[The Beerery]

King Arthur is great they will have everything you need as far as ingredients, recipes and process. However if you want to get crazy, mill your own flour. Oxidation in flour is the same as malt/brewing, so it's hard to beat fresh. I make a lot of bread, just finished the weekly family sandwich bread and am going to slice and package it now.

How much SMB in the dough? 

HAH! Its not SMB its vitamin C 

[JJeffers09]

I like these for the holidays.  Roasted garlic and thyme

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[riceral]

I like these for the holidays.  Roasted garlic and thyme

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Great looking bread. I was never coordinated enough to do something like that.

I do make basil rolls for Christmas dinner. But those are rolls; nothing fancy.

[HoosierBrew]

I like these for the holidays.  Roasted garlic and thyme

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Great looking bread. I was never coordinated enough to do something like that.

I do make basil rolls for Christmas dinner. But those are rolls; nothing fancy.

Yeah, looks and sounds fantastic!

[jimmykx250]

recpie?

[JJeffers09]

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/italian-supermarket-bread-recipe

That's the base dough.  step 3 I split into 3 pieces, and gently knead 3tsp of roasted garlic and 4 sprigs of thyme into the dough, roll into equal length pieces and braid together.  Then back to the recipe, but do not cover with sesame seeds.

The only other breads I have done with garlic and herbs is potato bread.  However I leave the cloves intact and just knead them in.  I don't roast them as long either.

To braid or plait:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP6j7esQyjk

[stpug]

I finally got a bread machine after years of wanting to get one. As much as I'd like to do everything by hand, time is a big barrier for me, so I'm starting with a machine for now.

I've gotten my feet wet with a few recipes that came with the machine, and now I'm ready to start branching out. I'm kind of at the point like a kit brewer who is ready to start making a few tweaks to some proven recipes as a step to eventually designing my own recipes.

I know there are several bread makers here. Any good references, forums, recipe sites you use for reliable information and recipes?

Well, it's been over 2 months since you started this thread so I assume you've probably progressed in your bread-making adventures a fair amount.  How are things shaping up for you?

I do mostly naturally leavened bread with a starter I generated a bit over a year ago.  I have to maintain (i.e. feed) it about six times a year, but other than that it's pretty easy to maintain in the fridge and build-up as needed.  After delving through various sites many years ago, the three sites that probably helped me the most were two blogs and a forum.  The two blogs were Wild Yeast Blog by Susan Tenney and the other was Breadcetera by Steve B. (both are basically defunct, but still hosted).  The forum was at A Fresh Loaf, and is still fairly active (the rest of AFL is also helpful to some extent).

Time (and timing) is a consideration that has to be taken into account for bread making by hand, for sure; BUT, it's also extremely flexible to how you wish to work (just like homebrewing is).  I find that most tasks I do in bread making take only 5-10 minutes to accomplish, and they are spread out over a couple hours to days depending on my end goal.  The baking part is the most time consuming since I use an oven and need to be present at all times during the bake, but that usually only accounts for about 1-2 hours (and not a lot of actual work on my part takes place).

It's a fun hobby that is very in-line with beer making, and both helps to fill in the dead spots as well as give another form of creative outlet that I quite enjoy.  I'll gladly provide any more info on my take on bread making if interested.

I actually have a fruit/nut/chocolate batch that I'll be baking later today. I'll try to take some photos of the process to share.

[narvin]

King Arthur is great they will have everything you need as far as ingredients, recipes and process. However if you want to get crazy, mill your own flour. Oxidation in flour is the same as malt/brewing, so it's hard to beat fresh. I make a lot of bread, just finished the weekly family sandwich bread and am going to slice and package it now.

How much SMB in the dough? 

HAH! Its not SMB its vitamin C 

It's funny you bring that up.  Ascorbic acid is used as a dough conditioner, and I was JUST thinking about this after reading about the possible oxidation during the kneading of small batches of pizza dough.   


http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/10/the-pizza-lab-how-to-make-great-new-york-style-pizza.html

[stpug]

Top-left: dividing raised dough
Top-right: bench resting preshaped boules
Bottom-left: one shaped batard, the other waiting to be shaped
Bottom-right: shaped batard in proofing basket with linen (cotton in my case) towel


Top-left: raised batards ready for oven
Top-right: flipped right-side up and slashed
Bottom-left: 15min into bake after ovenspring
Bottom-right: finished loaf cooling on wire rack

[The Beerery]

King Arthur is great they will have everything you need as far as ingredients, recipes and process. However if you want to get crazy, mill your own flour. Oxidation in flour is the same as malt/brewing, so it's hard to beat fresh. I make a lot of bread, just finished the weekly family sandwich bread and am going to slice and package it now.

How much SMB in the dough? 

HAH! Its not SMB its vitamin C 

It's funny you bring that up.  Ascorbic acid is used as a dough conditioner, and I was JUST thinking about this after reading about the possible oxidation during the kneading of small batches of pizza dough.   


http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/10/the-pizza-lab-how-to-make-great-new-york-style-pizza.html

Did you say pizza?





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[reverseapachemaster]

Bottom-right: shaped batard in proofing basket with linen (cotton in my case) towel

Is the purpose of the proofing basket a convenient place to keep the dough while it rises or does it have value in maintaining the shape of the dough?

[stpug]

Bottom-right: shaped batard in proofing basket with linen (cotton in my case) towel

Is the purpose of the proofing basket a convenient place to keep the dough while it rises or does it have value in maintaining the shape of the dough?

Primarily it's about maintaining the shape of the dough and encouraging upward growth rather than spreading/sideways growth that might happen without some form of side support.  I've used various bowls and baskets for raising loaves.  Boules (rounds) shaped loaves like you commonly see would just use a round bowl/basket, and the slashing would usually be different (+ sign on top is typical).  Some folks will simply put a boule on a piece of parchment, and put an upside-down bowl on top to give the support and keep the dough from drying out. Bread baking is so forgiving, and open to experiment.

You don't have to use a bowl/basket of any sort either, you can raise using a cloth support like a cloche (heavy piece of linen) for supporting batard (football) and longer doughs like baguette.

Some of the modern day sites/blogs/instagrams I would recommend looking at are:
#1 Maurizio's The Perfect Loaf: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/home/
and if you want more info on rye then The Rye Baker: http://theryebaker.com/
Trevor Wilson's Instagram is also awesome, and his website is: http://www.breadwerx.com/

Probably way more info that you wanted, but good bread excites me

[pete b]

I'll add to what stpug said by saying proofing baskets are most essential when making rustic loaves with very wet dough. For boules its easy to use a strainer and well floured cloth. You can use a bowl but the strainer lets some air in and prevents sweating and sticking. Better yet, you can buy the proofing basket (banneton) very cheap with a linen cloth. Also, a good tool is a lame, which is essentially a flexible razor blade on a stick, for slashing the dough before putting in the oven. It makes a cleaner cut, reducing the chance of the blade getting stuck and making and ugly mess and partially degassing the bread.

[pete b]

Pretty pleased with this sourdough. Serving with some cream of nettle soup.

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[HoosierBrew]

Pete, that's a thing of beauty. And it's sourdough to boot.