Bread aka Things That Make You Go "Dough!"

[MWF]

I've been making my own pizza dough for years but as my mum recently moved home and had a clearout of all the things she once thought she needed but then realised she didn't, along with a load of stuff I have been madly hawking on eBay, I inherited one of these...

Since we are not blessed with artisan bakeries and boulangeries unlike the continent I've been experimenting with the various settings and I have to say I am delighted with the results. It even has a long setting which makes a gorgeous sourdough and saves all that messing around fermenting sourdough starters and feeding them daily.

There is also a setting to make a leavened dough so you can make rolls, buns etc which I am going to use shortly to make some lepinja (Balkan flatbreads) to go with some home made cevapi this evening. Will post photos later.

Anyone else here into bread making, either by hand or machine? Please feel free to capture and share your results

 

[93Flareside]

I enjoy making bread but seem to only do it once a month if that. As a single guy, making bread not fit for an entire family though has been tricky. I'd like to make a small loaf or roll per day because fresh baked is the best.

My mother has or had a bread machine similar to yours but hasn't used it for a good 10-15 years. Always liked them. Now though, I feel like theres some sort of stigma for using them...

 

[MWF]

Stigma be damned, they're a great thing to have. You know exactly what's going into your bread, it takes less than 5 minutes to get the machine loaded and going, and most bread makers have variable size settings so if it's just you requiring bread for a couple of days make a 1lb loaf and you're golden.

One like ours is around $150 on Amazon but trawl your local Craigslist and I bet you'll find one. It's the kind of thing folk buy on a whim and then end up not using because they can't be arsed.

 

[killpanda]

We got a Panasonic one of these as a wedding gift, it's pretty easy to use and the results are really nice!

We ended up not using it much because it gave us the idea of trying to make our own bread, which turned out to be not as hard as we initially thought

On another note, we baked some bagels yesterday! Really easy and super yummy!

 

[calvinhobbes]

I’ve been making bread for a couple of months and moved on to sourdough because that keeps longer. I’ll try to remember taking a few photos the next time I bake.

 

[calvinhobbes]

I’ve been making bread for a couple of months and moved on to sourdough because that keeps longer. I’ll try to remember taking a few photos the next time I bake.

These are from a while ago:

The starter is half water and half rye flour. Originally made by my parents in law, I've had this culture since June (I believe) and it gets fed every week or so. It's quite hardy.

Nice and fluffy! I used all of this culture up recently because I hadn't fed it with enough water and flour for the bread and the bread rolls that I wanted to make. So I had to start my own culture, which seems to have worked. Haven't baked anything with it yet.

In go the starter, water, flour and a bit of salt.

That looks nice and sticky.

After fermentation over night, the sourdough was fluffy and soft. As it should be.

After some more water and flour, this was the result.

I don't have pictures of me shaping the loaves because it's a messy business, so you'll have to watch that on YouTube and have a look at my proofing baskets instead.

Looks about ready for the oven!

before

and after

I know it's a very cliché thing to start making your own bread during lockdown/THE PANDEMIC, but it's also quite rewarding. You can tweak the recipes here and there and even small changes are quite noticeable, like reducing the amount of water by just a few percent. It tastes great, is very easy to digest and you definitely know what's in it. Also, this sourdough bread hardly ever grows mould and it's perfectly fine to make extra loaves and freeze them; that's what the two small ones are for.

 

[eizbaer]

I know it's a very cliché thing to start making your own bread during lockdown/THE PANDEMIC, but it's also quite rewarding. You can tweak the recipes here and there and even small changes are quite noticeable, like reducing the amount of water by just a few percent. It tastes great, is very easy to digest and you definitely know what's in it. Also, this sourdough bread hardly ever grows mould and it's perfectly fine to make extra loaves and freeze them; that's what the two small ones are for

Good stuff right there!

I’ve also gone and made my own sour dough and bake about once a week. I was super astonished with how easy everything just seems to work out if you just follow very simple instructions. For shaping etc it takes a bit of getting a feel for the dough, but I’ve also never experienced anything that I’d consider a failure - so super rewarding!
Also I just mess around with the percentages (of rye, whole wheat, plain, etc) and additions. This past weekend I tried my hand at an oatmeal bread (~20% added to a 70% hydration dough) which came out really nice.
Have some (old) pictures!

Anyone tried their hand at brioche before? Oh my god so much butter... you think the dough can’t possibly take any more, but you’re only half way there. All. The. Butter.

Edit: imma need to get me some proofing baskets also!

Edit 2: Since this thread started out with a sentence about pizza... for pizza count? I’ve found I get the best results while using a regular oven by making the pizza in a stainless steel Pan that I put on a high stove for the 3 minutes or so that it takes me to put sauce cheese etc, then ditching the whole thing in the oven on the highest hat it will go (250°C for mine). This gives ne a nice and proper crust...

Edit 3: shout out to all my yeasty boys for making all this possible. I’ve long ago concluded yeast is magic ?

 

[Redliner]

Ya'll are making me want to go out and buy fresh yeast and proofing baskets...

 

[calvinhobbes]

What do you want the yeast for? Beer?

 

[Redliner]

What do you want the yeast for? Beer?

I was thinking bread, but beer and meade also sound good.

I tried making sourdough many MANY times, and failed in all of them.

 

[eizbaer]

Another! This one turned out a really nice bloaty boy ?

 

[calvinhobbes]

Anyone tried their hand at brioche before? Oh my god so much butter... you think the dough can’t possibly take any more, but you’re only half way there. All. The. Butter.

It’s not exactly brioche, but the Alsatian Gugelhupf recipe that I use is a lot like that: 500g of flour and 150g of molten butter. The KitchenAid distributes it nicely over myself, the worktop, floor, walls and possibly ceiling every time I fuck up and add it too quickly.

 

[Misrabelle]

Anyone tried their hand at brioche before? Oh my god so much butter... you think the dough can’t possibly take any more, but you’re only half way there. All. The. Butter.

So, I have to admit to cheating, by using a bread maker (as I don’t have a functioning oven - which drives me nuts), but I made this golden boi brioche last week.
It didn’t survive a full day. ?
So soft and fluffy!! ??

 

[eizbaer]

It’s not exactly brioche, but the Alsatian Gugelhupf recipe that I use is a lot like that: 500g of flour and 150g of molten butter. The KitchenAid distributes it nicely over myself, the worktop, floor, walls and possibly ceiling every time I fuck up and add it too quickly.

I have two recipes for Brioche with varying amounts of butter between 50% and 75% (!) of the flour-weight. The latter honestly just sounds insane to me - and I am very happy that those recipes call for room temperature butter, not molten. Otherwise I'd probably have to re-paint the kitchen...

So soft and fluffy!! ??

 

[Misrabelle]

I really wanted to try it scone style with cream and jam, but I had no thickened cream.

 

[eizbaer]

Let’s keep this going, shall we? The pandemic is still going on, so... today’s results:

The sweet: a yeast braid bun or however you want to call it.

The savory: a 30% rye sourdough with 15% mixed seeds (rolled oats, sunflower, linseed, sesame). Round about 75% hydration (not taking into account the seeds, the oats may suck some of that up).

Edit: I’m also done with trying to score my bread nicely, because without a razor blade that just turns into a huge mess. I’ve switched to just using kitchen scissors (see above result) and I’m not going back! ?

 

[Redliner]

That's it. I'm trying sourdough again.

By the way, your buns look delicious.

 

[eizbaer]

That's it. I'm trying sourdough again.

The most important thing with sourdough I think is just patience. You gotta be content just leaving the bloody stuff alone for a while - both when setting up the sourdough, as well as the bread later...

By the way, your buns look delicious.

Thanks Probably one of the most rewarding recipes I know - very easy, (can be, if it has to be) quick, almost always a great result!
edit: hah! I knew that emoji still existed!

 

[NecroJoe]

This barely counts as bread, as it's less effort than even most biscuits...but here we are. Ha!

Took a bread making class at a Sur le Table store a few years back, and this one one of the 3 recipes we made, and have made it about 1/2 a dozen times since then.

This time, I also had some leftover sage, so I did half sage, half the traditional rosemary, and then I added a strip of salami down the middle, after having recently seen a video from America's Test Kitchen with cured meat-stuffed bread and realized I had some salami on hand.

 

[eizbaer]

This barely counts as bread,[...]

Oh Focaccia counts as bread alright I've never tried my hand at it, tbh - no idea why, since it does seem a quick and easy way to whip something up. And - as you very restrainedly did - it can be garnished with all sorts of good stuff!