The bread thread

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by john70t

That's the missing step. And the wrong flour. And not proofing the yeast before. ..
The braintrust here is strong.

I didn't do a good job of describing how to work the bread. How you work it is as important as the recipe. This video is about a different kind of bread, but the process of folding and stretching the surface ( at about 10 minutes in - the rest is BS) is how you want to handle it.



In my earlier post I made a typo about the amount of water I use. I said 350 grams. It's 375. That little bit of water makes a big difference.



Here are some loaves I made this afternoon, a crusty loaf and a boule. I have a long, narrow ceramic pan to make the crusty loaf in. I LIBERALLY coat it with olive oil, and put the dough in it for the last rise. It has a wonderful crusty yet oily surface - just a great texture. I'm thinking of putting some rosemary and oregano in the oil. It would go great with Chianti or any spaghetti wine.

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by cabmando

What's the "LEM" stuffer. I get the KA (kitchenaid grinder). Does the KA meat grinder work well? We have the mixer and I've always wondered how the meat grinder attachment works.




Yep! I made pizza last week and had to do some reading on the different flours and which one works best for the type of crust you desire. Same for bread making.

Ours is an old KA mixer from the heavy duty days (35-40 years ago), but the grinder only works OK if you trim all the meat properly first.

[Ziggythecat]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

That little bit of water makes a big difference.
.

I like how you “roll”

[john70t]

Originally Posted by Ziggythecat

Google Jim Leahy no knead bread.
Just flour, yeast, salt and water

Nicely done, zig et all,

Yeah that is what I was going for.
The 'glutens' are supposed to be made 'safe' but it's also something that makes it stick together.
A balance of opposites. Like in life.

[TimT]

Google Jim Leahy no knead bread

^
This, there is a video of him demonstrating to Marc Bitman (NYT) this technique...

I bake bread every week or so, and can't remember the last time I broke out my mixer..

I use a Dutch oven,and heat for a good while at 500-550F, dump in the ball of dough, and bake for 15-20 mins covered, remove cover and bake until nicely browned....

[Pazuzu]

DON'T MEASURE ANYTHING.

WEIGH ingredients.
Flour absorbs water, and a "cup" of flour is an unstable measurement of the actual amount of caloric food available for the yeast, and gluten protein for the dough.

Weigh flour, weight water, weight yeast, weigh salt.

Also, use the web as a lookup stable, various flours have various densities and absorb various amounts of water, you can use the tables to convert a accurately if you want to use different flours, for example

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Weigh flour, weight water, weight yeast, weigh salt.

I do weigh water and flour. Yeast I’ve used for a 500 gram loaf has varied between a teaspoon and 1 1/2 teaspoon with no discernible difference. I don’t measure the salt anymore, I toss in what looks like a teaspoon worth.

[Skytrooper]

Made a dozen bagels last week. Mmm

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Ziggythecat

Google Jim Leahy no knead bread.
Just flour, yeast, salt and water
His technique does it with a long overnight ferment, with the sugars in the flour as the food source for the yeast, with a high hydration

Done right, it gives a bubbly open airy crumb
Happy baking

Interesting, 2 different methods from the same guy. I am not making my own bread (yet), but I do get sourdough from a local baker.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I do weigh water and flour. Yeast I’ve used for a 500 gram loaf has varied between a teaspoon and 1 1/2 teaspoon with no discernible difference. I don’t measure the salt anymore, I toss in what looks like a teaspoon worth.

Yeast and salt is far less important, but it's still good practice. Eventually, you'll get to your local wild yeasts (which do contribute) and the preferred salt level, and you can then go to the "by eye" measurements.

Another thing that new bakers don't know is that yeast changes, grown, dies, mutates, gets sick, etc. You can make 3 "identical" loaves of bread on 3 weekends, and they'll be different because the yeast changes.
That's why sourdough bakers have a mother that lives for years (or decades...), and a good bakery works very hard to keep that mother safe, clean, pure and healthy.

Flip side is to wild inoculate your bread with local yeast in the air, and see what crazy stuff happens!

We one started a mother and made a few loaves using the still living yeast in the bottom of a bottle of Jester King beer, which is a brewery that makes wild sour beers (based on the wild yeast all around), and leaves some in the bottle to bottle condition the beer. That yeast is still alive, and interesting enough that the bread shared some flavors with the beer.

[fanaudical]

My trailer-trash bread recipe (been making it for years):

1 cup water
1 dollop honey
7 shake of salt
1 sploosh of olive oil
4 loose cups flour
big spot of yeast

Put in bread machine on "dough cycle".

Wait until done, drop in loaf pan, put in real oven at 375F for 30 minutes.

I'm going to have to try some of the recipes above.

[Danimal16]

Two for me and one each for the neighbors. Got 20 pounds of King Arthur, so I am hoping they will resupply. This is a 25% whole grain, using fresh milled hard winter read wheat. It is really good.

Next week, German Rye, with fresh milled sprouted rye and molasses!

[john70t]

(Just realized there were other bread threads.upps)

This time around I added a cup of milled chia seed and flax to three cups flour. Also a cup of crushed mixed nuts (cashews, almonds,pecans, peanuts).
More proofed yeast. Olive oil and rosemary on top. Buttered top after the oven.
Baked on the pizza stone @ 450deg.
Not enough rise because I worked it after rising, popping the bubbles and making a mess. Still getting the hang of it.

It created a much heartier loaf than just all purpose white flour.
Homemade bread is so good even when it's bad.

[unclebilly]

Tonight’s beer bread... it takes 45 minutes in the over at 375 and about 10 minutes for prep and cleanup.

[brshap]

Been working on my open crumb sourdough.