Fresh baked bread, anyone?

itsmce

I whipped up a batch of whole wheat bread the other day and threw it on my Large BGE.  Here are my two small loaves as I put them in the egg.

I used the platesetter legs down on top of the grid, had some spacers between that and the pizza pan.  Worked great!

Then as they came out of the egg.

Then sliced and ready to eat.

Since the hubby got held up at the office, I also baked some au gratin potatoes on the egg before stoking the fire and cooking some killer filets.  Good eats for dinner that night!

TexanOfTheNorth

Yes, please!

SGH

@itsmce‌
Looks incredible my friend. Bread is right up there with cheese and prime rib in my book. I absolutely love all bread but I can't make it worth a flip. Same with pizza I stink at it. Do you mind sharing your recipe and bread making technique? Thanks in advance and again excellent job on the bread.

hapster

Looks like it turned out fantastic!

KenfromMI

SGH, I never could bake anything as well I was always a cook not a baker. In 2012 I decided it was my goal to learn how to bake (breads etc). My wife told me there is no "kinda" measuring in baking and you can't estimate anything. I signed up for some baking classes at Zingermans Bake House in Ann Arbor and they confirmed no estimating like in cooking. Baking is more of a science. Get a good kitchen scale, go by weight not by volume. (No worries about compacting flour, all flours weight different amounts per cup etc). Everything I have baked since following those simple rules have turned out. I also took a pizza making class there as well. Oh and always use a consistent high quality flour and yeast. Not the bargain shelf stuff from the grocery store. 99% of the time I use King Arthur as studies have shown it hardly varies from bag to bag like cheaper brands. The only time I stray is with 00 flour for pizza dough or 5 Roses flour for my Pierogi. Good luck, Ken

Griffin

Oh man does that look good. I so miss good home made bread.

itsmce

@SGH

Recipe?  Well…unfortunately, I just kinda threw it together.  Here are some guidelines and general tips for breads.  The quantities are all approximate, but this is what I did:

Put ¾ c. warm water, 1 T. yeast, 1 t. salt (or less),  1 T. sugar, 1 egg (room temp) in the bowl of my Kitchen Aid mixer.  Add about a cup of “better for bread” flour, and beat the heck out of it for about 5 minutes.  This is an important step for building the glutens in bread.  Add ¾ cup of whole wheat flour a little at a time, continuing to beat well.  Add more “better for bread” flour until the dough is smooth and elastic, and no longer sticky.  I actually did all this with the mixer’s paddle attachment, but the dough hook could be used for this last part.  As I type this I realize that I didn’t add any fat at all – an oversight.  Add a couple tablespoons of butter or oil in the first stage.

Take the dough out of the mixer bowl, work it with your hands to form a nice, smooth, ball.  Spray another bowl/container (I use my 2 Qt. clear pyrex measuring bowl) with Pam; plop the dough in the bowl and then turn it over so that the oily side of the ball is now “up”.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in warm place to rise.  Make note of the size of the ball using the markings on the measuring bowl and you’ll know when it has doubled!

When the dough has doubled in volume in an hour or so, punch it down, work out all the air bubbles, form the loaves, and let rise again until nearly double.

I baked in my BGE at about 375. Legs down, spacers between the platesetter and the pan that the bread was on. About 30 minutes seemed to be about right for the two loaves.

SGH

@itsmce‌
Thank you for sharing. I'm going to get my wife to give me a hand with it and we are going to give it a shot. Again yours looks wonderful my friend.