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Although I make pizza dough all the time, I have never attempted making bread.
Today is the day.

I have dough rising in the pan to make 4 loaves of white bread. Looks great so far.
Too bad I won`t have any pictures of it to post.

Are you using any spent grains in it?

I made pizza dough with the spent grains from my smoked porter I brewed on Saturday. I thought maybe the smoked grains would make the dough smokey and made a bbq style pizza. I don't think any smokiness got into the dough, but it was good.

I used to make a lot of bread, but I haven't done any in a while.

No spent grain to put in it. I haven`t brewed in a month.

Just ate a pizza that I made from the dough I made up yesterday.

I love bread. I try to bake at least once a week. If you could, I would love to see some pics of your bread.

I make pizza dough often enough, but I've never made regular loaf bread. Do you use whole wheat flour, or white? If whole wheat, how do you keep it fluffy? I'd like to start baking my bread, just because I don't like all of the added mystery ingredients in the store's bread.

amartin wrote:I make pizza dough often enough, but I've never made regular loaf bread. Do you use whole wheat flour, or white? If whole wheat, how do you keep it fluffy? I'd like to start baking my bread, just because I don't like all of the added mystery ingredients in the store's bread.

Yeah that was my issue with it, plus like most people on this forum there is the I-can-do-that-better attitude about it. After all wonderbread is the coors light of the baking world.

Whole wheat bread is not that difficult, but is a bit more challenging then white. There are other proteins that work against gluten development in whole wheat and rye's so you need a more delicate touch when kneading. I would say start 50/50 WW to white and go from there. Experimenting to find what works for you. Start with a bit more water then you think you will need and add more flour to bring it to that tacky (but not sticky) texture. You can go the other way, but I find you risk over developing the gluten in WW when you are trying to get the extra water into the hard dough.
Alternatively, you can always do like my girlfriend and stick with a good no-need bread recipe that uses long ferments to develop the gluten. I forget the details of her recipe off hand but I know it is really simple and just requires .6/.3 WW to white ratio. It has a high moisture content and looks like a mash with too little water, as opposed to bread. By the time it goes in the oven (about a day later) it is awesome. She chucks all sorts of seeds and stuff in it too to keep it interesting week after week. I'll get the recipe and post.

Well it's out of the oven and not too bad for my first try. A bit on the brown side due to me not greasing the top before I put it in
the oven, but I managed to get er dun without making it black. Light on weight with good crumb structure.
A tasty bit of dough though

This won't be my last batch of bread, and I plan on making it all the time now.

Here it is in all it's splendor.

mgc wrote:Alternatively, you can always do like my girlfriend and stick with a good no-need bread recipe that uses long ferments to develop the gluten. I forget the details of her recipe off hand but I know it is really simple and just requires .6/.3 WW to white ratio. It has a high moisture content and looks like a mash with too little water, as opposed to bread. By the time it goes in the oven (about a day later) it is awesome. She chucks all sorts of seeds and stuff in it too to keep it interesting week after week. I'll get the recipe and post.

please do. make sure you mention what she bakes it in as well

CorneliusAlphonse wrote:

mgc wrote:Alternatively, you can always do like my girlfriend and stick with a good no-need bread recipe that uses long ferments to develop the gluten. I forget the details of her recipe off hand but I know it is really simple and just requires .6/.3 WW to white ratio. It has a high moisture content and looks like a mash with too little water, as opposed to bread. By the time it goes in the oven (about a day later) it is awesome. She chucks all sorts of seeds and stuff in it too to keep it interesting week after week. I'll get the recipe and post.

please do. make sure you mention what she bakes it in as well

She uses a cast iron dutch oven. She has a nice le creuset french iron one, but we have done it in my kitchen aid Canadian tire Chinese iron rip off and it turns out fine.

I will get the recipe from her tonight.

Bread looks like it turned out great. I have to start making bread again.

Tony L wrote:Here it is in all it's splendor.

Judging by the hacksaw hanging in the background I'm guess it's a bit tough.

mgc wrote: we have done it in my kitchen aid Canadian tire Chinese iron rip off and it turns out fine.

perfect

nice looking loaves, Tony!

KMcK wrote: Judging by the hacksaw hanging in the background I'm guess it's a bit tough.

Heh, heh, I don't know what my wife has that there for... she don't cook.. but if she did, I probably would need that.

Good thing she don't read this forum or she would be like this tonight

Those loves look great! Nice and fluffy! I see you glazed them a little, what did you use?

mgc wrote:Those loves look great! Nice and fluffy! I see you glazed them a little, what did you use?

A little butter on top to soften it up.

I finally got around to getting that recipe for the no kneed. It's damn tasty.
http://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/recipes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I also made a sourdough this weekend. Made some buns for some burgs and a loaf for the week. It turned out fantastic! Not quite as tangy as I wanted but wonderfully fluffy and rich. Maybe I need to spike my culture with a little Brett.