Bread Baking

 Please accept my apology in advance. Can you really apologize for something before you do it?  :)  I have a tendency to think everyone should like the same things I like and I know that isn't true so if you have zero interest in making bread - don't waste your time. This post is solely me trying to convince everyone to make bread.

First, if you've never made bread, you probably think it's hard. It is NOT! There is a bit of a learning curve but once you learn what your dough should feel like, it's so easy. 

I have two stories for you that I hope will get at least those of you who have been thinking about making bread to do it.

First, when our area was waiting for the snow to arrive, all the usual suspects disappeared from the grocery store. No bread, no bottled water, no hot dogs . . really, it's the same thing whether it's a snow storm in the north or a hurricane in the areas that get those. As you might guess, we did not go to the store for supplies but there was much complaining and serious panic about no bread in the stores. I kept thinking . . it's flour, water and yeast or starter! Many recipes require oil. It can butter, olive oil, canola oil, shortening . . oil . . most any oil and if we're talking about no food in the house and you're snowed it . . ANY oil will do.

Second, I feel like I'm a decent experienced bread maker. This morning I needed to make baguette type rolls and I had a million things going on in the kitchen. The recipe called for 1 kg of flour. I should have known that was not a project for the Kitchen Aid so don't ask me why I used that mixer. It ended up ok. 

The next thing I did - totally forgot to add the salt. I always put everything in little prep bowls. It was there . . I just didn't dump it into the mix. I already had the dough out of the mixer and into the bowl to rise. In fact, I had already washed the mixer bowl and had to mess it up again. I put the dough back in the mixer bowl, added the salt, kneaded it a bit more with the mixer. Dumped it onto the counter to do a bit of hand kneading and realized it was way too dry. I had measured everything but sometimes, the exact same weight of water and flour creates a dough that needs more water or more flour. I poured a bit of water in and it was too wet. Dang it! How many times can I screw this up.

I dumped it onto the countertop, kneaded in a bit more flour and let it rise.

You can see the dough in the background. It was seriously needing attention.

I wanted fairly skinny baguette type rolls so I divided the dough into 12 pieces that were about 160 grams each.

I shaped those and let them rise on the counter.

They rose and baked up perfectly and were some of the best rolls I've made in a long time and yet, I messed up in so many ways!

This made 12 buns. Vince and I split one for dinner and had a sandwich and a salad.

Is that not a gorgeous salad? It's just lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers along with fried chicken "nuggets". I coated the chicken pieces in cornstarch, fried them in palm fruit shortening, then drizzled Frank's Hot Wing Sauce over them, added them to the salad, along with blue cheese dressing. Yum!

This is the recipe I use for rolls. I can make dinner rolls, larger or small or medium baguettes, hamburger buns, hot dog buns . . most anything. You could even use this recipe to make cinnamon rolls. We used one roll tonight, I kept out three more for sandwiches tomorrow and into the next week. I stuck the rest of them, still on the tray in the freezer. In the morning I'll take them out and vacuum seal them and put them back in the freezer. I like to keep baguettes for sandwiches, hamburger buns and a variety of rolls (sizes and added herbs) in the freezer. We were out of baguettes and we're out of hamburger buns so maybe in the next day or so, I'll make more of those. We use them for sloppy joes too.

Really, please think about learning to make bread if you aren't already a confident bread maker. You don't have to make all your own bread but if you have flour, salt, water, oil, sugar (or not) and yeast, you can make bread and if you divide a large recipe in half and it's a failure, you can usually turn it into croutons or bread crumbs so all isn't lost. Each time you make bread, you will get better at it. Having the knowledge to make bread can keep you from worrying if there is a time when you can't get the food you need.

Yeast keeps well in the freezer. The yeast I'm using is some I bought when I got here in 2020 and kept in the freezer. I figured I needed enough for myself and for Chad but, thankfully, yeast has not been in short supply. If there ever is a time when there's no power, and you have a gas stove, there are breads that can be cooked in a skillet - tortillas, English muffins, biscuits and I would imagine with a bit of patience, a small loaf of bread (mini loaf pans) could be baked on top of the stove in a Dutch oven.

As always, if you have questions, while I don't know everything about breadmaking, I'm glad to help out any way I can.