Bread Makes The Meal

It's time to go back and find some more bread recipes. Admittedly, I haven't made much bread lately: on the other hand, I never want to be short of ideas. There are a number of bread blogs and sites around, but mostly either they post relatively infrequently, like breadbasketcase , or they're large bread-related forums, like The Fresh Loaf , that can overwhelm with the sheer amount of information they present. Either drowning in or starving for new information is my fate, if I'm not careful.. My journey with bread ought to be a joyous exploration; there's certainly enough information out there to help me along. I just have to learn how to swim with the information, not drown in it. Starting tomorrow, you will (I hope) see more of this. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

I haven't made bread for quite a while. Largely because Nancie's food has been so good, and so plentiful, that we've been eating mostly leftovers for lunch, not sandwiches. (We have a lot of stew in the freezer; I should see how dinner rolls will go over.) So Sunday I went back and made the basic Amish White bread. I don't know what happened, but Everything Went Wrong . The bread didn't rise adequately, it started drying out, and when I tried to roll it out and roll it up into a loaf, it wouldn't stay together. Baked, it started falling apart. I don't think I've "lost my touch", but it was a very disappointing experience. The bread has a good taste, but it's very dense. I don't even have pictures; it's too annoying. Actually, dinner rolls sounds like a great idea; I can use some of the rye flour for them. Do you think I need to make the whole sourdough starter, or can I just mix the bread flour and the rye flour? God spe...

It's been a long time (almost a week!), and I was going to be showing you my newly revised recipe for Tuscan White Hearth Bread (made with water instead of milk, since we were out of milk, and with my buckwheat honey). But I think I seriously didn't bake it long enough. It was quite not done in the middle, and I think that's what made me sick for the first couple of days of this week. The last couple are a different story; but I think most of my "feeling ill" yesterday and today is mostly a second- or third-order consequence of not getting quite enough sleep—and trying to make up for that with several cups of tea. Let's just keep in mind for the future, shall we, that if a recipe calls for a pan of water to provide steam, I'll automatically bake it an extra ten minutes or so. This weekend, I plan on (a) making some kind of well-baked bread, and (b) finally finishing up the garden for the season. Oh, and celebrating our anniversary. Looking forward t...

I will have something else up later today; after all, I do plan to make bread of some sort. I just thought I would offer a few brief thoughts on my (continued, but still not complete) reading of The English Bread Book . So, here are my thoughts. The "German yeast" used in 1857 seems to be like the yeast variously called "fresh yeast", "wet yeast" or "yeast cakes" that are often available (though I personally use the dry yeast). This seems to have been only available for sale in bakeries. If you've never seen fresh yeast, here's some (actual size about 1 inch by ½ inch by ½ inch): Fresh yeast. (Image courtesy of ElinorD, via Wikimedia Commons). Since German yeast was relatively expensive and didn't last long, the yeast in common use was that which would have been used in brewing beer; and there's considerable discussion of how it can be affected by hops, gentian, and other ingredients used to flavor beer or ale; also of...

"Boughten" bread. On Sunday—though we didn't eat it until tonight. It's not that I couldn't have made it. We just haven't had a whole lot of time recently, and we picked our menu for today (meatball sandwiches) kind of hastily. So we had no bread in the house, and I happened to see this walking by the bakery department. By this evening it had started hardening (which I hadn't entirely expected), so we reheated it and split it for the sandwiches. I also got it because I thought I might like to try and imitate the loaf, if it was any good. Well, it was; but I'm debating whether to go ahead with the idea. My idea of "Country White Bread" has a bit softer crust, and something that doesn't dry out quite so quickly. Maybe with a bit more sugar to it? I have a recipe for it in Everything Bread ; maybe I'll make that on the cookie sheet rather than in the loaf pan. Just an idea. What's the difference for you between Country...

Paul, over at The Fresh Loaf , had some interesting thoughts this morning on why we bake bread, and what it is that makes bread important as bread—especially its flavor. Which started me thinking. (A potentially dangerous activity, but I risk it from time to time.) I started baking bread again about six months ago, because I missed the experience of baking, but also because I missed the taste and smell of home-made bread. But as I've blogged about the recipes, even with all the descriptions of how to do it, and lovely pictures (or sometimes not so lovely?), I've been leaving out that important point: the resistance, then give, of the crust in your teeth; the warm, sharp tang of the sourdough; the simple "Here I am, feeding you!" of plain white bread. I'm going to change that. I'll start blogging more about what the bread smells like, and feels like, and reminds me of. As I said when I wrote my About Me page, is part of what I'd like to be sharing...

And better, I think. See if you agree. Looking back, I don't see that I've ever posted Leslie Bilderback's "Amish White Bread" recipe. Assuming I haven't, here it is, then (unless she tells me to please take it down): Amish White Bread 1 cup warm water ⅓ cup sugar 1¾ teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast 1 cup flour 2 tablespoons oil (I usually use olive oil for flavor) ¾ teaspoon salt 2 more cups flour So start off by dissolving the sugar in the warm water (as always, not much warmer than body temperature) and adding the yeast. Stir until the yeast is all mixed in and go read a book or something for ten minutes. When the yeast is all foamed up on the top, add the oil, and then stir in the first cup of flour. When this is well mixed, add the salt, and then the other two cups of flour. Flour your surface, and empty the bowl out. You should have a soft, but fairly cohesive, dough. Knead this for eight or nine minutes. It'...

I have to say, this dark rye I made yesterday is delicious! (And almost gone!) I made a couple of sandwiches with it, and I wanted to share. Yesterday, I was just hungry, and I wanted to have something hearty. Fortunately, we had some Kerrygold "Blarney Castle" cheese around. This is lovely cheese, not bland but not with an overpowering taste and smell; a bit sharp but mild enough to let the taste of the bread show through. The only thing I found disappointing about the bread was that the characteristic "rye" taste wasn't very strong. I wonder if this was because I modified the recipe not to use the sourdough starter? It was still delicious, a lot like the brown bread I remember Mama making for us. I just cut off a few slices, put them straight on the bread, and Yum! But you know what was missing? (And I haven't had this for ages .) That's right—pickle! They have this at the Stop & Shop, but we rarely go there for our groce...

So Saturday we were out pretty much all day shopping and running errands, so I took most of Sunday off to recuperate :-) Today was going to be the recipe I gave for bread from 1857, but Nancie requested rye bread instead, so that takes precedence. Since I didn't have a sourdough started, I tried to modify the recipe. It's just coming to the end of the rise, but I thought I'd share with you what I've done so far: Dark Starterless Rye Bread (modified from Leslie Bilderback's Light Caraway Rye recipe) 1 cup warm water 1 tablespoon granulated sugar 2 teaspoons active dry yeast, about 1 package ½ cup cool water; 2 cups dark rye flour 1 teaspoon salt 3 – 4 cups bread flour In a large bowl, combine warm water, sugar, and yeast. Stir to dissolve, and let stand until foamy, about ten minutes. Add cool water and rye flour; stir to combine and form a sponge. Let the sponge stand for about 10 – 12 hours, until well fermented: Add enough bread flour to c...

Nancie has been making the discreet suggestion for a while that I should do something with the sourdough starter or else get rid of it. I eventually decided that I had to agree with her; I really am not using the starter often enough that I can justify taking up the space and the mixing bowl. So tonight I took a couple of final (unfortunately very blurry) pictures: and then washed the bowl out. I haven't given up on sourdough; but I have to be practical: it's not my favorite bread, or Nancie's. On another note, I've been meaning to tell you about the next recipe I'm looking at from the Eliza Acton cookbook I told you about Thursday . I found another recipe for "Good Family Bread". Unfortunately, this one I would have to more than halve before I could bake it manageably. The subheading reads "Sufficient for a week's consumption for ten persons." Presumably that includes the family and the servants. The recipe begins ...

For those of you who were hoping for another post on my bread yesterday, apologies; I didn't finish the bread until well after 11:00 PM, and didn't get into bed for another hour. So I'm exhausted this morning. So anyway, yesterday I did decide to do the Milk and Water Bread from the Bread and Fancy Breads book I found on Google books. Again, here's the recipe exactly as it appears in the book: Dissolve one yeast cake in quarter of a cupful of lukewarm water, stir in enough flour to make a batter, cover and leave to rise. Mix together a cupful of scalded milk, a cupful of boiling water, a tablespoonful of lard, an equal quantity of butter, and a teaspoonful and a half of salt. Stir this mixture into the sponge and add five cupsful of sifted flour, or one cupful of white flour and enough entire wheat flour to knead. In the latter case add also three tablespoonsful of molasses. This bread may be mixed, raised and baked in five hours, and should be mixed in the morni...

I realized that over the weekend I didn't get to stir my sourdough starter—and I missed a feeding. So I was a bit hesitant last night to lift off the (by now very dry) cloth I keep over the starter bowl. I shouldn't have worried. It didn't look particularly different, or smell "off". I took out a cup, added a half cup of flour and half a cup of water, and stirred. This morning, it looked like this: (All those little spots are air bubbles; the picture didn't turn out great.) So the starter is alive and kicking, I'm going to make another couple of boules tonight or tomorrow—and tonight I'm definitely making the Amish white bread. Horror of horrors, we actually had to buy Store White Bread (for $4.50!) last night. So I'll have to do something about that. And as I still can't find the Sally Lunn recipe (but then again, you saw what the desk looks like—it could be anywhere there...) I'm trying not to bake too much bread; we only have so m...

Today my stomach was feeling really awful, and everything just felt slightly out of whack. I didn't feel like I could eat much, so most of the morning I nibbled on slices of sourdough boule. (How do you pronounce that, anyway? It looks like it should be pronounce "boole", or maybe "boolay" - but I always want to pronounce it "bowl"; I have no idea why.) Oh man that was good. This loaf was less overdone on the outside and less underdone on the inside. Very dense and chewy with a very close crumb, but totally done. It was really crusty and there was just this flavor about it that (to quote Smith Of Wootton Major ) "reminds me ... of something I've forgotten". It was Excellent! I'm not sure if I'll do the crescent rolls this week; I've been thinking about the Sally Lunn—recipe to follow tomorrow or so. I'll let you know and there will certainly be pictures. And as I'm feeding the sourdough tonight, I may or may n...

I missed a day yesterday; but in return for making you wait, I have something to share! Yesterday I got a letter from my mom, with a bunch of recipes - nearly all of which I can personally vouch for as delicious. There's (Boston-style) brown bread, Sally Lunn (as I remember, a sweet, dense, cakey bread), no-knead English Muffin bread (Mama claims she used to make this, but I don't remember it), and to start things off: Crescent Butter Rolls 1 cake compressed yeast (about 1¾ tsp) 1¼ cups lukewarm water ¼ cup sugar 3 well-beaten eggs ¾ cup melted butter 4 cups unsifted Flour Crumble yeast into water and stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt, eggs, butter, and flour. (Note: Following the advice Leslie Bilderback gives, I usually give five or ten minutes for the yeast to proof before adding the other ingredients.) Stir until smooth. Dough will be very sticky. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight. (Or, I guess, you could just let it rise right there - but...

So I made my starter after dinner. What I like about Everything Bread is that it gets really detailed, even with long-term recipes like a sourdough starter: Mix this, do this on the next that many days, take out so much and use it for pancakes or something ... she's really good. With something I've never done before, that style of writing gives me a lot of confidence. This isn't, strictly, a "make it from scratch" one that kind of waits to pick up whatever yeast spores might be floating in the air. I used a cup of flour, a cup of water, and an eighth of a teaspoon of baking yeast. It looks bland now: but I'm sure over the next week we'll see interesting developments! Herself is a bit skeptical, but willing to let me work with this as long as (a) it doesn't get in the way (it won't) and (b) the cats won't get into it (ha!). She's going to love the rye bread. So am I, I hope. I got a promise from my mom this evening - she's going t...

So, I've liked baking bread for ages. I think I got it from my mom. Certainly I have great memories of watching her bake bread when I was a child. And I've always got so much satisfaction out of watching (and smelling!) the yeast come alive, and feeling the dough give under my hands - not to mention the taste and smell of it warm out of the oven. Could there be anything more satisfying? I think not. But I hadn't really done any baking since getting married five years ago—so I was really happy last Christmas when my wife gave me The Everything Bread Cookbook , by Leslie Bilderback (whose website, having discovered it, I now intend to fully explore). It took a couple of months, but I started in on it, learned a few interesting things—and then, today, got a new idea. I've thought about blogging before, but I always thought, "What do I like enough, do well enough, think about enough that I could write about it once or twice a week? And today it came to me. I m...