Okay, here's the deal. I've tried making bread. 6 rock hard loaves later I think I am doing something wrong. Where do you let your bread prove? How hot should it be. How long for? Do you shape it on the first prove or keep it all in one lump until it has been knocked down.

It was sooo hard I had to soak it before giving it to the chickens as I couldn't cut it. lol.

I should know this but I've never really had someone to ask, and I'm a chef by profession.( We never made bread)

Please help we are desparate for good, fresh, cheaper than shops bread.

Thanks in advance Alison

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Answers

Hi Alison, my first bread making attempts were very much as you discribed. over on the CS there is a whole thread on bread making so I won't give you recipes but my suggestion would be to use a one loaf or max two loaf recipe until you get a real feel for how bread dough looks, acts and feels. Bread is like a living thing and it really likes to be handled nicely.

I add flour until it is just a little gummy but can be handled without glueing your fingers together and then I begin kneeding and add only enough flour to keep it from sticking to me and the board until it feels springy and elastic (usually about 10 minutes). It will shape into a nice smooth ball when it has been kneeded enough. I allow mine to proof once in a greased bowl covered with a towel so it doesn't dry out. In the summer I just set it on the table or counter and in the winter over near my wood burner. If it is too warm it will rise too fast and fall on you (my frequent failure but it still won't be a rock just not pretty) you get rocks by having too much flour or old yeast or by killing your yeast with too much heat. Usually after an hour it will have almost double in size and then I shape into loaf and let rise again. Handle firmly but gently and you usually get a tender loaf.

Just keep trying and you will succeed, but again I suggest the small batches to start with. My four loaf recipe never did work for me until I was pretty seasoned at the one loaf recipe. Once you have a couple of successes you will gain the experience of knowing what it feels and looks like at the various stages. Hope that helps.................and if it helps any I still have some failures. We call them soup bread and make croutons.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Hi Alison! Nice to hear from you again, gotta admit your adventures wear me out just to read them!!

I was going to send you an easy bread recipe, but then I remembered that you probably use metric equivelents, don't you? Dumb question - do your measuring cups have metric and whatever system it is we use over here both marked on them? So strange, I use metrics all the time at work, but think I would have difficulty trying to translate to them in my kitchen!!

Anyway! Several things you can do to up your chances of making a good loaf of bread. Proof your yeast: put a bit of yeast into 38*C water with a pinch of sugar. If it foams out all over your counter top, it's still good! Use just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your counter top as you knead, but don't knead in too much. Knead until the dough springs back at you when you push on it. Butter and eggs in the recipe will help make a softer bread, as will a recipe using leftover mashed potatoes. I raise my bread in an old stoneware (crockery) bowl. I warm it with boiling water or in a low oven in the winter; then grease it well, leaving a small puddle of grease in the bottom of the bowl. I put my dough in it and turn it so the top is well greased, then cover the whole thing with a folded cotton towel. Let rise ONLY until doubled - don't let rise too long the first time. Shape your bread (we prefer rolls, cinnamon buns and breadsticks to loaves), cover and let rise again for a short time. For white and unbleached flours, rising times are usually 1 hour for the first rise, 1/2 hour for the second - of course it depends on the temperature of your home; it can be shorter or longer. Bake in a hot oven - too cool of an oven can cause the bread to be heavy also. If you are going to try a large batch recipe, get someone to help you knead and divide the dough between you. I had to giggle at the store one day - I was buying yeast and a lady in front of me asked if I had a bread maker. I told her no, I liked to knead the bread to work out my frustrations - she moved around to the front of her shopping cart - I think I scared her!

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

I didn't like the bread maker and went back to kneading the old fashioned way too. I found that my bread skills had gotten a little rusty through disuse (Joy and I both are sensitive to wheat, so we don't consume it much) and my first attempt, which was also with a new recipe, was a rather gluey and heavy flop. And me without chickens to inflict it on (allergic to THEM too!) -- I threw it out to the local deer in the hopes of giving them indigestion in revenge for eating my impatiens. They ate the bread, but I didn't notice any looking like they were in gastric distress.

There was even a whole thread going at one point on CS about what location did people use for proofing bread. My own, in this particular house, is to set it in the bathtub. It is cast iron porcelain, and situated right atop the boiler downstairs, so that it's always cozy warm to the touch (good place to hang clothes over the edge to dry quick too). Another person said that they put it under the covers of their waterbed, which had an electric heater. I've also discovered that it is fairly warm under the cast iron fireplace in the living room, but have to situate it so it doesn't start to cook.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Hi Alison! I call my bread "bird killer bread" because it's so heavy that if the birds eat it they won't be able to fly and then the neighborhood cats will eat them! :)

I found this great site for bread recipes today, maybe we'll have better luck with one of them. Each recipe has a button to convert from US to Metric measurements.

Bread Recipes

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2001

I had the same problem, $28 for a Kitchen Pro bread machine at Wally World on sale solved my problem.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2001

Our mom told us stories about her attempts to make bread as a newly wed. It was so hard, they gave it to Grandma F's chickens, but it was too hard for them too! "Beak Bender Bread"! LOL! Her mom made GREAT bread -- first thing in the door at Grandma E's, we wanted a slice of cardamon bread (it's a Swedish thing)! Yum! I think Julie has the recipe, don't you Julie? I've never even attempted to make bread, other than "quick" breads.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2001

I have a Carla Emery's book The Encyclopedia of Country Living. For me, it's one of the best investments I have ever made toward homesteading. She has a whole chapter on breadmaking and explains what each ingredient does and how to get to the finished product. I grew up making bread, but this chapter opened a whole new world to me. I use up leftovers and experiements that don't always turn out as expected. I made a ton of apple and pear sauce one year, which everyone got tired of eating, so started adding it to the bread and it was wonderful--everybody wanted MORE!! Anyhow, don't depend on times for rising so much. Sometimes it takes more or less time for dough to double, depending on different weather conditions (humidity, heat, etc.). It won't take long for you to get the hang of it, and it is well worth the time. Good luck!

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001

What kind of flour are you using? Bread flour, fresh yeast and luke warm water, colder it takes forever for the yeast to proof, and to hot it kills it. Making a sponge is another full proof way to proof you bread. Put all the liquids together with some sugar and the yeast, let this sit, when it is all foamy and bubbly you know the yeast is working.

I am also a fan of the bread machine. I still make yeast rolls the normal way, but I really think a bread machine saves time. I can have really good bread with only about 5 mintues of my actual time taking care of it. It also doesn't heat up the house. Don't buy a new one, ask any of your friends or family, someone has one that is just sitting there doing nothing!

Though I do add my own ground wheat to my bread, my family does not like loaves made with to much of this. It makes good toast but is way to heavy for our tastes. I just ground about a pound and keep it in the fridge to add, about like my friends who add wheat germ to their breads. Vicki

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001

Polly.

I'm imperial. To me there is a lot more logic involved when cooking. It drives my husband mad. He's older than me (nearly 40), and was taught imperial at school, and now only uses metric, whereas I was taught metric, and have done my best to forget it ever since.

Alison

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001