Her indoors has been complaining that shop bought bread has been giving her irritable bowl syndrome, so we have been experimenting with home made bread.
Firstly we borrowed a bread maker, it was ok, but the loaf was a silly size and shape, i detest the hole in the bottom of the bread making a portion of it useless, the bread maker takes up a lot of room when its not being used, and it was a distinctly soulless and boring process.
So I progressed to completely 100% hand made bread, and it works really well and tastes great.
500g strong bread flower (I use wholemeal)
8gm Dried yeast
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
2 tablespoons of dried milk powder (marvel)
300 ml of carbonated water ( I use peligrino)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl
pour the olive oil in the water
make a dip in the dry ingredients then pour in the oil water mix.
Mix the ingredients thoroughly, adding up to two tablespoons of water if required to get everything mixed.
Use hands to get the dough mixed into a ball in the bowl, then tip out onto a floured board
and kneed for a full ten minutes, stretching the dough and repeatedly folding over.
*place dough in loaf tin, and allow to prove for an hour or till it doubles in size
knock back the dough, then allow to prove again for an hour or till it doubles in size.
In the oven at 200c for 30 minutes. Tip out of tin onto a grid to cool.
Bingo - superb bread, and such a fabulous feeling making your own bread by hand.
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Presumably the "large bowl" you used was no longer irritable :-)
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blame the e on the keyboard
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>> Her indoors has been complaining that shop bought bread has been giving her irritable bowel
>> syndrome,
She needs a Mebeverine 135 mg tablet 20 minutes before eating, and plenty of roughage.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Fri 3 Aug 12 at 15:04
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I mean to add at the * mark. cut it into 8 parts to make rolls.
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Fresh yeast is better for the flavour of the finished product.
Most of our bread is home-made, except for bread bought specifically for toasting (ALDI Village Bakery,(in the green wrapper) thick sliced @ £0.49 is the canine's testes for this).
Fresh yeast can be bought at the in-store bakery counters of TESCO & Sainsbury's, by weight, but the best, for keeping, is the pre-packed in foil, from Morrison's dairy chiller counters.
Sainsbury's own label strong white & wholemeal flour is fine: no need to buy the expensive Hovis or Allisons brands.
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Kneading? Waste of time. Just let it sit for a bit longer - takes a bit of planning as you have to leave it. Why do you use san pellegrino?
I make my own sourdough bread, and delicious it is too. Gives the sort of loaves that you pay £5 for. Also, because you're using live yeast, you don't have to buy yeast.
My recipe. Take a large mixing bowl and add a spoonful of sourdough starter (it lives on organic rye flour). 200g flour, (you can use whatever type you like; ordinary white flour is fine, or add more interesting flours) 400g water. Whisk together, cover and leave for 12 hours at room temperature.
Then, add 466g flour and some salt - 2-5g, according to taste. Oil if you fancy. Knead it for 10 seconds until it's all combined. Oil your basin and put the dough in.
Leave for 12 hours at room temperature. Tip onto floured surface very gently. You have spent a long time developing a relationship with the bread, don't 'knock' it. Fold the outsides to the insides quickly until it looks like a round loaf. Put into a proving basket to prove.
Turn the oven onto maximum and place a decent-sized Le Creuset or similar inside it. Leave until oven is hot. Take out pot, shut oven door, lift lid, drop dough in, spray with water from a spray bottle, put lid on put in oven. (It won't have doubled in size, that doesn't matter, it will rise like crazy whilst cooking because of "oven spring" in the steamy atmosphere.)
Cook for 30 minutes; turn down heat to 160; at 35 minutes take lid off; cook further 15-20 mins. then yum. And it's cheap as chips - over two loaves out of a 60p pack of flour.
If you like it to taste sourer, do 24 hours for the first stage, the first half in the 'fridge.
A bit like this, actually.
www.thelondoner.me/2012/06/no-knead-crusty-bread.html
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>> bit of planning as you have to leave it. Why do you use san pellegrino?>
The bubbles make the bread rise higher, and it gives it a slightly sulphurous taste
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I (as in me) bought a Panasonic bread machine some 6 years ago (I'm on me 2nd one)
Everyone said I'd soon get 'fed' up wivvit, but I ain't bought shop bread since!
My recipe isn't a million smiles away from yours really Z:
1 Ib of Marriage's orgasmic strong wholemeal flour
1 oz (to toughen it up) of Doves wholegrain Spelt flour
2 tsp of Celtic seasalt (the course grey stuff)
350ml of H2O
1 tbs of extra virgins oil
And that's it - no blimmin milk or white death in it innit
ps ... and about 3/4 tsp of Allinson's easy bake yeast
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I used to assist my grandmother when she made bread.
From memory it was just flour, water and yeast.
She used real yeast which she used to 'start' on the lukewarm part of the Rayburn.
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>> she used to 'start' on the lukewarm part of the Rayburn<<
Nice! - simple is best really, like beer = water, malted barley, hops and yeast.
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I can only speak from experience of using a breadmaker, but it does make you wonder what they put in shop bought bread, when home made stuff deteriorates noticeably after just a day, no matter how carefully you store it.
I love eating home baked bread when it's still warm. Doesn't need butter or anything on it. It's delicious as is.
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I use a ceramic bread bin DP, keeps it fresh for 3 days no prob.
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>> Doesn't need butter or anything on it. It's delicious as is.
I had a bread maker but got rid when we were selling/decluttering the last house because (a) I'd have to store it and (b) didn't use it much.
I really liked the bread I made with it and so did others. But it didn't keep well, i.e. didn't taste as good for long. And yes it was good on it's own but it had plenty of good ingredients etc.
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My father took to making bread in retirement. He was a dab hand at meat pies and puddings too. My foodie daughter makes bread regularly, although it is often sourdough or something. Very good though and keeps for several days in a bin.
While warm bread can be nice on its own, surely I am not the only person who thinks it's even better with butter?
Looking forward with slight trepidation to passing through France at the end of this month. The French have taken to complaining that baking - professional baking that is - is a declining profession and more and more baguettes are made from mass-produced preserved and frozen dough, just slammed in the oven by the baker.
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I use a ceramic bread bin...
Glazed or not, Canis? Sounds like what we could do with.
Like Z, I object to the shape of a breadmaker loaf and the hole in the bottom, so I use the machine for the initial mixing and rising, then knock back the dough by hand, shape it, prove it and bake it in the proper oven. Less energy-efficient, no doubt, but it makes a cracking loaf with very little mess and excellent repeatability.
Only drawback is that stuff tends to start growing inside the machine, so it needs to bake a loaf occasionally to sterilize itself.
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>>Only drawback is that stuff tends to start growing inside the machine, - Yuk! Stilton bread!
Look at a Bakers hands, - nothing under the fingernails there either!
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We use a glazed bread bin Beestie, and I clean it every time I put fresh bread in it, to guard against spores.
The hole caused by the paddle doesn't bother me, unless it sticks to the bread making an even bigger hole.
Bread made with Doves Spelt flour is yummy, especially served warm and buttered, it makes a compact (as in small) and quite dense loaf, so you wouldn't want to scoff too much of it.
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A food lecturer told me wholemealflour has by law to be free of additives. White can have stacks of additives.
By the way, why can't our bakers make a proper baguette? What they sell is that in shape only and nothing like the delicious, crusry French type.
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so I use the machine for the initial mixing and rising, then knock
>> back the dough by hand, shape it, prove it and bake it in the proper
Get yourself a decent Kenwood Chef - it comes with a dough hook! (It does other stuff, too!)
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Here we go again:)
I hang around here because I can't hack the chat on Housewives.com you know.
I'm off for a delightful morning with some lorry drivers where we'll discuss sensible things like who's having it away with who, and the best way to annoy cyclist!
Pat
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>> like who's having it away with who,
Lot of blue light lorries parked outside today then pat?
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My (indeed any) sourdough doesn't go off - lasts 3/4 days. I tend to leave it out for the first 48 hours (so it doesn't go soggy) and then put it in a plastic bag (so it doesn't go hard) until it's eaten.
If anybody would like some of my sourdough starter, £5 donation to Help for Heroes and I'll send you some. You can make your own starter, capturing wild yeasts, but it's a bit hit-and-miss; the flavours can sometimes be strange, and not all yeasts seem to be as active as others. Mine came from an artisan baker.
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I've been thinking about making some of that sourdough stuff for some time as it happens but, I don't support what our boys are doing in the middle east so, would a donation to Hamas or the PLO suffice?
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>> I've been thinking about making some of that sourdough stuff for some time as it
>> happens but, I don't support what our boys are doing in the middle east so,
>> would a donation to Hamas or the PLO suffice?
No, its Hovis from the co-op for you.
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..., I don't support what our boys are doing in the middle east...
Guy gets his leg blown off under orders, I'm not going to say: "I will not support you unless I am satisfied the limb went the journey in circumstances of which I approve."
I just support our boys.
Last edited by: Iffy on Sat 4 Aug 12 at 09:25
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@ Dog: Not even tongue in cheek, is that comment acceptable or funny. :-(
Last edited by: Roger on Sat 4 Aug 12 at 09:57
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ive been making my own bread for about 14 years, i mix half white and half wholemeal flour, about 600g....then i add the yeast sachet a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of olive oil
mix well and kneed , then let stand for 40 mins....then knock it back and split into two smallish loaves ....rest again for another 40 mins.....then 30 mins at regulo 8 ( 230 degs) bobs your uncle
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So you obviously don't kneed a bread machine then beekeeper.
:}
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Surprised RP has not contributed to this thread - he was very keen on his Panasonic breadmaker a while ago.
Come on Rob, admit it, it's in the back of the cupboard, isn't it?
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Probably outside bolting mirrors to his new scooter.
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And a Union Jack on the end of a two-metre whippy aerial.
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No very much still in use. My wife made a comment on Zero's on losing a whole portion to the "hole" still can't work that one out. Must be an a.n.other make of bread maker.
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...No very much still in use...
Good effort, must be a year or more.
Fully agree about the taste, I'd bake some myself but don't want to get addicted, so it's bleached stodge for me.
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Nearly two years now iffy . Tempus Fugit.....
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...Nearly two years now iffy...
Same machine?
Pretty good if it's been used three or four times a week.
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bread machines ...more trouble than there worth....all the cleaning and wotnot....it easier to mix it by hand ...5 mins max, and it tastes better, i dont use tins either to cook the bread in....just a greased baking tray
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We'll give it a try ZK - the Panasonic is easy to clean, the bucket comes out and remains pretty clean.....the paddle needs a wash (wot makes the hole).
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You can use the bread maker to do the kneading but I inherited by Grandma's Kenwood mixer which has a kneading attachment. One doesn't do manual work.
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"One doesn't do manual work."
Certainly not. We have an excellent traditional baker just down the road. Buy bread once a week and put it in the freezer. Have made bread in the past but quite honestly nor really worth the faffing about. Bakers do it so much better.
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>> We'll give it a try ZK - the Panasonic is easy to clean, the bucket
>> comes out and remains pretty clean.....the paddle needs a wash (wot makes the hole).
I thought yours didnt make a hole?
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Only a tiny one. Just been set up for a dawn loaf tomorrow.
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bread making - Dulwich Estate
