"Julianne" > wrote in message news:<G0Chb.30767$k74.5978@lakeread05>...
> I have recently started baking bread without the breadmaker. Does anyone
> care to post their most useful tips? Thanks in advance.
>
> j
Use unbleached flour and buy your flour from a store with a lot of
turn over cause flour has a shelf life. The PBS food show-America's
Test Kitchen taste tested some various flours and unbleached won and I
think Pillsbury unbleached was very close to the pricey stuff. Lots
of discussion on how long to let it rise, at what temp, use of crocks
vs stainless steel as bread pans and shape of bread but fresh
unbleached flour is the biggie IMHO along with enough kneading to
fully moisten the flour. I use a stand mixer and then only knead for
a relatively short while. Let it rise in a 45-50F room and then bake
in french loaf bread pans. Used to spritz the bread with water-just
hisses and not much else. Just forget the bread machine and bleached
flour.