and would like to continue making it. I think I might prefer a toaster oven but I'm not sure I can afford the bread maker AND the toaster oven. As a result I need a toaster oven big enough to accommodate the bread. Do any tiny apt bread goons have recommendations or will any decent toaster oven do. The one i'm looking at is .6 cubic feet which seems like it should be enough. Oh heavens, buy the toaster oven! I haven't bought one in a while, but we went and measured the internal space of a few - as I'm sure you've found, they're all of such varied sizes. I would take care to buy the tallest one you can, since it will let your bread rise without worry.
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Oct 15, 2012 06:46
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FishBulb posted:I make my bread in a loaf pan that I put inside my Dutch oven with a couple ice cubes for steam and oven spring. It's pretty good but the Dutch oven isn't really that tall and sometimes when I have an especially puffy loaf the top of the loaf hits the bottom of the Dutch oven lid. Is there like a long, tall, heavy oval cooking unit anyone knows about? I've seen oval Dutch ovens but I don think they are any taller... You could get one of those enameled roasters. They're quite large. Alternatively, I take an old jelly roll pan that I don't care about (e.g. warping) and let it preheat in the oven. Then I toss some ice cubes or some sprays of water onto it when I put the bread in. Works pretty well, though I only bother when I really am going all out for "artisan" bread. Just the small oven itself and the offgassing of water vapor from the dough is generally sufficient.
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Oct 15, 2012 18:12
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TychoCelchuuu posted:you might want to use some whole wheat flour since that has more organisms in it Uh.
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Oct 21, 2012 04:10
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TychoCelchuuu posted:Sorry, I guess enzymes aren't technically organisms. They're... whatever enzymes are. I'm an American who only ever made it past high school biology, it's a miracle I even learned about evolution. Organisms are living things. Enzymes are molecules that speed up a chemical reaction. That's what an enzyme is. And I don't think you're going to find more "enzymes" in whole wheat flour over white. The flour is definitely compositionally different - it has the wheat's germ and and bran, in addition to the wheat's endosperm. That means it likely has more fat and fiber, and potentially more protein, though that's not always the case. When I do use whole wheat flours, I tend to add extra gluten, especially if I'm using it to make rolls or sandwich breads.
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Oct 21, 2012 19:12
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dad. posted:"enzymes" comprises more than just alpha and beta amylase. There certainly is more protein in anything milled whole, it's just not structurally beneficial, like how rye has approximately 14% protein but you're not getting brioche-like volume in loaf made of it; also again, enzymes and pentosans etc. Right.
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Oct 21, 2012 20:19
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therattle posted:I think you mean "I stand corrected"! No, I don't. Because I'm not incorrect. I just don't feel like continuing a discussion in a thread where people are using whole wheat flour for all the magical enzymes.
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Oct 22, 2012 12:52
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colonp posted:How do you guys soften up grains/seeds? I've been boiling them, then letting the resulting porridge cool off, then putting in the wet yeast etc. but the smell of the porridge have been dominating my bread. Maybe just leave 'em in a bowl of water over night? Or am I just overcooking? I don't use them in breads really, but you could just leave them in a bowl of water in the fridge for a day, and avoid the cooking issue entirely.
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Oct 22, 2012 15:51
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The Doctor posted:Can there be a rule or something where we stop apologetically calling ourselves poor? I don't know man, it's ok to not have money, and you can even be proud that you do everything by hand. I certainly do not use a mixer. I think he was talking about bread machines, which make terrible bread anyway. Also hand kneading is a glorious way to work out stress, and you can take as long as you want because it's basically impossible to overknead.
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Oct 28, 2012 14:44
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Reinhart's challah has 5.5% oil, 18% eggs, 7% egg yolks and ~45% water by weight. Salt is at 1.4%, sugar at 5.5%, and flour, of course, is 100%.
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Oct 30, 2012 19:04
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For what it's worth, I'm not sure how challah-y that challah is. Traditionally, challah is way more eggy - like enough yolk to turn it golden. It's a bit stiffer, too. That said this bread is probably more appropriate to eat on a regular basis since challah can be pretty rich.
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Oct 31, 2012 16:05
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Butch Cassidy posted:This was the result of a bout of insomnia I tried to battle with gin and then decided I might as well bake a loaf of bread if I couldn't sleep: Dat crust.
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Nov 2, 2012 13:31
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FooF posted:Came to post that I just gave this a whirl and came out with a 9"x5"x8" loaf of white bread that was soft, spongy and delicious. I halved the recipe because I only had 1 Tbsp of yeast (but forgot to halve the sugar) but it looked a lot like Charmmi's picture, sans cat attack. For future reference that would have been fine - yeast will grow and divide, so it just would have taken longer to rise (but not by much since it's going to multiply along a logarithmic scale).
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Nov 3, 2012 04:06
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ALso I just noticed the recipe only called for 1Tbsp yeast (which is actually quite a bit) so I have no idea why you halved this recipe unless it was just to make less bread which is a totally fine reason but not the one you stated. I've got some pâte fermentée fermentéing in the fridge tonight. Gon make some goooood bread tmurr.
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Nov 3, 2012 04:08
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I baked some more bread this morning. 
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Nov 3, 2012 18:40
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daggerdragon posted:Yes. However, I never got a dough, it just immediately went to pulled-chicken crumbles. Beating it for another half hour juuuust barely let me squish it hardcore into small loaf-shaped lumps that looks like brains. It looks like bread (and brains), it smells like bread, might as well bake it and see what comes out. I'm fully expecting it to just explode and make a mess in the oven, but who knows.
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Nov 3, 2012 23:57
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Flipperwaldt posted:I guess I'll have to adjust that a bit for a smallish loaf and for working with a freaking halogen lamp toaster oven that will burn your poo poo because the heating element's so close. For what it's worth, you should look into getting an oven probe. After you've been baking a bit, shove the probe in and cook until it hits around 200F depending on the type of bread. Sandwich bread might only get to 190. It is a fantastic way of judging dough doneness that takes out the guesswork.
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Nov 5, 2012 00:44
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Devoyniche posted:Yeah it definitely seems like it doesn't have enough liquid, if it isn't actually forming a cohesive mass. I've found that some people have a few rules like holding back 50 g of flour (between 1/3 and 1/2 cup if you don't have a scale - I would just hold back a 1/2 cup and add it gradually, plus, if you need it, whatever the recipe will specify for "dusting/kneading"), or adding in flour a cup at a time and mixing until it is fully incorporated before adding more, the idea being that it is better to have a wetter dough and add flour while kneading rather than trying to incorporate water into a dough that has already sort of come together. I guess it works, but that seems awfully backwards to me. Usually you use 100% of the called-for flour, and add sufficient water to make a dough. Not 100% of the water and add sufficient flour.
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Nov 7, 2012 18:51
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turtle_hermit posted:Use a baking sheet with no rim or a piece of cardboard as a peel. I dump a big handful of cornmeal on the peel.
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Nov 13, 2012 02:06
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therattle posted:I have a problem. My starter has gone bitter. Not sour, bitter (I know the difference!) - so much so that bread made with it is inedible. I had been keeping it in the fridge, feeding about once a week prior to a bake, then removing some starter to use, adding more flour and water to top it up again, and returning to the fridge. Bitter, bitter, bitter. Any ideas why, or how to salvage it? I would just throw it out and start over; it's not like it'd take you long to regenerate it. I won't profess to know what happened with it, but getting colonized by a gross yeast or bacteria is a good start.
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Nov 19, 2012 14:25
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Pookah posted:Oh dear, that looks like it was super fun to clean up. None of my ovens with analog dials had clickers. No offense, but if this has happened "on several occasions", maybe you need to stop putting your towel there.
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Nov 21, 2012 15:51
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Pookah posted:I don't ever leave it there. I'm down with this left-handed martyrism you're throwing, but as a certified southpaw I really never have any trouble. Except for loving scissors sometimes. Also I flip the blade on the veggie peeler so my bf always complains when he goes to peel something.
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Nov 21, 2012 20:16
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Flipperwaldt posted:You use the right amount of flour from the get go and you mop it all up with the ball of dough. If you've got an entire kitchen table at your disposal, there's really no excuse for there to be flour anywhere else (like the floor or whatever). Also even if you use too much, I've never had to scrape up more than a handful of flour afterwards, at most. At that level, flour's pretty cheap.
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Nov 21, 2012 21:15
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The Doctor posted:I made 80% hydration baguettes again (I bought a digital kitchen scale) and they came out vastly better than last time. Yeah for what it's worth, it probably just won't be, especially if you basically swap out white for WW. I haven't read it yet, but Peter Reinhart, who did the GWC favorite Bread Baker's Apprentice, also came out with a book on WW only recipes you may wish to look at.
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Dec 2, 2012 22:21
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Leper Residue posted:I was using active dry yeast, with cold tap water. It sat around 15 hours, with nothing.
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Dec 6, 2012 13:26
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Leper Residue posted:Yeah, I did the yeast test and the water got some bubbles so I thought it was ok but honestly I have no idea how many it was supposed to have, it was very little. So if you proof the yeast in water you should get a noticeable amount of gas and odor. If it was just a few bubbles, I'd be confident that your yeast is old. If you're going to be baking a lot, I'd do as the above suggested and just pick up a jar you can keep in the fridge.
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Dec 6, 2012 22:31
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Leper Residue posted:Bleh. Yeah I was using the packet stuff. The difference in price is like a dollar for three packets vs. 8 for a little jar. Guess I get what I pay for. Well, so, it's not necessarily you get what you pay for; you're almost certainly paying more for the amount of yeast you get in the packets than you would for the equivalent amount of yeast in the jar. The Doctor posted:You can get yeast much more cheaply than this...those little jars are overpriced. Try looking for the biggish vacuum-sealed packs they usually sell to restaurants. There's a restaurant supply store near where I work and I got a pack for around $5.00, I've been using it for months and I bake bread every week. Yeast multiplies logarithmically, so even halving the yeast only delays the final levels by one generation or so, so it's really not that big of a deal. WhoIsYou posted:Anyone who plans to make bread regularly without using a sourdough starter would do well to pick up a bag of SAF-Instant Red. You can mix it right in to the dry ingredients, and you don't have to use as much as the packets or jar. You don't use a ton of yeast in the jar, which can also be mixed into the ingredients, soooo? Not that I'm against saving money, of course, just that my jar of instant yeast is super easy to pic up at the store.
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Dec 7, 2012 02:38
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Am I the only one who never measures yeast? I just...pour a bunch in. It's all log growth that you can just figure out when something looks, you know, done.
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Dec 15, 2012 15:19
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therattle posted:If I'm following a recipe I generally measure. When I'm improvising I, well, improvise. For my usual no-knead I use 1/4 tsp. if there is a flour or ingredient that retards rising I'll add more, up to 1/2tsp in total. If making a kneaded bread i just toss in about 1tsp but am not too bothered about exactitude. The reason I don't bother is because after a few generations, how much you use at the start is utterly insignificant. I honestly do not think it matters past a certain point, though I guess I should run some tests.
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Dec 15, 2012 18:43
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WhoIsYou posted:Yeast cells take a couple hours to reproduce once. They also need oxygen, so if you aren't doing a long preferment and regularly incorporating air, it doesn't come into play. The amount you start with will determine how fast the dough ferments. You can get better flavor from your bread with a longer ferment in the mid-70s. Using a smaller amount lets you get more flavor before too much carbon dioxide is released. Also, measuring the yeast will give a more consistent loaf of bread. I can see that, but I dunno, if I get too much rise, I'm not opposed to just beating it down and letting it come back a bit.
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Dec 15, 2012 22:42
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Ahahah, bread snobs itt. Actually, there's not much different between store bought bread and homemade bread - if you buy the nicer, "artisan" loaves and the bread is baked that day or the day before. Compared to, say, sandwich bread, or those generic "French" and "Italian" loaves, there can be a world of difference.
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Nov 16, 2013 01:16
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Shbobdb posted:If you are buying the nicer breads at the store, the difference is pretty minimal except: Yeah, this is the big difference. I don't know where you live SymmetryrtemmyS but I've never seen half decent bread in a store cost a minimum of $10
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Nov 16, 2013 04:58
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circ dick soleil posted:I'd really like to know if there's some easy way to recreate the flavor of processed, sliced whole grain bread specifically. My palate is just too developed to stomach white bread Ahahahhahhhaahahah jesus christ, what a completely ridiculous statement. Your palate is "too developed" but you're asking how to recreate sandwich bread from a bag. Get over yourself. Anyway the issue with recreating most sandwich breads is twofold. One, you'll want to let it proof at least a couple of times I find, in order to get the airier sort of crumb you're seeking. Secondly, these doughs are enriched with fat, dairy, and dough conditioners. The latter includes ingredients like polysorbate 60 and mono- and diglycerides, each of which are used as bread softeners. Lecithin, too. Egg yolks are comprised of about 9% lecithin by weight, I believe. My recommendations: 1. Find a white sandwich bread dough recipe that seems good - I always recommend Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice as an excellent, excellent starting point. 2. Use a loaf pan 3. Replace some of the water with milk 4. Add a little extra butter to the dough 5. Incorporate an egg yolk. You're unlikely to taste much of the egg when it's a ratio of one yolk to a whole loaf.
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Nov 16, 2013 22:00
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SymmetryrtemmyS posted:I know I'm not mediaphage but honestly I really like Reinhart's breads. read The Bread Baker's Apprentice or at least the bits about whatever bread you want and you have a good starting point in terms of technique as well as taste, IMO ^ Really though, unless you're adding some sort of weird, expensive ingredient to your breads, I find that all bread is cheap. For daily eatin' bread, I usually just do a generic two-day boule with a pre-ferment that sits in the fridge overnight. My all time favorite thing to make, though, are buttermilk dinner rolls. They're just so, so much better than storebought rolls that many people buy - you know, the ones in the disposable aluminum tin? And so soft, so fluffy. So amazing warm from the oven, torn open with butter melting down them. Yum. Also, you might wish to look into the no-knead bread that is still popular around the Internet. It's pretty nice for making regular little crusty loaves.
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Nov 17, 2013 16:16
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WaterIsPoison posted:I finally made amazing biscuits after many failed attempts. Recipe from Kevin Gillespie's cookbook (which is fantastic by the way) Nice! They look delicious. I love making buttermilk biscuits. Practically my favorite thing to do for breakfast when I have guests staying over. Or when it's just us. OKAY FINE ALSO WHEN IM BY MYSELF. You should make some sausage/veg sausage gravy to go with. Split one open, butter, pour gravy on top. Awesometown. I keep meaning to try out Nancy Silverton's biscuits:  They're basically 'just' a laminated biscuit dough.
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Nov 17, 2013 18:29
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In re pumpkin bread: just find a well-reviewed pumpkin muffin recipe. There's essentially no difference between muffins and pumpkin/carrot/zucchini/banana breads save for baking tin.LoonShia posted:A bit late, but I have a recipe for gluten-free bread that tastes great, looks pretty, and can be improved upon with simple things (such as spices, psyllium husks, citrus zest, whatnot). Here we go. This is sort of useful to people. The problem is that non-gluten flour blends vary wiiiiildly. Some are useful for 'bread' and some aren't. I will say this - even the best non-gluten breads, if we're talking about sliced loaves, aren't very good at all. For everything else, though, I really like Ideas in Food's "What Iif Flour". It's their version of the expensive Cup4Cup blend. SymmetryrtemmyS posted:If breading in a cast iron skillet, is it recommended to preheat or no? I guess it depends on the kind of bread you're making. I definitely pre-heated it for the popular no-knead breads as well as when I do cornbreads.
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Nov 17, 2013 23:43
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NightConqueror posted:If you're going to go the route of using pans to bake your bread in, I'd suggest you ditch the skillet and get a cheap dutch oven. With that you can get get crispy, shiny crusts by using the lid, which steams the bread. Take if off halfway through and bake, and you'll get nice loaves. Agreed with this. The dutch oven is what I used to excellent result. A skillet isn't going to offer you that high hydration environment that a dutch oven is.
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Nov 18, 2013 00:47
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:08 |
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One of the reasons it works well is because it creates a humid environment. You can replicate this by preheating a jelly roll pan in your oven with your stone, and setting your oven temp 50 degrees higher. When you dump your dough in, drop some ice cubes or a couple of cups of water onto the pan and shut the door. Wait a minute, then open and spray your oven walls with water. Wait thirty seconds, and do it again. Close your oven and lower the temp back to your standard baking temperature you wanted. This will create a fair amount of steam in your oven, and aid in the sort of spring you want from your breads.
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Nov 18, 2013 03:24
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