Bread

[Stormy]

I really enjoy cooking + baking (esp cakey sweet stuff) but have never cooked bread before. Being on a 3 week brake from work and being a bit bored decided to look into it and give it ago!

Having now spent a bit of time reading into it and giving it a go I've realized how interesting the hole process is. Not only the process of fermenting the dough with yeast but also the tons of different combination of ingredients from grains, flours, sugars and milks to nuts, seeds, olives and fruits.

Here are a few pics of french sticks that just came out of the oven, they took about 4 hours all in all with the mixing of ingredients, kneading, fermenting and proving! And they taste a hella lot better then the stuff in the shops esp dipping in some carrot + coriander soup!

Anyone else make home made breads? What kind of stuff do you do?

 

[Azner]

Looks damn delicious.

 

[McGooTheWise]

Banana bread is the shit. My mom, grandma, step mom, aunt, and great grandma make it... Each with their own different taste... Each to die for.

My grandma also makes pumpkin bread. Tastes like pumpkin pie. I love it so. Good dipped in syrup.

 

[Lucid]

My dad tried making rye bread before, it was hard as a rock but went well with soup.
He used a big cast iron pot to cook it in.

 

[ríomhaire]

My mother makes soda bread. It's quite lovely. Taking it up myself could be a good way to keep me fed on the cheap. Not sure what sort of bread I'd prefer to make though.

 

[PJ]

My family invested in a bread machine, and elected me to be the baker. I used to do it loads, less now. Generally I make white/granary 50/50 loaves, but sometimes awesome fruit loaves (with egg and cinnamon n' shit ) Machine makes pizza dough too. ****ing ace with Dolmio as the sauce.

 

[Ennui]

That looks delicious.

I've always kind of wanted to get into making bread, but it's so work intensive and I don't have very many pans/dishes and things to my name One of my roommates has been looking into making bread, she has this book about it, but I don't think she's done anything yet.

I was looking through the book, looks like a complex process. I wanna make some peasant bread

 

[No Limit]

That looks awesome.

I'm really big on bread, always been. I don't bake it but I always shop for fancy bakery bread, can't stand the sliced packaged crap they sell. When I had roomates everybody was always shocked when they went from the crap they ate to the stuff I had around.

 

[Stormy]

That looks delicious.

I've always kind of wanted to get into making bread, but it's so work intensive and I don't have very many pans/dishes and things to my name One of my roommates has been looking into making bread, she has this book about it, but I don't think she's done anything yet.

I was looking through the book, looks like a complex process. I wanna make some peasant bread

I thought this at first, but its really not quite as intensive as it looks, it just takes a long time as you can be waiting hours for the dough to be ready. Some breads use starts as well as or rather then yeast which take a long time to prep, around 12 hours or longer. But you basically just throw some flour and water in the airing cupboard and feed it a few times with more flour so its not quite as intensive as it sounds.

The best thing to do I guess would be prep stuff the evening before or first thing in the morning or at lunch times if you can get home from work, then bake later in the evening!

It seems the basics are:
- Mix ingredients
- Knead
- Let rise (this takes the longest)
- shape/mould
- Prove
- Final tweaks (slits in the bread etc)
- Rest
- Bake
-Nom nom!

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Store bought.

 

[No Limit]

Do you have a recipe? I'm kind of wanting to try this now assuming I don't need a bread machine.

 

[Stormy]

Four Loaf Batch
300g white bread flour
600ml tepid water
15g fresh yeast
2 teaspoons salt
600g white plane flower

I only did 2 loaves so half all the ingredients. You can use dried yeast, if you do use dried yeast use half the weight, so use 7.5g dried instead of 15g fresh. Also mix the dried yeast into the water to help it desolve.

I did things a little different tho, I mixed all ingredients in one go and missed out the first 4 hour raise time! Just went straight to the 2 hours. I guess doing it twice gets more air into the dough and makes an overall lighter crumb at the end.

Spoiler

 

[Shem]

Looks very appetizing.

 

[CyberPitz]

For some reason, I remember someone posting a bunch of bread pictures on Facebook...was this you?!

 

[Ravioli]

My dad makes a lot of home made food, such as bread, pasta, olive oil, alcohol, wine etc.

Its really true that home made tastes way better, plus new baked bread is ****ing orgasmic.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Fresh hot bread is definitely superior.

 

[Shem]

The store that I go to sells French bread straight from the oven. The first time I tried it, my eyes widened, my legs shook, the hair on my arms stood up fiercely, my mind awakened, my feet tapped, and I straightened up. The bread tasted so perfect, I nearly collapsed. I can't even imagine trying to imitate that flavor.

Bread for the win.

 

[dfc05]

Your bread looks good.

I attempted sourdough for a few weeks. Strangely it would smell right (my whole apartment smelled like sourdough), but after baking it didn't taste particularly sour at all. Still have the starter dormant in my fridge but haven't had the time or motivation to try again.

I was actually wondering if I put too much flour in since the dough was really goopy with the amount of flours specified in the recipes, so I kept adding more flour. I guess French bread is different than sourdough, but when you knead, does the dough start off really goopy and then get less goopy as you knead? Or do you start off with something that doesn't stick a whole lot?


My dream is to make Russian Black Bread, but it calls for so many expensive ingredients that I should probably hold off until I actually get good at bread-making.

 

[Stormy]

Sounds like you might have put to much flour into the mix, a lot of doughs should be quite loose so you just need to dust your surfaces well when working it, its also good to have a long stright edge knife just to help scrap it up off the surface too if your having problems! I believe it becomes less goopy tho as you knead and the molecules start forming chains. You should also notice it becomes more elasticated too.

Been making some scottish baps today and like yours the dough is really quite sticky and goopy but really didnt need to handle them to much and it worked out fine on a well floured surface

**Edit**

Just got these bad boys out of the oven

 

[DEATHMASTER]

What do you eat those with? Also your new subtitle should be Breadmaster.

 

[Stormy]

Haha, As long as I get some kind of uber bread super suite thats fine!

Not really sure what to eat them with yet, GF is home form a weeks holiday so she can have some for her sarnies tomorrow as I'm sure she wont have any food in her house.

Other then that I guess just going to use them to dip in soup or sarnies tomorrow as well. Just had one wile it was still warm and daaamn it was tasty. The next bread on the list now is an Italian Olive loaf for saturday, need to make an Italian biga for it which takes up to 24 hours :S

 

[DEATHMASTER]

I bet those would be awesome with good stuffing.

 

[Eejit]

Soda farls.


Wheaten bread.


'nuff said.

 

[Stormy]

Just got a new book -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bread-River-Cottage-Handbook-No/dp/074759533X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Its fantastic, not only does it tell you the techniques and ingredients but it gives you all the information.. the kind of... science behind what they do. The first 60 pages or so is all the know how then there are tons of recipes from basics to crumpets + pizza. Then even a chapter at the end about how to make your very own clay bread oven! (Totaly wants to do this)

I've followed his basic bread recipe but added some olive oil, olives and thyme and have just put him in a warm place for the first rise! Should be interesting, will post some pictures later

 

[Polaris]

I would love to know how to make a bread that I had in Switzerland...

 

[Stormy]

Find out what it is, it wont be hard to find the recipe

 

[Stormy]

Quick picture, best one so far by miles.. really nice crunchy crust and soft inside. Just polished off a whole loaf! Drizzled some balsamic vinegar and olive oil on it and chowed it down with some good salami, mozzarella and tomato

Really starting to enjoy this baking business, its a really good feeling when you get that loaf out of the oven, the hole kitchen smelling of fresh bread, and seeing that wee loaf you have been working on for hours has risen and is golden brown and crunchy!

 

[Bad^Hat]

Careful, you wanna take that shit in moderation.

http://www.noob.us/humor/conan-obrien-and-the-bread-professor/

 

[DEATHMASTER]

I never watched Conan, pretty funny clip.