New guy!

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nicebread on 12 Feb 2017 at 12:14
Hello everyone. I'm a (male) college student with a cooking hobby that decided to make some bread. I found this community searching online for bread enthusiasts. I baked my first bread yesterday (tastes great!) and I'm excited to bake some more breads now. I used a big wooden chopping board to knead the bread on and there's a thin layer of dough stuck on it that I'm not sure how to get rid of to clean the board. Should I use the metal kitchen sponge with warm soapy water? As for the bread I made: I think I used too much water (500ml, 2 1/2 tsp yeast) to activate the yeast, which made the dough really sticky and hard to knead (6cups flour, 1/2tbs salt). My hands also get really warm from kneading. I think I need to find a different technique that does not require so much work from my part because I also get some back pain (unfortunately I'm not in a very good shape). Eventually I got a nice dough that I let sit for 30 minutes in a warm room and then knead a bit again before shaping it and sitting it for another 30. I made some cuts on one loaf and none on the other, baked for 35 minutes on 375. Both turned out great! The only issue is how quickly I go through those loafs! I think what I made is called a Ciabatta (although the air pockets are not as big as in google pics!) Even though I'm interested in taste, I mainly go for healthy (no sugar, as little salt as possible) & cheap, plus I'm only an amateur. My favorite breads are dark coloured dense dry breads (for a lack of better description), and ideally I'd like to be able to bake them myself. What is a classic recipe for sourdough bread for a beginner? I don't want to cook breads with any kind of flavor (for now), because I mostly bake them for myself, and I enjoy dipping them in soups or applying peanut butter (heresy?) on them. Everyone have a great day!

Ford on 12 Feb 2017 at 12:55

Welcome.  Floyd Mann is our host.  Your bread looks great.  I think almost any home-made bread beats that bought in the grocery store.  Have at it.  I am sending you a recipe for sourdough that you might like.

Ford

Goodness, it's a bit difficult knowing what to tell you! There's so much fun to be had with making your own bread. Here are a few things I would start with:

  • Get a book (buy new or second hand; check out from the library) with the basics. Something like Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day
  • Buy a bench scraper (something like these on Amazon). It will not only help get the bread residue off your counter or chopping board, but will help with manipulating the dough and cutting a big lump of dough into smaller pieces, for example
  • If you can manage it, get a digital scale. Some of them aren't too expensive. You might even find one available used. The best way to figure out bread formulas is to weigh all the ingredients in grams. That way you can determine things like hydration (the ratio of water/liquid to total flour weight) which will help you get the texture you like in bread
  • Do a search on this site for 123 bread (example here) for a good, simple sourdough bread that can be changed in many ways once you're comfortable with it
  • Do another search for no-knead bread. It's a whole new world where you basically mix up the ingredients then leave them for varying amounts of time (depending on type of flour, hydration, yeast, etc) either at room temperature or in the fridge

Meanwhile, welcome and happy baking!

Thanks everyone! I didn't make sourdough. I tried to read the recipes but I don't understand the percentages or the terminology! I therefore came up with my own recipe: 400g flour 200g water+2tps yeast 2 eggs 20g salt The bread came out really nice but salty! Take a look.

That looks nice and soft, for sure! Glad it turned out, and well done making up your own recipe already.

The percentages are handy, if you can figure it out. Basically all the ingredients are compared (by weight) to the total flour. So, in your recipe the flour is 400 grams, the water is 50% of that at 200 grams. I'm not sure how to convert the eggs to liquid equivalent, but a large egg is around 50 grams and most of that is liquid, so call it another 100 grams of liquid. That makes your dough 75% hydration (the ratio of liquid to flour). That's pretty high! You could try just one egg and see how that turns out.

I'm not sure if you meant 2 teaspoons or 2 tablespoons of yeast, but I'm hoping it was teaspoons. That's quite a bit for only 400 grams of flour; you can probably cut that down and just let the bread rise a little longer. It will taste better.

The salt component should be 2% of the total flour weight, so 8 grams, not 20! No wonder it tasted salty. :) That amount of salt will also inhibit the rise, so best to cut it back.

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nicebread on 13 Mar 2017 at 20:01

Oh yes I meant to say tsp! I am going for 1 1/2 tsp of yeast as of now. I've baked more breads over these weeks, usually on the weekends, or a small emergency loaf during the week when I run out. I've made some funny mistakes. One was to put less water than what I should've, and then after kneading a bit and realizing so, I had to add more water, which resulted in a clumpy mess! After baking it I ate it and it was fine :). Another was to attempt to cut the middle of the dough with a knife that wasn't sharp enough for the task; I got a funny shaped bread as a result. Anyhow, here's my latest creation. It's yeast, AP flour water and crushed pistachios mixed in the dough, as well as some salt sprinkled on top of the bread (because I forgot to mix it in the flour). It's a big bread but I go through those things so quickly! It's also very soft, probably because I worked with a very wet dough. I got a book called "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" but I haven't yet found time to read through it, except the preface. I really don't like reading! (I study enough for school!). As for scraping the board, so far I use the back of a wide knife. Thank you for all your recommendations and comments!