Bread in the Playground

[thorgrim29]

I made my first loaf of fresh bread ever today, it was pretty good, ate it right out of the oven dipped in olive oil and spaghetti bolognaise.

I followed this recipe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOa-U6uFHoU, only I kneaded it for 5 minutes of so before letting it rise. I hope to eventually be able to do little round whole wheat loaves and serve chowder or thick stews in them.


So who else has bread tales?

[Mx.Silver]

I bake a fair amount of bread, as it happens. Round loaves aren't really too difficult, the only thing you have to watch out for is the dough spreading more than it rises. If you're making Soda Bread it gets a little trickier, because you have to shape it quickly, but not too bad.

Don't have much in the way of interesting anecdotes though. It's not the most exciting of things to do.

[THAC0]

I did the Bread Bakers Apprentice challenge for a while before life took over. I made it to the sourdough section first though, so a fair ways through it. Fun times!

[TaiLiu]

Oh! Well, I ate some bread from a bakery just two days ago.

...What do you mean, this doesn't count?

[afroakuma]

As a Game of Thrones fan, I went delving for their black beer bread recipe. I've made it several times now, by hand, with regular (not quick-rise) yeast and no pan, just round loaf. It's incredibly satisfying to do and impresses the heck out of people. :smallbiggrin:

Anyway, I'm quite intent to pursue other bread recipes of a similar nature (i.e. no breadmaker). I recently made naan bread and it was quite nice.

[Talanic]

I picked up a used breadmaker for a little bit, considered it an anniversary 'thing' - not exactly a present, but still something for me and my wife. I've been focusing mostly on making bread with no salt, for her blood pressure.

I had an issue where my yeast all died. Apparently it wasn't the type to be kept in the fridge. Took me three hockey puck style loaves to figure out that it wasn't my experiments with sugar/yeast proportions that was doing it.

Lack of salt is making my loaves quite bland. All I'm trying to do right now is make something that'll go a little better with peanut butter. I tried nutmeg and clove, but they didn't help. Right now the primary flavoring ingredient I'm using is powdered milk, and even that has some salt in it. The next loaf is probably going to have honey instead of molasses; will see how that does.

[afroakuma]

I picked up a used breadmaker for a little bit, considered it an anniversary 'thing' - not exactly a present, but still something for me and my wife. I've been focusing mostly on making bread with no salt, for her blood pressure.

I had an issue where my yeast all died. Apparently it wasn't the type to be kept in the fridge. Took me three hockey puck style loaves to figure out that it wasn't my experiments with sugar/yeast proportions that was doing it.

Lack of salt is making my loaves quite bland. All I'm trying to do right now is make something that'll go a little better with peanut butter. I tried nutmeg and clove, but they didn't help. Right now the primary flavoring ingredient I'm using is powdered milk, and even that has some salt in it. The next loaf is probably going to have honey instead of molasses; will see how that does.

Honey brings it up nicely. You may want to look into the beer bread recipe; I never add salt and it's always tasty - beer is very low in sodium.

Another tip to avoid puckmaking: when adding your dry mix to your wet mix, add it in 1/2 cup at a time. Makes it a lot easier to work with.

[Arcas Corricol]

I envy you, all men want to be you, or women want to be with you maybe I will make some bread too :D

[Mobats]

Bread baking use to be my full time job for ages. I think most of my cool stories involve me with burning my arm or hand in some manner... yeah not very good ones.

Most commonly I make fruit breads for us to have for breakfast and desserts. Banana bread is one of our favorites or a banana and zucchini one.

One of my favorite others is a round loaf that is made out of red potatoes and onions as a large part of the recipe. It tastes amazing dipped in olive oil and black pepper.

[MonkeyBusiness]

I love making bread. I started out using the illustrated guide in The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, which teaches the basics, and why the basics are the basics (the role of yeast and all that), then explains how to do variations on a simple recipe.

It's not a highly technical guide: it just gives enough information to help the process make more sense, and give the voice bread maker self-confidence. At this point, I think I need something more advanced, but haven't had time yet to really go looking for a new cookbook.

.

[PallElendro]

I made a cheesecake for my girlfriend as my first-year anniversary that followed this recipe. (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/the-ultimate-cheesecake-recipe2/index.html?ic1=obinsite)

It wasn't too bad for my first time baking, but the directions were unclear about the boiling water and the foil. I had put the aluminium on top of the cake tin instead of underneath it, totally forgetting about evaporation and condensation.

On the bright side, I made a pretty good pudding cake.

[warty goblin]

I bake bread every week, and aside from the odd time when I drag into town from a trip with none left in the freezer, never buy the stuff in a store. It's not as good, and far less enjoyable than kneeding it out by hand. Recently I switched whole wheat flours to one with a lot more bran. I think I like it, it gives the bread a really nice, deep flavor and turns it the most gorgeous golden brown.

[Mx.Silver]

Out of curiosity, has anyone else had experience with Spelt bread here? I've actually taken something of a liking to it over time, aside from the occasional over-proving accident.

[Kato]

As a Game of Thrones fan, I went delving for their black beer bread recipe. I've made it several times now, by hand, with regular (not quick-rise) yeast and no pan, just round loaf. It's incredibly satisfying to do and impresses the heck out of people. :smallbiggrin:


Ah, I did the same! On a few occasions now. It's quite good, though I think the recipe can use a bit more salt than originally described.


I also made some ciabatta bread a few times this summer which wasn't too bad but I really prefer dark bread more, personally.