If you bake your own bread

[mo2]

How can you possibly bake enough to keep up? We are a family of 5, and apparently we eat a lot of bread. My husband takes 2 sandwiches to work every day, so there's 4 slices of bread, plus toast for breakfast, sandwiches for the kids for lunch. A loaf of bread is easily gone in 2 days.

 

I used to enjoy baking bread, and I did it the old-fashioned way, kneading by hand, not with a bread machine. Is that the trick? Do I need to invest in a bread machine? I just can't seem to find the time to bake bread anymore. :confused:

[UmMusa]

I have been using Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. You mix up a tub of dough and keep it in the fridge, and you pull of as much as you need loaf at a time. I bake a loaf either each day or every other day b/c we seem to go through a lot, too. You could double the amount of dough you keep in the fridge, and that might last you a week of not having to do that part of the prep work. bonus: no kneading involved!

[nukeswife]

I have a bosch mixer so I make 6 loaves at a time and freeze them. We are a family of 5 as well, but don't eat that much bread especially lately when dh is not with us (deployment). I usually make bread on Sat or Sun and we're good for at least a week. I can't speak to bread machines because I never had one that I liked enough to make me want to use it regularly, I know many here have said Zoroshi (or something like that) are good. I also hated the funny spots in the bread from the beaters, which I know many get around by using the machine to mix/knead and then transfer to pans and bake in the oven.

 

I have found my Bosch to be the best thing to make me want to keep making bread. It's so easy to use, you don't even have to let the bread rise more than once. I simply dump it all in mix and knead for 8 minutes in the machine place in loaf pans, rise the one time and bake.

[mo2]

I have been using Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. You mix up a tub of dough and keep it in the fridge, and you pull of as much as you need loaf at a time. I bake a loaf either each day or every other day b/c we seem to go through a lot, too. You could double the amount of dough you keep in the fridge, and that might last you a week of not having to do that part of the prep work. bonus: no kneading involved!

 

Recipe, please?

 

I have a bosch mixer so I make 6 loaves at a time and freeze them. We are a family of 5 as well, but don't eat that much bread especially lately when dh is not with us (deployment). I usually make bread on Sat or Sun and we're good for at least a week. I can't speak to bread machines because I never had one that I liked enough to make me want to use it regularly, I know many here have said Zoroshi (or something like that) are good. I also hated the funny spots in the bread from the beaters, which I know many get around by using the machine to mix/knead and then transfer to pans and bake in the oven.

 

I have found my Bosch to be the best thing to make me want to keep making bread. It's so easy to use, you don't even have to let the bread rise more than once. I simply dump it all in mix and knead for 8 minutes in the machine place in loaf pans, rise the one time and bake.

 

 

Can you link me to the mixer you have? It must be huge!

[astrid]

Two suggestions:

 

1. Forget the bread machine and invest in a good mixer with a dough hook attachment, Bosch or Kitchenaid if you don't already have one.

 

2. Bake more on the weekends and start a freezer stash. Homemade bread freezes well, especially denser wholegrain breads.

 

Hope that helps! It really is worth the time, I find--- and that's coming from me, who works three jobs, shows/trains dogs, keeps up with dd's activities and is President of the Music Parents Association at the high school.

 

astrid

[Jenny in Florida]

We're a family of four, but we don't eat nearly as much bread as you do, I guess.

 

I've been baking about four loaves a week, usually two wheat-type sandwich loaves and two of something more interesting. That usually pretty much sees us through a week.

 

But we rarely eat sandwiches. My kids will eat a slice or two of toast at breakfast maybe twice a week. My husband might eat a couple of sandwiches one night if I'm not home to make dinner. And I occasionally take a sandwich on the day my son and I have to pack lunch. So, two loaves of sandwich bread is enough for us.

 

For the other two, I've been making french bread/baguettes. We use one the day I make it, usually, with dinner. The other one goes in the 'fridge, and my son has a few slices every day or two with his lunch. Sometiges, I'll make something fancier, like a nut-raisin bread or something, just because they are yummy.

 

Many weeks, I also make dough for pizza or something like that one night.

 

I had a bread machine once upon a time, but I never liked it all that much. Finally, one failed loaf got thrown out with the beater bar still inside it, and that was the end of that. Nowadays, I use my Kitchen Aid mixer to mix and knead, then bake as I wish.

 

With a mixer, it's not significantly harder or more time consuming to make several loaves than to make one or two. As long as the dough will fit in the mixer bowl, it's easy: mix, set to knead for a few minutes, let rise, divide into loaves, stick each lump on or in a pan, bake.

[jillian]

We are a family of three and I make two loaves three or four times a week. My recipe makes two loaves at a time. I have trouble keeping up sometimes and it's just us. Honestly I've told my hubby (who could eat a loaf a day) that he needs to branch out and have other things for snacks/breakfast/lunch.

 

eta: I've got a bread machine that I like using for the ease of it but I still have to pull the bread out and put in pans and cook in the oven because of the way my pan is shaped in the bread maker I get a big brick of bread that isn't practical for sandwiches.

Edited October 10, 2011 by jillian

[2_girls_mommy]

I personally love my machine. I got it for around $50 9 or 10 years ago and it is still going strong.

 

I pop in the ingredients and in 3 hrs we have a fresh loaf. If that was not fast enough to keep up I might start the week by making extra over the weekend.

 

I find no pleasure in kneading or any of that. I want homemade bread. I want it to be healthy. Machine does this for me.

 

If I need a prettier loaf, I do the dough in the machine and then bake it. Same for cinnamon rolls, pizza crust, dinner rolls, etc. Easy peasy. It is like a dishwasher to me. Not necessary, but I would hate living without it :)

[dirty ethel rackham]

Two suggestions:

 

1. Forget the bread machine and invest in a good mixer with a dough hook attachment, Bosch or Kitchenaid if you don't already have one.

 

2. Bake more on the weekends and start a freezer stash. Homemade bread freezes well, especially denser wholegrain breads.

 

Hope that helps! It really is worth the time, I find--- and that's coming from me, who works three jobs, shows/trains dogs, keeps up with dd's activities and is President of the Music Parents Association at the high school.

 

astrid

 

:iagree::iagree:

I burnt out two bread machines with my whole wheat breads. I invested in a KitchenAid Professional (I think it is a 600 watt machine.) Anything less than 500 may struggle with the denser dough of a whole grain bread. For our family, I make two loaves at a time which usually last 3 - 4 days. I try to make extra on the weekends to freeze, since we typically don't eat sandwiches on weekends.

[justamouse]

I bake two loaves every time.

[Carrie12345]

I love my bread machine. $60, 2.5 minutes in the morning, 3 hours to do its thing, fresh, healthy bread every day!

 

I also do my pizza dough in it.

[justamouse]

My husband makes bread using a Bosch mixer and he can be pretty darn fast using that.

 

I was visiting a friend awhile back, and while we were together, she made her family's bread for the week. She did something I had never heard of before, but I think it had to do with soaking the flour the night before and then she double-kneaded and let it rise twice. (I don't know what this means.) The INTERESTING part of this very unclear post, however, is that she said that one (big) loaf satisfies her family of 4 for the week because it is so filling and satisfying. She makes half-sandwiches, for example, because the bread is so rich and satisfying that her dh and teen sons really can't eat more than this.

 

So, for what that is worth... :0)

 

Can you please interview her and report back?

[Woodhaven]

I use my Kitchen-Aid mixer to mix the dough for me. We easily go through two loaves a day when I get into the mood of making bread.

 

Now that it is getting into Autum, I'm more in the mood for fresh bread with our meals. It makes the house smell soooooo good! : ) I often whip up a batch for lunch and again for Dinner. Often, I make rolls, instead of loaves.

 

It doesn't take much times or make much mess since I use the mixer.

[mommaduck]

Large family here and I despise breadmakers. They make one loaf at a time, take longer (imo), and the bread doesn't taste as good (imo). I love making bread by hand (though I do wish I had a kitchenaid mixer). I can make six loaves at a time in the oven.

[nukeswife]

Can you link me to the mixer you have? It must be huge!

 

Sure, here it is. It's actually not that big, it takes up less space than a kitchenaid because it is not as tall. I actually sold the bosch bought a KA pro and then hated it. I prefer the bosch, it never strains under the whole wheat like the KA did.

[mom4him]

I have a bosch mixer so I make 6 loaves at a time and freeze them. We are a family of 5 as well, but don't eat that much bread especially lately when dh is not with us (deployment). I usually make bread on Sat or Sun and we're good for at least a week. I can't speak to bread machines because I never had one that I liked enough to make me want to use it regularly, I know many here have said Zoroshi (or something like that) are good. I also hated the funny spots in the bread from the beaters, which I know many get around by using the machine to mix/knead and then transfer to pans and bake in the oven.

 

I have found my Bosch to be the best thing to make me want to keep making bread. It's so easy to use, you don't even have to let the bread rise more than once. I simply dump it all in mix and knead for 8 minutes in the machine place in loaf pans, rise the one time and bake.

This is what I used to do. At one time I cooked for 7 consistently, I baked once a week, had the larger stainless steal mixing bowl for my bosch. I could get 7-8 loaves in one batch and I had it down to a science. I could have the loaves in the pans raising in about 45min. That included milling the flour. It was really yummy bread too.

[Jen500]

We go though a 2 lb loaf in 1- 2 days at the most. I use my Zo, I could never make enough bread otherwise. My family really, really likes freshly baked bread. Three day old bread or frozen bread just doesn't get eaten as much here.

[ondreeuh]

I use a bread machine that can make either two 1-pound loaves or one 2-pound loaf. I nearly always set it up to make two 1-pound loaves, and I just use the dough cycle. Then I transfer the dough to loaf pans and bake in the oven, and they are PERFECT. I don't like baking in the machine because the paddles get stuck in the bread and often the dough rises up and gets all over the lid. Even used as a dough mixer, the machine in invaluable to me, but you could use a stand mixer to do the same thing.

 

Saturday morning I did this cycle twice, making four loaves of oatmeal bread (the second batch was mixing while the first batch was baking). This is our sandwich/toast bread for the week. Sunday morning we made two loaves of cinnamon bread, and Sunday night we made pizza dough.

[KatieJ]

Bosch mixer = 6 loaves at a time. It's the only way. Sometimes I would even make two batches in one day, stagger the timing or I would run out of bread pans. Some of that would be cinnamon rolls or buns.

[UmMusa]

So do you bake all these loaves at one time in the oven?

[Anne]

Can you please interview her and report back?

 

:iagree::iagree:

 

Anne

[Mrs. A]

Large family here and I despise breadmakers. They make one loaf at a time, take longer (imo), and the bread doesn't taste as good (imo). I love making bread by hand (though I do wish I had a kitchenaid mixer). I can make six loaves at a time in the oven.

:iagree:

 

my recipe makes 4 large loaves at a time, so I just freeze what we are not ready to use.

[Lady Marmalade]

I try to keep up with my family's love of homemade bread by attempting to stock the freezer with it. There are days where I only have the time to do one batch- which makes two loaves. But then there are days I have plenty of time and I will bake up two double batches- yielding me eight loaves of bread. Two which get left out and the rest frozen.

 

When the going's good, I can get about ten loaves in the freezer, and then by baking fresh just once a week, and then utilizing the freezer beyond that, I can keep up for a couple of months.

 

And while we always prefer my bread to anything else, I'm not above picking up a loaf or two at the grocery store to fill in the gap.

 

IMHO, bread machine bread is far inferior to the hand-kneaded variety. We've tried bread machines in the past, and the texture is just...icky... it only takes about 15 minutes to get a batch of bread dough together, so it's totally worth it.

[mo2]

Thanks everyone. I think what I need is a bigger mixer (and more bread pans). Mine will only do 2 loaves at a time.

 

Here's another question: If you grind your own wheat, where do you buy the wheat? I've never seen it anywhere locally.

[Excelsior! Academy]

Haven't read the repsonses, but hillbilly housewife dot com has a decent overnight family bread recipe that makes four loaves. You just make the dough and let it rise overnight. In the a.m. reshape and rise again. Bake bread around lunch. Four fresh loaves pretty easily.

[Parrothead]

I've just finished watching my machine make dough for 4 loaves. I have an Eletrolux Kitchen Assistant. Looks like they have renamed it.

[KatieJ]

Yes. I use french loaf pans (you get two loaves into one pan) and I can get two of those side by side on one shelf. The other shelf is used for rolls, or cinnamon bread in a regular pan. ( I usually rotate them just over half the baking time)

[Already Gone]

This won't help with your specific questions, but it might help with the overall process. When I buy my flour, instead of putting it in canisters, I make a "bread mix" in half-gallon mason jars. One mason jar holds two loaves' worth of flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Then, when it's time to make bread I just dump it all in the mixer (Kitchen Aid) and add warm water.

 

My mixer will only handle two loaves at a time, so I make bread 2-3 times a week for a family of four.

[mo2]

This won't help with your specific questions, but it might help with the overall process. When I buy my flour, instead of putting it in canisters, I make a "bread mix" in half-gallon mason jars. One mason jar holds two loaves' worth of flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Then, when it's time to make bread I just dump it all in the mixer (Kitchen Aid) and add warm water.

 

My mixer will only handle two loaves at a time, so I make bread 2-3 times a week for a family of four.

 

Great idea. Thanks for sharing.

[bookfiend]

This won't help with your specific questions, but it might help with the overall process. When I buy my flour, instead of putting it in canisters, I make a "bread mix" in half-gallon mason jars. One mason jar holds two loaves' worth of flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Then, when it's time to make bread I just dump it all in the mixer (Kitchen Aid) and add warm water.

 

My mixer will only handle two loaves at a time, so I make bread 2-3 times a week for a family of four.

 

What about the whole let the yeast bubble and then sponge with some flour for 30 minute first to activate?

[tricia]

We are a family of 14. However, I feed only about 9-11 daily and when I bake bread I would have to do it twice a week. I normally bake about 4 loaves at a time. Once in a while I will need to do it again.

 

I do have 2 bread machines but I usually use my kitchen aid for it. I have the largest one made. It works great for making lots of dough.

[justamouse]

I will do so, but it will be a couple of weeks as I don't see her every week at church. :0)

 

I am patient. :-)

[KS_]

I buy mine at Wheat Montana online, but also found that one of my local Walmarts sometimes stocks their Prairie Gold variety, which is what I use.

[Already Gone]

What about the whole let the yeast bubble and then sponge with some flour for 30 minute first to activate?

 

Seems to work without it. I think I saw this in a Nigella Lawson recipe. Maybe it has to do with my yeast? I get it in bulk from my local co-op, and I want to say it's called "Active Dry Yeast," but I'm pretty sure I've tried this with the stuff in the package at least once or twice and it's been fine. Also, I don't know if this is relevant, but I'm going for a very sandwich-friendly loaf, so I'm not terribly worried about nice big holes or textured crust (if I were, I'd go the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes route, which produced something much more along those lines, at least for me).

[nukeswife]

So do you bake all these loaves at one time in the oven?

Yes, I can fit 6 of my small or 4 of my large loaf pans in the oven at one time. My pans are the Norpro ones on the top of this page. I use the 8 and 10 inch length ones. My batch in the Bosch will make 6 of the smaller size but I prefer to make 2-3 of the larger size and then use the rest for pizza or rolls.

 

Thanks everyone. I think what I need is a bigger mixer (and more bread pans). Mine will only do 2 loaves at a time.

 

Here's another question: If you grind your own wheat, where do you buy the wheat? I've never seen it anywhere locally.

I actually did a google search and found a couple of sisters that went into business together out of their homes and sell wheat in bulk. I get mine for $.98/lb and usually buy 25lbs of hard white (it's the Montana prairie gold) and 7lbs of soft white (for cookies, muffins, waffles, etc) at a time. I'm sure there are co-ops I could join that would give me a little better price, but I like that I only have to let the sisters know a few days in advance what I want. I don't have to know what I want 3 months ahead of time like our co-ops.

 

What about the whole let the yeast bubble and then sponge with some flour for 30 minute first to activate?

I don't do that with my yeast I buy SAF instant yeast and it doesn't require proofing.

[TeachingTwins]

Thanks everyone. I think what I need is a bigger mixer (and more bread pans). Mine will only do 2 loaves at a time.

 

Here's another question: If you grind your own wheat, where do you buy the wheat? I've never seen it anywhere locally.

 

 

 

I buy my wheat at Bread Beckers. If you live in the southeast, they have lots of coops.

 

Here's the link:

 

http://info.breadbeckers.com/co-op-locations/

[pageta]

I burnt out two bread machines with my whole wheat breads. I invested in a KitchenAid Professional (I think it is a 600 watt machine.) Anything less than 500 may struggle with the denser dough of a whole grain bread. For our family, I make two loaves at a time which usually last 3 - 4 days. I try to make extra on the weekends to freeze, since we typically don't eat sandwiches on weekends.

 

I have my mom's Bosch that she bought in the mid-1980's and used every week to make 5 loaves of bread. It's still going strong. $500 may sound like a lot for a good bread mixer like the Bosch, but you can make 6-8 loaves at a time with the newest ones, and you can do other things, too. The blender is especially good - it blends everything evenly.

 

Right now I just make two loaves at a time because I only have to loaf pans. However, we go through at least five loaves of bread a week - my kids love bread and especially sandwiches. I make my bread 100% whole wheat and they cannot get enough of it.

 

I highly recommend the Bosch. It takes less time to make bread than it does to make a batch of cookies.

[momee]

I have a Bosch and used to make this all the time. Even sold it at our local farmers market.

 

LOVED the taste.

http://www.milkandhoneyfarm.com/sales/Sarahs_Best_Bread_Recipe.pdf

 

 

Now I have this

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=17457039

 

 

and while it's handy and looks good and smells good :)

the taste so far is just ok. The few I've made don't have the same taste. I'm still tweaking the recipes in the Zo so maybe it will get to the point of tasting like the real deal...

[Faline]

I bake bread every 7-9 days. I make 2 five-loaf batches back to back, so 10 loaves. This feeds our family of six.

 

I have a Bosch mixer and mix up one batch (it kneads for 10 min--during that time I start getting the second batch started), dump it into a bowl to rise, and mix up the second batch. By the time the second batch is done mixing the first batch is almost ready to form into loaves. By the time the first batch is coming out of the oven, the second batch is ready to form into loaves (I only have 5 pans). It works out pretty well. I would really hate to be without my Bosch.

 

eta: I use instant yeast--no proofing required

Edited October 13, 2011 by Faline