Homemade Bread (extended from Yogurt Thread)

[deineira]

Hi Sherry,
Here is a new thread on homemade bread!

I'm sure there are quite a few other folks here making their own bread, so I hope others will chime in and share their experiences too.

I use a Kitchen-Aid mixer to knead my bread, but I use a regular bread pan and I bake it in the oven, as opposed to using a bread machine for the entire process. I used to knead my loaves by hand, but I do like the ease of the KA, since I make two loaves at a time it saves a lot of time and does a very nice job, I think.

It's hard to give someone a quick primer on bread, since bread can be a very complex thing to make. I do encourage you to check out the King Arthur website. They have some great starter recipes and a lot of resources. They also have a hotline that you can call 7 days a week and get a real live person on the phone to answer questions/offer help.

A good way to start making bread if you are new to it might be to try a no-knead bread recipe. There is a great book by a baker named Jim Leahy that explains the technique, but the NYT has his recipe on their website, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=0. King Arthur has a recipe on their site too, No-Knead Crusty White Bread: King Arthur Flour. And, they have done a detailed blog post on this recipe which you can find here, The crunchiest-crackliest-chewiest-lightest-EASIEST bread you.

Now, I don't usually make white bread, but I do think white bread is easier to make than whole wheat bread, so generally speaking, you might want to start off with a loaf of white bread. However, if you'd rather use whole wheat, here is a version of that recipe with whole wheat flour, My Favorite No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread - My Healthy Eating Habits.

This is not loaf shaped sandwich bread, it's made in a dutch oven. If you don't have one of those, I can send you a basic loaf recipe that you can use to play around with as well.

Peter Reinhart is a baker that has written several wonderful books about bread baking, and he really breaks down the art and science of bread in an easy to understand manner. I would recommend any of his books...you could probably find them at your local library.

Eva

 

[Epcot Chick]

How timely. I just made the dough for the King Arthur No Knead Bread. So few ingredients, so much flavor.

I highly recommend King Arthur's website and products.

 

[maddiesmum]

I make wholewheat bread every week in my bread machine: quick, easy, delicious, reliable, no mess, no fuss, and after I have put it on, I can leave and go do something else. 5 hours later: bread better than anything in the shops.

My bread machine and hand blender are the only 2 kitchen appliances I really need, apart from kettle.

Clare

 

[nckfitheart2009]

Kneading a dough

Thanks Eva for posting this new thread on Baking Bread.

I must admit I have been struggling baking a wholemeal bread through the yeasting-kneading process.

I am not giving up though. I have realised the bread flour is not for baking bread.it's suitable for cake

I will report later on once I have attempted the process with the right ingredients

 

[deineira]

Nathalie,
You are correct regarding the flour for bread that you can get in Europe. It's actually lower in gluten than the flour we typically use here in the US. That said, Europeans have no problem turning out absolutely delicious bread, but the techniques are very different there. What works well for lower gluten flour is an autolyse period, which gives the flour more time to develop gluten. This is also advantageous if you are making whole grain breads as well, as they absorb liquid more slowly than more refined flours.

One thing you could try is added vital wheat gluten to your breads, a tablespoon for each cup of flour, and this increases the gluten and would give the bread more structure. Unfortunately I don't know much about the types of bread you are trying to make, but I know there is a lot of information online these days about gluten free baking. I am sure you will figure it out, as you strike me as being very determined when you set your mind to something.

Clare, my mom had a bread machine I was a kid and it was definitely better than store-bought commercial breads! I personally like to fiddle with things, and baking is not only a chore for me, but a hobby, but I totally agree that you can get very good bread from a bread machine.

Eva

 

[Shericbuck]

Eva, Thanks, I was excited to see the "Bread Thread".


I will check out the King Arthur site this weekend.......LOVE THE NAME!! King Arthur. Should I wear a long dress with my hair in braids and get my DH to sit on a white horse while I bake my bread? or better yet I will pretend I'm Merlin wiping up a magic loaf of bread that gives me extra strength for Cathe workouts. LOL!!!!! Sorry that just popped in my head. It's Friday!!!

OK...all jokes aside. I'm going to start out with the No Knead Bread, white. Baby steps for me. Hope this will be as easy as using the yogurt machine. Which I love!!!!!! We ate that for breakfast all week. Getting ready to make my 2nd batch.

Thanks for taking your time to share you bread knowledge with me.
I'm going to enjoy reading the reply's on this thread.

Wish me luck,

Sherry

 

[nckfitheart2009]

Eva, Thanks, I was excited to see the "Bread Thread".


I will check out the King Arthur site this weekend.......LOVE THE NAME!! King Arthur. Should I wear a long dress with my hair in braids and get my DH to sit on a white horse while I bake my bread? or better yet I will pretend I'm Merlin wiping up a magic loaf of bread that gives me extra strength for Cathe workouts. LOL!!!!! Sorry that just popped in my head. It's Friday!!!

OK...all jokes aside. I'm going to start out with the No Knead Bread, white. Baby steps for me. Hope this will be as easy as using the yogurt machine. Which I love!!!!!! We ate that for breakfast all week. Getting ready to make my 2nd batch.

Thanks for taking your time to share you bread knowledge with me.
I'm going to enjoy reading the reply's on this thread.

Wish me luck,

Sherry

Lol Sherry, that is funny---Yeah it's Friday
Life is too short and we need laugh

I am loving the thread already

Will report soon ladies,

 

[deineira]

Eva, Thanks, I was excited to see the "Bread Thread".


I will check out the King Arthur site this weekend.......LOVE THE NAME!! King Arthur. Should I wear a long dress with my hair in braids and get my DH to sit on a white horse while I bake my bread? or better yet I will pretend I'm Merlin wiping up a magic loaf of bread that gives me extra strength for Cathe workouts. LOL!!!!! Sorry that just popped in my head. It's Friday!!!

OK...all jokes aside. I'm going to start out with the No Knead Bread, white. Baby steps for me. Hope this will be as easy as using the yogurt machine. Which I love!!!!!! We ate that for breakfast all week. Getting ready to make my 2nd batch.

Thanks for taking your time to share you bread knowledge with me.
I'm going to enjoy reading the reply's on this thread.

Wish me luck,

Sherry

LOL, Sherry! Thanks for the Friday giggle.

Good luck this weekend and let us know how it turns out. This loaf takes some planning, but if you read through the instructions before you get started, you should have success!
Eva

 

[nckfitheart2009]

Nathalie,
You are correct regarding the flour for bread that you can get in Europe. It's actually lower in gluten than the flour we typically use here in the US. That said, Europeans have no problem turning out absolutely delicious bread, but the techniques are very different there. What works well for lower gluten flour is an autolyse period, which gives the flour more time to develop gluten. This is also advantageous if you are making whole grain breads as well, as they absorb liquid more slowly than more refined flours.

I am sure you will figure it out, as you strike me as being very determined when you set your mind to something.


Eva

To Eva,

Thanks for highlighting the difference between European and US flour in terms of gluten content. I actually was not aware.

I will get it in the end, I hope.

Have a good week

 

[nckfitheart2009]

Hi Ladies,

How are you?

I have succeded in my quest of baking my own bread through yeasting process.
Hmmm the smell of bread in the flat gave a satisfying sense of achievement. I am on hypertrophy rotation: optional 30 days upper body/strength rotation from xtrain. I am loving it.

Now Eva, please I need your help! I want to bake a low carb bread mixing organic wholemeal flour and soya or brown flour. I want to increase the protein content without using powder protein.

What do you think about mixing wholemeal flour with soya. Do soya flour kill the yeast? Need your input/thoughts on this. Soya is my first choice because of high protein content.

Hope to hear from you soon

 

[deineira]

Hi Nathalie,
Unfortunately I know absolutely zero about soy flour in bread. I've never used it, so I don't have anything to add here. I did a quick Google search, though, and found these sites:
Soy flour bread – mini loaves | bitter baker
Soy flour | The Fresh Loaf.

The second link, to the fresh loaf, is the one I recommend you research in depth. This is a great online community of folks who make and talk about bread. I reference it a lot when I have questions or am trying new baking things, or just for casual reading when I've got some down time! There are some very knowledgeable bakers on that site. You might want to read through the thread posted and do a search on the site to see what you can find. There are also quite a few recipes posted there.

Sorry I could not be of more help, but I do look forward to hearing about your progress! How did your last loaf turn out?

Eva

 

[nckfitheart2009]

Thanks Eva

Hi Nathalie,

Sorry I could not be of more help, but I do look forward to hearing about your progress! How did your last loaf turn out?

Eva

Hi Eva,

Since our last interaction on here, I baked two loaves. The last one turned out really good. I sliced the loaf and put it in the refrigerator straight when it cooled down. Now I can confidently bake yeast-ed batches and freeze the slices. I had two slices today and toasted it making a garlic bread. I marinated the bread with liquid egg white, milk and garlic *savoury taste* it was yummy.

Next step I am going to make the french toast which is going to be my sweety fix in a healthy way of course ideally after a heavy lift session cause that is the best time to elevate my insuline . It was a success Thanks so much Eva.

Have you added cathe's newest goodies to your collection.
What is your mind set at the moment? Are you ready for Rock Bottom?

Hope to hear from you soon

 

[deineira]

Hi Eva,

Since our last interaction on here, I baked two loaves. The last one turned out really good. I sliced the loaf and put it in the refrigerator straight when it cooled down. Now I can confidently bake yeast-ed batches and freeze the slices. I had two slices today and toasted it making a garlic bread. I marinated the bread with liquid egg white, milk and garlic *savoury taste* it was yummy.

Next step I am going to make the french toast which is going to be my sweety fix in a healthy way of course ideally after a heavy lift session cause that is the best time to elevate my insuline . It was a success Thanks so much Eva.

Have you added cathe's newest goodies to your collection.
What is your mind set at the moment? Are you ready for Rock Bottom?

Hope to hear from you soon

Hi Nathalie,
Congratulations on your two successful loaves! It's so satisfying when you pull that loaf out the oven and it comes out well...even though I've been making bread for years, I'm always keeping my fingers crossed until the end because bread can be very fickle.

If you care to post your recipe for your loaves, I would love to see it.

I did not order the new Cathe workouts...I am on a totally different workout kick these days. My body needed something completely new and different and after changing up my workouts at the beginning of the summer, I finally started seeing some toning and shrinking, so I'm sticking with my current workouts for a while. I may download the step ones at some point, but we'll see.

 

[Soapmaker]

Hi Ladies,


What do you think about mixing wholemeal flour with soya. Do soya flour kill the yeast? Need your input/thoughts on this. Soya is my first choice because of high protein content.

Hope to hear from you soon

Soy is a very poor food for yeast because it is low carb. Yeast needs sugar/complex carbs. Soy is also an incomplete protein and very high in Omega6 oil (pro-inflammatory). You can add a small amount of it to increase the protein content but you don't really want to add too much. You can also mix it with a equal amount of corn flour to complete its protein content.

My usual recipe for whole grain bread is to use 4 cups of good quality white flour and then complete it with 1/2 cup of wheat Bran, 1/2 cup oat bran (or rice bran), 1/2 cup soy (or bean flour), 1/2 cup ground flaxseed meal, 1/2 cup of wheat germ and 1 cup of sunflower and pepita seeds. Alternatively you can use a cup of 10 grain cereal mix (like Bob's red mill). I keep the bran and the wheat germ in the freezer. You can also use buttermilk or yogurt instead of water or (part of the water) to increase the protein content and keep the bread moist. Potatoes are also a great addition to bread.

For every cup of other flours, I add 1 to 2 Tbs of wheat Gluten (available from Amazon). The coarser the texture, the more added gluten you need to help the bread rise properly. The gluten in the USA flour is much less elastic than the one from Europe. A mix of the 2 flours makes the best breads. Spelt flour can be substituted for a small part of the regular flour. Spelt is a wheat with much more extensible gluten. It is also worth making a sponge with part of the white flour and using the autolyse method. In the long run, they simplify bread baking. If you want to make breads with high percentage of flours other than wheat, you will need to use other leaveners.

I like Peter Reinhart's books. I think I own all of them. I also like Dan Lepard's book "the art of homemade bread". Lepard's book (British) has recipes that mix beans or bean flour with grains which completes the protein and adds fiber, effectively reducing the GI of the final product.

Good luck with your bread experiments and let us know how it goes.

 

[Vee]

I used to knead bread in a stand mixer. When I moved from India to Malaysia, I started hand-kneading bread. I love the results, but did not make it often because hand kneading takes time.

I like the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book series for No Knead Bread. It is simple, even for a no-knead approach. You mix a large tub of dough, let the dough rise in the same tub, then you store the tub in the refrigerator. Every time you want bread, you pull out a ball of dough from the tub, and bake. For most doughs, the authors list several options of shape/loaf to make. So the same batch of dough can yield so many types of bread.

I stopped buying bread a few months ago and took up the Artisan Method to make bread.

Recently, I bought a Panasonic Bread Maker. Now I not only don't buy bread, I give gifts of bread.

I eat bread with home made vegan dips (like home-made roasted red pepper muhammara , hummus or broccoli pesto) and lots of raw or grilled vegetables. Or as rolls with vegetable soups. Or as veggie loaded pizza with vegan cheese.

As long as I control portions of bread and eat lots of veggies/beans/lentils at the same meal, I allow myself the carbs. I like semi whole-wheat bread best (50% whole wheat to white-flour ratio). I like some oat flour or oats in my bread on occasion, but have never enjoyed rye/spelt/gluten-free bread recipes.

I am glad I love working out. Helps me work off some of that bread / rice / pasta.

Thanks for mentioning Dan Lepard. I searched the internet and found these wonderful recipes on the Guardian site.

 

[nckfitheart2009]

Wow thanks for the info ;-)

Thanks so much to both Soapmaker and Vee,

I will definitely get Lepard book for sure.

I mainly use oat flour, wholewheat brown flour as Low Gi and soy flour.
My first attempt on a bread machine turned out pretty good but I want my loaf a little more fluffy.

I will try to add corn flour or potato flour, not too much though.

My last loaf lasted two weeks.

I will post picture and share recipe later once I found the right ratio

 

[Vee]

I mainly use oat flour, wholewheat brown flour as Low Gi and soy flour.
My first attempt on a bread machine turned out pretty good but I want my loaf a little more fluffy.

I will try to add corn flour or potato flour, not too much though.

My last loaf lasted two weeks.

I will post picture and share recipe later once I found the right ratio

From what I have read, potato flour in bread makes it stay moist and slows down staling. Home made bead goes stale very fast compared to commercial bread with additives. I have used potato flour (the flaky kind, not potato starch) in bread. I think it creates both a lighter and moister bread. I get the same effect from replacing the water in bread with potato stock (water drained from boiling potatoes). I have not tried corn flour in bread, but I have used recipes that call for adding just a bit of corn meal.

Let us know how corn / potato flour works. Looking forward to it.

 

[nckfitheart2009]

Protein - Granola bar

Hi Eva,

I have just baked my first protein/oat bar with following ingredient:

150 gr oat
120 gr protein dessert, any protein isolate flavoured with minimal 90-95% protein content is fine!
120 gr Agave nectar, you can sub organic Honey
50 dried fruit
100 gr Butter with less than 3% to none saturated fat!
1 tbsp grounded cinnamon
25-50gr pumpkin seeds

This should add up to 2357kcal 12 servings 197kcal per bar

I am happy with the amount calories considering commercial flap jack/granola bar calories add up to 400-500 kcal per bar! yikes

Instruction:

Use a large bowl , add all dry ingredients, mix together using a wooden spoon or spatula. I did not use a mixer as I did not want to ground the ingredients. This is just my personal preference. Then gradually add agave nectar and melted butter while mixing all ingredients. Keep on mixing till the mixture is moisten. Add liquid egg, about 30-50 gr to moisten and flatten the mixture in a square non stick tin pre-wrapped with baking paper.Pre-heat the oven at 150-180 degree Celsius for ten to fifteen minutes. Bake for 25-30 minutes. The smell coming off the kitchen is so nice!

As soon as it is cooked cut it in square and wrap each portion individually in foil paper. Done! 12 serving is more than enough for a week.

Sorry I have not been able to provide the ounces equivalent to grams. ;-)

Hope you like my recipe. let me know what you think ;-)

 

[Soapmaker]

Nathalie,

You might want to reconsider the agave nectar. It is pure fructose. It is a heavy load for the liver to detoxify. A lot of it turns into low density fat in the body, the nasty kind. There is nothing healthy about it regardless of glycemic index. I think I'm going to make your recipe with few substitutions. It looks really yummy.

Vee,
I just looked up the recipes that you linked to on the guardian site. I'm in real trouble. Chestnut season just started and those recipes look amazing. Too bad you are not near me to help eat what I'm about to bake.

 

[nckfitheart2009]

Thanks soap maker.
I actually questioned myself about agave syrup! I will definitely sub with more egg white and may be 50-60 gr of organic honey. Also maximum 80gr of coconut butter can substituted with butter. It taste better.

Clarification: 25 gr pumpkin seed is enough.

Let me know your thoughts on Honey ;-)