Couple of breadmaking questions

[Smokering]

I've been baking bread for yonks, but I always wondered about these things:

1. Can you use chicken stock in bread instead of water? I know veggie water is good, but I'm not sure whether chicken stock would be gross or not. It'd definitely be nutritious...

2. In sweet breads like raisin bread, can you omit sugar from the recipe and use fruit juice instead of water? I was thinking apple or orange. Again, not sure if it'd give the bread a nice flavour or if it'd just taste weird.

3. I'm interested in buying a grain mill at some point, but I use high-grade flour for breadmaking and plain for baking. How does that work? Can you buy different kinds of wheat with different protein contents for different types of flour? Is that, er, normal, or would most people who sell grain give you a funny look if you asked for bread flour quality wheat?

Thanks!

[ParisApril]

My thoughts.

Originally Posted by Smokering

I've been baking bread for yonks, but I always wondered about these things:

1. Can you use chicken stock in bread instead of water? I know veggie water is good, but I'm not sure whether chicken stock would be gross or not. It'd definitely be nutritious...

I have used veggie water milk and buttermilk. I don't see why you couldn't try stock. It would add a lot of flavor to the bread for sure. I wonder about shelf life on bread baked with stock? I always freeze my breads after the first day so they stay really fresh.

2. In sweet breads like raisin bread, can you omit sugar from the recipe and use fruit juice instead of water? I was thinking apple or orange. Again, not sure if it'd give the bread a nice flavour or if it'd just taste weird.

In a sweet bread you could just add a small amount of sugar (1 tsp) because the raisins would add a lot of sweetness. I usually put honey in my bread instead of sugar.

3. I'm interested in buying a grain mill at some point, but I use high-grade flour for breadmaking and plain for baking. How does that work? Can you buy different kinds of wheat with different protein contents for different types of flour? Is that, er, normal, or would most people who sell grain give you a funny look if you asked for bread flour quality wheat?

I don't have a grain mill.

Thanks!

[JTA Mom]

Originally Posted by Smokering

I've been baking bread for yonks, but I always wondered about these things:

1. Can you use chicken stock in bread instead of water? I know veggie water is good, but I'm not sure whether chicken stock would be gross or not. It'd definitely be nutritious...

I think you could. It would definitely be more savory, though. I like dipping bread into chicken stock, so I don't think this would be any different.

2. In sweet breads like raisin bread, can you omit sugar from the recipe and use fruit juice instead of water? I was thinking apple or orange. Again, not sure if it'd give the bread a nice flavour or if it'd just taste weird.

Yes, you can sub fruit juice. However, you need more 'juice' to get the same desired sweetness. Lots of people kinda get around the extra water by using concentrate.

3. I'm interested in buying a grain mill at some point, but I use high-grade flour for breadmaking and plain for baking. How does that work? Can you buy different kinds of wheat with different protein contents for different types of flour? Is that, er, normal, or would most people who sell grain give you a funny look if you asked for bread flour quality wheat?

Thanks!

Yes, Hard wheat is the high protein wheat used for breadmaking. High protein=more gluten. Soft wheat is the kind used for making cakes, etc. You'd use a proportion of each to make 'all purpose' flour. The difference between winter and spring wheat isn't that great, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. I believe winter wheat is the higher protein of the two, but not by much. So the highest protein/gluten would be winter hard wheat, with the lowest protein/gluten being spring soft wheat.

Ami