We had a minor domestic tragedy recently: during a busy few weeks, we neglected our sourdough starter and it died. *cries big salty tears* Just when we were starting to get the hang of sourdough baking!

I want to try to create another starter, using a recipe from Bernard Clayton's New Book of Breads, but I'm trying to figure out how I can keep the starter consistently warm for several days. We're in New England, it's late fall, the house is drafty, and we have an electric stove without a pilot light.

Could you get a starter going in a crockpot on the "keep warm" setting? Otherwise we'll have to wait for a long weekend so we can keep it near the woodstove (which we don't keep going when we're not home.)

All other suggestions will be appreciated!

I have been baking bread occasionally for a few years. Lately I have been trying to switch to whole grains. But whenever I make whole grain (only wheat so far) something gets screwed up and my bread (or baguettes, whatever I make of the loaf) don't rise like they should and end up small and hard. I've tried both live and dry yeast, I am careful with the water temperature and all that stuff. I've tried rising it over a sink with hot water, does not help. My 'regular' bread I have no trouble with.

Any words of wisdom? Is there something special that needs to be done with whole grain flour?

Sticky buns

1cup water
1/2 cup sugar divided
1/2 cup butter
1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 large egg lightly beaten
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter melted and divided*
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar, divided
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Combine 1 cup water, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup butter in a saucepan or microwave, heat until butter is melted and let cool to 105-115 degrees
Combine yeast, warm water, 1 tsp sugar and let sit 5 minutes. Combine butter mix, yeast mix, and egg, stir well.
Combine yeast mix from above with 2 cups of the flour and the salt in  a mixing bowl, add remaining 2 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring vigoorously (or use a standing mixer) until dough is no longer sticky and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Brush or lightly rub dough with butter, cover, and let rise in warm place 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Combine 1/2 cup melted butter, 1 cup brown sugar, corn syrup, and pecans; sprinkle mixture evenly into a well greased 13x9x2 inch pan. Set pan aside. Combine remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar with cinnamon.
Punch down dough and turn out onto a well floured surface, roll into 18x15 inch rectangle. Sprinkle dough with brown sugar and cinnamon and roll jelly roll fashion. Cut into 12 rounds and place on top of the mixture in the pan. Brush with remaining butter (I actually don't do this) and cover to rise for 1 hour or until rolls rise just above top of the pan.
Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 18-22 minutes, until golden. Cool in pan on wire rack for 8 minutes, then invert pan onto wax paper or parchment paper, let stand, covered with pan, for one minute. Remove pan and scrape any remaining pecan mix from pan onto rolls.

eat

*I only melt 1/2 cup butter, I spray the dough with crisco non stick cooking spray during first rise, and don't bother to brush the dough with the butter before raising and baking, and they are plenty rich without it. However, if you love butter go for it:)



 

I've had a bread machine for several years now, but I only made gluten-free breads. Now that I'm eating gluten again it seems like I have to relearn everything. I have several questions, and any help would be greatly appreciated. Google has not been very useful.

I'm looking for interesting whole grain, non-wheat and sprouted brain recipes for the bread machine. All the recipes I find still call for a lot of white flour or wheat flour, when I'd really like to make a 100% rye bread or something like that. I had an excellent millet bread from Trader Joe's that I'd love to make at home. And ideas for where to find recipes like this? I'm especially interested in the sprouted wheat breads. Bonus points for breads with nuts and seeds.

I was thinking that for the holidays I would make bread for people. I was thinking it might be fun to give them the frozen dough so that they can just pop it in the oven when they want fresh bread. Is that even possible?

I'm trying to cut back on the amount of money I spend on random mall food while I'm at work. I work at a large and permissive art center, so I thought it would be nice to come up with a couple of recipes that I could whip up in the kitchen. The problem is that we don't have an oven, or even a toaster-oven. We have a microwave and a hotplate. Obviously the logical thing to do would be to make some rolls or something at home and just bring them in, but now I've gotten myself set on fresh bread of some sort at work. I know there must be some fun fried breads out there, but everything I'm finding on Google involves a deep fryer or similarly large amount of vegetable oil. I'm trying to find something with as few ingredients as possible and as little hassle as possible. Any suggestions?

Hi, all. I'm very new to this community and was hoping that you folks could help me out.

I'm making (or trying to make) sourdough bread for the first time. I made the starter (yeast, warm water, some flour) last night and it's been sitting since then. (I have stirred it a few times.) It doesn't seem like it's doing what it's supposed to do though. It doesn't seem like it's bubbly and it doesn't have a very sourdough-y smell. Did the yeast die? Did I do something wrong?

I have enough time to make another starter and let it sit for 24 hrs (not the 48 that I'd originally planned) -- should I make another loaf?

Alternatively, do you have any good suggestions for a sandwich bread recipe which could be finished by 6pm tomorrow? I live in a co-op and I'm making grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner tomorrow night, but I'd like for them to be on really yummy bread.

Since it's Canadian thanksgiving this weekend, I made a festive loaf to take to dinner.



The recipe is from The Fresh Loaf, which is an amazing resource. Anyways, here's the recipe, copy and pasted:

________________________________________________________________________________

Poolish:
1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

Dough:
Poolish
3-3 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons butter or shortening
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1 3/8 ounce package of onion soup mix
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg

Wash:
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

The night before, in a bowl, mix together the poolish until it form a batter. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside overnight.

The next morning, combine 2 cups of the flour, the yeast, the sugar, the onion soup mix. Mix in the poolish, the milk, one of the eggs, the butter, and the Parmesan cheese with a wooden spoon. Add more flour a quarter cup at a time until a proper dough forms, one that is dry enough that you can hand knead it yet moist enough that it is still tacky to the touch.

Pour the dough out of the bowl onto a clean work surface and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. Return the dough to a clean, greased bowl, cover with plastic, and allow to rise until doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.

Remove the dough from the bowl and shape it however you like. I tried a braid this time. I'm not good enough that I want to give directions on how to do it yet (for that please see your cookbook).

Cover the loaf with a damp towel or greased plastic wrap and allow it to double in size again, approximately 45 minutes. While you are waiting, preheat the oven (and baking stone, if you have one) to 450.

Just before baking, glaze the loaf with the egg wash. Put it into the hot oven. After 5 minutes, reduce the temperature to 375 and bake for another 15 minutes. Rotate the loaf and bake until the loaf is done. Total baking time may vary based on shape. My loaf took about 45 minutes.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Mine didn't take that long. I had to put foil on top for the last few minutes to stop it from overbrowning. It's crazy long. It'll be an adventure taking it on the 2 hour bus ride tomorrow!
 

I'm afraid I can't really help much with how to braid four strands of dough either, but I found a wonderful (but a bit fast to follow) video tutorial. Generally, people don't seem to mind how "perfect" the braid is - it'll look beautiful even if you make a few slip-ups. And it tastes divine!

Happy thanksgiving, Canadians!

Does anyone know what season that Alton Brown did an ep on bread making?

This recipe can also be used to make rolls versus whole loaves of bread.  Great at any holiday dinner.

INGREDIENTS
4 cups warm water (110°F)
1/3-cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup white sugar
4 tablespoons powder buttermilk
4 teaspoons salt
1 cup dry instant mashed potato flakes**
2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
10 cups bread flour

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat water in a large saucepan over low heat until it bubbles; stir in butter or margarine, sugar, powder buttermilk and salt, then cool until lukewarm.

2. Add yeast to warm liquid mixture until it bubbles. If the liquid mixture is too hot it will kill the yeast but if it's too cool it won't activate the yeast.

3. Add instant mashed potato mix to liquid mixture and mix well.

4. In a large mixer using a dough paddle, slowly mix eight cups of flour and liquid potato mixture together. Let rest 15 minutes.

5. Turn dough out on a floured surface; add remaining two cups of flour to dough as you knead softly until dough is elastic and smooth.

6. Using a bread proofing container (or a large bowl), cover with a damp cloth and let rise 1 hour or until dough has doubled in volume.

7. Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly spray two 9x5 inch loaf pans with a baking spray.

8. Punch down dough and divide into 3 to 4 sections. Shape into loaves and let rise, covered, until volume is nearly doubled.

9. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.


** Now available on the market are "flavored" instant mashed potato flakes including four cheese, "Southwestern", extra butter and so many other flavors. I've tried the new instant mashed potato flakes with this recipe and it works great. There is a garlic mashed potato out on the market which REALLY tastes great if you are making an Italian type of dinner however I add three cloves or 1 tsp of minced garlic to add more of a kick.

how come whenever I bake bread they turn out to be rocks? ):

I'm in the US for two months right now, and have had a lot of trouble with using dry yeast -- used to yeast cake. Freshly bought yeast doesn't wake up at all, even when left in warm water with sugar. Could storing it next to a microwave be a problem? How about carrying it in a hot car?

Also, it seems there's a difference in the flour between here and Denmark. I have a recipe that's worked very well in Denmark, where I mix 8 dl water with 1 kg flour to get not so much a dough as a batter. When I mix the same ratio here, I get a dough that comes off the sides of the bowl. Is the US flour a finer ground? Drier? Different kind of wheat?

I think I've found an explanation for why I'm not seeing my bread go stale in the fridge: While the process that causes bread to go stale may go faster at fridge temperature, but it's a process that requires water, so if the bread is stored in an airtight container, the process can only go so far, especially if as little air as possible is in there. Thus bread left in a paper bag or plasitc bag with air holes will go stale faster where ever it is kept.

I just wanted to introduce myself! My name is Rebekah, and I just joined about 3 minutes ago.

I've been wondering for weeks if there was a bread baking community, and there is! :)

I just started baking my own bread recently, for a number of reasons. Mostly because it's so delicious. I'm really bad at it though, and it's discouraging me to make it ever again! It's good, it just never comes out the way I think it's going to. It doesn't rise very much (which is nice for packing lunch, at any rate), but it gets hard so fast that we hardly ever have the chance to finish the loaf. At least it's tasty practice.


Anyways - hello!

Ohayo. So I recently moved into Tuscon arizona! So I now live in a decent sized house, and we have a very large kitchen. THIS IS GOOD NEWS :)

Anyway, I finally decided, "I WANTS TO MAKE A STARTER" thus I ask you all this, how do I go about doing this? I've never done it before so I'm kind of lost.

QUESTION 2!

I want to make this: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/10/04/grissini/

But alas, I do not have a food processor! What should I do? Is there other recipes simliar?!

I just made my  very first sourdough starter, from a recipe from the book "wild fermentation"

I was very surprised to find my mixture all bubbly and yeasty looking this morning, while yesterday it just looked like, well water with flour (i used half half)

but, now i realized i dont actually know anything about sourdough, but i think my starter turned out well, because it has a slight sour, a bit sweetish smell to it that smells pretty good.

but for example, is it possible to replace instant yeast in a normal bread recipe with sourdough starter? also, how much sourdough starter would you use to replace say, a normal bag of instant yeast (7 grams?)

also, if anyone has any extra pointers for me about working with sourdough starters I would like to hear it :)

thanks!

I went camping this last weekend and have some updates regarding baking with a dutch oven.  First, I wanted to mention that I got into a conversation with one of my wife's great-aunt's who is a big sourdough maker!  She loves sourdough and has tons of recipes, not just bread, using a sourdough starter.  As I patiently await those to arrive in the mail, including one for a sourdough chocolate cake, I was wanting to ask if others have unique or unusual sourdough recipe and not just bread recipes.  I will be happy to post and share the recipes I receive after baking them with pictures and notes.

I want to thank those who gave me ideas for baking in a dutch over.  It worked a great deal better than I ever expected. I will post pictures at the end of the 2 loaves I did, both of which came out very well.    I took charcoal with me and after warming them up, I placed them in a fire pit, ringing a dutch oven. I made the mistake of placing the dutch oven directly on the coals when I did biscuits the morning before, which baked well except for getting too hot on the bottom of the oven and burning the bottom of the biscuits. Other than that, they were excellent.   

I let the oven warm up for about 10 mins, then placed the first loaf into the oven.  Its the one with the lighter crust. I baked for 20 minutes and pulled it out immediately, not wishing to repeat the burning on the bottom as the biscuits. I did avoid that, and the loaf did bake fine but it was a bit soft once it cooled.  The crust wasn't as stiff, but the crumb had a great taste and texture.  It was a nice, mild sour taste from my sourdough starter which took off wonderfully while on the campout.   The second loaf also baked 20 minutes, but could have gone a bit less.  It got a much better crust with the same tender crumb but one side which was touching the side of the oven did burn a bit.  It never was noticed though when folks ate it, as neither loaf lasted long.   I must admit I liked the second loaf better myself, as it did have more of the typical crust you'd except in a artisian loaf. I honestly was expecting more heat loss when doing the second loaf, but instead I actually got increased heat I think, due to just more time on the coals and the cast iron holding the heat so well. I could have easily baked 2 to 3 more loaves with just that one set of coals.  Also, I found some great dutch oven parchments specifically shaped for their use, which saved me from having to measure and cut out my own. It allowed an easy and effective way to lower the loaves into the oven a lot easier than any other method I could have imagined.

Overall I LOVED the use of the dutch oven, even better than  my oven at home.  Its not the heat control really, as I'm sure I have better heat control in my oven at home with my baking stone, but with the size of the loaf just a tad smaller than the oven it seemed like I definitely got a better overall and even bake.  The only thing I would do differently would be the use of a round wire rack or if I could find one a round baking stone that would fit inside the dutch oven.  That would help prevent the greater risk of burning of the bottom I was battling. 

The pictures:

Hello all, I just joined the group and it looks like there is a lot of good information here!

I have been wanting to start making bread, I have never made any yeast breads only things like banana bread, pumpkin, zucchini, etc.

Anyway, I have lots of rye berries and thought it would be neat to grind them up and make rye bread. Any thoughts on this? I'm going to hop over to Google, but I'd love feedback from anyone here that maybe has done this.

Thanks!

 Its been... about a year since I last tried a sourdough starter.  I came on here and read some mention about the use of a "dry" starter as opposed to a "wet" starter.  I have always done a wet starter, but when I moved 2 years ago I lost it.  I attempted the dry starter and had NO luck whatsoever.  I attempted my wet starter again, using Peter Reinhart's version in the Bread Baker's Apprentice.  This is performing just as I would except and already after 4 days is giving off an excellent aroma. 

My first use of it will be on a campout this weekend as sourdough pancakes, which my mother-in-law loves and now demans on such occasions. :)  I'm looking forward to using it, but what I really wanted to hear from others was this:

Those who use a dry starter: Why do you use it? What is the draw of it and does it take something more to be successful with it?   It seemed to me to take more time to actually get to a point be usable. 

Those who use a wet starter:  Why do you use it?  What do you like and/or dislike about it.  For me, I actually like the sticky and more supple nature of it.  I use less water in my bread mixes because of it and have noticed a much better rise, which has given me a better crumb, particularly the consistency of the "holes" in the crumb.  I guess also, I have just liked to work with a stickier dough, as I feel I have more control over it as its far easier to add a little flour and dry it up than add water and make it more supple. 

I'm not done trying a dry culture, but I am curious of what others find appealing about it. :)

so I tried to make a starter, which i just dumped out after reading through many sourdough blogs.
my started smelled really really bad.  like. pure liquor. and it had started to grow something black on top?
i am currently sterilizing my bottle right now to start again.
i know that i made a few mistakes, like the first few days i left it completely covered with a lid.
so some tips now would be much appreciated :)

I know that my starter has to be in a warm place, but my apartment is constantly at 70.
should i keep it in a dark cabinet, or out on my dresser, where it will be hit by the ac?

also--real quick--starters with a little yeast or without?

thanks/