Does anyone have a good bread recipe?

[EODblake]

Originally Posted by Flying Scissors

Wow, seeing everyone's pics of their dough makes mine look so tiny! Time to greatly increase the ingredients in my recipe! I need to be making enough to last a couple days, but it never lasts long when i make it. We all love it, and my 3 yr old eats it up as fast as I can butter it! I like the idea of using cast iron to cook the bread, think it would work fine in a cast iron skillet tho? I don't have any of the pots yet...just numerous sizes of skillets.

If you're talking about the no knead bread you could use a deep chicken fryer with a tight fitting lid for smaller loaves. Something about the science and evaperation while baking requires it to be sealed for part of the baking. My prefered pan is a enameled 7qt dutch oven(not just for bread; I couldn't cook without it). In the pic the front two were made in enameled cast iron and the one in the back was in a stainless steel pot with a glass lid.

[Al Diehl]

Originally Posted by EODblake

If you're talking about the no knead bread you could use a deep chicken fryer with a tight fitting lid for smaller loaves. Something about the science and evaperation while baking requires it to be sealed for part of the baking. My prefered pan is a enameled 7qt dutch oven(not just for bread; I couldn't cook without it). In the pic the front two were made in enameled cast iron and the one in the back was in a stainless steel pot with a glass lid.

I did not have exactly what I wanted to bake my loaves in so, I just used the stainless steel bowl I mixed the dough in and a pot lid on to to seal it. Worked like aces.
I will be looking for what I want on payday. I have a huge Dutch oven but, I feel it is too large so, I will look at getting a smaller one.

Al

[toobboy]

Here is a great website with a TON of good bread recipes!!

http://www.reciperascal.com

[tracybarber]

I found a recipe for Irish soda bread that I tried out, because it is yeast free in the event I couldn't get yeast. You can find recipes on line, and I do not remember the site at this time. I did use whole wheat flour, and hard red winter or hard white winter wheat ground worked fine in this recipe. It baked a little crusty, but it was my first try. I used a cookie sheet to bake it on because you make a "ball" and cut an "X" in it. Would certainly be worth the experiment.

[bunny]

Originally Posted by Al Diehl

I did not have exactly what I wanted to bake my loaves in so, I just used the stainless steel bowl I mixed the dough in and a pot lid on to to seal it. Worked like aces.
I will be looking for what I want on payday. I have a huge Dutch oven but, I feel it is too large so, I will look at getting a smaller one.

Al

If it worked why fix it. Just continue to use the bowl and lid. Why go through the expense use it for more preps.

[Al Diehl]

Originally Posted by bunny

If it worked why fix it. Just continue to use the bowl and lid. Why go through the expense use it for more preps.

Because I want to make bigger loaves by doubling the recipe and this one is only big enough for the original 3 cup recipe.

Al

[Bur]

This is the winner at my house, served hot or cold, fold to make a sammich = Yummy! and it don't get easier than this.

2 C flour
1/2 t salt
2 t powdered milk
2 t baking powder
1 C water
Vegetable oil for frying

Throw it into a large bowl. Pour the water over it all at once and stir the dough with your hands until it starts to form one big clump.
Mix the dough, to form a ball. You want to mix this well, but you don't want to knead it. kneading it will make it heavy when cooked. let set on counter for about 30 min.
Cut the dough into 8 pieces. shape, stretch, pat, with hands and form a disk of about 5 to 7 inches in diameter. It don't have to be round.
Fry in a heavy pot, at least an inch of grease, kinda press down on the dough as it fries fry until brown then flip to cook the other side. about 2 min each side.

serve hot with honey or molasses. a fav dessert at our house.
cover with meat or chili and cheese to make an indian taco.
enjoy

[NectarNook]

I'm making bread right now. I have been grinding my own flour and making my own bread with it for nearly a year now. I'm still learning the little quirks of fresh flour versus store-bought "white death" as someone else put it.

I'll take some pictures as I make it to show the process. Look for another post soon!

In the meantime, here are two of my pictorial blogs about different recipes I have used:

Bread and a Boat

Nom Noms

Just gotta say this - I LOVE MY GRAIN MILL!!

Ooh, here's a page with some tried and true recipes, too. I've tried them all, and they all turned out very well:

Jackie Clay Bread Recipes

[NectarNook]

Ok, so the bread is out of the oven, and it's one of my best batches yet. We just ate half the loaf before it was even all the way cooled.

I am getting to the point in my bread making that I don't always follow recipes. This time I did about 1/2 cup applesauce, 1/4 cup honey, 1/2 cup warm water, and 2 Tbsp yeast in a proofing cup.



Then I tossed 4 cups of fresh ground red wheat in with 2 cups of warm water to get the germ soaking. I've found that pre-soaking fresh ground wheat helps to soften the little crispy bits, and I get a more even texture in my finished product. I soak it for 10-20 minutes depending on how distracted I get.


Then I added some freshly processed sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and rolled oats - about 1/3 cup each.


I poured in the yeast mixture, added a bit of olive oil (~ 2 Tbsp) and salt (~1 Tbsp), and mixed it all to a goopy mush in the mixer. Then I used a small measuring cup to put more flour in (probably another 3 cups or so) until the dough was pulling away from the sides of the bowl and forming legs. I call this the leggy stage - one or two little dough legs alternate rolling around the edge of the bowl as the dough hook swirls the center mass around and around. That's how I know I have just the right amount of flour. Too little, and the dough sticks to the sides of the bowl and tears as the dough hook plows through. Too much, and the dough not only pulls away from the sides but clumps into a wad on the dough hook that no longer touches the sides of the bowl.

Once the dough is sufficiently kneaded, I toss it into an oiled bowl and flop it around until the entire surface of the dough is oiled. Then I pop the bowl in a warm place to rise. Usually this means inside the oven with the light on, but any warm nook will do. If the air is exceptionally dry, as in a sunlit window or next to a woodstove, you might want to cover the bowl with a wet tea towel and check on it every so often to make sure it's not dried out and sticking to the dough.


Before and after rising. Note that it's doubled in size. That's all you're looking for. Most recipes state one hour or forty-five minutes, but sometimes if there is a draft or the dough isn't in a warm enough place it will take longer. I've had dough take hours to rise before because the house was chilly.


Once it's risen, I "punch" it down. No, I don't actually have to make a fist and hit the dough as hard as I can. I spread my fingers out like a starfish and push gently in the middle of the dough. I can hear the gas hiss out of the dough, maybe even see some bubbles in the oiled edge. Then I flop the dough out onto a smooth surface and proceed to fold it over on itself and push down with the heel of my hand until all of the poofiness is gone.

I always make enough dough for 2-4 loaves, so this is where I cut the dough with the sharpest knife I have on hand. You can tear it, but I think cutting gives me more even loaves. Every time I tear the dough I end up with one loaf bigger than the other.


I cup my hands and knead/stretch the dough in the air until I have two loaves that are shaped like fat hot dogs. I pop those each into a greased pan and set them to rise somewhere warm yet again.


Again, it's got to rise until doubled, however long it takes. Then I popped it into an oven that was preheated to 350 degrees F for nearly 30 minutes. When I can tap the crust with my fingernail and hear a kind of hollow sound, it's done. I take it out and put it onto a wooden cutting board to cool. Sometimes I butter the top, maybe even adding some rolled oats or herbs to the top as a decoration. I usually try to wait at least 30 minutes before cutting into it, but I cheated this time.


Mmm!