[dwight55]

I got involved in doing some unleavened bread for communion at our church, . . . read some stuff about sourdough, . . . natural rising, . . . etc.

Just wondering if we have any bread bakers on the forum here, . . . I'd like to transition from baking in an electric oven, . . . to a cast iron oven, . . . and to a free standing brick oven, . . .

If you've done it, . . . tell the rest of us how to do it, . . . even if I'm the only one interested.

Bread is good food, . . . easy to carry, . . . keeps well, . . . just may need that know how in the "not too distant.................."

Thanks, may God bless,
Dwight

 

[Thor]

I don't have any experience but my girlfriend cranks out home made bread all the time. She's one of those bakers that does everything from scratch. Her opinion is boxed stuff is fake and who wants fake or processed stuff. I can get more in depth on this after I get home from work.

I love having fresh baked goodies all the time but my belt isn't happy about it.

 

[GCBurner]

There's a big long thread on baking bread here already.

 

[hammer 1]

Yea, there is a thread about baking it. My wife bakes everything, its cheaper than store bought, and have you looked at the stuff that is in store bought bread?

 

[huntinghawk]

One big trick to any baking is to stay away from the iodized salt. It doesn't react with yeast like sea salt or kosher salt does. Using canning salt is another option.

HH

 

[FPrice]

One big trick to any baking is to stay away from the iodized salt. It doesn't react with yeast like sea salt or kosher salt does. Using canning salt is another option.

HH

I've learned one thing already. Thanks!

 

[Bigray023]

Good luck and don't give up. I just started milling my own flour and am trying to figure it out. First loaves were bricks second one were netter but still a lil on the dry side....I bet home
add flatbread is awesome

 

[Earthquake]

I know one thing about cooking in a wood fired brick oven is to move you pans around [gently] the inside because they do not cook evenly, my uncle made one in his back yard that he would use wood or he had some kind of propane burner he made from parts from a old pool heater.

Casey

 

[huntinghawk]

Flour needs glueten to help the yeast adhere to. Look for flour like Pillsbury that has malted barley which acts as a glueten & so less crumbly bead.

For pan bread, you aren't using yeast but baking powder & soda instead so any flour will work.

HH

 

[dwight55]

Sorry, folks, . . . I had forgotten about the other bread baking thread (and I was on it too), . . . lots of good stuff there, . . .

One thing I have never been able to come up with, . . . we used to go on convoy in RVN, . . . ate a lot of green banannas, warm Coke, and fresh warm "french??" bread in sticks about the size of a broom handle, . . . 20 inches long, . . .

Mom and my other relatives were good bakers, . . . had their own specialties, . . . but those bread sticks were THE best, . . .

I'd love to know how they did those, . . . some stores around here sell something that kinda looks like em, . . . but the taste just is not there.

May God bless,
Dwight

 

[Palladin]

Sorry, folks, . . . I had forgotten about the other bread baking thread (and I was on it too), . . . lots of good stuff there, . . .

One thing I have never been able to come up with, . . . we used to go on convoy in RVN, . . . ate a lot of green banannas, warm Coke, and fresh warm "french??" bread in sticks about the size of a broom handle, . . . 20 inches long, . . .

Mom and my other relatives were good bakers, . . . had their own specialties, . . . but those bread sticks were THE best, . . .

I'd love to know how they did those, . . . some stores around here sell something that kinda looks like em, . . . but the taste just is not there.

May God bless,
Dwight

Are you referring to French Baguette's?

If you can find a Vietnamese sandwich shop they should have them...we have loads of them in my area and I'll usually get a sammich and a cafe sua da for light lunch.

 

[grndpndr]

My wife(part Oglala Sioux) used to bake bread/make sweet rolls all that but what made her baking stand out is her 'Indian frybread'.No yeast,no long kneading times so theres no long wait.Take' s about an hour from start to table maybe less.Very Filling, simple to make, you can eat it with soups, make 'Indian Taco's', just pile all the meat/veg taco goodies on top.It also makes a great desert with wojoppy(spelling) like a thin sweet syrup made out of chokeberrys but you can use other berrys.(lot of friggin work!)

I should have a recipe for Frybread here,my wife makes hers so they taste almost like a plain doughnut and just as thick.Slightly sweet depending on taste,I can eat hers plain but folks make all kinds from the slightly sweet to a unsweetened, plain lightly pan fryed in deep oil.There individually made about the size of small average hand depending on use/appetite.Which is why I liken them to a slightly sweet doughnut.Getting hungry!

Ill Edit with a recipe if theres any interest.

Heres the other halfs recipe;

3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup warm milk
Knead on floured surface,shape into a slightly flattened circle w/small hole in center(size of a med size hand).Place in a skillet of hot oil (veg,or crisco) about an inch deep until browned. Just as simple as it sounds.Doesnt require alot of kneading,you can adjust sugar to taste.This makes a slightly sweet
frybread thats good with anything from soups to desert IMHO.Nice thing about it is it omly takes about a half hour to make.Called 'gaboo-boo' bread by my wife and local N. americans.(spelling?)

 

[FPrice]

My wife(part Oglala Sioux)
I should have a recipe for Frybread here,my wife makes hers so they taste almost like a plain doughnut and just as thick.Slightly sweet depending on taste,I can eat hers plain but folks make all kinds from the slightly sweet to a unsweetened, plain lightly pan fryed in deep oil.There individually made about the size of small average hand depending on use/appetite.Which is why I liken them to a slightly sweet doughnut.Getting hungry!

Ill Edit with a recipe if theres any interest.

I would be interested, thank you.

 

[dwight55]

Are you referring to French Baguette's?

If you can find a Vietnamese sandwich shop they should have them...we have loads of them in my area and I'll usually get a sammich and a cafe sua da for light lunch.

Thanks, Palladin, but the Baguette's we get here in Ohio are more football size and shape. The bread we got in RVN was about the diameter of a mop handle, . . . usually in the 14 to 20 inch long range, . . . just very slightly sweet, . . . not salty, . . . firm but chewey crust, . . . and they were just plain super good.

Funny thing, . . . the taste of that bread and the little green banannas we got there too, . . . never forgot those tastes, . . .

Oh, well, . . . on to bigger and better, . . . progressing nicely in the bread baking department, . . . learning to do yeast breads, . . . made 2 really good loaves of French bread the other day.

The recipe is here, . . . so easy a cave man could bake this, . . . and it is just up and down GOOD STUFF ! http://joshlovesit.com/french-bread-recipes/

I'm still working on getting a decent sourdough starter going, . . . will be back for an update as soon as I get one.

May God bless,
Dwight

 

[commostud]

I make bread all the time. Homemade anything is always better than store bought. I have a honey oatmeal recipe that taste stupendous with butter on it. I serve it with home cooked roast that cooked all day in the crockpot.
When I grew up I cooked in a wood cook stove all the time in the winter. I learned that you have to watch it like a hawk. You have to turn the pans around, move it to another part of the oven to get it to cook right without burning. That was with anything in the that oven. You also have to watch the fire box. They are small and the wood burns up fast. It is not easy but rewarding at the same time. I am only 36 so this was in the early 1990's I used a wood cook stove.

Fresh bread is the best. It tastes great, people will show up when they know you are cooking it. And yes it is hard on the waist line. But go and work it off, and come back for more.

Try making flour tortliias, cinnamon rolls, fry bread, cinnamon raisin bread, sourdough bread, challah bread, French bread, rolls, and anything that tastes good.

 

[huntinghawk]

That is not true french bread. True french bread, just like cuban bread, does not have sugar in it.

 

[RightHand]

I'm still working on getting a decent sourdough starter going, . . . will be back for an update as soon as I get one.

My starter came from my grandmother - more years ago than I care to remember and it's still going. When my family was young, I baked bread 3 times a week and every supper started with soup from the ever present soup pot on the stove, poured on top of a slab of fresh bread at the bottom of the bowl. We were pretty broke and it filled us up before we got to the expensive stuff. One that had a lot of fans was my wholewheat potato bread.

 

[Earthquake]

I baked my first bread today, It was a basic french bread recipe I got online.
Made two loaves about 15" long, it HAD a very good flavor, we made one into garlic bread that turned out very good. I think I will start making some every week, I bought 3 "loaf pans" at a rummage sale for .50 cents the other day.

Casey

 

[dwight55]

My starter came from my grandmother - more years ago than I care to remember and it's still going. When my family was young, I baked bread 3 times a week and every supper started with soup from the ever present soup pot on the stove, poured on top of a slab of fresh bread at the bottom of the bowl. We were pretty broke and it filled us up before we got to the expensive stuff. One that had a lot of fans was my wholewheat potato bread.

RightHand, . . . would you give us the details as to how you keep your starter going?

I have honestly burned through about 10 lbs of flour, . . . I kinda almost seem to get it going, . . . and it flops.

So far, . . . I've tried a half dozen different "sure fire" methods from the net, . . . zero results.

I'm thinking this is one of those things we want to have prefected for THE day coming up when we'll need it. USN3

Thanks, may God bless,
Dwight

 

[huntinghawk]

I do my bread pans in pairs since initial baking is done covered.

Spray oil works very well treating the pans. I also spray the top of the loaves with it during rising so the dough doesn't stick to the towel.

HH