Let's talk about making bread

I used to make cornbread whenever I cooked chili. Being lazy, I usually just went with premix out of a box. The wife doesn't like spicy-hot anymore, so I haven't made either in some years.

My only other experience with bread making happened during my impoverished "hippie" days, when I used to bake bread in Folgers coffee cans. The loaves came out looking like mushrooms. If there was lead in those can seams, I'm probably carrying it around still.

Does pizza dough count? I make a lot of that, bread not as much.

Flour, water, salt, and yeast -- or some other leavener like a sourdough starter.

A bowl and maybe a wooden spoon -- but your hands will work too.

Mix, knead, and bake.

There are all kinds of breads out there -- anything specific you want to start with so maybe we can narrow something down?

I learned to make bread from my mom. Over the years my wife and I have made quite a lot and quite a variety of bread. There are countless recipes. We have done it all by hand and have used bread machines too.
Mg fav is a trick I learned from my mom. Let your dough rise once, punch it down and divide into thirds. Roll out 1/3 at a time and lightly cover with nuts and raisins (or whatever) then roll into a snake. Take your 3 snakes and lay them side by side. Then braid together and let rise again. Bake. Yum. The raisin nut bread was a Christmas tradition in our house.

Bread flour.  Haven't made any in quite awhile though.

Rather than writing out a recipe and instructions, I'll link to one of John Kirkwood's vids. His technique is fairly universal, the recipe is basic, and being a no knead recipe it's easy and pretty quick to do.

He's using a fancy cloche which is not necessary -- I use one of my Le Creuset dutch ovens. I turn the risen loaf out on a sheet of parchment paper and use that to set the loaf into the dutch oven. You don't need to pay $400 for a Le Creuset -- a $50 Lodge from Walmart will work just fine.

He's using a banneton to proof the loaf -- which I recommend, but you can get the same result with a plastic bowl lined with a tea towel which also needs to be well floured.

His recipe uses strong flour which is bread flour here in the colonies. I've only used King Arthur so I can't speak to any other brand.

I recommend taking his advice to weigh all the ingredients rather than measuring. The lame he's using to score the risen loaf is also not necessary -- it's basically a handle with a razor blade -- a plain razor blade works fine.

I've often wondered how some of the liquid beer yeasts like White Labs would work on bread and if the different styles (Ales, Lagers, Belgium, etc.) would impart different characteristics to the bread.

As Dylan sang, 🎵Yea Heavy and a Bottle of Bread.

The flavor was spot on but the texture too dense. So I am trying things to "fluff" up the bread.

When i was a working investor in a brewery that eventually went south due to too many breweries in NJ (there were 40 others when it opened and well over 120 when it closed) I noticed the massive amounts of spent grains they paid to get hauled away. Like 8 55gal barrels worth per batch! They gave some to dairy farmers for feed (cows love that stuff and I heard it makes better milk). It seemed such a waste and overhead expenditure that was unnecessary. I created a means to dry the grains out to package and sell as feed supplement (no funding so I did not do that) and make bread that the bars/restaurants could then give out with dinner. But like I said the brewery went under (was Rinn Duin which is now Toms River Brewing) so now its a hobby for my home brew

one side experiment is pretzels. Once I get the bread ration right I will move onto pretzels.
gotta have a hobby!

I spent a couple of weeks trying to get a sourdough starter started without much luck. I might try again once the weather warms up.

Well, we had a cold, rainy day Saturday so we decided to spend some time in the kitchen.  We made creme brulee and a loaf of french bread.  I pretty much did the entire bread myself, which was a very simple no knead recipe (bread flour, honey, water, salt and yeast).  It turned out pretty good, but didn't rise and much as I'd like.  I'm really looking forward to upgrading our oven...the new one will have a proofing feature.

Your current oven probably has a "proofing feature". Just turn the light on and put your dough in a bowl covered with a towel or cling in the oven. The light bulb will heat the oven to at least 70F -- perfect for proofing.

I have a starter in the fridge that is several years old but every couple of months I start a new one. I use a 50/50 mix of bread flour and whole wheat flour. I only use bottled water for the feeding -- chlorinated tap water will kill or stunt the starter. I use glass jars with a loose fitting top. While growing the starter I put the jar on top of the fridge where it's a little warmer than the rest of the kitchen. The new starter is always ready to use within 7 days.

Sourdough is my favorite bread to bake (and eat).

Those look good -- but the flavor comes from the proof. The yeast (or starter) needs time to work to develop a distinctive flavor. When I make ciabatta, I start the poolish the day before and proofs slowly overnight in the fridge. When I make a sourdough loaf, it takes three days.

Ordinary dinner rolls can be on the table in a half day -- they taste good -- but they're not as delicious and complex as a loaf that has had a proper proof.

Ok, so essentially the amount of time to allow the yeast to do its thing, at the right temp?