02131 Bread

The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight... it is one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel. that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread. — M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

Some say that “Bread and Beer” made civilization possible. We’ll leave beer for later, and talk about bread for now.

Some folks think baking your own bread is somehow complicated. But people invented bread baking a long time ago. So, how difficult can it really be?

It takes less of the cook's time than —

  • getting into the car,
  • driving across town to a grocery store,
  • finding a parking place,
  • hiking across a forty acre parking lot,
  • finding the bread section — always located as far as possible from the front doors,
  • standing in line to pay.
  • All this work so you can buy a cheap loaf of inferior bread.

There are about ten million different recipes for bread. My focus is on the basics. One of the fun things about baking bread is that even if you make a mistake, the result is so much better tasting than anything you buy at the grocery store that everyone will think you are a genius. Bread making may not be the answer to life, the universe, and everything. It isn't making nuclear bombs and destroying the rain forests either.

If you learn how to make bread, you will be popular forever with friends, family, and housemates. You will never lack for an inexpensive gift that will be treasured and savored without exception.

When it comes to making bread, it doesn’t matter how much or how little of a kitchen you have.

While we mostly think of baking bread in an oven, bread can be baked on top of a stove, on a hot plate, a griddle, or in a crockpot. Even if you live in a dormitory room with no kitchen, you can make your own flat bread and cook it on a hot plate or electric skillet. You can bake a loaf of bread in a crockpot! (You’ll have lots of friends when you do this. They will all want to help you eat the bread.)

And make it you should, there can be no doubt about that. Once you’ve done it a few times, it is so simple you’ll wonder why everyone doesn’t make their own bread.

Here are five reasons you should bake your own bread:

Taste — there is nothing quite like the taste of freshly baked bread, still warm.

Food safety — when you read the list of ingredients of an ordinary typical loaf of white bread sold in a supermarket, you’ll need a degree in chemistry to understand what’s happening in your food. Consider this list of ingredients for a loaf of store-bought whole-wheat bread. Besides ordinary non-scary things like flour, water, oil, salt, and yeast, we have:

  • mono and diglycerides,
  • exthoxylated mono and diglycerides,
  • sodium stearoyl lactylate,
  • calcium iodate,
  • calcium dioxide,
  • datem,
  • calcium sulfate,
  • ammonium sulfate,
  • dicalcium phosphate,
  • diammonium phosphate,
  • calcium propionate.

And then there is the dreaded high fructose corn syrup. Blecch. . .

Better for the environment, starting with “not wrapped in plastic” and going on to “wheat bought directly from a farmer,” if you can manage that. That’s easier than you think in most areas.

Makes you popular with friends, roommates, and spouses. If you can bake bread, you will be a popular person when mealtime comes around.

Home baking is frugal. A decent one-pound loaf of bread can easily cost you three dollars or more at a supermarket. A cheap loaf of balloon bread, will cost you at least $1.50. Certified organic wheat flour, bought directly from a farmer, or even at a grocery store, is around sixty cents/pound. That’s the primary cost of a loaf of home-baked bread. Multiply that out over a year, and see how much money you can save.

The Simplest Method for Baking Bread

The simplest and quickest method for baking bread is, in general, known as the “No-Knead Method.” It is popularized in the “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes” book. This method saves time because you make more dough than you need for one loaf with this method and keep it in a covered bowl in your refrigerator. You can have fresh-baked bread every day without having to make dough every day.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT HANDLING DOUGH: Before handling dough, put cooking oil on your hands. This makes the dough-handling process much easier. Replenish the oil as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands.

Miscellaneous Dough Mixing Note: Always add wet ingredients to dry. Don’t add dry ingredients to wet.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups water (just a little above body temperature, warm like a baby’s bottle),
  • 1-1/2 tablespoons yeast,
  • 1 tablespoon salt (or to taste)
  • 6-1/2 cups of whole wheat flour. Or white flour. Or half whole wheat, half white.

This will make enough dough for about 4 one-pound loaves of bread.

Mix all the ingredients, let rise at least 2 hours in a covered bowl. You can use it for bread-making any time after 2 hours, but it will be easier to shape if it sits in the refrigerator for at least three hours.

Make the dough in a covered container that you can put in the fridge. This should not be an air-tight container, as the dough will give off a small amount of gas as it sits. If it is an air-tight container, when you put it in the refrigerator, cover it loosely — just set the lid on, without clicking it in place to produce the air-tight environment. It will give off small amounts of gas as it sits in the refrigerator and you don’t want your container to explode.

You can keep dough in this way in the refrigerator for as along as a week. Use it as you need it.

To make skillet flat breads from this dough:

Pinch off pieces of dough, about the size of a golf ball, and roll them flat with a rolling pin, or pat them flat in your hands, pulling and stretching them a bit.

The dough is a little sticky so I sprinkle the rolling pin and surface with extra flour and dust the ball of dough with flour.

Cook on a flat cast iron skillet, with just a bit of oil, on each side until done, medium-high heat, about 2 minutes each side.

To make a round loaf with this dough:

Sprinkle a flat cookie sheet (no sides) or a flat cutting board or a baker’s peel (if you have one) with some cornmeal. Don’t be stingy with the cornmeal. The cornmeal keeps the dough from sticking to the pan.

Dust your dough with some flour, then cut off a one pound piece. This is a piece of dough about the size of a grapefruit. Use a serrated knife.

Form the dough into a ball. Gently stretch it and wrap it under itself. If you look at the bottom, it will look like four folds. These flatten out during the rest of the process.

Put your ball of dough on your cutting board/cookie sheet/peel. Let it sit about 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees for 20 minutes of preheating. If you have a baking stone, or an unglazed quarry tile (the “unglazed” part is really important), put it in the oven. Put an empty pan with sides on a lower shelf in the oven.

If you don’t have a baking stone, the next best pan is cast iron.

If you don’t have cast iron, use a regular cookie sheet. With the cookie sheet, it will help to put the dough on parchment paper, which most grocery stores sell. Preheat the cast iron and the cookie sheet in accordance with the instructions for the baking stone.

At the end of 20 minutes oven preheating, sprinkle some flour on top of the dough, and using your serrated knife, slash the dough about 1/4 inch deep across the top. You can make a cross, or a tic-tac-toe pattern, or several parallel cuts.

Open the oven, and in a quick forward jerking movement, slide the dough onto the stone (or into the pan) and pour a cup of water in the empty pan on the lower rack. Close the oven door quickly to trap the steam inside. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is dark and firm. Remove the bread from the stone (or pan) and place on a wire rack to cool. Allow it to cool before slicing because the baking continues inside the loaf. If you cut it too quickly, it will remain doughy inside. Waiting for the loaf to cool is the hardest part of baking.

How to bake bread in a crockpot —

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/2012/05/29/crock-pot-bread-baking-fast-bread-in-a-slow-cooker

To make hot rolls with this dough:

Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a golf ball.

Place on a baking sheet and let sit for about 30-45 minutes.

Bake at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes until golden brown and done.

Additional resources for this method of baking bread are:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx

The website for the authors of the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes/Day is http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/. It has lots of FAQs, a blog, online discussion, and recipes.

One of my favorite bread sites is Breadtopia — http://www.breadtopia.com/ — a rich site with deep wisdom on baking which also has video tutorials.

A More Traditional Bread Recipe

The information below is the basic way that I made bread for decades before learning about the Artisan Bread method.

There are different ways and techniques to bake bread using a thousand different ingredients. The recipe below is for a basic white bread loaf from the recipe taught to me by my grandmother Opal Marie Newsome Cassidy. It works nicely as a hot roll instead of a loaf. If your family isn't used to whole wheat breads, start your transition to baking your own bread with something they are familiar with — the basic "white bread.”

Buy yeast at a bakery supply store or large warehouse store. It is much cheaper in bulk than the little packets sold in grocery stores. Depending on your local market conditions, you will find a better deal for yeast at bakery supply stores or a warehouse grocery. A standard industry package is two one-pound containers of yeast packaged together and sold as a unit. Once opened, store unused yeast in an airtight jar. If you aren't going to use it often, keep it in the refrigerator.

An even more frugal strategy is to make sour dough breads, then you don't have to buy yeast!

Your Basic Bread Recipe

This kind of bread takes more time than the "Quick Breads,” because it has to "rise.” The actual involvement of the cook is about 15-20 minutes, max. Bread is basically liquid, flour, oil, and yeast. The various possible combinations of these ingredients produce the different kinds of breads. Once you understand the Your Basic Bread recipe, feel free to experiment.

Begin by measuring into a large mixing bowl 1 cup of warm water — and the emphasis here is warm, not hot, about the temperature of a baby's bottle.

Add 1 tbsp of sugar, stir to dissolve.

Add 2 tbsp of yeast (or two packets). Sprinkle the yeast onto the top of the entire surface of the water, so the little yeast buds are all moistened. Let this sit for about five minutes. The yeast will begin to bubble and form a foam on the top of the water. What's happening is that the little "yeastie beasties" are busily going to work, doing what they do. It's called a bloom.

Add 3 tbsp of oil or melted (and cooled) butter, 1 cup milk, 1 tsp salt (or less, depending on personal taste), and 2 more tbsp of sugar or honey.

Mix well, add three cups of flour and stir 50 times clockwise, and 50 times counterclockwise, or use your mixer for 2 minutes. The "100 stirs" is a bit arbitrary, that's what my grandmother said, probably based on something her mother told her. You want to mix the batter well so the gluten does its job in the flour. If you have a mixer, you can use it on low for this step. Mix about a minute with the mixer. At the end of this step, when you dip a spoon in the batter and raise it out of the bowl, the batter kind of strings its way off the spoon back into the bowl. You can use a hand mixer for this step.

Add another 3 to 4 cups of flour and mix until the dough forms a good ball, coming away from the sides of the bowl. (You may need to add a little more flour.) Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface and let it sit for ten minutes (if you are in a hurry, you can skip this waiting time.) Knead the dough five to ten minutes. If you have a dough hook for your stand mixer, you can use that for five minutes. The dough should be just a little bit sticky. If it is too sticky, however, sprinkle with flour during the kneading process. The perfect “feeling” is “like a baby’s butt.”

To knead the dough, flatten the dough and fold it over, pressing on it with your hands. Turn the dough on its side and do the same thing. Flatten, fold, press, turn — flatten, fold, press, turn and so on and so forth for about five to ten minutes. Get the kids involved here.

When you have finished kneading the bread, roll it into a big round ball and put it in an oiled bowl, rolling the dough around in the bowl so a thin film of oil covers the dough, and cover the bowl with a cloth or paper towels. This keeps the dough from drying out as it rises. Cover the bowl with a towel.

Let it rise in a warm place for about an hour. It should double in size (that's those little yeastie beasties doing their job). "Pat down" the dough. That is, open your hand and pat it a few times on top to deflate it. It goes “poof” and the dough flattens out a bit. That's OK. It's what it's supposed to do. Let it rise again until almost double, for about another 30 minutes. Rising times can vary depending on the temperature and humidity. A sunny space on the counter is a great place for dough to rise.

Divide the dough into two equal parts and let it rest for 10 minutes. Shape into loaves and put into pans. Let it rise again, until sides of dough reach the pan and the top is well rounded (30 minutes to 1 hour). Be sure to grease the loaf pans first. (Shortening is best for greasing any baking pan, that's about the only thing it’s good for.)

To make dough into loaves:

Flatten it into a rectangle. The width should be about an inch longer than the length of the pan, the length should be about 12 inches.

Fold dough in half lengthwise.

Flatten into a rectangle about 15 inches long and five inches wide.

Press down on dough with hands. Fold in thirds by overlapping the ends.

Press with your hands. Fold toward you, 1/3 of the way at a time, pressing on each fold with the heel of your hand, to form a round cylinder with the dough.

Roll back and forth.

Seal each end by pressing with the edge of your hands. Smooth the loaf with your hands so it is even. Put in a nine-inch loaf pan with the edge down.

Bake the loaves at 425 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes. The loaf pans should not touch each other or the sides of the oven. To test for "doneness,” tap the crust. It should sound "hollow.” If it doesn't, bake a few minutes more.

When done, immediately remove the loaves from the pans. Set on wire racks or across the edges of the loaf pans so that air can circulate around it. Let it cool before slicing and eating. Do not skip this step. If you slice freshly baked bread too quickly, the inside remains damp and "doughy.”

Brush the baked loaves with melted butter after removing them from the pan, to make a soft, tender crust.

TIPS FOR MAKING WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

Fresh flour is important! The best homemade bread is made from freshly ground whole-wheat bread. One issue with store-bought whole wheat flour is freshness. Since whole wheat flour sells in smaller quantities than white flours, it may sit on the shelf for a while. Furthermore, whole wheat flour, being a live food with all of the natural oils of the original grain, should be stored refrigerated. I was never satisfied with my whole wheat bread baking that I did with whole wheat flour bought from a store until I got access to freshly ground whole wheat flour. A home grain mill is a good investment.

If you add dairy, instead of plain milk I always use buttermilk, yogurt, or sweet milk with some vinegar added (about a half tablespoon per cup and I let it sit a couple of minutes before using). Sour liquids are best with whole wheat flour.

It's OK to mix some white flour with whole wheat flour. Especially at first, if your family isn't used to whole wheat breads, make your doughs with half whole wheat and half white flour. Use a non-bleached, organic white flour if you can find it.

In the summer, when maybe you don't want to heat up the house by running the oven, make stove-top flat breads. Take a pinch of dough, about the size of a golf ball, and roll it flat like a tortilla. Cook quickly on a griddle or flat-bottomed pan, with just a drop of oil. Flip once to cook it on both sides. We like this so much we make it year round, as it is a quick way to have homemade bread. I make a big batch of dough once a week and make flatbreads all week long.

Some Fun and Tasty Variations.

To make raisin bread, add one cup raisins to the dough when you knead it.

For sweet roll dough (such as for making cinnamon rolls), increase oil or butter to ½ cup, add 2 beaten eggs, increase sweetening to ½ cup, use 1-1/2 cups milk, reduce water to ½ cup. Make into desired rolls after the second rising.

For a slightly more elegant Dinner Roll, prepare dough according to the sweet roll recipe, except — don't add extra sweetener, use 1 cup water and 1-1/4 cups milk. Dinner rolls bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. Form dinner rolls by rolling dough into small balls (after second rising), let rise a half hour, then bake.

Potato Rolls: add 1cup mashed potatoes to the water and yeast. This makes a good dough for keeping in the refrigerator for use as needed. Save water from boiling potatoes and use it to make bread. Just add in place of regular water.

For Crescent Rolls, after first rising, divide dough in half. Roll each half into a circle, spread some melted butter over the dough. Cut like a pie, and roll each piece up starting with the large end first. Let rise until double, bake at 400 degrees until golden.

Stuffed Crescent Rolls. Make Crescent Rolls as above, only before rolling up, spread dough with some kind of filling (sweet or savory), roll up, let rise, and bake.

Freezing bread: Use good freezer bags or freeze in glass mason jars. Allow about 3 hours to thaw a 1 pound loaf of bread. Slices of frozen bread can be toasted in the toaster without thawing. Frozen rolls and biscuits can go directly from the freezer to the oven. Heat in a slow oven (275-300 degrees) for 10 to 15 minutes.

Cinnamon Rolls

  • Sweet roll dough
  • sugar
  • cinnamon
  • melted butter

Roll sweet roll dough into a rectangle, spread with melted butter, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Roll up and pinch seam to close (sometimes it helps to dip your fingers in water as you pinch the seam). Cut into 1 inch rolls. The best way to do this is to slice the dough with a thread or dental floss. Holding the string in both hands, slide it underneath the roll of dough, then cross your hands so the thread pulls through the soft dough.

In a 9 X 13 inch pan, mix together the following: ½ cup butter (melted), ½ cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons honey. Coat the bottom of the pan with this mixture. Set the cinnamon rolls in the pan (don't crowd them). Let rise for 30 minutes or so. Bake at 350 degrees until done, about 20 to 25 minutes. This makes a cinnamon roll with a crunchy caramelized bottom. If you don't want the crunchy bottom, just place rolls in a greased pan to rise and bake. When you make this recipe, be sure to double it, or you won't have any left over to have with your coffee the next day.

MAKING BREAD IS EASY AS ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR!

  1. Put 1 cup of warm water plus one tablespoon sugar in a mixing bowl. Add two tablespoons of yeast. Let sit for about five minutes.
  2. Add 1 cup of milk, dash of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 3-4 tablespoons of oil or melted (and cooled) butter, and 3-4 more cups of flour, as needed. Stir 50 times clockwise, and 50 times counterclockwise.
  3. Add another 3 to 4 cups of flour and mix until the dough forms a good ball. Turn dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface and let it sit for ten minutes. Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes.
  4. Let rise in a greased bowl for about an hour (it should double in size). Punch down the dough. Let it rise again for 30 to 45 minutes. Divide into two equal parts and shape into loaves. Place in loaf pans and bake at 425 degrees for about 25-30 minutes.

Homemade Bread for Busy People

Originally written in 2004, this anticipated the Artisan Bread method.

Make a big batch of dough once each week & keep it tightly covered in the fridge. Each day, take some out, form into biscuits, buns, or loaves, let rise, and voila, daily home-baked bread. Use more yeast (up to double) for refrigerator dough.

Quick Breads

Quick breads use baking powder and/or baking soda to make the flour rise and are ready in less than 45 minutes, start to finish. Dry ingredients can be assembled ahead of time into mixes and they are convenient, nutritious, and oh so tasty. One of the secrets to good quick breads is to thoroughly combine the fat and the flour. You can use a mixer to do this. You can substitute whole wheat flour for white flour in any of these recipes. Food scientists tell us that you never need more than 1 teaspoon of baking powder per cup of dry ingredient (many recipes notwithstanding). With baking powder, more is not necessarily better.

Best Basic Buttermilk Biscuits

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 3-4 tbsp butter or oil
  • 2/3 cup milk plus ½ tablespoon vinegar or — 2/3 cup buttermilk or 2/3 cup evaporated milk plus 1/2 tablespoon vinegar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix dry ingredients, add butter (or oil), mix thoroughly. Mix vinegar with milk, let it set for few minutes, add to dry ingredients (or use real buttermilk). Knead about 20 times. Roll11/2 inch thick, cut into biscuits, or form by hand into buns. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. This basic recipe can be used as a topping for casseroles, meat or vegetable pies, and with extra sugar can be a quick raised cinnamon roll dough. Using evaporated milk instead of whole milk adds a nice texture to the finished biscuits.

As an alternative to baking in the oven, you can make flat bread with biscuit dough and bake it on top of the stove (or on a hot plate) with a skillet, as described above in the yeast flat bread section.

Or just deep fry the biscuits and drizzle them with honey. Hehehe.

Best Biscuit Mix

  • 6 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup oil or butter
  • 6 tsp baking powder
  • 1-1/2 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients, add oil or butter, mix well. Store in a tightly covered, airtight container, in a cool place. This makes enough for 3 bakings of biscuits.

To make biscuits for 3 people, combine 2 cups mix with 3/4 cup milk or buttermilk.

For dumplings, use 1 cup biscuit mix ½ cup milk, and add 1 beaten egg. For cheese biscuits: add ½ cup grated cheese to recipe for biscuits.

Cornbread

  • 2 cups corn meal
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1-1/4 cup milk or buttermilk
  • 4 tablespoons oil
  • 2 eggs, beaten

Mix dry ingredients, add oil or butter, mix thoroughly, beat the eggs in the milk, add to dry ingredients, stir quickly and thoroughly. Bake in 400 degree oven until done. To test for doneness, insert a knife into the middle, and if it comes out clean, the cornbread is done — takes about 20-25 minutes. Instead of baking, you can cook this batter like pancakes on a griddle.

Don't add sugar to cornbread. The fall of Western Civilization began when people started adding sugar to cornbread.

Dumplings

  • 1-1/2 cups flour
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • dash of salt
  • 2 eggs

Mix dry ingredients, add butter and mix thoroughly. Beat the eggs in the milk and add to dry ingredients. Stir only until blended. Drop by spoonfuls into boiling soup. Reduce heat, cook slowly for ten minutes with kettle covered and ten minutes uncovered.

Quick Cinnamon Rolls

Add 4 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons oil or butter to 2 cups Biscuit

Mix, add 2/3 cup water and mix thoroughly (or use your favorite recipe for biscuit dough).

Roll dough into a rectangle, 1/4 inch thick.

Spread dough with 2 tbsp melted butter.

Sprinkle with mixture of 1/4 cup sugar and 1-2 tsp cinnamon, add raisins if desired.

Roll up, beginning at the wide side, and seal the seam well by lightly wetting and then pinching the edge of the dough.

Cut into 1" slices using a string. (Loop the string under and around the dough, cross over the top, and pull, voila, quick sliced dough.)

Place cut side down on greased baking sheet or in greased muffin cups. Bake in 400 degree oven about 12-15 minutes. Spread with Quick White Icing. Makes about 16.

Your Basic Muffin

  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2-3 tbsp butter
  • 2 tsp baking powder

Mix dry ingredients together. Beat milk and egg, stir melted butter into dry ingredients, add milk to dry ingredients. Stir fast until flour is moistened. Batter will be lumpy. Do not over mix. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 20 to 25 minutes in 400 degree oven. Makes 12 medium muffins.

Variations:

Jelly — fill muffin cups half full of batter, drop a scant teaspoon of jam or jelly in center of batter, add more batter to fill cup 2/3 full.

Blueberry: Add 3/4 to 1 cup blueberries, fresh or canned.

Apple: Add ½ tsp cinnamon to dry ingredients, add 1 cup grated raw apple, decrease milk to ½ cup, decrease flour to 1-1/2 cups. Make 25 to 30 minutes.

Maple syrup muffins: Substitute ½ cup maple syrup for ½ cup of the milk.

Cocoa Muffins

  • 2 cups biscuit mix
  • 4 tbsp cocoa
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup sugar or honey
  • 2/3 cup or water

Beat egg slightly, mix dry ingredients, and egg and liquids, stir until moistened. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake in 400 degree oven for 15 — 18 minutes. Makes about 12.

HOW TO MAKE AND MAINTAIN A SOURDOUGH STARTER

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup water (or more, enough to give it the consistency of pancake batter)

Use a glass container that will hold at least 3 times the volume of the ingredients (like a large mason jar). Mix the ingredients vigorously with a wooden or plastic spoon to incorporate air into the mixture.

Loosely cover the jar with a cloth set it in a warm place. A temperature of 70-80 degrees is ideal. If it is cooler that's fine, it will just take a bit longer. Every day feed it with ½ cup of flour mixed with ½ cup of water. When it gets bubbly-frothy, it's done! There will be a pleasant beer-sour smell. This will take maybe 3-4 days, or less, or more. It's not an exact "same thing every time" event. That's about as simple as it gets.

Generally refrigerate the starter, using a container with a loose lid. If you're using something like a mayonnaise jar, put a little pin hole in the lid. The batter slowly gives off gases, and you don’t want pressure to build up in the jar.

If civilization crashes, or there is a prolonged power outage, however, sour dough starter does just fine outside of the refrigerator as long as you use it regularly, like every day. This is what our great-grandmothers did. If civilization crashes, you will want to use the sour dough starter every day, assuming you stored wheat or have other access to flour.

Never use all of the starter. Take out 1 cup starter to use in a recipe. Add a half cup of water and a half cup of flour back to the starter.

Alternatively, make extra "sponge" (the first step of sourdough baking, more about that below), and replenish your starter with one or two cups of that. If you want to increase the amount of sourdough start, add more flour and water.

From time to time, some liquid may separate out from the starter and rise to the top, just mix that back in with the starter. Or if your start is rather runny, you can drain it off. It's booze, btw, a/k/a alcohol.

Use it regularly! That's what its for. If you use it daily, you will want two or three times the daily amount you use. You can start with a larger amount of flour and water or increase the amount as you feed it.

To adapt a standard recipe to use sour dough, eliminate any leavening (baking powder, soda, or yeast) and an equivalent amount of the liquid and flour. Most people make a start that is half flour and half water so one cup of starter equals a half cup of flour and a half cup of water..

If you add 1 cup sour dough starter, and the recipe calls for two cups liquid, add 1-1/2 cup liquid plus 1 cup sourdough starter. Reduce the amount of flour by 1/2 cup.

Sour dough products take a longer to rise than those leavened with commercial yeast so allow for that.

The general rule of thumb is that one cup of sour dough starter is about the equivalent of one packet of yeast (which is about a tablespoon of yeast).

Yes, you can use whole wheat flour for a sourdough start. Some folks wouldn't do it any other way.

If you do not bake with the sourdough regularly, feed it a half cup of flour and a half cup of water every week. Sour dough is populated by living yeastie beasties! They must be fed!

Sourdough starts can last for decades, if used regularly and/or fed appropriately. It is a colony of living organisms, your own personal kitchen assistants that help you prepare wonderful baked goods for your family.

Some useful bread-making equipment:

You can bake bread with nothing more than a pan to put the bread in and an oven to bake it. If you don't have an oven, you can make flat breads on a skillet on a stove top or electric hot plate. There are a few items that will enhance your bread making experience.

A hand crank flour mill. These start at $25 used at flea markets and swap meets and run $50 and up brand new. The reason these are helpful is that the best bread uses freshly ground wheat. Whole wheat flour doesn’t sell as quickly as white flour, and unless you can decipher the arcane brand markings, you have no way of knowing how fresh the flour is. It’s cheaper to buy organic wheat at farmers markets, or at a store with a bulk food department, than it is to buy organic flour. Organic whole wheat flour needs to be refrigerated to keep fresh, and you rarely see that at stores. Keep your eyes open for a good deal and get yourself a hand crank flour mill. If you have extra bucks, you can get an electric mill. Buy one with a hand crank so if the power is out, you can still grind flour. You’ll need to grind 6-7 cups of wheat to make four loaves of bread, or one cup of wheat to make a half dozen biscuits. Everyone doesn't need to personally own one. You could own one in conjunction with some neighbors. Organizations like churches could buy them and let people use them. And you can grind wheat without a flour mill, by using a coffee grinder or food processor.

A baking stone. These are around $35 and up. That's pricey, however, you only need one. A lower-cost version are UNGLAZED QUARRY TILES. These are typically ½" to 3/4" thick (thicker is better than thinner, 1 inch would be great). Absolutely make sure they are UNGLAZED. Clean them when you bring them home with water and baking soda, which is what you use to clean them after baking. Don’t use dish detergent as the tiles or baking stones are absorbent. Look for these tiles at stores that sell tiles. Note that with a baking stone or tiles you are set-up to make a mighty tasty pizza.

A pizza peel. Use this to slide dough (or pizza) onto the hot baking stones. They run $10-$15, or you can use a small cutting board or flat cookie sheet for the same purpose.

Measuring cups. Most recipes measure ingredients by volume, so you need some measuring cups and spoons. Never forget that while cooking is an art, baking is a science. If you want to make dough in larger quantities than double a recipes, you need to weigh the ingredients for the best results. If you will make large quantities of dough, you will need a kitchen scale.

Baking pans. If you’re not going for the French artisan look, you’ll want some loaf pans, cookie sheets, and muffin pans. You can often find these items value priced at thrift stores and flea markets.

Most basic — a hot plate and a skillet, for stove-top baking of flat breads.

MY NO MESS BREAD MAKING METHOD

by Vinay Gupta (from about 2003), used with permission of the author.

Tools: one small cup, two large (12?+) steel bowls, a baking sheet and a cover.

  1. Ingredients: white flour, brown sugar, water, salt, olive oil and freeze dried yeast.
  2. Fill one steel bowl to three inches deep with hot tap water. This is the heating bowl.
  3. Put one cup of very hot, and one cup of cold water in the other bowl. This is the mixing bowl. You mix the water this way to get the temperature about right.
  4. Add half a cup of sugar to the mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast until the surface of the water is dense with yeast flakes. Stir.
  5. Place mixing bowl into heating bowl, so that it floats in the hot water. Place somewhere warm and cover.
  6. This allows the yeast a near-optimal environment to rise in: consistently warm and pleasant. Bread rises very fast and very evenly in such an environment, unlike the more usual hit-and-miss winter breadmaking experience.
  7. Leave the yeast until it has a thick head like a beer. (say half an hour — if it doesn’t do so, you killed it with too-hot water.)
  8. To the foamed yeast, add half a cup of olive oil. Coat the sides of the bowl if possible.
  9. Add six cups of white flour and about a teaspoon or two of salt.
  10. Oil your hands. This is important.
  11. Knead all ingredients in the bowl. At first the dough has uneven consistency, but as you first mix, then fold-in-half-and-flatten the dough repeatedly, it gains an even, smooth, pleasant texture. At some point it begins to get stiffer rapidly and as you fold, the surface tears. That’s enough. This takes about five minutes.
  12. Doing this in the bowl results in almost no mess unlike the regular approach of a floured surface. If things stick, add a little more oil. Using oil as the lubricant rather than dry flour completely changes the bread making experience from a dusty, powdery mess to a clean, elegant process.
  13. Refill the heating bowl to three inches deep with hot water. Float the mixing bowl in the water, and cover again.
  14. Once the dough has doubled in volume (half an hour — if it’s taking longer, a warmer environment or more yeast!), briefly re-knead it into a nice ball, add more hot water to the heating bowl if it needs it, and leave it to rise again. If you intend to make more than one loaf, cut the dough into two parts at this point in the process and have each part rise separately.
  15. Put your oven on about 350F to 400F (175C-200C and gas 4-6) to pre-heat
  16. When the dough has reached roughly the size it had when you punched it down, oil a baking sheet and place the dough on it. Oil a little wider than the dough — it will spread. A series of half-inch deep, one inch wide slits in the top of the dough will result in a pleasingly crusty loaf — without them the surface is a little smooth.
  17. Place in the oven for about half an hour. Over-done is a gives an very tough crust and is a little dry by the second day. Under-done is an inedible doughy mess inside the loaf. So wait until it’s good and brown before you take it out.
  1. Take the hot loaf, and flip it upside down. The crust will support it, and this allows the bottom of the loaf (where moisture can collect during cooking) to dry if it is a tad damp.
  2. Result: one beautiful loaf.
  3. Aftermath: and this is the good bit — there’s one slightly oily steel bowl, one fairly clean baking sheet and a floury cup. And that’s it. Messless bread making.
  4. Total labor for the entire process is no more than twenty minutes including all preparation and clean up.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it is: the Incremental process improvements — knead-in-bowl, oil-as-lubricant, float-in-heating-bowl mean that I can actually bake regularly despite being an undomesticated lazy bastard. Incremental process improvements can produce discontinuities: I bake bread all the time!

There’s a principle here about how many small aggravations in a process (flour everywhere, uncertain rising) can prevent it from actually becoming a regular part of life, and how tiny technological improvements can smooth those over. But it’s not until you get the last kink out of the system that it flows.

Give this breadmaking algorithm a try — you’ll love the bread and I think there’s a lesson in the repetition of a process until it reaches refinement.’