December 23, 2015 - 6:14am
basic recipe for beginning baker (adult)
Could I have some suggestions for a basic recipe for my husband, who has just started baking as a hobby. I mean things like getting everything out, light the oven, how to make the fat/sugar/ eggs part, how to mix and add the flour etc. And how to judge timing and fully baked.
I've tried to teach him the basics, but he doesn't take it all that well from me. He has looked up recipes on the 'net but chooses those that are too complicated etc.
Maybe something with a touch of chemistry or electronics, as he has that background and likes to know why?
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My opinion, of course, but I've enjoyed reading Josey Baker Breads (his name is actually Josey Baker) --He's a bit bouncy in his prose, but gives good, basic information with very clear directions. He starts with a basic white bread, then progresses through more complex bakes. Now for a real in-depth treatise on bread baking, including lots of the whys and whats, Hamelman's Bread is your book, though I'd be inclined to save that one until after he's had a bit of experience. There is a review about the Hamelman book here under "Books"--I don't remember if it is the first edition or the second edition reviewed.
Keep it simple - perfect the simple, then move onto more complex things.
(and you don't say what - this is for basic bread!)
500g bread flour
330g water
7g dried yeast (any type)
7g salt.
Mix, leave (covered) 30 minutes, lightly knead, leave (covered) for an hour or so. Turn out, shape, turn oven on to very hot, leave to prove for about an hour or so (tin/basket/couche). Put in oven. Bake 10 minutes then tun oven down a notch. Bake for another 25-35 minutes until dark on-top. Enjoy.
You don't need to do anything more than that - but perfect that and you have
-Gordon
Sorry I should have said it was to do with cake - making. He did start with bread, but seems to have given up on that for the moment ( too many things to go wrong, which they did) and has moved onto cakes - he has a sweet tooth.
But I thinkit's a good idea to buy him a book - he does like reading.
I can recommend one of Mary Berry's cake books. Her recipes have been developed over many years and she gives good, basic tips which don't assume that you've been baking as long as she has. I have this one and every recipe I've tried has worked.
I see that you are, or were, in S.W. France, so assume that you're using scales and that he will too.
Her recipes always work well and a wide range from the easy to the silly.
-Gordon
Cooking for Geeks. It covers a lot of cooking topics and spends considerable time delving into the why and how aspects of various cooking and baking endeavors, all in very approachable fashion. It has cake recipes, like a One Bowl Chocolate Cake, that would allow him to apply his new knowledge.
Paul
Yes we're still in SW France, but why does that mean we use scales?
The book Cooking for Geeks sounds up his street, and I just suggested to him a one-bowl chocolate cake.
Thanks again to all.
After all that, he has just produced 2 very decent fuit loaves (cakes.)
Mainly because most of the non-USA world uses metric, and USA recipes still are dominantly cups and teaspoons and ounces (liquid). And you bake. Hence the assumption, which, like all assumptions, may or may not be correct. (I'm in the USA, and use metric scaling for my bread; I rarely bake much of anything else.)
And I mentioned it in case I was wrong and part of the problem with the failed loaves was using cups.
Your husband might enjoy working from a text book expressly written for a serious beginner's course in bread baking. All the foundational ideas are there laid out in proper order. It's based not on bread recipes but on concepts that use recipes to make certain points. Men such as he might appreciate this approach. Here's a book that has the advantage of being excellently organized and presented and that, if read and the reader then does the end-of-chapter exercises, he'll develop a deep fund of knowledge and experience. DiMuzio's Bread Baking is inexpensive and often available in good condition at Alibris or Powell's books used.
The beginner's book on the science of bread baking is Buehler's Bread Science. It's a paperback.
I do think that men's attitiude to baking is different from women's. In general we tend to think of it more as a labour of love, providing food for our family. Whereas many men (not saying all) seem to see it as a craft in its own right, even a way of earning a living.
I'll have to look at all those book suggestions and see which to present him with!
His bread disasters, btw, aren't much different from those I experienced many years ago. He had better results with his last batch. Measuring quantities could be an issue, I go by a sprinkling of this, 3 swirls of that etc, but we have conversion tables to metric.
I see it as an art form. Got plenty of nice suggestions to go on.
Where did you find a conversion table that includes 'sprinkles' and 'swirls'? ;-)
I'd strongly advise that he uses recipes listing ingredients by weight from the start, rather than playing about with converting from volume measurements. Tests have shown they can vary from person to person by up to 20%. That's nowhere near accurate enough to be able to reproduce someone else's recipe.