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Dam I hate baking bread!

toxcrusadr

toxcrusadr

Omelette au Fromage
Just never was good at it. The bread machine is a lifesaver. :yes: Anyhoo, tonight I tried to make a new recipe. :scratch2: An article in Mother Earth News says you can get that fabulous crusty outside/chewy center like the bakeries make, by baking it inside a dutch oven, in the oven. The dough is very sticky and wet and has to rise 12 hours, then you form it into a ball. This should have been my first clue, it was too floppy to make a ball. :sigh: Stuck to everything. So I put this flat blob on the floured towel like they said, and raised it some more. It soaked through the flour and stuck to the towel. I did not know this. :nono: Picture me with this dough hanging from a towel half in and half out of a smoking hot dutch oven. :dammit: I have no feel for dough texture.

It's in the oven now and smells pretty good. Guess I'll report back if I don't die. :withstpd:
 
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No sympathy for my breadly plight? Well it turned out 'not too bad', considering the way it seemed to be going. It had that crusty thing going, with two flaws. First was that the inside was a bit too moist, but cutting down the water should help that. The other was that I preheated the dutch oven on the stove instead of in the hot oven, trying to minimize oven time since the AC was running. So the bottom was hotter, which I think made the bottom of the bread get done sooner, to the point where it was almost too crusty to cut. More even heating would fix that.

If anyone's interested in the recipe I can post it. It's actually very simple and a clever idea.
 
The thing is, you can save a lot of "dough" making your own bread. 3 cups of flour, a pinch of salt, 1/4 tsp of yeast, water, done right, makes a loaf they're charging three to four bucks for at the bakery.

I wish I had one a them there convection ovens. Waiting for our electric range to die so we can get a pro gas stove with an electric convection oven.
 
for me... the time and effort in baking my own bread or any baked good that uses yeast and has to raise.. I fail at every dang time.. you should have seen my cinimmononn rolls.. complete disaster.. so now i just go to my local bakery and buy them. :)
 
I buy the cheap local store brand bread.. a buck or so a loaf... a lot cheaper than my time, the cost of ingredients, and the cost of the gas to cook it..
 
Actually I have had great results with this procedure with one monor change. place the dough on parchment inside the bowl for the 12 hour rise. You must use the oven to preheat the dutch oven. Then gentle place the dough with the parchment in to the oven, cover and bake.
 
I've got a great Sourdough recipe, even make my own starter. Comes out just like the San Francisco bread, crusty and chewy. I think I'll be making more of it this winter just to help heat the house (Remember when natural gas was cheaper than electricity?).
 
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