Anyone here baking bread?

I used the King Arthur bread machine sourdough recipe and made my son "custom program" my machine to mimic the Zoruishi settings and times that KA used.  Then adjusted bake time and temp based on outcone of loaf 2.  

If you guys have the opportunity, my wife just took a 2 day class @ king arthur flour (they're in VT).  This was her second one there and she's really loving them.  She says she's learned a ton of new techniques and tricks, and now she's making some delicious baguettes and pizza doughs.   In addition to the sourbreads and such.  

My bread machine is not adjustable for times like that.  The rise time is fixed, and I'm not sure the wild yeast will rise in the time available.  I might try some, but my "add a cup" bread has been working pretty well.  I once found a round glass pyrex bread cooking tube at a thrift store for a couple bucks.  I put it in there and it forms a long narrow loaf nicely.

annoyed by my recent attempts at sourdough, I did a basic bread yesterday. Flour, yeast, salt, water. Cooked it in the cast iron Dutch oven though.

Really good, disappeared pretty quick. A bit soft to cut, butt good solid bottom crust. 

WonkoTheSane said:

If you guys have the opportunity, my wife just took a 2 day class @ king arthur flour (they're in VT).  This was her second one there and she's really loving them.  She says she's learned a ton of new techniques and tricks, and now she's making some delicious baguettes and pizza doughs.   In addition to the sourbreads and such.  

I gave some sourdough starter to a friend about two years ago. I'm not sure that she had previously done much baking, but was already a superb cook. She went totally off the home baking deep end, has been to France for a school and the King Arthur school in VT. She said the King Arthur school was excellent.

Mine is a thrift store Breadman Ultimate.

Some of my latest:

I did the one on the right with my Pyrex bread tube.  The one on the left was made by letting it rise some in the bowl, then kneading it, then spreading it out on the cookie sheet, scoring the top and letting it rise again.  Both were the starter plus 1 cup flour, about 1/4 cup water, 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon of oil.

In reply to Dr. Hess :

How much starter and what is your rise time?  I mean, if you dont mind

I follow the King Arthur destructions on the starter, but now I'm only "feeding" it once a day, leaving it out on the table with a towel over it.  So, once a day, I take out a clean bowl and pour/scoop out maybe half a cup of the starter into it, add about a cup of flour and a half cup of water.  I take whatever is left, probably a little over half of what I started with, and use that to make something.  So, how much starter?  I dunno.  Half a cup once stirred up?  Rise time is somewhat variable.  I have been turning the oven on very low, probably around 100F or so, and putting it in there.  The first rise to get things going takes around an hour.  Then I knock it down and do something with it, like roll it and put it in the glass tube, or divide it in three pieces and put it on the (Pam coated) cookie sheet, or like the last one, smooth it out to about a half inch or so thick and let it rise.  Time for that?  Variable on how long I have before bed time.  Those above probably sat in the 100F oven for 3 hours, maybe more.  I just let them rise until it looks like bread.

I have one in the first stage of rising now.  Starter, 1/2 cup white flour, 1/2 cup rye, various spices for my Deluxe Rye. We'll see how it turns out.

I second the recommendation for following the sourdough method laid out in the Tartine bread book. I started in sourdough using the Peter Reinhart books, but the second time I made a loaf using Tartine I started making phenomenal loafs well above anything I had made previously. This is a loaf my wife made using the same methods. Having amazing home made bread regularly is a huge quality-O-life upgrade from store bought stuff in both flavor and nutrition!

What is the Tartine book method and how is it different than the King Arthur?

The ask from Momma was for thinner bread.  Better for sandwiches, etc. 

Deluxe Rye:

I add 1/2 tbsp of: Caraway seeds, garlic powder, onion powder, maybe 1/4 tbsp of oregano.  In my experience, Rye doesn't rise much.  Not much glutton to catch the gasses, I suspect.  A better rising one would be to use 1 cup white flour and 1/2 cup rye flour.  But the ask was for thinner anyway.

Meisje says that she's ready to taste it:

Wouldn't you want it taller? then sliced thiner for the sandwiches?

No, we slice it laterally, like a hamburger bun or a Schlotzsky's.  On this type of loaf, you only get at most maybe 2" of rise, which makes a pretty narrow sammich.

In reply to Dr. Hess :

So after hearing how long and warm you do your rise, i put one of the old school looking oil heaters next to the machine and added 15 min to my last rise, results are good!  Its bigger and lighter if that makes sense.  Thanks!

Anyone making potato bread by chance? I'm a big fan of the flavor and texture and want to try something similar at home.

Bread-related:

Do I need to look for anything special in a breadbox?  Whats the best way to keep a loaf I made fresh?

Giant tupperware like container, that is, large plastic air tight box.  Wally world sells a nested set of them for like $5.  The largest will hold a loaf of bread out of the bread machine.  You can see the bottom of it behind the empty butter dish in my pics above.  Regular bread machine bread will stay good in that for about 5 days, if it's not too hot.  If you keep it in the refridgerator, it will say good for over a week.

we run this old Breadman machine about once a week and its gotta be at least 20 years old now.  still kicks out great little loafs of bread in about 2.5 hrs.  you can find these things for pennies on the dollar at just about any salvation army or goodwill store....people must get them for gifts, use 'em once or twice and then they either lose interest or realize they don't have, or want to use the space to store them.

our current favorite - cornmeal yeast bread.  awesome for toasting.  we also make a fair amount of brown sugar pecan, and buttermilk oat.  we store them in 2 gal. ziplock bags.  i'd estimate each loaf costs about 50 to 75 cents to make.

telling you right now, there is no better smell than coming into a house that just baked bread.  

I'm allowing a loaf to rise right this very minute.  As it's a bit chilly in the house today, I have it sitting right here on my desktop computer case.

In reply to ScottyB :

Do you mind sharing the recipe for brown sugar pecan?  I use the Breadman Ultimate with good results 

Justjim75 said:

In reply to ScottyB :

Do you mind sharing the recipe for brown sugar pecan?  I use the Breadman Ultimate with good results 

you got it.  this came out of a kinda-generic bread machine cookbook but its a good recipe.  i set our machine to light crust though, it seems to give it plenty of crustiness.

Finally got what I would consider a good loaf of sourdough today. There were a lot of changes so I'm not sure which it was, but I have ideas. 

First, my starter, that I keep in the fridge, was stiff instead of runny when I pulled some off to feed for this loaf. Got it ripe over the pellet stove for 2 feedings like always, and our was normal consistency and floated in water. I used 6.5oz of water instead of 7, then used  10oz bread flour to 2oz AP flour, I usually use more AP. 

Then I forgot to add salt.

Raised it like normal, folded it out a couple times, proofed it a bit in a basket to set the shape, then put it into a regular steel bread pan instead of trying to make a round in the cast iron.

I'm now shopping for a cast iron loaf pan with a lid. The lid seems to be difficult to find. 

But it was phenomenal. Actual sour flavor instead of just smell, decent soft crust I wish was harder, good texture, and a good sandwich making size to boot.

The white is just extra flour from the parchment paper, I found keeping it cut side down on the cutting board helps it stay a little fresher until I bag it

I also have had success with the tartine method. http://www.marthastewart.com/1130184/tartine-country-bread

In reply to ihayes :

That is one beautiful loaf.

Today's makin's.