Breadmaking - recipes, hints, tips, questions

bunbun2

thanks for the link popperwell, mine doesn't look that colour and texture. I might find a different recipe and see if the cooking times and temperatures are different. I decided to make it cos my dad said he likes sourdough bread so I thought I would make some for him - I have until the summer holidays to perfect it:D

Popperwell

BB2,
Its been suggested that we take temps and times for bread as a guide and that we may find that we can bake at a lower temp or not as long as a recipe says. And if bread is underdone it can be put back in the oven and baked for a while longer.

Also if you have skewer etc...you can insert and see if any dough sticks to it when it is removed which also means baking for longer.

I will dig out some websites with alternative recipes, cures for failures as there are some really good ones but it could be very late tonight before I get them posted online...

jayward

hi, can i share my bread recipe i make in bread machine i find it really good i use lidl or carrs flour as it was on offer but it is the best loaf i have ever made

1 cup water 250 plus extra 1 tablespoon water if using brown flour
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoons of salt
400gs of bread flour or 150 brown 250 white
1 teaspoons of yeast
Use wholemeal setting on machine even if making white bread
thought i must share this:)

Justamum

LocalAngel wrote: »

someone posted that you can buy vitamin C powder (not sure if it contains sweeteners or not) in some chemists and health food shops but you have to ask for it - they don't put it on the shelves because drug addicts use it to mix with their heroin or something.

I've started using vitamin c powder in my bread. I never used to, but I've found that I do get a nicer rise on the bread. You can get it in Holland Barrett and it's openly out on the shelves (I thought it was citric acid which you couldn't buy any more). Vitamin C is the active ingredient in that horrendously expensive dough improver you can buy from Lakeland - much cheaper to use powder though.

mellymoo74

Thanks Grouchy the sea salt made a difference
Now garlic chive cheese topped bread whatcha think?

lovefullshelves

Hi popperwell, I've had sourdough on the go for about three years now. (It arrived as a friendship cake called herman!) I always feed mine with normal plain flour but bake with strong flour. And I'll happily admit I make rolls instead of loaves most of the time (20 mins high temp, 10 mins lower) as its quicker! Leftover pasta sauce, ham, cheese, tomatoes, bacon, whatevers left in the fridge goes in to make "speciality" rolls or as OH says "what have you put in them this time?"
Shout if you need any ideas, sourdough garlic monkey bread is a good one, and cinnamon rolls are yummy! (Though I don't use the breadmaker now, I decided sticky hands and kneading were a good workout!

tronator

Popperwell wrote: »

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?

bunbun2 wrote: »

Popperwell I have just started making sourdough too. I have also used the Paul Hollywood starter and recipe. I have ignored the grapes so far but think I will remove them.

You only need the grapes for the yeast which sits on the skin. Once you have the starter, you don't need anything else apart from flour and water.

Here's my recipe for two 800g breads:

Feed your starter one hour before using it. I have a starter which is half water/half flour. I add 150g water and 150g flour, stir it in for a minute or so and cover again. After 1 hour I put 600g of my starter into a bowl and replenish the remaining starter with another 150g water and 150g flour, so that I end up with the same amount of starter as I had before, stir and put it back into the fridge.

Then I add 300g water, 20g salt and 20g sugar to the 600g starter I put in the bowl a minute ago, stir with a spoon, add 700g flour, keep stirring until it's too hard to continue and kneed until I get a soft dough. If the dough is too wet, add some flour, if it's too dry, add some water. Cover the bowl with cling film and let it raise for about 8 hours until it's doubled in size.

After 8 hours I grease two bread tins with oil, split the risen dough in two equal parts and kneed both of them for a minute or two, put them in the tins, sprinkle some semolina over it, cover with cling film and let it prove for 1 - 2 hours. After that, pre-heat the oven to 200C and put a baking tray on the lower shelf. When it reached 200C, slash the dough with a sharp knife or razor blade 2 or 3 time diagonally, add some water to the baking tray, put both tins in the oven and bake for about 35 minutes.

That's it. The result are two loaves with a nice crispy crust...

Popperwell

Here's one of the links I promised I would post.
There is a big section on problems and hopefully how to fix them...

http://artisanbreadbaking.com/

Thanks Lovefullshelves and Tronator...I haven't given up and have two more loaves at the starting point and that sounds worth a go. I will try and bake a white loaf and a wholemeal one this time and try to bake two in the oven at the same time.

mellymoo74

Just added a packet of wentworhs dried onions to the bloomer recipe made it wirh cold water and gave it 24 hours rising time topped with cheese and baked it is scrummy cost 80p to make but i used to buy obe that tasted dimilar for 1.50 so wooohooo.

ToryB_2

Hi everyone...I'm new to bread making but I'm after a recipe for soft bread rolls in the bread machine. I don't feel confident enough yet to adjust recipes so need an idiot proof one if anyone has one please?