Bread Bakin' Bitches - Bitches bakin' bread and other yeasty shit

[heloderma_suspectum]

Tried to make a recipe for "Kobanah" bread (seen it spelled "Kubanah", not sure what's correct) with a few missteps.

Fuckups along the way included:
- adding instant yeast to wet ingredients that weren't warm enough and whisking in hot water gradually to keep from killing the undissolved yeast
- realizing too much water meant I needed more flour to work the dough to medium-firm
- just rolling with it and trying to figure out what to do with all the excess dough once the main pan was filled

Despite the hiccups I think it turned out pretty good. It doesn't quite taste like what I've had before since I don't have Nigella seeds yet. But its middling between that and those golden bread rolls you'd find from places like Golden Corral. I had extra dough that I gave a similar treatment and threw it into a greased loaf pan on a rack below; evidently not the smartest decision since there's little burnt spots on the bottom of the loaf, but finishing it on the top rack after I took out the rolls browned it well enough. Didn't have bread flour so it's a bit dense but it passes the "dab of butter" test, so that's good enough for me.

 

[look at the moon]

This video, and the recipe this very french man shares in it, has been reliable for 10 years. Its the first bread recipe I ever tried, and I still make it pretty regularly. It has never failed me!
My only note is that instead of completely removing it from the dutch oven to get extra crusty like he does, I just remove the lid for that time instead.

"Easy french bread"

 

[Hentai-Semitism]

I just got a cheap bread machine recently. I tried a few different store bought mixes and they all came out fine.

Example of a store bought mix (pretty much all of them come in 500g bags):

300mL water (as per recipe on the packaging)
wheat flour 550 - 66,4%
rye flour 720 - 28,4%
powdered rye sourdough (I don't know if that's the correct name in English, you get the idea)
yeast
salt

However, I tried to replicate the results with separate ingredients and it came out tasteless and didn't grow as well.

I use pretty much the same stuff:

300mL water
wheat flour 550 - 338g
rye flour 720 - 147g
powdered rye sourdough - 15g (single bag)
fresh yeast (crumbled) - 15g
salt - 6g

What am I missing?

(image is for reference only, I have a diffent model)

 

[FedPostalService]

I just got a cheap bread machine recently. I tried a few different store bought mixes and they all came out fine.

Example of a store bought mix (pretty much all of them come in 500g bags):

300mL water (as per recipe on the packaging)
wheat flour 550 - 66,4%
rye flour 720 - 28,4%
powdered rye sourdough (I don't know if that's the correct name in English, you get the idea)
yeast
salt

However, I tried to replicate the results with separate ingredients and it came out tasteless and didn't grow as well.

I use pretty much the same stuff:

300mL water
wheat flour 550 - 338g
rye flour 720 - 147g
powdered rye sourdough - 15g (single bag)
fresh yeast (crumbled) - 15g
salt - 6g

What am I missing?

(image is for reference only, I have a diffent model)

It could be the fresh yeast. It might need activating and more time to rise.

I use Fermipan Red dry yeast and have consistently good results.

 

[Large Marge]

I just got a cheap bread machine recently. I tried a few different store bought mixes and they all came out fine.

Example of a store bought mix (pretty much all of them come in 500g bags):

300mL water (as per recipe on the packaging)
wheat flour 550 - 66,4%
rye flour 720 - 28,4%
powdered rye sourdough (I don't know if that's the correct name in English, you get the idea)
yeast
salt

However, I tried to replicate the results with separate ingredients and it came out tasteless and didn't grow as well.

I use pretty much the same stuff:

300mL water
wheat flour 550 - 338g
rye flour 720 - 147g
powdered rye sourdough - 15g (single bag)
fresh yeast (crumbled) - 15g
salt - 6g

What am I missing?

(image is for reference only, I have a diffent model)

sugar. you are missing sugar.

 

[Hentai-Semitism]

It could be the fresh yeast. It might need activating and more time to rise.

I use Fermipan Red dry yeast and have consistently good results.

I figured it out. I added two tablespoons of olive oil and it made a huge difference. I didn't do anything with the yeast.

By the way, I figured out that I can wait until the machine is done kneading and pull out the kneading paddle. That way I don't have to pull it out when the loaf's done, leaving a big hole at the bottom.

 

[._.]

300mL water
wheat flour 550 - 338g
rye flour 720 - 147g
powdered rye sourdough - 15g (single bag)
fresh yeast (crumbled) - 15g
salt - 6g

What am I missing?

I think you might need more salt. You have 485g flour in the recipe, I get this from Tartine's bread book, but he suggests using about 2% of the flour weight in salt. For 500g flour, a lot of the recipes in the book use 10g salt, its a rule I use.

Ive accidentally left salt out of a dough once and it was kind of surprising how bland it was--even just adding butter and sprinkling salt on that made it go from tasting like paper to tasting more like bread. At its most basic bread is just flour, water, salt and yeast so without (enough) salt youre missing a big ingredient and youve just got baked leavened flour paste, basically.

A lot of recipes Ive seen use about 7-8g salt at least, which is about a teaspoon, but Ill sometimes round up a gram and it doesnt hurt. It doesnt seem like a lot but 6 to 8g salt is 33% more, and 6 to 9g salt is 50% more.

 

[Hentai-Semitism]

I think you might need more salt. You have 485g flour in the recipe, I get this from Tartine's bread book, but he suggests using about 2% of the flour weight in salt. For 500g flour, a lot of the recipes in the book use 10g salt, its a rule I use.

Ive accidentally left salt out of a dough once and it was kind of surprising how bland it was--even just adding butter and sprinkling salt on that made it go from tasting like paper to tasting more like bread. At its most basic bread is just flour, water, salt and yeast so without (enough) salt youre missing a big ingredient and youve just got baked leavened flour paste, basically.

A lot of recipes Ive seen use about 7-8g salt at least, which is about a teaspoon, but Ill sometimes round up a gram and it doesnt hurt. It doesnt seem like a lot but 6 to 8g salt is 33% more, and 6 to 9g salt is 50% more.

Yeah, I forgot to add that I upped the amount of salt to 10g. It's all good now. I got a few different types of flour and I'm going to experiment now I noticed that spelt flour is about 4 times the price of wheat or rye flour. It's a shame because I hear that it's healthier than those.

 

[FedPostalService]

Yeah, I forgot to add that I upped the amount of salt to 10g. It's all good now. I got a few different types of flour and I'm going to experiment now I noticed that spelt flour is about 4 times the price of wheat or rye flour. It's a shame because I hear that it's healthier than those.

I mix spelt with regular bread flour. I do like bread that’s 100% spelt but mixing it with normal bread flour makes it better sandwich bread.

 

[Aiōn]

I had a go at making my first star loaf, the recipe I used contained too much sugar and I didn’t use enough pesto but it was good practice forming it.

I might try making one with Nutella or cinnamon sugar and cardamom for the holidays.

 

[Unarmed Gunman]

Oh...FLOUR! I've been using Flower, no wonder my bread is always fucked up.

 

[sodaboard]

how is bread flour different from regular flour? can it be substituted?

 

[._.]

how is bread flour different from regular flour? can it be substituted?

It has a higher amount of protein (I thnk like 13 or 14g and AP Flour is 11 or 12g per 'serving') and will form stronger gluten bonds. You can use AP flour instead but your dough will be a lot more slack and probably more sticky as you knead so you might need to knead longer and eyeball adding some extra flour, usually a couple of tablespoons at a time. It wont rise as high but if you dont overknead (which is hard to do without a mixer) it it will be more tender.

Substituting bread flour for AP is not great though because you typically dont want that level of 'strength' in the dough of most things youre making with AP flour, you want them to be soft and tender.

 

[TheArtilleryman]

I bought a hand mill and started making buckwheat flour, it makes fantastic pancakes but I've yet to use it for bread. I've never even baked bread TBH unless you count using a cheap bread maker, but I have to veer away from gluten as the significant other can't process it unfortunately. Does anyone have good recipes for it? Or alternatively, any other grains or seeds I should try? I also have a bag of dried hemp seeds I want to make something with.

 

[heloderma_suspectum]

I've started a new project: trying to make a Sourdough starter so I can pump out whole-wheat bread on-demand, because store-bought bread fucking sucks and I'm tired of paying for bread I don't actually enjoy.
Unfortunately (now on day 3), I realize yesterday that while I discarded half and re-fed I likely added too much flour and a bit too much water.

It's more runny than a pancake-like batter and I stirred what liquid was on top back in out of habit. But I'm not sure if I should just discard about half again and re-feed with a proper (unbleached) AP flour/water ratio, or let it sit so it can digest all the extra food, then resume discarding + feeding from there. Recommendations anyone? There's a few bubbles throughout indicating activity but I don't wanna fuck up the balance with bad bacteria.

EDIT: I decided to just discard (pour out, really) half. When I went to do so I noticed it'd bubbled throughout so I guess it really did need time to chew through the flour. Just gave it a fresh feeding and put it back now that the consistency is proper.

 

[Let it burn to fuckin ash]

Hell yeah, a thread I know a little about. I make the the fuck outta baguettes, demis though, twice a month. 70% hydration they so good I fucking cant stop and with pork/duck rilette or with coq au vin blanc I feel like a fucking french OG and dayum is that good.

While I use a biga now, here is where I started. Fuckin baguettes baby

Made baguettes using this recipe for 3 years, only changed late 2025 once i got through the book mentioned below.

But for anyone interested, I think Forkish's book Flour Water Salt Yeast is a perfect book for beginners and others interested. He treats time and temperature as ingredients and while that seems simple, it kind of blew mind. The methodical approach to learning how/why that he walks through was exactly what i needed. I wamted to figure out sourdough or levain but knew very little behind baking so the book closed a lot of gaps

Best part about it...round loaves and no fucking kneading.

 

[souschef]

Hell yeah, a thread I know a little about. I make the the fuck outta baguettes, demis though, twice a month. 70% hydration they so good I fucking cant stop and with pork/duck rilette or with coq au vin blanc I feel like a fucking french OG and dayum is that good.

While I use a biga now, here is where I started. Fuckin baguettes baby

Made baguettes using this recipe for 3 years, only changed late 2025 once i got through the book mentioned below.

But for anyone interested, I think Forkish's book Flour Water Salt Yeast is a perfect book for beginners and others interested. He treats time and temperature as ingredients and while that seems simple, it kind of blew mind. The methodical approach to learning how/why that he walks through was exactly what i needed. I wamted to figure out sourdough or levain but knew very little behind baking so the book closed a lot of gaps

Best part about it...round loaves and no fucking kneading.

Speaking of levain, i'm at the fourth day of my levain protocol

It's bubbling nicely and i'm checking periodically the smell. So far it's yeasty

50g whole grain flour
40ml distilled water
10g grated apple on the first day

I'm discarding half and feeding it 50/40 flour every night. Tomorrow i might actually use this

 

[souschef]

Check this out

This here is a seven year old levain i scored from chef. I'm gonna feed this baby till i have a bucket of the stuff

I'm gonna eat sourdough bread forever

 

[Kyff]

I don't have the means to try this out, but I'm so curious what the baked version would've come out like

 

[Metamorpho]

1:33

Her choice of music really threw me off when I first stumbled upon her account.