November 16, 2016 - 3:00pm
Advice needed
My wife and I recently purchased a bread machine and weren't happy with results of our first foray into bread baking. Therefore, we returned it and decided to try making bread with a Kitchenaid stand mixer. She told me that bread making was my responsibility. I have never used a mixer, let alone tried making bread dough. I'm 71 years old with a learning disability and very nervous about the whole process. With the bread machine she did the bread making using Fleischmann's rapid rise yeast. Any suggestions about the yeast or the whole process would be encouraging. Thanks all..
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Welcome to this site! You will find a LOT of advice here and I would treat it like advice you get from everyone on how to raise kids or conduct your life. Say "Thanks" and use what works and discard the rest. Advice can range from simple to very complex. Again, use what works for you as you have a few learning curves ahead.
Mixer-read the safety instructions and generally play around with it a bit. Make a cake mix, perhaps , as practice on how to use the machine. Keep your hands and fingers out of the bowl when it is mixing!!
"Search" box-on this site works pretty well.
Explore the black ribbon towards the top of the screen that has "Home" "Forum" "Lessons" "Handbook". There is a lot of information in those topics.
Recipes-keep it simple. What kind of bread are you interested in? White sandwich bread? Crusty? Whole wheat? Check out your local library for some bread books that explain ingredients and simple recipes.
Start simple and go from there. If things don't go well, the birds get a treat. Try again.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. Your advice will be taken seriously. Thanks again.
If you cannot afford taking a class from someone locally (a home baker in your area, a local cooking school or another kind of cooking place), try working your way through a bread baking text written for a class. Mind you, I don't mean a bread recipe cook book. While the latter often include small lessons in techniques, a text book is likely to be more complete, teaching the reader/student from the basement on up. Here are two samples: DiMuzio's Bread Baking and Hamelman's Bread. Both are available used at websites such as Alibris and Powell's Books, but you may find them first in your local library system. I like the lessons available on this website, but they are not complete enough for my taste.
Thanks so very much for the great information. Will definitely look into the books.