Working my way through The Bread Baker's Apprentice

[Delicateflower]

Anyone keen to join me?

I have been using the NYT no-knead and the Artisan in five minutes recipe, but I'm ready to expand my horizons.

Yesterday I made the Vienna Bread. I was a simple, one day recipe, with butter, milk and sugar in the dough. The texture was a little too cakey for me, and it was noticeably sweet. My husband loved it. I used no milk powder and 100% milk instead of water, which may have been too much milk, but the kids were running amock and I didn't have time for calculations. I'd like to try it again with less/no sugar and less milk.

I have a Pate Fermentee rising for the Kaiser rolls, and a batter for Bagels. I'm going to make the rolls tonight, the bagels tomorrow. I'm using all-purpose flour, so we'll see how good the bagels are.

[Delicateflower]

Here's the list I'm going to work through:

Tried:
vienna bread - not great
Bagels
kaiser rolls - fantastic


Savory breads:
Casatiello
Anadama
Ciabatta
english muffins
focaccia
french bread
italian bread
light wheat bread
marbled rye bread
mutigrain bread extraordinaire
pain a l'ancienne
pain de campagne
pane siciliano
pizza napoletana
poolish baguettes
potato rosemary bread
pugliese
swedish rye
tuscan bread
white bread (3 variations)
whole wheat bread
potato cheddar and chive torpedos
roasted onion and asiago miche
lavash crackers
corn bread
Brioche

Sweet bread
stollen
panettone
Cinnamon rolls
Cinnamon raisin walnut bread
Challah
Greek Celebration breads
cranberry walnut celebration bread

don't want to try:
sourdoughs
portuguese sweet bread

[Delicateflower]

The Kaiser Rolls are phenomenal! I didn't glaze them, and the pate fermentee was fermented for only two hours and then straight into the dough. I also used a tsp of honey instead of a tsp of malt. The texture is perfect, slightly crisp, thin crust with light fluffy bread inside. The flavor is great. Not sweet at all, with a delicate, mild, wheaty yeasty sort of quality. This is my perfect sandwich bread. This is what I've been missing with those no-knead loaves!

The bagels are in the fridge ready for boiling and baking for breakfast.

[Delicateflower]

Bagels are another winner! I used brown sugar instead of malt, and topped them with sesame seeds. I need to use paper overnight in the fridge instead of a greased tray because they got distorted trying to get them off. All purpose flour instead of bread flour was good, a bit chewy but not too much for the baby. Flavor, texture, all excellent.

I love that they're a prepare ahead, bake in the morning recipe. Fresh bread for breakfast!

I want to make something celebration-y this afternoon.

[JTA Mom]

I got this book for my birthday but felt a bit too intimidated to try it. Your reviews sound really good though!

So, you have been subbing some of the more $$$ ingredients? So another liquid sweetener instead of malt, AP flour instead of bread flour, etc, right?

Ami

[vulturemom]

Here are the ones that I have made so far and what I thought of them.(I have had the book for three years now)

Bagels-loved them and have experimented with adding topping and stuff to the dough
marbled rye bread-good
pain a l'ancienne-very very good!
french bread-good
focaccia-good and have also added many different toppings
mutigrain bread extraordinaire-Love it!
potato rosemary bread-I liked it a lot but kids and hubby don't care for rosemary
lavash crackers-I liked them, Ds loved them and makes them all the time his self.
poor man Brioche- pretty good
middle class Brioche-yum! I love this one!
rich man Brioche-just too much I only made it once.
Cinnamon rolls and sticky buns-good but I like my old stand by recipes better.
Challah- I really like the taste of this bread even though my braids still look pathetic even after making this several times


I reallly want to try the sour dough but, haven't gotten brave enough to do it yet, Ciabatta, and now I have to try the kaiser rolls.

[Delicateflower]

JTA Mom, you should jump in and try some, it's great bread. I agree the front section is intimidating, I read that before christmas and was too scared to try anything for fear messing it up! I'm not subbing for price, just can't bear traipsing around to find malt syrup this week, and I had plain flour on hand, but not bread flour. With the 5 minute a day bread the AP flour gave a softer bread than bread flour, so I was using that.

Vulturemom, have you tried to potato bread with other herbs? I want to do that one next, but I need to get some potatoes. You MUST do the kaiser rolls, they're just like the real thing. My kids have already eaten the whole batch (I froze half).

Today I'm making the Casatiello, like a lower middle class Brioche with bacon onion and cheese. It's an icky icky dough, I had to break out the bread machine to mix it with, it was too sticky to do by hand.

[Delicateflower]

I am never making brioche again! The dough is YUCKY! And I've messed it up, the batter had to go in the fridge for an hour, then I had to stop kneading for an hour and it rose a ton. If it's edible, I'll be surprised.

[JTA Mom]

Delicateflower, how was the dough yucky? And why would it not be edible?

Ami

[BaBaBa]

oh cool thread!
I've only made the Anadama but it was easy and delicious :

[FitMOmmyOf2]

Oh wow.. those recipe titles sound delishious!!!
I wonder, are most of the ingredients hard to find or special? Being here in Italy, I realized I can't find many things and often gettings things shipped are either pricy or not even possible...

[BaBaBa]

Originally Posted by FitMOmmyOf2

Oh wow.. those recipe titles sound delishious!!!
I wonder, are most of the ingredients hard to find or special? Being here in Italy, I realized I can't find many things and often gettings things shipped are either pricy or not even possible...

Oh I'm green with envy. If I lived in Sicily I wouldn't even BOTHER with homemade bread. The bakeries must be divine!

[FitMOmmyOf2]

Originally Posted by BaBaBa

Oh I'm green with envy. If I lived in Sicily I wouldn't even BOTHER with homemade bread. The bakeries must be divine!

Well... they are, but all of it is either sourdough or plain white bread and on a daily basis I'd like to eat a tad healthier than that!