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mavmama
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| Posted: Feb 02 2008 at 12:41pm | IP Logged
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I don't know how to manage baking bread for the whole week. We can easily go through a loaf a day, and I find that if I try to bake every other day, many things (school) don't get done as they need to. So, do you bake all at once? If so, do you have multiple pans? Do you mix it all at once? I think my mixer can only handle three loaves at a time, so how do you deal with that?
I do fall back on store bread for the kids, but I cannot have wheat, so homemade is the only bread I can eat (I use spelt flour). Besides, I feel it is so much better for all of us. I welcome your comments/ideas!
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JodieLyn
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It varies.. my mixer can handle 2 loaves of ww bread. We might make 2 batches in one day.. or we might make bread 2 days in a row.. or we might have pancakes at breakfast and mac and cheese for lunch and something for dinner that doesn't include bread.. or biscuits that we'd make up for that meal.. in order to stretch the bread another day since it wouldn't be used for those meals.
Really we just fit it into whatever we're doing.. and come up with breadless meals in there too.
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Maddie
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I make 8 loaves on either Saturday or Monday. I keep two loaves out and put the rest in the freezer for the rest of the week. Sometimes I'll use some of my dough on Saturday to make cinnamon rolls for Sunday. They're a bit thick but no one seems to care since they're homemade. Occasionally I'll pick up the English Muffin bread at our locally owned grocer for a change.
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Bridget
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I bake 4 loaves twice a week. It really needs to go to three times a week soon. Like Jodie, sometimes we just run out and don't have bread.
I will admit that it's the first thing to go when life gets too busy. I bake first thing in the morning as the kids are getting started on their schoolwork. Then we have fresh bread and butter for lunch.
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mom2mpr
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I have a smaller family than you, so probably need a lot less bread. But FWIW, each week I put ingredients in the breadmaker any chance I get--usually bake a loaf Monday and Wednesday and try to also get a loaf in on the weekends. I do this whether we need a loaf or not and always have a loaf or two as emergency back up in the freezer. Just as an FYI we rarely eat sandwiches at home--usually lunches are leftovers from dinner. We usually only take sandwiches when we are going to be out at co-op or gym.
A dear friend, who's children are in school and take sandwiches each day has a neat idea I need to try. Put the flour and dry ingredients for the breadmaker pan measured out in a ziploc bag in the freezer. She makes 5 bags at a time. Just dump contents and remaining needed ingredients into breadmaker baking pan and press start. Hers does have a preheat cycle. A minute saved is a minute earned. 
My goal for this year is to learn how to "really" bake bread, you know, without the breadmaker.
Anne
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Rachel May
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I've been wanting to start doing once a week baking for our sandwich bread, but my recipes are for one or two loaves. Do you have a recipe that makes more loaves (a long time ago a friend gave me a recipe that made 5 a time, but I've lost it) or do you double?
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Bridget
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I just posted my bread recipe this morning as someone else had asked about it.
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SusanMc
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A question for those of you who make several loaves at a time: When do you freeze the bread? Is it before the first rise, before baking, or after baking? I've been wanting to bake more of our bread here at the house and I know I could make better headway if I could make more than one loaf at a time.
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stefoodie
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You can freeze dough after it has risen once, but if you're going to bake it the next day, you can just keep it in the refrigerator. This gives it a second "slow rise" and you may find that you prefer the flavor (I do).
This is what I do with dough that has risen once:
2 loaf-recipe: bake one right away, refrigerate the other in plastic bag or covered glass bowl, shape, second rise and bake the next day.
More than 2 loaves: divide into portions, put into bags and freeze, defrost in fridge the day before baking, proceed as above.
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Maddie
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I bake the bread and then let it cool before freezing it. It makes it so much easier to have the bread done and ready to use after defrosting.
My recipe is very basic.
2 cups warm water
1 TBLS yeast
2 TBLS brown sugar
whisk together, then add 2 cups flour, let proof 10 minutes
2 tsp salt (I forget this ingredient so easily)
add another 3-4 cups of flour~ I sometimes use a combo of wheat/unbleached white
let rise for an hour, punch down, put in loaf pans, let rise again
Bake at 400 for 30 minutes
This recipe works great for bagels, pretzels, rolls, crescents, whatever.
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Mackfam
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It varies - but I usually bake every other day (occasionally every day.) I bake in a bread machine for convenience. Dump in ingredients. 3 hours later - a loaf of bread. I taught my 11yo the recipe, and it's part of her weekly work now. I don't use spelt, but we do grind our own and bake 100% whole wheat bread. I don't buy any bread from the store.
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Kristie 4
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I usually bake 4-5 hearty loaves twice a week. When we run out we eat biscuits! (or sometimes nab a loaf at the store!)
I do find winter easier to work bread baking into as it is so fiercely cold out that we are in more often. In the summer it is fiercely humid here so I bake bread in the evening.
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asplendidtime
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Daily! 
I use a breadmaker on dough mode and form 3lbs into 2 lovely loaves...
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mavmama
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| Posted: Feb 05 2008 at 8:55pm | IP Logged
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Just wanted to thank everyone for their insight on this. I will be trying several of these ideas to see what works for us. Thanks again!
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lilac hill
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I have a hand crank bread mixer. It has a clamp that attaches it to the table and a hand crank to knead. It really does work and I have been able to use up to 20 cups of flour at a time. I started making a potato broth /white bread and was able to eventually successfully make breads with more whole grains--it was an experiment.
Maybe searching around in antique stores (mine was under $40) and he internet might help.
Because I had an amazing amount of dough to deal with at one time and a limited amount of oven space and pans, I did slow some of the dough's rise in the frig or outside in the winter but it eventually got baked and frozen.
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mandmsmom2001
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You've all just given me an idea. I also make my own bread and, despite using a bread machine to maix and knead, I often run out even though I was baking on a schedule.
I'm thnking of just having a marathon dough making session. I'll make dough when I'm home and freeze it in loaves ready to be defrosted and baked. When we're super busy, I'll have bread dough on hand.
On the rare occasions when I let my bread machine bake as well, I find I can let the machine do the work at night - dump the ingredients and either start right away or set the timer to have warm bread in the morning. If anyone else is using a bread machine, you could put ingredients in each night and have fresh bread each morning. You could even run a second batch during the day and have fresh bread for dinner.
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nissag
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Hmmm. Depends. If I can work it into my Saturday Cook-a-Thon, I'll do it all at once. If I can't manage to do it on Saturday, then I pop a loaf into the bread machine first thing in the morning. The kids wake up to the scent of bread baking and Gregorian chant! Very nice!
Blessings,
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CAgirl4God
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| Posted: Feb 06 2008 at 6:28pm | IP Logged
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we don't eat that much bread right now.. but when we do.. I have a bread maker. and I put all the ingreds in the machine and set it to be done in the morning...
(sometimes I make cinnamon bread and then make french toast out of it lol yummy!)
and I do what another lady said... bake one over night and one during the morning hours.
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Tina P.
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Not often enough, I see.  We bake about once per week. If I make two loaves at a time (but I haven't tried freezing one), one of them ends up being duck food or a science experiment. 
We're bagel freaks, here. I have a recipe for them, but haven't tried it yet.
And we do not use a bread machine. The bread machine we had made loaves that were too small for everyone to get one serving! I sold it several years ago.
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Bread bakers, how often do you bake?
