I've made a pretty wide assortment of different kinds of bread; some better than others, but I wonder who has the best recipe for a really light airy loaf of bread. I don't mean in a bread machine but to bake in a loaf pan in the oven. Too often my bread turns out not bad, but just not quite as light and fluffy as I'd like.
I am, by no means, an expert in this subject. (But, that has never stopped me from writing...)
*Don't knead too long.
*Fresh yeast.
*Correct water temp.
*Protect the rising bread from temperature swings, and drafts.
Yep, I do all those things. I tried a new recipe from the Internet yesterday for whole wheat bread. It rose just fine (twice), looked great, and all that, and it's a uniform texture, but so dense and heavy that I ate some yesterday and I'm going to throw the rest in the trash.
That is the trouble I have with our bread maker. The loafs are always quite heavy and very chewy. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon, we've had two different bread machines in the past; sometimes the bread was pretty good and sometimes it was as you said. Sunday, our younger daughter made a loaf in her bread machine from a mix. I'm not sure but I think it was Krusteaz country white. It appeared that it rose too much, then collapsed in the middle, spread over the handle and was a hard to get the pan out of the machine. But then I found the bread itself to be light, fluffy, and delicious. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] While they call it a bread machine mix, the label and instructions also include baking it in the oven.
So I bought a box yesterday to try, but I'm really looking for a recipe that I can just mix the ingredients instead of buying the mix. Incidentally, I visited several grocery stores yesterday and bought this at Walmart for $2.14. The same thing across the street at Kroger's is $2.59. However, Walmart does not have the other "flavors"; only country white while Kroger's also has the sourdough mix for the same price. If this Country White turns out to be good, I may have to try their Sourdough.
I think I've got it- Do you wash your hands before kneading? [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Hey, if I wash my hands, it might take all the flavor out of the bread. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
The Krusteaz Country White bread mix did make a very nice loaf of bread this morning. Now if I just knew what they mixed up to get that "mix". The packet of yeast is labelled SAF gourmet Perfect Rise yeast, net wt: 4 g (0.14 oz). I don't recall ever seeing or buying any yeast at the grocery store except Fleischmann's and both their envelopes are net wt. of 1/4 oz or 7 g. The Fleischmann's yeast and the bread recipes I've used call for water at 100-110 degrees, but this bread mix yeast says "room temperature" 75-85 degrees and even says a little too cool is better than too hot. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] The dough, both before and after the first rising seemed softer and perhaps more moist than most of the recipes I've used. Maybe I just need to use more liquid. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
Or maybe I just need to use the boxed mix. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] After all, we never make a cake anymore without using a "mix". [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
If you make ham salad or cheese spread first you don't need to wash you hands.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
It's been nearly 3 months since my last post in this thread and I haven't made any homemade bread since then; just using that old store boughten stuff. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] Maybe before long, I'll get back to experimenting.
You Tube has several videos for bread. I'm partial to this recipe, which makes a hearty, crusty loaf:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU
Tod
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