LifeFuel Baking

[The Scarlet Prince]

I've wanted to bake bread for a few days now—just a simple, white loaf. I'm sure it seems simple enough, but the only issue I have is that I don't think I have anything I could actually bake it in. The only reason I got the idea to begin with was because I grew weary and irritated with the garbage bread that one purchases from grocery stores. It always seems so poor in quality.

I'd like to think that I could make fairly nice sandwiches if I could just make my own homemade bread. Does anyone here know how to bake? Is the quality difference worth it?

 

[zd60]

I've had homemade bread before and I think the quality difference is better but i'm too lazy to go through the work each time to make it

 

[The Scarlet Prince]

I've had homemade bread before and I think the quality difference is better but i'm too lazy to go through the work each time to make it

That's what I was thinking. The entire process seems like a waste of time, honestly—but I always have done stuff that is a waste of time as long as it's something antiquated (like improving my handwriting, for instance). I just fancy traditional things, I suppose.

Kneading seems pretty fun, though.

 

[Glassness]

Homemade baked bread is so good

 

[zd60]

That's what I was thinking. The entire process seems like a waste of time, honestly—but I always have done stuff that is a waste of time as long as it's something antiquated (like improving my handwriting, for instance). I just fancy traditional things, I suppose.

Kneading seems pretty fun, though.

if you got nothing else too and want to do it then i'd go about doing it not much you can lose besides it going wrong and getting shit bread. i'm just vastly too lazy to keep up with it its fun to do once or twice though

 

[The Scarlet Prince]

I have pretty much everything I need, save for the pan, I believe—but I don't really want to make it while my mother is home. However, she's literally always home, so I don't really know what I'd do. I don't want anyone to know I'm baking anything or being productive in any manner.

 

[Mango]

Freshly baked bread smells good and is very tasty. I’ve never baked my own bread but I have made my own chocolate chip cookies and they tasted amazing

 

[The Scarlet Prince]

I'll try it today, hopefully it goes well.

 

[Ogostt]

I'll try it today, hopefully it goes well.

Good luck, update on how that bread turns out

 

[The Scarlet Prince]

Okay, I left the bread to rise now and brewed myself a cup of tea in the meantime. I thought for a second that we didn't actually have yeast, since I only had checked 3 or something days ago, and my mother had used the sole package I had found at that time to make pizza dough. Luckily, I actually did manage to find another package, but it wasn't 'active-dry' yeast, but I think it should work regardless.

I added like three cups of sifted flour, a cup of warm water, a tablespoon of sugar, 2 teaspoons of salt, and then mixed it all together. I tried to follow the recipe I found exactly, but honestly, the dough was way too dry to fully pick up everything, so I had to add a slight amount more water, maybe like a third of a cup. I mixed it by hand until everything was combined, then I took it out onto the countertop that I dusted with flour beforehand. I started kneading it and did it for like 8 minutes.

Kneading was actually pretty fun, I get what people say when they say that it's cathartic.

After I kneaded it for long enough, I put it back in the same bowl I mixed everything with and then covered it with plastic wrap and placed it into the over which I preheated to simply be warm. It's been like 40 minutes now, so I'll go check on it in like 20.

 

[The Scarlet Prince]

Okay, I messed it up quite a bit.

Everything went well for the most part, it fermented perfectly and I took it out, shaped it, rolled it, and placed it in my loaf tray, then left it to ferment again.

However, I failed to account for the fact that it would actually rise up further than the wrap I placed over it, so when it rose, it started pressing against the plastic wrap. That wouldn't actually be a problem, but I didn't realize you're supposed to lightly oil the top for that exact reason. I oiled the pan, but not the top of the bread, so it stuck against the plastic wrap ever so slightly.

However, that alone was enough to be catastrophic for my plans because that now meant I couldn't actually remove the wrap without taking a thin layer of the dough off, which meant that nearly all the air from the fermentation would escape. When I placed it in the over to bake, it baked just fine, but it didn't rise at all because of all that air escaping beforehand, leaving it as a more 'square' loaf.

At least, that's what I ASSUME happened. I actually have no clue as to why it didn't rise, but that's the most logical guess I could make.

Still, the bread itself actually does taste amazing. The only gripe I have is that for some reason, because of how I baked it, the edges are really crispy. It's still amazing with butter, and the bread itself is shaped oddly, but it's still really good.

'Twas an alright first attempt. I will be making more soon to give it another try.