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Alright, nerds, time to get toasted. Toasted grains that is. This is the baking thread for people who already like to brot and for people who want to start hot boxin those loafs. Given that only twenty people post in the Blue Heaven a shocking number of us are hobbyist bakers, so there should be plenty of knowledge to share. If you write a tutorial, a recipe, or a debauched tale of super bread, I will add a link in the second post. Please observe some basic rules: 1. Do not be lovely to people who do not know how to bake 2. Do not be lovely to people who do not want to spend $200 on your favorite dough mixing spoon 3. Do not act like the Pope of Sourtown (i.e. don't get huffy about ingredients or whatever) 4. Cakes, cookies, and other bread-like products count, so post em up ShinyBirdTeeth fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Sep 30, 2018 |
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Sep 30, 2018 15:39
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 02:29 |
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Reserved for directory 1. Tutorials 2. Recipes for Everyday 3. Decadence and Debauchery 
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Sep 30, 2018 15:39
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Do I have to buy Stuff? Not right away, but then yeah probably. To get started you need flour (all purpose or bread), yeast, a mixing bowl, and an oven-safe pan, dutch oven, or baking sheet. Flour is cheap, yeast is cheap, and you already have the other stuff. A few items to consider: 1. A kitchen scale. Many recipes are measured by weight using baker's percentages. The total weight of flour counts as 100% so other percentages are measured against that. In other words if a recipe has 250 grams of flour and calls for 5% salt, then it wants you to add 5% of 250, i.e.12.5 grams. This takes a little getting used to, but using weight makes things much more accurate and using percentages makes the recipe easy to scale. 2. Plastic tubs. Good for storing flour once you feel the need to own a dozen different boutique grasses, because baking made you a crazy person. 3. Loaf pans. If you want a classic loaf shape, then you can't use a baking sheet: You need a loaf pan. These cost approximately no money and are available everywhere. 4. A dutch oven. This is basically an iron pot with a heavy lid, which is great for making lots of stuff but helps bread spring (rise) in the oven by keeping the environment super moist. 5. A lame (pronounced lahm). A razor blade on a stick, this is used to score (cut) the dough so that it rises without tearing in the oven. 6. A proofing basket. Its a basket with a liner that you let bread rise in instead of using your mixing bowl. 7. Weird grains. Eventually you'll probably want to move on from white bread and it turns out there is a huge world of grain out there, so suddenly you'll have opinions on like barley or spelt. Good luck! |
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Sep 30, 2018 16:09
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Basic rear end White Bread The following measures come from Beard on Bread by James Beard, which is very much a newbie friendly guide to baking. 1 package of active dry yeast 1.5 to 2 cups of warm water 2 teaspoons of sugar 3.75 cups of all purpose flour (about 1 pound) + .25 cups for kneading 1 tablespoon of salt 2 tablespoons of softened butter to grease stuff Mix half a cup of warm water, the sugar, and the yeast. Let it sit a while and the yeast will start to bubble. This is called proofing the yeast and is not strictly necessary. You can just add dry yeast in with the other dry ingredients and the yeast will come to life as the dough is mixed. Go ahead and proof separately though for now so that you can see how active yeast can be (it is rad) Put 3.75 cups of flour in a big rear end bowl, mix in the salt, then pour in 3/4 cup of warm water. Mix it up good then add the yeast soup and mix yet more so. The goal is a dough ball that comes free from the sides of the bowl. Make sure all the flour has gotten moistened. Let that sit for five or ten minutes, so that the flour can begin absorbing water. Toss some of the remaining flour on a table and on your hands. Turn the dough out onto the floury table and give it a poke. Beard recommends the following method: 1. Grab the top of the dough ball and push it away from you. 2. Pull the stretched dough back on top of itself 3. Rotate the whole thing a quarter turn and repeat. Stretch, fold, and turn until the dough has smoothed out. It should take around 5-10 minutes and you know you are done with it is springy and smooth. Wash out your mixing bowl and butter it up. Now put the dough in the bowl and turn it all around to coat it in butter. Put a clean towel on top of the bowl and put it somewhere warm and draft free. I like to put the light on in my oven and use that as a bread incubator. Just make sure to tell your dumb rear end roommates not to turn on the oven. Now your dough needs to rise until doubled. This can take anywhere from one to two hours depending on temp, humidity, air pressure, phase of the moon, and zodiac alignment. Poke that squish boi with two fingers, if it does NOT spring back then it has risen a good bit and your bread will be ok. Grease up a loaf pan or select your finest baking sheet. Either way, push down the risen dough and kneed it for a few minutes. You are gonna shape it and let it make a second rise in the pan or on the sheet. Pat it into a loaf shape and put it in the loaf pan or make it into a nice ball and put it on the sheet. Leave that lump alone for like another hour. Meanwhile, set the oven to 400 degrees F and let it get real hot. Make sure your dough has room to rise in the oven - in other words don't put it right under another rack where the dough can rise and get stuck. Bake it for about 35 minutes then thump it. If it sound hollow you are good, but if not leave it in for five or ten minutes and check again. Now comes the hard part. Don't cut it. It needs to sit for an hour to cool down and finish cooking. NOW you can cut it. |
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Sep 30, 2018 16:28
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did someone say, BAKING? oh wait yeah it's right there in the title. Made some cinnamon buns for the first time a few weeks ago, pretty happy with how they turned out because I haven't baked with yeast much!  Please forgive the lumpy icing sugar in the cream cheese glaze, it was 9:30pm when they came out the oven and I was too lazy/hungry to sieve them.  Happy with how they rose, they were pretty light in terms of texture! 
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Sep 30, 2018 16:34
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Leaven and Leaven Accessories Most bread is leavened, meaning that it has air bubbles in it. Your usual suspects for leavening are baking powder or yeast. You'll probably want both of those. Baking powder produces a chemical reaction between a base (baking soda) and an acid (usually cream of tartar). The chemical reaction starts once you add water, which is why chemically leavened recipes do not permit much delay between mixing and cooking. Baking soda is not the same thing as baking powder and you cannot just use one in the place of the other. If you use baking soda, then you need to add some acidic ingredient to produce the chemical reaction otherwise your baked goods will taste like the shittiest IPA on god's green earth. Why yes I did once try to make pancakes with just baking soda and I'm still bitter about it, why do you ask? Yeast is a microorganism (a tiny bear) that lives on sugars in grain and poops out CO2 and alcohol. You can buy yeast in single-serving packets or in glass jars. The jars are more economical, but there's nothing wrong with the packets either. Store bought yeast is called 'active dry yeast' meaning it is all dried out and in a kind of hibernation. When you mix it with the flour and water it comes back to life and starts chowin' down. If you use very, very hot water you can kill the yeast, so use water that feels a bit warm on your skin. If you live near a brewery you can try to score some barm from them, which is the yeasty foam left over from ale production. In ye olden days when everyone was gross and stupid, professional bakers relied heavily on barm and (if I remember correctly) all modern bread yeasts are derived from ale-makers' yeasts. You can also cultivate wild yeast, which is known as a starter. Sourdough recipes usually begin with instructions on cultivating a starter, but the gist is mix equal parts water and whole-grain flour and cover with plastic. Wait a day, throw out half and replace it with fresh water and flour, then repeat for about a week. Now you can refrigerate your starter. The night before you bake, pour your starter in a bowl, add flour and water, then use half the next morning for baking and put half back in the fridge. You can propagate a starter this way for years or even decades. A similar technique uses reserved dough. Once your dough has finished its first rise, tear a chunk off and put it in the fridge. The next time you make bread, instead of using new yeast, mix that hunk in and treat it as the yeast. Then, when this new loaf has finished its first rise, tear off a new hunk and put it in the fridge. Again you can keep doing this indefinitely. |
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Sep 30, 2018 16:50
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This looks rad, Stooge. Thank you for sharing your yeast babies with us. |
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Sep 30, 2018 16:51
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 Fresh outta da oven, whole wheat sourdough 200 g of my sour boi at his most bubbest 750 g agua 20 g salt 200 g whole wheat, 800 g white I'm still bad at scoring the loaf 
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Sep 30, 2018 17:21
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Hey, as the Pope of Sourtown, I (I'm not the Pope of Sourtown, I'm the antipope because I don't know how to score a loaf well, any suggestions?)
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Sep 30, 2018 17:47
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Bread without kneading: opinions? Imo, it's good. I looked the King Arthur Flour recipe, but I over hydrate my dough even from their 80% hydration level for extra crunch and also I like wet dough for lift. 2 pounds plain flour (use all purpose or bread) 1 tsp salt 1 Tbsp instant (not quick or active dry) yeast, like SAF 3 cups (24oz) water MIX ALL. Don't even think, just mix it all and let it sit in a 6qt container on the counter for an hour, then refrigerate for at least two hours, but up to two weeks. The longer it sits in the fridge, the more it tastes like a sourdough. When it's bubbed to your liking (I like a minimum of a week), tear off a hunk with lightly floured have, shape it into a loafish thing, and oil the sucker lightly on a greased, parchment lined baking sheet. Let it rest for about an hour--it won't rise but it'll settle. Preheat the oven to 450F and then bake for 25-35 minutes until it's crispy and sounds hollow. Let it rest on a rack for an hour then slice to your liking. Easy.
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Sep 30, 2018 18:01
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hamjobs posted:Bread without kneading: opinions? This sounds like something even I can do. Do you have pix?
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Oct 1, 2018 03:48
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I would like to have the patience to make my own sourdough mother yeast, and have actual tasty homeade bread.
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Oct 1, 2018 04:48
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Zeluth posted:I would like to have the patience to make my own sourdough mother yeast, and have actual tasty homeade bread. Well you can always get this starter continuously cultivated since 1847 http://carlsfriends.net/ |
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Oct 1, 2018 05:07
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I made an experimental loaf last night that turned out pretty good. 100g rye 400g bread flour cumin salt yeast 2 x eggs 350g milk vanilla Whisked the eggs, milk, and vanilla together, then heated them gently on the stove. Mixed all the dry ingredients then combined with the milk brew. The vanilla was totally obscured by the amount of cumin I added, because I really love cumin. I think next time i'd either drop the vanilla or add a small amount of nutmeg instead of my dear cumin.  
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Oct 2, 2018 14:58
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Robot Made of Meat posted:This sounds like something even I can do. Do you have pix? That bredboi I posted in the chat thread is a relative of this guy! I can probably get some process pictures this week, depending on my mental state, and we can go from there. It's super easy, I promise.
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Oct 2, 2018 15:09
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when i am super depressed i bake a lot. which means this week has been declared Baking Hell Week. i've got a lot of dough ready to go in the fridge, and that means there will be: -rye sourdough -a weird rye-spelt puff bread/monkey bread thing, but garlic butter and goat cheese instead of you know, cinnamon and sugar with butter -pizzabois for the freezer (like hot pockets but homemade and for people who hate their lives) -chocolate chunk salted brown butter cookies -black walnut, olive and homemade goat feta puff pastry tarts -spanikopita -croissants -pain au chocolat made in the basque style in a baguette with plugra salted butter and homemade dark chocolate -iced pumpkin buns -old fashioned apple cake with boiled brown sugar frosting
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Oct 2, 2018 16:34
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holy potatohead hamjobs that all sounds amazing |
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Oct 2, 2018 16:36
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Manifisto posted:holy potatohead hamjobs that all sounds amazing i'm taking them all to the "we hate our city officials" meeting (that's not the real name of it but that's what everyone is calling it) other than the pizzabois because those are a surprise for my dad. they're gluten free and sugar free so he can have one once in a while and NOT DIE!
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Oct 2, 2018 16:38
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BREAD EMERGENCY: everything is raising and proofing fine but the pumpkin rolls. they're still flat af and just settling like crazy; i used Active Dry yeast that i just picked up from the store (per the recipe). am i stuck with flatbois??? should i just remake them?
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Oct 2, 2018 17:49
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hamjobs posted:BREAD EMERGENCY: everything is raising and proofing fine but the pumpkin rolls. they're still flat af and just settling like crazy; i used Active Dry yeast that i just picked up from the store (per the recipe). am i stuck with flatbois??? should i just remake them? you're the baker, what would happen if you proofed some more yeast in water/sugar (just to make sure it's not totally dead) and if it bubbles up kneaded it into the dough you already made? |
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Oct 2, 2018 18:06
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Manifisto posted:you're the baker, what would happen if you proofed some more yeast in water/sugar (just to make sure it's not totally dead) and if it bubbles up kneaded it into the dough you already made? i'm kinda worried it's gonna get too glutinous and chewy tbh; they're supposed to be super light and fluffy. the yeast bubbled but i think maybe they didn't have enough in the recipe? this is what i get for making someone else's recipe tbh.
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Oct 2, 2018 18:09
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Hey yobs, I made this pecan pie: Actually this is my second attempt because I didn't boil the sugar syrup enough in the first one so it had a really gloopy texture. This attempt was much better though!
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Oct 10, 2018 06:27
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Remember: when you're looking for dry yeast, do NOT ask your mom. |
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Oct 10, 2018 06:40
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ShinyBirdTeeth posted:I made an experimental loaf last night that turned out pretty good. i tried sharing this with my friends and they were initially incredibly hostile to the idea. also, it turns out i have been pronouncing cumin all wrong for some time. |
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Oct 10, 2018 07:23
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I don't understand mixing cumin and vanilla, that isn't any sort of joke, it just seems like a weird choice. Also that bread looks crazy dense, why'd you go with a rye? |
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Oct 10, 2018 07:28
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It was a weird choice and as I said, I was just trying something off the wall to see what would happen. That aspect turned out not to work at all, because the pungent cumin completely overwhelmed the more subtle vanilla. It was very dense, but I went with rye just because I like the flavor. I went through a long streak of nothing but wheat, salt, and water, which is fine but gets a bit tiresome. There's a real strong (but misplaced) conviction that ye olde bakers stuck with the plain old wheat, salt, and water, but it just isn't true. I guess in the spirit of opening up my experiences I threw a lot of stuff at the wall all at once. Here's what I would recommend if anyone wants to try a weird bread: drop the vanilla because it proved pointless, maybe switch the milk back to water if you feel like it, and feel free to use whole wheat in place of the rye for a less dense bread. The thing with experimentation is most experiments fail, hahah. Canyoneer, why were your friends hostile? |
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Oct 10, 2018 18:12
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I'm interested in making Borodinsky Bread, which has like one trillion variations but is a heavy rye bread with coriander. Here is one of the more involved versions I've found. |
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Oct 10, 2018 18:16
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Does anyone have experience with steamed buns? Thoughts or advice?Stooge posted:Hey yobs, I made this pecan pie: This pecan pie looks rad as all get out. Do you have any other baked goods on the horizon? |
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Oct 11, 2018 03:38
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ShinyBirdTeeth posted:Does anyone have experience with steamed buns? Thoughts or advice? Like asian steamed buns? I've always wanted to make those. Thank you! I would have saved you a slice if I could. I am thinking pumpkin pie next becaise I have always wanted to try it. I am outside North America I can't just use the canned stuff so it might be a pain. I like pie.
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Oct 11, 2018 08:05
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Stooge posted:Hey yobs, I made this pecan pie: Literally my favorite pie. ---------------- |
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Oct 11, 2018 09:33
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When making pies I usually use premade crusts but once bought gram cracker crumbs and used those and it was very good. This is all I know about making pies and it helps.
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Oct 11, 2018 09:35
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 02:29 |
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got a fresh yeasty boy in the dutch oven. gonna be a good oneeee.
ShinyBirdTeeth fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Oct 12, 2018 |
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Oct 12, 2018 03:17
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