My inlaws love the sourdough from a local bread shop, my better half loves the caraway rye, at 7-9 bucks each and the fact i just installed a new convection oven i thought i might give baking bread a shot.

Anyone here have any good/favorite recipes for sourdough with a good crust?
Any other favorites?
Or perhaps just a good resource for recipes?

this is all you need. Iggy's is the top of the food chain.

so wait, we let the sugar/yeast/water sit somewhere warm (out I assume) then have to put it in the fridge immediately once we smell something sour?

I def want to make that ****

Lots of food is fermented, dingus

Keeping a sourdough starter and trying to make your own bread that will measure up to professional bakers is a lot of work. You have to both have a lot of time on your hands and actually enjoy bread baking.

I had a starter I kept alive for a year or so and it was sort of like having a small, mildly troublesome pet. It was fun, but eventually I just didn't have the time to keep baking and was happier paying $5 for a good loaf of bread.

I still sometimes make bread, but usually a fairly straightforward multigrain bread with commercial yeast (following a recipe I worked out myself after experimenting my way through 10 loaves of bread).

Getting a good crust was always the most difficult part for me and is what tends to separate the really good bread bakers from the rest of us. At some point I gave up and just started using loaf pans so I didn't have to worry so much about it.

Have you ever baked bread before?

The thing about bread baking is technique is much more important than you might think before you've done it.

What makes the difference between most loaves of bread is not the recipe. The recipe for basic bread is simple: flour, water, salt, yeast (and often a little sugar and oil), plus time and heat.

Yes, there are different types of flour, and you can use commercial yeast or your own sourdough starter, and you can use milk instead of water or different oils or honey, etc. etc.

But the difference between a mediocre loaf and a great loaf is how you put the ingredients together, how you make the dough, and how you bake it.

The Bread Bible is a great book if you are interested in really getting into this.

The book is not focused on sourdough specifically, although it does have one chapter on sourdough and some good advice. It is most valuable for explaining the various techniques to use and why to use them.

Also, google 'sourdough starter' for plenty of free advice. You'll note there are many differing opinions about how to create and keep one. I started out with one of the pancake batter types, but once it had been alive for a few weeks, I kept it as a piece of dampish dough in the fridge. It needed less feeding that way.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/79...thread-283072/

starting a sourdough starter


the best baking community I've found


another good baking forum


a good baking blog


advanced prooving witchery!

Thanks for the replies and links, Im going to give this a try , just to do it, BUT i have a new found respect for a well baked loaf of bread and the associated cost.

$7 to $10 for a loaf is a lot in my opinion.

Try the NYT no knead recipe for pure simplicity. I've used it a hundred times with good results.

There's a thread in EDF on baking bread:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/79...thread-283072/

I bake a loaf of bread 2-3 times a week, the above links def have more info...but...the one thing that has helped me the most is having a spray bottle of water nearby and spraying the inside of the oven/top of dough. It helps create a crusty outer shell. I've never used a convection oven for bread but i assume loaves coming from a convection are better than a conventional oven. Give it a shot it is dirt cheap!!

EDIT....

your first couple loaves will most likely suck but practice makes perfect. I can't get good bread where i live so i did it out of necessity and now i love it. Even if i could get good bread i would still bake my own.

agreed on many of the above posts. To be a good bread baker means baking many lousy loaves. Start with easy ones, the no knead ones are surprising easy. As for the need for a convection oven, not at all. I have done bread over a campfire, a camp stove, an all in one bread maker and regular oven.

I love a nice ciabatta loaf, but they require a ton of time to flip and reflip. well worth it if i have the time.

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

this book is awesome for bread making, the recipes are super easy to follow and they take much less time than your average bread. The third loaf of bread I ever made in my life (and first from this book) was easy 90th+ percentile in bread I've eaten.

Any professional bakers on here? I work as a pastry chef three days a week, and a baker two. With pastry and main kitchen, it seems like there been a huge shift in understanding. Chefs often talk about the proteins, enzymes, the processes actually involved. But when it comes to bread it seems like noone actaully understands it

That link regarding the proving wasso much better than any cookbook, advice ive ever read / heard

Baking your bread in a Dutch oven results in a great crust FYI.

Allrecipes cinnamon raisin bread is a pretty solid recipe.

went to Whole Paycheck today to get a couple things and saw Iggy's Francese from my post #2 itt. really great, you can knock on the crust and the inside is sour and chewy. the bottom looks like stone.

simply put, you just can't make bread like this at home. add the $2.69 cost and it becomes a no-brainer.

I reccomend watching King Arthur's videos. They really helped me a lot with my shaping technique.

Also that starter recipe seems kind of weird. Ive never seen one that started with anything but water and flour before... gotta harvest those wild yeasts.

$9 for a loaf of bread!! jfc

That seems ridic expensive

I love homemade bread.

My mom's homemade bread recipe is pretty kick ass, but it's just a standard wheat bread (although some AP flour is used as well) so it's nothing like what OP is looking for.

Add some cinnamon to the mix and toast it up and it's just pure heaven. Homemade bread is seriously underrated by many, IMO.

My favourite thing is putting poppy seeds through the mix and a decent amount on the top crust as well

mmmm poppy seed bread

that's impressive if you made that

I did... but it's actually pretty easy. A bit of a variation on the NYT recipe (cliffs: more yeast and salt, much shorter rise time). It turns out great, I've been baking it for years.