bread machine bread - bland ?

JillD_2

Hi
I've been making my own bread in the BM for about 6 weeks, its saving us a fortune!! we make bread, pizza dough and sponge cake.

My family eat the bread but I can't help feeling its a little bland. They're not wild about it as bread but they east it toasted.

I use Asda smart price flour, sunflower oil and fresh yeast. I use about half the salt they recommend and a few teaspoons of sugar to activate the yeast. I find any more than that and its too sweet.

what am I doing wrong ? What can I do to improve the flavour ? Would milk instead of water or some skimmed milk powder help ?

Thanks for any advice. I hope its not the strong bread flour thats lacking as its too expensive to buy

Jill

Pandora123_2

Hi JillD,

I always had the same problem with homemade bread... it was okay, but seemed bland and just not as good as bakery-bought.

Then I came across Jamie Oliver's Basic Bread recipe and decided to try it. The recipe uses 1 Tablespoon of salt per 500g of flour (makes 1 loaf of bread by hand... I don't use a BM). That seemed like an awful lot, but since I hadn't had much luck with bread recipes before, I decided to try it as written. The bread was very good, not bland at all, but both myself and DH found it a bit salty (DH likes his food salty, too!).

Next time I used 2 teaspoons salt per 500g flour and the bread turned out perfect! DH likes it better than the bread I was buying.

So I'd say the problem you're having likely has to do with cutting the salt in half. In my experience, that's what makes bread taste good.

HTH...

Josie_Jump_3

I would agree it's the reduction in salt, I ran out the other day and did a loaf without it and it tasted very bland. Doesn't salt help bring out the flavour of the other ingredients ?

Cat72

Have you tried different flours ? I thought the same as you thne bought different types of flour to try- Hovis do a good range. A really good one is the granary flour which is suitable for breadmakers, you can also make it last longer by halfing the mixture with white flour ( i like the white flour granary mix but they do brown too ). It costs abput 99p in Asda but in Morrisons they have it for 69p .Gives bread that nice gritty taste and great texture even my OH likes it and he is fussy.

culpepper

The loaves I make in ours are a little bland but we always have very savoury or sweet fillings or eat it with soup or as toast.
Are you using the strong flour though?
The ordinary plain flour just doesn't really have the oomph for bread making it has to be the strong stuff. I make my own pasta and it really notices if I use ordinary flour rather than strong flour ,the ordinary makes it almost flavourless and pappy.

mattogier

The problem is not necessarily that the bread is bland - it may be that your taste buds have been numbed by the amount of salt in brought bread (and per-packed food in general)

Try this for un-bland bread....

Dough - 1/2 Pt water, 1tbs yeast, 1 tbs brown sugar, 1/2 KG flour - use strong bread flour for the texture - I sometimes use 125g wholemeal and top up with the white.

Knead - I use a kenwood major (big chef) and let rise slightly.

Get a large rectangular baking tray (I use the enamelled good housekeeping ones) with one of those Teflon liners on it and push the dough so that it covers the tray evenly.

Then get a pot of Pesto (the Scala Coriander is great) and really poke it into the bread - right through to the pan -your hands should look like you are a muppet playing the piano. Add some dry black olives (Crespo 80g pouch is good) spread over the top and even some sun dried tomatoes and feta.

Press the toppings firmly into the dough and leave to rise as long as you can (I make this in the morning during breakfast and cook it at tea time by which time it is really big.

Get the oven REALLY HOT - full blast for 30mins or until the light goes out.

Open the oven door and QUICKLY get the bread into the oven - don't let too much heat out.

Bake for 8 to 10 mins.

The inside is light and fluffy, the outside is
crisp and golden and the flavour of the pesto, olives toms and feta is all the way through. Break into chunks and serve on it's own or with thick parsnip and borsain pepper soup.

Another recipe is to use honey and malt instead of sugar to feed the yeast and add sunflower and pumpkin seeds to the mix.

If you are making bases for pizza (the above dough makes 2 pizzas the size of my baking trays) you do not need to add salt to the dough as there is usually enough in the cheese / anchovy etc. Do not bother with brought pizza topping jars - just get two tins of good quality chopped tom in a frying pan, add herbs of your choice, a dash o lea and perrins and reduce until it turns dark red and looks thick and "dry" enough to spread over the base without making it soggy. Less is more with pizza toppings so dont over load. Cook VERY HOT for 10 mins and bingo - there you have a GREAT PIZZA.

Cheers

M@t

MrsTinks

I'm going to go against the grain here I'm afraid I use a recipe with honey and I find any I try without it seem very dull...

This gives quite a light white 2lb loaf:

300ml Water
2 tbsp Honey
2 tsp salt
3 1/2 tbsp dried skimmed milk powder
2 1/2 tbsp oil
560gr white bread flour
2 1/2 tsp dried yeast

Bake on the rapid bread setting if you have one

Have never had a bad loaf using that recipe

dannahaz

Hi Jill
Is there any particular reason why yyou are using fresh yeast in the BM? My BM book advises not to use fresh, but to use the easy blend (rapid) dried yeast.

I also use bread flour - plain flour does produce a loaf but, as Josie says, it just doesn't have the oomph.

For 500g flour I use
1 teaspoon dried yeast
1 tblsp sugar
1 tblsp dried milk powder
1.5 tsp salt
1oz butter
350ml water

Hazel

squeaky

I'd say salt. IF you are using less than two teaspoons, that is. While we should indeed watch our salt content it is a flavour enhancer and too little just gets lost in the mix.

scrimperjan

Please, no more, mattogier! My keyboard is covered in drool!

mattogier

scrimperjan wrote:

Please, no more, mattogier! My keyboard is covered in drool!

Food Glorious Food :drool:

With Six kids in the house (inc foster kids) I have to make food tasty (and look good) else they won't eat it - usually when they arrive they don't even know how to use cutlery - by the time they leave they will (usually) eat wholesome home made food - health and behaviour problems are reduced and they look healthy.

I like to cook from scratch (and am lucky to have the time to) as this also reduces the huge volume of packaging that comes with shop brought foods.

Cheers

Matt