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Calling all bread bakers

gln1955

gln1955

Supporting Member
Aug 25, 2014
12,876
61,851
70
Ohio, USA
#1
I've always like cooking and find it relaxing and personally rewarding, but I've never had the time to do as much as I'd like. Since my semi-retirement in 2020, I have a lot of free time during the late fall and winter months. I have taken over most cooking duties at our house and greatly expanded my repertoire . In 2021 I went on a sausage making spree, as well as increased my grilling and smoking, and enjoyed that immensely.

My current passion is bread. I've always had a love affair with bread in all of its forms, but have never made my own. My wife is the baker of the house and although she makes wonderful desserts of all kinds, she is not interested in baking bread. So... a couple weeks ago I took the plunge and make my first loaves of a simple rustic white bread. It surprisingly turned out better than I had hoped and I've since made more of that and yesterday a couple loaves of Italian.

So much fun and I'm just held back by how much bread the three people in the house can consume.

Any other bakers in the TB house? Not even just bread, but any doughy thing from the oven.
 
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#2
Mrs. Winslow has made all the bread for this household for a number of years now. She makes a basically-white version for me, and a wheat blend for herself that we have for sandwiches etc., plus occasional dough for pizza and breadsticks. :drool:

I've tried my hand now and then at one-off things like apple bread and other confections, but I'm more of a dessert junkie, so I don't indulge that too often. (In certain circles, I'm known for a brownie habit.) :whistle:

Either way, the freshness of home-made baked goods whips the blehjheezuss out of anything store-bought. :thumbsup:
 
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#6
Been making bread in a Dutch Oven for the last couple of years. Tried the bread machine and am not a fan of what comes out of it.

Currently consumed with pizza dough and been thinking about baguettes lately also.

Like many I needed something to do during the plandemic and took up cooking and baking.
 
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#7
My BIL is the baker (retired) in the family. :)

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#8
I've been baking breads for about 6 years now and it's become a wonderful hobby. If you need some good resources to get started, check out America's Test Kitchen's Bread Illustrated. It goes into great detail as to why each recipe works, why you do thing 1 for application A and thing2 for application B, and other problem solving tips if things don't work quite right. Plus their recipes have proven to be rock solid.
 
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#9
I've been doing it for ...a number of decades, larger than 3. I highly recommend getting a new galvanized steel trash can and then finding a local source to order 50 lb bags of flour (which you store, still in the bag, in the can, because - rodents, bugs, not encouraging same) as the price, once the source is found will be much better than grocery stores or mail order. Alternatively, a big popcorn can you save from trash or recycling in this season will hold about 20 pounds each, so a number of those will do the same job in a smaller format (flour out of the bag, can well sanitized before filling with flour.)

I'm casual and prone to experiment. I got more than 20 years without even hearing of "bakers percentage" and I have yet to fuss about hydration % and yet it comes out bread every time. Some times it's not great bread, so we don't repeat those experiments. But if you're not turning out hundreds of loaves just the same all the time (and that thought keeps me from thinking too hard about opening a bakery) yeast bread, unlike cookies and quick breads/muffins is really quite forgiving of playing fast and loose with the ingredients if you have a sense of what the dough should look/feel/act like.

Also - sourdough can go in a regular old bread pan, making slices that toast and sandwich better than the big boules that somehow are considered to be the default shape of sourdough now.

If you make a pretty stiff dough, form it into balls, poke holes in the balls, let them rise, and drop them into boiling water before you bake, you'll have bagels, if you like those.
 
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#13
Does banana bread or pizza count? If so, yes. My lady friend is better at it than I, so I have been some combination of help and hinderenace in the making of baguettes, calzones, cinnamon rolls... all kinds of fun stuff.

It seems that the temperature of your kitchen, or, rather, having a consistent temperature and working at that "tempo" is key. One of my biggest takeaway as a mere participant.
 
#14
My dad baked all of our bread when I was growing up, and my spouse and I continued that tradition. My only advice is to get consist with the manual side of it (kneading, forming loaves etc.) so that when things change, it's not just careless, and you can learn. Like playing bass. ;)
 
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#15
TOOL460002 said:
Does banana bread or pizza count? If so, yes. My lady friend is better at it than I, so I have been some combination of help and hinderenace in the making of baguettes, calzones, cinnamon rolls... all kinds of fun stuff.
Click to expand...

If the pizza starts as flour, yes. If it comes from the freezer, somewhat less. Banana bread is typically a quick bread, (chemical rather than yeast raising - putting the bubbles in) and there you gotta be picky about the measuring and such.

TOOL460002 said:
It seems that the temperature of your kitchen, or, rather, having a consistent temperature and working at that "tempo" is key. One of my biggest takeaway as a mere participant.
Click to expand...
Or, not being on a fixed schedule for "time to rise" When it's doubled, it's doubled. If the recipe says 2 hours and it takes 1 or 4, doubled rules. Does help if you need product at a certain time if you know how long that's likely to be in your kitchen.
 
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#17
T_Bone_TL said:
If the pizza starts as flour, yes. If it comes from the freezer, somewhat less. Banana bread is typically a quick bread, (chemical rather than yeast raising - putting the bubbles in) and there you gotta be picky about the measuring and such.


Or, not being on a fixed schedule for "time to rise" When it's doubled, it's doubled. If the recipe says 2 hours and it takes 1 or 4, doubled rules. Does help if you need product at a certain time if you know how long that's likely to be in your kitchen.
Click to expand...
At no point in my life will I ever be cool enough to refer to my stock of bread as product. And, yes, pizza from scratch. Give a broke 20-somethig a Costco membership and he'll learn how to do something with 50lb bags of flour.
 
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#18
T_Bone_TL said:
I've been doing it for ...a number of decades, larger than 3. I highly recommend getting a new galvanized steel trash can and then finding a local source to order 50 lb bags of flour (which you store, still in the bag, in the can, because - rodents, bugs, not encouraging same) as the price, once the source is found will be much better than grocery stores or mail order. Alternatively, a big popcorn can you save from trash or recycling in this season will hold about 20 pounds each, so a number of those will do the same job in a smaller format (flour out of the bag, can well sanitized before filling with flour.)

I'm casual and prone to experiment. I got more than 20 years without even hearing of "bakers percentage" and I have yet to fuss about hydration % and yet it comes out bread every time. Some times it's not great bread, so we don't repeat those experiments. But if you're not turning out hundreds of loaves just the same all the time (and that thought keeps me from thinking too hard about opening a bakery) yeast bread, unlike cookies and quick breads/muffins is really quite forgiving of playing fast and loose with the ingredients if you have a sense of what the dough should look/feel/act like.

Also - sourdough can go in a regular old bread pan, making slices that toast and sandwich better than the big boules that somehow are considered to be the default shape of sourdough now.

If you make a pretty stiff dough, form it into balls, poke holes in the balls, let them rise, and drop them into boiling water before you bake, you'll have bagels, if you like those.
Click to expand...

What flour do you use? I can get 25 or 50 lb bags at the local restaurant supply house here. They have all-purpose and a few different brands of high-gluten. I do understand the role of gluten in bread making on a theoretical level and some recipes call for AP and some for bread flour. High gluten is good for bagels, pasta and chewy breads. Do you keep a supply of different flours? Does brand matter? I'll also be kneading some rye and whole wheat at some point as well.
 
#19
I default to Sir Lancelot, but I am NOT one of those folks (their website testimonials/reviews are comical for being rife with them, IMHO) who's all "King Arthur is the secret to bread" - I've made perfectly decent bread from store-brand all-purpose flour. I'm pretty sure I'd be happy with a different brand of high gluten, that's just what's convenient to me. I have issues with how "vital wheat gluten" is processed, not to mention the price, so I don't use that added to other flour as some folks do. When I went out to restock in 2020 and found that folks had cleaned the stores out, I used Sysco all-purpose since it was what I could get for a reasonable price.

I don't really worry about the fact that KA claims their 12% "special patent" is "bread flour" while 14% Lancelot is not, or Julia Child telling me I should be using all purpose since it's closer to French flour. The only place I want a lower gluten is non-yeast-bread purposes, and I don't do enough to stock a bag of pastry/cake flour. YMMV. I have (once) made bread from cake flour, and while it looked OK, it was definitely in the "experiments I won't repeat" category taste/texture-wise. Edible, but not even 2 stars. As stated above, all purpose works fine, it just lacks a bit of the possibilities that higher gluten delivers.

On the subject of rye, I'll simply offer the observation that there is no law stating that rye flour implies caraway seeds. Or that not rye flour forbids them if, unlike me, you like them. I tend to keep a variety of other flours, rye, whole wheat, coconut, almond, rice, etc. and oatmeal around, and add a bit as fancy moves me. Note that I don't try to make gluten free breads, I just borrow some of the flours that are now more commonly available as adjuncts to gluten flour. Bread is also (IMHO) the only place dried potato flakes have a purpose in life.
 

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