Bread

[Jason Wilson and Family]

I am reveling in the smell and taste of the first good crusty loaf I've had in years! Made it using the recipe here http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/569071 and despite a little mistake (okay a rather good mistake involving accidentally cooking part of the bread by leaving it in too warm a place to rise) it came out perfect.

 

I'm so happy SWMBO and mum both agree we're eatign fresh bread from here out.

 

Now it leaves me wondering what other breads can I make. Any good british recipes drifting about (have I asked this before?)? Especially missing Sainsbury's Tiger Loaf.

 

 

Oh if only you could smell it.

Edited August 23, 2008 by Jason Wilson and Family

[Catrin]

I'm so happy ...

 

Oh if only you could smell it.

Right that's it.... time to go and make some dough.

 

I regularly make bread, both by hand and also with a bread machine - it tastes so good.

Yesterday while out shopping we bought some rolls in Sainsburys because we were so hungry. Yuck!!! Well done Jason, shop bought bread is mostly disgusting, the only 'virtue' it has is convenience.

Cath

[Troll]

I love fresh bread, who doesnt?

 

Can any body give me any advice on these bread makers, I mean can you buy the mix ready made or do you have to add the correct ingrediants?

 

I often make bread the hard slow way but it is just that, slow

[bottle]

All breadmakers come with their own recipe books for different loaves/dough etc.

 

Basic ingredients: yeast, flour, sugar, milk powder, salt and water.

[alan_fincher]

Basic ingredients: yeast, flour, sugar, milk powder, salt and water.

And butter, usually.....

[bottle]

Thanks Alan

 

Yes did miss the butter.

[Catrin]

Can any body give me any advice on these bread makers, I mean can you buy the mix ready made or do you have to add the correct ingrediants?

Although I often make bread by hand, when I'm short of time I use the bread maker. In fact, buying the breadmaker made me realise how easy bread making is.

 

It arrived with a booklet of recipes, of which I have maybe half a dozen favourites (I'm unlikely to need to make gluten free bread), and a few others that I've tried. I have never yet bought a mix - I wouldn't know what to do with it, and it would probably introduce a whole load of other unnecessary ingredients like anti-oxidants, preservatives. I just weigh out the yeast, flour, butter, salt, water, etc and put them into the pan.

 

I set it up last thing at night (5 minutes maximum), set the timer and arrive downstairs to a fresh loaf in the morning. It's proper bread, made without the "Chorleywood Process" that makes so much supermarket bread taste like sticky cotton wool. It isn't instant, you can't bung the ingredients in and get something out in half an hour - you do need to plan ahead. For my favourite wholemeal it needs 5 hours and a white loaf is 4 hours (although there are rapid bake programs). Remember also that you need to let it cool a bit before you try to slice it.

 

A friend had a small breadmaker that never got used because it didn't make loaves big enough for the family. We tend to make the 'medium' sized loaf in our breadmaker (500 grammes of flour) for the four of us.

 

If you want more than a basic loaf, look at the breadmakers that add other ingredients from a 'hopper' during the dough mixing process - spiced fruit loaf, honey and sunflower, etc.

Cheers

Cath

[pwl]

We have had a Panasonic bread maker for over 10 years (recently upgraded to make fruit breads). Not used it on the boat though. It is rated 230V 550 W. All bread makers come with their own recipe book but there are two other books (try Amazon) Electric Bread ISBN 0-9629831-7-9 and More Electric Bread ISBN 0-9629831-6-0. You dont need to use pre-mix but you do have to be accurate when measuring ingredients and use the tsp/tabsp measures they include asmost use american measures. Process time is normally 3, 4 or 5 hours depending on which bread you are making. Lakeland sell a bread improver which adds extra gluten which will lighten a wholemeal loaf if you like a lighter bread. If you can leave your inverter on overnight they normally have a timer and there is nothing nicer than the smell of fresh bread first thing in the morning. They also have a dough mode so you can make croissants, pizza bases, buns etc. finishing in the oven.

 

P

Edited August 24, 2008 by pwl

[NBMike]

I remember once buying bread in France, where they still do it properly, and walking back to the Youth Hostel. I thought I'll just nibble a bit while its warm. Well it was about 3/4 mile back to the hostel and by the time I got there all I had left was the hollow crust.

[Catrin]

I was inspired by Jason to go and do some baking:

 

Miniature granary loaves

 

Poppy seed rolls

 

I have made traditional crumpets in the past, but the last time I did it I put the batter in the airing cupboard to rise, and got slightly delayed going to get it when the timer went off. The resulting gloop had dripped through several layers and covered towels, bedding etc in a thick glutinous mass which took enormous amounts of washing to remove. On the other hand, the flavour is massively better than the crumpets available in the supermarket.

 

I am totally with NBMike about the bread in France, they still use traditional methods, and the bread tastes quite different to the 'french stick/baguette' available in the UK.

Cheers

Cath

[moggyjo]

Why do they take so long? 550watts for 5 hours would be a big drain on power for me.

Whenever I have tried to make bread, its come out like rock cake

Has anyone ever used a kneading machine and then just put the loaf in the oven? would the bread come out more like using a bread maker?

[Catrin]

Whenever I have tried to make bread, its come out like rock cake

Has anyone ever used a kneading machine and then just put the loaf in the oven? would the bread come out more like using a bread maker?

You can do this, I have done it when making pizza dough, but nowadays I prefer to just do it by hand or with a hand mixer with dough hooks if I'm feeling lazy. I quite often make bread by hand on the boat, which comes out fine, although I've never yet tried making a massive loaf - I tend to do rolls or a couple of smaller loaves - and of course pizza.

 

With bread it is important that you get the amount of water right, and you do need to allow the dough to rise in a warm place, but it isn't difficult. If you are using 100% wholemeal flour it is a good idea to put in about a quarter of a teaspoon of Vitamin C to help it to rise otherwise it can be a bit dense, but it shouldn't be like a rock cake.

 

When I was first hand baking I used to use the recipes from the bread machine booklet, which helped me to get some confidence. Now I've got a couple of books and use recipes from those.

 

The book Dough, by the Frenchman Richard Bertinet comes with a 30 minute DVD to help you through some of the basics. Although this is quite expensive I have seen it reduced to £7 in some of the cheap bookshops selling 'remainders'.

This is it at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dough-Richard-Bert...2410&sr=1-1

 

Cheers

Cath

[bottle]

Why do they take so long? 550watts for 5 hours would be a big drain on power for me.

Whenever I have tried to make bread, its come out like rock cake

Has anyone ever used a kneading machine and then just put the loaf in the oven? would the bread come out more like using a bread maker?

 

It is not much different to hand making if you take the standing time into consideration.

 

It is not continuous, I have not checked the total consumption but it is all thermostatically controlled and the first hour is just warming the wholemeal flour.

 

If making 'white' the time is four hours as there is not the warming period.

 

There are also 'quick' recipes that take a much shorter time.

[Jason Wilson and Family]

@moggyjo, if you're worried about power consumption, you're better off doing it by hand. Then you're only looking at 30 minutes... you could make a loaf while youre plugged in at a water point.

 

 

Right so theoretically, I should be able to make crusty rolls out of the same recipe? The cooking time will be a bit shorter though right?

Edited August 24, 2008 by Jason Wilson and Family

[Catrin]

Right so theoretically, I should be able to make crusty rolls out of the same recipe? The cooking time will be a bit shorter though right?

Should be, I use the same recipe for rolls as larger loaves, and yes, the cooking time should be shorter - although I don't know a formula for shortening the cooking time. The small granary loaves I did took about 12-15 minutes (I can't remember exactly, I checked them after about 10 minutes and then bunged them back in for a bit longer). The poppy seed rolls, which are twists of the same granary dough and some plain white dough took exactly 10 minutes. I was using a fan oven at slightly over 200 degrees C if that helps you at all.

 

Although I was absolutely rubbish at 'cookery' at school (I was the only girl ever to get thrown out of both 'cookery' and 'needlework' permanently for complete ineptitude - and they didn't let girls do woodwork or metalwork, so I sat at the back of the lessons studying astronomy!) I do remember being taught to turn loaves over and pat them lightly on the base. You get a sort of hollow, 'drum', sound when they are ready.

 

Happy baking! Let us see the results.

Cath

[Jason Wilson and Family]

Will do, I got up this morning to the smell of the last of my bread coming from the toaster (must learn to wake up earlier than SWMBO) so now I've got two loaves in where I've substituted 250g of whole wheat flour and I've got another lot of white rising to make rolls out of.

 

 

... so much for trying to lose weight... perhaps I can stick to bread and water.

[Jason Wilson and Family]

That's todays baking done...

 

 

 

 

Now to decide if I'm going to be nice enough to take some in to w!rk...

Edited August 24, 2008 by Jason Wilson and Family

[Catrin]

Jason,

What can I say!!! RESPECT!!! Those are INDUSTRIAL quantities - goodness, that looks good.

 

Cheers

Cath

PS - we've eaten all ours, but I have made some bread for the family PICNIC tomorrow (if the Bank Holiday weather holds). Bread, treacle tart, crisps, and kite flying!!!

[Chris J W]

Excellent programme on the BBC on Monday ... The Hairy Bakers

[pwl]

Why do they take so long? 550watts for 5 hours would be a big drain on power for me.

Whenever I have tried to make bread, its come out like rock cake

Has anyone ever used a kneading machine and then just put the loaf in the oven? would the bread come out more like using a bread maker?

 

550W will be the max drain when baking. In the early stages they just mix every few minutes then sit doing nothing. I cant answer why the process is longer than hand made but it works well.

 

P

[Chickadee]

I've had varying sucsess with my bread. I have baked rocks to, which the ducks were most unimpressed with. Yesterday I made bread while pottering around doing other stuff on the boat. I left it with cling on infront of the window that had the sun coming through it. It rose perfectly!

I don't use butter I use oil instead. Its great for kneeding the bread with as it doesnt stick to your hands.

 

I hate bread makers after four disasters with my parents bread maker I gave up and went back to hand. I don't have a mixer on the boat so I do cakes, bread, soups etc all by hand.

[Yoda]

The outcome of making bread, changes every day.

[stickleback]

I tend to bake a "sourdough" bread - naturally leavened. It's not a quick loaf, like yeasted bread, but I love it.

 

 

There might be a picture here - if supermalc's instructions work!!!

 

Stickleback

 

They did work! I'm most impressed - I find "techy" things a real problem. There's a jar of sweet pickled oranges to the right too, I see.

 

Stickleback

[Jamboat]

I tend to bake a "sourdough" bread - naturally leavened. It's not a quick loaf, like yeasted bread, but I love it.

 

 

There might be a picture here - if supermalc's instructions work!!!

 

Stickleback

 

They did work! I'm most impressed - I find "techy" things a real problem. There's a jar of sweet pickled oranges to the right too, I see.

 

Stickleback

 

Looks delicious ! Can you tell us the recipe please ?

[stickleback]

Looks delicious ! Can you tell us the recipe please ?

 

Here it is - do you also want a recipe for the starter? I've got one that worked well for me.

 

 

Bread Recipe.

 

 

Take 20 grams starter, 40 grams room temperature water, 40 grams white bread flour and stir together in a large bowl - using a metal spoon. Cover in cling film and leave 8 to 12 hours. (Using a large bowl means you can make the entire recipe in the one bowl...) Best to do this in the morning...

 

After 7 - 12 hours, add 100 grams white bread flour and 100 grams water, stir together. Leave for 8 to 12 hours, covered in cling film. (If step one is done in the morning, then this stage can sit overnight)

 

Add 270 grams water and 450 grams flour (I use 250 grams wholemeal, 100 white and the rest is made up of kamut, spelt and rye) and 10 grams salt. Mix together well - either with hands, or a spoon. You want to get the flour wet and hopefully have very few lumps - it will make a shaggy rough dough. Cover and leave for 10 minutes.

 

Lightly oil hands and the work surface. Turn out the dough, stretch to a flattish oblong and fold up into 3 as though folding a letter to go into an envelope. Leave it while you wash, dry and lightly oil the bowl. Scrape up dough, put in bowl, cover in cling film and leave for 10 minutes

 

Tip dough out, stretch, fold in three again, put back in bowl, cover and leave - you want to do this three times, then do the same stretch and fold but leave 30 minutes between and do this three times also. It saves any vigourous kneading and results in an excellent texture. Then leave to double in size - if the process has begun about 9.00 a.m. this could well be by 2 or 3 pm.

 

Now flour the work surface. If you want a round loaf (boule) then take a linen tea towel (keep this just for bread and never wash it!) Put the tea towel in a large colander or bowl and flour the cloth liberally . Tip the dough onto the floured work surface and very gently form into a ball by tucking the edges under, rotating, tucking edges under etc - you want to develop the surface tension of the dough while not deflating it too much. Put in the bowl, on the floured cloth. Cover and leave to double. Possibly ready by 5.00 pm depending on the warmth of the kitchen.

 

Two methods to choose from here. Either take a large le creuset casserole, heat in oven to maximum temp. Take out of oven, take off lid, carefully tip dough into le creuset, replace lid, put in oven. After 25 minutes, take off lid and bake for a further 20 / 25 minutes. OR gently tip dough onto non stick baking tray, slash a cross into the top with a serrated bread knife and put into unheated oven, switch on to full (about 220C) and bake for about 50 minutes. This is a greener method but doesn't result in quite such a perfect shape - but works very well and I often do it this way.

 

If using the le creuset, then when you put the shaped loaf in the floured cloth to rise, put it in with the seam side DOWN. If using the cold oven method, then put the dough into the floured cloth seam side UP.