The Imperfect Community

julymom · Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 5:40 pm Post subject: Does anybody bake from scratch?

I'm curious to see if anyone does (aside from DCH-don't you bake gluten free bread for Jack?). We've been spoiled by years of European bakeries (damn them and their fresh baked goodies!) and don't like the processed taste of the breads we are getting here in America. I've decided to try baking from scratch. Gasp! I'm a bit nervous, but I figured what the hell? Cooper and I were at the mall yesterday and passed Auntie Anne's pretzels. He HAD to have a pretzel so I bought him one. He took one bite and handed it back saying "That's yuck pretzel mama!" I decided right then that I had to try to bake him some Bavarian style pretzels. Cross your fingers on that.
Any idea where I can find bread flour? I'm not talking all-purpose flour. I'm looking for bread flour and pastry flour (I'll leave the cakes from scratch for later).
I'm currently baking my own granola mix (it's in the oven as I type), but I'm not sure how it's going to turn out. We love granola in our yogurt, but all the granola cereals I've found have coconut in them and I H-A-T-E coconut. After Cooper's 2nd b-day the peds had us slowly start introducing milk into his diet. He's had no problems (thank heaven!) and now his favorite food in the whole world is plain (yes, plain) full fat yogurt. He won't even let me put fruit in it to sweeten it! If you've ever had it, it's terribly sour, but he loves it. He will let me put granola in it though, so we'll see what he thinks about mommy's homemade granola.
BTW, if I get good at baking, I will certainly look down on all your poor bad mommies who actually buy bread. Wink

*Note that was totally sarcastic given the thread on the other forum, please don't attack me.

DietCokeHead · Queen of Imperfection Joined: 29 Apr 2002 Posts: 3805

I do make bread for Jack but it's really a mix that I buy, add a few ingredients and throw it into the breadmaker, does that count as from scratch! Smile

OMG, Auntie Anne's pretzels are the f-ing best!How could he not love it??

honeybee · Queen of Imperfection Joined: 20 Dec 2002 Posts: 3164

We make a lot of breads in the bread machine from scratch. It's so easy. The bread I like (whole wheat, very grainy and 5g fiber per slice) I get from Trader Joe's. But we love the pizza crust we make from the bread machine- it also makes good bread sticks. I haven't tried pretzels, but they sound yum!

Everytime we've tried making a cake from scratch it is really dense and heavy and just ick.

We have found pastry flour at the regular grocery store. I get WW flour from TJ's (grocery sells it too, but TJ's is cheaper) and use that with the bread flour.

I've tried making our own granola and it has always turned out poorly. I just buy a big bag of it from TJ's now.

Rebecca_R · Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:15 pm Post subject: Does anybody bake from scratch?

I love to bake, but don't bake regularly.

Have you searched out any german bakeries in your area? I forget where you live but you are military and near military communities there are often german and korean communities, I've noticed. Where my parents live there is this fucking AWESOME german bakery, they have the best black forest cake. And I can actually get kindereggs there! I'm actually going to my parents house this weekend and now your post put me in the mood for broachen (sp?) damn you girl.

I kwym about the baked stuff. The best bread is between germany and italy. it's a toss up. American's definitely don't know how to bake like the europeans. Wink

prescott · Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:26 pm Post subject: Does anybody bake from scratch?

I've never been a big baker in general, but I like to do it once in a while. But now, our oven sucks and doesn't keep an even temp (which obviously is crucial for baking), so no baking for me until we redo the kitchen!

julymom

Scout · Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:10 am Post subject: Does anybody bake from scratch?

I love to cook but I'm too, um, creative to bake, lol. Although, what'sername, the Italiand lady on PBS, Maria Somebody?...she has a really easy recipe for Italian bread in her cookbook that I've made lots of times and it always came out great. For loaves to use as sandwich bread and stuff, I think a bread machine would be the way to go. You can find tons of recipes for those things. And you know, whole wheat pastry flour is very similar to regular flour in the way it bakes up. Just a tip. Wink

Rebecca_R · Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 10:21 am Post subject: Does anybody bake from scratch?

JM,
That really sucks!!! I wonder if you'll meet any Germans around there though, that can teach you how to make the stuff you are looking for. I dunno, it seems that shit tastes so good, it would be hard to perfect. If you do, LMK! I'd want the recipe's.
I *hate* sausages and don't dig on swine Laughing

but in Germany I will dig into some brats, let me tell ya! Oooh, and beer. Hefe and brats...mmmmm....

honeybee · Queen of Imperfection Joined: 20 Dec 2002 Posts: 3164

I don't think I've ever had a German pretzel. But when I was in school in Bangkok the snackbar sold these pretzels that were SO good. They were straight, not knotted up. And they were sort of tuff and actually tasted like a real pretzel. Yum. The ones here, like those Aunties ones are so gummy soft and taste sorta sweet. Not really very pretzelish at all.

Scout · Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:42 am Post subject: Does anybody bake from scratch?

Becky, do you know how to make mung bean pancakes? (sorta OT, but anyway...) One of my best friends lives in Pittsburgh and when I visted her a couple of years ago, we got some mung bean pancakes from a Korean food vendor on the street in the strip district. OMG, it was so fucking good! It was like a thick, salty and very spicey fried potato pancake type of thing. They just give it to you in wax paper and it stands up on its own, you know, like it's not thin and floppy like we think of regular pancakes.

Rebecca_R · Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:56 am Post subject: Does anybody bake from scratch?

I think I know what your talking about, if you have any korean grocery stores near you, you can get them in the refrigerated section.

But when it comes to those side of the street food vendor things, they can be hard to duplicate. They are *all* over the place in korea, and you can get so many different types of things. I can't beleive I ever ate so much of it, nowadays I'd be like "so where's your food handlers license?" lol THey don't have stuff like that in Korea.

Rebecca_R · Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 12:48 pm Post subject: Does anybody bake from scratch?

melissa you went to school in bangkok? (why am I so immature and giggly when I type this word?), details please!

honeybee · Queen of Imperfection Joined: 20 Dec 2002 Posts: 3164

LoopyMom · Slightly Flawed Joined: 18 Sep 2002 Posts: 246

This is a great resource for baking products, a variety of flours, etc.:

http://shop.bakerscatalogue.com/landing.jsp

If your homemade granola doesn't turn out, this is the granola I buy:

http://www.backtonaturefoods.com/products_granola_4.aspx

I can find it in the natural foods section of our grocery store. It's good, and it doesn't have coconut, and it's low fat (unlike some granolas).

Heather