I think many people eat bread daily or at least every other day. Yet, my impression is that majority of people do not bake bread on a regular basis. This means most people buy bread, which explains why there are tons of bread in stores.
Why is that? Is it because:
a) It is too time consuming to bake bread at home
b) It is too laborsome to bake bread at home
c) It is too expensive to bake bread at home
I rarely bake bread because I am not that good at it, so you can put me down as in b). However, a) and c) also apply for me as well. I am just curious if people bake most of their own bread or they buy most of their own bread. I boiught 99% of my bread.
I started baking my own baguettes a few months ago. Itās not labor-intensive, but it does require that I be home for most of a day, turning the bread a few times during the rise, shaping the loaves, preheating the baking steel, etc. And it took me about 6 or 7 tries before I was satisfied with the result - thatās a lot of sub-par bread to suffer through. But now I mostly have it down, and my bread is definitely cheaper than the loaves I used to buy, which were about $4 (from Our Daily Bread or Bread Alone or Pain DāAvignon).
I do bake bread fairly regularly - I am not very good at it, nor do I have much time for it but I really donāt like much of the bread easily available at markets near me it is either very low quality and full of shortening or really spendy and still mediocre
unless I have time and luxury to experiment I generally use either the bread machine or the NYT no knead method.
The bread machine makes only OK bread not great bread but it can make it while I sleep and the NYT no knead bread is great - if limited to one type. It requires planning ahead but the timing fits in well with a workaday schedule
I bake bread quite regularly. The only reason that I donāt do it more is no one eats enough bread in this house! Generally, I make a loaf of bread on Sunday since we all enjoy a brunch-like meal [but it is really a late breakfast.] I make all of our hamburger buns, pita, and when I know our meal plan includes distinctly Western food, I will make rustic baguettes or boules knowing that I will have to throw a lot into the trash or make a ton of bread crumbs.
Presunto
(--> Back in Athens - Goat's/Sheep's Yoghurt every day ... [Fleeced Taxpayer :@)) :@)) ])
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I eat bread every day but make my own sourdough only once a week (used to be twice a week). I donāt like ābreadā sold in most stores here. Just tasteless spongy rubbish! People (I know of) donāt care about all the nasty things that go into their bread, they just want to eat at a great speed and be done with it so they can play with their phones again. I like to take my time and enjoy eating (my) sourdoughs/everything.
Iām thankful to have a miller in the area who grinds and bakes all sorts of bread and sourdough. In many of my (cheese and lunch) photos I do include the breads both of my own and those bought from the miller.
I tried the no knead bread several times and they turned out very good most of the time. However, I need to let the dough rest for 12-18 hours. So I really want to plan ahead. Sometime I am just not that great in planning ahead. It may be something I need to get better at.
I donāt eat very much bread, but when I do, I make it myself. My mother baked a lot of the bread we had as kids and I picked up the habit from her. I started my own sourdough starter a few years ago and since then I have concentrated on using it instead of commercial yeast to raise my breads, no matter what type Iām making.
I told my family I was declaring this to be The Winter of Bread. I had just discovered the stretch and fold method and had ambitions to translate recipes into this method since I donāt have a stand mixer. After checking out a bunch of books from the library I realized Peter Reinhartās had already done all the work for me and bought Artisan Bread Everyday.
I now have a very happy sourdough starter in the fridge and have been making way too much bread while I try out different recipes and practice shaping and scoring.
Itās also nice that once you mix the dough and it cold ferments in the fridge overnight you have up to 4 days to bake it.
I have not baked bread at home - well focaccia a couple of times which came out pretty good. We used to have take turns on ābread dutyā at culinary school to make the bread for the day, and it intimidated me. All the kneading and shaping. But, I plan to try my hand at some biscuits for Thanksgiving. Weāll see how they turn out and go from there.
I bake bread whenever Iām having people over for dinner. I keep a loaf of commercial bread in the freezer and take out a slice or two every once in a while, but donāt eat enough to warrant making bread for myself. I love the no-knead loaves and also do a kick-ass potato roll.
My mother used to bake all our bread when I was a kid. In the summers, when my brothers were working in the wheat fields (and taking 3 sandwiches each for lunch), sheād get up early and bake 4 loaves every other day.
I bake bread now & then. I use the āNo-Kneadā method or Alton Brownās āBasic Breadā. When Iām taking lunch to work (sandwiches) I bake Kaiser rolls. Itās streaky so sometimes itās two batches a week & then sometimes not for a month. I use this recipe for Kaiser rolls: http://www.breadworld.com/recipes/Kaiser-Rolls
Everything I have read (and now experience confirms) that the refridge is the worst place. Most bread loaves I divide into 3 and bag each third inside an outer bag then freeze. I either take out slices or a whole inner bag depending on how much I need. Iām thinking Iāve had some for upwards of 3 months in the freezer. I do the same thing with Brioche & Ciabatta rolls but those go 1 to a bag in the inner bag. I reuse the bags several times for more bread before the bags give up.
I agree with Audrey, donāt refrigerate, it dries out the bread more quickly than at room temp. In the freezer, I usually use a loaf up in a few weeks, it stays very well for up to a month. If Iām in a hurry I microwave on defrost after I chip off a slice or two.
Can you share your kick-ass recipe? I was thinking of potato rolls for turkey day then found a freezable biscuit recipe. Iām not sure which will be easier for my first time!!
Isnāt the internet wonderful? I was going to type it out but then just googled a few key phrases and voila! Theyāre really rich with the butter, sugar, and milk, for years there were children in my family who only ate these and pie for Thanksgiving.
Thanks Palousienne! I saw that recipe on the Internet and was wondering how took they are. I made the biscuits today and they are in the freezer. Not sure how they will turn out. Can these be made in advance and frozen?
They can be frozen, theyāre a little bit better fresh but no one has ever noticed when Iāve served them reheated out of the freezer! This recipe (in a much longer form that explains all the steps) is from The Complete Book of Breads, by Bernard Clayton where itās simply called Dinner Rolls. He suggests doing fancy shapes (bowknots, cloverleafs, fantans, etc) with them and Iāve done that through the years sometimes, but usually I just pack the all together in a pan and enjoy the soft sides that result when theyāre touching after theyāve risen.
