Making Bread

622 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by bensjen, Aug 14, 2006

serenetabbie

Discussion Starter · Aug 9, 2006

I have a few bread (rolls, buns, sweet rolls, etc) recipes I like and sometimes make. However, I have a few Q's for those of you who make bread a lot or exclusively...

1. Do you make mostly quick breads or yeast?

2. Do you use a mixer (and if so what make) or hand knead?

3. Do you really find it is less expensive than store bread? How much less? Or do you make it for the health benefits/taste?

4. How often do you bake and where do you store it all?

TIA!

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2sweetboysmom

· #2 · Aug 9, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by serenetabbie
1. Do you make mostly quick breads or yeast?

2. Do you use a mixer (and if so what make) or hand knead?

3. Do you really find it is less expensive than store bread? How much less? Or do you make it for the health benefits/taste?

4. How often do you bake and where do you store it all?

--I make WW yeast bread 2 loaves at a time roughly every 5 days (Not NT method...though I hope to learn that soon!)
I also make WW sandwich rolls, and frenchtype sourdough once every two weeks or so as needed. I ocasionally make WW biscuts and muffins. (quick breads)

--I mix and knead by hand. My kitchen aid slips gears if I try to knead bread in it. I have heard great things about the Bosh universal though. Just too poor!!

--I am picky about my ingredients... so I don't think I am saving much money but definately not spending more. I really started it for health reasons. I can customize it to what I feel my family needs each time. It tastes terrific!

--I bake every 4-5 days. I use "bread storage bags" that I found in the grocery store, near the zip top kind. I have saved the bread clips from when I bought bread and use those to close the bags. I store one loaf in the fridge and one in the freezer till needed.

Within a very short time this became such a normal part of my week. It really does not feel like extra effort. There is such joy in giving my family the best I can.
Hope this helps.

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forthebest

· #3 · Aug 9, 2006

Hi , I'm afraid I don't quite make bread how I would like to! I'd much rather use fresh yeast but have difficulty getting it, is it poss to keep some as you do yogurt? I always knead by hand and it was making bread that I was doing as way of passing time during my first labour. I use wholegrain flour from our wholefood coop, it's difficult to store away from the mice where I live but a barrel is a good one with lid, yes I find it much cheaper than store-bought and tastier I think.With 3 dc and not much cash at end of week I start doing more inventive cooking and am always relieved that I can rustle up nourishing food for my tribe. I am not a great cook though my dc say I am! but I do love baking.

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bensjen

· #4 · Aug 9, 2006

I bake mostly yeast breads, two loaves every four to five days.

It's about the same price as buying quality commercial bread, but much fresher and I love being able to have the variety baking myself allows.

I use a kitchen aid to mix and usually to knead (although I love to do it by hand when I have the time). I find that if there are more than five cups of dry ingredients it's pretty hard on it, so I usually knead by hand then.

I have a question too for you fellow bread bakers--

I have a great recipe that calls for the last rise to get to the tops of the pans or go a half hour. I usually don't get to it for a half hour, by which time it has formed a nice dome. During baking it rises more, and usually falls over. I think that I could get a third loaf from the recipe if I let it rise the full half hour before baking, but I'm not sure what that's going to do to the texture of the bread. Anybody know how that all works?

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2sweetboysmom

· #5 · Aug 9, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by bensjen
I have a great recipe that calls for the last rise to get to the tops of the pans or go a half hour. I usually don't get to it for a half hour, by which time it has formed a nice dome. During baking it rises more, and usually falls over. I think that I could get a third loaf from the recipe if I let it rise the full half hour before baking, but I'm not sure what that's going to do to the texture of the bread. Anybody know how that all works?

I attempted that with my bread recipe early on and was not happy with the results. I wound up with 3 block shaped loaves. It worked ok for my kids sandwiches but was not asthethicly appealing. This was with ww flour not ap or white bread flour. Have you tried slashing the top before you put it in the oven? That usually prevents the 'dunlap' effect for my bread.
I have a question too: who uses hard red WW and who uses hard white WW?
I currently combine the two, but haven't settled on my perfect recipe yet.

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ladywolf

· #6 · Aug 10, 2006

1) both quick and yeast

2) hand knead

3) yes, it is cheaper if you buy artisan or bakery bread. If you are buying at the bakery outlet for $.25, it is not cheaper to make your own bread. I also buy flour for $5 for 25 pounds. The most expensive piece of my bread is the home grown eggs from the farmer at the farmer's market. Otherwise, there is salt, water, and sugar in some form. It comes out close to the $.25 to $.50 a loaf range, including power to bake the loaves.

4) I bake at least once a week and store it in the refrigerator because of the heat and humidity and not having a bread box.

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sandrajoon

· #7 · Aug 10, 2006

1. Do you make mostly quick breads or yeast?
Yeast or sourdough-type

2. Do you use a mixer (and if so what make) or hand knead?The Bosch Universal is super for kneading, does 6 loaves at once (10 minutes of kneading). We splurged on the Bosch, but think that we've made its cost back in the savings from buying organic bread. Plus its a big time saver, which is important - I wouldn't bake bread as often if I had to do it all from scratch, it just takes too long.

3. Do you really find it is less expensive than store bread? How much less? Or do you make it for the health benefits/taste?
I've never calculated the cost of bread, but we buy 50kgs of hard red winter wheat for $25 CDN, and that last a long time.

4. How often do you bake and where do you store it all?I bake when I can, and we still do buy some bread when I don't have time to bake. Our little freezer gets stuffed!

I always like to share this lead: if you can, try the desem bread (a Flemish sourdough type bread) found in The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book - it is beyond words

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bensjen

· #8 · Aug 12, 2006

For those of you who grind your own wheat, do you use white, red, what?

ANd then what kind of flour do you end up with? A whole wheat? Then when you bake bread, do you mix it with an all purpose flour, or use all wheat? I've never found a recipe that didn't use at least part all purpose flour.

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2sweetboysmom

· #9 · Aug 12, 2006

I add 2 tablespoons of vital wheat glueten per cup of whole wheat flour. I use 1/2 and 1/2 red and white. I use no white (refined)flour. I also include 1/3 c of ground flaxseed in my recipe. I think my materials cost is about .65 cents. I have not estimated the power usage.

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bensjen

· #10 · Aug 14, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2sweetboysmom
I add 2 tablespoons of vital wheat glueten per cup of whole wheat flour. I use 1/2 and 1/2 red and white. I use no white (refined)flour. I also include 1/3 c of ground flaxseed in my recipe.

About how much yeast per cup of flour do you think you use with this recipe?

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