Fresh bread and other loves

[dedmiston]

I'm so sorry I never looked in on this group before. It looks like there's a lot of talent here. We had a little bit of a leadership shakeup on the Moderation team (nothing bad and no drama) and I put myself in as the moderator here because we didn't really have any coverage. I wish I had checked in sooner though.

Here are some shots of other fun that I've had in the kitchen in the past couple of weeks.

I baked a bunch of bread for my wife's office potluck. I also decided to finally try my hand at making fresh butter. Thanks to the KitchenAid, it was so much easier than I thought it would be. It's a little messy, but I know what I'll do differently next time.

Here are five loaves and the big crock of butter.



And here is a shot of my grill from Thanksgiving Day. We had a full house, so I made three turkeys spatchcock style. They turned out perfectly and most of them got eaten that day. They cook really fast and even that way.



And I guess the third bit of share-worthy kitchen stuff is the award that I won for a meat-rub recipe competition earlier this year. It's nothing too "different", but it's a good all purpose rub and it's easy to adjust the heat up and down if you need to. I've made it again since the competition and I usually double the cayenne just to keep things interesting. That's the rub I used on the turkeys and nobody complained.

- 3 Tbsp Kosher salt
- 2 Tbsp pepper
- 2 Tbsp onion powder
- 2 Tbsp garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 Tbsp New Mexico chili powder
- 1 Tbsp cumin
- 1 Tbsp cayenne

I agree with magnusfide's attitude to experiment and see what happens. We're empty nesters now so there aren't as many witnesses for my failures. My wife is infinitely better in the kitchen than I am, but I get home from work before she does and it's only fair that I get dinner ready for us. And then the vacuum sealer and I parcel out the leftovers into manageable servings and I freeze things into packets.

[magnusfide]

That's some seriously good looking eats you got there. Good to see you posting here.

[LMHS]

King Arthur Flour has a website with a huge amount of bread recipes from around the world. What I like about them is they tend to have both manual and bread machine instructions included with the recipe, even when the recipe only calls for the dough cycle to be used with the machine.

The site also has recipes for pretty much any baked good, including main dishes

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes

[Udicomo]

It looks like a perfect recipe for me, thanks for sharing. As a diabetic, I pay proper attention to my diet. I limit sugar intake and other products, eat healthy plant foods, and take meds (I buy Ozempic Online). The best way to prevent diabetes is to lose extra weight and become more physically active. Make sure to meet your nutritional needs by eating healthy plant foods and avoiding fad diets, like the ones that recommend cutting out all carbs.

[dedmiston]

propchef wrote:

dedmiston wrote:


Share some pictures of your loaves when you get a chance. It's always fun to see other people's creations. What do you do with your loaves? Are they just for home or do you give them away?

Awesome! You've clearly been doing it for a while and have a great idea of new directions!

I worked as a pastry chef and executive chef at various places for about 20 years, and for the last 23 years (since January 1, 2000) I've been teaching Culinary, first for the US Navy and then at a college here in NORCAL/Wine Country. Even so I've always considered bread to be a hobby, something I'll do at home even after cooking all day.

I taught from home for about a year including my baking class. Here's just a quick video of the egg bread ending. There are several videos before this outlining the various steps in mixing and shaping. Yes, that's a cast iron loaf pan. 🙂

https://youtu.be/hCJ3egzV7w8

Wow. Those are beautiful Zopfs (braids).

I was an exchange student to Switzerland back in the 80s and I worked in a grocery store. Customers would flock to the store in mobs on Saturday afternoon to get their Sunday Zopf. It was a big tradition for them. My hunch was that it was just their way of giving Moms the morning off from cooking. Seemed like a cool tradition though.

I do braids sometimes and they're always a crowd-pleaser. They're fun for potlucks.

[propchef]

dedmiston wrote:


Share some pictures of your loaves when you get a chance. It's always fun to see other people's creations. What do you do with your loaves? Are they just for home or do you give them away?

Awesome! You've clearly been doing it for a while and have a great idea of new directions!

I worked as a pastry chef and executive chef at various places for about 20 years, and for the last 23 years (since January 1, 2000) I've been teaching Culinary, first for the US Navy and then at a college here in NORCAL/Wine Country. Even so I've always considered bread to be a hobby, something I'll do at home even after cooking all day.

I taught from home for about a year including my baking class. Here's just a quick video of the egg bread ending. There are several videos before this outlining the various steps in mixing and shaping. Yes, that's a cast iron loaf pan. 🙂

https://youtu.be/hCJ3egzV7w8

[dedmiston]

propchef wrote:
Well done!

You might try using cold water and extending your fermentation times for more flavor. If you're using instant yeast there's no need to bloom the yeast with warm water. Besides, warm water can make the dough somewhat sticky. Did you use any steam to set the crust? Did you use a wash? What flour are you using? It makes a HUGE difference to use something like Guisto's or Central Milling instead of a grocery-store brand.

https://centralmilling.com/store/

http://giustos.com/home_baker

I'd love to see what the insides of those look like! That's a high-hydration formula and should produce some nice voids within the bread.

I retire from behind the stove in a few months and looking forward to it but I'll still keep making bread (and pizza dough!).

If you like experimenting I recommend these books: Breads from the LaBrea Bakery by Nancy Silverman, The Village Baker by Joe Ortiz, or anything by Peter Reinhart, with his Breadbaker's Apprentice one of my favorites.

Breadheads unite!

Hey Chef,

I have to confess that I let my cheapness get in the way of quality sometimes. I try to buy all my ingredients in bulk at Smart & Final. Buying yeast by the pound sometimes means it isn't as zippy later in the year as it is when I first buy it.

Even worse is the flour. My wife and I will share a 25# sack of flour for all of our baking projects, which means I'm making nice bread out of cheap all-purpose flour instead of from good bread flour. It's so much more affordable though.

And yes, my dough is a little sticky, especially since it's such a wet recipe to begin with. I chill it overnight after the first rise though, and that makes it more firm and manageable. I also use a bunch of flour on my hands and on the dough when I form the loaves.

For the crust, yes I use a lot of steam. I add boiling water to a broiling pan just underneath the baking stone. It makes enough steam that you can actually see some of the finish coming off the cabinet above the stove. I also brush on a light corn starch wash to create the sheen on the loaves. I don't think it affects the taste, but it's a nice aesthetic. It also helps the seeds to stick if I sprinkle on sesame seeds, flax, or sunflower seeds.

I do usually get some good bubbles in the crumb. Sometimes there are tons of voids and sometimes they're more subdued.

I love to improvise from that basic recipe too. I can add about a cup of other ingredients without compromising the structure. If I add more than that, then I'll also add supplemental gluten to help build the strands for the integrity. Just a cup of sunflower seeds completely changes the loaf. I also like to swap out half the flower with a light lager beer and add crated cheese and diced jalapeños.

My wife and I improvised a heavy seeded recipe that is too heavy to make free-form loaves. I have to bake those in bread pans. It's better to make the rectangular loaves anyway because it's easier to slice that way.

It's a fun hobby, especially when it's cool enough to bake. I've taught a bunch of the dads in my neighborhood how to bake. It's fun to see guys who normally avoid the kitchen create something that's actually decent. Years ago we baked a ton of bread and had a bake sale for our neighborhood swim league. It was a big hit.

I've also donated baking nights to a local charity auction and had people over to learn how to bake. It's a fun social activity. I always make a batch of dough the night before so we can cheat like a cooking show. I still take them through the whole process, but that way we can trim 24 hours off the job.

Share some pictures of your loaves when you get a chance. It's always fun to see other people's creations. What do you do with your loaves? Are they just for home or do you give them away?

[dedmiston]

It looks like I goofed on the yeast. It should be 3 Tbsp and not 4. I usually round up a little though.

I actually round up on the water (6 1/2 cups instead of 6) and round down on the flour (12 1/2 instead of 13).

I think the hardest part of the recipe is actually measuring out 13 cups of flour without losing count. It used to be worse when our kids still lived at home. I think they messed with me on purpose, so I would always repeat the number until I finished. If the kids came up and asked me a question, I would stare at them and just keep repeating "eight...eight...eight...eight..." until they left me alone.

[routeforty]

dedmiston wrote:
Oh the bread. Very simple too. Go to Amazon for Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day.

The ingredients are:

- Six cups of warm water.
- 3 Tbsp Kosher Salt
- 4 Tbsp Yeast
- 13 cups of flour

The rest of the recipe (the technique) is too much to type.

thanks, found the recipe

[propchef]

Well done!

You might try using cold water and extending your fermentation times for more flavor. If you're using instant yeast there's no need to bloom the yeast with warm water. Besides, warm water can make the dough somewhat sticky. Did you use any steam to set the crust? Did you use a wash? What flour are you using? It makes a HUGE difference to use something like Guisto's or Central Milling instead of a grocery-store brand.

https://centralmilling.com/store/

http://giustos.com/home_baker

I'd love to see what the insides of those look like! That's a high-hydration formula and should produce some nice voids within the bread.

I retire from behind the stove in a few months and looking forward to it but I'll still keep making bread (and pizza dough!).

If you like experimenting I recommend these books: Breads from the LaBrea Bakery by Nancy Silverman, The Village Baker by Joe Ortiz, or anything by Peter Reinhart, with his Breadbaker's Apprentice one of my favorites.

Breadheads unite!

[dedmiston]

Oh the bread. Very simple too. Go to Amazon for Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day.

The ingredients are:

- Six cups of warm water.
- 3 Tbsp Kosher Salt
- 4 Tbsp Yeast
- 13 cups of flour

The rest of the recipe (the technique) is too much to type.

[routeforty]

I didn't read cptqueeg's post very carefully. I thought it was you replying with your bread recipe. It was his(which I'm going to try). I was more interested in your bread recipe-that picture of the bread looked really good. I had thought awhile back, (when butter took a really big price jump), of making my own butter, but when I priced all the ingredients it was going to cost more to make than buying it, although it probably tastes better.

[dedmiston]

routeforty wrote:
Where did you get the recipe, or could you post it here? I've been trying some different recipes found online and they were OK, but that looks really good. I don't have a kitchen aid mixer though, so the kneading has to be the old fashioned way. Gary

The butter recipe? Easiest thing ever.

Get the mixer out. Grab a dish towel. Grab a quart of heavy whipping cream.

Pour the cream into the bowl.

Position the cover so that the big keyhole and the trough face you.

Lay the towel over the trough and keyhole and turn the mixer into High.

Watch in boredom and assume it isn’t working.

Look back and realize it’s whipped cream. Do absolutely nothing now except secure the towel.

Keep going.

Listen to the sound of the mixer and think about how furious your wife is going to be, but soldier on.

Really. Don’t quit

Watch it turn into lumps and liquids. And then pour off some of the liquids.

Repeat.

And it’s suddenly butter.

If you don’t have the mixer, try a food processor or a blender. Or your grandma.

[routeforty]

Thanks, I'll give it a try soon. Busy the next few days. Hope it turns out as good as yours looks!

[cptqueeg]

routeforty wrote:
Where did you get the recipe, or could you post it here? I've been trying some different recipes found online and they were OK, but that looks really good. I don't have a kitchen aid mixer though, so the kneading has to be the old fashioned way. Gary

This is the recipe my wife uses:


NYT no knead

It's relatively easy and very, very good.