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Let's get some serious discussion going on about how you like to make your loaf.
My mom taught me how to make bread when I was a kid. I don't have a recipe, I do it by feel.

My technique these days is to start a poolish the night before with Yeast, 2C flour and 2C water.
I let that get going really well, and when it is nice and active the next day I mix in the salt, 2C of flour and 1/3C of oil.

I let that rise once again before dividing, kneading and shaping.
After a final rise I bake it at 400 until golden.



Here is a set of videos that I found very informative.




What's your technique?

I usually only make traditional White Bread from a recipe my Mother handed down to me a long time ago. It was only since her death a few years ago I decided on trying my hand at it and found the recipe almost foolproof given my pizza dough making experience.
Getting the dough right with the right consistency is a matter of experience I guess. I have a feel for how moist the dough needs to be and how long I need to knead it. I do my bread all by hand, but do my pizza dough in the mixer with the dough hook

Also it is important to remember that not all ovens are the same and some ovens will actually register higher or lower than the temperature set for on the dial.
I, myself do my bread at 400f, but doing pizza which is more moist, I use a temperature of 500f on a stone.
This is a typical picture of bread I made last spring.

I find bread is always different, I can make a dough today and Monday it will require more or less flour or more or less baking time. It's really a trick to know how you like your bread, I can whip a dough up in an hour, but I much prefer to run a starter or biga for almost every bread, roll or dough I make. I think one of the biggest mistakes is making a "quick dough" let it chill in a fridge for a day or two and the results become ( usually ) markedly better. Nick malgirie (sp) books are great for someone who wants to get into it and so is Peter reinharts he's got a couple easy to find PDFs and books as well

http://www.reddit.com/r/Breadit/

May be interesting to some of you.

I use a bread machine... *ducks*.

Also, my grandmother in Newfoundland makes the best homemade white bread. I don't think she does it anymore though, when I was visiting in the summer we got a bunch at Goobies.

RubberToe wrote:http://www.reddit.com/r/Breadit/

May be interesting to some of you.

I use a bread machine... *ducks*.

Ha! I use a bread machine for our everyday sandwich bread. Quick and easy to do a quick multigrain, oatmeal honey loaf.

When having bread with sausage or cheese on the weekends, I go with the no-knead approach, and cook either inside in a closed cast iron dutch oven, or outside in the kamado.

Baked some multigrain bread and baguette today. Had a poolish going for about 36 hours that went into it. Can't wait to slice it.

First shot at spent grain bread. Tastes awesome!
-Keely.

redoubt wrote:First shot at spent grain bread. Tastes awesome!

DSC04085.JPG

-Keely.

Bread looks great!

I cheat when I make spent grain bread. I use bread and roll mix and just add the grains while mixing it up. Turns out great every time, and tastes amazing.

Made these tonight -- they won't last 2 days in this house! lol

And here the pic.