Adventures with bread dough

Turkishdreamer

I have the same BM, have not really investigated a part recipe. Always seems easier to do the whole job in the BM. Maybe I will give this a go.

I have never had a consistency problem, but avoid making wholemeal bread as the cooking time is sooo long, would be handy for that.

Diflower

Turkishdreamer I make wholemeal all the time, I just chuck it all in in the evening and set the timer so it's ready in the morning.

For everyday bread I let the BM do the lot, since then I don't need to heat the oven at all. But for pizza bases, or if I want rolls, anything different, then I still do the dough i the BM but bake in the oven.
I can't knead properly either (bad shoulder) so it's wonderful that it does most of the work.
For anyone who has a problem but doesn't have a breadmaker, you can do the main mixing and part-kneading in a Kenwood-type mixer or in a procesor.

Today I've experimented. I made pizza dough, but used half for a pizza (ooh it was gorgeous) and made the rest into a sort of baguette. As soon as it was cold I put it in the freezer, so won't know what it tastes like until tomorrow, but it looked good:)
I figured French bread is best eaten the day it's made, or else frozen so that's what I did. Will try and remember to report back.

skintbint_2

have started making my own too at the weekends by hand that way i can get 3 in the oven at once and put a crumble or something in the lower shelf. even using the wrights bread flours still works out cheaper

Winchelsea

My Morphy Richards Fastbake died of old age recently, so I asked for a BM on Freegle. Someone contacted me to say she had an old one that I could have, a Mellerware. Hadn't heard of them, but gratefully received it. To my surprise, it's EXACTLY like the Morphy Richards, only difference is the control buttons - green instead of blue! Weird, but no matter, it works just as well as the other one.

I only bought 3 loaves last year, and didn't enjoy them. Sometimes I make bread by hand, but use the machine if I'm not going to be around throughout the process. Either way is lovely!

While without a machine, for easiness I tried this:
　
http://www.5min.com/Video/Easy-bread-making-5316
　
and found it was surprisingly good.

Good luck to any new bread makers - if your bread's not perfect the first time, don't despair, give it another go, or ask for advice from Breadandwine and other OSers.
　
　

Old_Joe

When making rolls, roughly what size do they need to be before leaving them to rise please?

skintbint_2

old joe - i make them about the size of a satsuma and that seem to work hth

Pink.

Hi breadandwine,

Thanks for the sizzler recipe, I'm definitely going to try that soon. I now only use my breadmaker occasionally to knead the dough if I'm in a hurry, as my family definitely prefer oven baked bread over a breadmaker loaf.

This thread has lots more ideas that may interest you:

Adventures with bread dough

I'll merge the threads later to keep the recipes together.

Pink

maccanut

Thanks Breadandwine,
i will try this maybe today as im making pizzas for the family, was rather chuffed when my son said my pizza was far better than PH won't put the name in ,made loaves and herby rolls yesterday not many left after ds came home.

blessings
abigail

babyblooz

No one has mentioned the lovely smell you get when you have bread baking in the overn. Nothing in the world says 'home' like that gorgeous smell.

[Deleted User]

I do envy all you folk who make your own bread but to be honest I wouldn't save very much at all.I buy one loaf of warburtons seeded loaf and devide it up into two slice portions as I only eat maybe one slice of bread every day.The rest is wrapped and frozen .I own a breadmaker that I bought in a moment of madness several years ago and its never been used and in fact has sat on the top of one of my kitchen cupboards ever since.My dd has five children and I asked her if she wanted it and she said no as she and her OH work fulltime and just don't have the time to make their own bread.The kids aren't that fussed about bread anyway.
One of these days I will find a home for it I'm sure but I'm not going to take it to the tip as that would be wasteful.But all power to your elbow if you make your own bread I think its lovely but myself I just would end up throwing stuff away.