The recipes that made me pack away my breadmaker

npsmama

Once you get all the right gear and ingredients, and a reliable oven, it almost becomes second nature.

Absolutely!

BTW, the above recipe makes fantastic breadsticks. I add caraway seeds to the dough - my toddler loves them.

whistler-alison

Erosgirl wrote:

I went to WH Smith yesterday and bought a lovely book that was on offer called Bread. A complete guide to making your own bread in a traditional oven and using a bread machine by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter. Publishing price £14.99, sale price £4.99. There's a history of bread at the beginning and then recipes for breads of the world. It would make your mouth water. For some reason there are two ISBN numbers. If anyone is interested they are: ISBN-13: 978-0-7548-1788-8 and ISBN-10: 0-7548-1788-1. Hope this is of interest to someone.

Hi - I got this book too. When I got home I realised that the section on making bread in the bread machine an exact reproduction (but on smaller pages) of a book that my mum has and I have borrowed in the past. So it is in fact two books cobbled together which would probably explain the two ISBN numbers and therefore makes it more of a bargain - two books for £4.99!. I do not use a bread machine but have still used the bread machine recipes from my mum's book so am very pleased with my purchase. :T

As for bread enhancers, I wouldn't recomend them. I used one myself but then I realised that one of the ingredients in it can be derived from animal hair. Yuk! I found that practice has made my bread lighter and I do not need it.

[Deleted User]

I made just a normal organic wholewheat loaf last night, with quick yeast as I am wanting to use the yeast up before I go the sourdough route. I have a pizza stone but have never used it properly, anyway I researched loads about breadmaking on the net and I have changed my ways

I pre-heated the stone in the oven and I put the covered dough to raise on a piece of baking parchment. I slit the top of the dough and gave it a gentle water mist. I then used a piece of card as a peel and I slipped it under the parchment and bread dough and then onto the hot stone. I had placed a metal tray of water in the base of the oven and I also misted again after the first 5 minutes of baking

It is all about giving the dough a chance of whooshing up and not being restricted by a hard crust. It well and truly worked and the wholemeal loaf was the best for a long time. It is still nice and soft today, which is amazing. I used to get brilliant results 30 years ago with fresh yeast and an anthrocite-fired aga but nothing since, until last night

No wonder there are so many sites about bread making as it isn`t that easy to make a tasty, well-risen and nutritious loaf, which is a world away from the bog-standard white loaf made in a bm

Justamum

I was about to ask whether it's worth buying a breadmaker. I used to have one a few years ago (and it was flippin' expensive) but it broke just after the warranty expired (typical!) - the pan wouldn't sit in the machine so we had to wedge it in with a cut-down knitting needle, (and it was the second pan too - we had to get a replacement after a few months) and the thermostat broke so we would end up with a brick because it got too hot before the bread could rise. I was thinking of either buying a breadmaker or investing in a Kenwood (the Kenwood was winning because I think it will be more versatile). Now I have my answers and think I will have to save for the Kenwood. I know bread is dead easy to make by hand, but to be honest I often can't be bothered with all the kneading! The cheapest bread I can buy here is 88p a loaf which I think is expensive. The next cheapest is £1.20. The only problem with homemade bread is that it is so nice it ends up getting eaten too quickly so might end up not being any cheaper!

loulvj

Thank you for the great wholemeal bread recipe.

I tried it this weekend and it worked a treat! I have just eaten a delicious sandiwch for my lunch made with HM bread, yummy!

Now I'm going to try the sourdough...

loulvj

by the way, I forgot to ask: what kind of oil do you use in the recipe? I used rapeseed oil as I wanted something that was flavourless however I have found that the bread has a slight margarine-y smell which I would like to avoid for future batches!

npsmama

I usually use veg oil/sunflower oil but have also used olive oil

FemmeAuFoyer

npsmama wrote: »

I have a life long passion for real bread having been raised on the real stuff in Italy. Bagged, sliced stuff just isn't bread for me!


NoKnead Bread: this makes bread almost like the artisanal bread of my village in Sardinia (use 3 ROUNDED cups of flour and only 1.5C water):
Watch the video from this link, it's much more informative than the article.

NoKnead Bread


I've been meaning to post these for a while.

Hope they're of use to someone!

I make lots of different types of bread, but this no-knead bread is really easy when you haven't got much time and I end up making it about twice a week. I mix up in the evening, finish it off next morning and it's ready for lunch! It keeps very well too. To make it even easier, I found that you can skip stage 2 completely, I just turn out the dough on a well floured surface, then add as much extra flour and cereal grain/seed bits as I need, shape the dough into a ball and put it straight into the pot and let it rise in that. I found that it didn't make any difference whether it rose on the tea-towel or not and I just ended up with flour everywhere when turning it into the pot from the tea-towel. You don't need to heat the pot either, just put it straight in the pot, leave it 2 hours. Just pre-heat the oven after 1.5 hours. It works well as wholemeal too.

happyathome_withmyboys

Justamum wrote: »

I was about to ask whether it's worth buying a breadmaker. I used to have one a few years ago (and it was flippin' expensive) but it broke just after the warranty expired (typical!) - the pan wouldn't sit in the machine so we had to wedge it in with a cut-down knitting needle, (and it was the second pan too - we had to get a replacement after a few months) and the thermostat broke so we would end up with a brick because it got too hot before the bread could rise. I was thinking of either buying a breadmaker or investing in a Kenwood (the Kenwood was winning because I think it will be more versatile). Now I have my answers and think I will have to save for the Kenwood. I know bread is dead easy to make by hand, but to be honest I often can't be bothered with all the kneading! The cheapest bread I can buy here is 88p a loaf which I think is expensive. The next cheapest is £1.20. The only problem with homemade bread is that it is so nice it ends up getting eaten too quickly so might end up not being any cheaper!

Lidl might still have one for £25... we bought it as a back-up for when ours dies. The replacement parts for the Lidl one are ridiculously cheap too - so it should keep going for a long time. Mine is used every day and the pan usually only lasts me a year or so.

Justamum

Thanks Happyathome. We don't have a Lidl over here though. I'll just stick to making it by hand. I now make one white and one wholemeal every two days, which seems to be about the right amount for us.