Recipes

[ScarletDove]

---

@1920712 wrote:

@qualitygal  Blue Jean Chef has an excellent recipe for NO KNEAD BREAD on line. I'm certainly no expert in this area and it is an easy recipe and fun to do if you have the proper ingredients and utensils. She gives excellent directions. You might want to check it out. We went shopping today and no flour!

---

@1920712  Lovely and I bet it smelled just heavenly!

[Snowpuppy]

@gardenman I'm glad you found the perfect description...."lunatic fringe" 😅

However did people bake without obsessing over every.single.ingredient?

I grew up with my grandmother who taught me baking skills. Her advice? "Well, when you get the hang if it, you'll just know"  She taught that store bought kwap in the wrapper was inferior to what she could bake. 

I've got some overripe bananas that are going to be reborn into banana nut bread.

Thank you for your wisdom. Stay well.

[coconut1818]

With bread shortages I drug out my Pillsbury Bread Machine which I bought from the Q years ago.  Tried one recipe, not impressed.  Tried Bread Machine Bread - Easy As Can Be from the King Arthur website.  Wow, what a difference a recipe makes.  I've made three loaves and it's so delicious!  I used King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour but it calls for just regular flour.  I highly recommend it.  I put butter all over the loaf when it came out, cooled for thirty minutes.  

[gardenman]

---

@Snowpuppy wrote:

@gardenman I'm glad you found the perfect description...."lunatic fringe" 😅

However did people bake without obsessing over every.single.ingredient?

I grew up with my grandmother who taught me baking skills. Her advice? "Well, when you get the hang if it, you'll just know"  She taught that store bought kwap in the wrapper was inferior to what she could bake. 

I've got some overripe bananas that are going to be reborn into banana nut bread.

Thank you for your wisdom. Stay well.

---

I probably have 40-50 bread cookbooks, and there are a handful where the author makes it way, way too complicated. One of them insists on only using a Mediterranean sea salt hand collected by a European woman from the same location for decades, who then packages and sells it. Others insist on very specific flours and nothing else. Some insist on distilled water. Some are insanely focused on temperatures.

It's bread baking not rocket science. If you simply use good ingredients in the right proportions you'll get good results. Avoid extremes, but adapt and you'll be fine. People have been making bread pretty much since humans first discovered fire, so it's not nearly as complicated as some want to make it. When they over-complicate things, they make people less confident and dissuade them from making the bread.

Charles Van Over is a bit of a lunatic on temps. He has formulas for calculating the temps of every ingredient, then monitoring the temps all the time. Just keep them reasonable and you'll be fine. 

[teachgrd3]

Batter White Bread

2 packages yeast

2 1/4 cups warm water

6 1/2 cups flour

3 tablespoons sugar

3 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons soft shortening

Dissolve yeast in water. Add half the flour (3 1/4 cups), sugar, salt, and shortening. Blend with mixer at low speed. Then beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Mix in remaining flour by hand. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Stir batter, beating hard for about 30 seconds. Spread in two greased loaf pans (81/2x41/2). Batter will be sticky. Let rise 20 minutes, or until doubled. Bake at 325degrees for 40-50 minutes. 

[teachgrd3]

Bread Machine Bread

1 package yeast

1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons white sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 cups flour or bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

Place water, sugar, and yeast in the pan of the bread machine. Let the yeast dissolve and foam for ten minutes. Add the oil, flour, and salt to the yeast mixture. Select basic or white bread setting and press start. (This is for the square type loaf).

[Nightowlz]

We use our bread machine to make the dough for breads, rolls, buns etc.

Since I could not find King Arthur bread flour before I ran out I ordered some White Lily Bread Flour from Wal-Mart. Have used this brand for biscuits but have not used their bread flour.

I will use it when I run out of King Arthur.

Hopefully King Arthur will have it in stock when I need some more.

I also bought 3 bags Arrowhead Mills Organic AP flour.

I vacuum seal & store all my extra flour in the freezer.

[msclassylady717]

When I was making bread and didn't have any powder milk on hand, I used the dry coffee creamer ... it worked, had no problem

[daisysmom09]

Of course if you do not have a bread machine long ago they started making mixers with bread kneading blades and you just dump your ingredients in and let the mixer do the work and then  turn it out into a greased bowl and let it rise. If you have a mixer that is strong enough ( I have a Kitchen Aid) it is easy peasy. it is actually as easy and faster than a bread machine.  My guess is that You Tube has a teaching on making bread with a mixer that does the kneading or making bread that requires no kneading at all.  Blessings--my husband was NOT a cook but he loved making home made wheat bread at 2 loaves a week. and they were beautiful.

[beckyb1012]

My son got on a homemade bread kick a few years back and does not own a bread machine.   All by hand, loves it so much that even our hamburger buns when he grills our burgers are now homemade as well.  I did buy him a KitchenAid mixer for Christmas this past year and OH BOY was he happy and he showed us all how happy he was with all the cooking and baking!!!!!!