OK, it's official ... I have no baking-fu.

[unixronin]

I am, as of this afternoon, 0 for 3.  Even when following the recipe exactly, including the undocumented "wait five minutes here" step (which cymrullewes told me about this morning), I cannot make bread even using an automatic bread machine.  You know, the kind where you dump in the ingredients, push the "START" button, and it does everything else.  Even if cymrullewes supervises the measuring and adding of the ingredients, if I do the measuring and adding and the pushing of the button, the loaf will fail.

Comments

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

That's just...

... typical of bread, actually, fickle minx that it is.

I'm sure you'll have better luck on another day; probably when the Bread Hobs are making my spelt bread fall.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, this is three different attempts on three different occasions several weeks apart. I don't think it's just me having a Bad Dough Day.

[yndy.livejournal.com]

Are you sprinkling flour on the ground as an offering to appease the baking gods first? I hear that's very important...
And beer - I think the baking gods want beer too... something to do with yeast and all! :P

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Beer is good for some breads.

1 2/3 cup self rising flour
12 oz can of beer

Mix together and bung in a 350F oven immediately after mixing. Bake for 40 minutes. It smells really beery but doesn't taste like beer at all. (Thank God!)

[batchfile.livejournal.com]

have you ever made it by hand?
i won't have a bread machine in the house because with the one i had every loaf tasted like crap.

but i can make it from scratch and by hand. it's one thing i can do REALLY well in fact. when i was a SAHM i used to bake all our bread. no, it didn't look like the stuff you buy in stores, but it tasted so good that didn't matter.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Nope, I have never made bread by hand. I am just not a baker, period.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

I generally make our bread by hand but I don't always have the time so I was teaching him how to make a basic white loaf with the bread machine so they wouldn't be short of bread.

I got the ABM off our local Freecycle list to use to make dough for rolls. I'm a bit hit or miss with roll dough by hand but get consistent good results with the ABM.

[drdemure.livejournal.com]

I failed at homemade bread for ages. There is a knack to it, and you have to practice. I can make it now, but I mostly use my bread machine. The only trick I know about that is to make sure you add the yeast on top of the dry ingredients, not on top of the liquid. Keep trying. You'll figure it out.

[plutosonium.livejournal.com]

Maybe you have some anti-yeast properties.

Cooking v. Baking

[rain-manpnw.livejournal.com]

Alaric-

Mo and I are the same way. I can cook, but can't bake. She bakes, but can't cook. We postulated that the skillsets are sufficiently different to make one specialize one way or the other.

Don't sweat it. You already make a wunnerful mushrooms marengo.

Re: Cooking v. Baking

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yup, cymrullewes and I pretty much agreed that's our breakdown too. The difference is, Cymru can cook, I just cook better than she does -- while I can't bake to save my life. My |V|4|) 84|<1|/|9 5|<1llz0rz are the baker's equivalent of being unable to boil water without burning it.

Re: Cooking v. Baking

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Rain, you know we're that way already. :-)

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

This time the cause is too much liquid. The first time was stirring things together. I'm not sure what the second time's failure point was. Baking is a precise chemical experiment so the more causes we can find and fix the nearer to the goal we'll get.

Should have twigged to that as soon as I saw the top of the loaf. Remember me doing this when I was experimenting with sourdough back in Tracy? The texture also supports the theory of too much liquid. So use the jug and not the cups when measureing. I think what I might need to do is measure the yeast out for you. 2.25 teaspoons equals one packet of yeast. I'll sometimes fudge it using the tablespoon measure.

[ehintz.livejournal.com]

Heh. I can so relate. Gardening is just as hopeless for me.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

we can't all be good at everything.