The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

bread

RachelJ's picture

Baking Bread In Pans Over Open Fire Or In Fireplace?

July 30, 2010 - 10:06pm -- RachelJ

Hola! It's me again... I have a couple more things to ask.

Has anyone ever made bread in a fireplace? Like in pans? Or maybe they did it over an open fire?

I've still no oven, no grill, and no toaster oven either. :( I'm outta luck here, people, and I'm stuck with flatbreads, so if anyone has anything, PLEASE let me know! :)

Shutzie27's picture
Shutzie27

There is something almost primal about home-baked bread.

For millennia, mostly women (but I'm sure some men too) across every single continent have engaged in a fairly painstaking process of patiently grinding wheat or corn into flour, finding and adding just the right amount of water, and kneading, kneading, kneading until, finally, on a flat rock in the sun or atop an enclosed fire somewhere the cornerstone of the human diet was finished. How could they have known how much water to add, or that one must knead and not beat or grind the dough? Perhaps bread was born within us and simply came out.

Maybe it emerged in the form of a baguette, or a tortilla, a loaf, a pita, a crust or a stick, but it was bread and it was being made every day by somebody somewhere.

Humans engaged in this long process, over and over again, for their children, their mates, their communities or themselves. To celebrate, to mourn, to barter or to heal. In honor of their religion and sometimes, even, bread was made to renounce religion. Bread was at once precious and yet universal. It was for the rich to enjoy, the poor to need and the destitute to yearn for.

Environment, time and later wealth would play their defining roles, of course.

In France the nobles feasted on croissants, a rich bread because it required eggs for browning and a scandalous amount of butter.

Meanwhile, in Tuscany, the bread had to last and was often stale. Not to be denied any pleasure, the Tuscans soaked the leftover slices of the long, narrow loaves in olive oil and topped with basil and tomatoes and re-warmed the bread over the fire. Today, you can pay up to $25.00 for a plate of that--only we call it bruschetta and the bread isn't usually stale (though it may have been deliberately left out overnight to harden for authenticity).

French toast, or as I grew up calling it, arme ritter (poor knight) was fed as a dessert dish to knights. It contained key ingredients wealthier noblemen were likely to have, such as milk and eggs. As such, it was considered a bit of a luxurious dish and by serving it the noblemen were paying the knights proper respect...that being said, it was also appealing because it was a dish that was still relatively cheap to provide. In fact, French toast is sometimes called "The Poor Knights of Windsor."

Rich, poor, warring or at peace....everyone ate or at least needed bread. Of all the foods in the world, it is bread that became synonymous with currency the world over (lettuce is a distinctly American term).

All of which is well and good, of course, and lends to a deep sense of comfort when baking bread, but doesn't have a whole lot to do with why I bake it.

No, I think it would be far more accurate to say that I love dough more than I love baking bread.

I love the dough.

I love the way yeast proofs in warm water, as though the water, at just the right temperature, was holding some eternal secret of life and by adding the yeast and waiting I discovered it. Dough is love, and love is the essence of life.

I love how it transforms from a sticky, gooey sludge into a smooth, warm and elastic dough with just a bit of patient coaxing from my fingers. That my small, weak and unskilled hands could produce such an strong but elastic substance amazes me just a little bit each and every time.

I especially associate yeast dough with love. Like love, yeast dough is pliable but strong, but also requires just the right amount of attention to become something life-sustaining. Given too much kneading or water or flour, it can be ruined in an instant and become stiff, dry or cracked. Sometimes, just sometimes, like particularly strong love, if the dough has become too watery and is getting away from the baker, it can be fixed by slowly and carefully adding flour.

Both yeast dough and love can be coaxed, cajoled, rolled, folded and rocked into shape, but never, ever forced.

You have to truly feel the dough to understand it, and if you are only going through the motions you may end up with bread that is edible, but not bread that is also joyous. Yeast dough, like love, will give back whatever you put into it, and if you don't pay attention you will end up with nothing but a useless, heavy mass and a lot of wasted time you can never get back.

Yeast dough is warm from the inside out and, without even touching it, yeast dough can grow and grow until it doubles or triples in volume and can seem unstoppable. Anyone who has ever secretely loved another can surely relate.

The warmth of yeast dough doesn't come from an oven or a grill, but emanates gently from within it. Cover the bowl, come back in an hour or even just twenty minutes and--magic!--twice as much dough as there was before.

And like love, even punching it down a bit and reshaping it won't stop the way it will grow from within.

Some breads, just like some loves, need a bit more attention even when they're in the oven.

A baguette, for example, has to be perfectly misted while baking.

A challah bread (and is there any bread that celebrates life, family, love and tradition more? And no, I'm not Jewish, but it really is one of the richest breads in so many ways) won't settle for being shaped but must be braided.

The quietly demanding sourdough requires no less than at least three days of your time for the starter and, even then, can be a bit fickle.

And the croissant is a downright diva, demanding days of preparation and folding process akin the welding and hammering that goes into a genuine Samurai sword (only slightly less than 100 layers). It is a deceptively innocent-looking bread that requires a remarkable amount of skill.

Yes, some breads require the attention of a lover, others are as demanding as children, still other are as low-maintenance and accepting as an old friend, and still other breads ultimately require the patience, work and understanding that love for family and in-laws are exceedingly likely to require.

But all of them, if done properly, are unquestionably worth every second.

Naturally, after taking a golden-brown or spice-speckled or rich dark bread out of the oven, I'll treat myself to just a bit of it.

I'll allow myself that first moment of basking in the rich, comforting warmth of the oven, still lazily lingering within the welcoming center of the loaf. And I'll revel in the barely-there hint of sugar or natural sweetness that is woven tightly amidst the magical sponge of flour and yeast.

When the mood strikes me, sometimes that gentle, warm center is hugged by a protective crust with just enough crunch to turn that very first bite into an experience of its own, a sharp but simple contrast of texture that elevates the flavor exponentially.

But after that, really, the bread becomes almost a thing of the past. Baked, the loaf is now something that I take pride in having made and while I genuinely look forward to sharing with others, something is gone. I am forced to confront the fact that the towel-wrapped testimony to my secret baking obsession is not why I ever began making it in the first place.

Trialer70's picture

Puerto Rican bread with ginger

July 27, 2010 - 10:23pm -- Trialer70

I am searching for a bread from Puerto Rico that is made in small round loaves, has a strong flavor/aroma of ginger (this is a yeast bread, not a gingerbread or "quick bread" type) and is mildly sweet.  A friend born and raised in Ponce, PR, remembers eating something like this as a child.  He does not remember it as being Hot Cross Buns, but as being a small boule or round loaf.  I'd like to make it for him, if I knew what type of bread this could be.

CT's picture

Water

July 18, 2010 - 9:46pm -- CT
Forums: 

Hi,

 

I'm new to baking bread, but I've made  a few different breads from a few recipes by now.  Every time I make bread I end up with the same problem: The recipe always specifies too little water.  usually by a lot (25-50%).  This is the case if i measure the flour by weight or volume.  Why is this?

 

mawil1013's picture

Brooklyn Bread

July 13, 2010 - 9:26am -- mawil1013

Hi

 

I'm new here, posting for first time.

 

There is a bread available in Brooklyn and on the lable is I beleive has 'Kings Road' or something like that. It is like a french bread, I think, long narrow, the crust is dark brown, crusty and tough, the inside is light and airy.

 

Anyone got a recipe for a bread like this? I'll be working the dough in a bread maker but cooking in oven at 550F on a pizza stone unless otherwise directed.

 

Michael1013

benjamin's picture
benjamin

I've been taking it easy with the baking lately due to the excessive heat in center city Philadelphia, which has been hovering around 100 for the past few days now. I always feel guilty running the air conditioners and the oven at full tilt simultaneously, half expecting Al Gore to knock on my door and give me a lecture. Regardless, I had the itch to bake, and so I went back to one of my favorite recipes, the Vermont sourdough from 'Bread'.

 

Levain Build

  • Bread flour: 4.8oz
  • Water: 6oz
  • Mature culture (firm): 1oz

Final Dough

  • Bread flour: 1lb, 8oz
  • Whole-rye flour: 3.2oz
  • Water: 14.8oz
  • Salt: 0.6oz
  • levain: all of above

The levain should be made 12-16 hours prior to the final dough, however with the high temperatures of the day I only gave mine 10 hours.

Mix all of the ingredients for the final dough, less the salt and allow to autolyse for 20 min. Add the salt and mix for 2min.

Bulk ferment for 2.5hr with 2 stretch and folds.

I used all of the dough to make a single boule. Proofed for 1.5hrs... again this was shortened from the actual recipe due to excessive heat in my apartment.

Bake @ 460 for 40 min (first 10 covered).

2.jpg1.jpg

 

Happy baking

Ben

Urchina's picture

Any Belgian bread bakers out there?

July 6, 2010 - 11:22am -- Urchina
Forums: 

Twenty years ago, I spent a year in northern Belgium as an exchange student. Over the intervening years, I've been able to find or replicate most of the foods I loved there, but I cannot for the life of me find a good whole-wheat daily bread like the one our local baker made. I ate it with Gouda every day for a year and miss it so much. Now I can get the Gouda just fine, but the bread is missing. I suspect that it was not a 100% whole wheat bread, but a "light" whole wheat bread with some white flour, based on the texture of the crumb and the lift it had. 

darren1126's picture
darren1126

Hello,

 

I'm going to try a recipe I found on this site for Kaiser Rolls. I have a couple of questions and know that someone out there would know the answers.

What is the importance of the Malt Powder and is there a difference between this and the Malt powder you would put in Malt (ice cream)?

The recipes calls for 1 tablespoon malt powder. I'm wondering if this is a significant step in the process and what would happen if I left it out..

I asked my wife to pick up malt powder at the store and she came back with the powder that's used to make malts. I've looked at a couple of stores myself and cannot find it.

Thanks,


Darren

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