Too bad there are no shipping shops, we could trade homemade bread for homegrown vegetables. VIVA LA OKRA!

I quit making bread a few years ago when the boys got older and went off to school. Now with one home it's one of the few things I cook he'll eat. Everything else he seems to insist on drive thru fast food over homemade. He turned down braised oxtail in red wine with heirloom potatoes and garden fresh vegetables for Cane's Chicken the other night. A beautiful bolognese sauce with fresh pasta for a drive thru hamburger a few days earlier.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2020 06:21PM by wwin.

That's the problem with fast-food. It's literally addictive. Once you get the preference for high fat/salt foods, it's hard to go back to homemade.

I went to Costco a few days ago. Rainy, windy weather and I almost said forget it. Then I figured everyone else would be saying that. Got there with 2 DD's 1/2 hour after opening. Very organized. Guy wiping down cart handles as each person got on line to enter. There was really no reason that I could think of for controlling entry as there were only 6 people ahead of us other than to wipe down the cart handles. Costco remained empty and calm throughout our visit. Checkout was overseen by another worker with taped 6' spacing markers between customers. Everything was stocked with exception of a big handwritten sign that they were out of TP, bleach, paper towels, tissues, sanitizing wipes, etc. We bought butter, coffee, creamer (limit one 3 pack - who stocks this?), frozen Mushroom and 3 Cheese Egg White Frittatas, bananas, strawberries, Rotisserie Chicken, Cheeze-Its, milk, eggs, baby spinach, Bakery Croissants and Brownies, Cashews, wedge of Gruyere Cheese, block of Cheddar Cheese, fresh Mozzarella log, OJ, sack of Jasmine rice, ground turkey and pack of Naked Juice. Went to the supermarket nearby and bought asparagus, zucchini, potatoes, onions and grapes. It was a normal trip with exception of the out of stock paper goods that I do not need right now. I am always stocked with Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, soap, TP (running dangerously low), tissues, disposable gloves and paper towels. I hope you all are finding what you need.

@wwin wrote:

for Cane's Chicken the other night

Well I mean......

For those of us who have bread machines.

@bgriffin wrote:

@HonnyBrown wrote:

Wow, we have sunk to making our own bread.

Sunk? It takes 4 minutes to dump all the ingredients in a bread machine and it's 10x better than anything you buy in the store.

My problem with homemade bread is I will eat the entire loaf, slathered with butter, before it has a chance to cool.

@Sandy Shopper wrote:

I have made bread for over 50 years, although I still buy good quality sliced bread from the store frequently. I just like the smell of baking bread and the taste of it. I use a 5-minute recipe that does not require the bread to be kneaded. I can make a rustic boule with just flour, yeast, salt and water, and it goes great with soups and salads.

No bread machine here. @Sandy Shopper, please share your recipe. I have never made bread and want to try.

@Madetoshop wrote:

No bread machine here. @Sandy Shopper, please share your recipe. I have never made bread and want to try.

Same here. I want a good recipe too, please

If you want a bread machine hit up a couple of estate sales. You can get one practically new in the box for $5.

I'm not @Sandy Shopper but until she responds you might want to get your feet wet with this recipe. It takes a full day but is VERY forgiving and no knead which is a great way to start. If you read the comments you'll find people have listed the ingredients weights which many bakers prefer. There are also many variations suggested. Whoops I gave a link to a an update from the editor not the recipe here is the recipe. [cooking.nytimes.com]

[www.nytimes.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2020 02:54PM by wwin.

4 cups flour, plus some to dust the surface you will be working on
1 packet yeast
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
Just enough water to form the dough into a ball that is soft but not gooey. You can use milk instead of water if you want to add a little protein.

Mix the dry ingredients, then slowly add water to make a dough that holds together, not too stiffly. It should sag just a bit when formed into a ball. Knead it just a few times to assure that the ingredients are well mixed. Put the dough ball into a buttered bowl that will be big enough when the dough doubles in size. Turn it so that all the dough gets a little butter on it. Cover the dough with a damp dish towel and let it double in size. I put mine on top of the fridge unless the house is warm.

You can shape the dough a little but be sure not to over-handle it so that it deflates. I usually leave it pretty much as it is when I turn it out onto a sheet pan or pizza paddle. It makes a nice round boule. You can also bake it in a regular bread pan.

Bake at 450 for about 40-50 minutes. It is done when you lightly rap on the crust and it sounds like a ripe watermelon.

My recipe is very similar to the NYT recipe mentioned above, but I don't wait that long to bake it. Usually a few hours is enough for the dough to double in size, and that's good enough. Instead of all white flour, I usually use about half white flour and half whole wheat flour. The recipe is easy to personalize. You can add wheat berries or some other whole grain flours. I've tossed in fresh herbs such as chopped sage or basil leaves, which goes really nicely with spaghetti and a salad.

The neat thing about homemade bread is that it's fairly forgiving if you are new to baking bread. Even a not-great loaf tastes good with some butter and jam. Give it a try.

I don't understand no-knead breads. I love kneading the bread, and how does the gluten develop without it?
At any rate, it's hard to mess up bread unless it just doesn't rise for some reason.

When I was a kid my mom was one of the few that worked. On weekends we would make bread together. What a great memory.

CoffeeQueen, it's a more rustic type of bread, not the finely textured stuff that comes from a couple of lengthy kneadings. I used to enjoy the longer process of kneading, letting it rise, punch it down and knead, let it rise, etc. That was before the days of osteoarthritis in all of my fingers.

And you're right, it's hard to mess up bread, as long as the yeast is alive.

Gulp. Sounds delicious. Yeast alive? Yikes. May give it a try this weekend but need flour and yeast. Thank you so much Sandy Shopper!

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

At any rate, it's hard to mess up bread unless it just doesn't rise for some reason.

I wish I was as talented as you guys. I've elevated messing up bread to an art form. Too much liquid (flat loaf), Too little (tight crumb), over kneaded (discolored and off flavor), under proof, over proof ... I blame my mother for only buying store bought Wonder Bread. Making bread, to me, has a lot to do with feel and look which I find hard to learn from a book. Fortunately even my bad loaves taste better than store bought bread to my family.

I wouldn't put the no knead bread on my list of favorite loaves but it's a great weekday bread.

I'm very impressed with all of your talk of homemade bread! Bread is my downfall. However, the "high end" of my culinary talent is that I have been known to boil a mean pot of water. Be safe, everyone!

I've got to get out there and find some flour. I had 2 bags of it only to find the pesky moths had gotten into both sealed bags, one of them was sealed inside of a plastic container with a tight lid. I do not know how the moths manage. I thought I had conquered them but they keep disappearing and then a few months later a new but much smaller crop appears out of my food closet. I have pheromone ? traps that actually caught close to 35 of them within an hour of my putting them out about 6 months ago. It was like a magnet, amazing.
But I too just eat the whole loaf within a few hours when ever I make bread.

I got rid of my bread machine a long time ago. If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, it is super easy to do by hand; even if you don't, it's still pretty easy. The texture is 100 times better than bread machines. My go-to is to divide the dough into thirds and make a bread braid. It is so soft, and it's easy to pull apart. I made one tonight. A lot of people are afraid to use yeast. The main thing is to get the water the right temperature... I usually say to make it like slightly warm bath water.

You can blame the grain silos for the moths. The moths lay eggs that eventually end up in the flour.

@sandyf wrote:

I've got to get out there and find some flour. I had 2 bags of it only to find the pesky moths had gotten into both sealed bags, one of them was sealed inside of a plastic container with a tight lid. I do not know how the moths manage. I thought I had conquered them but they keep disappearing and then a few months later a new but much smaller crop appears out of my food closet. I have pheromone ? traps that actually caught close to 35 of them within an hour of my putting them out about 6 months ago. It was like a magnet, amazing.
But I too just eat the whole loaf within a few hours when ever I make bread.

I did a quick serve shop a few months back. I ordered a quesadilla which is normally cut into 3 pieces. I asked the associate to make 3 cuts instead of two, so I could have 4 servings.

She said she couldn't.

I am not aloooooonnnnnneeeeee!

@ceasesmith wrote:

My problem with homemade bread is I will eat the entire loaf, slathered with butter, before it has a chance to cool.

@Sandy Shopper wrote:

I have made bread for over 50 years, although I still buy good quality sliced bread from the store frequently. I just like the smell of baking bread and the taste of it. I use a 5-minute recipe that does not require the bread to be kneaded. I can make a rustic boule with just flour, yeast, salt and water, and it goes great with soups and salads.

In my basement I have a bread machine, pasta machine, and a juicer, haven't used them in 25 years. Not planning on using them unless I have to. I am not in a rural area. I have several Walmarts, Target, Stop & Shop, Trader Joes, Costco, Bj's, Marketbasket, Shaw's, and more.

Opanel says: However, the "high end" of my culinary talent is that I have been known to boil a mean pot of water.

Well Opanel, being able to boil water is a gateway to a lot of other cooking things. Put a few eggs in that boiling water, take it off the heat, let sit til cool, and you've got the main ingredient of a tasty egg salad sandwich. Toss some angel hair pasta into that boiling water and pour it into the strainer five minutes later. Put some of that angel hair on a plate and top it with half a cup of bottled spaghetti sauce. Voila! Lunch!

I know you're only kidding, but there are so many easy ways to cook, yet I find that lots of people are intimidated by it. Maybe they can use this enforced at-homeness to try a few recipes.

Hey folks, if you have flour and baking powder, you can always make biscuits. No kneading needed ! Good for breakfast but also great to serve with chicken and gravy, soup, creamed tuna or chipped beef.

Also, generic "bisquick" is even handier. Aldi has a great one and the packaging, as usual, lets you know that it was almost certainly made on the same assembly line as the "real" stuff.

I have actually been known to burn boiling water.



(I hate wasting perfectly good pots that way, too -- always have to throw away the pot! That's why I buy used pots and pans at thrift stores and garage sales....it hurts a lot less when you know the pot you cremated only cost $0.25!!!)

Sometimes, you don't even have to cook. You can use raw fruits and veggies, your milk or "milk" of choice, and.... protein powders, leftovers, deli meats, etc. Mind you, your meals might not be three and square, but you can get the nutrition you need in ways that you can manage. I recommend this for people who are busy, have limited space, or are not wired to be foodies. Have you ever seen the face of a person who gazes upon a glossy mocked up meal and goes pale? 'I could never do that!' 'My food never looks like that! I will never cook again!' This scares them. This should not be.

"Have you ever seen the face of a person who gazes upon a glossy mocked up meal and goes pale? 'I could never do that!' 'My food never looks like that! I will never cook again!' This scares them. This should not be."

Exactly! Cooking rarely involves the kind of dramatics seen on cooking shows. A plate of pasta with some bottled sauce on top, a slice of easy to make or buy bread, and some raw veggies is a beautiful thing, ESPECIALLY when done by someone who "doesn't cook." Nourishing ourselves and or families should not be an exercise in frustration. It should give comfort to all who cook the meal and partake in it.

@Sandy Shopper
@wwin

Thanks for the recipes. Can't wait to get to the store and get yeast and try to make some bread

One of my dog's favorite treats is what I call Pasta Water. I have no idea if it is unhealthy for a dog but just save the water by putting a bowl or pot under your colander to catch it and let it cool down before serving. I have to ration out the portions as my dog would lap up an entire gallon of this stuff if I put it in her bowl. I found this especially useful after her surgery a few months back when she would not drink. Gave her pasta water and all was well.

@Sandy Shopper wrote:

Well Opanel, being able to boil water is a gateway to a lot of other cooking things. ..Toss some angel hair pasta into that boiling water and pour it into the strainer five minutes later. Put some of that angel hair on a plate and top it with half a cup of bottled spaghetti sauce. Voila! Lunch!

I know you're only kidding, but there are so many easy ways to cook, yet I find that lots of people are intimidated by it. Maybe they can use this enforced at-homeness to try a few recipes.