We will be the first to admit, we like to use Git for a lot of things that are probably off the beaten path. But now thanks to [hendricius] you can find out how to make your own bread on GitHub. Let’s get one thing straight. This isn’t the breadmaker fad from a while back, although we are surprised we don’t see more hacked together breadmakers with Internet connectivity. This is old-fashioned bread baking with a bowl, some ingredients, and an oven or another heat source.
You might think this is just using Git as a repository for recipes, but it is more than that. According to [hendricius]:
Learn how to master the art of baking the programmer way. If you love programming, you will also enjoy breaking some bread. A/B test, iterate and ultimately become a self-taught baker. This repository is dedicated to becoming your bread manifesto with useful tricks and hacks. Furthermore, the goal is to illustrate how easy making bread is and that you can get started today without expensive tools.
The “manifesto” covers yeast- and sourdough-based bread. If you do want some exotic recipes there is everything from bacon bread to full milk chocolate bread. Like any good GitHub project, there is even a FAQ to help you figure out what you are doing wrong.
The thing that amused us in a good way was the hacker’s approach. It’s a scientific approach to figuring out what is working and what’s not with the process. We saw it a few years back when [Ben Krasnow] searched for the perfect cookie, and we want to see even more! Here’s another quote from [hendricius]:
All the recipes I provide have been A/B tested by myself with different variations. I encourage you to do the same. Try to recreate the same bread with only one parameter changing at the same time. Make notes and log all the different types bread you made. Slowly, bread by bread you will become better.
You will fail, in fact, you will fail often. With every fail, ask yourself what you could have done better. That’s how I have learned and still learn with every bread I make. That’s what I call The Bread Code.
Why not? If nothing else, this will cover the embarrassing faux pas when your significant other heard you needed a breadboard so they brought you one from Williams Sonoma. Besides, if you get tired of eating sourdough bread, you can always make it into a metal foundry.
If one eats a lot of bread, breadmakers aren’t a bad investment.
I got a breadmaker for free from a family member once. It was awesome. So awesome that I purchased a replacement when the original broke. It’s incredibly simple especially if you have a kitchen scale, and then it’s not only simple but you also don’t end up dirtying many dishes.
The only problem is that about ¼ of the slices are messed up at one edge where the beater was.
I never really minded that when I had a breadmaker. The issue for me was slicing them reasonably. I ended up with a lot of uneven cuts.
The smell of rye baking up is heavenly.
Anyone that owns an oven (my small studio unfortunately is without one) should try the classic Jim Lahey ‘no-knead’ recipe. Note rather than cast iron I’ve successfully done this with Pyrex with a lid, too, like a good lab scientist. *So* little ‘work’ just time and patience and yet *such good bread*.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread
The commercially available “slicing guides” work well if you seek relative uniformity in your bread slice thickness.
You could use a bread cutting machine like one of these:
https://www.amazon.de/brotschneidemaschine-klappbar/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Abrotschneidemaschine%20klappbar
It gets perfectly cut slices and as a kid I liked to think of this as my personal circular saw.
Yep. It’s why I made my own slicing guide for the electric knife. https://imgur.com/ZgQ5pmK
One word: bandsaw.
@Clara: Mine must have a smaller beater because it only messes up two slices. In addition to that, you can actually just take the beater out after the last knead cycle. Problem solved. Alternatively I’ve also used a stone bread pan to bake the kneaded dough in the oven. You don’t even need to wash to stone bread pan either.
I never thought of taking out the beater!
Thanks!
I eat bread even with my roasted potatoes, but to be honest breadmakers cannot make bread as good as the handmade ones. They are convenient tho.
I make bread often, ever since I’ve stopped programming I have enough time to cook :-)
A breadmaker is just a mixer and an oven in the same machine. You can make identical bread with a beefy mixer and any oven. You get more control too, that’s why people say you bread machine bread isn’t as good as the ‘real’ deal. I make bread a couple of times a month and since I got a proper mixer it’s just as easy to make, but comes out nicer.
I bake a lot of bread, and my wife recently took the bread maker to Goodwill because I’ve been always using either the Kitchenade mixer or a cheap food processor to make the dough instead.
My favourite recipe is beer bread.. 1kg self raising flour, 1 quart cheap beer & 4 tablespoons brown sugar..
Which reminds me…
Just about any drinkable fluid can be used in pancake batter, including beer.
no love for the spaghetti ?
… where the spaghetti meets the breadboard is where the rat’s nest lay, and dont burn my chips!