A baking thread

[BenM]

I bake bread pretty frequently using this recipe:

Only four ingredients:
4 cups water
8 cups flour (I like 1/2 wheat, 1/2 white)
2 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. yeast (the video calls for 2 but I only ever need 1)

Mix up the water, yeast, and salt in a bowl, then add the flour. Let rise for 2 hours, punch it down, and put in two loaf pans. Bake at 450 for 25-30 mins. If you put a tray with some water in in in the oven with the bread, the steam will keep the crust a little bit softer.

Yep, that's almost the same as the one I used which was this one: https://leitesculinaria.com/93789/recip ... tml#recipe

Super easy. I used the tray with water in it and baked it on a pizza stone, but I'll try it in a Dutch oven next time.

Really happy with the result, and heaps of dough in the fridge to make more.

[Inmyelement]

Those artisan breads are great. We make a bigger batch of the dough and just pull a chunk off when we want bread. Stays good in the fridge for a few weeks and gets some sourdough notes the older it gets.

We have been doing a lot for baking since watching British Bake Off, but my wife is thoroughly tired of my "soggy bottom" references.

[rjharris]

Anyone have good tips for sourdough starter? I tried making one using Paul Hollywood's recipe, which involves mixing flour and water, shaving an organic (allegedly important) apple into it, and then sealing it in an *airtight* (which seemed odd to me, but I did it) container. I fed it every ~ day, but it got infected, had to throw it out, and have been leery of wasting that much flour on something that I might just have to trash again.

[Hanley]

Anyone have good tips for sourdough starter? I tried making one using Paul Hollywood's recipe, which involves mixing flour and water, shaving an organic (allegedly important) apple into it, and then sealing it in an *airtight* (which seemed odd to me, but I did it) container. I fed it every ~ day, but it got infected, had to throw it out, and have been leery of wasting that much flour on something that I might just have to trash again.

50g all purpose flour

50g stone-milled whole-wheat flour (my understanding is that this is a good source of yeast)

100g filtered water

Mix. When it starts getting all bubbly (24-48ish hours), discard half and mix in a new batch of 50/50/100. Repeat the discard and refeed daily for a week. Should be ready in about a week.

That's it. I used a canning jar with the lid unsealed. Worked great.

I killed my first 3 starters. One got too hot, and the 2 others starved and turned into putrid awfulness.

This basic starter has made a bunch of delicious loaves.

We named our starter "Ronnie Coleman".

Feeding Ronnie everyday started to drive me nuts, so we moved him to the fridge and feed him weekly.

[rjharris]

Okay, sweet, thanks. I'll give this a shot starting tomorrow and see how it goes.

[rjharris]

reviving this thread to post this crazy ass shit

[brkriete]

Not that crazy or fancy but I've been baking bread with my kids every couple weeks this summer. They are fascinated by the process and everyone likes eating it. Have had good luck with this recipe. I might branch out to fancier stuff this winter depending on time and their attention spans - I used to do a lot more baking when I was in high school and college but have had other priorities.

[hsilman]

Bumping for a new season of Great British Bake Off. Couple of good bread ideas from this week's episode.

[omaniphil]

Delicious apple cake recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/7915/ ... le-cake-i/

I pretty much make it as written although I increase the amount of apples by about 50% to ~6 cups (about 5-6 medium size apples). We picked about 50lbs of apples a few weeks ago, and I've been trying to come up with things to do with them. This cake is delicious and super easy to make, especially if you skip the extra step of mixing dry ingredients together separately. Who's got time for that?

[hsilman]

Delicious apple cake recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/7915/ ... le-cake-i/

I pretty much make it as written although I increase the amount of apples by about 50% to ~6 cups (about 5-6 medium size apples). We picked about 50lbs of apples a few weeks ago, and I've been trying to come up with things to do with them. This cake is delicious and super easy to make, especially if you skip the extra step of mixing dry ingredients together separately. Who's got time for that?

look good. Apple based pastries are my favorite fall treat.

https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/appl ... mon-rolls/

I made these last year and they tasted amazing. To take a hard right turn though, I can't tell you how much I DESPISE cooking blog websites. Just give me my damn recipe. Especially on mobile with all the ad overlays and slow loading. God I hate it.

[omaniphil]

To take a hard right turn though, I can't tell you how much I DESPISE cooking blog websites. Just give me my damn recipe. Especially on mobile with all the ad overlays and slow loading. God I hate it.

"Let me tell you about this story from when I was a kid and my grandmother blah blah blah...." (story continues for 1000 words before getting to the recipe and directions)

[OrderInChaos]

You're both spot on with the comments. On desktop I've found PgDn gets me to the recipe PDF faster for ingredients and instructions.... always a pain in the ass on mobile.

Do these sites get extra ad revenue once an article exceeds some arbitrary word count, like YT vids with 10:00?

[omaniphil]

Made a chocolate souffle today after being inspired yesterday watching the technical challenge from a Great British Baking Show episode from a few years ago (S06E09).

Was shockingly easy to get something that was pretty good, although I suspect that to get a really good souffle will probably take a lot of tinkering with technique (just how slowly can you fold in the egg whites, while ensuring total mixing, etc). Anyways, the recipe I used was at Epicurious (https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food ... fle-106173). I might try experimenting to see how cream of tartar might help stabilize the meringue. I might also experiment with other techniques to increase the rise, such as different fats on the side of the baking dish, wax paper, etc.

It rose about 1.5 inches, which is ok, but since the bowl was slightly too large, and the level was low to begin with, it barely raised above the edge of the dish. I was really hoping for that classic souffle rise. It never collapsed though, so I guess that was a win.

[rjharris]

I made these Sunday. They aren't super sweet, and yet they are fairly spicy. They've been pretty great. We made an orange icing to go on some of them, and the combination is *chef kissing fingers*, though they're really good without it imo.

[hsilman]

Thanks for the gingerbread recipe. I make ginger snaps and I definitely favor spicy over sweet.

Made a double batch of cinnamon raisin swirl bread today for a friend's party. Used the new instant yeast I got from Amazon, which confirmed my suspicion that my issue with bread before was the yeast at my neighborhood grocery store. Something must have happened in transit or while sitting there that killed a lot of it, because it used to take hours for bread to ride. New yeast got me to more than doubling in a single hour of proofing. Finally matching expectations from my recipe book. I've got 12 packs, so looking forward to making some more bread soon. I've got Paul Hollywood's newest book and I can't wait to make some more of his recipes.

[alek]

I missed my calling. I just made my first cake from scratch--a Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake of all cakes--and it was one of, if not the best, chocolate cake I've ever eaten. I just might be doing the whole sheetcake a day thing now; Reynolds would be proud.

I used the recipe from Joy of Cooking; I forgot to buy buttermilk this morning, so I used a half cup of regular milk and a tablespoon of white vinegar as substitute.

[GrainsAndGains]

My people! *points at username*

The intersecting part of the Venn Diagram for "people who watch the Great British Bake Off" and "people who deadlift" is small, don't meet many of us in the wild.

I can't bake right now because my wife is dieting and it's downright cruel to have fresh bread around the house when someone is trying to cut calories, but here are a few ciabattas I made a couple of months ago.

[rjharris]

My people! *points at username*

The intersecting part of the Venn Diagram for "people who watch the Great British Bake Off" and "people who deadlift" is small, don't meet many of us in the wild.

you rang?

I can't bake right now because my wife is dieting and it's downright cruel to have fresh bread around the house when someone is trying to cut calories, but here are a few ciabattas I made a couple of months ago.

this is also my situation except replace `my wife` with `both my wife and myself.` it really sucks, lol.

[5hout]

My people! *points at username*

The intersecting part of the Venn Diagram for "people who watch the Great British Bake Off" and "people who deadlift" is small, don't meet many of us in the wild.

you rang?

I can't bake right now because my wife is dieting and it's downright cruel to have fresh bread around the house when someone is trying to cut calories, but here are a few ciabattas I made a couple of months ago.

this is also my situation except replace `my wife` with `both my wife and myself.` it really sucks, lol.

I love GBBO and baking. I tried to keep up my baking once I went to keto, but as you point out the bread smell is cruel. Now I bake once a year for family events.

Tower of bread I made for Xmas a few years ago. Turned out Ok, but wish I had really cranked all of them to look like the top right. I still haven't cleaned the cooler I used for the first rise. I sort of forgot about it for a while, and I have other (better) coolers, so now it's a project that just lives in my basement.



Cut in half and then sliced into slices, top notch giant sandwich bread. Holiday cheat meals only though. This was enough bread for a family dinner in one go.

[rjharris]

Since many of us are inside nowadays, what are people baking? Over the last couple of weeks, I've made a few sheets of rough puff pastry that I used to make these goat cheese /caramelized onion things, as well as a loaf of (what I would think is good) rye bread. We're at the house until the end of the month, so I'll probably make some sourdough starter.