Aside from cornbread and shortbread, I’ve never made bread. So I decided to try today.
I looked up a recipe for French bread online. Following suggestions in the reviews, I used less flour than called for. The dough looked a little ‘thin’, but I kept going. I let it rise until doubled, then turned it out onto a floured board. Whoops! Forgot to ‘punch’ it! I divided it in half and let it rest for the alloted time, then rolled the halves into rectangles and rolled them into cylinders. They went onto a greased baking sheet with cornstarch on it, got brushed with a mixture of egg white and water, and covered with a damp towel. I let them sit ten minutes, and then popped them into a hot oven. Now to clean up.
After five minutes I looked at the recipe again. I was supposed to let it rise 35-40 minutes, not ten! :smack: I took them out of the oven, re-covered them with the damp towel, and am hoping for the best.
I hope they’re at least edible. First attempts are learning experiences, but it would be nice if they’re not a total loss.
I expect the results will be a bit dense if you started baking too soon, then halted it - if a crust started to form, this will have impeded much further rising.
But well done for having a go - and if this attempt is a disaster, that only leaves room for improvement. It’s not hard to do, once you’ve had a little practice and are confident about what to do without having to keep referring back to the recipe.
I love making bread - even a really simple white flour dough has a thousand uses - depending on what you do with it after kneading and proving - for example, my edible bread bowls
You reminded me about the only time I made croissants. It took about 8 hours. I made 18 croissants. I went out for an hour to get a special sweetened butter from a country french restaurant and store. When I got home they were all gone! My roommate had eaten every one. I nearly went to jail. The only reason I didn’t was my other roommate restrained me from beating him to a bloody plup.
Cool! Breadmaking can be a lot of fun and relieve some pent up stress (kneading and punching down). And the results are usually good to eat!
For future reference, French, Cuban and Italian-type loaves have a better crust if you place a pan of water 1-1 1/2" deep on another shelf of the oven. I don’t know if your recipe called for that, but most do.
I’ll tell you what was the first bread I made that was better than anything in any local store – shape, crumb, crust, all put together. Ciabatta.
Loose dough, then fairly simple shaping process – “like a -alittle -a-slipper!” It’s the forming of loaves that I personally hate – my father loves that part, so YMMV – and ciabatta is more like making a damned simple origami. I don’t have a link to a formula, but IIRC, something like 80% water in bakers’ percentage. Haven’t made real bread in a while – just mix some stuff and pour it into a cast iron until it’s done and eat it – but lots of books … people complain, sometimes, but I liked Peter Reinhardt’s (sp?) books and a lot of others.
Congrats! Even if it’s a sub-par loaf, hot out of the oven with some fat (butter, olive oil, maybe some sesame oil) is going to be delicious.
ETA – use a probe thermometer to gauge when to take it out (barring charring on the crust). It’s hard to fix an under-cooked loaf by just sticking it in the oven some more – it doesn’t come out the same.
Let us know about the finished product. As a professional baker myself I know that of all the products I work with bread is my favorite.
Any kind of bread. And french bread, right out of the oven with butter on it, is food of the gods.
I do a challah that’s good too, and a dark pumpernickel that, sliced thin with a little butter and ham on it, is one of my favorite openfaced sandwiches.
Is this a reference to Blazing Saddles? If not, it’s still good. Don’t skimp on the salt (I think that’s a Monty Python thing with the big fat guy eating all the stuff in the bucket). But seriously – not enough salt, and when you get to slow-rising, you need the right amount of salt to retard the yeast proliferation.
Not a pro, just a regular bread-maker who’s only somewhat picky.
I often use all-purpose flour for breadmaking - and it’s fine. It won’t keep as well as bread made with strong flour, but that might not be a problem if you’ve got folks at home who like eating fresh baked bread.
I have sometimes found that strong flour has too much gluten in it - I’ve made bread rolls that came out like rubber balls because the dough was so damn springy.
I wonder about kneading. The Kitchen Aid booklet says to knead until the dough ‘cleans’ the sides of the bowl (about two minutes), and then keep it running two minutes more. But I didn’t keep close track of the time.
One word – autolyse (autolysis, maybe in the root). Depends entirely on what type of bread you want. Open crumb? I don’t knead much. Pizza dough or tight crumb, then knead it good.
This is such a huge, complex subject, I hope it continues for many many days.
ETA (wish I could link to my Devo flowchart which decides when and where to “whip it.”) Since this is a family site (heheh) I will not bother (modal future, first person).
ETA I also only use AP flour – and I’ve done side-by-sides with “quality” like King Arthur vs. Kroger house brand. Doesn’t matter. But if you’re making something specialty, protein content could be a problem. I don’t do that fancy kind of bread, but it’d be nice to hear what the real millers say. Honestly, I use Red Mill rye to add some “grit” to my regular bread – haven’t got it down yet, but it’s a nice thing to experiment with.
Those edible bread bowls look fabulous!
Good luck, Johnny LA. Soon I will take out my bread machine to make whole wheat loaves. Even following the recipe closely, it took me a few times to remember the nuances of turning out a nice loaf. I have had some that turned out more like door-stops … I blamed it on the yeast.
I don’t have a bread machine. But at least (at last?) I have a stand mixer. After the last time I made pasta, I don’t think I care for making dough with my hands!