How do I make bread?

[BARRACUDABILLY]

Ok I really feel stupid for asking this, but I don't know, and really would like to learn.

What is the best way to make bread?

Ok stop laughing, the first thing one needs to do to learn is admit you do not know.

I would like to know how to make all types, flour, wheet, flat, round even biscuits.
The wifes grandma made "ice water bicuits" that I assume had no milk?
they were kinda hard but tasty.

My grandma could make yeast rolls and white bread so fluffy, She loved to brag that she NEVER has had one slice of "store bought bread" in her house.
Bread making has became a lost art in my family I would like to start back up.

So what do you guys and gals have?

[cudalyon]

Ok I really feel stupid for asking this, but I don't know, and really would like to learn.

What is the best way to make bread?

Ok stop laughing, the first thing one needs to do to learn is admit you do not know.

I would like to know how to make all types, flour, wheet, flat, round even biscuits.
The wifes grandma made "ice water bicuits" that I assume had no milk?
they were kinda hard but tasty.

My grandma could make yeast rolls and white bread so fluffy, She loved to brag that she NEVER has had one slice of "store bought bread" in her house.
Bread making has became a lost art in my family I would like to start back up.

So what do you guys and gals have?

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger here...I do not have a clue. If it aint cornbread, I aint gotta clue.

[Brosia]

why would you feel stupid for asking? My bread comes in a white bag with polka dots on it.

look up recipes on the Internet. That's the only advice I can give you. maybe someone in your family has grandma's recipe?

[Zombie Axe]

I suggest you give a look see to www.simplylivingsmart.com My wife has taken several online courses on there and has learned to make some fantastic bread...

Last night she tried out a new bread pan that makes sandwich (square) bread... Ate some for lunch and it was awesome. Not as light and fluffy as store bought (which imho tears when you spread pb on it :( ) but way better tasting and doesn't have bad stuff in it...

Will get some link to bread making when I get home...

BTW we our bread from scratch... from grinding to baking...

[BARRACUDABILLY]

hey ZA that is what I am looking for from grinding to oven, I feel I could take care of most things except making bread, the wife keeps saying she can do it but I aint ate no bread yet, and yes this is proper southern, sorry I type like I talk.

Boz. I have grandma's yeast roll instructions but she had a BIG family and in her instructions one line states "get every bowl you own and place on the counter top" and she was right it must make 200 rolls and when we tried to cut it down by 1/2 or to 1/4 they do not come out right, g'ma knew what she was doing.

once I learn to make bread at home I want to make some camping down on the farm. if the pilgrams did it then why cant I?

[cudalyon]

if the pilgrams did it then why cant I?

Be careful.... The pilgrams ate bread, but nobody said it was good.

[Rustyshakelford]

Simple bread recipe. I make it all the time.

6 cups, give or take of flour, package yeast, tablespoon of honey or sugar, pinch of salt and enough liquid to make it "doughy". Mix it and knead it for at least 20 minutes.

Let it sit in a greased bowl in a warm place for 1 hour. Knead it again for 10 minutes and put it in the brad pan. Let it rise and bake it at 375 until golden brown.

There are lots of variations. My favorite is to use 100% semolina flour.

Liquid can be pilsner beer, water or milk.

You can add some room temperature butter if you want.

You can add sunflower seeds or flax seeds.

You can mix your flours to include Rye or Whole Wheat

100% whole wheat gives you a pretty crappy loaf. You can add vital wheat gluten to it and it makes it a lot lighter. It is available from Hodgkins mill.

You can brush the top with a beaten egg to make it chewy

You can grease the baking pan with olive oil for a much nicer flavor.

Traditional German Easter bread is flour, beer, yeast, honey, salt and saffron. It is baked on a sheet and a cross is cut into the top before cooking it. I love Saffron bread, but it is about $3000 a lb. You can buy .05 of an ounce for about $13.00. It takes VERY little saffron to flavor things.

If you mix wheat, rye and unbleached white, add the other ingredients plus raisins, cinnimon, and extra honey, you have Raisin bread.

Take flour, add salt and milk, leave out the yeast, let it sit for a while, and knead it again. Roll it into strings and cut with scissors into a pot of chicken, rabbit or pork stock and you have traditional German dumplings.

Recipe for German potato and dumpling soup

You can either or not peel your taters. I leave them unpeeled.

Dice them up and boil them in salt water. Make the above dumpling dough. Saute onion, celery and diced carrots with some bacon pieces.

After the taters are done dump the water into a bowl, and the taters into another. Put the water back into the pot and boil. Use a pair of scissors to cut the dumplings into the water. When they float, they are done.

Dump the water down the drain. Add all the ingredients back into the pot, cover with milk salt and pepper to taste (do not add any other spices, salt and pepper are the only ones) and eat.

You can make the basic bread recipe and make something my people call Kraut-Brioche.

Saute ground pork, beef , lamb or any combo of the 3 with chopped up cabbage and onions.

Roll out the bread dough with a rolling pin (A wine bottle works well) cut them into squares, fill with the meat and cabbage and fold. Put into a rectangle cake pan, let them rise in a warm place and then bake until done.

I have lots of others if you want them.

[Zombie Axe]

As promised here are some recipes and some basic steps and equipment you will need to make your own bread.

This recipe is what my wife used to make white sandwich bread. We had some grilled cheese sandwiches tonight and the texture and taste made plain cheese sandwiches taste better than before. She used a special pan she bought from http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/...ry=C86&id=5712 . It produces a thin-crusted, square-cornered bread, less crust to cut off for the kids.

WHITE SANDWHICH BREAD by King Arthur Flour
Ingredients:
2/3 cup milk
1 cup water
6 tablespoons butter
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
3 tablespoons potato flour
4 3/4 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast

Manual Method: In a large bowl, combine the milk, water, butter, salt and sugar. Add the dried milk, flours and yeast, stirring til dough starts to leave the sides of bowl. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased surface, oil your hands, and knead it for 5 to 8 minutes, or until it's smooth and supple. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl or dough-rising bucket, cover the bowl or bucket, and allow the dough to rise till puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.

Mixer Method: Combine the ingredients as above, using a flat beater paddle or beaters, then switch to the dough hook(s) and knead for 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl or dough-rising bucket, cover the bowl or bucket, and allow the dough to rise till doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.

Bread Machine Method: Place all of the ingredients into the pan of your machine, program the machine for Manual or Dough, and press Start. When the cycle is finished, remove the dough and proceed as follows.

Lightly grease a 13 x 4-inch pain de mie pan.
Transfer the risen dough to a lightly greased work surface, shape it into a 13-inch log, and fit it into the pan. Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise until it's just below the lip of the pan, 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the warmth of your kitchen. Carefully place the cover on the pan, let it rest an additional 10 minutes while you preheat your oven to 350°F. Bake the bread for 25 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, carefully remove the lid, and return the bread to the oven to bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until it tests done; an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center will register 190°F. Remove bread from oven, and turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool.


Here is another bread recipe that uses whole wheat instead of white flour. It is very nutritious for you. It has a wheat flavor to it. I like eating it plain but I find while the taste is good it overpowers the taste of the stuff on a sandwich (peanut butter/chicken salad/etc.).

WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

https://www.simplylivingsmart.com

Ingredients
3 Medium size pans
6 cups of Red or white Wheat kernels to grind into flour
3 tablets of vitamin C (total of 1500 milligrams)
4 cups of warm water
½ cup of powdered milk
½ cup regular oats
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup of honey
2 tablespoons Saf Yeast
½ cup Vital Gluten Flour
2 tablespoons sea salt
1 tablespoon cooking oil (for kneading)

1. Grind wheat kernels and vitamin C tablets in grinder.
2. While grinding wheat combine in bread mixer water, powdered milk, oats, vegetable oil, honey and sea salt.
3. Then add half of the freshly ground whole wheat flour.
4. Mix ingredients by pulsing the power a couple of times and then letting it mix.
5. Once dough is smooth and bubbly (less than a minute) turn off mixer.
6. Add yeast, gluten flour and a little bit more wheat flour.
7. Mix again and continue adding flour until you can see the bottom sides of bowl.
8. Let this mix for 12 minutes until its nice and smooth elastic.
9. Pre heat oven to 150 degrees.
10. Pour vegetable oil on work surface and put dough on it.
11. Knead well by hand to get oil over surface and make into round shape.
12. Cut dough into three parts.
13. Spray baking pans.
14. Punch down dough slightly to a flattened mass.
15. Roll dough up and pat it on the ends and put in pans.
16. Put bread pans in oven and turn off oven. Let them sit about 30 minutes. They will rise double, and then we will go ahead and bake them.
17. To bake the loaves, simply turn the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown.


Here is a recipe for whole wheat biscuits. We really like eating these when we have schnitzel (breaded pork chops, German style). We haven’t perfected it yet (they are a little crumbly but the taste is magnificent).

WHOLE WHEAT BISCUITS by Guilford Mills
Ingredients:
2 cups Old Mill Whole Wheat Flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk
1. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
2. Cut in the shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Add milk.
4. Stir with fork until dough clings together.
5. Knead gently on lightly floured surface (10 - 12 times).
6. Roll dough to 1/2" thickness and cut with biscuit cutter.
7. Bake on ungreased sheet at 450 for about 12 minutes.


We use a country living grain mill http://www.thewondermill.com/ . It makes grinding grains much easier. If it is easy you are more likely to do it.
We also have a back up manual grain grinder from Lehman’s http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/prod...ord=grain+mill . We know how to use it if we must.
We have a Bosch mixer http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/bosch_universal.aspx but you can use a bread machine or mixer with dough hook attachment. You can also knead by hand. We primarily use three medium sized bread pans but also have several mini and large ones. Different recipes call for different sizes and it is good to have them on hand. We just got a pan to make hamburger buns. I’ll let you know how they turn out. You don’t need all the electrical appliances but it sure makes the Mrs. more apt to make bread on demand.

Maybe a little later on we can a picumentary on turning grain into bread.

As a final note, also consider that you may need a way to bake your own bread someday off grid. We have experimented with a propane camping oven. http://zombieaxe.blogspot.com/2008/0...r-propane.html
We also have a dutch oven we have yet to make bread in.
Try to master the skills one at a time then learn a new one.

[lazer128]

Beer Bread...real simple

1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
3 cups self-rising flour
3 tablespoons white sugar

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and flour. Add beer and continue to mix, first using a wooden spoon, then your hands. Batter will be sticky. Pour into a 9 x 5 inch greased loaf pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees ) for 50 for 60 minutes. The top will be crunchy, and the insides will be soft. Serve topped with butter or cheese spread.

[BARRACUDABILLY]

AW MAN, I am reading these recipies at 6 am and they are making me hongry,
I have printed these off and will go to the store and start making me some this weekend, thanks for all the great ideas and recipies.

The wife said again last night she can make bread but she cooks "granny" style no recipies, I have to have it on paper, I will watch her make her bread and write it down, she makes a chewey sour dough type. I will share it with the group once I get it on paper.

Rusty you are a smart guy, much like your close buddy Dale Dribble, is it just me but when I read your post I am hearing it in the voice of Rusty Shakelford?
"The king" is one of my favorite shows.