stevem
Assistant Cook
Hello everyone, I am new to this site and so far am pretty impressed.
I have always been very much into cooking, my Dad always told me my first step was towards the fridge, not sure if that's a good thing though.
Anyway, just now I made my first batch of bread ever.
I used this recipe:
1 Pack Active Dry Yeast w/ 2 tsp of sugar in 2 tbsp of 115f water.
"Scald" 1.5 cups of milk. (I'm embarrassed to say I have no idea what that means as far as cooking techniques go so i just warmed it up on the stove.)
Add 7 tablespoons of lard (I used butter because I didn't have any lard) to the milk and let it melt. (I also only used 4 tablespoons because 7 just seemed like way too much.)
mix together 3 beaten eggs, 7 tablespoons sugar, 2 teaspoons salt and the milk / butter.
Let it cool some then mix together the yeast mixture and milk mixture. Then add 4.5 cups flour.
I don't have any bread machine or mixer so I mixed it all and beat it by hand. Then I covered it with a towel and let it rise for 1.5 hours.
Then I made an assortment of breads out of this. I made 2 croissants, 1 small little cracker type thing (had a small pinch left over at the end.), 1 braided loaf with cinnamon and sugar on top, 1 loaf with cinnamon, sugar and chocolate syrup inside, and one plain ball loaf with 1 tablespoon of butter inside (This one is still in the oven).
So far none of them have come out well at all.
I baked the braided loaf at 435f for 18min. The croissants and cracker at 350f for 20m then turned it up to 400f for another 10m.
The chocolate bread at 400f for 20 - 25 m and am doing the butter loaf at 400f for 30m right now.
The problem is that they all seem far to cooked on the outside and very undercooked on the inside (Story of my life when cooking something new).
I should also note that I only have a toaster oven.
Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?
I have always been very much into cooking, my Dad always told me my first step was towards the fridge, not sure if that's a good thing though.
Anyway, just now I made my first batch of bread ever.
I used this recipe:
1 Pack Active Dry Yeast w/ 2 tsp of sugar in 2 tbsp of 115f water.
"Scald" 1.5 cups of milk. (I'm embarrassed to say I have no idea what that means as far as cooking techniques go so i just warmed it up on the stove.)
Add 7 tablespoons of lard (I used butter because I didn't have any lard) to the milk and let it melt. (I also only used 4 tablespoons because 7 just seemed like way too much.)
mix together 3 beaten eggs, 7 tablespoons sugar, 2 teaspoons salt and the milk / butter.
Let it cool some then mix together the yeast mixture and milk mixture. Then add 4.5 cups flour.
I don't have any bread machine or mixer so I mixed it all and beat it by hand. Then I covered it with a towel and let it rise for 1.5 hours.
Then I made an assortment of breads out of this. I made 2 croissants, 1 small little cracker type thing (had a small pinch left over at the end.), 1 braided loaf with cinnamon and sugar on top, 1 loaf with cinnamon, sugar and chocolate syrup inside, and one plain ball loaf with 1 tablespoon of butter inside (This one is still in the oven).
So far none of them have come out well at all.
I baked the braided loaf at 435f for 18min. The croissants and cracker at 350f for 20m then turned it up to 400f for another 10m.
The chocolate bread at 400f for 20 - 25 m and am doing the butter loaf at 400f for 30m right now.
The problem is that they all seem far to cooked on the outside and very undercooked on the inside (Story of my life when cooking something new).
I should also note that I only have a toaster oven.
Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?