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How old are those packets of yeast? Yeast is alive, and those packets don't last forever. If they are fresh from the grocery store, all is well. If they are not, proof your yeast before using it. if you add dead yeast to your flour, the bread will never rise.
in case you've never done it, how to proof your yeast: Heat up 1/2 cup of the liquid you are going to use until it feels warm (not hot!) on the inside of your wrist (like a baby's bottle should feel). Add the yeast, and then add either a pinch of sugar or a VERY generous pinch of flour and stir the mixture. Within 5 minutes, you should see the mixture is starting to foam. If it does, great! Your yeast is alive, and you can pour the mixture into the rest of your ingredients and start mixing. If it doesn't foam, your yeast is dead - and you'll be grateful you're only throwing out a half-cup of liquid instead of several cups of flour plus any other ingredients the recipe calls for (such as eggs, oil, milk, etc.).
How old are those packets of yeast? Yeast is alive, and those packets don't last forever. If they are fresh from the grocery store, all is well. If they are not, proof your yeast before using it. if you add dead yeast to your flour, the bread will never rise.
in case you've never done it, how to proof your yeast: Heat up 1/2 cup of the liquid you are going to use until it feels warm (not hot!) on the inside of your wrist (like a baby's bottle should feel). Add the yeast, and then add either a pinch of sugar or a VERY generous pinch of flour and stir the mixture. Within 5 minutes, you should see the mixture is starting to foam. If it does, great! Your yeast is alive, and you can pour the mixture into the rest of your ingredients and start mixing. If it doesn't foam, your yeast is dead - and you'll be grateful you're only throwing out a half-cup of liquid instead of several cups of flour plus any other ingredients the recipe calls for (such as eggs, oil, milk, etc.).
If you want your bread to rise tall so you can slice it to make sandwiches, then you need a loaf pan. But you don't HAVE to use any sort of pan/pot to bake bread. You can just put the finished dough (after its' final kneading) on a cookie sheet and bake it that way. It will spread out sideways a bit more and so won't rise quite as high, but it will be perfectly good to eat.
Ooooh, the squat round loaves are fine by me! No problem; I love to eat the end right away fresh and crusty. If the other end is useless for slices, I just make croutons from it.
That sounds great, and I’m willing to do the work involved. Thanks for providing a recipe that meets the ingredient restrictions.
Problem is, no Dutch oven. I have a meat roasting pan with a lid but suspect that won’t do as a substitute.
Dutch oven may be worth buying for this and other foods. I’ll look into them.
Hello Pikabike,
I think the Dutch oven is the easiest way to get a real nice crust and wonderful bread inside. Do a YouTube search for No-knead bread, I'm sure you will find a recipe to your liking. I bake predominantly sourdough breads but 90% of time use my trusty cast iron Dutch oven.
Oh if you do go to buy a D.O. make sure the handles/ knobs etc can handle high heat, my baking temp starts at 450F with lid on and 425F with lid off.
Good luck...
I make the no knead bread pretty much weekly. Lately I've been swapping about 3/4 Cup of flour for oats and then rolling it flat after about 12 hours, smearing with ground walnuts and cinnamon and folding it in thirds before baking. It's a pretty easy recipe to add or swap ingredients and I've never had it fail. You could try it in a metal roasting pan with a lid, I use a Emile Henry ceramic tagine for mine because it has more surface than my dutch oven, I think having a lid is more important than the material that it's made of.
Whew, I’ve been perusing lots of recipes. Dogmama50, the one you linked is one of those I saw. I have regular dry yeast, not the instant kind. An article on rye bread said to use less instant yeast than dry yeast, and less dry yeast than the refrigerated kind.
Still trying to sort out all the factors. Bread sure looks like it can get complicated, depending on the chemical magic needed for particular combinations!
My eventual goal is to make a hearty, chewy, crusty loaf using whole grain flours, but I think I am going to learn breadmaking in stages.
Stage 1 (baby step) is to do a yeastless frypan bread (risen with baking powder and warm water), using the flour I have, which is much praised for fry breads. I’m not going to deep-fry it in lard as is traditional for Indian frybread. It will probably be quite edible using a very hot cast-iron pan and peanut oil.
Stage 2 will be to make a yeast-risen bread, most likely either on a metal sheet (this could be...experimental) or in the lidded roasting pan. From what I read, the lid is important for keeping steam in the dough as it bakes and preventing the top from drying out too fast.
Something tells me Stage 2 is going to require several iterations! But flour doesn’t cost much, and when I reach my long-term goal, I won’t have to gamble on whether the supermarket bakery made fresh “artisan” bread or they are leaving stale bread out before they make a new batch. Hah, even if I shell out for a Dutch oven, it will pay for itself later.
Stage 3 will be trying whole grain flours and incorporating seeds and nuts.
Thanks to everyone for the comments and references! Please free to add more tips; I really appreciate it.
Whew, I’ve been perusing lots of recipes. Dogmama50, the one you linked is one of those I saw. I have regular dry yeast, not the instant kind. An article on rye bread said to use less instant yeast than dry yeast, and less dry yeast than the refrigerated kind.
Still trying to sort out all the factors. Bread sure looks like it can get complicated, depending on the chemical magic needed for particular combinations!
Don't fret too much. While getting an absolutely perfect loaf takes some practice, it's actually very hard to make a really bad loaf of bread. And there's nothing more heavenly then fresh-baked bread, still hot from the oven, slathered with butter!
Ignore expiration dates. Always proof yeast before adding it to the other bread ingredients.
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