Making Bread the Old-fashioned Way

I’ve been using a bread machine for years. My main issue with a bread machine is the size and shape of the loaf. It makes it entirely too large when you slice it. The other issue I have is the bread comes out too heavy. They are good for toasting, but as far as making sandwiches with it, the bread is much too heavy and fills you up fast.

Over the past year I’ve been trying to make bread the old-fashioned way, in an oven. I’ve tried numerous recipes that I’ve found online as well as in family style cookbooks. I could never get the bread to rise to my satisfaction. The recipes I’ve used in the past were also very plain and seemed over-simplified. They make it sound so easy “a caveman could do it” then when you get to the finish product you end up with something that is closer to a deflated football than a loaf of bread.

Following a recommendation by Jo Anne I went out and purchased The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. I was impressed on how much information the book had and the detail. A third of the book is on teaching the difference between flours, bowls, fermenting, along with lots of other important information. All the information that the other books and websites I’ve looked at lacked.

One of the main things I was doing wrong was my measurements. You would think a cup is a cup, right? Well no, the flour can easily become packed down so your cup you are measuring is actually a cup and a half. It throws your balance off and changes the recipe. If there’s not enough yeast and water to accompany the flour the dough is too dry and wont rise. The book recommends weighing the four to get an accurate amount. This way you are getting the same ratio of ingredients each and every time.

Another recommendation from the book was to use SAF brand instant yeast instead of active-dry. It’s a osmotolerant yeast meaning that sugar and acid is less likely to impede it’s function. I’ve found it to be much more sufficient than the active-dry.

The book also isn’t lacking in the recipe department. There’s almost 200 pages just on recipes alone. Everything from the everyday breads to specialty breads such as Portuguese Sweet Bread and Challah. The variety is so overwhelming it makes it difficult deciding what to make next.

Overall I am very pleased with this book. I’ve baked the Italian bread twice and both times they came out amazing. The slices were light and malleable making it easy to cut into thin slices for sandwiches. Next I’m planning on making the New York Deli-Rye bread. I’ll let you know how it comes out. I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in making bread at home.