# I'm determined to make good bread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [July 18, 2025, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-determined-to-make-good-bread/1021038 "2025-07-18T13:30:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-determined-to-make-good-bread/1021038/21 "2025-07-19T00:00:15Z")
Artisan. Artesian is a well of groundwater fed by gravity. King Arthur’s flour is what I use. They print the wheat’s protein content percentage in big numbers right on the front of the package. I always use a mix of K.A. bread flour and whole wheat flour. Sometimes I make 100% whole wheat bread with the addition of extra gluten. The stuff called “vital.” I get excellent results this way and the richness of the wheat flavor is out of this world. It amuses me that whole wheat is considered artisanal, when it’s an everyday thing for me. Homebaked Italian whole-wheat sesame loaves are literally what I have lived on for the past 15 years. That’s the quotidian bread for me. When I think of “bread” that’s the image in my mind. I keep forgetting that for most other Americans the norm is white sandwich bread, but I never think of it. I mean, I grew up on Italian bread. It’s my culture. Italian bread=fat baguettes. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-determined-to-make-good-bread/1021038/22 "2025-07-19T00:25:56Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > Years ago, in the back of cooking magazines, a guy from France sold his patented baguette baking pans and his recipe. I still have mine. It is the simplest recipe you will ever see. Just regular flour (no bread flour, no sifting) salt and yeast, I think. But several pages of how to knead the dough. Before I started needing to really lose weight a couple of years ago, I baked four baguettes most weeks (though my sons ate most of them), and I used French baguette pans & Peter Reinhart’s recipe…it almost felt impossible to screw them up. I don’t know if it’s the same kind of baguette pan, but it was miles better than using flat baking sheets. ---
**Author:** ![DaveUnknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@DaveUnknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveUnknown)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-determined-to-make-good-bread/1021038/23 "2025-07-19T15:14:06Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > is the simplest recipe you will ever see I think in France you can only have those ingredients by law to call it a baguette? Like the Reinheitzgebot for beer. OP it’s good everything fell into place, I’d try your method but I’m at sea level (or 30’ or something). ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-determined-to-make-good-bread/1021038/24 "2025-07-19T15:24:16Z")
I went through a phase of baking my own bread from scratch. I never produced anything that was worth the trouble against just buying loaves from the store. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-determined-to-make-good-bread/1021038/25 "2025-07-19T17:45:11Z")
OK, just saw an interesting thing regarding sourdough. According to a site I just saw, the reason San Francisco sourdough is so unique is because they let it build up more acid than other sourdoughs. I guess that yeast/bacteria can handle a lower pH than others. I think I’ll go with Yukon starter. > [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > I went through a phase of baking my own bread from scratch. I never produced anything that was worth the trouble against just buying loaves from the store. I feel the same way making pickles from scratch. For all of the time, money and energy I’ll just go get some Claussen’s. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-determined-to-make-good-bread/1021038/26 "2025-07-19T17:58:20Z")
Hey, do we need an omnibus bread thread? Or maybe this could be it despite starting as my scientific blog thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-determined-to-make-good-bread/1021038.md?page=1)