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Does Anyone Bake Homemade Bread?

night

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Yesterday I began the process of creating a sourdough starter. Since I don’t have to worry about a lot of time constraints while working from home, feeding it every day in the morning won’t be too hard. Does anybody have experience with baking homemade bread (especially sourdough)? Do you have any tips? I think the hard part for now is just making sure I have a healthy supply of both whole wheat and all purpose flours on hand since the grocery stores have buying limit of one per trip. I doubt that will be a large issue once I have a better idea of how much inventory I need.
 

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night

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I have done it a few times with pretty good results. I have not tried sourdough yet, but I think I will give it a try this week. At least getting my starter going.

I use a pretty basic recipe for my bread and like I said, it turns out good. Basic Homemade Bread

A
nd this is the starter that I think I’m going to use
Beginner Sourdough Starter Recipe | The Clever Carrot
I am using the approach from the book Flour Water Salt Yeast. I can post the 5 day routine if you'd like to take a look at it. Your link uses a lot less flour than the one I'm working with. If you don't have a lot of flour on hand I'm thinking yours will be better than the way I'm doing it.

Do you bake yours in a dutch oven? What kind of basket do you use to proof your bread? I ordered a couple online and who knows how long they will take to get here. Any bowl roughly the right size will do for now right?
 

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No sourdough, but we use our bread maker a couple times a week. Regular loaf bread, pizza dough, cinnamon rolls/bread, pasta, and a few others. Easy, cheap, and gives the kids something to do.

I'll still pick up some flour and yeast every couple weeks to keep some on hand. Did have to mail some yeast packets to family in NJ that could never find any, as they were baking for people in their church.
 

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I am using the approach from the book Flour Water Salt Yeast. I can post the 5 day routine if you'd like to take a look at it. Your link uses a lot less flour than the one I'm working with. If you don't have a lot of flour on hand I'm thinking yours will be better than the way I'm doing it.

Do you bake yours in a dutch oven? What kind of basket do you use to proof your bread? I ordered a couple online and who knows how long they will take to get here. Any bowl roughly the right size will do for now right?
As far as the basic bread is concerned, I proof mine in a stainless steel bowl and bake it in loaf pans. For the sour dough, I do plan on baking it in a dutch oven.
 

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Yesterday I began the process of creating a sourdough starter. Since I don’t have to worry about a lot of time constraints while working from home, feeding it every day in the morning won’t be too hard. Does anybody have experience with baking homemade bread (especially sourdough)? Do you have any tips? I think the hard part for now is just making sure I have a healthy supply of both whole wheat and all purpose flours on hand since the grocery stores have buying limit of one per trip. I doubt that will be a large issue once I have a better idea of how much inventory I need.
My wife did this for a time. She was able to make some pretty good bread after several attempts.

My only tip is to pay money for someone else's starter. King Arthur Flour sells them, and lots of other places too. It stinks up the whole kitchen and smells like @craigk217's and his dad after they get yeast infections at the local dog park. It'll take about 2 weeks (or more) to cultivate your own, and you have to be religious about feeding it 2x a day.

Fresh sourdough bread is mighty nice though. :)
 

night

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No sourdough, but we use our bread maker a couple times a week. Regular loaf bread, pizza dough, cinnamon rolls/bread, pasta, and a few others. Easy, cheap, and gives the kids something to do.

I'll still pick up some flour and yeast every couple weeks to keep some on hand. Did have to mail some yeast packets to family in NJ that could never find any, as they were baking for people in their church.
I used to have one of those machines. One day on the kneading cycle it was wobbling around and somehow fell off of the counter and broke. If you do it long enough those machines will save you a lot of money in the long run.
My wife did this for a time. She was able to make some pretty good bread after several attempts.

My only tip is to pay money for someone else's starter. King Arthur Flour sells them, and lots of other places too. It stinks up the whole kitchen and smells like @craigk217's and his dad after they get yeast infections at the local dog park. It'll take about 2 weeks (or more) to cultivate your own, and you have to be religious about feeding it 2x a day.

Fresh sourdough bread is mighty nice though. :)
Learning how to do it from start to finish is part of what I'm trying to do. Either way, I have looked at their website and they seem to be low on quite a bit of supplies including their starters. According to the book I'm working off of this starter should be ready on day 5 (which is tomorrow). I might feed it for a few days first because I want to do my first try on a weekend.
 

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Learning how to do it from start to finish is part of what I'm trying to do. Either way, I have looked at their website and they seem to be low on quite a bit of supplies including their starters. According to the book I'm working off of this starter should be ready on day 5 (which is tomorrow). I might feed it for a few days first because I want to do my first try on a weekend.
Oh, well go for it, then. The wife found that the really sour taste didn't cultivate into the finished bread until about 2 weeks' worth of age. Don't forget to create a "master stock" that you store in the fridge. Let us know how it turns out.
 

night

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Oh, well go for it, then. The wife found that the really sour taste didn't cultivate into the finished bread until about 2 weeks' worth of age. Don't forget to create a "master stock" that you store in the fridge. Let us know how it turns out.
Apparently, you can store it in the fridge and then rejuvenate the starter over a couple of days. I haven’t had the opportunity to do that part yet.

I’ve found a few good looking discard recipes. Crackers and soft pretzels look fantastic and almost worth all of the effort in itself.
 

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Apparently, you can store it in the fridge and then rejuvenate the starter over a couple of days. I haven’t had the opportunity to do that part yet.
It's like a save point for your starter. In case something happens to the main, or you want to get back to a different / earlier generation of yeast.
I’ve found a few good looking discard recipes. Crackers and soft pretzels look fantastic and almost worth all of the effort in itself.
Pretzels sound good. All my wife tried to make was bread.
 

night

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It's like a save point for your starter. In case something happens to the main, or you want to get back to a different / earlier generation of yeast.

Pretzels sound good. All my wife tried to make was bread.
If it ends up going well and I figure out a beer cheese dip I might die of diabetes by next year.
 

night

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Oh yeah, I did croutons with the last batch after the ends were getting a bit stale. Highly recommended especially if you have a wife that nags you about salads.
 

night

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Crumb shot now that I finally cut into it.


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