Bread Thread

[Lurch 5932]

This thread went from dead to putting a dozen bread projects on my plate. Looking forward to trying these all out

 

[NoName 16416]

1 hour ago, Lurch said:

This thread went from dead to putting a dozen bread projects on my plate. Looking forward to trying these all out

 

i'm still interested in more projects!

[elfenix 34344]

11 hours ago, Sam Lin said:

Please post your cornbread and biscuit recipes also, I love those and have never hit one that I felt was amazing.

part of the problem with biscuits is that, if you're not in the south, you're probably using the wrong flour. standard AP has 9-11% protein.  bread flour is even higher at 11-13%.  white lily AP, which is the standard flour for making biscuits in the south, uses soft red winter wheat, with a protein content of 9%.  so instead use cake flour, which clocks in at 9%, or pastry, which is 8%. note that you'll want to find a recipe that either gives you the volume for white lily, or gives you the measure by weight.  the conversion that white lily suggests is that for every cup of regular AP you need a cup and 2 tablespoons (weight is the same, white lily is just less dense, i assume cake flour is also less dense).  all baking should be by weight anyway.

 

amazon fresh in houston did have white lily AP available for delivery at reasonable pricing pre-corona panic.  not sure if whole foods stocked it. 

Edited March 31, 2020 by elfenix

[Shaddie 1652]

Wife made “no knead” bread this week. No real special ingredients. Less yeast but you let it develop 24 hrs. 
 

Cook in cast iron Dutch oven. It was damn good. It looked very rustic and had very good crust with lots of air pockets. U can Google recipe. 

[NoName 16416]

11 hours ago, Shaddie said:

Wife made “no knead” bread this week. No real special ingredients. Less yeast but you let it develop 24 hrs. 
 

Cook in cast iron Dutch oven. It was damn good. It looked very rustic and had very good crust with lots of air pockets. U can Google recipe. 

This is the no knead recipe I like the most, from Kenji Lopez-Alt. It's a riff on the fairly famous NYT one that Mark Bittman put together years ago

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/06/better-no-knead-bread-recipe.html

Quote

 

The main complaint I had with the original No-Knead Dough recipe is not the technique or texture of the final product—it's the flavor. First off, it's way undersalted (which, again, Lahey admitted after the original recipe ran), presumably to keep the salt from inhibiting autolysis too much. I've made no-knead bread with up to 2% salt with no problem, so I can only chalk it up to a misprint or an error. My normal rate is 1 1/2% salt.

But worse than that is the background flavor of the bread itself.

Yeast produces different byproducts depending on the temperature it ferments at. So dough formed with a warm ferment ends up with a sour, yeasty off-flavor, as opposed to the richer, maltier aromas you get from bread fermented at cooler temperatures. As I've shown before, giving lean doughs like this a stay in the fridge for three to five days can massively increase its flavor and its performance. Same goes for the no-knead bread.

After allowing it to rise at room temperature overnight, I'll stick mine directly into the refrigerator for three days. There's another advantage built into this as well: cold dough is much easier to handle. Gluten gets stiffer as it cools, which means that refrigerated dough will be much simpler to shape into a ball or a long loaf, or whatever shape you wish to bake it in.

After shaping, cover is with a bowl or a flour-coated kitchen towel and let it rise at room temperature for a couple of hours to take the chill off it and leaven for the final time before slashing it with a sharp knife (this allows it to expand faster in the Dutch oven, and makes it look pretty), and baking.

 

 

[Steamboat1874 4090]

On 3/20/2020 at 4:12 PM, Wiler77 said:

Wife made some beer bread with a similar recipe to Steamboat's last week.

Yesterday she made a rosemary focaccia.  It does not suck.

You can add all kinds of things to that beer bread recipe.

Cheese, jalapenos, garlic butter, black olives or just about anything.

You can also experiment with different kinds of beer. I like using Shiner Bock.

The best thing about this bread is it can be ready start to finish in about 90 minutes or less.

Edited April 1, 2020 by Steamboat1874

[drt 640]

So if anyone is interested, it's day 2 of my attempt to grow a sourdough starter.  No bubbles yet, still looks like normal dough.

[drt 640]

1 hour ago, NoName said:

This is the no knead recipe I like the most, from Kenji Lopez-Alt. It's a riff on the fairly famous NYT one that Mark Bittman put together years ago

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/06/better-no-knead-bread-recipe.html

 

This is my go to as well.

[achooloco 1086]

Always wanted to make my own bread.  Does one need any special equipment more than a bread pan for baking? Thermometer? Special pan/dutch oven? Special oven?

[Lurch 5932]

You don’t need anything special, for sure. Having a stand mixer is nice, though I understand many prefer to kneed by hand.

I’ve learned that you have to appreciate the difference between dry measuring devices and liquid ones, and also that you fill dry measuring devices by spooning in product (flour) not scooping/packing them. Other than that, you likely have everything you need already other than yeast packets.

[dcbc 14545]

Picked up some flour and yeast before the rush, but not a lot of flour.  Got an instacart order from Sam's today and got a sub for 25 lbs of all purpose flour.  Had to dig out the old homebrew buckets for storage, but bread making is about to commence.

/oh, and apparently, it was 50 lbs of rice.  Crap.  Volume was 7.5 gallons.  I'm good for 10 years.

Edited April 2, 2020 by dcbc

[Brew 3049]

On 3/31/2020 at 2:13 AM, Sam Lin said:

Please post your cornbread and biscuit recipes also, I love those and have never hit one that I felt was amazing.

I’ve tried so many cornbread recipes and I always come back to the recipe on the back of the Aunt Jemima yellow corn meal package. It’s still the best no frills cornbread I’ve had. The only change I make is I  preheat a cast iron skillet for 7-8 minutes with shortening in it before pouring the batter.

[drt 640]

So I'm on Day 3 of growing a sourdough starter, and I've got bubbles as well as a nice yeasty aroma.  Hopefully the twice a day feedings can get it up and running by Sunday so I can give it a shot.  We'll see.

[Pato del Muerto 52640]

https://www.myspicesage.com/ for bulk flour delivered if you can’t find any in store shelves.  Other items as well. 

Edited April 2, 2020 by Pato del Muerto

[NoName 16416]

33 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

https://www.myspicesage.com/ for bulk flour delivered if you can’t find any in store shelves.  Other items as well. 

another local option is Barton Springs Mill: https://bartonspringsmill.com/

 

Currently offering free shipping in TX for all orders that are 5-10 lbs (refunded after sale is complete evidently) but their stuff is great...

Edited April 2, 2020 by NoName

[Lhorn 4971]

Wife made “no knead” bread this week. No real special ingredients. Less yeast but you let it develop 24 hrs. 
 
Cook in cast iron Dutch oven. It was damn good. It looked very rustic and had very good crust with lots of air pockets. U can Google recipe. 

That’s my plan for tomorrow. A rustic, crusty, full of holes type bread.
That serious eats recipe (below the above post) looks good but it’s damn near a week before you eat. I ain’t got that kind of patience

[Lurch 5932]

Boom motherfuckers!



NAILED that shit

[Post Oak 20304]

I'm missing like crazy HeB bakery flour tortillas.

Made these today.  They turned out great once I got the hang of it.  Wish I had a tortilla press.

Will make again

https://ofbatteranddough.com/homemade-tortillas/

 

[austingirl 2192]

On 4/1/2020 at 9:31 AM, drt said:

So if anyone is interested, it's day 2 of my attempt to grow a sourdough starter.  No bubbles yet, still looks like normal dough.

It can take up to 3-4 weeks to get one going from scratch, so don't worry if it feels like it's not doing anything. What flour did you use to get it started? Whole wheat?

On 4/1/2020 at 10:53 AM, achooloco said:

Always wanted to make my own bread.  Does one need any special equipment more than a bread pan for baking? Thermometer? Special pan/dutch oven? Special oven?

I almost exclusively make soudough, and a few things that are nice to have (but not completely necessary are) a stand mixer, pizza stone, Silpain, and banettons.

[austingirl 2192]

I made cinnamon rolls last night and need help.

 

After slicing the dozen rolls, I put 6 in the freezer and 6 in the refrigerator. The next step in the recipe was to let the rolls rise again (the yeast ball was allowed to rise earlier before being rolled out), and it said this was the right time to freeze/refrigerate if you wanted to pause and rise/cook/eat these later.

 

This morning I took the refrigerated rolls out, left them in the cold pan they were stored on, and set them on he counter, still covered with saran wrap. I then went back to sleep for 90 mins. When I came back, they were a funky shape, like a mountain whose top had blown off. Ie, the bottoms had spread out yet the tops were pretty much the same size as when I pulled them out.

 

I decided to soldier on and put them on a fresh pan while reshaping them, and put them in an oven (uncovered) that I had warmed to 100* then turned off, so they could rise. 30 mins later they had risen considerably but returned to that funky shape and begun falling apart. At this point I declared them failed, but cooked them anyway just to see if anything was salvageable. The interior wasnt horribad, but yeah total disaster.

 

I have the frozen 6 which I just pulled from freezer and put in refrigerator. I plan on trying again tomorrow. Anything I should do differently tomorrow morning, other than just planning to go get donuts?

 

 

It's hard to say what could've happened without the recipe or pics - can you post them?

 

I made some last week and added some sourdough starter leftover from a refresh. It adds such a great flavor. Here they are after the bulk fermentation and before an overnight rise in the fridge.

 

 

Finished

[austingirl 2192]

On 3/14/2020 at 9:30 PM, Lurch said:

Maybe this can just be a thread for my bread disasters. These were supposed to be hamburger buns. Way too big, yet not tall enough. Next time I’ll just squeeze all 8 into the big pan.

Also, tasted like shit.

What recipe did you use? What kind of flour and yeast? Also, how big were the dough balls when you made them before rising? Did you use a steam pan when you put them in the oven? I'm guessing you did a bulk ferment first (letting all the dough rise in one big lump) before shaping them into balls for the next rise? It's pretty common to make the dough balls too big at this point - for burger buns, they should be slightly bigger than a golf ball. Also, for the best results you'll want to shape them into mini boules before rising, as opposed to just rolling them into balls. They'll rise better. It's not hard - this is a good tutorial. I usually use the envelope fold method. Finally, consider scoring them just before putting them in the oven - it'll help the rise by giving the bread a predetermined weak point at which to break when it does its oven spring.

[HenryJames 66193]

2 hours ago, austingirl said:

or pics - can you post them?

Pandemic Surly still has rules. 

[drt 640]

21 hours ago, austingirl said:

It can take up to 3-4 weeks to get one going from scratch, so don't worry if it feels like it's not doing anything. What flour did you use to get it started? Whole wheat?

I almost exclusively make soudough, and a few things that are nice to have (but not completely necessary are) a stand mixer, pizza stone, Silpain, and banettons.

Ya I’m using whole wheat, I read that it has more flora so you have Less difficulty getting it going.  

After the feeding this morning it’s roughly doubled in size by noon, so i feel like I’m on the right track. Something that is confusing is it had way more acidic flavor on ~day3 than today. 

Also, anyone use a dough scraper? And how useful is a banetton? I feel like the last thing I need is something else to take up space in the kitchen cabinets but I usually have issues transferring from the bowl or whatever I use for proofing to the Dutch oven. 

[austingirl 2192]

2 hours ago, drt said:

Ya I’m using whole wheat, I read that it has more flora so you have Less difficulty getting it going.  

After the feeding this morning it’s roughly doubled in size by noon, so i feel like I’m on the right track. Something that is confusing is it had way more acidic flavor on ~day3 than today. 

Also, anyone use a dough scraper? And how useful is a banetton? I feel like the last thing I need is something else to take up space in the kitchen cabinets but I usually have issues transferring from the bowl or whatever I use for proofing to the Dutch oven. 

On day 3 you were probably tasting the bacteria that forms in the early stages of starter creation, and that early bacteria should be overtaken by the yeast and long-term bacteria at the point you're at. At this point, you've probably got a good growth of yeast, but the good bacteria takes longer to settle in, and that's what gives you the traditional sour taste. I go more by sight and smell to tell when it's ready to leaven bread on its own - if you're using a 1-1 ratio of flour to water, the mixture will be loose, like batter, with a bunch of bubbles, and it'll smell almost like beer.

I've never used a dough scraper, and while I do like my banettons, they're by no means necessary. They give a nice design on the crust, and it's nice to have dedicated proofing bowls if you bake a lot, but regular mixing bowls definitely work as long as they're the right size. What kind of issues are you having transferring to the oven? 

Edited April 5, 2020 by austingirl

[hopkinsnhorns 533]

Honey oatmeal bread (see recipe I posted earlier). The apartment smells AMAZING!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lurch 5932]

Art

[Deej 76983]

Judging by the lack of yeast and flour available, most people's gluten allergies were complete bullshit 

[Shaddie 1652]

Wife’s no knead bread.


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[Deej 76983]

Jalapeno cheddar beer bread.

[hopkinsnhorns 533]

Finally cooled enough to cut it. Here’s the money shot.

[austingirl 2192]

57 minutes ago, hopkinsnhorns said:

Finally cooled enough to cut it. Here’s the money shot.

Looks great! I think tomorrow I'm going to make a soft white sandwich bread with instant yeast and AP flour - the kids like it, and I've run out of bread flour and haven't been able to find anything, so straight sourdough is mostly out of the question. I did travel to the Pflugerville ALDI last week to find AP flour and it was the only flour I was able to get my hands on, so I'll make do.

[drt 640]

On 4/5/2020 at 3:24 PM, austingirl said:

On day 3 you were probably tasting the bacteria that forms in the early stages of starter creation, and that early bacteria should be overtaken by the yeast and long-term bacteria at the point you're at. At this point, you've probably got a good growth of yeast, but the good bacteria takes longer to settle in, and that's what gives you the traditional sour taste. I go more by sight and smell to tell when it's ready to leaven bread on its own - if you're using a 1-1 ratio of flour to water, the mixture will be loose, like batter, with a bunch of bubbles, and it'll smell almost like beer.

I've never used a dough scraper, and while I do like my banettons, they're by no means necessary. They give a nice design on the crust, and it's nice to have dedicated proofing bowls if you bake a lot, but regular mixing bowls definitely work as long as they're the right size. What kind of issues are you having transferring to the oven? 

I always have issue with the dough sticking to the shaping vessel before the transfer to the dutch oven.  I've tried flouring a kitchen towel, coating the bowl, coating the shaped dough itself...about the best success I've had is parchment paper in the bowl, then flour, then the dough, and lifting the whole thing out and straight into the dutch oven.

[austingirl 2192]

10 hours ago, drt said:

I always have issue with the dough sticking to the shaping vessel before the transfer to the dutch oven.  I've tried flouring a kitchen towel, coating the bowl, coating the shaped dough itself...about the best success I've had is parchment paper in the bowl, then flour, then the dough, and lifting the whole thing out and straight into the dutch oven.

So when it sticks, is the dough tearing? If you're making something with a really wet dough, like a no-knead bread, you should do the final proof in the cooking vessel itself so that you're not messing with it after the last rise. Actually, most of the time, you should be able to do the final rise in the cooking vessel to avoid transfer problems. For sandwich loaves you'll do the final proof in the loaf pan and then pop it straight in the oven. For other shapes, like boules, batards, etc., you should do the final proof on a baking sheet lined with silpat or parchment and then put that in the oven. 

[drt 640]

Thanks, will give that a shot.  Everyone seems to recommend preheating the vessel.  I did watch 

this vid last night and gave a few of his tips a try.  We'll see how it turns out

[Brew 3049]

Finally found some yeast at the grocery store today. Have a batch of bagels proofing now. Teenagers have been wanting to try some. Homemade cinnamon rolls are next on their list.

[thrillhammer 684]

On 4/5/2020 at 6:22 PM, hopkinsnhorns said:

Honey oatmeal bread (see recipe I posted earlier). The apartment smells AMAZING!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

you're livin right dude.  nice work.

[ChickenSandwich 9856]

On 3/30/2020 at 1:52 PM, thrillhammer said:

my family is from georgia.  i can make cornbread and biscuits like a motherfucker but real bread - sandwich bread, hamburger buns, baguettes?  forget about it.  i had a bread machine for years but never liked any of the bread that came out of it.  the center was nice but the outer crust too hard and dry and overcooked.  

bought a loaf of bread from texas french bread and the lakeline farmers market a couple of weeks ago and it was terrible.  small, thinly-sliced, dry as fuck.  i like multigrain bread from heb or earthgrains or oroweat, and will stick to that from now on.

Add melted butter to dough when rising and before baking 

[Pato del Muerto 52640]

I’d like to share this blog post with free recipe and link to the book. 
 

https://steinerbooks.org/blog/2020/4/8/baking-bread-with-children-quick-bread-loaves

The book isn’t available as an ebook, but I asked them to put their pdf up for sale as a download so that should be available soon.   It’s cheap so don’t share it without at least making a donation to steinerbooks (it is a 503). Note the wheat bread post link at the bottom. 
 

there’s also a book of soups if that interests anyone. 

[Pato del Muerto 52640]

PDF is up for breads and soups

https://steinerbooks.org/ebooks/waldorf-book-of-breads

https://steinerbooks.org/ebooks/the-waldorf-book-of-soups

[Deej 76983]

Have several gallons of mead. Going to try making beer bread with it instead of beer.

[Pato del Muerto 52640]

For those that don’t check the wives thread, I now have 300lb of flour and 100lb of sugar.  
 

I’m light on dairy, but that’s supposed to be getting solved next week with weekly delivery from a local farm. 
 

play time I guess. 

[hopkinsnhorns 533]

First sourdough in quite some time.

[Hank_Hill 18905]

How much buffalo trace per loaf?

[hopkinsnhorns 533]

Nice crumb. Great chew.

[hopkinsnhorns 533]

How much buffalo trace per loaf?

3 fingers

[Lurch 5932]

Maybe this can just be a thread for my bread disasters. These were supposed to be hamburger buns. Way too big, yet not tall enough. Next time I’ll just squeeze all 8 into the big pan.

Also, tasted like shit.

Chef Lurch. Where is he now?

[futureman 22559]

never made bread in my life but @Lurch inspired me.  quickly read a few recipes online and totally winged it.  couple cups self-rising flour, quarter cup butter, quarter cup sugar, and about half (2/3) of a guinness extra stout.  roll it into a ball and throw it in a bread pan and cook at 350 until it looks right.  whole process from mind inception to eating warm bread was a little over an hour.  nothing fancy but tastes pretty good actually. 
 

[Lurch 5932]

never made bread in my life but [mention=241]Lurch[/mention] inspired me.  quickly read a few recipes online and totally winged it.  couple cups self-rising flour, quarter cup butter, quarter cup sugar, and about half (2/3) of a guinness extra stout.  roll it into a ball and throw it in a bread pan and cook at 350 until it looks right.  whole process from mind inception to eating warm bread was a little over an hour.  nothing fancy but tastes pretty good actually. 
 

You’d never made bread in your life and you were inspired by a guy that didn’t know self rising flour existed until your post.

Good times

[Deej 76983]

Ordered online and did curbside pickup from Easy Tiger today. 10 lbs of flour, yeast, and sourdough starter.

 

[Pato del Muerto 52640]

I tried hamburger buns yesterday, but same as my bread loaves they didn’t rise much or make air pockets, so the end result was more dense than it should be. They ate like biscuits, so it was an ok accident but I need to figure out what’s going on. Yeast is new and activated in warm water, salt added last. Maybe these online recipes need to be adjusted for altitude?  I don’t have bread flour, only all purpose. Kneading deficiency?