Bread or bread equivalent

mjbnj0001 wrote: »

The interior of the above loaf during today's breakfast. Softer, fluffier bread with an artisinal tang and crispy top crust (produced via the water-pan-in-the-stove method). I doubt this one will last 2 days with the fam. That's both good and bad, LOL.

Can we have the recipe please? Gosh that looks amazing!

mockchoc wrote: »

Can we have the recipe please? Gosh that looks amazing!

Thanks! Sure. From my previous posting: "...Tonight's loaf: simple bread - flour (100% unbleached bread flour), water, salt, yeast - and about 6oz plain 2% greek yogurt. Using the water pan method once again, got a nice top crust. Delicious."

Now, I mostly use a no-knead method inspired by the youtube channel, "artisanbreadwithstev." I've been doing this for almost 3 years now, and making about 80% of the family's bread products. This includes white, whole wheat, rye and oat breads, mixed-flour versions, plain and with various flavorings and ingredients: honey, molasses, seeds/nuts/herbs/veg, whey, yogurt, milk, cheese and recently, buttermilk powder. This past Christmas, I branched out into yeast-based fruit breads for the holidays. I also do rolls, focaccia, pizza dough and flatbreads and occasionally, English muffins with some variation of this method.

The no-knead method is about as difficult as making mudpies, and I've recently gone "semi-knead" by using a wooden spurtle (picture; a spoon handle would work as well), to induce more gluten formation by hand mixing/drawing the dough before first rise. I recently also switched from brushing on some dabs of water on the dough top in the loaf pan before baking to encourage crust development to using a small pan of water in the oven. Many no-knead approaches use a covered Dutch oven to generate steam in this way and get a round loaf.

We go through 6-7 loaves per month for this shelter-at-home family. This being MFP, I compute the macros (cals, protein, carb and fat) for each bread variety on a "standard slice" and they are typically better than most commercial breads. I add protein, such as whey, to further improve these numbers.

The basic recipe from the youtube site for these breads is:
3.5 cups flour (he goes on, from time to time, to explain why he's a measurer, not a weigher/sifter)
13.5oz water
yeast
salt.

Either bread flour or AP flour, typically. I lower the amount of salt he uses, but you need at least some, otherwise the result is pretty much like cardboard. "Whole wheat" and "rye" and "oat" is usually a mix of those flours with bread or AP. I vary the percentages for various results. For a start, I suggest 2C bread flour, 1.5C of other flour, and take it in whatever direction you like for future loaves. "100% whole wheat" requires some tinkering with the recipe/approach so as to not produce a "brick" as result. I prefer using "unbleached" bread flour, un-enriched. As you saw in the pic above, "white" bread using this method is a shade of "offwhite" color.

He has two methods, an overnight rise (12hrs or so) and a "turbo" method (1.5hrs). They differ in that the fast method uses more yeast and warm water for first rise, and the regular uses less yeast and then time for the yeast to proliferate. The regular method produces a little more yeasty tang, more like sourdough; both approaches produce nice bread. Second rise is 30 minutes; you can use an iron skillet or loaf pan to shape your dough. Then into pre-heated 400F oven for 40 minutes. I tend to use the "turbo" method most of the time, because, well, it's faster. About 3hrs overall from start to finished loaf with about 10 minutes of labor through that time. I tinker the basic recipe/approach based on my ingredients and such. Be careful the first time you use this method; the dough is a floppy, loose "wet" dough to encourage the gluten molecules to migrate into aligned strings for a good crumb; this substitutes water and chemistry for the mechanical kneading process.

Steve is a retired IT manager from the Midwest USA somewhere. His videos are a little dry, but give a good foundation. "No knead" is great for producing good-tasting, healthy bread for consumption. It's not as "artistic" as some sourdough methods, but that's usually not what I'm reaching for on a regular basis.

Good luck!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZdfub88-4D0Jc_V4T_yNrA