BreadMaker Four - What else can I use

What is bought bread like wherever you are? Is it similar to in the UK? If so there is likely to be strong flour available. If you can only get all purpose flour then why not give it a try? I think Squeaky uses plain flour anyway.

Waitrose Strong Canadian Wheat Flour (White or Wholemeal) produces a good result every time.

Can I ask where you're based? The predominant source of carbohydrate might point you to which flours might be suitable.

My DH travels quite extensively in the Far East, where there is no tradition of eating bread. They have a rice and noodle based diet. Is there a *noodle* flour available?

Successful bread needs a *strong* flour with a high proportion of gluten, a protein that allows the loaf to rise. *Soft* flour (used for cakes and pastry) has a lower proportion of gluten.

Penny. x

Bog standard plain flour works just fine. It's low in gluten compared to strong bread flour so you'd need to set your breadmaker to "whole wheat" settings to get more rise time even if you're making a "standard" sort of loaf.

Vitamin C tablets crushed into your dry ingredients can help. It depends on their size and content, but if one doesn't do the trick then try two next time.

But the very *best* way to make bread when using cheap plain flour is...

a) potato water

or

b) rice water.


Just save the water that you've boiled potatoes or rice in and portion it out into the amounts you use for a loaf and by all means freeze any spare portions.

You don't need tablets. You WILL need to keep an eye on your first loaf or two because it rises really well and so may overflow the bread pan!

It makes lovely bread and absolutely brilliant bread rolls