I’ve discovered that many people are intimidated by yeast breads; lucky for me, I grew up knowing moms who made bread and so I didn’t know it was supposed to be difficult. My early attempts were quite successful, but I do have a dud now and then. I’ve assembled some breadmaking resources to give some confidence if you’ve never tried it, as well as some ideas for experimentation.
Don ‘t be afraid to just try it. Alice Waters says that everyone loves freshly baked bread, even if it doesn’t quite rise or if it gets a bit overdone, and I have to agree. While breadmaking might seem like a laborious task, it isn’t all that difficult–it just requires being home for a few hours, although the different stages can be tweaked here and there.
I used to have a bread machine, but for some reason it stopped working (it was a rather old hand me down). No matter; I use my large stand mixer and it works just fine. DH likes to tease me saying that I should knead by hand if I want to be authentic. Then he ducks so as to avoid flying dough.
Some of the important things I’ve learned:
- pay attention to the flours and yeast called for in recipes. They are NOT always interchangeable.
- go by feel, not specific measurements. Start with the measurements called for, but recognize that flour is tricky to measure even with a scale. So if the dough feels to wet, add a bit more flour. If the dough is hard and crumbly add more water.
- don’t refrigerate bread (unless it’s store-bought Ezekiel or other sprouted bread that is supposed to stay in there). It’s best to leave it on the counter for a few days OR freeze it.
- it’s not necessary to take the temperature of the water; just make sure it’s not too hot. It should be about body temperature.
Some of my favorite bread websites:
The Fresh Loaf: A plethora of featured recipes, lessons, book reviews, a community forum and recipe exchange, and baker blogs.
Wild Yeast: Home of the weekly meme Yeastspotting, where lots of people link up their favorite bread recipes.
Bread in Five: From the authors of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, a blog where they post even more recipes using the no-knead technique.
GNOWFGLINS: A great all around blog, plus she offers an excellent Sourdough A to Z eBook.
The links above should get you started on your bread making journey. For the rest of bread week, we’ll be exploring more bread topics. Stay tuned!
Do you bake bread? If so, what are some of your favorite tips? If not, what are your questions?
I’ve never made my own bread before, but I was given a hand-me-down bread machine a few weeks ago that I kind of put away and forgot about with all the hustle and bustle of the holidays. I’m going to check out these sites and get some motivation to take it out and try my hand at bread baking 🙂
oooh definitely give it a try! One tip for the breadmaker – be sure to check it after the mixing part and before the rise part (I think your booklet should tell you when that is) and check to make sure it’s not too dry. If, during mixing, it sounds REALLY loud like it’s having a hard time you may need to add more water. Not checking was where most of my failed attempts occurred. Well, that and using old yeast. Two years unrefrigerated and it just doesn’t have the oomph 🙂
I, too make my own bread! I had to teach myself, so I have definitely experienced the scary parts of making home made bread. I am now starting a new adventure in sourdough! My starter should be ready by the middle of this week! Do you have any good recipes of what type of sourdough I should make?
Love your blog!
definitely check out GNOWFGLIN’s website. I love sourdough (sadly, though, I seem to kill mine off whenever I try to keep one. I travel for weeks at a time and forget it’s back there!)
I also recently discovered this website http://sourdough.com/ dedicated to sourdough!
Good luck! Hope you link up your creations on Friday at the recipe swap 🙂