Bread making

[Greatshield17]

I think I'm going take up bread-making as my next, homesteading skill, I like high-quality bread, and I do actually already have some good experience with baking already, including making cornbread muffins on a regular basis. This coming week I'm going to try and get some wheat flour, barley flour and cornmeal and try baking with it; since it's Lent, I'll be making unleavened vegan flatbread for the most part, but I'm thinking-up plans for Easter.

Are any of you good at making high-quality bread? What experiences have you had, do you know any good recipes and tips?

 

[Luca]

I have to find my cornbread, banana bread, and pumpkin bread recipes but I will show you once I’ve located them
I should probably start thinking about baking stuff for Easter too! I did last year

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

MY wife makes bread with a bread maker, in the last few months she hit on a really good recipe, actually it has amazing taste. Sort of an accident for her. She changed the recipe that came with the machine buy switching one of the white flour cups with a a cup of whole wheat flour.

 

[OkRad]

I love to do it! I learned early a--it's all in the kneading. Learn to love the kneading. Get in there and punch it down. It's fun to shape it into loaves, too. You can place them in the big tins or the small tins or even make little rolls. Nothing like home-made bread. Let us know how you do!

 

[Luca]

@OkRad I know you appreciate my recipes so I will send some your way as well!
My cookbooks/recipe binders are slightly disorganized at the moment.

 

[Aspychata]

Started with pizza from scratch. You start dealing with yeast and kneading. Then easy breads such as banana or pumpkin bread. Then you can graduate to yeast rising bread. The bread machine is fun too. My daughter and l even made croissants which involves a lot of butter.

It's very satisfying to pull a beautiful loaf out of your oven to share.

 

[Fino]

Cooking is magic and not magic that I have.

 

[Bolletje]

I love baking bread. The kneading is so therapeutic.

 

[Streetwise]

Unless !you eat a whole baguette that day ,DONT make French bread ,bread machines are helpful for even shape ,but !do exactly! what it tells you, look at reviews on YouTube ,in your price range,get sunflower oil to use instead of animal fat ,try and get slow milled bread flour as heat denudes vitamins,minerals, I've had flour from doves millers in the UK ,if you can afford get organic flour (less poisons),get bran separately to customise your bread make certain the machine will actually bake the bread do a test, please photos of custom bread for a very visual learner

 

[Mary Terry]

I've made my own bread for decades. These days I use the dough hook attachment on the stand mixer to do the kneading for me.

Suggestions:

Store your flours and grains in the refrigerator or freezer. Many whole grains and especially cornmeal go rancid pretty fast at room temperature.

Start with a poolish of water, flour and instant yeast in order to make French baguettes and other yeast breads. It ensures that your yeast is active and doing its job.

Measure ingredients by weight - not by volume - because it's much more accurate. Baking is called an "art" but it's actually science. If you really like to bake, invest in a battery-operated digital scale to precisely measure the ingredients. Get one with a "tare" feature which allows you to measure one ingredient into your mixing bowl, then reset the scale to zero in order to measure the next ingredient.

I use recipes from King Arthur Baking Company's recipe book "The All-Purpose Baker's Companion". Many of the basic recipes on available online.

Enjoy!

 

[ZebraAutismo]

I can make none gluten free bread okay. My gluten free bread is awful. Shame since I’ve got Coeliac disease.

 

[Lemon Zing]

I've always believed home cooking is better. They add all sorts of dodgy 'E' numbers, salt and trans fat to your big branded food.

You are basically consuming weird chemicals, and I think commercial chocolate is absolutely fake, as they add in things to mask how strong real cocoa tastes like. It's sugar, mostly, and bulking agents.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

let the yeast slowly rise on the fireplace hearth.

 

[Greatshield17]

I've looked up growing your own bread yeast, one of the things you do is "feed" it, which includes removing old yeast from the colony. I wonder, is it possible to use that old yeast to leaven some dough you're making?

 

[Magna]

Unless !you eat a whole baguette that day ,DONT make French bread ,bread machines are helpful for even shape ,but !do exactly! what it tells you, look at reviews on YouTube ,in your price range,get sunflower oil to use instead of animal fat ,try and get slow milled bread flour as heat denudes vitamins,minerals, I've had flour from doves millers in the UK ,if you can afford get organic flour (less poisons),get bran separately to customise your bread make certain the machine will actually bake the bread do a test, please photos of custom bread for a very visual learner

My wife says that she read that sunflower oil is an inflammatory. I don't know if that's true but there's a regional farm that produces unrefined sunflower oil that we're able to buy by the half gallon in the fall. I assumed it was healthy to use.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I've looked up growing your own bread yeast, one of the things you do is "feed" it, which includes removing old yeast from the colony. I wonder, is it possible to use that old yeast to leaven some dough you're making?

That's exactly what you're supposed to do. It's called a continuous batch

 

[Streetwise]

My wife says that she read that sunflower oil is an inflammatory. I don't know if that's true but there's a regional farm that produces unrefined sunflower oil that we're able to buy by the half gallon in the fall. I assumed it was healthy to use.

Its loaded with healthy fat but if you don't drink a glass full you won't get indigestion ,inflammatory is producing too much acid in the stomach never had that from sunflower oil, its animal fat that does that I won't be too descriptive but Billy Connollys account of a short time with another passenger going to Australia might explain

 

[Mary Terry]

I've looked up growing your own bread yeast, one of the things you do is "feed" it, which includes removing old yeast from the colony. I wonder, is it possible to use that old yeast to leaven some dough you're making?

I used to grow my own sourdough starter in the refrigerator but I got tired of feeding and pooping it (throwing away part of the mixture that you're not going to immediately use) every week, like having a pet that lives in the refrigerator. I might start another batch because I love making rye bread. The best rye bread uses sourdough starter to get that slightly sour taste in the bread.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

A lot of new bakers get really excited at the idea of letting the dough over rise. They think that they will get more food, and a softer loaf that way. But the reason the dough rises is because pockets of co2 are forming inside the loaf. It's just air. When you pull it out of the oven and cut the bread, you will have a giant, misshapen, hollow loaf of bread with crisp burnt crust.

It's best to let it plump up until it doubles in size, and then put it in the oven. You will end up with a soft, tender loaf of bread.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

The trick my wife noticed don't put in too much whole wheat, will not rise very well. Keep telling her Cooking is about chemistry.