BOUDICEA

Warrior of the People

Articles Posted: 183 Links Seeded: 63

Member Since: 8/2009 Last Seen: 2/24/2012

Yesterday I made Bread for the first time.

Wed Feb 1, 2012 12:52 PM EST

home-garden, cooking, baking, nostalgia

By Boudicea

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My husband suggested I use my $225 stand mixer for something other than a dust catcher. I have to admit, he had a point. So, while I am a very good cook, I can't bake. it just never works. My best friend bought me Baking for Dummies for Christmas, so I figured this would be a good time to attempt something different, use my new-found knowledge and make my husband happier about the "damned mixer" I bought for no real good reason.

I watched Gram make bread every Tuesday when I was growing up, but I have just been completely terrified at the prospect of using yeast. Why? Who knows.

Well, yesterday I made bread. It wasn't real light and fluffy, and it didn't rise as much as it probably should have (I'll need to work on that) but it was good. And, in the end, those two loaves of bread cost me about $2.00 to make. No preservatives, either.

Next time I'll let the yeast bloom a little more before I add the rest of the ingredients, and I will let it rise a little longer, but I'm going to keep on trying to make the quality of bread that my Grandma made every Tuesday.

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Public Discussion (37)

Boudicea

Bread is my nemesis. But I will prevail - just don't how long it will take to perfect it!

2 votes

#1 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 12:53 PM EST

Zero-

your one of the few i know who'd try to make bread

1 vote

#1.1 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 12:54 PM EST

Boudicea

I can throw a dinner party for 12 with my hands tied behind my back - you'd think I can master a damned cake a yeast!

2 votes

#1.2 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 12:59 PM EST

Zero-

lol i make my own pasta

2 votes

#1.3 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 1:08 PM EST

Boudicea

Well, we'll have to do dinner. Bread goes well with Pasta, you know!

2 votes

#1.4 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 1:15 PM EST

Zero-

i know but it takes practice and i still boch it sometimes

1 vote

#1.5 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 1:18 PM EST

Lebowsky

You'll be surprised how much you will enjoy this having done it a couple of times, Good for you :o)

1 vote

#1.6 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 10:25 AM EST

Marshall James

boudicea

I am planning on bread making...I dont want to use a bread maker though...I have bread pans...and want to do it the old fashion way......just a matter of getting off my ass.....but things are busy around here....my time on the vine is a little less as our caucus is march 3rd...and I am involved.....so.....maybe after the caucus I will make the bread!!!!!!

2 votes

#1.7 - Sat Feb 4, 2012 10:06 AM EST

Boudicea

do your political thing - bread can wiat!

1 vote

#1.8 - Sat Feb 4, 2012 10:10 AM EST

Marshall James

yes meeting today....a rally on tuesday...guest speakers I have set up......getting advertising on radio......busy busy......but its cool I have never been active politically before...and being a County Coordinator for a certain candidate is showing me how things work....very interesting.

hey so are you going to experiment with different types of bread??? I am really trying to get back to basics here......plans for increasing size of my garden by about 1000 sq ft this spring....more canning, preservation...building smokehouse....

its exciting....and bread making is on the list.....have you seen all of the ingredients that go into a loaf of bread from the store???

amazing.

1 vote

#1.9 - Sat Feb 4, 2012 10:23 AM EST

Boudicea

are you gonna get to MEET Ron Paul? I hope so! Get me his autograph?

REAL ingredients in bread are easy, yeast, water, sugar, milk, flour, baking soda and salt. That's it.

1 vote

#1.10 - Sat Feb 4, 2012 10:30 AM EST

Marshall James

Well he isnt scheduled to come to washington just yet....although he should be soon...and yes I should be able to meet him here in the next month......as far as an autograph...lol....dont know if he wants to sign dozens of autographs for one person....as I have a few requests for that...but we will see....he is quite the busy man....and I dont want to look like a complete idiot....shhhhh to all of you who want to say somethign smart on that....lol

Oh I know what goes into it....I was just wondering if you going to make different types/flavors...ie rye, garlic...french, sourdough....etc.

1 vote

#1.11 - Sat Feb 4, 2012 10:38 AM EST

Boudicea

no sourdough, it's my fave but hubby hates it. I want to get the basics down before I get fancy!

#1.12 - Sat Feb 4, 2012 12:09 PM EST

Jonathan-1917156

Sourdough isn't fancy, it is just creating a sour yeast culture. It is something you need to maintain on a day to day basis. Basically if you don't bake bread everyday, sourdough isn't really all that practical.

#1.13 - Sat Feb 4, 2012 12:14 PM EST

Boudicea

EVERYTHING is "fancy" to someone who just tried to bake bread for the first time! Hell, BUNS are fancy! LOL

#1.14 - Sat Feb 4, 2012 1:09 PM EST

Queenie of the castle

Boudicea, I've never even ATTEMPTED to make bread from scratch. Closest I come is those frozen loaves that you buy at the grocery store. :(

#2 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 1:05 PM EST

Vlad's dog

my wife makes bread all the time.

The weather can affect the yeast rising Boudicea.

1 vote

#3 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 2:58 PM EST

Boudicea

gotta learn so I can make one of em permanti samiches for yinz jagoffs

1 vote

#3.1 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 3:11 PM EST

Queenie of the castle

anat

1 vote

#3.2 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 3:12 PM EST

Vlad's dog

Just go buy Mancini's bread in the Rox.

#3.3 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 3:16 PM EST

Boudicea

that's no fun!

1 vote

#3.4 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 3:18 PM EST

River-239955

I'm watching you, lady !!! I cannot make bread, either, but have always thought I might could if I had a bread machine, lol !!

2 votes

#4 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 3:08 PM EST

Boudicea

I thought about a bread machine, but it doesn't make HALF the mess I do! LOL!

2 votes

#4.1 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 3:10 PM EST

Jim44

I love my bread machine ...even a clumsy old man like me can make great bread...

3 votes

#4.2 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 1:13 PM EST

SavickConn

Doesn't it smell great?! My mother still makes bread by hand when the arthritis isn't on her.

2 votes

#5 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 4:42 PM EST

northern girl

My mom makes bread from scratch at least once a week during the winter. She does all her winter baking with a wood stove. I think part of the secret is having a warm place to keep your dough while it rises. She has a warming drawer on her stove which maintains the perfect temp. I have tried making my own, and while it turns out ok, my house is usually too cool for it to rise properly. I have tried pre-warming the oven slightly, turning it off, and putting the bread in there to rise, but it doest stay warm enough long enough. It always turns out a little too heavy. I think it would turn out much better in the summer, but I am unwilling to use the oven when its hot, so Im thinking about making a solar oven. I heard they make wonderful bread, and you dont heat up the kitchen doing it.

#6 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 7:25 AM EST

Boudicea

NG, my baking book said a gas oven if the perfect place to let your bread rise, so I put it in their like a good girl. Forty minutes later I realized my oven is NEW and has NO PILOT so there's no warmth in there! I did turn on the oven to 150 for ten minutes, but I think that made things worse.

Keep me informed on that solar oven!

#6.1 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 9:22 AM EST

Queenie of the castle

Boudicea, you can also turn your oven on to the appropriate baking temperature and sit the loaf of bread on TOP of the oven and let it rise there.

1 vote

#6.2 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 9:24 AM EST

Boudicea

Yeah, that brilliant idea came to me AFTER it had risen! LOL!

1 vote

#6.3 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 9:28 AM EST

Queenie of the castle

Another place is if you have a table or stand close to a heat register, you can cover the pan and sit it there.

#6.4 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 9:29 AM EST

Boudicea

that's exactly what Gram always did. However, since it has been in the 60s for a few days, no furnace is turned on!

#6.5 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 9:34 AM EST

Queenie of the castle

In that case, you could always warm a pan of water and sit the boiling water UNDER the pan and put them both in the oven. :D

#6.6 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 9:36 AM EST

Rigbee Dugane

Congrats, Boudicea. Keep it up and it will get easier.

Anyone interested in making their own bread should check this out. Fast, easy, yummy.

#7 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 10:43 AM EST

Boudicea

That was awesome, thank you! I like the fact that you can store it in the fridge and only bake one loaf at a time! And I DO have a pizza stone, but I never thought of baking bread on it! Lovely. Thanks again!

1 vote

#7.1 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 10:48 AM EST

Rigbee Dugane

After making a few loaves of bread from the recipes in the book, I gave away my bread maker. :-D

#7.2 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 2:12 PM EST

Jonathan-1917156

You might want to see if you can find 'instant yeast' instead of using dry active yeast (I am making an assumption there that you are using the more common dry active yeast). Instant yeast is the next best thing to fresh yeast cultures which you really need to be a bakery to be able to use.

The Following books are also EXTREMELY good:

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread
Peter Reinhart
ISBN: 1-58008-268-8

Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor
Peter Reinhart (obviously lol)
ISBN: 1-58008-759-0

The Bread Bible
Rose Levy Beranbaum
ISBN: 0-393-05794-1

The biggest difference between normal cooking and baking really is that cooking is an art, but baking really is a science. You may look at a baking 'recipe' and follow the steps and come up with crap, because your humidity level is off by 5%. Understanding that is important. The stand mixer is a life saver though, especially with my back problems.

The following website lists the differences between the different variants of yeast, but I see one problem with the site, it combines the bread machine yeast with instant yeast, and they are VERY different.

Active dry yeast is perfectly fine for things like Pizza dough where the slower, and smaller rise isn't an issue, but with bread it is an issue.

Oh, and a baking stone for your oven, that is another important purchase.

1 vote

#8 - Thu Feb 2, 2012 10:49 AM EST

Augur Well

Be the yeast! Embrace the yeast! Rise up! Make your own beads! (*grin!*)

Good for you, Boudicea! I've been making my own breads, off and on, for years. I'm no expert tho, not by a long shot!

A lot of good suggestions here I read, already! I've got the same "new gas oven" thing too. I just set it at 200 degrees for just a couple of minutes, then cover the dough and pop it in, plenty enough "warmth" kept in there to allow it to rise. Just don't make a habit of constantly opening the door to check on it! Leave it alone! (*grin!*) (if that's what your doin'! *grin!*)

Another trick I do to help my yeast get all foamy and happy is I make sure to warm up the little bowl it's in under some warm water first, and I always cover it. Always. When I'm making something that doesn't call for mixing the yeast into a hollow of the flour directly, that is. Covering it helps it from being quite so susceptible to humidity and weather changes from day to day. And I always add a healthy pinch of sugar to it too.

Read up on creating a biga, or starter too. I don't have one going right now, but the last time I did, I was able to use it, keep it going, the same one, for almost twelve years.

Here is pretty good tale about starters and bigas, good photos too.

Good luck, and be the yeast!

(*breadgrins!*)

1 vote

BOUDICEA

Yesterday I made Bread for the first time.

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Yesterday I made Bread for the first time.

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