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Any bread makers here?

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shmokes:

--- Quote from: Dervacumen on January 05, 2012, 02:16:01 pm ---The crispiness of the bread comes from moisture during the baking process.  When you make your loaf, make sure you've kinda pinched together all the edges so you create an envelope that the steam can't escape from.
Use a preheated pizza stone to put your loaf on.  If you don't have a pizza stone, use a cast iron skillet.  Just something that will maintain a constant temperature for a long while.  When you put your bread in, throw a couple ice cubes or just 1/4 -1/2 cup of water in the oven to make the steam.
Good luck.  If your oven doesn't heat evenly you're fighting a losing battle regardless of what you do.

Baking bread is one of those things that you have to practice.  A lot.  The humidity, the moisture content of your flour, the exact temperature of your water, your oven (have you checked the thermostat readings with a thermometer?) proofing time, blah blah blah.  The key is learning the ideal moisture / heat balance IMO.

--- End quote ---

Made some more baguettes today (and a loaf of honey-wheat sandwich bread). I got FAR better results. I still have a ways to go before I'm where I want to be, but my bread this time is so far-and-away better than the last time that I'm pretty damned pleased. The baguettes are as good as any I've had from an American bakery and a lot better than from the grocery store bakeries.

The last ones I made were from a recipe on allrecipes.com that had a ton of good reviews. This time I took a recipe from a Julia Child book I have. I don't know why I didn't do that to begin with. Also I lined my oven rack with ceramic tiles (I'm sorry if this hurts your feelings Chad) and cooked directly on that instead of a cookie sheet. It worked out pretty awesome. Instead of buying a pizza stone I just went to the flooring department of Home Depot and bought unglazed quarry tiles. Julia Child recommended it. It seems to be exactly the same stuff that pizza stones are typically made of. The best part, though, is that the 6"x6" tiles are only 46 cents apiece, whereas a typical 14"x16" pizza stone is like $50. Not only that but the Amazon reviews for pizza stones are always super mixed from all the people who are pissed off that their stone cracked after only a couple uses. I just don't see myself complaining too loudly if one of my stones cracks.

Oh yeah, I did toss 1/2 a cup of water in the bottom of the oven too, just as I was putting the bread in.

Blanka:
The French are the best for holiday bread, but not for 365/24 bread. That title goes to the germans. Although, I might think Americans see German bread as medical stuff for obese-treatment or so, not food.

Do google images on the following :0
bread
brot
pain site:.fr (otherwise you see just sore shoulders)

brot looks the best :)



Living sandwiched between France and Germany, the Benelux is not bad on bread too. You find the german-way and the french way combined in most decent bakeries. Although in smaller villages in the Netherlands, bakeries are often more like serving K-Mart style camping bread. We call that "bread you can stick into a hollow molar".

shmokes:
That does look pretty tasty. Like it just really wants you to add few slices of Italian dry salami, some pepperoni, and maybe swiss or gruyere cheese.

ChadTower:

I just throw some flour/yeast/water/etc into my breadmaker and come back in 3 hours.   :cheers:

Hoopz:

--- Quote from: shmokes on January 26, 2012, 03:14:48 am ---That does look pretty tasty. Like it just really wants you to add few slices of Italian dry salami, some pepperoni, and maybe swiss or gruyere cheese.

--- End quote ---
Salami and pepperoni are good but go with something better with great bread.  Try prosciutto, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil and gruyere or fresh mozzarella.  Don't get too focused on American "deli" products.  Go with a variety of salumi for the best effect.

 :cheers:

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