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There are some guided bread slicing knives you can buy, or go all out and buy a deli slicer. You can get them for under $100, and they're great for all sorts of things, but they do tend to be huge and bulky and in the way. You can go in between and buy one of those folding bread slicer things with the multiple sizes, but I'm not a fan personally. You might be, I dunno. As for replicating that texture, the closest I've found is a hokkaido milk loaf using bleached white flour for minimum bready taste. It's important to use the tangzhong technique when making milk loaf, by the way - that's the difference between average sandwich loaf (with any good milk loaf recipe, more like pain de mie than anything) and fluffy, velvety, compressible, slightly sweet, chewy goodness.
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Nov 16, 2013 07:43
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Ectral posted:Is there any way to duplicate the flavor of processed sliced breads? This sounds pretty stupid, but I like the spongy texture and the way they taste. Could something like that be made, or is it better to just keep buying it? I'd really like to know if there's some easy way to recreate the flavor of processed, sliced whole grain bread specifically. My palate is just too developed to stomach white bread 
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Nov 16, 2013 08:25
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Strict Picnic posted:I have the same issue. The flavor of most home-made overwhelms the taste of the meat in sandwiches, imho. The subtlety of Wonderbread really allows the meat to sing. Plus, the even slice distribution adds the ever important aspect of symmetry to the sandwich. Does anyone have any tips for getting such perfectly sized slices off of their loaf? Practice? I can slice a loaf of bread into even slices without too much trouble.
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Nov 16, 2013 16:33
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circ dick soleil posted:My palate is just too developed to stomach white bread What?
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Nov 16, 2013 18:46
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circ dick soleil posted:I'd really like to know if there's some easy way to recreate the flavor of processed, sliced whole grain bread specifically. My palate is just too developed to stomach white bread Ahahahhahhhaahahah jesus christ, what a completely ridiculous statement. Your palate is "too developed" but you're asking how to recreate sandwich bread from a bag. Get over yourself. Anyway the issue with recreating most sandwich breads is twofold. One, you'll want to let it proof at least a couple of times I find, in order to get the airier sort of crumb you're seeking. Secondly, these doughs are enriched with fat, dairy, and dough conditioners. The latter includes ingredients like polysorbate 60 and mono- and diglycerides, each of which are used as bread softeners. Lecithin, too. Egg yolks are comprised of about 9% lecithin by weight, I believe. My recommendations: 1. Find a white sandwich bread dough recipe that seems good - I always recommend Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice as an excellent, excellent starting point. 2. Use a loaf pan 3. Replace some of the water with milk 4. Add a little extra butter to the dough 5. Incorporate an egg yolk. You're unlikely to taste much of the egg when it's a ratio of one yolk to a whole loaf.
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Nov 16, 2013 22:00
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whats your favorite type of bread to make mediaphage? edit: that you can make on the cheap
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Nov 17, 2013 11:11
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deadlypie posted:whats your favorite type of bread to make mediaphage? I know I'm not mediaphage but honestly I really like Reinhart's breads. read The Bread Baker's Apprentice or at least the bits about whatever bread you want and you have a good starting point in terms of technique as well as taste, IMO
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Nov 17, 2013 12:10
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SymmetryrtemmyS posted:I know I'm not mediaphage but honestly I really like Reinhart's breads. read The Bread Baker's Apprentice or at least the bits about whatever bread you want and you have a good starting point in terms of technique as well as taste, IMO ^ Really though, unless you're adding some sort of weird, expensive ingredient to your breads, I find that all bread is cheap. For daily eatin' bread, I usually just do a generic two-day boule with a pre-ferment that sits in the fridge overnight. My all time favorite thing to make, though, are buttermilk dinner rolls. They're just so, so much better than storebought rolls that many people buy - you know, the ones in the disposable aluminum tin? And so soft, so fluffy. So amazing warm from the oven, torn open with butter melting down them. Yum. Also, you might wish to look into the no-knead bread that is still popular around the Internet. It's pretty nice for making regular little crusty loaves.
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Nov 17, 2013 16:16
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I finally made amazing biscuits after many failed attempts. Recipe from Kevin Gillespie's cookbook (which is fantastic by the way)
WaterIsPoison fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Nov 17, 2013 |
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Nov 17, 2013 17:35
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WaterIsPoison posted:I finally made amazing biscuits after many failed attempts. Recipe from Kevin Gillespie's cookbook (which is fantastic by the way) Nice! They look delicious. I love making buttermilk biscuits. Practically my favorite thing to do for breakfast when I have guests staying over. Or when it's just us. OKAY FINE ALSO WHEN IM BY MYSELF. You should make some sausage/veg sausage gravy to go with. Split one open, butter, pour gravy on top. Awesometown. I keep meaning to try out Nancy Silverton's biscuits:  They're basically 'just' a laminated biscuit dough.
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Nov 17, 2013 18:29
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Does anyone have a good recipe for pumpkin bread? My friend gave me a recipe that she said she absolutely loved when her grandmother made it, but I've made it four times altering oven temp, hydration, amount of pumpkin, etc and it still turns out dry (like crazy dry) and it looks really bad. I really want a loaf (or three) I can take to Thanksgiving without everyone having to ask what the hell kind of bread is that even after they've tasted it.  I've also tried a few on the internet but they just don't have the flavor I really want. Also I saw you were talking about baking stones earlier and I use my counter top convection oven to bake smaller loaves in. Would it be worth getting a tiny stone for it if I were going to make pizzas and other such things? I won't have an actual oven for another year. whitelady fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Nov 17, 2013 |
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Nov 17, 2013 20:21
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Are you looking for savory or sweet bread? I posted a savory one from King Arthur last page or so that was really moist and delicious. The only change I made was I didn't have the ground spices it called for so I subbed in a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice. It made it smell really fragrant and awesome.
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Nov 17, 2013 20:39
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Hokkaido milk loaf tastes like wonderbread.
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Nov 17, 2013 21:32
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Awia posted:Does anyone have any tips for baking Gluten Free bread? I have a gluten allergy but I am jonesing for some bread in my diet. A bit late, but I have a recipe for gluten-free bread that tastes great, looks pretty, and can be improved upon with simple things (such as spices, psyllium husks, citrus zest, whatnot). Here we go. Ingredients: 8 g active dry yeast 400 ml warm (37C/99F) water 25 ml vegetable oil 7 ml (1.5 teaspoon) salt 450 g gluten-free flour mix Instructions: 1. Mix the flour mix, yeast and salt in a bowl. 2. Add oil and water. Stir until mixed. 3. With dough-hooks or similar, mix vigorously for at least five minutes. The finished dough will resemble heavy cake mixture. 4. Pour into a greased loaf tin. 5. Cover with clingfilm or suchlike. Brush with water. Leave for 35ish minutes. Go read GWS. 6. Brush with water for colour. 7. Bake in lowest part of oven at 200C (400F) for about 25 minutes. 8. Eat. Baking gluten-free bread is surprisingly similar to baking normal bread. The main difference is in the dough. It's sticky, and doesn't lend itself to shaping. It rises fine in the oven, but not very far before then (during the first leavening). The sticky dough does not impact the finished product, which is about as fluffy as normal white bread. I hope that helps!
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Nov 17, 2013 22:13
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If breading in a cast iron skillet, is it recommended to preheat or no?
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Nov 17, 2013 22:34
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In re pumpkin bread: just find a well-reviewed pumpkin muffin recipe. There's essentially no difference between muffins and pumpkin/carrot/zucchini/banana breads save for baking tin.LoonShia posted:A bit late, but I have a recipe for gluten-free bread that tastes great, looks pretty, and can be improved upon with simple things (such as spices, psyllium husks, citrus zest, whatnot). Here we go. This is sort of useful to people. The problem is that non-gluten flour blends vary wiiiiildly. Some are useful for 'bread' and some aren't. I will say this - even the best non-gluten breads, if we're talking about sliced loaves, aren't very good at all. For everything else, though, I really like Ideas in Food's "What Iif Flour". It's their version of the expensive Cup4Cup blend. SymmetryrtemmyS posted:If breading in a cast iron skillet, is it recommended to preheat or no? I guess it depends on the kind of bread you're making. I definitely pre-heated it for the popular no-knead breads as well as when I do cornbreads.
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Nov 17, 2013 23:43
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mediaphage posted:I guess it depends on the kind of bread you're making. I definitely pre-heated it for the popular no-knead breads as well as when I do cornbreads. I was considering no-knead as well as traditional plain as well as enriched loaves. Basically I'm hoping that a cast iron skillet is as good for a high hydration boule as it is for quickbreads.
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Nov 17, 2013 23:48
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SymmetryrtemmyS posted:I was considering no-knead as well as traditional plain as well as enriched loaves. Basically I'm hoping that a cast iron skillet is as good for a high hydration boule as it is for quickbreads. If you're going to go the route of using pans to bake your bread in, I'd suggest you ditch the skillet and get a cheap dutch oven. With that you can get get crispy, shiny crusts by using the lid, which steams the bread. Take if off halfway through and bake, and you'll get nice loaves. For enriched loaves the benefit of searingly-high heat isn't as beneficial. If you're making a nice soft loaf, like a Vienna bread or a pain de mie you want lower heat for longer. The added fats and sugars in the bread will brown way too quickly if you try and bake it like a no-knead bread, and you'll end up with a burnt loaf that's underbaked inside.
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Nov 18, 2013 00:33
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NightConqueror posted:If you're going to go the route of using pans to bake your bread in, I'd suggest you ditch the skillet and get a cheap dutch oven. With that you can get get crispy, shiny crusts by using the lid, which steams the bread. Take if off halfway through and bake, and you'll get nice loaves. Agreed with this. The dutch oven is what I used to excellent result. A skillet isn't going to offer you that high hydration environment that a dutch oven is.
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Nov 18, 2013 00:47
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A dutch oven is definitely on my wishlist (Christmas and just 'what I want to buy') but I'm poor so I figured this might be an okay substitute in the meantime. Sounds like it'll work fine for high hydration doughs, but I should stick to my oven stone for drier loaves. I usually cook enriched loaves on one of those air-insulated baking pans (picked it up at Goodwill for $2) which works great.
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Nov 18, 2013 02:07
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One of the reasons it works well is because it creates a humid environment. You can replicate this by preheating a jelly roll pan in your oven with your stone, and setting your oven temp 50 degrees higher. When you dump your dough in, drop some ice cubes or a couple of cups of water onto the pan and shut the door. Wait a minute, then open and spray your oven walls with water. Wait thirty seconds, and do it again. Close your oven and lower the temp back to your standard baking temperature you wanted. This will create a fair amount of steam in your oven, and aid in the sort of spring you want from your breads.
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Nov 18, 2013 03:24
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Hawkgirl posted:Are you looking for savory or sweet bread? I posted a savory one from King Arthur last page or so that was really moist and delicious. The only change I made was I didn't have the ground spices it called for so I subbed in a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice. It made it smell really fragrant and awesome. I'm really looking for a sweet loaf but I looked over the one you posted and it looks delicious! I'm gonna try it very soon!
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Nov 18, 2013 04:05
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Alright, so... I've been trying to get a good loaf of french bread made for the last week or so, but everything I do in this new house is failing me. I'm using this recipe: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2013/10/perfect-french-baguette-at-home-only.html but every time I try, the outer crust burns before the interior cooks through. I'm left with doughy, burnt bread and a deep sadness. My oven only goes to 500, not 550 like in the recipe, but I'm hoping I can find a way to make edible bread here before Thanksgiving. I'm cooking on a parchment-lined baking pan with a water bath and mister like it says, adding a little cornmeal to the bottom to prevent sticking. The dough is outrageously sticky and just sort of absorbs the flour I dust my counter with when punching down, sticking to the surface. Should I tape some parchment to the working area and punch down on that? Any advice on how to make a decent loaf of french bread would be seriously helpful, and save my rear end come holiday. EDIT: Going to try using the No-Knead Crusty White Bread recipe from King Arthur Flour's website, albeit halved. It seems a much more sensible way to go about things when compared to the Food Wishes method. bacalou fucked around with this message at 06:28 on Nov 18, 2013 |
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Nov 18, 2013 04:45
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bacalou posted:Alright, so... I've been trying to get a good loaf of french bread made for the last week or so, but everything I do in this new house is failing me. I'm using this recipe: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2013/10/perfect-french-baguette-at-home-only.html but every time I try, the outer crust burns before the interior cooks through. I'm left with doughy, burnt bread and a deep sadness. My oven only goes to 500, not 550 like in the recipe, but I'm hoping I can find a way to make edible bread here before Thanksgiving. I'm cooking on a parchment-lined baking pan with a water bath and mister like it says, adding a little cornmeal to the bottom to prevent sticking. The dough is outrageously sticky and just sort of absorbs the flour I dust my counter with when punching down, sticking to the surface. Should I tape some parchment to the working area and punch down on that? Any advice on how to make a decent loaf of french bread would be seriously helpful, and save my rear end come holiday. If you're going to do a no-knead dough, I recommend the method starring in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It's very easy, quick, and (nearly) foolproof. You can find the basic recipe floating around the web, but here's my favorite rendition: http://www.budgetbytes.com/2010/09/no-knead-bread/ However, don't use AP flour, use bread flour. It's much better, and produces a stronger, moister loaf with superior crumb. It's also the same price as AP flour. Buy King Arthur unbleached bread flour probably - at my local Target it's $1.25 off for a 5 lb bag, coming out to $2 and change, so check yours. I use that along with their white whole wheat to make a really delicious bread. Adding other flours and adjuncts is also an easy way to change the flavor and texture of your loaf.
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Nov 18, 2013 08:14
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bacalou posted:Alright, so... I've been trying to get a good loaf of french bread made for the last week or so, but everything I do in this new house is failing me. I'm using this recipe: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2013/10/perfect-french-baguette-at-home-only.html but every time I try, the outer crust burns before the interior cooks through. I'm left with doughy, burnt bread and a deep sadness. My oven only goes to 500, not 550 like in the recipe, but I'm hoping I can find a way to make edible bread here before Thanksgiving. I'm cooking on a parchment-lined baking pan with a water bath and mister like it says, adding a little cornmeal to the bottom to prevent sticking. The dough is outrageously sticky and just sort of absorbs the flour I dust my counter with when punching down, sticking to the surface. Should I tape some parchment to the working area and punch down on that? Any advice on how to make a decent loaf of french bread would be seriously helpful, and save my rear end come holiday. Turn your oven temp down. Unless you're making very skinny baguettes, 550 is going to be too hot. Try 450 for thicker baguettes and a bit lower if you want to make boules. After the final shaping proof the bread on parchment on the back of a sheet pan. When you're ready to bake, slide it off the pan and onto your preheated stone/tile/pan. Halfway through the bake remove the parchment and turn the bread for more even baking.
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Nov 18, 2013 13:41
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mediaphage posted:One of the reasons it works well is because it creates a humid environment. You can replicate this by preheating a jelly roll pan in your oven with your stone, and setting your oven temp 50 degrees higher. When you dump your dough in, drop some ice cubes or a couple of cups of water onto the pan and shut the door. Oh yeah, steam is absolutely brilliant to develop a big spring. If you don't add steam when cooking with high heat, it's way too easy to finish the top crust prematurely, diminishing the final loaf size as well as potentially overcooking the crust before the crumb's all set.
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Nov 18, 2013 22:54
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whitelady posted:Does anyone have a good recipe for pumpkin bread? My friend gave me a recipe that she said she absolutely loved when her grandmother made it, but I've made it four times altering oven temp, hydration, amount of pumpkin, etc and it still turns out dry (like crazy dry) and it looks really bad. I really want a loaf (or three) I can take to Thanksgiving without everyone having to ask what the hell kind of bread is that even after they've tasted it. Quickbread or bread bread? If the former, the Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen recipe from this year is pretty good. Super moist, very pumpkiny, and nowhere near as obnoxiously complex as most CI recipes. My contribution to their recipe would be to use a neutral oil but not canola. If you (or anyone you're sharing it with) can taste canola, it'll totally overpower the pumpkin and you'll have a gross rancid-fishy-bitter spice loaf of awfulness. Made two delicious loaves earlier this year, made two loves everyone else enjoyed last week. 
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Nov 19, 2013 16:41
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Molten Llama posted:Quickbread or bread bread? If the former, the Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen recipe from this year is pretty good. Super moist, very pumpkiny, and nowhere near as obnoxiously complex as most CI recipes. Canola used to be pretty terrible, but I find newer stuff to be just fine. If it's fresh canola, it shouldn't have this problem.
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Nov 19, 2013 16:42
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My tongue sadly disagrees with you. So much canola in the world.
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Nov 19, 2013 17:30
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Strict Picnic posted:Does anyone have any tips for getting such perfectly sized slices off of their loaf? I just use a slicing guide and an old GE electric knife, both of which I found at a flea market. The guide is just a plastic frame the loaf fits into. The knife is a rickety old thing I'm sure is going to tear up and mortally wound me some day.  It really made a difference in how we used the loafs. Of course the consistency of your bread may effect how your slices come out, but fortunately I favor whole wheat recipes and they make slicing easier (the sturdier bread can be sliced thinner). This is a whole wheat and rye.  I'm sure there are people that could slice evenly by hand but I am certainly not one of them. RadioDog fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Nov 19, 2013 |
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Nov 19, 2013 17:35
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I made this bread today and it turned out really good aside from the saltiness. If I reduce the salt will it affect the texture of the bread in a negative way? Currently it calls for 1 1/2 tablespoons for six cups of flour. If I wanted to reduce it what would be a good place to start? Do 1 tablespoon? Convert to 1 1/2 teaspoons? Edit VV: Thanks, I'll give that a try 
oneliquidninja fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Nov 19, 2013 |
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Nov 19, 2013 19:37
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oneliquidninja posted:I made this bread today and it turned out really good aside from the saltiness. If I reduce the salt will it affect the texture of the bread in a negative way? Currently it calls for 1 1/2 tablespoons for six cups of flour. If I wanted to reduce it what would be a good place to start? Do 1 tablespoon? Convert to 1 1/2 teaspoons? That's a lot of salt. Take it down to half a tablespoon. It shouldn't affect texture. If it isn't quite salty enough just sprinkle some on when eating.
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Nov 19, 2013 19:59
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^^^^ Ahahhaha holy heck that's a lot of salt.Molten Llama posted:My tongue sadly disagrees with you. So much canola in the world. All I can suggest is to stop cooking with rancid oil, then.
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Nov 19, 2013 22:24
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So I got a sourdough starter to work finally, and I think the trick was to actually put it in new bowls every few days to avoid crusty dredges on the sides of the bowl. Below is a photo of the bread I made, and it was good but not quite as sour as I hoped, somewhat faint in taste. I took my starter, made a poolish that sat for 6 hours at room temperature, then formed the dough and kneaded it and let that rise for another 6 hours in a bowl. Then I formed the loaf, placed it on parchment paper and refridgerated it overnight. In the morning I placed it in a slightly warm oven (85 degrees), and let it rise for 3 hours before baking it on a pizza stone at 400 for 35 minutes. Thoughts on how to improve the taste? http://imgur.com/2o7YSNT
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Nov 22, 2013 20:39
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mediaphage posted:
Awhile back, but Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads has a good 100% whole wheat sandwich bread recipe that turns out fairly soft. I've made it a few times and it's probably my favorite WW sandwich bread I've made so far. It looks like people have published that specific recipe online, but none of them say they were published with permission so you can just google the recipe. It's a great book and I'd recommend picking it up if you like whole grain type breads.
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Nov 22, 2013 20:52
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Thanks to SymmetryrtemmyS for the bread recipe. Waiting on the loaves to cool, but they look fantastic. Just a few questions for anybody who can answer them. From reading this thread, I understand that parchment paper will brown at higher temps, but it is still okay. The edges of my bread had a paper-like crinkle to them that might have been from the resting period, but I'm not sure. Could some of the parchment coating have leeched into the bread? I've been making no-knead breads and found that is fairly difficult to shape the bread into loaves, even with generous dustings of flour. Whatever I do, the dough is incredibly sticky and is very difficult to manage into decent shapes. Is there a good method for shaping incredibly sticky dough? Any tips would be highly appreciated. P.S. How long do you think a loaf of bread should rest before being cut into?
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Nov 23, 2013 08:01
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While the dough is proofing fold it like you would fold a letter in thirds over itself. It helps to do the proofing in a rectangular container to do this. Do that 2 or 3 times letting it rise again between folds and it should help with the stickiness of the dough. As a bonus every time you do a fold it develops more gluten do the final texture if the bread should be improved as well. The parchment isn't leeching anything into anything. If it bothers you you can remove it halfway through the baking. How long to wait to cut it depends on how big the loaf is, what the shape is. Bigger round loaves will take longer to cool than say a baguette. Leaving it on a cooling rack helps. Give them at least 30 mins to cool.
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Nov 23, 2013 17:21
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bacalou posted:Thanks to SymmetryrtemmyS for the bread recipe. Waiting on the loaves to cool, but they look fantastic. Just a few questions for anybody who can answer them. For stickiness try a lower hydration. I mix my dough so it just comes together; it slackens as it proves.
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Nov 23, 2013 20:46
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I tried out the 80% hydration baguette. Best bread ever.  
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Nov 23, 2013 23:41
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Alright, so I baked my first loaf of bread tonight. I am not 100% satisfied with what I made, but it is perfectly edible and works well enough. Here is a picture of it for reference... The hole in the bottom was just me making sure it was actually all the way cooked through. I did not want to make something inedible for my first attempt. I swear I will not do it next time. I do have a few questions. I am sorry if these have been run through before. 1. When I made my sourdough starter it never quite seemed to bubble as much as a number of pictures that I have seen online. Should I worry about this too much? 2. While it tastes alright, it does not quite taste like sourdough that much. Would I be able to improve this by extending the proof time for the starter? I proofed my starter for about 5 days and got antsy and used like a fourth of the starter and made a loaf. The starter does smell/taste quite sour. 3. The crust is close to where I want it to be but it is a tad on the chewy side. Specifically, the top of the loaf is a little chewy and the bottom of the loaf is just shy of perfect. Would I be correct in thinking that I need to steam the oven and also increase the heat a little? I baked it at 375F. I would like larger bubbles, but I know I need more water next time. Also, I need to put more effort into forming the loaf since this one came out a little wonky. Regardless, I am pretty pleased with this being my first attempt and all.
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Nov 24, 2013 06:00
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