Making bread

[Mrs Trackman]

Update on my bready voyage of discovery.

 

The bread tin I ordered has still not arrived and the company (I'm not going to name them yet) have apologised for a cock up by the British manufacturer. Will report back after 10/10 when their next delivery is due.

 

In the absence of the high sided 2lb bread tin I've stuck to making (2X) 1lb loaves, but I've altered what I do. I am still using the breadmaker, but only as a mixer. Not only that, I run the mixing stage twice, with the lid up because of the mixers heater. I've stopped using butter altogether in the mix, tried rapeseed oil but am now using Spanish olive oil (1 tablepoon) plus 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil, I may experiment with the oil and reverse the quantities halve the olive and double the sesame. The Spanish oil (Sainsbury) is very good. The toasted sesame oil I bought for making Tiger bread, but started using it 'in the mix' because I love the taste. With 500g flour I use 320ml of water plus an extra 5-10 ml's before the second mix. This gives the gluten some 'proper' exercise. I cook 2 X 1lb tins at the same time at 200 degrees, but add X8 ice cubes (going to try 10 next time) immediately before putting the bread tins in, The resulting bread is brilliant. When the bread has cooled I cut each loaf in half and freeze it. 30 seconds in the microwave and the bread is as good as new.

 

I'm still looking forward to the new high sided bread tin and will open a new thread to review it. I am so looking forward to ditching my crappy Chinese rubbish!

Did the bread tins ever arrive? Any good?

[nicknorman]

I've been making bread rolls quite a lot now. However I always struggled with them retaining a nice spherical shape as, when proving under the clingfilm, the clingfilm tended to cling(!) and somewhat flatten the top. Anyway, just splashed out a small amount of dosh on some large plastic proving bags from ebay. A much better result! These ones are 50% multigrain flour, 50% white and topped with a variety of seeds. Each one is light as a feather (proved for nearly 2 hours).:

 

Untitled by nick.norman, on Flickr

 

Rolls by nick.norman, on Flickr

 

But, still using the bread machine to make the dough! It's just so much better at it than I am!

Edited September 2, 2014 by nicknorman

[Grace and Favour]

They look excellent Nick!