I baked my first loaf of bread and it's fucking amazing

No, not nearly enough. Whole wheat doesn't have much. You can do 1/3 white and add a bunch of flax and it's pretty good.

>I baked my first loaf of bread
I don't believe you. You just wanted to start a bread thread. btw stop eating bread with butter, fatass.

Thanks.
Before this I had only done pizza crust and a few cakes(sorta like bread).

Now that my starter is going strong I plan on trying different things with it. I can always split it and feed one some whole wheat at some point.

I JUST came here to talk about bread, thanks mate.

I actually used to bake bread a lot, but it would always come out flat. I got so discouraged that I stopped.

Now I got myself a nice cast iron pot and it's coming out SO GOOD. I just tried yeast breads so far, though, because I don't have sourdough yet. I don't want to go through trouble of making my own, since also the older sourdough the better, so I'm getting some from a gal from the internet tomorrow.

Here's the flat bread I baked a long time ago. Taste was okay, but you can see that it came out too dense and obviously it's flat as fuck. Not happy about that.

That's the bread I baked today, 2/3 white flour and 1/3 semi-white rye flour. So good, moist and soft.

And that's the first bread I made in the pan, just plain white flour, since I used the quick "no knead" bread recipe, which was really fast and easy. Still delicious though, and it remained soft for 3 days no problem. No idea when it would start going stale, since we ate the whole thing in 3 days.

Im not really worried about my fiber intake. I only eat bread like this as a snack. I have some high-fiber wraps that I make sandwiches out of, plus some high-fiber cereal.

Ok.
I wanted to start a bread thread because I was proud of not fucking it up.
The butter I use is hand-made by mennonites, and is fucking awesome too.
Plus, I've lost 35lbs in the last few months and am down to 160 since I started counting calories and exercising every morning.
I eat all the same kinds of shit I used to, but I make it myself and I make it worth eating.

Gib recipe. I want to try it out, now that my breads are not loli-like. Looks tasty.

Added bran isn't so great because toxic stuff plants absorb is most concentrated there. It's always best to eat a whole food.

Hey Veeky Forums what kind of bread is best for baking on a Sunday and taking rolls/slices to work with me throughout the week? I need to make lunches for the week.

That looks really freaking good.
And as much as I love how good mine turned out, Im DEFINITELY going to look around for easier/quicker recipes. It's almost worth 3 days of work(not to mention all the cleanup) for 2 loaves.. but I'm not sure I'm going to be in the mood for it very often, and I want to make use of my starter as much as I can.

For the starter:
thekitchn.com/how-to-make-your-own-sourdough-starter-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-47337

For the bread:
thekitchn.com/how-to-make-sourdough-bread-224367

She calls for all-purpose flour, but I used bread, which was likely the reason I had so much trouble. I ended up having to pour out half my starter each time and feed it with 4.5oz of flour and 4oz of water before it finally stopped throwing off hooch and smelling like moldy booze and started frothing and bubbling up and smelling fucking awesome.

When I was folding the dough it fucking rose so much it nearly overflowed my bowl, and it seemed really rubbery and gummy, which again is probably because of the flour I used. And I could not do the weird scraper move she was doing to get my ball initially formed and ended up just doing it entirely by hand.

She says to use more flour than you think you'll need in the proofing baskets to keep them from sticking, but I guess I took that too literally because I had WAY too much flour stuck to mine and after I baked them I had to scrub the burnt flour off with a wire brush, so dont be an idiot like me.

She also says to preheat your oven to 500 and bake it for 20 minutes that way before turning it down to 450, but that burned the fuck out of my first loaf and practically fused it to the bottom of my dutch oven, so on the second one, and from now on, Im just baking it at 450 the whole time.

what the fuck is wild yeast? whats the name in spanish?

It is good if you're after something easy.

The recipe is:

3 cups flour
1,5 cups lukewarm water
0,5 teaspoon dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt

Just mix everything in a bowl with a spoon, it can be lumpy, that's fine. Leave (covered with foil) for 12 hours (I left it overnight). Then heat up your oven, with the cast iron pot inside, to 470 farenheit, keep heating it for 30 minutes. In the meantime take out the dough from the bowl, put it on the counter, knead for a moment, shape a ball. The dough can seem too soft/sticky, but that's okay. Cover with plastic foil and leave for those 30 minutes the oven is being heated. When it's nice and warm take out the pot, drop the bread inside, slice it with a razor, bake with the lid on for about 20 minutes. Then take the lid off, lower the temperature a bit, bake for another 15 minutes untill it's golden brown. That's it.

It will be my go-to recipe when I'm too lazy for anything else. It probably doesn't taste as good as the sourdoughs, since I love that slightly acidic taste, but it's still nice.

>For many of us home bakers, making a good loaf of sourdough bread feels like striving for the World Cup or an Olympic gold medal.

Yeah, that sounds familiar. Thanks senpai, will try it! Tbh her bread also looks a bit burnt on the bottom, so that temperature thing is probably a good idea.

Wild yeast = what fuels the sourdough. Just the stuff that's in the air, and not the yeast you buy in the shops.

My starter seems way more active than hers was(or at least it was before I finally put it in the fridge, hoping it holds up well), so I may try and adapt this substituting my starter.

And yeah, the bottom is like charcoal and impossible to slice through, a good sized chunk got left behind stuck to the pot and I had to chisel it off with my spatula. I have to force my knife to crack through it at the bottom for a slice.. but it actually still tastes amazing. The bottom of the second loaf looks a lot better though.

Oh, and she also says to do it on the bottom rack, but then shows hers on the second to bottom rack with some baking slab on the bottom. Not sure what that's about, but next time I'm trying them on second rack.

> I've lost 35lbs in the last few months
That's impressive. So you're a liar and a fat-ass.

>some baking slab on the bottom

That's a pizza stone, maybe she was heating it up for a pizza or something. I tried using a pizza stone for bread baking but never got any good results. Cast iron pots all the way, love them.

I kinda regret buying a small one, but I think I can just lend a bigger one from my parents if I ever want to make a huge loaf. Then again, making smaller ones more often will give me fresher bread.

Yeah, my parents got me mine for christmas a few years back. I was actually a little disappointed because I wanted a regular sized one and they got me a huge one (they were on sale apparently). I'm really glad they did now.

Though my oven temp is off and when I preheated it to 500, it went up to 550 and I'm guessing the plastic knob on the lid wasnt rated for that high of a temp because it cracked a bit and started making popping noises and filled the house with a burning plastic odor.. so that's great... probably should replace it before next time.

Yeah. Or just fuck it and unscrew it, unless it's impossible to take the lid off without it.

>Wild yeast = what fuels the sourdough. Just the stuff that's in the air, and not the yeast you buy in the shops.

so its like normal dough but you leave it rot in the open?

It is. It fits snuggly and has no lip. I'm just going to try and find a regular metal one.

Pizza oven sourdough guy here...

>two year old sourdough starter

Still have to tweak a little for temps in a woodfired oven, but the crumb was amazing.

To add, woodfired ovens are no joke, dome temps can fuck up your crust

Haha, wow, that black crust. I'm sorry man. The inside looks really awesome though!

Not rot, you idiot. If it rots it's spoiled and you throw it away.

Inside looks good. I'd probably try and scrub the outside with a wire brush to get the black off.. but then I'm not sure there would be any crust left..

>Not rot, you idiot.
then tell me how its done.

is it normal dough that you leave fermenting at room temp for a whole day?

You mix flour with water. Wild yeast that are everywhere begin the process of fermentation. It takes more time, but it happens. And those wild yeast are better than normal yeast that you would find in the shop, add to the water&flour mixture, to, guess what, ferment it.

However, fermentation =/= rotting. Rotting is done by bacteria.

If your sourdough (flour&water being fermented by wild yeast) gets bacteria it gets black, mouldy and foul-smelling. Meaning it's dead and you throw it out.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdough

ty.

The sour comes from lacto bacteria. The bubbles come from yeast that can survive the acid environment. Black is mold. Bacteria and yeast are often already in the flour, especially whole wheat. I leave mine covered the whole time and it starts.

Do you have a clean wire brush dedicated to scrubbing the ash and soot off your food?

That's right, forgot about the lacto bacteria. Yep.

Ha, no.
But I bought a cheap grill brush with a scraper that I use in the kitchen for all sorts of things. It's really handy.

looks fantastic good work

Made this during christmas. I also made a lemon icing that goes over it. Pretty great

That looks awesome.
And I love anything sweet and lemon flavored.

They keep extremely well in the fridge. I don't bake as much bread anymore because it's just me and I would get fat off of constantly eating bread, but I've had my starter several years now. It's in a glass bowl and I drain off the alcohol and feed it every 2-3 weeks. If I'm going to use it, I take it out and feed it for about two days on the countertop and it'll be going crazy again.

Same. Sweet lemony things are hngggg.

Breadthread, don't die on me.

OP here.
I had it for breakfast and dinner last night and I just cut off another slice and had it for breakfast again. At this rate I'll have both loaves eaten by monday. It's very filling though.

I'm the other bread baking user. Had a huge slice for breakfast, too. Then I stepped on the scale and holy shit, I need to stop baking so much bread, because then I end up eating only that.

Anyone have a good and simple bread recipe that isnt sourdough?

Yeah. I estimated how many calories are in each loaf, and am using my food scale so I can estimate how many are in each slice. I'm trying to keep them around 150-200 calories each, with butter, so I'm slicing them on the thin side, and measuring out my butter as well. That's why yesterday I pretty much ate only bread... today seems to be going the same way...

it's not as bad as back when I used to make german cheesecakes and poundcakes every week. "I'll take some of it to my coworkers", I always told myself... never happened.

Been making some sex ass sandwiches with handmade bread recently.

Bit sloppy but I enjoy it.

Here are two shitty little whitebread loaves I made a few weeks ago. My sourdough starter also got "ready" this week so I'll have pics tomorrow morningish

post recipe/yeast growing procedure plz. planning on doing this very soon.

Just Google sourdough starter. Go get started right now because it may take a while. I used the King Arthur guide/recipe that said 5 days, but it took 2 weeks like OP's did

I gave a recipe without sourdough here

which was for this bread

Mmmm. I'm not from USA, but I've been seeing leftover turkey sandwiches everywhere after Thanksgiving, so I baked a huge turkey breast just to be able to make myself a turkey sandwich.

That crust looks lovely.

>those large, fluffy bubbles
>that thin, dark crust
>browned bottom
Fuck you OP.
Fuck you and your obviously better setup.

Take an apple.
Mix rye flour and some water, then grate the apple into it.
Room temp, keep it covered, stir on occasion, feed it small amounts every day or so, for about a week. Or until you determine that it's grown enough.
That's how I made mine originally. Transitioned to using regular flour though, using the same sourdough.

Keep self-made food in the general, please.

Thanks.

10/10

get a load of this new faggot

>trying to shill your own thread

both look tasty

I already did, I used two bowls, a cheap silicone spatula, a cheap digital scale from walmart, plastic wrap, a dutch oven, cheap dish towels from walmart, two old colanders, and a crappy old oven that never get's the temp right.

You could probably make this bread in a cabin in the woods.
I just followed the directions as best I could. I've been bored and wanted a challenge.

>followed the directions as best I could

That's bread making for you. Pic was my first sourdough. I've improved some but, but it's never enough.

>it's never enough.

get a bread pan. To keep it from sticking, oil the pan and sprinkle cornmeal on it.

I've made like four or five attempts at getting a starter going and they fail every single time. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, is it possible there just not enough yeast in my house or too much of some other bacteria?

I used thefreshloaf.com starter method in their most bookmarked section using organic rye and semolina along with fresh squeezed orange juice. Although Veeky Forums rags about the idea of organic, minimal chemical interference becomes important for culturing the wild critters.

Mine started going full bore in 3 days.

For the first 4ish days or so my starters all do pretty well but after that they kind of stagnate, very little to no bubble development but a lot of that liquidy by product. Even when I would continue to feed it the yeast never got bubbly enough to float in water.

I'm trying again right now using the pineapple juice trick with half whole wheat and half white flour, sitting at day 2 at the moment, but it's been way too cold to really tell if its working so soon. The sour, yeasty smell is definitely there though.

m8 just take a tupperware container, add 100 hydration dough, and mix in some active dry yeast. there's your starter. my starter is about 1 year old. When I'm not using it, it sits in the fridge, when I want to make bread I take it out, mix in some whole wheat flour and water, and leave it overnight to ferment...

Are those dry commercial yeasts and naturally cultured yeast the same thing? I wanted to try the traditional way but if this attempt fails I'll just do that.

If it starts looking watery, try going to a 60/40 or even 70/30 flour/liquid ratio.

You don't make a sandwich you build a sandwich u fail at life hahahaha

I have a full glass of wine in my hand and a loaf of homemade bread in the oven.

Life is good.

OP here. That's exactly how mine was too. It started REALLY strong, then suddenly around the 3rd-4th day throwing off hooch (the liquid) and looking really weird, at first I poured the top off and kept going but nothing changed, so I looked online for ideas (and to make sure it hadn't gone bad because I was really worried it was going moldy or something) and read that it does that when it runs out of food/flour. So then I poured like half of it out and increased my flour like said, and it started doing better and better, and I eventually found the right mix so that after a few days it was going so strong, even after continuing to pour half out it would expand and froth up to the point it nearly overflowed the large bowl I had it in.

Just pour that shit off and keep fucking around with it till you make it happy. I think it's only a failure if it gets moldy.

Using ady will get you started. After a week or so, the yeast will evolve/be replaced by/mate with local yeast. but you can use it immediately if you want.

It takes 3-5 hours, depending on the temp, for my yeast to rise the dough, so it is definitely no longer commercial yeast.

>You could probably make this bread in a cabin in the woods.
Then you can imagine my setup.

what kind of bread is that and how do I make it

Stovetop master race

I make soda bread a bunch because I'm tired of my starter going rancid.

LOOKS LIKE SHIT HONESTLY.

Don't live in a hot country

How the fuck do you guys bake anything?

Even following a recipe to a T, baking stresses me out so fucking much and if anything breaks my focus i get fucking pissed. Any other cooking method is fine but once i have to bake something like bread or cake or pie i just get so focused and stressed out. I dont know why it happens

it's stressful because flour gets everywhere and it's messy.

having the right tools and techniques reduces stress immensely.

I use a bread machine to knead the dough. this eliminates a lot of the mess associated with forming the dough. and it allows you to experiment with dough hydration without making a mess.

Plain ol bread.

Unbleached flour
Stick of butter
Two eggs
Salt
Yeast
Sugar
Water

Preddy easy bother

I don't know how to help you, it's exactly the opposite for me. The only thing that is kinda stresfull for me was handling the highly hydrated dough, since I suck at making it not stick to my hands and that's annoying. But other than that I love baking and it relaxes me like nothing else.

For christmas I always bake gingerbread cookies for the whole family, using 4kgs of flour, and it's taking me ages to roll it, cut them out and bake them. And I love it.

Just...stop trying so hard? Maybe try recipes that are idiot-proof, like muffins or brownies? They usually come out all right even if you mess up.

>stick of butter
>two eggs

that's not plain tho. Plain is just water, flour, salt and yeast/sourdough. I think.

Just got my sourdough from the girl I mentioned earlier! Fed it flour and water, waiting for it to get bubbly.

The only thing I don't like about sourdough is that it attracts fruit flies, and I've been trying to get rid of them for days. Little spawns of satan. Made me keep all my fruit and veggies in the fridge, hate that.

Forgot pic.

One of my earliest jobs was working as a cook in a dive bar/grill downtown in my city that was EXTREMELY popular, to the point lines would form out the door every lunch and they even set up a stage out back to have B-list bands come and play to where the entire back lot and restaraunt were packed to the brim until 2am, and the owners were cheap (scary as fuck) bastards (with mob connections) who only kept 2 cooks and 1 prep person working the entire time (god help you if you ever fucked anything up or pissed off a customer), there were times where my stress level got so high I felt like I was going to pass out, or start attacking the customers/waitresses and running screaming into the night (I would have quit sooner but I was legit afraid they would kill me).

After a year and a half of that crazy shit, cooking for myself in my own kitchen is the least stressful thing imaginable. It actually reduces my stress.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the entire kitchen was open to the rest of the restaurant so the customers could sit at the bar and stare at you the entire time. And they would constantly make suggestions on how to cook their order, or yell angrily at you if they didn't think their order was being made fast enough.
The owners would usually take turns sitting there too watching you, and they would even join in with the customers, never once considering that they might help out a bit.

Fun times.

Even baking fucking chocolate cookies puts me on edge for some reason. I think its autism or just a weird tick i have

Then just don't do it. Cooking should be fun. Don't force yourself.

Wow. Thats fucked. I hope you got paid well for that at least

do you drink a lot of caffeine?
back when I drank soda all the time, anything that required even a little concentration stressed me out

Oh cooking is fine, just not baking. I love cooking dinners and making lunches and stuff.

I feel worse about fucking up baking than i do fucking up like a steak or something

$8.50 an hour. It was like 10 years ago and I don't live in a state that's very big on "workers rights" or anything, so it was almost decent compared to what I'd get working at similar places in the area.
I took a whole dollar/hour pay cut for the job I went to after that, but it was worth it. My first day everyone was just sitting around the kitchen bored and not doing anything. It freaked me the fuck out because I was so used to, "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean... or I'll fucking kill you."

I meant that doing anything in the kitchen should be fun and pleasant, so should be baking. If it stresses you out to this point then just fuck it and don't do it.

Why do you even feel that pressure? I mean, baking is pretty cheap, if you fuck up you can just throw it out.

Buy yourself a chocolate cake and then try baking something cheap. If you fuck up just throw it out and eat the chocolate cake.

>Even baking fucking chocolate cookies puts me on edge for some reason. I think its autism or just a weird tick i have

Spending hours every day sitting at a computer is the source of this anxiety. It's not really your fault, and you can fix it by limiting computer time.

do your kneading in a air conditioned room.

[spoiler]i also live in a hot country and cant bake with anything that requires butter ;_;[/spoiler]

Niiiice.

Nice

All right OP, the acquired sourdough looks strong, so I'll probably try the recipe you gave. Fingers crossed.

I'll probably make two loaves, but I have no idea what I will do with the second one.

>I'll probably make two loaves, but I have no idea what I will do with the second one.

slice it up, put it in a freezer bag, and freeze it.