Breadmaker £13.99

Lynsey

Just over 30 mins to go for my "cheap bread". It's risen ok, just below the lid. I never used any baking powder, may try a pinch the next time with the remaining flour (half bag left).
Taste time soon, so see if it tastes ok. This is my first non-packet mix loaf.

I used;

500g plain flour (Aldi's 28p)
300ml warm water
1tbsp sunflower oil
5 to 6g Sainsburys fast action dried yeast (just under 1 sachet)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt (maybe just a tad less)

Baked on setting 1, medium and 900g loaf setting.

Lynsey

sky101

Lynsey, you'll need to let me know how you get on. I've tried to make white bread in the bread maker on a number of occassions now and it's turned out a disaster. No idea where I'm going wrong as all my other bread turns out fine (wholemeal, granary etc).

I quite fancy trying to make jam in the bread maker but the instructions don't give you any advice on how to go about doing this. Does anyone have any insider knowledge?

mummyfrugal

Hi, in case anyone is interested my 8yr old did a 'banana' bread in the breadmaker, its more of a cake than a bread but still nice.

Recipe is

140ml or quarter pint of milk
1 egg
90g or 3oz of butter
pinch salt
3 small bananas mashed up (good way of using up over-ripe bananas)
half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
140g or 5oz caster sugar
400g or 14oz self raising flour

just pop in the bread pan and put on the cake setting, its tempting to want to switch it off before the end of time but ours turned out quite nice, the crust doesnt look nice but dont be put off it tastes lovely.

Serve sliced with butter.

Got this receipe from the Trawden Show - so thank you to whoever left copies of their receipe next to their display.

orangesmartie

ooh let us know how it tastes Lynsey - I have half a bag of plain flour to use up!

Lynsey

Well, it turned out fine as a loaf, just a little tasteless compared to the packets, which do seem strong.
But the basic recipe worked and maybe adding some flavour may help.
Should be ok though for toast etc., and approx. 20p per loaf.

Lynsey

Chia

123sonny123 wrote: »

I agree with you there - that's generally true for things that can be eaten in their 'natural' state.

For example, vegetables. A lot of them contain vitamins and minerals and can be eaten raw or cooked. But, OVERcooking them kills the nutrients.

However bread flour cannot be eaten raw. It has to be cooked to it's optimal state. And the authors believe the optimal state is when more time is taken. Not lots of time but enough time.

Most mass produced loaves (using the Chorleywood process) use an excess of yeast and mechanical means to try and get air into the dough quickly to short cut the proving time. They also shorten the expensive cooking time which is why these loaves are often very wet and you can almost compress them back to dough form. People are eating unfermented undercooked dough...which is why people have wheat intolerances and toasters are so popular.

The books I browsed through are:

Bread Matters - Why and How to Make Your Own - A Whitley
Dough - Richard Bertinet
Bread - Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno

Bread Matters by A Whitley is the one to read as he is very passionate about the state of bread in our country at the mo. Just read the first 30-40 pages and you'll see what I mean.

- note that they are not for breadmakers but I still read them to get a good background. Most are quite scientific and go deep into 'bread culture', rather than just offer page after page of recipes with fancy photos.

They have given me the confidence to make 'proper' hand made bread in the near future.

Thanks for taking the time to post this - very interesting! I didn't know that was why some commercial loaves are so 'wet'. Also hadn't heard about the proposed connection between intolerances and undercooked bread. I do know that wholemeal is apparently healthier than white due to the quicker release of sugars from the white flour, etc, so I'm going to try to pick up some wholemeal flour tonight and see what I can make.

great_aunt_gill

Lynsey wrote: »

Tomorrow I'm going to try out Aldi's 28p flour to see how it goes and to compare.
Obviously not "proper" bread flour, so the birds may get a feast, or it might turn out fine.
Anyone else tried "cheap" flour yet??

Lynsey

Hi I have tried this in the past but I made a brick,you can get strong bread flour in lidl for 60p and its great ,

Lynsey

great_aunt_gill wrote: »

Hi I have tried this in the past but I made a brick,you can get strong bread flour in lidl for 60p and its great ,

Lol. Your surname isn't Barratt is it??
I'll try better flours now, just wanted to try out as cheaply as possible to see if it worked, and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised at the first attempt.
I have some Allinson Country Grain flour to try next, but I will try the Lidl one soon.

Lynsey

orangesmartie

Lynsey wrote: »

Lol. Your surname isn't Barratt is it??
I'll try better flours now, just wanted to try out as cheaply as possible to see if it worked, and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised at the first attempt.
I have some Allinson Country Grain flour to try next, but I will try the Lidl one soon.

Lynsey

I use the Lidl flour and had no problems with it. I did find that the 'medium' crust setting did give a very crisp crust.

Thrifty_Sister

If anybody is still struggling to find a breadmaker please pm me.