[countrycakelady]

I am wanting to venture out into homemade breads.....simple stuff at first...but would love to do Artisan type breads.....looking for ideas and input from those who have this talent, lol.....am scared to death of yeast, rofl.....never have tried bread making!

 

[phatch]

I think the best bread for the least hassle is no-knead bread. It takes most of a day, but you're not involved with it very much.

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread There are variations of this all over now.

The biggest hassle of this technique is the flip into the hot dutch oven or similar vessel.

 

[jellly]

I agree with Phatch, that is a great recipe to start with. If you don't have a Dutch oven, you can split the dough and bake it in two loaf pans. I often double the recipe, then slice, wrap and freeze the extra bread and it holds great.
I think a good next step would be one of the breads from Shirley Corriher or Rose Levy Beranbaum. The recipes are well tested and clearly explained. You can probably find the books at your local library.

 

[colin]

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons/yourfirstloaf

This is another good starting point. There's also lots of videos online, which can be good for getting a sense of how doughs should look at various stages. You might see if any of the videos at http://www.thefreshloaf.com/keyword/video are interesting. Some may be a bit esoteric, but you can learn lots just by watching bakers work even if you don't plan on making exactly what they're making.

 

[chefwriter]

I've printed out the no knead recipe. That will be my next batch of bread.

     I'll only add that making bread is a fun and inexpensive hobby and yeast is nothing to be scared of. Put a little in some warm water with enough dough to make a batter, stir and watch it activate in a few minutes. 

After a while add more flour  and a pinch of salt. Roll it around under your hands (called kneading,) until it gets tougher to manipulate. 

Let it rise, bake it. Let it cool. Eat it with butter and jam while you read about how to make bread.

Take what you learned and do the same thing all over again, using what you read. 

Eat the second batch while reading more. Do a third, fourth, fifth, sixth loaf. 

 

[peachcreek]

Capture rustic white.PNG

• peachcreek
• Jan 16, 2017

Simple white dough made with KA flour.

I used 2 cups of warm water, 1 tsp dry yeast and 1 cup AP flour mixed together and let stand overnight. The next day I added another tsp of dry yeast, salt, and AP and bread flour. I then let that rise overnight in the fridge, de-gassing it(punching down and re-rolling) once before bedtime. This morning I took it out of the fridge and let it come to room temp (about an hour) before rolling it into batons. I let them raise for about an hour and a half, baked in a 425F oven with a shot of steam when they first went in. Nice chewy crust with an open light crumb.

 

[kokopuffs]

Here's something simple.  The "average" bread dough is hydrated at 65%.  That means whatever weight of flour you're using, multiply it's weight by 65% and that's the weight of water that you'll be adding to the flour.

 

[scott livesey]

Bread is one of those 'Just do it' things.  the 'no knead' would be a good start.  My mom baked yeast bread and rolls in the winter and spring, so i learned how at an early age.  Few things nicer to eat than fresh from the oven yeast bread.  

scott