Mmm, Baking Bread

SummerHeat

Inspired by some posts I have read on here about home made bread, I have dusted off my barely used Kenwood Rapid Bake breadmaker and [STRIKE]bothered[/STRIKE] asked our local Asda bakery for some fresh yeast (big thanks to the MSE poster who posted about that tip ) and am waiting for the first basic white loaf to finish off.

I understand the fresh yeast should be stored in the fridge and used within a week OR frozen. If I freeze it in bits do I defrost over night in the fridge before putting in the bread maker ?

Any how off to see how things are going, smells nice mind

Then I need to find if there are recipes for making nan bread dough and carrot cake in a breadmaker.

zippychick

Hi Summerheat

Good luck with your first loaf! I remember how exciting it was

Using frozen fresh yeast in BM should offer you some help and suggestion

I don't know that you could make great nan or carrot cake in a BM to be honest.....

Carrot cake is SO EASY - it was the first one i ever made and literally is a piece of cake to make Here if you scroll down for the recipe , or there is a link here which shows her making the cake (only works in internet explorer for me ) There is no kneading, no complicated, just follow the instructions and you can't go wrong. The topping is the hardest bit IMO! And you don't even have to make it

I haven't mastered Nan bread but there is a recipe rocking about in here - thread here which discusses BM naan bread. There is also a recipe in here in the first post (from the Kris Dhillon book, curry secrets)

if you do try the Nan in the machine, let us know how it goes.

Andi f you try the carrot cake, i promise you - follow the instructions (do grease the tin and line etc) and it will (should) be perfect :j

That's the recipe that gave me the confidence to bake.

I'll merge this later
Zip

SummerHeat

Zippychick,

Thanks for the fab links. I truly am a terrible cook and managed to total fail to make a loaf in our bread maker. It was a burnt flat disaster, LOL.

So I am trying again, this time I activated the yeast in a bowl before adding to the rest of the ingredients.So we have a second attempt at a loaf in the bread maker on a long cycle and I'll see what happens this time.

I love carrot cake and think I'll be trying that recipe asap, glad it is an easy one.

zippychick

I am confident you aren't a terrible cook! It could be something as silly as putting the ingredients in in the wrong order/using a heaped measurement of an ingredient. honestly, so many possibilities. MOst machines have a suggested order for putting in stuffs. Silly question, but did you follow the ingredients to the letter?What went wrong with it?Were you using the recipe from the book?

Oh! Just read burnt flat disaster - oh dear! HM bread didn't rise - what can i do may help?

It might be yeast related ..... Hopefully someone else can come along and help too

The carrot cake is simply following a recipe! The important things for baking are follow the instructions and to measure things accurately. It's quite a wet sloppy mix which is deceiving but go with it.

Let us know how your second loaf goes!

Fresh yeast in BM may also offer help and suggestion

Re the cake - i don't use raisins and you don't necessarily need the nuts. I have subbed for brazil nuts which was nice. For the spices i usually use teaspoon of cinnamon and half a tsp or so of mixed spice. These alterations aren't changing the basic formula of the cake - they are simply additions to fancy it up. Sorry if I am teaching you to suck eggs - It's just no one ever explained this to me! :oAltering the flour or eggs or suagr etc would be a different matter

SummerHeat

Thanks for the hints on what you can/can not sub. I have messed with receipes before, something I suspect leads to my interesting results.

Sadly the second BM loaf was also a bit wrong. It had partly raised and then collapse on top so it was completely flat ! The yeast definitely was bubbly so that was active before we started, sigh. Well, I will not be defeated and I'll be having another go later today. Hopefully third time will be the dream, maybe I should try the dry yeast we use to use.

Farway

I would try with a packet of dry yeast before you give up

zippychick

SummerHeat wrote: »

Thanks for the hints on what you can/can not sub. I have messed with receipes before, something I suspect leads to my interesting results.

Sadly the second BM loaf was also a bit wrong. It had partly raised and then collapse on top so it was completely flat ! The yeast definitely was bubbly so that was active before we started, sigh. Well, I will not be defeated and I'll be having another go later today. Hopefully third time will be the dream, maybe I should try the dry yeast we use to use.

maybe the yeast was too active (is that a concept :rotfl:)

Don't give up, and the suggestion of trying dry yeast isn't a bad one at all. I've shamefully never used fresh!:eek:

SummerHeat

We have been visiting grandparents with the children today, so no baking but I will be having another go tomorrow with dry yeast. I used this BM before and I know it can make a decent loaf, so I will not be giving up.

zippychick

Thats the spirit. I had pretty good results with my BM when i had it, so they defo do the job!