# ISO neophyte bread recipe



## Mraughh (Jan 4, 2009)

Hiya, 
So I picked up some yeast packets yesterday and I'm determined to make some fresh home made bread. Memories of Grandfathers kitchen while he baked bread in the mornings calls to me 

I've looked at several recipes but I'm hoping to find something that would be easy to start with since this will be the 1st time I've made bread. I currently have semolina and all-purpose flour in the pantry, so I would prefer to try something using either of these flours, but if they aren't good for an easy bread receipe I can go get another type. 

Any suggestions? 

thanks in advance


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## JoeV (Jan 4, 2009)

Mraughh said:


> Hiya,
> So I picked up some yeast packets yesterday and I'm determined to make some fresh home made bread. Memories of Grandfathers kitchen while he baked bread in the mornings calls to me
> 
> I've looked at several recipes but I'm hoping to find something that would be easy to start with since this will be the 1st time I've made bread. I currently have semolina and all-purpose flour in the pantry, so I would prefer to try something using either of these flours, but if they aren't good for an easy bread receipe I can go get another type.
> ...



Glad to hear you want to carry on the tradition. The smell of fresh will mellow out the most mean-spirited person (at least while they're eating).

I usually recommend bread flour, but you can use regular unbleached all-purpose flour. Here are a couple of You-Tube videos that show you just how easy it is. One uses a mixer and teh other is done by hand.

The Mixer Video: French Bread Recipe - Crusty French Bread - French Bread Video - About.com


The hand made video. I love this guy!

YouTube - Bake perfect French Bread in ten minutes


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## FincaPerlitas (Jan 4, 2009)

I still remember what an invaluable help the Fannie Farmer cookbook was to me when I began baking breads many years ago.  You might want to check it out.  If you don't own one, you should.  It's one of the best reference cookbooks there is.


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## Andy M. (Jan 4, 2009)

There is no simpler bread than this.  Pay attention to the first instructions.  You will have finished the recipe and will be waiting for the oven to finish preheating.
​

*Classic English Soda Bread*

 3 C            Flour
 1 1/2 tsp    Baking Powder
 1 1/2 tsp    Salt
 1 1/2 C      Milk
 
*Before you do anything else*, preheat the oven to 425 F.  

Only then collect the ingredients and begin the recipe.  Otherwise, there won’t be enough time for the oven to reach temperature before you’re done.  Plan on mixing the ingredients just before baking.

Combine the dry ingredients.  Mix the milk in gently until blended.

Place the dough on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.   Shape it into a round loaf about 8 inches in diameter with a rounded top.  Dust the top with flour.

Using a bread knife, make two cuts at right angles, edge to edge, on the top of the loaf. (about a quarter of an inch deep)

Cover with an inverted stainless steel mixing bowl.  Bake 30 minutes.

Remove the bowl and bake for another 30 minutes.

Cool before serving.​


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## Mraughh (Jan 4, 2009)

Thanks a bunch for all the replies. I will be trying them out this week and watching the videos for sure!. 
I'll let you know how it turned out


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## mr_misanthropy (Jan 5, 2009)

Tonight I made the French Bread from that Youtube video.  It was delicious!


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## mcnerd (Jan 6, 2009)

Here's a very simple and easy bread:

                             Poor Man's Bread 

1                cup  flour 
  1           teaspoon  baking powder 
                        Water 

Stir in enough water to make a batter and pour into greased skillet.{ use a cast iron skillet. Fry until brown on each side like a pancake. Taste great with homemade butter and jam.


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## JoeV (Jan 6, 2009)

mcnerd said:


> Here's a very simple and easy bread:
> 
> Poor Man's Bread
> 
> ...



The next time you make this recipe, try adding 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt. I think you will like the increased flavor that the salt gives the bread.


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## Mraughh (Jan 8, 2009)

Ok so I made the french bread today that was shown in the Video, great video by the way, that was really handy. The problem that I ran into, is that the bread did not get nearly the size that he had. his bread was at least 2x the size of mine. Mine was pretty dense, it tasted good, but was pretty compact. Reminded me of zuchinni bread or something. 

So I'd like to figure out what I did wrong, here are the steps that i used to make the bread. 

put some warm water in a bowl and dumped in the yeast package. I didn't stir it around, since he didn't in the video, there were some bubbles so I figured the yeast was active. 

Followed all steps in the video, including using the grocery bag. 
The only difference that I had to do was during the second rising, I only waited 1 hour before putting the bread in the oven. I was on a time crunch and he waited 1 1/2 hours. 

When my bread was in the bowl for the first two hours, it didn't look like it was double in size. 

I do live in denver, so the altitude here is about 3k feet. I dont know if that's a big factor or not. 

thanks for the help.

EDIT - oh yeah, he was saying about after the first rising the dough should have a silky texture, it did'nt. it was still kind of moist so I had to keep adding a bit more flour to the counter when I started doing the shaping of the loaves.


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## JoeV (Jan 8, 2009)

Mraughh said:


> I do live in denver, so the altitude here is about 3k feet. I dont know if that's a big factor or not.



Baking at 3,000 ft requires minimal adjustments, so we can say that was not a big factor with your bread. More than likely the yeast was the culprit. If your yeast was good, you should have had sufficient oven spring that would prevent the whole recipe from being a brick.

I know there are folks here who feel strongly about using "Active Dry Yeast" that requires proofing (read: making more work for yourself), but I recommend using "INSTANT YEAST" which you mix in with the dry ingredients (check the expiration date on your packages. Some stores don't sell much yeast, and you can get expired packages). Instant Yeast has the highest concentration of live spores, and can be kept in the freezer to maintain its freshness. If you plan on doing a lot of bread baking, go to a restaurant supply or Sam'a Club and buy a 1# package of Instant Yeast for about $3-$4 for a whole pound. That's enough to make almost 100 loaves of regular bread. If you can't get it near where you live, you can order it from Bread Making Videos — Bread Baking Instructional Videos and Baking Supplies. . 

In the future when you get in a time pinch, just put your dough in the fridge in a bowl covered with plastic wrap or a container like Tupperware with a lid. You can leave it there for several days, and just bring it back to room temperature and pick up where you left off.

Speaking of the fridge, how cool is your house? if you keep your house too cool, the proofing time needs to be increased. Bread dough like to proof at temps around 80-90 F, so you might need to find a warm spot to proof the dough. I boil a cup of water in the microwave then put the cup in the corner of the unit and put the covered bowl in the nuke and close teh door. I don't open it for at least 1 hour, and my dough rises in that time. 




> EDIT - oh yeah, he was saying about after the first rising the dough should have a silky texture, it did'nt. it was still kind of moist so I had to keep adding a bit more flour to the counter when I started doing the shaping of the loaves.


This may have been another reason the bread was dense. Silky means different things to each person. As long as the dough does not stick to your hands, it's fine for making French bread. Adding significantly more flour after the initial proof will make your bread more dense. I flour my hands and dough just enough to get the shaping done. If it's a bit slack it will still give you a good loaf of bread with big holes and a chewy crust.

Give it another try and let us know how it goes.


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## Mraughh (Jan 8, 2009)

Thanks for the tips Joev, 

I'm going to try again tomorrow, 

It's very dry here, room temperature was around 65-70 degrees, so I'll try your microwave trick.


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## Mraughh (Jan 9, 2009)

Ok so I think it's probably the yeast that I got. Next test will be picking up the 1 pound container of instant yeast from sams club to try. 

I used the microwave to let the dough rise and left it rise for about 4 hours total time, and it got a bit bigger but still not as large as his. tastes great though. 

I thing I did with the yeast was to add a little bit of sugar and stirred it a couple times also. Seemed to help a bit. 

I did add some oregano about 1 tbsp to the mix and that was pretty darn tasty.


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