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Bread.

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6 comments on Bread.

I tried Greg’s recipe in my bread machine, using the standard settings for wheat bread plus the programmable extended rise.  Tasted great, but it’s still really dense — looked like a brick.     I still have the recipes that came with the bread maker to try, but I figure I’ve got plenty of time to get this right, so I’m going to change one thing at a time.

Hannah was over for dinner last night; she has been baking bread for years, and she judged that it needed more kneading.  So the next thing I’m going to do is use the same recipe, only restart the machine after it finishes the first kneading so that it kneads twice as long.  

I warned my family that I was probably going to make a lot of mediocre loaves of bread before I got good at it.  The faster they eat it, the faster I’ll get better.

Comments

6 responses to “Bread.”

  1. Christy P Avatar
    Christy P

    OK, I perused Greg’s recipe and notice that I do several things differently.
    Here it is again with my notes in { }.
    1c. water {1.25 at least, but I live in a desert}
    1T. olive oil
    4T. honey {1/4 cup – sometimes combine molasses and honey to make 1/4 cup}
    3c. whole wheat flour
    2t. salt {1t}
    3t. yeast {1T – oh yeah, 3t is 1T!}
    (1/4c. sunflower seeds or chopped nuts) {I like to add millet – which should be added atop the flour so that it doesn’t soak up water}
    OK, it is critical to add the ingredients to the bucket in the appropriate order. Water, oil, salt, honey/molasses. Then flour. Then yeast in a little well on top.
    The whole wheat setting on my machine takes 4.5 hours, but there is also a timer option that allows you to put the stuff in and have the machine start in up to 12 hours I think. This is a good thing b/c it allows the flour to soak up water for longer. Even if you leave it on the regular 4.5 hour setting it is ok though. I judge that this recipe makes a perfectly serviceable sandwich-worthy loaf.

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  2. bearing Avatar
    bearing

    In my experience baking other non-machine whole-wheat things, letting the flour soak for a while — especially in acidified water — has always helped. I was thinking maybe it would work to let it all soak for a while, then add the yeast (mixed with a little bit of all-purpose flour to aid dispersal) before starting the machine.
    By the way, Christy, not only is 3t = 1T, but 4T = 1/4c. You knew that.

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  3. Amber Avatar
    Amber

    I meant to comment w/ this link on your last bread post, but better late than never…
    http://articles.urbanhomemaker.com/index.php?article=450
    She has some other good whole wheat/grain stuff there too.

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  4. Christy P Avatar
    Christy P

    Yep, I think that the distinction b/w 4T and 1/4 cup is how it is measured. They should be the same, but in my experience, measuring 1T four times when it is honey is much less efficient than measuring 1/4 cup once. The honey tends to stick to the spoon and require more scraping than if you do it one time in a pyrex cup. BUT if you do the oil first and then use the same tablespoon for the honey, it might release easily enough to avoid scraping each time and also avoid a reduction in your honey volume (if you don’t scrape and therefore the spoon gets effectively smaller with its coat of honey). The conundrum is that you need at least 2 tablespoon measures unless you want to clean and dry the oil/honey one before measuring the yeast.

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  5. bearing Avatar
    bearing

    Heh, I had the same thought about the tablespoon just now as I started another loaf. 1 T of oil followed by 4 T of honey from the same spoon.
    I used the teaspoon for the yeast, silly. And also for the salt.

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  6. Christy P Avatar
    Christy P

    I must admit I sometimes eyeball the salt and therefore do not retrieve any teaspoons from wherever Z has stashed them. The baking drawer is her favorite.

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