Baking experiments.

[silverweb]

Thanks to advice and encouragement from Lucinda and others here, I started baking my own bread a few weeks ago.

What a ball it's been!

Starting with Ain5, I kept fiddling around with basic recipes. I live alone, so one loaf or its equivalent lasts about a week. Ain5's recipe was just too big and I wanted to experiment with flours, so I read bunches of bread-baking sites, blogs, and recipes for other ideas.

I also learned that while kneading the dough is not really necessary, it's FUN (and I get to call it "exercise").

If you're terrified of baking like I was for my entire adult life until very recently, give this a try. Even if the results are not as pretty as you'd like or the crust is too dark, etc, the results of your experimentation will be tasty.

Anyway, here's my own basic recipe that developed as things settled into a pattern, along with a few suggestions for variation. Some of the optional ingredients act as dough enhancers, too.

Dry ingredients
3 c flour*
3 tsp yeast
1 tsp non-iodized salt
Optional
3 tsp powdered milk
3 tsp gelatin
3 Tbsp sugar (or honey in liquid ingredients)
1-3 Tbsp herbs
3-6 Tbsp seeds/nuts, raisins, olives, etc, cut/ground up.

Liquid ingredients
Lukewarm water.
Optional
3 Tbsp honey (or sugar in dry ingredients)
3 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
TOTAL volume of combined liquids = 1-1/2 cups

Instructions
-Proof some of the yeast if it's a new source.
-Mix all dry ingredients well in a large bowl.
-Mix all liquid ingredients in a measuring cup to total 1-1/2 cups.
-Pour liquid into dry ingredients, mix very thoroughly.
-Cover lightly and let rise for 1-2 hours in a warm place.
-Knead for a few minutes, form a ball, and return to bowl.
-Re-cover lightly and let rise for another 1-2 hours in a warm place.
-Knead again for a few minutes.
-Shape as desired (loaf, rolls, etc) and place in baking dish lightly sprayed with Pam.
-Cover lightly and let "set" for 40-60 minutes.
-Preheat oven.**
-Bake.***

Let cool and enjoy.

*Mix different types of flour for variety.
**Bake sweetened dough at about 350 degrees Fahrenheit, other dough at about 400 degrees.
***Bake rolls for about 30-40 minutes, a loaf for 50-60 minutes.

I only have a EuroPro toaster oven, so I have a bit of trouble protecting the crust from getting a little too dark. Other than that, the results have been great. Your baking temp/time may well vary, depending on your oven. Experimentation is the name of the game.

My latest and current favorite loaf contains 1 cup each of white flour, whole wheat flour, and raw oats; 1 Tbsp each of flax seed, chia seed, and pine nuts that were ground up together in the food processor; and 3 Tbsp each of apple cider vinegar and raw sugar. Very tasty!

One batch of rolls was 50-50 white/wheat with basil, rosemary, balsamic vinegar, and honey. Another batch was brown sugar/cinnamon/raisin.

One variation I want to try soon is sun-dried tomato, black olive, and fresh basil.

This is so much fun. Let your imagination run wild with variations!

Thanks again to Lucinda and everyone else for all the encouragement!

:loveya:

[yellerpup]

1. Congratulations!

Looks as if you've been having a very creative period, and it is great to have a skill where even failures are still pretty darn good. C&B is fun; welcome to the party. :party:

[silverweb]

2. Thanks!

I've had such a good time experimenting with bread baking, it seemed like a good idea to pass along what I've learned.

Maybe someone else who's timid about it like I was will take the plunge and try.

The only real problem I've run into is the temptation to eat my experiments (both fruitful and failed) too fast so I can bake more often than I need to -- not good for what waistline is left.

[yellerpup]

4. You'll find a balance.

I started cooking for a neighbor when he came home from the hospital. Mr. Pup and I both gained weight over the few weeks I was feeding him every day. Eventually, I cut back to fewer meals per week and he misses having dinner to pick up down the hall every evening. My neighbors know to drop by after one of my baking sessions because they are assured of getting something good. What you are doing sounds terrific and once word gets around, you'll be sharing a lot! Good work! :hi:

[silverweb]

6. That's true.

As soon as the jeans started getting too tight, I began restricting myself to baking only one batch per week and rationing it.

As for sharing, I'd like that, especially with people who are struggling. I'm south of the border, though, and am not plugged into the local social services web, but that's on my list. If that happens in terms of baking, though, I'll need to learn to make tortillas. :D

[yellerpup]

9. Funny coincidence!

I HAD to learn how to make tortillas when we moved to NYC in 1979. There were only two Mexican restaurants in the whole city. One was WAAAY too expensive (puh-leez! $24 for 2 tacos?!?) and being from the southwest originally, I couldn't live without my tortilla fix. Now I make both the flour tortillas and corn tortillas, and what a lovely difference in taste! Now, when I give a party and announce that I'm making Mexican specialties, the RSVP's come in thick and fast. You won't be sorry to learn this skill, my dear. So nice to make your acquaintence! :fistbump:

[silverweb]

14. Likewise...

Pleezdtameetcha! :fistbump:

Tortillas aren't on my priority list at the moment, but I'm sure I'll get to them eventually.

[Lucinda]

3. I am so glad your baking! Congrats!

:toast:
Isn't is sooo much fun? It's easy to get addicted.

What kind of yeast are you using?
I haven't played around with too many sweet doughs. Just cinnamon rolls mostly. And doughnuts. Your post makes me want experiment! I've been planning on developing a good oatmeal based bread too. The wheels are turning!

And I love the flavor profile in the sundried, olive and basil loaf that you're planning on trying. Some of my favorite flavors!

[silverweb]

7. Thanks, Lucinda!

You're the one who gave me the most encouragement to start. Others chimed in, too, but it was mostly you. :)

I'm south of the border and the only brand of yeast I've found so far made here, called "saf-instant." It's granulated, contains sorbitan monostearate and ascorbic acid (as preservatives?), and comes in little packages of 125 gm, good for quite a bit of baking. I've been looking for gluten, but haven't found any here yet, so that may have to wait until I cross the border for shopping again (pretty infrequent).

The only "sweet" dough I've made contains a max of 1 Tbsp of sugar or honey per cup of flour and (so far, at least) is balanced with an equal amount of some flavor of vinegar. You can just barely taste it, but it adds an indefinable "something" to the final product.

The latest oatmeal batch is really, really good. Experimenting is much of the fun, and I'm thrilled that my playing around has given you new ideas.

[Lucinda]

11. Saf is good yeast! Hard to find around here.

If I want anything outside of my very limited options here, I have to buy it online. The local groceries really cater to our tourist industry, so options are limited on items that they don't think tourists will be interested in. You can buy almost any brand of chip or soda known to mankind, but you're lucky if you can find seasalt. :)

I'm not looking for a really sweet dough. But I like them with things like spicy BBQ for sandwiches. Your ratio of sweet to flour sounds like a good starting point for me.

I'm glad that the oatmeal is working well. I need to work more grains into my diet, and oatmeal bread, when I can find a good one, always makes me happy!

Happy happy baking! I'm excited to hear how further experiments turn out!

[silverweb]

13. Likewise!

Let us know how your trial of oatmeal bread turns out.

And you can try other grains/seeds in it, too, like the flax, chia, quinoa, pine nuts. I'm wondering if finely chopped peanuts or walnuts would also work... thinking about trying it.

[Lucinda]

17. I've never worked with peanuts or walnuts in breads but

I looove almond and sunflower seeds in breads and have wondered about using macadamia nuts. :)

[silverweb]

18. Let's try it!

I'll bet we can come up with some incredibly different/delicious and super healthy experiments!

[pengillian101]

5. Your tweaked recipe sounds divine!

I always like whole sunflower seeds in bread - I should just start baking it again. Your recipe inspires me. It's only been decades since I baked bread :-)

Thanks for your post. :hi:

[silverweb]

8. Thanks for the idea!

I hadn't even thought of sunflower seeds, though I have wanted to get some more quinoa and try adding that.

I hope you do start baking again and have fun with it! :hi:

[EFerrari]

10. I love bread baking even though I'm not very good at it.

It's funny because I started baking before I turned 12 and my baked goods, especially quick breads and holiday cookies, are something my extended family has always enjoyed. Nothing like 25 people drooling over a batch of cookies to make you feel appreciated.

But, for some reason, yeast bread baking has been a real challenge. I still love it, every step of the process. After a lot of work, I can make okay loaves of regular bread. They still need a lot more work. Eventually, that sourdough starter will start something, too.

lol

:)

[housewolf]

12. I remember your sourdough starter challenges!

When/if you're ready to take it on again, I can send you some active starter to get you going.

P.S. I _still_ can't make loaves as beautiful as Lucinda's (-: even after all these years! But they still taste great and we're happy with them (-:

[silverweb]

15. It was cookies that ruined me.

Way back when I was a young mom and my son needed cookies for his 1st grade class, I made a batch that would have served well as hockey pucks. I never quite lived that down, and gave up trying any and all baking at that time.

Now, roughly 30 years later, I've discovered the fun of homemade bread. The results are not all picture pretty, but every single try has been tasty.

Life's so weird sometimes. :D

[EFerrari]

16. LOL!

I still remember my little brother saying, "those pancakes were so bad, even FIDO didn't want them!"

:rofl:

No one in my family cooked at all which is how I started out so early. Nothing really phased me until I got to yeast bread.

That's okay. We need some challenges after the kids and the hockey pucks go their own ways. :)