My kitchen smells of bread! How many of you make your own bread?  

The secret to the success of homemade bread is the water temperture. To hot 'kills' the yeast, to cold it won't rise. I use a candy thermomenter and heat my liquid to 118-120 if I go over that I throw in a couple ice cubes to cool it down, sometimes I even have to reheat the water. The extra water the ice makese doesn't effect the bread.

I have to be very careful and limit how much I have - but my son usually polishes it off before it can do me much harm!!

Hi nova and oldchem! I think that making homemade bread has the same results as winning the lottery - you have more friends then you ever realized!

I used to make bread almost weekly and then I just stopped. It is very time consuming but worth every moment. Even kneading the dough is great therapy especially if somebody is bothering you. GRRRRRRR!

And the 500 pounds...oh well!

LOL, Richnai. You must be a male. Women can't afford to get too big but men don't worry about it. Must be nice. Ha ha

I use All Purpose and have no idea what you mean by first or third class flour. Cake flour is for making cakes and that is all I have ever used it for. We do have bread flour hear, I have seen it and bought it once cause they were out of the all purpose. We only have yeast in powder form, or at least that is all I have found lately. I know it use to come in cakes and they had to be soften in warm water. I buy my yeast in 1# bags and use 1 Tablespoon for 1 package. What do you mean by 'right timing for pounding the dough'?....Maybe some of your problem with the bread coming out hard is the recipe that you are using. I have a lot of recipes for home made bread but I have 1 that is my absolute favorite.
I place my yeast and flour in a 4 quart mixing bowl and add my yeast then heat all my liquid up to 118-120degrees on a candy thermomenter then pour that into the flour mixture and beat it with my mixer then by hand I stir in enough flour to make a soft ball that isn't sticky then I dump the dough on the counter and knead it. I knead my bread (I assume this is what you met by right time to pound) till it is no longer sticky. Then I place it in a very large bowl and let it rise. I make cinnamon rolls and hamburg buns out of it also loafs of bread and dinner rolls. I hope this helped you.

Hi Christmas! Here we have first and third class flour. I usually used them for pancakes and cakes. They are quite okay because they don't make the batter rise much. I am an amateur on baking. I learned it from my mom. So I don't use a definite recipe. I think the first and third class, are denominations on how refine the flour is. At my local bakery, they said even third class flour was okay for making bread. I don't like the smell of cake flour, like it already has a lot of baking soda or powder. I don't know. But yes, cakes made from cake flour are more moist.

Can I ask? You mean you put the yeast and flour together. And after add the heated liquid on the flour and yeast mixture.. I read that you have to dissolve the yeast first in water before adding it to the flour? So you can add it immediately with the flour?...I meant by the right time to pound, after the dough was let to rest. So you don't have to pound it, punch the dough after it has risen?

Sorry for so much inquiries. But I am very interested. And I am very happy and excited with your response. I hope you could share more of your experience. Seems like you cook beautiful cakes too. Would love to hear more from you. (^^,)

I don't buy cake flour I use boxes of cake mix, Betty Crocker is my favorite brand and what I use the most. I think the cake flour is ground finer and has extra sifting to it and I think it contains baking powder, not sure like I said I buy boxed cake mixes. I have a few cakes I make on my own but I just use the all purpose flour for them.

I wondered if the class might be on the grind of the wheat for the flour. I know the bread flour that I used was heavier and noticed that my bread was more firm when I used it. I just get all purpose because I use it for making pie crust, biscuits and pancakes and waffles, I also noticed that my bread is much fluffier with the all purpose.

The old cookbooks call for mixing the yeast with warm water but in our new cookbooks they tell us to mix the yeast into the flour. When working with yeast you never want your liquid temperture to be more then 120degrees, not less then 118degrees. To hot will kill the yeast and to cold the yeast will not activate.

I have a 12quart mixing bowl that I put my dough into and let it rise to the top of the bowl. Takes about 2 hours. Then I dump it onto the floured counter top and work it into what ever I want to make. It takes the dough about 2 hours to rise. Maybe the timeing will help you to know when to punch itand work it. Then after you have shapped it it takes maybe an hour to rise again before baking. I can send you my bread recipe if that would help you any.

Do not be sorry for inquiring I am glad you are interested and would be very happy to share with you any experience that I can to help you. You said my cakes are beautiful, did you look at the ones on my profile? I love cake decorating, have been doing it for over 30 years.

Yes, I have noticed your profile picture so I took a look on your profile page. I saw your cakes there. And they look great. They reminded of my mom when she had those cakes made for birthdays and weddings. She is very excellent in baking cakes. But she learned from experience and follow no recipe books much. That's why I am always interested to know how. And especially in bread making, because she doesn't know how to cook homemade bread. So if I learn how, I will immediately share it with her. She will be so happy.

I have another question, so after the first rise, you can now punch and work the dough to shape it for what you want to make. And let it rise again for a second time? Right?

I think the yeast is very important for the success of a good bread. It almost all depend on it. Thank your for the tips with the yeast. It will surely be of great use. And I will be very thankful if you message me your bread recipe. That would be so kind of you. I am very excited. I will surely try next week end to do my own bread.



And also thank you to Olchem1 for this discussion!!!

I usually use strong flour for my bread, you don't use self raising
I'm not sure what the difference is in the wording of the flours between UK and the USA!!

Hi oldchem1, i just found this, never recevied a notice about it. I don't know what strong flour is...but no I don't use self-raising. I have never used it. I buy all- purpose flour and add my own yeast when making bread or baking powder when making pancakes or biscuits.

zucchini (we call it courgette!!) bread sounds interesting!!

Yes beats chocolate hands down!!