Do you like Bread?

[LavenderBlue]

I like fresh from the oven thin loaves from my local area Italian bakery with butter or a thick round sourdough loaf from Panera’s also fresh and also slathered with butter.

[No_umlaut_for_U]

Only fresh out of the oven–or machine–but it still needs butter. Other than that one situation, I couldn’t care less if I ever ate bread again.

[Wile_E]

@Chefguy

Yes. Both the food and the group (which from the title I thought this was going to be about).

I also thought this was going to be about Bread, the group and started thinking of all my favorite songs.

Anyway, yes, I like them both but any fresh-baked bread is the best.

[Cub_Mistress]

I dearly miss the bread you could get in Germany, from the huge loaves of rye bread to the darling little brötchen. I like bread you have to actually bite into. I could eat the brötchen plain, but they are good with anything you can think of.

[Pai325]

Not without butter. Or butter and jelly. If I can have those, then I love bread.

[nani]

I love bread. After pulling all-nighters on Sunday nights I’d get a baguette from panera and eat it during my religious nationalisms in South Asia class. German bread is amazing, once when I was a kid I lived on top of a German bakery for a few months and woke up to fresh bread every day. Mexican sweet bread is my childhood joy.

Here in China, I miss toast. They have bread that is vaguely acceptable, but good toast isn’t much available.

[Smeghead]

David Mitchell on low-carb diets

[Novelty_Bobble]

@Cub_Mistress

I dearly miss the bread you could get in Germany, from the huge loaves of rye bread to the darling little brötchen. I like bread you have to actually bite into. I could eat the brötchen plain, but they are good with anything you can think of.

I’ve spent a lot of time travelling around Europe and in my opinion, the bakeries of Southern Germany and Austria are the best in the world.

At a mountaintop restaurant, my 9 year old daughter was having a head-sized, fresh-baked bretzen as a snack. After a couple of minutes rapturous munching she fixed me with a serious stare and declared.

“daddy, this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten…ever!”

Two “ever’s” there, the girl was serious

[VinylTurnip]

@Siam_Sam

I like bread, and the quality of what you find in Thailand has vastly improved from a couple or three decades ago. Used to be all you could find here was this gummy shit that was just awful. When the Thais would try it, they’d simply gag. I’d tell them no, they didn’t understand, this was NOT what normal people in the West ate, we had much better bread than that. They would give me pitying looks.

Was it actually made with wheat flour? I remember, years ago, going into a “New York Bakery” that was owned by Asians— not sure whether they were Chinese or Korean. They sold bread, pastries, cakes and such, but everything was made from mung beans. The couple of things that I tried had the consistency of epoxy.

[Kelevra]

I love bread. To me the history of bread is the history of civilization.

I do eat bread plain but I prefer it with butter. Unless it’s an exceptional bread.

And thanks Baker for the recipe. I’ll definitely give it a shot!

[BubbaDog]

Hijack:

I saw the title of this thread and immediately thought of Mitch Hedberg.
In one of his standup routines he said that he was in a movie scene with Peter Frampton. He said that he knew Frampton was a famous musician but he was not aware of his work so he didn’t have anything to talk about.

So he said,“Hey, Peter Frampton. Do you like toast? Me too.”

[John_Mace]

Hey, have you ever tried,
Eating bread, no butter on either side.

[butler1850]

Do I like bread? Yes. How much?

Enough that I’ve constructed two earthen wood fired ovens to cook it in (one at home, and one at the location of the next line).

Enough that I volunteer at a local historical site twice a year to make lots of it (24 lbs this past Saturday, and 44lbs at a time on several occasions).

Enough to have taken a couple of classes to make my bread better, even after reading books, web pages, and experimenting for 20 years.

Enough that I’ve had to move up my pants size at least one size. The other size or two may have been from that which goes on bread.

[ZipperJJ]

Yes. I try not to keep it in the house other than plain sandwich slices, because otherwise I’ll just eat it all.

[WOOKINPANUB]

Yes please. No butter, no jam, no toppings of any kind (unless I’m craving a peanut butter sandwich, but then that’s about the peanut butter anyway).
Why I have such a hard time finding pumpernickel bagels in this unholy town I do not know.

[Zeldar]

@BubbaDog

Hijack:

I saw the title of this thread and immediately thought of Mitch Hedberg.
In one of his standup routines he said that he was in a movie scene with Peter Frampton. He said that he knew Frampton was a famous musician but he was not aware of his work so he didn’t have anything to talk about.

So he said,“Hey, Peter Frampton. Do you like toast? Me too.”

This made me think of Margaret Smith who had a funny bit that included a line like, “Thanks, I’ll just have the toast.” But I have yet to locate a clip of it on YouTube. Funny dead pan gal.

End Hijack?

[panache45]

@Smeghead

David Mitchell on low-carb diets

This. When I was on Atkins, several years ago, I had no trouble staying on the diet . . . except for a constant craving for bread. It seemed that everything I was allowed to eat was meant to be eaten with bread.

[seal_cleaner]

Challah. Needs nothing with or on it.

[August_West]

@Baker

Fresh bread with butter is my favorite food. I love it more than chocolate. I make bread at work, so does anyone mind if I post my recipe for Garden Herb bread? It makes five loaves.

4-1/4 teaspoons dry yeast
8-1/2 teaspoons sugar
4 tablespoons salt
6 cups lukewarm water(1428 ml)
44 ounces all purpose flour
44 ounces bread flour
1 recipe herb mix

Herb Mix

1-3/4 cups fresh basil leaves
1-3/8 ounces each fresh garlic, onion, and sun dried tomatoes

Soak the tomatoes until softened then place them in a food processor with the basil and the chopped onion and garlic. Blend until finely minced. You may need to add a tablespoon or two of water to speed the process. This mix may be frozen for later use.

Add the warm water to the yeast, salt, sugar and herb mix. Let it develop for five minutes or so. Add the flour and begin kneading. If you don’t have a heavy duty mixer with a dough hook as I do it will take quite a while to knead. If you do have the mixer let it work at medium speed for about five minutes. Cover the dough and let rise until double, about an hour and a half. Shape dough into five loaves of about 22 ounces each, placing them in greased bread pans. Allow to rise until dough is arched above the top of the pan, but not hanging over the edge. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until lightly browned. This bread doesn’t get deep brown, as it hardly has any sugar, but the crust can be enhanced by brushing it with water or an egg wash before baking.

If you would like plain white bread leave out the herb mix and add an extra 15o ml(5/8 cup) of water.

Just this year I’ve finally achieved success at making homemade bread, I make 2 loaves every Sunday. I will try this next weekend!

Do you foresee any problems with freezing loaves after the first rise? 5 loaves is more than even my two sons can dispatch in a week.

[cmkeller]

If it’s warm and fresh from the oven, absolutely.

If it’s down to room temperature, then no, I wouldn’t eat it without some sort of flavorful substance added.