I've been baking bread lately. I'm trying to save a little money, however I'm not sure how much I'm actually saving. I know that the cost of flour, yeast, salt, sugar, milk and butter is less per loaf than the cost of a loaf of bread at the store. But I'm not sure how much electricity I use baking bread. It is very yummy bread, H and The Boy seem to really like it. I enjoy making it, and eating it, so maybe that in itself makes it worth the time and electricity it takes to bake bread every two or three days. I'm trying recipes, looking for one that makes a good amount of bread (2 or 3 nice loaves), and has good flavor.
I've tried 2 so far, the first didn't rise very well, I'm not sure why, maybe I miss read the amount of yeast, or the milk was too hot. The second make 2 really huge loaves, they are so big over the top of the bread pan that they tend to crush the bottom portion if left in the normal upright position too long. Next time I'll make 2 smaller loaves and some dinner rolls, or try for 3 loaves.
I have a couple of other recipes I'm going to try eventually, I may have to take the best of the different recipes and make up one that works best for us. I want to make some potato bread, and get some quality whole wheat flour.
I wish that my stand mixer wasn't so old. It was made in the late 1960's into the middle of the 1970's, it's a Kitchen aide model 4-c. I could really use a dough hook for it, and a bowl that is actually made for it would be nice. But it's old enough that the company has no idea where I can get replacement parts. I called them about it last year. Maybe one day I'll have the money to get a new one, or get lucky enough to find the parts on freecycle or at a garage sale or something.
If you have any good recipes for bread, or ideas that might be helpful, I'd love to hear them. Thanks.
2 comments:
Hi there
I've just finished a couple of web pages on bread making which might interest you. There's a wholegrain bread recipe here which I find pretty good (and easy): http://www.greenfootsteps.com/whole-grain-bread-recipe.html and here's one for rye bread: http://www.greenfootsteps.com/making-rye-bread.html
I've been very impressed with rye bread so far - delicious and highly nutritious. Next I'm getting into sourdough which seems like amazing stuff.
I don't use a machine any more - it was a bit limited and then we lost the central kneading appliance and there did not seem to be any way of getting a replacement part! Not so green, so now I'm happily back to hand kneading and finding it very enjoyable. Of course doing it by hand is a little more time consuming.
Thank you very much! I'll be looking into your sight as soon s I have the time for it. My bread machine died when our storage trailer flooded and the things that didn't get wet grew mold all over them. Nothing electronic made it out of there working.
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