Kitchen

[SouthernBee]

@SharkE: Bread machine delivered yesterday. Reading whole wheat bread recipe which indicated needed: vital wheat gluten and bread flour plus the whole wheat flour and of course every where that I searched are sold out. I have ordered 3 boxes of the whole wheat bread machine mixes to be delivered May 1st. Any other suggestions or help. Thanks. Southern Bee

[gardenman]

The reason they recommend gluten and bread flour is because whole wheat and other flours like rye, have lower protein/gluten amounts and won't rise/develop as well as higher gluten bread flour. You can cheat and use all-purpose flour and the flavor will be fine, just the texture will be off. You might need a bit less water also as the higher gluten flours tend to be a bit thirstier.

[SouthernBee]

@gardenman : Thank you. Difficult finding any fresh bread locally especially any healthier bread. I am not a bread maker doing it by hand and thought bread machine would help and especially not to make big mistakes with previous ingredients during this difficult time. DH just ask if I could find a good whole wheat roll recipe and use the bread machine to mix and then bake in oven? 😁😁 Please let me finish researching one thing before asking for something else, at my age - really difficult to multitask. Southern Bee

[gardenman]

@SouthernBee 

Don't be intimidated by bread/roll making. For a beginner, you'll probably be happier giving it a final knead/shaping by hand and baking it in your oven than using a bread machine. Bread machine breads have an annoying tendency to collapse into bricks at a whim.  There are tons of step by step YouTube videos on baking that can walk you through the process. It's really not hard. I've been making breads and rolls since my teens (I'm now 61+). Bread machines are great for the initial mixing and kneading and first rise, but things can go awry after that. If you take over at that stage, give it a good knead and shape it however you want, things are less likely to go wrong.

Try to avoid the high hydration doughs (really wet and harder to shape) as a beginner and stick to the lower hydration/easier to handle doughs. A very easy beginner bread is the one from Charles Van Over's book "The Best Bread Ever." He's a little on the lunatic fringe side of temps and ingredients but the basic recipe is very simple, easy, and uses few ingredients. His recipe calls for 4.5-5 cups bread flour. 2 teaspoons salt. 1 teaspoon yeast. And 10 ounces (one and a quarter cups of water). He recommends mixing everything in a food processor, but you can also do it by hand, mixer, whatever. (I use my old Kitchenaid mixer.) Once it's mixed you give it a good knead. Simply plop it out on a clean hard lightly floured surface and press down and away from you, rotate it ninety degrees and repeat until the bread feels right, or you get tired. Then plop it into an oiled bowl, cover the bowl (I use plastic wrap) and let rise until doubled. When doubled, take it out of the bowl, whack it in half. Shape each half into a nicely shaped loaf of whatever shape you want, cover and let rise again. Bake it in a preheated 450 degree oven (ideally on a pizza stone, but it's good anyway.) A few spritzes of water when you put it in and a few more in the first few minutes to help get a good oven spring, and in 20-25 minutes you'll have two delicious loaves of bread. It's pretty much a fool proof recipe. 

People have been making bread for millennia, so you'll be fine. Some bakers make it sound like nuclear physics and make it a lot more complicated than it needs to be. Just relax, master a simple recipe and then build upon it. Bread is essentially just flour, salt, yeast and water. As long as you're not too far off with any of those you'll be fine.

[fthunt]

@gardenman That was very nice of you to give - new bread baker - so many tips.  Wish I had them back when I bought a BM.  Hated the hard-rock square dense loafs machine put out.  Gave machine away - as fast as possible.  LOL

[sann]

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@gardenman wrote:

The reason they recommend gluten and bread flour is because whole wheat and other flours like rye, have lower protein/gluten amounts and won't rise/develop as well as higher gluten bread flour. You can cheat and use all-purpose flour and the flavor will be fine, just the texture will be off. You might need a bit less water also as the higher gluten flours tend to be a bit thirstier.

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True. I use all purpose flour no problems.

[SouthernBee]

@gardenman : Wow- thank you for the great details.Found the book you suggested and ordered a used but like new book with EDD of 5/2. O/T: still enjoying the LG Phone that you provided great reviews. Happy Baking. Thanks again. Southern Bee

[SharkE]

What's the sense in getting a bread machine if your gonna have to do all that stuff yourself ?  LOL  I'm not gonna throw in all that stuff then take it out and knead it, shape it, etc.

I don't do that whole grain stuff, so, can't help you there. Nose around King Arthur site those chicks are on the ball, you tube is a must have website.

Why I liked those Zo machines so much better then the ones that make that square, high lump of bread. Zo's shape the bread more like a loaf of Wonder Bread, longer.   

I just throw in ingredients in order they tell you too, use the Basic Fast cycle and walk away.  It does the mixing , kneading, rising, baking all by itself. Bell goes off. I lift it out make sure that wingnut thing isn't embedded in it and let cool and break out the butter. LOL

[SouthernBee]

@SharkE : I will use the bread machine to make loaves but DH just requested rolls. Trying to make healthier choices. Tonight made a stir fry and substituted beef for chicken, used low sodium broth and soy sauce. Then substituted white rice for brown. Totally shocked that DH asked for more. Didn't complain about brown rice. I might be wrong but the cuisinart bread machine that I purchased looks like the results should be more like a regular shaped loaf of bread, this pan is square where years ago when I had a bread machine the results were more like a round loaf.Southern Bee. 

[SharkE]

I started taking prevastatin pill and now I can eat again, my cholesterol went from 223 to 180 in 6 months. Can't wait to see where it goes after another 6 months. I'm satisfied with 180.  I threw out all the butter subsitutes LOL