Making Bread Sans Machines

[kevin313]

On New Year's Day, we were at Ralph's house in the mood for some homemade bread. Since he harldy owns any small kitchen appliances (he leaves those for me!), all I had were bowls and spoons. So here's some white bread made with the greatest kitchen equipment ever invented - human hands ;-)

Just the same, I REALLY MISSED my KA mixer when it came time to knead the dough!!

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Time for Homemade Bread!

With bread so plentiful in the markets and bakeries, one might not ever consider making it a home. Sure, many people made their own bread...

cavalcadeoffood.blogspot.com

 

[mattl]

Nicely done!  Looks very good.

 

Got to say you are the first person I've seen knead bread with one hand,  everyone I've seen uses both hands.  looks a bit more difficult that way.

 

I'm going to experiment with different types of yeast.  I've been making my sourdough rye with a starter and dry yeast, I buy the jars of yeast since I use so much, but was having guests the day after New Years and found i was out of dry yeast - and later bread flour - but I did have half a block of a yeast cake I use for my Kolachki.  I use 2 pack equivalent for my rye bread, was a little short so I tossed in what dry yeast I had.  At that point I had to run to Meijers and buy some flour and was worried about my dough, but the end result was even better than in the past.  I guess the point I'm trying to make is the bread dough is somewhat forgiving, and for folks who have not tried it to give it a try, even if all does not go as planned odds are you will still get a delicious loaf.

 

Happy New year to you and Ralph too!

 

[whirlcool]

I remember long, long time ago (maybe around 1975) I made a loaf of bread by hand.
The kneading is hard work! But the house smelled so great while making the bread.
It turned out fine.

Then around 1988 or so we got our bread machine. Now if I want any bread I put the ingredients in there and let the machine mix and knead the bread. Our machine has a "dough" setting which will turn the machine off when the bread has been mixed and kneaded and is ready for the over. Then I put the dough in a proper bread pan and bake in the oven. I think the consistency of the bread turns out much better this way than if the bread machine baked it.

 

[frigilux]

Kevin-- What is that odd, ritualistic thing you're doing to the bread dough with your hands, LOL?

I'll bet I've used yeasted dough a thousand times in my adult life (remember, I used to cater) for loaves, rolls, sweet rolls, pizza, etc., but not even once have I kneaded dough by hand. Oh, I'll occasionally give the dough a couple of turn-and-folds by hand when it comes out of the processor or mixer just to get a feel for it, but I've never kneaded a loaf for more than about 10 seconds.

Thanks for another entertaining foodie video.