I have a friend. He likes to make bread. His recipe is simple. I like to bake. All the facts were leading to one conclusion, I should make bread.
The problem I have with bread making, the waiting. You have to make the dough and then LEAVE IT for 18-24 hours. Thats a problem. I am an instant satisfaction type of person, so I asked him if he thought that there was a way to make it, without that whole waiting time. Slow cooker maybe? Well, we thought no, but a few days later, he came across this and sent it my way.
So here we go, embarking on a new adventure. Can you make bread in a slow cooker? Yes. Will it take some trial and error, I believe so.
Here's my first attempt at bread.
INGREDIENTS /
¼ tsp. yeast
3 cups flour
1½ tsp. salt
1½ cups water
In a large bowl, mix together your dry ingredients. Add the water, and mix. It will get super sicky and be pretty wet.
After I gave it a good mix, I washed and dried my hands and floured them to form the shape. Place it in the center of a piece of floured wax paper that will cover the interior of your slow cooker.
Place the loaf, on the wax paper, in your slow cooker on HIGH. I set the timer for 1 hour initially, but after checking, saw it was no where near done. Mine stayed in the cooker for about 3 hours. Every 30 minutes I checked it, and saw that the edges and bottom where cooking, but the center was staying quite mushy.
After 3 hours, this is what she looked like. Not looking too hot to me either, but it didn't appear to be changing with more time, so I thought remove it.
The Kitchn gave some tip, that I should have followed, the man one being the temperature check, but I left the thermometer on my desk and work and really wanted to give this a try!
I popped it in the broiler, on high, for about 5 minutes to get a crispy outside. Was looking pretty good after this!
Then the real test came, what the HELL does it look like on the inside?! Doesn't look too bad, but it is not great.
The interior was spongy and very dough-like. It def. did not cook properly. Although the taste isn't bad, the texture is way off, and not what you would expect bread to feel like.
I sent some pics to the friend who gave me his recipe, and he thinks (and I consider him my bread expert) that there was not enough gluten formed. When you bake bread, the normal way, the time the dough sits prior to going in the oven allows the gluten to form. In this case, we didn't allow that process to happen because we were slow cooking it. He recommends allow it to rise for a bit before slow cooking it.
We are going to consider this a FAIL this time around... Although...
I stuck the slices in the toaster for a bit, and slathered some blackberry jam on them and they weren't bad! I refuse to toss this out, so I will just toast it and cover it with something delish... so maybe it wasn't a COMPLETE FAIL (but yes, it is a fail, and I'm ok with that).
I am going to give this slow cooking process another try, but also try out some loafs in the oven, and yes, I will be patient and allow the dough to rise. Ugh. I hate waiting.
Have you ever tried baking bread? How about in the slow cooker Any luck?