Easy Home Made Bread......

[jaideeguy]

With my 6 month old Hitachi breadmaker in BKK service center for repairs that I have little hope that they can do, I decided to search for easy home made bread recipes and found this one that is almost as easy as using a breadmaker. prep time, 5 minutes, clean up 5 minutes and so easy a 4 yr old can do it as you can see on this link...

http://steamykitchen.com/168-no-knead-bread-revisited.html

I've made a couple of loaves already and the results were delicious. With this method, the ingredients are quite flexible and I used whole wheat flour with bread flour.......the only critical thing is that the dry ingredients are double the water.

a couple of variations that I used were to add a tablespoon of sugar and I dusted the bottom of the baking pan with corn meal because the first loaf stuck a little.

To be honest, I wish I had learned this before I paid 6,000thb for a fancy breadmaker that is broke after 6 months.

I urge others to try this and experiment with other techniques/recipes and share on this thread.

[Cuban]

Hmmm - must ship over some cast iron cooking pots.

[jaideeguy]

I did mine in a stainless sauce pot with lid, but can be done in any oven proof pot with a lid. my friend uses his aluminum rice pot and says he gets no sticking.

Can get cast iron here in CM, but not cheap.

[Michaelaway]

With my 6 month old Hitachi breadmaker in BKK service center for repairs that I have little hope that they can do, I decided to search for easy home made bread recipes and found this one that is almost as easy as using a breadmaker. prep time, 5 minutes, clean up 5 minutes and so easy a 4 yr old can do it as you can see on this link...

http://steamykitchen.com/168-no-knead-bread-revisited.html

I've made a couple of loaves already and the results were delicious. With this method, the ingredients are quite flexible and I used whole wheat flour with bread flour.......the only critical thing is that the dry ingredients are double the water.

a couple of variations that I used were to add a tablespoon of sugar and I dusted the bottom of the baking pan with corn meal because the first loaf stuck a little.

To be honest, I wish I had learned this before I paid 6,000thb for a fancy breadmaker that is broke after 6 months.

I urge others to try this and experiment with other techniques/recipes and share on this thread.

Outstanding! This is really a great one for farang home chefs. Thanks very much for the new recipe! Never actually thought I'd make my own bread, but everything sounds (and looks) so easy... I'm really looking forward to trying this one, and soon! Steamy Kitchen looks interesting, too... Beauty, mate!!

-Michael

[fremmel]

Here's a variation on no-knead bread that I've been using and getting great results. http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/A...utes-A-Day.aspx I like it because it gives you some dough to keep in the fridge and then when you want some bread you just cut off a chunk and bake it. About 2 hours from when you decide you want bread until it comes out of the oven. The flavor of the bread improves too as the dough ages in the fridge. With the flour here in Thailand I've found I get better results from using bread flour instead of the all purpose flour used in the recipe and I use 7 cups of flour instead of 6 1/2.

Another variation that I've added lately is to immediately reuse the dough bowl without cleaning to make a new batch. I just cut off a golf ball sized chunk of the old dough and mix it with a cup of warm water and a cup of flour and wait an hour or so for it to start bubbling a bit. Then put in just 1 tsp of yeast instead or 1 1/2 tbls and add the salt and the rest of the water and flour. This way I always have dough in the fridge ready to use and it takes on an "aged" flavor faster.

I'd never baked bread before so this has really pleased me. We haven't bought store bread in several months now.

Edited October 23, 2009 by fremmel

[jaideeguy]

Fremmel, thanks for that link. It was that 'Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day' book that got me off in this direction, but I didn't want to fork over the $$ for the book. youtube has a few teaser ads on the book, but they don't give details. It is basically the same principal....high water content, no knead steamed bread, but with my method on the OP, you do one batch at a time.

now gotta get a stone to cook it on and gotta find room in our already full refridgerator.

If the results are anything like the bread that I made, it's great stuff and better than any you can buy in town.

[fremmel]

For the stone we use a chunk of granite that was cut out of the counter top in our bathroom when we built our house. You can probably find a piece of waste at a granite shop that they'll trim for you pretty cheap. When I started doing this I couldn't find corn meal here in Udon so I used the silicon baking paper "Bakewell" that Lotus carries. After the loaf has been baking 10 or 15 minutes I take it off the paper and set it directly on the stone so it's a little crisper.

You may already have it but this is the link to the Artisan bread site http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/. With just a little digging they have lots of recipes and details. I tried the Sweet Provençal Flatbread with Anise Seeds the other day and it turned out very tasty.

Here's a link to a video of them making actually making their basic recipe. http://us.macmillan.com/BookCustomPage.asp...id=119255#video. Watching that helped me modify the recipe to use the local flour and get the consistency of the dough like they were talking about.

I've tried 3 or 4 brands of flour and the one that's given me the best results is the White Swan label bread flour by United Flour Mill. Do you have a good flour you like?

[kikoman]

With my 6 month old Hitachi breadmaker in BKK service center for repairs that I have little hope that they can do, I decided to search for easy home made bread recipes and found this one that is almost as easy as using a breadmaker. prep time, 5 minutes, clean up 5 minutes and so easy a 4 yr old can do it as you can see on this link...

http://steamykitchen.com/168-no-knead-bread-revisited.html

I've made a couple of loaves already and the results were delicious. With this method, the ingredients are quite flexible and I used whole wheat flour with bread flour.......the only critical thing is that the dry ingredients are double the water.

a couple of variations that I used were to add a tablespoon of sugar and I dusted the bottom of the baking pan with corn meal because the first loaf stuck a little.

To be honest, I wish I had learned this before I paid 6,000thb for a fancy breadmaker that is broke after 6 months.

I urge others to try this and experiment with other techniques/recipes and share on this thread.

Thanks for the recipe, I think I will try that also, I also liked the tattoo.

[llso]

I tried this recipe this past weekend. It was ridiculously easy to make and very good . My Thai wife and daughther who are not big bread lovers ate the whole thing.

Thanks,

LL

[Tim207]

I tried this recipe this past weekend. It was ridiculously easy to make and very good . My Thai wife and daughther who are not big bread lovers ate the whole thing.

Thanks,

LL

I am surprised how versatile it is. I even used it to make small doughnuts that turned out good. I had some oil in a wok already so I just threw a few little balls in to see how they would turn out. The high water content made me a little cautious but after a crust formed I felt more comfortable. WhatI didn't consider was that as the center cooked it would expand, breaking the crust and shooting moist steaming dough into the oil. I now have some nice red dots on my arm along with a few dashes where enough oil spattered on me to dribble down my arm. Lesson learned, no more deep frying this stuff.

[tutsiwarrior]

anyone try a tin baking pan for either of these methods?...a specially made baking stone or a le creu oven friendly casserole seem a bit extreme for supposedly simple bread making techniques...any pots with oven friendly handles available at tescos? haveta admit the rest of the method (both) and the product are appealing otherwise...

[Tim207]

anyone try a tin baking pan for either of these methods?...a specially made baking stone or a le creu oven friendly casserole seem a bit extreme for supposedly simple bread making techniques...any pots with oven friendly handles available at tescos? haveta admit the rest of the method (both) and the product are appealing otherwise...

As of yet I have not used a baking stone, don't have one handy. I have used a regular metal baking sheet and also a silicon mini loaf pan. Both were acceptable but I am not a bread connesoir (sp) so my standards may not meet your own.

Another nice thing is it is very hard to burn this stuff. I had some small buns cooking in the toaster oven and a friend stopped by. An hour later I remembered the buns and when I took them out they were still good. The crust was just thicker and a darker.

[metisdead]

I tried this today, maybe my yeast was dead, or a combination of this cool weather, dough didn't rise, made a pork loin roast this afternoon, put the bowl of dough in front of the oven hoping the dough would show some action, it didn't. Went ahead and put the dough in a Baker's Secret loaf pan, got a brick in the end. Back to the drawing board.

[Tim207]

I tried this today, maybe my yeast was dead, or a combination of this cool weather, dough didn't rise, made a pork loin roast this afternoon, put the bowl of dough in front of the oven hoping the dough would show some action, it didn't. Went ahead and put the dough in a Baker's Secret loaf pan, got a brick in the end. Back to the drawing board.

Put the yeast in warm water (baby bathwater temperature) with a little sugar. Wait five or ten minutes to see if there is foam. The amount of foam gives you an idea how healthy the yeast is. If it looks good add the flour and continue with the directions on the web site. Dont forget you must let it rise in the loaf pan also.

[NanaFoods]

My Oster bread machine has worked trouble free for over 10-years !!!

[jaideeguy]

Lucky you CH for having your Oster.....my Hitachi just returned from BKK Hitachi service center and 2times tested on tried and proven recipe, it's still baking bricks. I really didn't expect it to be repaired and I am now going to war with hitachi for selling krap electronics and hopefully will get a refund or at least partial refund. worked ok for 6 months for 6,000thb. not a good investment.

The no knead method I posted originally makes far superior bread,with crisp crust and moist inside and is not much work. I've found that the recipe is quite flexible in that you can add 7 grain mix and whole wheat flour. So, when your Oster does finally bite the dust and you can't find a repairman that can even pronounce 'breadmaker' [much less fix one] and then find that there are no reliable breadmakers here in LOS, maybe you'll try the no knead method.

Thais can fix rice makers, but not breadmakers......

[NanaFoods]

Thais can fix rice makers, but not breadmakers......

Ha ! That doesnt surprise me.

Yes, very good luck with my Oster, but it's a very well-made machine.

Brought from the US, it works on 110v.

This is how good it is -- in a half-sleep, I accidentally plugged it into the regular 220 socket and hit start. When I realized what I did, my heart dropped. But to my surprise, the machine worked, but at double speed!! Actually, that's what clued me in - I was wondering why it was working so fast... then I realized -- OOPS!

I quickly plugged it into my 110 converter, and it has been working fine ever since.

As for un-kneaded dough, do you find it a bit lacking in elasticity? Myself, I prefer a bread with some "pull" to it - which usually required lots of kneading. I sometimes even put my bread machine through two or three cycles of kneading to get more texture.

[jaideeguy]

If by 'elasticity' you mean chewiness, the no knead method is far superior to my regular breadmaker bread [when it was working]. IMHO The only advantage a breadmaker had was that you just dumped the stuff in and forgot about it for 4-5 hrs. This no knead bread is about the same labor and takes longer, but the yeast 'ages and mellows' giving a sourdough texture from the slow rise.

I considered bring over a breadmaker from the US, but when I found out that the transformer had to run at full power [2000watts] for the whole 4-5 hrs, I thought it inefficient.

I challenge you CH to give this no knead bread a try and report.

[NanaFoods]

If by 'elasticity' you mean chewiness, the no knead method is far superior to my regular breadmaker bread [when it was working]. IMHO The only advantage a breadmaker had was that you just dumped the stuff in and forgot about it for 4-5 hrs. This no knead bread is about the same labor and takes longer, but the yeast 'ages and mellows' giving a sourdough texture from the slow rise.

I considered bring over a breadmaker from the US, but when I found out that the transformer had to run at full power [2000watts] for the whole 4-5 hrs, I thought it inefficient.

I challenge you CH to give this no knead bread a try and report.

I suppose I could give it a try next time I have a chance.

[Tim207]

I suppose I could give it a try next time I have a chance.

Come on, when you get a chance? 5 minutes to stir it up, walk a way for a few hours then throw it in the fridge for up to two weeks. When you feel like cooking some you just rip a piece off, let it sit for a half hour and throw it in the oven. You can't be THAT busy.

I am interested in your oppinion of the comparison to the bread you usually make. I like this stuff but I don't have much experience with home made breads so I would like to know how it stacks up.

[NanaFoods]

I suppose I could give it a try next time I have a chance.

Come on, when you get a chance? 5 minutes to stir it up, walk a way for a few hours then throw it in the fridge for up to two weeks. When you feel like cooking some you just rip a piece off, let it sit for a half hour and throw it in the oven. You can't be THAT busy.

I am interested in your oppinion of the comparison to the bread you usually make. I like this stuff but I don't have much experience with home made breads so I would like to know how it stacks up.

Actually I am pretty busy... doing double normal production as my company will be shutdown for all of December ... so we need to produce for both Nov and Dec requirements all in the same month. Then there is the problem my stupid label printing shop .... I could go on.

That, and I still have plenty of bread at the moment, and don't want to overstock my fridge.

[fremmel]

Since Jaideeguy liked the first version so much better I thought I'd give it a shot. I followed the recipe exactly and it went reasonably well with a few minor first try hiccups. My dough had more than doubled after just 8 hours and was threatening to climb out of the bowl so I had to bake it a little sooner than recommended. I'm not sure why it rose so fast. It's fairly cool here in Udon right now and the kitchen was probably around 26° to 28° last night. And the 1/4 tsp of yeast was from a package of Fermipan brown that I've been using for a few months. Anyway, I shaped it and let it rise again on a well floured, non-terry cloth towel for 2 hours. Where it proceeded to stick when I tried to put it in the pot. So the loaf came out somewhat warped. The only pot I have suitable for this is a cheap stock pot from Makro so I went with that. I put corn meal in the bottom but maybe not enough because there was some sticking when I tried to get the loaf out.

While I had the oven hot I decided to try the pot method with some dough from the recipe I normally use that had been in the fridge for 4 or 5 days. This time I used parchment paper in the bottom of the pot and had no trouble with sticking.

I make no claims whatsoever about being an expert on bread, but I didn't find a lot of difference between the two loaves. They were both good. Both had a thin crispy crust. Both had a good crumb that was a little moister than it should have been. I probably should have baked it beyond the 30 + 20 minutes called for in the recipe. The loaf from the recipe I normally use had a better favor, which you'd expect since the dough was aged more.

I'll probably stick with my normal recipe for the time being since the results are similar and I like the shorter lead time. Jaideeguy, what was it about the bread from the first recipe that you liked better and what tips can you give me for improving my results?

Here's a couple of shots of the bread and the pot I used. Please excuse the inconsistency but in the picture of the whole loaves the bread from the first recipe is on the left and in the picture of the cut loaves it's on the right.

[jaideeguy]

Thanks for posting photos Fremmel. Your pot is the same as mine and I had problems with sticking as well. I think due to the rough interior and have switched to using some cheap stainless mixing bowls with a shine on the inside....slicker is better? Been busy with my broke hitachi brickmaker and today will try baking loaf from first recipe. Haven't tried the 2nd [mother earth] recipe yet, but will this weekend.

One thing I did different this time is use all purpose flour instead of bread flour and we'll see what differenc that makes. Will try to post photo if I can this afternoon when I bake it.

Let's perfect it....we're getting close.

So far all my results, even the mistakes have been better than store bought bread and machine made bread.

[HDRIDER]

HI

Bread made in a breadmaker 4000 Baht works nearly every day, great bread

[tutsiwarrior]

got back from macro yesterday with a block of fermipan red yeast and a Rocket SS 22cm pot with lid (no plastic bits) so now I'm all tooled up an' ready to rock 'n roll...

with regards to the sticking during baking, what's to prevent one from simply greasing the contact between the dough and the pot?

[Gippy]

with regards to the sticking during baking, what's to prevent one from simply greasing the contact between the dough and the pot?

Nothing, I rub butter on the inside of my loaf pans before I bake bread in them and they come out easily.

[tutsiwarrior]

that's what I figured...an' here I was thinkin' that I'd haveta go to BKK to find cornmeal to stay true to the method...

[jaideeguy]

My last loaf was baked in one of those cheap stainless mixing bowls that i greased up with butter only and it slid out easily. Just for fun, I sprinkled some sesame seeds on top and they added a little flavor. getting better each time......

[tutsiwarrior]

well...just tried my first time and the mixture, after sittin' fer about 24 hrs has the consistency of watery wall paper glue; no way I can shape a loaf outta that...

gonna try again...3 cups flour to 1 1/2 cups warm water, right?...using fermipan red yeast...

[jaideeguy]

It's supposed to be a bit wet and sticky and is hard to manage, but you can salvage it by simply adding more flour to the dough mixing and letting it rise again. I use a plastic rice paddle to shape and move the dough. If you are doing the covered method, then don't worry if it is a little too wet as it is the steam that cooks it and gives the crust a crunchy/chewy texture.

yes the ratio is roughly 2 flour to 1 yeast.....don't know about the red yeast....seems I read some discussion on the red package somewhere else on this forum.....one is for high sugar and the other is for low sugar content.

good luck and don't give up....even my first mistakes were edible/delicious.