Topic: Bread baking club ~ recipe #1

[barleychown]

I left the salt completely out of mine, and while the crust is great, it is rather bland. There must be a happy medium.

However, with this recipe, you need to view it as a building block, and a method to achieve the thick chewy crust that is so hard to duplicate in a home oven. I will be experimenting with adding cheeses, herbs, and maybe even some veggies in the coming days/weeks.

[Triss]

WOW, those loaves look yummy!!!!

I guess I could do mine in the square corning ware that I have with the lids?

[barleychown]

I don't see why not...just be sure to grease the pan...This loaf rose above my grease line, and I had to "help" it let go of the bowl.

[Triss]

Ok I will do that.  I will probably not be baking until next week though.  But I am looking forward to it and am already excited about the herb and cheese variations.

[landofoz]

I will probably get started on this shortly.  I've been much busier than I thought I would be and keep forgetting!  I'll do it tomorrow before I head off for my first girl scout meeting.  It will give me a nice non-thinking moment to myself.  I love soup and I love bread and I'm getting over something nasty and coming down with a cold-sinus problem.  I think I see chicken noodle and flatbread in my sorta-near future!

[barleychown]

There is no hurry or time limit on these recipes for the club. Even though I plan to post a new one every two weeks or so, I plan to continue working with past recipes as the mood strikes, as well.

On that note, I have a new batch doing it's first rise tonight. In the morning I will work it, then try again with the cookie sheet, this time being a little more liberal with the greasing.

[barleychown]

News flash! I have a new favorite way to make and serve this bread recipe. 

So, I mixed up a batch of this recipe, let it do it's thing over night, followed the recipe for folding it over and such, then placed it on a WELL greased ( veggie shortening) cookie sheet, and let it spead out and rise all day. Come dinner time, I started the oven right before we went to sit at the table, with the cookie sheet already in it, no preheat. 375*, took about 20 minutes or so, I got up a few times during dinner to check for brown coloring.

This is what I ended up with: (after we ate half!  )






Then, I cut it into wedges, spread butter on it, and topped that with cinnamon and sugar. 



Took this last pic as the kid was pulling it away. 



Very similar to elephant ears you get at the fair, but fresh from your own oven. 

[Triss]

So you skipped the towels part then and just let it do its final rise on the cookie sheet?

And did you get one loaf or two out of the recipe?  Flat bread is how it looks.  I do not think I have as large of a cookie sheet, but that looks so good that I am going to go and start the bread right now.

[Triss]

Well mine is started, really easy to do.  Not it can sit and do its thing until morning and I will put it on a pan to rise while I am at work and pop it in the oven for dinner.

[barleychown]

One loaf, twice as much as what is pictured in the first photo. No towel, just placed on the cookie sheet, and I put it in the oven (off)  and left there all day, then just left it in there when I turned it on.

My cookie sheet is a bit larger than home sheets, as it is a commercial pan. I LOVE it.    I have had it run out to the sides a few times now, and it's been fine, as long as I greased the sheet well.

[Triss]

I may been to get one of those but for tomorrow I will use both of my small ones and make two loaves.  That should work.  I also plan on letting it rise in the oven.  The only place to do that really and make sure that the kids keep out of it.

[Triss]

Well the dough rose nicely, lots of bubbles.  Very sticky.  It is in the oven rising again.  This recipe is sure a little bit of work and a lot of wait.  I like those ones unless I am wanting a quick bread fix.  I took pictures of the steps since those are not in here yet.  Maybe we can add those plus all of the finished works to the beginning of the topic for those who come behind us and read this.

While baking, did you spray the loaves to keep them moist at the beginning of the baking on these last ones you did?

My plan is to make some honey butter for the kids to spread over their slices.

[barleychown]

Nope, no spraying. The top had dried a bit before I turned the oven on, but didn't seem to hurt the finished product.

[Triss]

Mine is cooking as I type.  It looks really good.

[Triss]

Well I finally did it, a week late but so well worth it.  The kids LOVED the bread.

Here are my efforts from beginning to end.  All of my images are clickable.

The dough before it rose overnight


Dough in the morning


After the folding, while it sat for 15 minutes


Before I put them in the oven to rise all day


After baking


And just befroe serving


We did serve it with honey butter and the kids ate a whole loaf and wanted to get into the 2nd one.

[notherdigger]

     Looking good Triss, like I might of said.......flat dread is good lol.  Thanks for posting the pics....picture worth a thousand words.........seriously, its nice to see the results of others.  I want to change something next time.  It was a little tough as I don't wear my dentures and I got it a little brown I think.  I think I'll try it in one of my regular bread pans and see how it does.  Kepp up the good work all.  See what you started BC? lol

[Triss]

I am going to try it again this weekend as well only I am going to add herbs to it and cheeses as well.  I cannot wait to see those results.

[barleychown]

Looks great Triss! Good job.