/ck/ - Food & Cooking

If you haven't already started the bread and you aren't starting for three more hours, check back tomorrow when you finish making it.

Good bread takes 24-72 hours to make.

>>6902875

can you explain why?
I'm not very familiar with break making

>>6902884
okay so here's what you do for baby's first bread.
2 parts lukewarm water 3 parts flour
salt it how much you think you'd salt it.
add as much yeast as you did salt, maybe a little less.

mix it tenderly

cover the pot/bowl/whatever with saran wrap and let it sit for as long as you sleep and then a little more.

scrape dough on counter with flour to keep it from sticking. Fold it a few times and heat the oven to 425 american degrees.

stick that shit in a pot with some flour in the bottom for 30 mins in the oven covered.

pop the lid off and leave it in for another 15 minutes.
take it out of the oven and remove the bread from the bottom of the pot. pop the bread back in the oven for another 15 mins but turn the oven off.

take it out and let it cool before slicing. if the bottom sounds hollow when you knock, you're good to go.

>>6902875
>bread elitists
Literally the scum of the earth.

You can make great bread in 4 hours. Anybody who pretends like breadmaking is this extremely sophisticated art probably smells his own farts.

>>6902915
>Salt it how much you think you'd salt it

Those are some real cracker jack instructions, there.

>>6902915
Is this shit from pappy's olde fashioned cookin book? Learn to write recipes, nigga.

Some real bits of advice for OP:
>Good bread never comes quickly
>If you can stretch the dough to being transparent without it tearing, it's ready to go
>Measure your ingredients by weight, not volume
>The harder the dough is to work with, the better the final product

Not gonna post my recipe because it's a secret, but hope that helps.

>>6902942

Which ought to illustrate how unimportant exactness is.

>>6902918
Yeah, there's usually peasant bread that doesn't take entirely too long to make.

>>6902869
What recipe are you using OP? Hard to give any advice if we don't know what yer doing. Also good for you making your own bread.

>>6903595

this is the one I want to do, looks simple and not super complicated

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/fresh-baked-boules-recipe.html

I don't have a food processor with a dough blade but I'll just do it by hand

>>6903611
Are you limited on time, or can you afford to let something roll for a while?

>>6903630

I've got time

>>6903635
6 cups bread flour
2.25 cups water
3.25 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast

Mix flour and water until a shaggy ball. Don't worry about making it smooth. Let it rest for an hour. Add salt and yeast. Mix to combine. Knead a few times then place into a container and cover. After 30 minutes, knead a few more times, then cover and let rest. After 30 minutes, do that again. Now let the dough rest, covered in a container, until doubled in volume. Shape into whatever your heart desires, but a boule is a good first choice. Let rest for 20 minutes, then shape into a boule again trying to get the exterior of the dough nice and tight. Place seam side down in a bowl lined with a well-floured towel. Cover and let rest. Preheat the oven to 500F while you wait. If you have a dutch oven, preheat it along with the rest of the oven. When the dough has just under doubled, turn the bowl over and place the dough into the preheated cast iron dutch oven or on to a baking sheet so that the seam is now facing up. Place into the oven and immediately reduce the oven temp to 440F. Bake until the dough is a deep brown color. Let cool at room temp for at least 2 hours before cutting and eating. Enjoy.

Someone rate this recipe. I made it a few times, but it was a couple years ago and I didn't use a proper bread pan, so it ended up like a 2 inch thick pizza crust with no topping. It says it's supposed to be in smaller pieces, but the dough never seemed to form right. I assume I made some amateur mistakes.

Anyways:

5 cups of flour (500 g)
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup sour milk (250 ml) (to make sour milk add 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar to milk and stir to blend)
1 tablespoon of yeast disolved in 2 tablespoons of warm water
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup warm water (250 ml)
1/4 cup olive oil (60 ml)

Mix the flour and salt, place in a mound and make a well in the center. Pour in the oil, sour milk, honey water and yeast. Work the dough in the normal manner (bring flour into wet ingredients slowly mixing with hands, then knead) until it is smooth and elastic. Place in a warm place protected from drafts for about two hours. Punch down and knead the risen dough again, and cut into 10 or 12 pieces. Roll each piece out with a rolling pin to make it round and roughly 6-8 inches in diameter. Place on a well greased baking sheet in a warm spot to rise again (30-40 minutes). Finally, bake them for 20 minutes in a hot oven (375 F or 200 C).

>>6902918
The only thing it takes to get tastier bread is time.

I think a lot of hobbyists can wait 2 - 3 days for the perfect sourdough.

>>6902918
L I T E R A L L Y

>>6902918
I-I think it CAN be sophisticated, even if I don't make it that way... d-does that mean I have to start smelling my own farts?

>>6903630
>>6903761
>FF is back
Literally only one of the two namefags I don't filter. How important is a baking stone, FF?

>>6903761
>>6904855
Also can you give your recipe there in weight/percentages? I've never known you to post in inaccurate measurements.

Do I need a sourdough starter or mixing flour + water and let it rest for 3 days will produce bread?

My starters just keep dying or producing hooch maybe because its 100º outside.

>>6904864
I usually mix White flour, warm water and honey together into a wet doughie mix and then let it rest for 3 days, every day I put in a bit of honey, flour and water to keep the mixture active.

That usually works for me.

>>6904870
Do you live in a cold region? How much time you let it rise after adding the rest of the flour?

>>6904870
Why do you put honey in it ?

Look up how to activate yeast properly.

If you fuck up the yeast, then the whole thing is fucked.

Make sure the water isn't too hot, and add sugar to the water with the yeast.

>>6904855
L I T E R A L L Y

>>6904870

Isn't honey anti-bacterial?

How do I make my bread brown?
Every time I've tried to make it it just stays the same doughy color.

>>6904952
Different heat.

Sometimes when the bread is ready but the crust is still pale i'd just put my bread under the grill, dark brown within 4 - 5 minutes guaranteed.

It will burn fast aswell so be careful.

>>6904855
>>6904861
People keep hounding me for volumetric measurements, so I cave and do conversions from time to time. Also, I figure a brand new baker probably doesn't have access to a scale.

The recipe is closest to 100% flour, 62% water, 2.5% salt, and 0.2% yeast. Some of the numbers are fudged to make them easier to measure with cups, tbsp, and tsp.

what would be an easy bread to make with a packet of rapid rise yeast and some bread flour or all purpose?

I made these cinnimon buns with my first pack of yeast and turned out good but I need something less sweet

>>6904918
Almost all yeast doesn't need activation these days, gramps.

>>6904951
Concentrated, yes all sugar syrups are but if dilute it's yeast food, hence why mead is a thing.

Who /bakingstone/ over here? Got one at a thrift store but realized I have no idea how to use it.

Can steam the oven with them?

Put in a 1 to 3 ratio of yeast and flour.

okay why does my bread dough smells like beer? I know this is a stupid question but I only left it to rise overnight

>>6905660
Beer is liquid bread, anon. Do you mean kind of sour and hoppy? If so some wild bacteria may have gotten into it, won't kill you and some people even see it as a good thing.

>>6905463
>Almost all yeast doesn't need activation these days, gramps
uh huh
>Active dry yeast needs to be activated before use. To do this, mix together lukewarm water, sugar and yeast, stirring vigorously to ensure the yeast is fully dissolved. Cover, and set aside in a warm place for 5 to 10 minutes. Once froth forms on top, your yeast is activated and ready to use.

>>6905660
How old is the yeast you used?
The older the yeast the stronger the stank.

>>6905734
>The dissolving of the yeast first in a warm liquid is done to make sure the yeast is still fresh and active. This step really doesn't need to be done though because of how reliable the dry yeast is today. Also, the dry yeast has such a small granule size that it dissolves easily into the dough without having to be reconstituted separately. Some bakers, however, still feel that it is a good idea to test the yeast to make sure it is still active before adding it to the flour.

This opinion is more or less parroted in every cookbook after the 50s. It used to be needed because it was important to know if you where wasting time with a dead culture but as long as you follow the manufacture's best by dates you will almost never run into this.

>>6905479
A baking stone is just a big heavy stone/ceramic block that gets hot, and stays hot even when you open your oven door. They're useful because they stabilize the temperature and heat distribution in your oven.

>>6905463
>>6904918
"activating" yeast is just a way to check that dormant yeast have been successfully rehydrated and reactivated, it's never strictly necessary, just a practical precaution.

>>6905450
here's the recipe I started with 5 years ago or so: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/homemade-bread-cheap-delicious-healthy-and-easier-than-you-think/

>>6904952
Three ways:
1. Higher heat and/or longer baking times - will caramelize more sugars and give a darker loaf
2. Put more sugar(s) in your dough so there's more available for browning
3. use brown ingredients (whole wheat flour, rye flour, molasses)

>>6905660
Yeast ferments sugar into alcohol, hence the smell.

>>6902983
post it please :'(

Recently got a grain mill for my kitchenaid

been using it to make oat flour which has been great but any tips for wheat, specifically, in the making of whole wheat bread?

>>6903761
my shitty attempt, breads are cooling~

>>6905726
I've seen my mom make bread before and hers never got any beer smell so probably it was something I did. like you said, maybe some bacteria got into it but fortunately the bread came out alright but a little bit denser than I expected

>>6905736
I don't even remember how old it is

what would happen if I let the dough rise once and then still it in the oven immediately? pretty much every recipe I've read says I have to punch down the down and let it rise again but I don't know why

>>6908414
It will still be bread. The reason to bulk ferment then proof is for flavor development. It's hard to imagine until you've compared breads fermented for different time periods, but there really is a substantial difference between a bread made from a single rise and one that has cold-fermented in the fridge for 48 hours.

Has anyone here ever tried to make a good unleavened bread?

Thoughts?

Just pulled a couple loaves out of the oven. Used a mix of flours, including einkorn, spelt, white wheat, and a whole wheat milled at the local mill.

>>6908474

looks really really good, man. mine turned okay but they didn't look so good. considering it was my first time making bread I guess they were okay~ish

>>6909002

Sorry to inundate you with questions FF but I need someone with experience to diagnose my mishap.

I've used my starter to bake bread twice in the last 2 weeks. The first time was a disaster; following the overnight bulk fermentation, I eased the dough out of the bucket at around the 14-15 hour of the prescribed 12-15 window. It was extremely webby and difficult to work with. The end result tasted awful and I just threw it away.

This morning I eased new dough out of the bucket at roughly 11-12 hour. There was a vast improvement, and I ended up with rather tasty, edible bread with a pleasant if strong tang. However, the dough stuck to the inside of my bannetons (unsure of the best way to clean it off now) and what went into the dutch oven did not have the correct shape I have achieved with the other breads.

Is the starter itself screwed, or is there some part of the recipe that I should in future modify for my own kitchen, starter, etc.?

Your bread looks excellent btw, how do you lame it like that?

>>6909759
>is the starter itself screwed, or is there some part of the recipe that I should in future modify for my own kitchen, starter, etc.?
If the starter is leavening your bread reliably, then there is nothing wrong with your starter. I don't know how much starter you're putting into the dough, but 12+ hours of bulk fermentation at room temperature seems awfully long. Doughs with levains will often become very liquid if fermented too long, and can develop a very strong (and sometimes unpleasant) sour taste. Even when using only 20% starter, I can finish bulk fermentation in about 4-6 hours if the ambient temp is ~72F. I always tell new bread bakers to ditch time endpoints in favor of volumetric ones. Bulk ferment until doubled, however long that takes. Proof until just under doubled, however long that takes. If you do that, then you'll wind up with a fine bread regardless of the amount of time it's taken you to get to the finished product.

>Your bread looks excellent btw, how do you lame it like that?
Lots and lots of practice. Cut at an angle when you slash so that you create a flap of dough. If the dough is too wet, it will collapse and won't bloom appropriately, though, so I'd suggest practicing on breads in the realm of 60-70% hydration first.

To clean out your banneton just let the dough dry and then get a small brush with metal bristles. In the future, line the banneton liberally with a 50/50 mix of rice flour/bread flour and it should help you fix the sticking problem without having to use excess flour.

>>6909951

The recipe is from Ken Forkish's book. I'll take what you said into account for my next attempt.

I find it interesting to note that my bread turned out much better using these parameters when I was in Ireland despite the fact that here in Scandinavia the temperatures are numerically lower. I guess it might be because the houses here retain heat so much better, while at night there the kitchen will get a lot colder comparatively.

Do you have a Steam FF? If you do, I'd love to add you so I can ask you niggling little questions like this without having to hope for a thread- understand totally if you'd rather not however.

Regardless, thanks for the advice. I'll make sure to post the results if the bread turns out well!

Goddamn you to hell, ff. Showoff.

>>6910031
If you want, you can give me your e-mail address and I will shoot you a message so you can get in touch with me directly.

>>6910042
I can get you baking bread like this in short order.

>>6910053
>I can get you baking bread like this in short order.
lolno. I can cook circles around most but baking is and always will be alchemy to me.

>>6902983
>Measure your ingredients by weight, not volume
This realy is not necessary. OP if you're lazy, mix yeast w/ warm water and a bit of sugar. Once it starts foaming add enough flour to make a paste and refridgerate overnight. The next day, add a bit of salt and enough flour to get a moist but not sticky dough. Let it rise for a bit and then bake it.
Done. Easy. Barely any thought put in, just patience.

>>6910053

oisthebush@gmail.com

>>6910056

I started baking bread because all commercially available bread in Ireland tastes awful (http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=250330059).).

>>6910058

Weighing ingredients isn't that hard, and same day commercial yeast bread that tastes amazing isn't all that difficult. Putting in all the time of baking your mix only to turn out with something you don't want to eat is soul crushing.

>>6910056
When you're ready to change that, give me a holler. Baking is the same as cooking once you get over the initial hump of getting familiar with the general protocol. Similar creativity and flexibility. I worked as a chef for a number of years and also used to consider myself baking-challenged.

>>6910058
Baking by weight doesn't equate to incredible bread. I can and do bake without any measures whatsoever on a semi-regular basis. The real reason to bake by weight is for reproducibility and the ability to track how changes made to the formula affect the final product. Otherwise, if you nail a bread one day and love everything about it, you'll have a hell of a time recreating it.

>>6910068
>Putting in all the time of baking your mix only to turn out with something you don't want to eat is soul crushing.
That's what you expect when you're learning to cook. Measuring to a gram of accuracy isn't going to make a difference if OP can't knead properly, or is too impatient to let it rise and bake thoroughly.

>>6910068
Check your inbox.

>>6910078
Got it, much appreciated.

any advice for whole wheat breads specifically?

Here's an idiot proof recipe on youtube taught by a kid. Amazing bread recipe in general.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTZeT3MS83g