Okay, that may be a little premature. I've only made five loaves without the help of my beloved bread maker, after all. I guess it takes more than that before you can declare your mastery over a skill as cryptic and arcane (and squamous, if you want to get Lovecraftian about it) as making bread by hand.
Nevertheless, I did things a little bit differently with the last loaf, and the results were OUTSTANDING. Luckily, I was taking notes. I can't recommend this highly enough for new bread makers, by the way. Always take notes, even if it's just a few scrawled jots on a scrap of paper. You always think "Oh I'll remember what I did," but then you never ever do. So take notes.
This was another "barely kneaded" loaf. I don't go strictly with the "no knead" method, I go in a few times and do some folding. This is a gentle method of kneading where you pick up one end of the dough and let the dough hang to stretch out, then lay this end on top of the dough. Then you pick up the next side, and do the same thing. I have heard this called an "envelope fold."
One thing I am learning is that you can leave the dough to rise for a really long time, if your house is as cool as mine. My house will get down into the 50s overnight, and is only in the low 70s for a few hours every day. I understand that 72 is considered "room temperature" but my room is hardly ever that temperature!
(If I'm in a hurry, or it's unusually cold, or both, I have learned that I can let the dough rise in the oven with the oven light on. I have a 40 watt bulb in there (I just replaced it, so I noticed). If you do this, put a thermometer in the oven first and see how warm it gets! I found that with the door closed and the light on, the oven got up into the 90s. That's actually a little too long for letting dough rise. After experimenting for a bit, I learned that leaving the oven door open just a crack (with a spatula holding it open) keeps the oven between 70 and 75 degrees.)
Because of one thing or another, this loaf actually ended up rising for about 16 hours. I set it out to rise overnight, folded it in the morning, then came back in the afternoon. For the final fold, I did something a little different: I decanted the dough into a bowl which I had greased with a bit of cooking oil.
I have seen a lot of recipes that tell you to do your last knead in a bowl greased with cooking oil, but they never say why. Now I'm convinced that it's because the oil gives your baked bread a wonderful crackly coating!
The final change I made was to bake my bread in a loaf pan. I had been working from recipes that called for it to be baked in a dutch oven with the lid on for half the baking time. I really like the loaf pan results a lot better! For one thing, it has made the final loaf a LOT easier to handle and slice.
Nevertheless, I did things a little bit differently with the last loaf, and the results were OUTSTANDING. Luckily, I was taking notes. I can't recommend this highly enough for new bread makers, by the way. Always take notes, even if it's just a few scrawled jots on a scrap of paper. You always think "Oh I'll remember what I did," but then you never ever do. So take notes.
This was another "barely kneaded" loaf. I don't go strictly with the "no knead" method, I go in a few times and do some folding. This is a gentle method of kneading where you pick up one end of the dough and let the dough hang to stretch out, then lay this end on top of the dough. Then you pick up the next side, and do the same thing. I have heard this called an "envelope fold."
One thing I am learning is that you can leave the dough to rise for a really long time, if your house is as cool as mine. My house will get down into the 50s overnight, and is only in the low 70s for a few hours every day. I understand that 72 is considered "room temperature" but my room is hardly ever that temperature!
(If I'm in a hurry, or it's unusually cold, or both, I have learned that I can let the dough rise in the oven with the oven light on. I have a 40 watt bulb in there (I just replaced it, so I noticed). If you do this, put a thermometer in the oven first and see how warm it gets! I found that with the door closed and the light on, the oven got up into the 90s. That's actually a little too long for letting dough rise. After experimenting for a bit, I learned that leaving the oven door open just a crack (with a spatula holding it open) keeps the oven between 70 and 75 degrees.)
Because of one thing or another, this loaf actually ended up rising for about 16 hours. I set it out to rise overnight, folded it in the morning, then came back in the afternoon. For the final fold, I did something a little different: I decanted the dough into a bowl which I had greased with a bit of cooking oil.
I have seen a lot of recipes that tell you to do your last knead in a bowl greased with cooking oil, but they never say why. Now I'm convinced that it's because the oil gives your baked bread a wonderful crackly coating!
The final change I made was to bake my bread in a loaf pan. I had been working from recipes that called for it to be baked in a dutch oven with the lid on for half the baking time. I really like the loaf pan results a lot better! For one thing, it has made the final loaf a LOT easier to handle and slice.