March 12, 2014

Adventures in Breadmaking


I've been trying to learn to make bread for the longest time. It never seemed to come out right. I was always interested in learning but I do admit, my interest peaked when blogger, Marmota, talked about bread in the Czech Republic and how much she missed it when she visited America.

 She referred to the"white, tasteless sponge that the Western world calls 'bread.'" The more I thought about it, the more I agreed that American white bread is severely underwhelming and sort of tastes like white glue.  It is very rare in the US for people to make their own bread or to buy anything other than a prepackaged loaf full of preservatives and who-knows-what. I am slowly trying to move away from pre-made foods and transfer to raw ingredients and homemade food. I developed a lot of bad eating habits in college due to time constraints and stress.

I eventually want to learn to make artisan loaves but I thought a good place to start would be to use a bread maker and work up to formed loaves.

As it's been on the list of things to do for a few years, Andy and I finally went out and bought a bread maker at a thrift store and had a ton of fun learning to use it. I hope to use it more often and if anyone has some good recipes to try, please leave me a comment.



Potato Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

-2 Cups cooked, mashed Potatoes
-1/2 cup Water from cooking the potatoes
-1/2 cup Milk + more for glazing
-2 Tablespoons Sunflower Oil
-4 1/2 Cups Unbleached White Bread Flour
-1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
-2 Teaspoons Sugar
-1 1/2 Teaspoons Yeast

The ingredients were placed in the bread maker according to the maker's instructions, which simply enough involved keeping the yeast, sugar and oil separate from each other. At about 20 minutes before the loaf was finished, we glazed the top of the loaf with extra milk using a pastry brush.  The bread maker took care of the rest and out popped a delicious loaf.

I'd like to learn more about converting bread machine recipes to oven baked ones. I really hope to find a very yummy whole wheat sandwich loaf. For those of you interested in purchasing a bread maker, they really are handy.

5 comments:

  1. I'm so glad the bread turned out alright. There was so much that could have gone wrong. I am happy that your family enjoyed it. Looking forward to making some more! :D

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  2. I've always wanted to make bread. I think we do have a bread maker; I'll have to try making this!

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    Replies
    1. It's not hard at all. I've had trouble in the past getting the yeast to work.

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  3. You're ahead of me here now. I only make bread-like buns or stuff myself, perhaps because I can still get nice bread in a shop:-); although I've been laying my eyes on packets of bread-specific flour for some time now... That loaf you have there does look good.
    One thing I've learned - which your bread-maker's technique reminded me of - is that you should not mix the yeast starter with any oils or fats until it's mixed into the flour. Which is probably why the bread maker does it that way.
    Good luck in your bread-making adventures! It's a bit embrassing to have worked towards it in that way, but then, if it means you'll learn to make amazing bread, I guess I'm glad I did. :-)

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