Who makes their own bread?

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

We're busy registering for the wedding (a whole other post - ugh!) but I saw a breadmaker from Williams Sonoma and I got really excited about it. I've been much more concious about the crazy ingredients in things after I read 'In Defense of Food' so I would love to make my own bread. Apparently they have makers that also make pizza dough.

My questions are:
1) How much bread does one 'round' make? Like are we talking a quarter loaf? A half loaf?
2) Are the ingredients really expensive/hard to find?
3) Any brand you would recommend?
4) Am I crazy? Is this some stupid idea that I'm going to do once because it's annoying/too time consuming, etc.

I'm very very health concious about general eating (desserts, not so much) so I would do it as long as it's not a million hour process that's impractical.

[Michele]

Re: Who makes their own bread?

I posted a bread machine thread not too long ago. I bought a Zojirushi bread maker. I make about a loaf a week. The ingredients are easy for the types of bread I make, but I'm ready to start venturing out. My machine will make 1, 1.5 and 2# loaves....I have no idea what a "round" is but most of the machines and recipes I see are for a 1.5# loaf....so maybe that's what it is? It's really easy to make bread in a bread machine, you put in the ingredients, select a setting and time and press go. I like that I can program it before I leave the house or the night before and the bread will be ready when I want it. The hardest part for me is remembering in advance that I want bread! The downside to fresh bread is that it doesn't last. The bread goes stale in about 2-3 days. The pizza dough is pretty good, but I prefer another recipe that I haven't tried in the machine yet.

I don't use bread flour...I use all-purpose...so I add a Tbsp of vital wheat gluten (I buy at Target) for every cup of flour. I also sometimes sub whole wheat flour for some of the recipe. I use regular yeast (fleishmans?) and occasionally rapid rise when i want bread but forgot to plan ahead enough.

[ladymoreta]

Re: Who makes their own bread?

I have a breadmaker, and I love it. I don't use it much for everyday, since I don't get home from work in time, but I love to use it when I'm making a big meal for company on weekends. It's so nice to have the oven free when I'm cooking a bunch of stuff, and you usually start it before everything else, so it's great for timing.

Here's a recipe I love, but I usually have to add several more tablespoons of water after the first round of mixing. Summer Thyme Bread. I also love the dough setting on mine. If I'm making rolls, it takes care of a lot of the initial steps, so all I have to do is shape the dough and let it rise once, then bake.

As for the ingredients, I usually buy a name brand bread flour, then store brand for everything else. King Arthur's flour is good, if you can find it, but it's pretty expensive. I didn't notice that much difference between that and the Pillsbury brand.

Re: Who makes their own bread?

I got an old breadmaker at a garage sale and I use it to make most of our bread. I usually just use the dough setting, then transfer to the oven ( I like the shape of the loaf so much better, and it's about 2 minutes more of work ). I use really simple ingredients--whole wheat & all purpose flour, brown sugar, milk, salt, oil, flieschmanns yeast. Fresh bread makes the house smell so yummy!

[Michele]

Re: Who makes their own bread?

The shape of the bread is the reason I paid so much for my Zogirushi...it makes a horizontal loaf.

[Michele]

Re: Who makes their own bread?

I'd love the dinner roll recipe if you don't mind!

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Re: Who makes their own bread?

So how do you bake it in the oven? You can just pull the bread out of the machine?

And what type of pizza dough recipe do you guys use?