Homemade Bread Thread

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Came out very nice.

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HaldogAsheim said:
Im a newbie here :) I wanted to learn how to make bread. Do you know any easy to cook bread?
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Welcome! Bread is not hard to make, it may be time consuming depending on the method, but not hard. In the summer I like the so called "no knead" method. There's a fellow on YouTube with many videos of the different possibilities for this dough. The usual method requires kneading the dough letting it rise or rest etc. by doing that you will get a "feel" for when the dough is ready. This link will get you started, as I said he has many vids on the channel http://youtu.be/_1CKVcXe06A
I hope that helps to get you baking.
 
HaldogAsheim said:
Im a newbie here :) I wanted to learn how to make bread. Do you know any easy to cook bread?
Click to expand...

This is the recipe I use for 2 two pound loaves of bread. I needed a good bread for morning toast. Slightly tweaked version of Julia Child's white bread recipe.

Frank's White Bread, Two 2 pound loaves Stand Mixer for kneading
All ingredients at room temperature
25 Ounces tap water
38 Ounces bread flour
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs canning/pickling salt
1/4 Cup dry milk powder
14 Grams instant yeast
4 Tbs softened butter
Blend all dry ingredients in mixing bowl with whisk.
Mix dry ingredients and water at low speed in mixer bowl. Hydrate for 5 minutes.
Knead for 3 to 5 minutes on speed 2 until the dough is smooth.
Slowly drizzle in butter. The dough will come apart. A little flour can be added after a minute to help pull the dough back if necessary.
Total kneading time 8 to 9 minutes.
Turn dough out on lightly oiled surface and shape it into a ball then place back in oiled mixing bowl.
Turn dough so it is completely coated in the oil, cover in oiled plastic for 45 minutes to an hour, at room temperature, till it has doubled in size.
Deflate the dough and turn out onto a lightly oiled surface. Cut into two 32 ounce loaves.
Shape loaves, deflate bubbles that appear.
Drop in oiled loaf pans.
Cover the loaves with oiled plastic wrap and allow to rise at room temperature, about 35 to 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375°F with the rack in the center of the oven.
Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, 205° to 206°F internal temperature.

I should add you will learn a lot from some internet searches for making just plain old uninteresting white bread.
 
HaldogAsheim said:
Im a newbie here :) I wanted to learn how to make bread. Do you know any easy to cook bread?
Click to expand...

Hey, so, if youre here making beer, and you can pitch yeast, you can make bread. It's just flour, water, salt, and yeast. It can be as easy or complex as you want it to be, just like beer making.

A good website it www.thefreshloaf.com. Peter Reinhart also has a lot of books that are aimed at people wanting to learn to make bread, they have a variety of bread styles you can make, and are basically bread cookbooks. Josey Baker's Bread is another good bread book, you might check if your local library has any of those books.

I got into making bread years ago and ultimately it can come down to experience, but in my eyes as long as you have dough that is rising, youve got bread. In that broad spectrum, you have various styles and stops that each have different properties, but if your dough is rising (at a reasonable or expected rate), it's hard to really ruin bread. Im kind of reckless when it comes to this stuff though, haha.

Oh but of course you cant use beer yeast for bread yeast or vice versa. Just in case you thought 'yeast is yeast'.
 
Cool, glad this thread popped up. I started learning how to make bread recently as a tangent to brewing...another fermented food. Captured my own sour dough culture. Like the idea of a local culture (local is Volcan, Panama for me). Very distinctly sour. Have a crappy oven in the house we are renting temporarily so it's been a challenge. Adapted the BBQ to baking bread (that's why the loaves in the pic are unevenly browned). But, the results are tasty (local fresh rosemary + sourdough, nice combination).

View attachment 1469741348426.jpg
 
jamaral141989 said:
I adapted Floyd's sweet potato recipe http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4862/sweet-potato-rolls . I just used a sour dough starter, decreased the yeast in the recipe to half and used a little less flower since I made a sponge prior. I'm not sure how much flour I used in total as I just kept mixing it until it got to the right feel.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you bake like me, baking is an exact science and all that BS.
My only issue is repeatability not that I really care:D
 
I've tried three times now and my bread doesn't cook all the way through. Any tips? I get a nice crunchy crust, but it is basically raw in the middle.
 
CA_Mouse said:
I've tried three times now and my bread doesn't cook all the way through. Any tips? I get a nice crunchy crust, but it is basically raw in the middle.
Click to expand...

I preheat to the max temperature the oven allows and let it go for at least a half hours before baking then turn down to baking temp as the dough goes in.
I have a pan in the bottom of the oven and I'll add 1/2 to a cup of hot water, depending on loaf size,as the dough goes in also, cover your hand, the steam is very hot, this will help to prevent the crust setting up too soon increasing the oven spring.
Finally I bake to an internal temp of 200F.
 
I'm not an expert Baker, but when I hear crunchy outside and not cooked inside, I automatically think that the temperature in the oven is too hot. Have you verified that your oven control is accurate? If not, buy an oven thermometer to check it. I would think it would be that or simply need to extend the cooking time. Maybe your loaf is somehow bigger than the recipe specifies? This may sound silly, but it happens: might the recipe say somewhere something like "makes two loaves"? Sometimes the simplest things are the answer.
 
ChefRex said:
....
Finally I bake to an internal temp of 200F.
Click to expand...

Ive taken to using my wireless BBQ thermo for bread. Same advantages as using with BBQ: don't have to open the oven and lose heat, accurate, and I can sit on my ass 100' away and have beer! :cool:
 
mattmmille said:
I'm not an expert Baker, but when I hear crunchy outside and not cooked inside, I automatically think that the temperature in the oven is too hot. Have you verified that your oven control is accurate? If not, buy an oven thermometer to check it. I would think it would be that or simply need to extend the cooking time. Maybe your loaf is somehow bigger than the recipe specifies? This may sound silly, but it happens: might the recipe say somewhere something like "makes two loaves"? Sometimes the simplest things are the answer.
Click to expand...

Thermometer has the oven as accurate within 2*F (Stove is less than 24 months old). So it isn't a heat issue. Recipe size is for a single loaf. Thank you though!
 
ChefRex said:
I preheat to the max temperature the oven allows and let it go for at least a half hours before baking then turn down to baking temp as the dough goes in.
I have a pan in the bottom of the oven and I'll add 1/2 to a cup of hot water, depending on loaf size,as the dough goes in also, cover your hand, the steam is very hot, this will help to prevent the crust setting up too soon increasing the oven spring.
Finally I bake to an internal temp of 200F.
Click to expand...

I'll try the water idea and see how well that does. The failures have smelled and tasted great, just not getting cooked at the core. So my recipe and product is good, its just the cooking I'm struggling with. Thank you for the tip!
 
Starting to get my sour dough recipe down...and adapting to a crappy oven. Today's attempt was pretty good.

Made a quick beer (stout) bread yesteday that was quite good. Added some baking powder so it rose more and was not so cake like.

View attachment 1470608781159.jpg
 
CA_Mouse said:
I've tried three times now and my bread doesn't cook all the way through. Any tips? I get a nice crunchy crust, but it is basically raw in the middle.
Click to expand...


You say the crust is crunchy, but is it bordering on burned? Is the bottom ok - not burned?

Water will help keep the crust from getting crunchy too early.

Cover it with foil near the end to keep it from burning.

And like ChefRex said, cook to 200 degrees. Sometimes 5 more minutes is the difference between a doughy center and perfection. 200-205 is ideal for most breads.
 
I just made a lovely brown loaf using some carafa special 3 and brown malt with my bread flour. Does anyone else use left over malted grain? Crushing the grain into flour (I used my pestle and mortar) took a bit of time, but was well worth it!
 
RustyHorn said:
I just made a lovely brown loaf using some carafa special 3 and brown malt with my bread flour. Does anyone else use left over malted grain? Crushing the grain into flour (I used my pestle and mortar) took a bit of time, but was well worth it!
Click to expand...

I mix crushed grains in when I'm kneading. Adds some texture and some flavors. Never tried making flour from the grain!
 
ericbw said:
I mix crushed grains in when I'm kneading. Adds some texture and some flavors. Never tried making flour from the grain!
Click to expand...

I might try that, too.
Grinding takes a bit of time, but you only have to do a small amount if using dark grain.
 
Why is this thread so quiet lately?

I've drastically reduced my carbs/bread, and it's been very healthy for me. But I miss baking - which I was doing a couple times a week.

So this week I made pumpkin challah with pepitas on top. I split the batch into 4 small loaves and gave 2 away. Less temptation that way!

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1475953343.611139.jpg
 
ericbw said:
Why is this thread so quiet lately?

I've drastically reduced my carbs/bread, and it's been very healthy for me. But I miss baking - which I was doing a couple times a week.

So this week I made pumpkin challah with pepitas on top. I split the batch into 4 small loaves and gave 2 away. Less temptation that way!

View attachment 372931
Click to expand...

It looks delicious.
 
ericbw said:
Why is this thread so quiet lately?

I've drastically reduced my carbs/bread, and it's been very healthy for me. But I miss baking - which I was doing a couple times a week.

So this week I made pumpkin challah with pepitas on top. I split the batch into 4 small loaves and gave 2 away. Less temptation that way!

View attachment 372931
Click to expand...

That looks great, my baking season is beginning, time to wake up the sourdough;)
 
I woke up my sourdough yesterday, too! Going to keep feeding it daily till the middle of next week then bake.
 

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