Does anyone still make their own bread ?

While I am generally a good cook and baker, when it comes to bread I just plain stink. Every time I try to make bread it comes out so bad you wouldn't give it to a dog. And if you did you'd get arrested for animal cruelty. Hopefully, some day Santa Claus will send me a really good bread maker and I'll finally make a nice loaf or two.
 
oldiebutgoody said:
While I am generally a good cook and baker, when it comes to bread I just plain stink. Every time I try to make bread it comes out so bad you wouldn't give it to a dog. And if you did you'd get arrested for animal cruelty. Hopefully, some day Santa Claus will send me a really good bread maker and I'll finally make a nice loaf or two.
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Sorry to hear that. If you follow a few simple rules, bread making is easy. First, and foremost, measure your ingredients with a gram scale. Good bread making is a PRECISE activity.
 

oldiebutgoody said:
While I am generally a good cook and baker, when it comes to bread I just plain stink. Every time I try to make bread it comes out so bad you wouldn't give it to a dog. And if you did you'd get arrested for animal cruelty. Hopefully, some day Santa Claus will send me a really good bread maker and I'll finally make a nice loaf or two.
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Well, I finally tried making artisan bread using a cold oven to bake rather than hot (as in 450-500F) to bake. I watched a couple of videos where they tried that and is suprised people that it worked so well. They achieved good oven spring and a more tender crust and great crumb. Here's a picture of my effort. Not so great result on oven spring. Decent crumb. And so so on crust. You can't really see it that well, but it is more flat basically showing it did not get good enough oven spring. However, I would think it was not because of the way I baked it (425F oven and starting it cold), I am thinking the scoring I did on top let too much of the gases out. The bottom skews to the burnt side and I suspect it's because I kept it in too long (50 minutes, but in a cold oven plus 10 more to darken the crust. Next time I will score bread on top lengthwise (not so deep) and start it in a hot oven (450F) for less time. If this doesn't post well, it's because I am not familiar with using social media to communicate like this and trying to figure it out the best I can.

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I don't eat much bread but occasionally I make a small loaf in the breadmaker. Sometimes I make a pizza base, flat bread or rolls by making the dough in the bread maker and then dividing it up or rolling it out and baking it in the oven.
 
I'm another one who makes bread in a machine, but only in warm weather. They don't work so well in a cold room and my kitchen is always cold.
 
Lavinia said:
I'm another one who makes bread in a machine, but only in warm weather. They don't work so well in a cold room and my kitchen is always cold.
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Just for general information, using any of the pre-ferments has a tremendous flavor increase in the bread. Depending upon the temperature of the kitchen, different types of good bacteria will develop.
Good bread can NOT be rushed. Time fermenting is THE critical factor.
 
I make great homemade biscuits. When the kids were home I made bread and also used a bread machine. Too much trouble for just one now!
 
Ruthanne said:
I've never made bread and now I'm thinking of trying it. Any tips for me?
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Yes. First of all, do it. Second, use a no knead method as it is far less work and produces excellent results. Third, no matter how ugly the bread comes out (assuming worst case), it will inevitably be delicious. Here is a link to a video which got me started years ago and pretty much kick started the no knead movement:
 
Good Bread Recipe Book from the 1970s

(someone put the whole thing online, free)

(some dessert recipes also)

https://www.xedizioni.it/Numeri-due/Tassajara-bread-book-p.pdf


I have done some baking, but not recently. Worked in two bakeries over the years. One place, we had a nice sesame-millet bread and a good cinnamon raisin bread. The other place did a lot of healthy breads.
 

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