Comments on: Making Bread

By: Johnny

Johnny — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:25:16 +0000

I know it’s not very prompt, but you can use a spoon to break the vacuum seal of most jars. You just stick the tip of the spoon under the lip of the lid using the bottom part of the spoon as sort of a fulcrum and gently push down the handle until you hear the vacuum pop.

By: yvonne

yvonne — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:06:20 +0000

Check out the book, “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day”. The name is misleading. I think the name is supposed to be an attention-grabber and the publisher wouldn’t let them use “Hot Sex Hot Sex Bread”. This book is all about using easy no-knead methods (not that the kneading itself is a big time waster) where you stir the ingredients for multiple loves at once and store in the fridge. Then when you want to make some bread you cut off a hunk and prep it (thus 5 minutes). Add some rise time and then bake. If you’d like to test drive some recipes a few are posted at steamykitchen.com, just search on the book title. I usually have my fridge stocked with either one of the recipes that is good to eat with jam, or the pizza dough which is good for pizza and za’atar flatbread. I’m addicted to the latter now that I’ve obtained the special zaatar spice blend. There’s also a buttermilk bread recipe that makes great cinnamon bread. Note that if you are using table salt instead of kosher salt you will have to reduce the amount as explained in the book.

I used to love making my own breads with all the traditional steps but after college when I didn’t have days where I could devote the hours needed to going through the whole process I let it drop off. I went through a similar bread machine search about a year ago, debating heavily on the Zojirushi maker but encountering similar pro/con debates that left me annoyed and frustrated. I’m really happy with the results from the book and also have not encountered any problems with keeping the bread. I remember when there was this “friendship bread” starter going around and I had to feed it and tend to it and it kept multiplying and I felt forced to bake constantly otherwise I’d have to just throw some of it out weekly. These recipes don’t require feeding and most batches of dough have a 5-9 day life span which is plenty of time for me to use it.

By: Magpie

Magpie — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:31:06 +0000

I spent the whole show saying, “oh, honey…”

Just fyi: the only parts of making the bread where you can’t leave it alone for a couple of hours are the final rise (well, you can, but you have to punch it down and let it rise again), and once it’s actually in the hot oven for baking. :)

Yeast is really really forgiving, I promise. :)

I HIGHLY recommend both the King Arthur baking book and the Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book. Sorry, I’m too lazy to link for you this afternoon. :)

By: Max

Max — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 03:46:28 +0000

Well, I listened to Making Bread today.

Sometimes I like the delivery more on QN.

Sometimes I like the writing more.

I just loved the whole show today!

By: katherine

katherine — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:41:10 +0000

Sage? Buy the fucking bread machine….

:-)

(what a great episode, though)

By: Whitney

Whitney — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:08:07 +0000

Does this mean I should bring you some homemade raspberry/blackberry jam to Podcamp Toronto?

Oh, and the kid wants to try out for minionhood. Creating more fans in the house.

By: Zabet

Zabet — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:55:28 +0000

Tell Todd I’ll buy you one of these – http://www.amazon.com/Oxo-Good-Grips-Jar-Opener/dp/B0000DAQ67/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1231815210&sr=1-1 – if he’ll send me ten packets of poutine gravy mix, preservatives and all.