Bread, the staff of life...

[Ugarte]

And essential to any sandwich.

I don't think I've had fresh-baked bread since my mother went on a baking binge when I was a kid. A couple of days ago, I decided I would try it. Results are mixed but generally favorable. Even my humble effort is better than store-bought stuff.

Here's an action shot for fans out there:

It's two and a half loaves of honey-wheat that I made last night. Pretty yummy. I'm not sure I'm up to the time and effort it takes to produce it with any regularity, but it's a real treat right now.

Any of you folks bake your own with any regularity?


Mark
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[LocktownDog]

I bake as much as I can ... but not as much as I should. Very hard to find good pumpernickle out here, so sometimes its easier to bake my own.

 

[Zanzibarstar]

I used to bake a lot of bread when living in Africa, experimenting with all different types. Don't have the time anymore, but my neighbor bakes his own bread every week. Sandwich bread, sourdough, italian, and hearty farmhouse styles...delicious! He makes pizza dough every Wednesday, too. We're lucky enough to have them over for dinner often, and get to enjoy their toils.

 

[PrairieSunrise]

I do a lot of baking. I really enjoy the challenge it represents! Plus, fresh baked bread is one of the best foods in my opinion.

Here's a picture of one of my favorite breads to make. It's a basic rustic white bread that I triple and braid. This picture was taken last Thanksgiving. The finished loaf barely fits in our oven! The sliced loaf is something my brother made.

 

[shopgirl61]

Bread, I can't imagine life without it!

Aside from being a 'staple', there is nothing like coming together to break bread Mark, your loaves look delicious as do the others.

Lately we've had a fancy for french bread, I can't seem to get enough baguettes lol

 

[dhermann1]

I baked bread from scratch once many years ago with some friends. What a hoot! Mixing the yeast with the water, kneeding, and kneeding, and kneeding the bread. Sticking it in the oven and then VOILA! Much fun, but HARD WORK!

 

[LocktownDog]

Man oh man! I just to tear into that big boy and slather it with butter! Can almost smell it baking ...

 

[Ugarte]

Man oh man! I just to tear into that big boy and slather it with butter! Can almost smell it baking ...

I keep looking at it and thinking "monkey bread." I'd wind up weighing about 300 pounds in no time.


Mark

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

I think the only thing in germany to be proud about is the bread and the beer.

I like the dark and tasty stuff with sunflower seeds or pumpkin seed. Fresh (!) white bread is good too. But I would miss the dark stuff after eating white bread for a week or longer.

(Edit because it sounded not nice enough haha)

 

[Shangas]

My mother used to make bread very regularly. She used one of those breadmaking machines. Unfortunately, the little mixing paddles always left all these unsightly holes in the bread which made it less than ideal for making sandwiches (among other things), so I rarely ate it.

 

[Big Man]

I started making our bread a little over a year ago when I received a loaf of home-made whole wheat bread (complete with the recipe) as a Christmas gift from a fellow Lounger. I've been making two loaves every week since.

My grandmother used to make bread for the family up to the time she was 99 years old. She always made whole wheat bread. I still use her old bread pans to bake our bread, as well as the oven she used. To me, that makes it all that much better.

 

[Wally_Hood]

Home made bread is one of life's everyday treats. Mrs. H used to make a loaf in the bread machine, but discontinued the practice for weight maintenance considerations.

But, boy oh boy, walking into the house after work and smelling bread baking got the mouth to watering...

 

[Yeps]

Senior year of high school, I brought a fresh loaf of bread every day for lunch, along with a hunk of cheese, maybe some olives or roasted peppers, and a liter thermos full of hot tea in the winter, and iced in the fall and spring when it was warm.

I miss real bread.

 

[Tourbillion]

Ha, I just pulled a loaf of caramelized onion bread out of the bread machine.

I also make sourdough every once in a while, although my results are...variable. I would like to make pumpernickel but there is no rye flour in my local market.

 

[rumblefish]

I make bread every Saturday from my seven year old starter. The sponge is made on Thursday, the dough made on Friday, and baked on Saturday. But it's not always a traditional sourdough loaf, it does well making rye, whole wheat, multi-grain, prosciutto bread, calzones, peasant bread, and my favorite- fat Bavarian pretzels.
Some photos I have in other threads:

 

["Skeet" McD]

Not necessarily....with the right equipment

I baked bread from scratch once many years ago with some friends. What a hoot! Mixing the yeast with the water, kneeding, and kneeding, and kneeding the bread. Sticking it in the oven and then VOILA! Much fun, but HARD WORK!

Dear DH, I've baked bread since I was in my young 'teens, and for the past decade have baked a loaf two or three times a week. The results--and the fun--speak for themselves. If it's the work that's kept you from enjoying this treat (and, to my mind, truly FRESH bread is one of the best foods known to man; problem is---it is at its peak about an hour after baking! Not that it's bad after that....just that, to truly know bread at its best, you need to make it yourself, unless you live in Europe): there is a way around it.

Get yourself a high-end stand mixer....one of the top KitchenAid or MixMasters; don't cheap out on this, because bread dough will strain the best of the domestic mixers. Seven minutes or so in the mixer will give you well-kneaded dough that would take MUCH longer to produce by hand.

The "house bread" here is a version of Pane Pugliese...which is out of the oven two hours after I measure the ingredients. There's perhaps 20 minutes of actual work...the rest is waiting.

I held off getting a stand mixer for DECADES, because I actually enjoy kneading, and I'm an old-fashioned, vaguely Luddite kind of fellow. But, let me tell you: the stand mixer changed my life. At this point, it is the LAST thing I would let leave my kitchen.

I hope this might inspire you (or others) to drop the couple of hundred dollars a good mixer costs....if you want fresh bread on a regular basis, I am quite sure you will never regret the investment.

"Skeet"

PS: For what it's worth, here's a link to a gallery with a few loaves I happened to have pictures of:
http://www.me.com/gallery/#100469/DSCF0234

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

Those pretzels look delicious.

 

["Skeet" McD]

Documented--and GOOD--Bread from 1932....

Dear Friends,
I have always provided documented, Depression-era food for the 1930s-era Skeet shoots I've run. The first time around, the sticking point was finding a documented bread. Bread recipes from earlier times are notoriously hard to document--speaking broadly, bread was either made by professional bakers (who had no reason to, and plenty of reasons NOT to, tell their trade secrets) or by women (who passed their skills to their daughters by oral tradition). But, here's a RARA AVIS: a documented, detailed recipe for a plain loaf of white bread from 1932.

The recipe was printed in a news report, now sadly gone from the Internet, published in Arkansas. It concerned Elizabeth Young, who was known in her community as "the bread baker." Her loaves disappeared from every church supper or fair she offered them at; and it said she had been baking this bread, in this way, every week since 1932. Now, at the end of her life, she revealed the recipe--and the secret, as far as she was concerned, of the loaves perfect rising.

The bread is not unusual, really (which, for those of us interested in the quotidian, is a GOOD thing): it reveals its Southern heritage in the use of drippings as the lipid of choice--folks elsewhere would use butter or margarine, I suppose. It is noticeably sweet--not cake-y sweet, but noticeably. This makes it toast very well and (I assure you): people will like it, even if they can't put their finger on "why".

The "secret" is the dorsal ridge Mrs. Young crimped in the center of her loaves. I do it, just because SHE did it. It may be nothing but folklore...or not. I can say: the loaves have always risen very well indeed, and produced beautifully rounded tops, just as she said. If there is a connection to her method (and there might well be)...I'd say the crimping channels the exhalations of the yeast to the center of the loaf, expanding it outward as well as upward. Who knows? What I can say is: these loaves are a historical, as well as a gustatory, treat. Make; eat; enjoy; and send pictures!

Elizabeth Young’s 1932 white bread

Ingredients for 2 loaves:
2 ½ Tbspn melted bacon fat or other drippings

2 ½ cups lukewarm water
1 Tbspn instant dry yeast

½ cup sugar

1 Tbspn salt

6–7 cups AP flour (as 3 and “enough”)
Butter or margarine for pans and glaze

Method:
Melt drippings and add lukewarm water.

Put sugar, salt, instant yeast, and 3 cups of flour in mixer bowl, whisk to combine, and add liquids. Gradually add flour to make a soft to medium dough, moist and tacky without being too sticky. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes).

Cover and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled (about 30-40 minutes). Preheat oven to 375°. Grease two 9 ¼ x 5 ¼ x 2 3/4 inch loaf pans.

Turn out on lightly floured work surface, halve, and shape into loaves, as follows: pat each half into a rectangle 5 inches wide and 9 inches long. Roll towards you, creasing each full roll with thumbs. Roll lightly back and forth to equalize cylinder and place in prepared pans; the dough should have lengthed to the full 9 inches and should touch ends of pan. Pinch top of loaves into lengthwise ridge. Brush with melted butter or margarine, cover, and allow to rise until doubled and/or slightly over top of pans (about 30-45 minutes).

Place loaves on middle rack in oven with space between pans and bake at 375° for 15 minutes, then lower temperature to 275° for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. Brush tops with melted butter or margarine and cool uncovered on wire racks.

"Skeet"

PS: Here is Mrs. Young's obituary notice, which IS still up as of this writing; may she rest in peace!
http://www.ruebelfuneralhome.com/archivedobits/2000/Young,%20Ruth%20Elizabeth.htm

 

[Michaelshane]

I made these today.My mother used to make bread like this every week.I watched very carefully just in case I married someone who couldn't do it.This stuff is important.....

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[Michaelshane]

The only difference between Mrs. Young's and mine is mine has no sugar.