Homesteading is not about perfection. It’s about persistence. It is also about learning new skill sets and advancing them to a higher level. Off grid bread baking is certainly a skill that takes much practice and finesse. I share my favorite recipe and how I am learning to go from the standard oven to our wood stove in our dutch oven! It’s certainly a journey and one with many trials before the triumph! Enjoy and thanks for watching! xo
Note: This recipe is for a double batch, not one single loaf! Most single loaf recipes call for 2 teaspoons of salt. For ease, I use 2 lightly-filled Tablespoons which is somewhere around 4-5 Teaspoons. Alway do what is best for you, your kitchen and your farm. Thanks so much!
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You can put some of the coles on top of your Dutch oven to. That's what we do when we're camping.
Thanks for sharing!
is the yeast dry activate yeast? or just normal yeast?
Thanks for sharing the recipe and your trials and triumphs and encouragement.
YouTube is flooded with success stories. The 'oops' trials are much more educational!
How's this recipe different from the ultimate bread recipe? Beside letting it sit overnight
respect for going back and doing it all over!! been there, done that.
I grew up making bread in my mother's backyard Mennonite bakery.
And then, I married, and baked bread for 25 years for my family.
I have learned a few things…
Salt is a dough conditioner. Salt-free bread will be coarser.
Oil (or lard/butter, etc) doesn't really make that much difference in the dough, but will make the crust much softer and crumblier. So for a very crunchy crust, do a traditional French Bread, which is only water, yeast, flour, and salt.
Sugar does help the yeast to make the bread lighter, but not much. Flour is enough food for the yeast.
Sugar or honey will make the crust brown much faster.
Honey does more than sweeten the dough and feed the yeast. Honey is also a humectant, (like Glycerin is) which means it attracts moisture from the air, and brings it into the bread, keeping it from drying out as easily.
How much yeast you need depends on the weather. Add a little more if a storm is moving in. The air is heavier, and makes it harder for the yeast to push the dough high.
The correct ratio of liquid to flour will vary with the humidity of the air. Always be a little bit stingy with the flour until the very end of kneading. Hold back that last 1/4 cup, and add it a Tablespoon at a time, until the dough will roll up in little balls, coming clean off your hands when you rub them together.
I have also found that to make the finest-grained bread, let it rise and punch it down , not once, but twice. But beyond two proofings, you start to loose yeast-power, and the bread will not be as fluffy.
Can you tell I love to make bread?
Another tip: For pizza crust, leave the dough slightly moister, and add garlic powder, dry minced onion, Italian Seasoning, and parmesan cheese. Make twice the amount needed for the crust, and make the rest into breadsticks. For breadsticks, pat the dough out and slice into strips. As you lay each strip down 3 inches from the next, give it several twists. So pretty!
Have you ever made English Muffins?
(Funny thing, I know an Englishman, and he says our "English Muffins" are not eaten in England.)
It's not hard to make them!
Make your bread dough like usual, and then roll them out and cut them the size of biscuits. Place them on a slightly-warm very large skillet, in which you have sprinkled coarse corn meal. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the corn meal, too.
(The corn meal takes the place of greasing your skillet, and makes a very crunchy crust.)
Allow them to rise until double. Then place the covered skillet onto a medium-low burner, or over the coals inside the wood stove. Let them back until they are lightly brown on the bottom, and almost dry on top.
Slide them out onto a plate. Then flip that piping-hot skillet over, and upside-down on the plate over the biscuits. Flip the entire thing over very quickly, so the biscuits land upside-down in the skillet.
Put them back into the stove, or back on the burner to bake the other side.
I promise you, these are the crunchiest, most awesome alternative to loaf bread you could ever want!
Serve alongside some over-easy eggs for breakfast. Incredible!
I would definitely add some hot coals to the lid top late in the baking to finish off the top crust.
It's also a matter of preference. My aunt made homemade bread once and I thought it was the best bread that I've ever had while my uncle was not a fan of it.
That looks good to me,I would eat it
Awesome video!!
Thanks for show good and Bad. Its helpful because i hope in nect 2yrs to have colonial cooking hearth cooking fire place. Thanks for making it real
LOL, if you threw that out, I'm going to swat you with a wet noodle. We'd eat it anyway!
Thanks for the listen
Am I the only one who would have eaten the first batch
Still looks yummy!
Do you have a cook book
Your are "something" …so much patience. GOOD FOR YOU. I will be using your recipe in a conventional oven. Patara, I admire you. Thanks
Wow I have a wood stove but it’s not like yours it has these wonky pokey things in it not sure it would work. Never made bread. Just learning. Going to try this weekend to make bread. Now I know I’ll need Jesus on this one
Can't wait to see what you do with your wood cook stove.
I would have eaten the bread. Looked good.
Thanks the recipe looks easy. I have a cast iron chicken fryer and lid but not the pot. I am wondering if it would in the oven?