Quarantine Tip 1- Homemade Bread
Thinking about baking your own bread? You’re not alone. The trend is gaining momentum now that everyone’s got more time at home. (iStock)
As I’ve mentioned, I’m not a baker- too much science, and unforgiving with minor errors. It also blows the kitchen up. Thanks to technology, I don’t have to be. We have a bread machine. Measure, add, select, and hit the Go switch. Four hours or so later, fresh baked bread. Mmmmm…
Pro tip:
You’re all baking bread during quarantine, but are you testing the yeast? Don’t skip this important step
By Lisa Kaminski
Looking to make homemade bread? First and foremost: Good for you! Baking bread at home is one of the most satisfying kitchen projects. The smell of it baking, the first slice topped with good butter — it doesn’t get much better!. Before you start stirring up your dough, though, testing yeast is an important step not to skip.
Why Do You Test Yeast?
Yeast is a microorganism that, when activated with liquid and fed by sugars, creates air bubbles that give bread its rise and texture. Yeast needs to be tested to ensure it’s still alive and ready to behave in the recipe as intended.
Yeast that’s active and ready to go will make a great loaf of bread. Yeast that’s past its prime will leave you with dense bread that you probably will not want to eat.
How to Test Yeast
The easiest way to test yeast — sometimes called proofing yeast — is to add the envelope of yeast to a half cup of warm water with a teaspoon of sugar and give it a stir. The liquid will activate the yeast and the sugar feeds it. If you don’t want to use sugar, a little honey or agave syrup will also work.
You know your yeast is good and ready for baking when it bubbles and froths after standing for five to ten minutes.
I’ll keep looking for articles on simple quarantine diversions. Distilling ethanol is not simple, but reasonable suggestions are welcome. Read the rest of the article here: Fox News
That process is also known as “blooming” Ed.. brewing beer takes a week or two, but using the extract method is not too hard, the biggest thing being sanitation (which we’re already going crazy on).. Like most things, you can make it as complicated as you want, but the basics just aren’t that hard..
Ahhh bread baking machines. Lost custody of several of them. We were the prime distributor of them when Panasonic FIRST brought them to the consumer products home market. Justine Wilson himself bought several from me when we were working a Housewares/electronics show for the Belk Stores Group. Now those were some War Story TINS Good Times. I guarraaantee. If you don’t have one, they are a nice little addition to the counter top. Unfortunately, most of them are made in China these days.
And ‘Ed is correct on testing the yeast. Even if the package is new and has a way out yonder sell by date, the yeast can be bad. We had several epic failures when doing demos and used it as a teaching tool on the importance of the yeast. When you have 6 or 8 machines running different types of bread for demo purposes you could afford to lose one now and again.
Now about thoses distilling recipes….?
” Justine Wilson”
I assume you mean Justin Wilson. Of course the “guarraaantee’ guaranteed it. Loved his show.
Yep, I did. A real phumble phingered phuquer this morning. Got in too big a hurry and didn’t proofread. My designated driver was ready to make that provision run to the big city store while the fone was ringing like all hell and the puppy was pissed cause he realized he wasn’t going to ride this time.
Ol’ Fencepost and I did quite a number of those gigs back from the mid 80s to the mid 90s. Justin was at several, him being highly paid by various outfits to pimp their product lines. He surely did enjoy hanging out at our hospitality suite. Good Times! Maybe, one day, when the statute of limitations has passed, I may relate a TINS War Story.
Was at DLI and in ’77 caught a great skip one night and picked up WWL… Justin Wilson followed by the Charlie Douglas Road Gang. Trucker music for truckers; they gave weather reports by highway. Sent my head right back to the Midwest. First time my eventual bride ever heard JW.
My cousin Cookie Kneaded a job where he could make plenty of dough so he went to work in a bakery which was pretty easy work because he was able to loaf a lot and make plenty of dough. We were out one night and my hair was a mess, so I said: Cookie Cookie lend me your comb. I hope one of you out there remembers those words about the comb.
God I’m so old…
I’ll bet your cousin wore loafers.
I’m betting they were penny loafers.
Kookie and Connie, a pair for the ages.
26Limabeans and Claw;
Sorry I didn’t think about the penny loafers. If I remember if you were just going out, it was a penny but if you were going steady, I think it was a dime in the loafers, and I spelled Kookie wrong (77 sunset strip)
The story I was always told about the dimes in the loafers was that they were there (just in case) to make a pay phone call and inserting a penny came later.
Could be wrong./smile
I was a “fusco”. The “clickers” wore
penny loafers while we wore fence climbers.
Deplorable then…deplorable now.
Save the yeast for beer as the Lord intended. Bake beer bread or soda bread.
I try to do both, and use the spent grain from brewing in the bread I make..
Is it gluten free?
Was it baked using fossil fuels?
Fossil fuels are the ultimate green fuel! They’re just composted dinosaur!
Nope. Used the electricity that comes out of the wall.
Look up “Calvert Cliffs” -beans.
*grin*
I did. PJM sorces power from a lot more
than nuke. If you can remember the exact
date and time of baking you can discern
exactly how much of what went into the bake.
http://dataminer2.pjm.com/feed/gen_by_fuel
It can be.
Check out this recipe. Very easy and tastes great!
https://www.jennycancook.com/recipes/faster-no-knead-bread/
Oh, and i never test the yeast. If the yeast ain’t expired you’re good to go!
I cheat. I cheat really good though. Locally, there is a company that packages all the ingredients already mixed, except the yeast, which is in a small packet. Empty package in bowl, add 1 egg plus 2 egg whites, 1.5 cups of water, mix together well, fit into bread pan, cover for 1 hour to allow yeast to rise, bake for 50 minutes at 310f.
Unfortunately, it’s gluten free. Despite that, it toasts perfectly and sucks up butter like a sponge.
I cheat, I stock up on frozen bread dough from the supermarket. When I need bread, I take a loaf out of the freezer, let it thaw and rise and pop it in the oven.
First comment, tb525? Welcome aboard. Unless you’ve been lurking for a while, recommend you read hit the TAH FNG tab at the top of the page.
And I thought I’d be called a cheat for using a machine. You and Messkit have me beaten.
*grin*
Them bread machines are good- can make about any kinda bread. Makes the house smell like grandma’s when she made bread oncea week.