BREAD baking

[smilingcat]

I don't buy bread I always make it because I don't like all the preservatives found in store bought bread. (No bakeries near me). But when I don't want to wait 2 hrs for new batch of artisan bread I use this. Here is a no-yeast quick bread recipe I use when I don't have a lot of time or I come home from work around 7 or 8 pm and want bread with my dinner. It's Navajo fry bread, except I NEVER fry it. I ALWAYS grill it even in the winter:

2 cups flour
2 Tablespoon powdered milk (just for a little flavor)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 Tablespoon shortening (yeah, I know)
2/3 cup hot water

I actually mix this in a food processor for all of a minute, then pat it out into a log and cover it or use food wrap and rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Then I pull off a piece and roll it out fairly thin to the size of a pie shell. I brush olive oil on both sides and then I grill the rolled out dough. It's actually quite tasty especially when it's grilled. If I have a little more time I'll sautee onions and garlic and add fresh thyme and basil and then put it on one side of the dough and flip the other side over it in half.

Thank you, thank you, thank you... I used to have a navajo flat bread recipe then I lost it. This looks lot like it except for the shortening. I remember the powdered milk, baking powder... but the shortening I don't remember??? The one I had, could be taken as a mix for mountaineering. Just add water bit of oil in the pan drop the dough in the pan and let it bake. And we would have hot bread at 12,000+ feet elevation. Didn't have to adjust for the thin air. I liked that bread it was yummy.

and Hi Lisa,

I guess I'm doing something wrong because it gets moldy after two days I wonder if it has to do with all that extra water in the dough and not allowing it to escape when I'm cooling it off on a cooling rack.

After you finish baking yours and comes straight out of the oven, what do you do??

If I try to bake my dough at 400+ F, the crust would get burnt black. I have a convection oven where the fan can not be turned off. I bake mine at 375 for about 10 minutes then drop the temp down to 325 then down to 275. Maybe I still have wayyy too much moisture in the bread.

[mudmucker]

Thank you, thank you, thank you... I used to have a navajo flat bread recipe then I lost it. This looks lot like it except for the shortening. I remember the powdered milk, baking powder... but the shortening I don't remember??? The one I had, could be taken as a mix for mountaineering. Just add water bit of oil in the pan drop the dough in the pan and let it bake. And we would have hot bread at 12,000+ feet elevation. Didn't have to adjust for the thin air. I liked that bread it was yummy.

I believe there may be some "recipes" that don't have the shortening. I wouldn't mind reducing/removing that portion out of the recipe, so I think I'll start experimenting and adjusting until I find a result I like.

[bmccasland]

As I recall the traditional recipies for fry bread used lard. So shortening is slightly less terrible

I just ate the stuff when my neighbors made it
(fried in lard)

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

and Hi Lisa,
I guess I'm doing something wrong because it gets moldy after two days I wonder if it has to do with all that extra water in the dough and not allowing it to escape when I'm cooling it off on a cooling rack.
After you finish baking yours and comes straight out of the oven, what do you do??

If I try to bake my dough at 400+ F, the crust would get burnt black. I have a convection oven where the fan can not be turned off. I bake mine at 375 for about 10 minutes then drop the temp down to 325 then down to 275. Maybe I still have wayyy too much moisture in the bread.

Cat-
when my bread comes out of the oven I just let it sit on a cooling rack. Sometimes we eat some after 3o minutes or so. I leave it out open until we go to bed, then I just loosely put it in a plastic supermarket bag, loose and not airtight, and that's how it stays on the counter til it's eaten. Perhaps if you are keeping it in an airtight plastic bag this encourages mold. That's why old fashioned tin bread boxes had little holes on the sides- bread needs a bit a of air circulation to avoid spoiling, I think. Same technique applies to storing lettuce and veggies in the fridge- leave a bit of an opening in it's container and it will stay fresh longer than if you seal the tupperware or plastic bag completely.

Aside from that though, your oven temps sound less than ideal and I'm sure you would do better if you were able to bake your bread more 'normally' at +/- the 450F range. Are you sure you have it set for bake (not broil) and your bread is centered in the oven? I don't know why your crust would burn black at 400F- something doesn't sound quite right there. Perhaps get an oven thermometer at the store and check to see if the settings are really accurate. I know my 1970's oven runs 50 degrees hotter than what the dial 'says' it's set for. So when i set the dial to bake at 400, the oven is actually 450 degrees. I found that out when i bought a thermometer to check it- I was glad to know that, I always suspected it was runnning a bit hotter than what I set it for.

If any of you use the Artisan Brad 5 Minutes a Day technique, then you can use any of the doughs to make a quick Indian flat bread, Naan:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=582
I made it once and it was VERY delicious and VERY easy. I used a piece of the usual white boule basic dough to make it. Trouble was, it was pretty buttery and tasted so good we ate it all up immediately and felt like we used up our entire day's calories and fat at once!

[tulip]

Keeping bread in the refrigerator encourages mold. Keep it out of the fridge, preferably in a brown paper bag. I also agree with Lisa's observations about the baking temperature. 400 should not burn the bread, so your oven might be off.

[mudmucker]

It's also been suggested to me to just invert the bread, cut side down right on the cutting board without any kind of bag. This is what I do. Cut side doesn't get dry and outside stays crisp. But then, my artisan bread doesn't last long on my countertop anyways.

[bmccasland]

But then, my artisan bread doesn't last long on my countertop anyways.

Because of big two legged bread eating monsters???

[smilingcat]

My kitchen is soo old and the opening for the oven is way too small for any new ovens to fit. The original oven died several years ago. so I have my "portable" convection oven on a counter top. I like it a lot since it doesn't radiate so much heat into the kitchen. I've taken temperature inside it front, back, corners and its fine. And I've used several thermometers to take the reading. One thing though, it is bit small to be baking a full size loaf in it. It's just under 1.5 cu feet of space.

It's portable in quotation marks. Its about as big as it can get and still be called portable. It does hold three standard half sheets. 13"x18" baking sheet.

moldy problem?? I store both kinds, the no-knead and traditional, the same way and the no knead seems to get moldy faster. And yes I do have a cooling rack so not sure what is the difference. Or maybe its just my partners perception.

[Susan Otcenas]

So, I've had the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book for a few months, but have only this weekend had the time to sit down and read it. (Yes, I can read a cookbook like a novel... )

Anyway, last night I whipped up the basic Boule recipe. This morning I pulled the dough out and made 2 loaves. Oh. My. Goodness. This stuff is amazing. Never have I made bread this easily, that tasted this good! My waistline is in deep trouble.

And, just like the book said, the loaves audibly crackled for a good 5 minutes or so after I pulled them out of the oven. I was dancing around the kitchen like a little kid, I was so tickled. Jeff was outside building a new fence around our garden, and I made him come all the way inside so he could listen to it.

[Biciclista]

ok, ok, I'll try it.

[hoffsquared]

Here's my 1st attempt at Artisan Bread in 5 minutes. They turned out alot better than I expected since my bread baking skills are still in their formative stages.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

So cool that you guys are now doing this!

[solobiker]

I think I need to try this. DH loves bread.

[Biciclista]

well, Bleek, it's one thing when a talented woman who has lots of time at home can do it. But when all these other biker gals who work fulltime or more and spend millions of hours on their bikes can do it too, then I am feeling a bit more like it's a possibility.

I have dough. hopefully it was mixed enough.

[GLC1968]

Anyway, last night I whipped up the basic Boule recipe. This morning I pulled the dough out and made 2 loaves.

Well it's about time, lady!

Your loaves turned out gorgeous!

I think I need to make a concerted effort to clear out some milk so that I can fit a batch of dough in our fridge. I don't think I've made this since we freshened Sass because I can't spare the fridge space!