4 Beginner Bread Recipes (plus thoughts on bulk beef and chest freezers)
Every other Monday (or so!), I answer reader questions. Got one for me? Send me an email with Q&A in the subject line, and I'll answer it in a future post.
I have recently found your blog and feel inspired by your bread making! I have used my bread maker for nearly 12 years and it is wearing out!! For obvious frugal reasons I don’t want to purchase a new one AND I do have a Kitchenaid.
My questions are: which would be the simplest bread for me to start with and why don’t you use your kitchenaid for kneading the bread? Or have I missed something?
-Jo
So glad to hear that my blog is inspiring you!
First, if you try making bread without a machine and you end up hating it, do check thrift stores near you. I see bread machines there all the time, so you might be able to replace yours on the cheap. Craigslist is probably another good place to find an inexpensive used one.
Secondly, I do use my Kitchen-Aid to start my bread dough. After a good mixing, there's not a ton of kneading left to do. I could use the dough hook in the Kitchen-Aid to do the kneading, but I prefer to do it by hand.
Why? I feel like I have better control of how much flour I'm adding when I knead by hand. Also, I frequently am making a pretty large batch of dough, and it's tough to keep the dough from climbing up the dough hook when I've got a lot of dough in the bowl.
But if you try kneading in the Kitchen-Aid and you totally love it, I say go for it! No one is handing out gold stars to people who knead by hand, after all.
Thirdly, here are some recipes I'd recommend for starting out.
This is a batter bread, which is made with a really soft dough that is simply mixed in the mixer...no kneading required. Super-duper easy!
Lots and lots of beginning bread bakers have used this recipe with success, so I feel confident in recommending this one to you.
These are super soft and fluffy, and so delicious, I'd rather eat one than a donut! My fluffy hamburger bun recipe is very similar.
This is our breakfast toast/lunch sandwich mainstay. It's not 100% whole wheat, which makes it a little fluffier and more fool-proof than 100% whole wheat recipes.
Is buying beef in bulk worth it?
I am on the fence. I can get ¼ organic grassfed cow at about $6/lb. that sounds like a fantastic bargain BUT I would need to purchase another freezer. I have an under drawer in the main fridge, the upper in a "beer fridge" and a smallish square chest freezer. These are always full of extra meat, stock and bones/veggies for stock. My main is full of the usual daily needs type items.
We eat beef maybe 2-4 times per month. Is it going to go bad on us? We are a family of 4 where kids are 6-girl eats like horse; 3-boy only wants candy, fruit or yogurt!
I am considering an additional stand up freezer with shelves because I am putting in so much fruit to grow in the yard. But it will be 2-4 years before its fully established and making it a good idea to freeze for winter.
Do I need all that meat? Is it worth also buying a freezer? Can I commit to always buying my meat this way? What about the other meats? We eat tons of chicken and fish.
-Holly
Whether or not it's worth it for your family depends on a lot of factors.
Regarding the freezer: I would be inclined to get a chest freezer rather than a stand-up freezer. A non-self-defrosting chest freezer will keep your food fresh and not freezer burnt (the self-defrosting cycle contributes to freezer burn.) I've stored my beef in my chest freezer for over a year and it's still tasted fresh!
If you bought a decently-sized chest freezer, could you maybe get rid of your smaller chest freezer, thus consolidating a bit?
I personally adore having a chest freezer because it allows me to store my bulk beef and also seasonal food (like all the applesauce I make in the fall, or the berries I freezer in the summer). I'm not sure I'd buy one JUST for beef purposes, but since it sounds like you'd also use it for other purposes, it might be worth it for you.
If you only eat beef 2-4 times per month, a quarter of a cow will probably last quite some time for you, but if you have a chest freezer, that shouldn't pose an issue.
Since I started buying bulk beef, we end up eating a little more beef and a little less chicken, just because the beef is available. You might find yourself subtly shifting in that direction once you have a freezer full of beef too, so you may go through it faster than you think.
_________________________
Readers, what are your thoughts on the beef/freezer issue? What would you do?
And what bread recipes would you recommend for Jo?
The floor is yours.
We bought a 1/4 beef last spring and used it as an opportunity to completely eat through our main refrigerator freezer and then stored it in there. The beef lasted our two-person household throughout the year, but we definitely upped the amount of beef we ate per month. It was easier to use something out of the freezer than buy new protein at the store.
Yep, that's what happened here too. Having the beef in the freezer meant I was more likely to put a beef meal on the menu.
Us too.
I love kneading bread in my Kitchen Aid. I am not nearly as experienced as Kristen at making bread, so I find that I add less flour when kneading in the mixer. When I knead by hand I add too much flour to counteract the stickiness and my bread turns out a little dry.
What size freezer would fit a whole cow? My husband is going hunting this year and we'll need to fit an antelope, but I haven't really been looking for a chest freezer yet because I'm scared I'll get the wrong size. An antelope is a little smaller than a cow.
Boy, a whole antelope would need quite a bit of space! I've only ever bought 1/4 cow and that takes up a fair amount of space in my chest freezer. If you'd like to fit other stuff in your freezer along with the antelope, I'd be inclined to buy as large a freezer as I had space for.
An antelope is way smaller than a cow and you won't need that much freezer space for it. We got a deer last year and I was able to fit half of the meat in my regular fridge freezer which I normally keep pretty full. You should be fine with a small chest freezer.
Oh, that's good to know. I was basing my recommendation on her comment that an antelope is a little smaller than a whole cow.
Our antelope out here in Wyoming aren't that much smaller than a cow- most of them are quite a bit bigger than our deer. The one my father in law got last year was 165 pounds of meat.
We do have the space for a big one, and it sounds like that'll be the way to go. Thanks everyone!
An antelope will give you about 100 lbs of meat. We eat a lot of venison (2-4 deer/yr) and for a long time had a 16 cu. ft. Chest freezer. I could get it all in there, but barely. I ended up buying a pressure canner to do stews and stock to save freezer space. Then we upgraded to a giant chest freezer (20+ cu. ft.) and we can get everything in there, plus a couple 40 lb. cases of chicken (look into buying that way if you get a freezer). If you have the space, I would definitely go bigger with the freezer because it is a lot easier to find stuff when it is not all jammed in there! Plus, the initial cost and monthly electric is not much more compared to the ease of use.
Interesting that you recommend a chest freezer. I would NEVER buy one. I have seen too many where they just get piled up and you can't see what's at the bottom or reach all the way down into it for that matter. I find that things get out of date and nasty. We have a standing full height freezer with drawers (along with a separate counter-height one with shelves for dog food) which works really well because we can always find things. I cannot comment on the beef thing, but it sounds amazing to have that opportunity!
Chest freezers hold more stuff, sure, but is the hassle of finding stuff and wasting things you forgot about worth that? (Obviously, some people may be more organised than my family at keeping track of this!) 🙂
I would recommend a chest freezer. I have no trouble keeping mine organized. I keep food in reusable grocery bags with labels on the handles - beef, pork, vegetables, fruit, etc. I make lists of what goes in there and try to check things off as they come out. I clean it and inventory the contents once a year.
For bread recipes, I highly recommend the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day books. There is no kneading. The dough is mixed, allowed to rise once, and then put in the fridge until you want to bake some.
My stand up freezer is not frost free like my regular fridge. Bought it about 8 years ago so they have been making these for awhile now. I too, would never recommend a chest freezer as you can only see what's on the top layer and everything gets lost underneath. I can pretty much grab any item that is in my stand up freezer. Try doing that with a chest freezer and you would have to unload the whole thing.
We have a pretty large chest freezer that I love. In order to avoid loosing track of items down at the bottom I make sure to put common things that I typically have a lot of on the bottom such as our 1/4 cow, quarts of homemade applesauce, frozen peaches in syrup, homemade stock, and dried beans that I have cooked up. Since these items are used often and are plentiful they don't fall into the abyss. Our freezer came with 3 large baskets that slide across the top and I use those to hold random odds and ends that could easily get lost. I also find it helpful to have everything visible so it needs to be in containers or bags that are see through and clearly labeled. I find if I leave things in grocery bags they are missed. I'm a shorty (5'1" and I don't have any problem reaching the bottom).
We have purchased a quarter of a cow for the last two years (this year's cow is currently hanging). I have been incredibly happy with it. I highly recommend it to anyone. We are a family of 5 (two adults and three smaller kiddos). It lasts us an entire year. Like others said, we just eat beef more often.
I'm a long-time faithful reader and rarely post, but bread recipies tend to draw me out of the woodwork. 🙂 I grew up running combines on our family's wheat farm, so have been making bread almost as long as I can remember. Although I've used a few recipies over the years, I've been using a single-rise recipie during my current busy season of life (mom of two boys under three and working in ministry). If I have the dry ingredients pre-measured, I can go from start to bread rising and bowl cleaned in 20 minutes.
I love this recipie for the single rise, but also because it's naturally dairy-free, egg-free, and soy-free, so easy to make for my allergen-plagued friends (as long as they aren't GF!). And yes, you can totally switch out how much whole wheat flour and white flour you use. I usually do half and half, but it works with all white flour too. And yes, I love my Bosch mixer for mixing and kneading!
----
This recipie is from Tanna Richard, Cedar Rapids, IA, and is published in the 2009 Kansas Wheat Commission recipie book.
Mix:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup quick oats (uncooked)
1 T salt
1T rapid-rise yeast
Stir in:
2 1/4 cups warm water (120-130*)
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup oil
Beat for 2 minutes.
Gradually stir in:
3 cups bread flour (I use all purpose) to make a sticky dough
Knead in enough remaining flour to make a smooth dough. Knead 8-10 minutes by hand or dough hook. (I usually do 8 minutes by dough hook.)
Divide dough in half and form into loaves. Put into 2 greased 8.5" bread pans. Cover loaves - let rise until double (an hour?). Bake at 350* for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and done. (May tent with foil last 15 minutes to prevent overbrowning.) Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.
All done!
My husband bought me bread machine from Goodwill (for only $10!) that looks brand-new but I haven't used it.I like making bread without it,it's fun especially with the girls' help.
For making bread, these are my two "go-to" recipes:
Knead Not Sourdough from Alton Brown
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/knead-not-sourdough-recipe.html
White Bread from an ancient BH&G cookbook I got at a thrift store, I think. The recipe is free online too: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/yeast-breads/white-bread/
For something fancier, I make Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal bread
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/cinnamonraisinoatmealbread
Any recipe at KingArthurFlour.com is worth trying, in my opinion.
As for the chest freezer. I love mine. There's only two of us in my house currently but I feel we get good use out of it.
We have 2 chest freezers and I love it. We also buy beef by the 1/4 cow because we don't eat conventional raised meats and it's way too expensive to buy otherwise. We eat beef once or twice a week (family of four), so it's worth it for us. We then have the space to stock on good deals too.
I own an upright freezer and store stuff in my mom's large chest freezer and if I had the space, I would go with a chest freezer. You can use baskets, old pillowcases, even boxes to organize food in a chest freezer and it seems like the same size chest freezer holds more than an upright due to the shelves in the upright. If memory serves, a chest freezer will stay cold longer in a power outage and occassionally the door will be left open more easily on an upright. I have to defrost my upright at least twice a year but my mom's chest freezer only requires a once a year defrosting. It is still possible to loose things in an upright if it is not managed well. A list of items in the freezer that is updated as items go in and out is essential for me to keep up with our food and avoid waste.
I would really love your 3 loaf ww bread recipe if you have time.
Thanks!