ISO Good bread recipes

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Chocoholic

Senior Cook
Joined
Sep 25, 2005
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Location
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My family loves homemade bread, yeast or quick. I'm not very experienced in this area, mainly doing desserts (as you can see by the name :)) so I thought I'd collect some to try out. Could some of you bread-makers out there please post your favorite bread recipes for me?

Thanks in advance!
 
Check out the NY Times Bread Recipe for a wonderful loaf of bread.

There are also many recipes right here in this forum. I'd start by browsing the recipes already posted. :chef:
 
If you are unfamiliar with baking bread, you might want to get a bread machine (one that has a DOUGH cycle) to do the kneading and the first rise part of making bread.

Once the bread has gone through this cycle, you can form the bread into a loaf or loaves and let it rise for the final time. Then bake normally. You'll impress your family with your bread-baking skills.

And, by the way, I purchased one of my bread machines at a thrift store for $2.

As suggested, try the N.Y. Times bread. It's nothing short of awesome and too easy to be believed.
 
Here is a site I just came across. Scroll down a bit and there are primers about bread baking that look quite good. But give my bread recipe a try too.

Welcome to the Fresh Loaf | The Fresh Loaf

I want you to become a rock star bread baker. You need to make the "sourdough" starter for this bread but you will be REWARDED by the 3-5 days it takes. Potato bread is a delicious bread in itself, and very very easy to make. It has a great texture. This recipe can be used for many variations, the main one you might like to try is to sub whole wheat flour for 3C of the white flour.
It can also make a "French" kind of bread by using beer as the liquid, Moravian sugar cake, monkey bread either sweet with cinnamon and sugar, or savory using olive oil and herbs. Makes a good cinnamon bread by rolling up cinnamon sugar in a pinwheel and the "killer" use is to make in summer when tomatoes are "in" and put bacon in the bread dough for an "in house BLT".
Now I have to go make some for myself!!

Potato Sourdough Starter

*1pkg. dry yeast
*1/2C sugar
*2C warm water
*1/2C instant potatoes
Dissolve yeast in 1/2C warm water and stir well. Place in glass jar, covered loosely with foil or cheesecloth to allow for gas expansion. Keep at room temperature for 48 hours. You should see action on the part of the mixture. If it turns yellow, discard and start over. Refrigerate 3-5 days.
To feed: To 1C starter add 1/2C sugar, 1C warm water and 3 TBS mashed potato flakes. Stir, cover loosely and allow to sit at room temperature for 12 hours. Refrigerate for several days and repeat. The mixture should have some bubbles coming to the surface and smell sweetly fermented.

Use 1C for making bread and keep 1C (or slightly more) refrigerated. Feed at least every week. When making bread, feed the starter and let sit for 8-12 hours. It can be refrigerated and used within a day or so.


POTATO SOURDOUGH BREAD

Feed sourdough starter by adding
1/2 cup sugar,
3 tbs. instant mashed potato flakes
, and
1 cup water to 1 cup of starter. Let sit at room temperature for 12 hours. Use as below.
Store starter in refrigerator. Feed approximately every 10 days if not making bread. Store in a jar or container with holes in the lid to allow gas to escape. Do not enclose tightly!! This is a VERY active "starter".

Bread:
1 cup sourdough starter 1 package yeast, softened in
1 cup warm water 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil
1 TBS salt
app. 6 cups bread flour--depending on weather and stuff, may take more

Mix the sourdough starter, water, oil, salt and 4 cups flour. Mix and beat well.
Add remaining flour and mix and knead until dough is not sticky, and is smooth and elastic. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled. Punch down. Divide into 3 balls and form into loaves. Place in greased bread pans and allow to rise again until doubled. Do not allow to "over-rise" as this bread has a lot of "oven spring"--rises in oven while baking.
Bake at 375 for approximately 30 minutes or until golden and done.
 
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I love to make quick breads more so than traditional breads because of it's ease and lack of planning.

I just made a pineapple bread this weekend that came out good and was pretty much all gone in a matter of a day.

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup of brown sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 can of crushed pineapple (I used the standard sized Dole can, I believe it's 8 or 10 oz)
1 cup of chopped walnuts or almonds ( I like almonds )

Beat the sugar and butter until it's nice and fluffy. Next add the eggs and beat the mixture for another minute. Add the pineapple can (juice and all), vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Let it mix for another minute. Now slowly add the flour 1/2 cup at a time until it's nicely incorporated. Stir in the chopped nuts and pour the batter into two greased loaf pans.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 50 minutes. Insert a toothpick to check for doneness.

Cool and wrap and reserve for an hour prior to slicing. This will allow the intense pineapple flavors to develop. You can toast this bread and serve it with a little whipped cream cheese.
 
A really good quick bread that is sort of like a yeast bread is beer bread. Either google for the recipe or someone will give it to you. I will later, if not.
 
I did a quick search of DC for bread recipes - I just picked ones that I thought might be interesting to you (you can also do your own searches on DC. There are lots of excellent bread recipes here. I didn't go too far back in time so I'm sure I missed some good ones)

The nice thing about these recipes is that if you have any questions you can always post to thread or PM the original poster directly.

My Mom's Cool Rise Bread TNT by jkath posted on 07-11-2005

Ciabatta Bread by Anne posted on 09-25-2006

Amish Friendship Bread recipes by Angie posted on 05-06-2006

TNT Zucchini Bread Rec. by texasgirl posted on 04-16-2006

This is a link to my own yeast-rising soy-honey-white bread that has been a standby in our house for 20 years (it was also posted to DC at some point)

If you're interested in the New York Times bread that has received so much attention over the few months, you can download the recipe complete with the original NYT photos here - New York Times No-Knead Bread

I would also suggest searching in this forum for posts by oldcoot - his contributions were amazing, educational and fun to read.
 
Copied and pasted! Thank you everyone! I shall be trying these out in the near future for sure. :)
 
Hi

I make bread in weekly batches for my family. This is relatively quick and easy - whole cycle takes approx 2 1/2 hours. Sorry not got conversion chart so all in lbs & oz.

1 1/2lb bread flour (strong flour)
2 tsp dried active yeast
2 short tsp salt
375ml water ( imix 200ml cold water with 175ml boiling)
3 tablespoons veg oil

I use a Kenwood Chef for the dough mixing. Add the water & oil to the bowl. Add the dry ingredients and start the Kenwood on minimum until dough ball starts forming (I usually weigh out the flour for the next batch and then it is ready). Turn the speed up to 1 and let the dough ball form and all flour picked up from side - about 2/3 mninutes. Turn the dough into oiled bowl and cover ( I usually use plastic wrap). I leave the dough to rise on top of the cooker with the ovens switched to gas 6 -giving the yeast a nice warm environment to work.

Leave for about an hour (dough should hhave doubled in size). I tun it out onto a floured board. I knock it back and then put into a large loaf tin or split the dough to make rolls or long loaves (French style). My children particulary love plaited bread where I split the dough into five, roll each with my hands to long lines and then plait the lines together. I put these on a baking sheet.

Sprinkle your loaves/rolls with flour to stop dough sticking to the cover (you can oil the cover) - usuallt the wrap used for the first stage and leave until risen to the size you want. Rolls take about 40mins, loaves up to an hour on top of the cooker. Once risen to your statisfaction, carefully and slowly remove cover. Leave for a few minutes and then put on low shelf in the oven. Leave until golden brown - rolls take about 30 minutes, loves about 45 minutes. Turn out onto wire rack to cool.
 
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