PrintI am ready to try making homemade bread!
I am piggybacking on the question of the day. I see lots of people make their own bread. For some reason I have never even considered doing that. It seems too time consuming and hard to get the results you want. But considering that I am fairly confident in my dough "handling" when making pasta, can I take that confidence into bread making? Any tips for an easy start?
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15 Comments:
Try the no knead bread recipe. I'd never made bread before but tried this recipe. I've made it twice and it's turned out great each time. It has a wonderful crisp crust and a great crumb with all those little holes. Much better than those artisan loaves you get at the store for 3 to 4 dollars.
Colorado Jim at 2:23PM on 04/26/07
I would also suggest no knead bread.
Here's the recipe: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?ei=5090&en=a55ab31eb6c5a47d&ex=1320642000&pagewanted=all
It's very easy and will give you the confidence to experiment with other bread recipes.
ceforrester at 2:34PM on 04/26/07
For me the best part about making bread is the kneading. I would say find a recipe for a basic bread and go from there. Unless your yeast is bad to begin with I have always found it hard to make bad bread, no matter how many things I have done wrong.
Sarahrm at 2:47PM on 04/26/07
This link is all that you need, I reference it all the time and I have been making bread for a while. The information in this article is outstanding.
http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/02/for-beaming-bewitching-breads
Lilartist at 2:47PM on 04/26/07
Quick suggestion...find a good bakery. Bread is too finicky, requires a good oven and way too much work.
nelson5757 at 3:13PM on 04/26/07
the first bread i ever made was from the little cookbook that comes along with the Kitchen Aid stand mixer. after making that for a while and getting better at it, i eventually bought the bread baker's apprentice. the pizza dough recipe is the one i use, and the focaccia is excellent. note that this is a bit more serious in bread making than the kitchen aid cookbook bread (as in, everything is a 2 day process). but the results are so worth your while. now, go buy some yeast packets, take a deep breath, and dive in! you won't be disappointed. please come back and tell us how it went, too!
oh Lilartist, thanks for the link! i'm always on the lookout for new bread reads.
french tart at 3:14PM on 04/26/07
welcome frenchtart! SmittenKitchen actually has alot of recipes as well. but this article is outstanding, she goes right into it and gives you all the secrets for fabulous bread!
Lilartist at 3:20PM on 04/26/07
Don't be afraid of making bread. It is pretty forgiving - not finicky. Once you have made a couple loaves you will get a feel for what the dough should be like. But I would start with the no-knead as it shows you that you don't need to be super careful with the measurements.
Originally, there was a video about the bread of the times website. I would watch it, as it shows how simple the process is.
laura dot at 3:31PM on 04/26/07
You might consider the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book. I just made the wheat baguettes, and they came out really nicely. I've also baked a couple of other breads from the book that were impressive -- and I'm a novice bread baker.
hereandthe at 4:11PM on 04/26/07
Baking bread is time consuming, but not difficult. I started with the William Sonoma Essentials of Baking. It is very clear and descriptive. Most of baking success in general , is that you must read the recipe carefully. If you do this, you will not have a problem.
Mich23 at 4:34PM on 04/26/07
Yes, baking bread is time consuming and can require "way too much work", but unless you're going to do something like a 3-day levain, it doesn't take much work. 10 minutes to mix, wait a while, work for 5 minutes, wait, then bake.
I have access to some of the best bread in the country (Acme in Berkeley, CA), and yet I bake bread nearly every week. Why? Because there is something deeply satisfying about turning water, yeast, salt and flour into a living thing, watching it grow, then filling the apartment with a marvelous smell. It just feels good to bake bread.
I learned to bake bread a long time ago from Laurel's Kitchen, a natural cooking book from the 70s. Lauren and friends also have a bread book which is highly regarded. Rose Levy Bernabaum's bread book is probably great (her cake and pie books are excellent). Your public library might have some video tapes or DVDs of bread baking shows (like Baking with Julia) that can help you learn --- it is always helpful to SEE the process rather than just reading about it. Some of the Baking with Julia shows are on-line in the pbs.org webspace.
Marc at 2:16AM on 04/27/07
Even though I make no-knead bread a lot, I would not recommend it as the starting point for a new bread baker, since it doesn't teach you much in the way of actual bread making skills.
There are two oldish books that I still rely on constantly. While neither has pretty pictures, they both have fantastic instructions to start you on the way to being a good bread maker. One is Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book Of Breads. It has a 'your first loaf' (I'm too lazy to walk down the the cookbook bookcase at the moment) which is a very good place to start. It also has hundreds of other recipes, including (once you are further along on the bread making road) very complete instructions for making your own croissants.
I like this book because it's not at all snobby in the way some books dedicated to Artisanal whatever can be. It even has a recipe for dog biscuits.
The other, which is good if you get interested in whole wheat/ alternative grain baking, is Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. It has tremendous instructions for making a real whole wheat, as in no added white flour to make things easier, loaf.
maki at 2:19AM on 04/27/07
Make bread! Peasants did it with no equipment nor recipes for thousands of years, and there is no reason that we cannot do it, too! Give it a try, and see how you like it. It is fun and rewarding, in my opinion, and the actual recipe you choose will probably have all the tips you will need for a nice loaf. Laurel's Kitchen Bread book is an interesting and uplifting book, and the banana bread recipe (although a quick bread, with no kneading) is delicious and a personal favorite of mine.
smart2surf at 8:46AM on 04/27/07
For baguettes, this is an awesome recipe: http://davesbeer.com/weber_cam/2004/04/la-baguette.html
The instructions are easy to follow, and the baguette is tasty! I love making this baguette.
I also make the multi-grain bread from Cooks Illustrated (subscription required): http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=3343
The multi-grain bread, when I don't add too much flour, is light, moist, and flavorful. I toss in random other ingredients too (raisins, pecans, flax seed, dried apricots .. whatever I have)
22209 at 5:03PM on 04/27/07
I started with Pamela Anderson's book called Perfect Recipes - it was by far the most unintimidating recipe for bead ever. She strips the recipe down to just the basics. I used that recipe, combined it with what I learned from No Knead and The Bread Bible and came up with this:
http://steamykitchen.wordpress.com/2007/04/18/baking-the-perfect-loaf-of-french-bread/
Steamy Kitchen at 10:06PM on 04/28/07