Home Baked Real Bread!

[telentubes]

I use the same no-knead recipe, but make bigger loaves with 4 to 5 cups of flour. I still use just the 1/4 teaspoon of yeast. Bake covered in a cast iron pot at 500 for 35 min., then uncovered for another 25 min. with heat lowered to 450. Simple white bread, but very good.

[David Root]

What flour do you use? Looks a lot like my loaf, but yours is whiter. My flour is a regular flour mixed with some "gluten flour" and is not so white.

Which reminds me of an incident my wife had when she visited Mardi Gras in New Orleans back in '81 with some friends. They were in a restaurant ordering wine and the cheapest white was about $20 --remember this is 35 years ago--, and one of the ladies pointed out the expense and said "Do you have anything a little less white?"

Didn't go down too well.

[telentubes]

That story got me laughing.
I use King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour, which I got by default when looking for flour last Thanksgiving and all the general purpose flour was gone.
It needs more water than the other to get the right consistency, but I think the bread is better, so it's what I use now.
For the prep, I leave the bread dough in the mixing bowl for all the steps leading up to baking. I got tired of cleaning counter tops and dish towels and utensils etc., so punch down, 2nd rise, dusting with flour, all done in the bowl. Then dump the dough into the hot cast iron pot when it's time to bake. Then just one bowl to rinse out.

[David Root]

That's how I do it, except I do the last rising on a towel sprinkled with corn meal. The corn meal really prevents any burning against the pot.

I used to use King Arthur flour too, that was a good website as I recall, but I haven't seen it in Canada.

[martin manning]

IMO high-gluten bread flour made from hard wheat is best for baking bread, and King Aurther is a good choice. Look at the nutritional label and note the protein content as a percentage of the serving size. KA lists 4g/30g or 13.3%. If whatever you are using is around there it should be good. For a nice approximation of a rustic bolted flour, mix 25% whole-wheat/75% white.

[David Root]

Mine is 4g/30g too. Must be an industry standard!

[kkregsg]

I use my 2 cast iron dutch ovens for most of the types of bread I bake. The 1rst 1/2 hour with the lid on takes care of the moisture. I do sourdough, too, and just found a sourdough kalamata olive, rosemary and red pepper flake recipe online that all my lab rats, er, I mean friends and family swear is their favorite of all time.

I've futzed around with all manner of recipes, but the plan old no knead is really hard to beat. I've 2 sitting over night to bake tomorrow. I get on kicks where I make up a bunch of loaves, grab my boxer, and we careen between friend's houses distributing them. We've yet to be turned away at the door.

[Structo]

What I can't figure out about bread and the gluten revolt is, man has made and eaten bread for thousands of years.

Now we have a problem with it?

I know about celiac disease but it seems the gluten thing is the latest fad.

Give me fresh warm bread with real butter and I am a happy camper.

[TUBEDUDE]

I make gluten for dinner! I wash high gluten flour in a bowl to wash out the starch. After much kneading under running water, the gluten is left. It looks like a grayish chewed bubble gum. I mix it well with Peanut butter, chopped onion, a little oil and soy sauce. Drop globs of it the size of an egg into a glass baking dish with potatoes, carrots and onion, drizzle a little oil and water on top, and bake for 45m to an hour. People think that you made beef n roasted veggies.
I wait until they eat some to tell them it's not meat. That scares them! Then I explain that it's protein from wheat and they don't believe me. It tastes like beef, no peanut taste or anything. Of course it's a nightmare for these newer humans that are allergic to everything, and it's a lot of work but delicious. And it teases my herbivore friends who fe3el.guilty got eating it.

[RJ Guitars]

Thanks for that post... although "Man cannot live by bread alone", it does go good with everything else and I love the stuff!

[kkregsg]

Doing my usual aimless stumbling around the interwaste this past weekend informs me that my unglazed tiles are the stuff of misguided peasants, and that if I wish to be an enlightened baker, I need a sheet of steel to measure up. Which they will gladly sell me. Since I do not possess the Golden Palate, I'm thinking what I'm baking seems to satisfy me and my friends. Your consumerist urge may vary.

It's all about options.

[JazzGuitarGimp]

Fresh homemade Zucchini Bread, baked from scratch by my lovely wife.

[kkregsg]

A big hand for lovely wives! They make us even better. Or at least keep us from wandering the streets aimlessly.