Any Bread Bakers?

[incarnatewordsister]

One of the Sisters calls me the biker-baker. I make all types of bread but I love an old amish recipe for white bread. It is light and very tasty. Like someone suggested, add sugar to the yeast with the warm water, if it is active then it will make bubbles, if it doesn't then your water is either too hot or too cold. When your water is too hot it kills the yeast, when it is cold it doesn't activate it.

The secret is in the temperature of the water. And once you learn the texture of the dough you can do anything you like. Sometiems I make it sweet, adding apples and brown sugar in them iddle and then rolling it. Sometimes I make it salty with bacon, or sausage and coagulated milk. Sometimes I add jalapenos and coagulated milk. If you're interested PM me and when I have a chance I will type the recipe for you.

Sr. Mary Helga

Edited October 2, 2011 by incarnatewordsister

[IcePrincessKRS]

[quote name='IcePrincessKRS' timestamp='1317175368' post='2311326']
I do on occasion, but I haven't made whole wheat bread in a long time...
[/quote]

To clarify this, I don't make loaves of bread very often, but I do make yeast doughs for dinner rolls (basically regular bread doughs shaped into rolls instead of loaves). I don't have a bread maker, but I do have a Kitchenaid stand mixer and that thing is boss. My favorite recipe to use on a daily basis is from The Joy of Cooking cookbook. And re: water temp for the yeast, I use my digital meat thermometer to cheat and make sure it's in the right temp range. lol

[MissScripture]

I was reading that the water temp for the yeast should be warm, but not so hot that it's painful to stick your fingers in it.
Also, my bro learned the hard way that old yeast may not work.

[Selah]

[quote]
I was reading that the water temp for the yeast should be warm, but not so hot that it's painful to stick your fingers in it.
Also, my bro learned the hard way that old yeast may not work.
[/quote]

Yes. Cold water kills it. Also found that out the hard way lol

[Cyprian]

My mother taught me to make bread when I was a child. She taught me that as you "knead the dough" you say the "Hail Mary" over and over until you are done kneading. We still do this every time we bake.

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='Cyprian' timestamp='1317646554' post='2314530']
My mother taught me to make bread when I was a child. She taught me that as you "knead the dough" you say the "Hail Mary" over and over until you are done kneading. We still do this every time we bake.
[/quote]
Yes!

[IcePrincessKRS]

[quote name='MissScripture' timestamp='1317606306' post='2314269']
I was reading that the water temp for the yeast should be warm, but not so hot that it's painful to stick your fingers in it.
Also, my bro learned the hard way that old yeast may not work.
[/quote]

Yeah, ideally it should be between 105 and 115 degrees. I used to be able to just gauge it by hand, but somewhere along the way (I think when I stopped baking for a few years during and right after college) I lost my touch. I messed up a couple batches of breads--I don't know what the fault was, the yeast, water, or if I made some error--and I started erring on the side of caution with my yeast/water and using the thermometer.

I've also read that if you have hard water or water through a city water system that is chlorinated you should use filtered or bottled water because that can kill the yeast; that's what I blamed my failures on. Our water at that apartment was really chlorine-y. Being a water snob (having grown up with amazing well water) "city water" tastes weird to me. I still use a Brita fiddler for making my breads. Our water here seems to go in cycles, I don't know what they do over there(because I really know nothing about how city water systems work) but every so often the weird flavors get stronger (it's not my imagination, I know several other people who have noticed it, too lol). So, again, I err on the side of caution so I don't mess up my bread.

[AccountDeleted]

It also depends on the temperature of the room ... so make sure the bread is put somewhere warm to rise.

[IcePrincessKRS]

[quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1317649477' post='2314555']
It also depends on the temperature of the room ... so make sure the bread is put somewhere warm to rise.
[/quote]



I always heat my oven just to the "warm" setting and set the bowl on the back of the stove. It stays warm for the rise, but is mostly out of the way of the AC.

[Selah]

Our dough was always rising at a rapid speed. It got so hot in that kitchen! Gah! We'd also name the dough...the pizza dough and the bread dough.

[Starets]

I am in the middle of a slow baking day. Just 4 loaves of Viennese Bread and two loaves of Banana Bread.

anyway, what you can also do to make it more flavourful is to do a starter first. for example, with the Viennese Bread, I use 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of warm water and 2 tablespoons of yeast. I then mix and then cover and let sit for 4 hours. Then I add the balance of the ingredients.

[arfink]

Something to know about making whole wheat bread- if you use nothing but whole wheat flour your bread will taste somewhat dry and coarse or even hard, which IMO is not very appealing. Not to mention that you might wind up with consistency problems with the dough, which can make it hard to work with. You need to have some unbleached white flour in there to help soften the loaf to your taste.