I think we need a “light” topic to get going. There are a lot of “heavy” threads going right now!
Are you a bread baker? Yeast or otherwise?
It’s winter and it’s COLD. We are forced here anyway to do more nesting - at least on the weekend!
I make quick breads from scratch and have done the easy no knead yeast bread many times. For some reason I’ve been thinking about trying some simple kneaded recipes. OR starting a sourdough starter - I"m intrigued to watch it develop.
Any favorite bread recipes to share? Tips? Favorite flour? Have you done a sourdough starter?
Alternatively, a great from scratch cinnamon roll recipe???
Warm me up with your favorites recipes. I’ll be sitting here reading with butter and knife and warm thoughts.
I just refreshed my sourdough starter yesterday. I haven’t made a sourdough loaf in a while, but I use the starter in other things, like pancakes and waffles. I make the no-knead Dutch oven bread about once a week varying the herbs and flavorings each time. It’s just so simple and perfect, I’ve kinda dropped my other go-tos.
Not a bread baker now, but when I was in high school I made 8 to 10 loaves/pans of rolls every week. We had a lot of mouths to feed and sometimes I sold some to the neighbors. It was a yeast, white flour bread and took around 5 pounds of flour and a very large bowl, as you might imagine.
Once, maybe 10 years ago, D and I made a pan of the dinner rolls and four of us ate an entire dozen rolls at dinner, hot with butter and brown sugar. Probably not great for the diet, but there’s nothing like hot home-made rolls.
I make yeast bread, mostly white, occasionally whole wheat. I’ll see if I can find online versions of my favorite recipes, so I can share them more easily.
Yes to the sourdough starter. I had one going for years, and my wife just started a new one the other night. It is super simple to keep going. You just toss half of it each week you don’t use it and refresh with new flour and water. We do not eat much bread but now that it is $5/loaf we will start baking our own.
Those grocery store yeasts are picked for their shelf life and ease of manufacturing, not for their taste. It makes a huge difference.
I made bread, bagels, and croissants when I was in law school. It was therapeutic and good stress release. I haven’t made much since, over these last decades. It was a great way to stretch our meager funds.
I use other white bread recipes more often than the one above but I’m not sure I can find them online.
Tips: Make sure the water or other liquid isn’t too warm. If it is, it will kill the yeast.
Most doughs that require kneading can easily be kneaded by hand. You don’t need a mixer.
If you use yeast, keep it in the refrigerator.
Enjoy yourself.
I use The Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon roll recipe. TBH, I don’t use as much butter as she does. Also, when I made them this past month for a brunch, I made the dough on Friday, but didn’t roll them out until Saturday night (kept in fridge with a covered top - you may have to punch it down a couple of times). I think the dough is too sticky if you roll them out right away.
After rolling them out and putting them into tins, I immediately put them back in the fridge. I took them out the next morning, let them rise for about an hour, and they were ready to be baked for breakfast. My friends all expect their own pans whenever I make them!
Lazy bread baker here. I have one of those bread baking machines. It makes terrific bread…and I have several breadmaker cookbooks. I don’t do this very often…because when I do…I eat the full loaf with sweet creamy butter!
I grew up with school lunch ladies that made home made cinnamon rolls to go with the chili they made for lunch. This talk of cinnamon rolls is making me hungry and wanting to go back to 4th grade so I can eat that lunch again. I may be too lazy to make it for myself.
Remember bread makers? I still have mine and use it to make a couple of loaves a year, using commercial mixes. I know, for a purist, that doesn’t count. But it smells terrific and tastes better than what we can get at the store. Real butter helps, and it’s a good excuse to use it.
Don’t bake as much yeast bread as I used to (at one time, I made most of the bread we ate) but always make cinnamon and Parker House rolls at holidays. I’m a fan of King Arthur flours. I’ll mix unbleached, bread flour and white whole wheat depending on what I have on hand. Learned bread baking from my grandmother who worked as a maid in the early 1900s. She did not use written recipes to bake bread but I do.
The King Arthur website and catalog are very informative and fun if you’re into yeast bread.
I made Julia Child’s baguettes a time or three and had a wonderful time. Took me about six hours my first attempt (I’m a deliberate plodder with a steep learning curve) but it turned out lovely. Very meditative; let it rise, let it rest, repeat.
