In October 2023, I announced I will begin learning to make my own bread from scratch. Since then, I struggled to learn how to make bread. Part of the problem was new baker mistakes while the other problem was my mixer.
When I started making bread, I was using an almost 30 year old mixer and it had major problems. Earlier this year, I replaced it with a new mixer. Even though the new mixer is smaller than the old one, it runs much better and does a better job at mixing dough and kneading the bread. This was further improved when I purchased a different style dough hook from Amazon. The dough hook is not from the same brand as the mixer (Kitchenaid) but it was designed to not allow the dough ride up the dough hook while mixing. It works really well and is very easy to clean. It is stainless steel too!
Today, my white bread looks really good! I am now able to make it the same way consistently without any abnormalities from loaf to loaf.
Here is a picture I took of one of the loafs I made…
Loaf of bread cut open. (Don’t mind the discoloration on the wall. Painting the kitchen walls is on my to-do list. I’m waiting until it is cooler outside. This way I can open the door and windows to air out any paint fumes and scents without worrying about the heat)
Here is the top of the loaf…
And this is what the bread slice looks like…
The recipe I’ve been using is the white bread recipe from The King Arthur Baking Company’s All-Purpose Baker’s Companion Revised and Updated version. It does require two ingredients that I was unfamiliar with in bread recipes: Dry skim milk and potato flour. I grew up eating a type of bread I knew as “potato bread”, so potatoes in bread was not something I was unfamiliar with. I just never thought about potato flour as an ingredient instead of actual cooked and mashed potatoes or the liquid from cooking potatoes.
The main problem I have with this recipe is the dry skim milk and potato flour. It isn’t easy to find either ingredient where I live so I need to order them on Amazon. Because of this, I want to try other white bread recipes in order to find one that I can use if I don’t have the ingredients on hand. I found one in The Cottagecore Baking Book by Kayla Lobermeier that peeked my interest. I haven’t tried it yet, but I plan on doing that this fall.
That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!