Hello everyone!

I'm rather a novice at baking and I love experimenting, but I would like other people's opinions before I try out the following recipe. Truth be told, I made it up myself. I'm going for a white bread loaf with a relatively moist inside and a crispy outside. So please give me some advice and any critique is welcome!

500 grams white bread flour
80 ml milk
180 ml water (about)
1 egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon instant yeast (please tell me whether this should be heaped or not)

So, we mix everything together, knead it and leave it to rise, until it has doubled in size. Then we take it out of the bowl,  form it and leave it to rise a second time (Do you think I should do this? I know that if I let the the bread over-ferment it will acquire a beery taste, but I want it to have the best flavour possible. Should I maybe put less sugar in?). We glaze the loaf/loaves/rolls and bake them for 45 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.

Does this sound sane?

I have made soft pretzels in the past, and have always enjoyed them, however I have always wanted to make a sourdough version. After much internet research, I did not come across any recipes that called out to me, so I decided to do my own. I adapted a Bertinet recipe, simply replacing fermented white dough in the recipe with an equal quantity of firm sourdough starter. I also retarded the dough in the fridge over night... though this was more to do with the fact that I wanted to bake them fresh the next morning rather than anything else.

All in all I was really pleased with the result. The inside was very soft and authentic. I didn't bother with either a lye bath, or boiling the pretzels prior to baking. I plan to try boiling the next time I make these, but the lye bath seems a little to much trouble.

By the way, I will be happy to post the whole recipe if anyone is interested.

happy baking

ben

Yes I know it sounds like a stupid request. I finally found a dough recipe I really like, but are there any tricks to getting the end crust a little softer? It's just our preference. The dough has standard ingredients - flour, sugar, oil, water, salt. I bake usually at 425-450 depending on how much stuff is on it.

I don't use a stone (we bought one years ago but can't find it ha ha). If I did use a stone, would that good expanse of heat help me get the middle cooked faster and get it out of the oven quicker? Sorry if this sounds stupid.

The request also stems from me trying to duplicate a pizza from a shop that closed up in the neighborhhod years ago. Got the dough taste and texture down, just need a little softer edge. The shops here now all bake pizzas that have end crusts that should be registered as lethal weapons.

Adapted from the recipe in Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

I'm finding the sweet dough as he made it too sweet. 6.5 tablespoons of sugar is just too much to me. I reduced it a little in my final dough, but just by 1/2 a tablespoon. The next time I make this it will be with the amount I show here.

6 tablespoons butter, shortening, or margerine (I used butter, but that's a taste thing)
4.5 tablespoons sugar (evaporated cane juice here)
1.5 teaspoons salt (slightly course sea salt)
2 eggs
1 pound flour
2.5 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup buttermilk

Cream first 3 ingredients. I proofed the yeast in about 1/4 cup of the buttermilk, lukewarm, then added that with the rest of the milk with the rest of the ingredients. I mixed for about 10-12 minutes by hand until the dough was starting to come together really well and the gluten had started forming, then did 2 stretch and folds at 40 minute intervals, letting the dough have an hour before shaping and proofing. I filled the rolls with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon to 6 tablespoons dark brown sugar and proofed them for about an hour before putting them in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes.

This produced the lightest, flakiest cinnamon rolls I've made to date. I really love them. I have a feeling that this may become my go-to sweet dough.

Sorry about the no picture thing. Maybe tomorrow if they're not all gone. :)

While I appreciate the crispy, GBD crust on more rustic breads, I am occasionally jonesing for an asian style bread. The kind that is light, airy and tender, with a soft and shiny crust. I've tried a few times, but so far I've failed. Any ideas on how to get this kind of crust? 

 Hi,

 I am new here and fairly new to baking bread. I have had my share of failures.  I have learnt a lot throught my failures and have read a lot of bread baking literature. Anyway, I finally am able to produce pretty good loaves of bread.

I want to make the softest possible whole wheat dinner rolls for Thanksgiving.  I'm looking at "Dinner Rolls for Aunt Agatha", on page 252 of Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, possibly making a soaker and biga as preferments a la Peter Reinhardt's new whole grain book.  I've also considered adding some potato flakes for a bit of extra softness.

What has been your experience with dinner rolls?  I want the soft buttery roll I remember from childhood, just whole wheat.  That's not too much to ask, is it? ;~) 

There was a request recently for soft sandwich bread, and I actually have been baking my own soft sandwich bread for several years now. It began as a recipe from my MIL, but I have made some changes to suit our family better. It's a white bread, but there is a pretty hefty amount of wheat bran in the dough, which gives it a pretty appearance and also boosts the fiber content.  Anyway, here it is. If you try it, I'd love to hear how it went for you.

Katie's Sandwich Bread

Makes two 1.5 pound loaves