Breadmaking - recipes, hints, tips, questions

madmary_2

sonastin wrote: »

I have the same problem. My best effort yet involved initially having the oven higher (230) for a much shorter period (I can't remember if it was 10 or 15 minutes) and then down to 200 for the rest of his whole cooking time (I think its about 45min in total from memory - haven't got the recipe to hand). The crust around the top was still measurably thick but at least it wasn't black and there was some signs of a crust forming across the bottom on that attempt.

I might just try that. I will have to wait a while before I can attempt more breadmaking as I rarely have the hours required to do this without interruption.

Mary

sonastin

madmary wrote: »

I might just try that. I will have to wait a while before I can attempt more breadmaking as I rarely have the hours required to do this without interruption.

Mary

I have that problem too!

madmary_2

sonastin wrote: »

I have that problem too!

I got called out by the office landlord over Easter to see to the fire alarm whilst my bread was on the second prove and I blame him for the terrible disaster that was meant to be my bread.

Mary

mellymoo74

Grouchy wrote: »

Was wondering if such a thread existed and then suddenly I noticed it today and had a good read and got some tips from other posters. Grand.

I'm fairly new at home breadmaking and still experimenting and improving I hope with savoury rustic breads and wholewheat loaves.

I usually mix the dough in a breadmaker (ancient and starting to go home) and then do the rest myself (don't like the bread made in the breadmaker myself).

Favourite recipe for classic white bloomer so far is in fact one of the simplest.

500g strong white flour
2 tsp salt (I use coarse sea salt, v tasty)
2 tsp quick yeast
320 ml cold water (cold if proving overnight, the usual warm water if doing in a morning)
1 tbsp olive oil

I also spritz the top with water and sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds just before baking which is nice too.
Doing it all on the same day works well, but a much better taste and better openish texture when it is proved overnight in the fridge, taken out in the morning, knocked back, shaped and left to rise for 30-60 minutes depending on temp in kitchen.

I tried various versions using sugar but didn't like the sweet tinge to the bread so have cut that out completely with no downside I can see. Also tempted to try replacing olive oil with a good sunflower oil to see if that is good...

Cheers

I have this prooving in the fridge gonna top wirh cheese will let you know

mellymoo74

Right its gping in the oven wish me luck!

mellymoo74

Crust tastes lovely isnt as heavy as previous attempts but its a bit tasteless what can i do to improve the taste?

Grouchy

Well I'm glad you have a partial success! About the taste ... what kind of flour are you using? And how much salt and what kind of salt? and good quality sunflower oil or similar used? (The recipe you quote was updated later in this thread, replacing the olive oil with sunflower as I found the olive oil gave it an oily taste).

That's all I can think of that might be affecting taste at the moment.

Look forward to hearing from you.

mellymoo74

I used normal vegetable oil and table salt trying again today going to use sunflower oil and sea salt see what that does.
It wasnt bad crust was good texture was good it was a bit bland is all maybe sea salt will make the difference.

My plan is to get this right then start adding chopped fresh herbs (savory or garlic chives)

Thank you for you help
Oh the flour was tescos bread making the rise was good .

Popperwell

Back to attempting HM bread and learning again as I am down the sourdough route...

Question please...well a couple really...thanks for any help...

I have some self raising and plain flour in the house to use up, can it be used for bread making? I now buy strong white/wholemeal flour...

And I started my starter using the flour, water and grapes method as shown on Paul Hollywood's series...

When you feed the starter do you have to keep adding grapes or is that just in the initial stage? Do you remove the original grapes eventually? As I assume they'll have no goodness left in them and they'll just rot?

Its new to me. In the past my bread has been reasonable but a bit heavy...

iammumtoone

Hi

I hope I am positing this is the right place. I recently got a bread maker (charity shop find ) I want to make some wholemeal bread, and the recipe states to help it rise use a vit C tablet.

I have looked at the Vit C tablets and all the ones I found had artificial sweeteners in them. One of the main reasons I want to make my own is because it is healthier, it kinds of defeats the object if I start putting sweeteners into it (I try to avoid these in anything).

Anyone have any other suggestions to help it rise or know where I can buy vit C tablets without added sweeteners. I would rather go back to buying shop brought wholemeal otherwise

many thanks