@dietz: That’s a great link! Thanks for sharing that.
We have a easy recipe that we like. I bake it in 4Qt Coring french white casserole dish (after letting it preheat in oven 30-40min empty)… 30min baked with cover on, then 7 min no cover. It uses 3c flour and makes a nice roundish loaf in the middle of the large oval. Would it work to do 2 half sized loaves in smaller casserole dishes?
Has anyone had any luck working out a system for freezing bread dough after the first rise and before the proofing? I make a yummy oat bran recipe that makes three loaves. I have been freezing the other two and am trying to figure out, defrost in the frig or counter top? How long? How long to rise/proof. The normal recipe is quite tall and puffy, the frozen loaves are more dense, which I kind of like, but some of them are too dense. I’d be curious if anyone has had good luck with defrost steps?
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I freeze pizza dough in personal-pie portions after the first rise (although I only do a single rise on pizza dough). On the day we make pizza (every Friday in our house), I put two frozen balls in the fridge in the morning, and then leave them on the counter to warm/puff about an hour-ish before tossing, but I have taken them right out of the freezer and left them on the counter to thaw, and that takes about two hours for these small portions.
Bread dough freezes very happily. You can arrest it at any rise and just bring it out to thaw when you want to proceed. The amount of dough will determine how long the thaw takes and for the yeast to wake up and start to do its thing again. You’ll just have to experiment, but I would say for a single normal loaf size, plan on at least four-five hours for counter thaw/rise. I’m sure you could Google and get a professional opinion, but you can certainly freeze/thaw bread dough with excellent results.
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Yah, I remember using those store bought frozen loaves as a kid, I know it can be done. I have been leaving the frozen loaf in the frig overnight to thaw and then proofing, for a long time. It’s still kinda dense, perhaps I just need to let it rise a lot longer. Thanks!
My all-time favorite is Rye bread. I have been trying gluten-free breads and buns recipes, and it turned out amazing. Added a bit of cocoa powder and molasses for sweet taste.
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I use molasses and raisins in a sourdough loaf that I like to make (using bread flour).
So excited. I started my sourdough mother on Saturday, using a dried tablespoon of commercial San Francisco starter. (Cultures for Health)
I made a sourdough country loaf and sourdough pizza dough yesterday. Baked the bread this afternoon after letting have 2 long rises (12 hours on the counter, another 12 hours in the fridge.) Made a gorgeous loaf! Good flavor, nice crumb. Used a combo of white wheat and bread flour for the loaf. Plus I used a banneton basket for the first time–worked great.
Sourdough pizza was hug hit. D and SIL said they liked it better than the local pizzeria. Made 2 12" pizzas, the plain one was gone before I took the artichoke one out of the oven. I’ll definitely make this again. Next time I’ll make the same crust but will use better toppings–freshly shredded cheese instead of the pre-shredded in bags (the pre-shredded cheese never melts wells.) and homemade sauce.
I’d had a sourdought starter going to almost 8 or 9 month during the height of the pandemic, but I hated throwing away the discarded starter and baking a loaf twice a week was way too much bread for single person household. Now that there are 3 adults and 2 toddlers (who love bread), plus a nanny during the day, bread doesn’t last long in this household.
On my list of recipes to try–sourdough English muffins and sourdough waffles.
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