shocked

timehastoldme

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/bread/quick-and-easy-wholemeal-loaf.html

I tried this the other day, worked pretty well, not a big fluffy loaf by any means, but perfectly edible (and no knead)

rosie383

I'm totally with Twiglet98 on the bread problem. If anyone can post a link for how to do the perfect loaf, I would really appreciate it, as I, too< make tough, doughy bread. I can do Irish soda bread, wheaten soda, and Algerian breads, but not a normal British loaf, so to speak!

Kathy535

If your wrists cramp when kneading, why not try something like these no knead breads?

http://steamykitchen.com/168-no-knead-bread-revisited.html

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2815/active-yeast-vs-instant-yeast

I've never tried it but keep meaning to. I've never been too sure what instant yeast is, but judging by this it might be wise to use a bit extra dried yeast? If anyone knows it would be great to find out!

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2815/active-yeast-vs-instant-yeast

DundeeDoll

I like lidl's multiseed which is 99p
Re mince i get steak mince then add porrige oats. The family have not noticed!
We also pad stews out with veg and pulses. Eg butter beans currently boiling away for lamb stew. Nom nom

zippybungle

A decent loaf of bread is £1 in Lidl, lean minced beef (british) is £2.69 if I remember correctly. I made a shepherds pie tonight and padded it out a bit by adding 5 tablespoons of red lentls to the meat, the kids did not notice

Zippy x

booter

I try and stock up on reduced loaves whenever possible (I do love it when my local Co-op reduce their Warburtons to 25p a loaf. Not happening at the moment though - everyone's shopping local just now so there's no surplus to reduce ) But if I can't find any reduced, my fall back is Aldi's toasty loaf - off the top of my head I think it's 79p for an 800g loaf. To me it's a cross between Hovis thick sliced white and Kingsmill thick sliced white (a little fluffier than the Hovis and not as fluffy as the Kingsmill IYSWIM). I really don't like the supermarket value loaves.

rosie383

Kathy thank you so much for the links. I have seen recipes such as that before, but failed the only time I tried. The blog one with the wee boy doing it just brought it alive for me. He is so cute!
Anyhoo, I am off to make some up now so I can bake it tomorrow. Will report back!!

katieowl_2

I'd second buying a breadmaker to keep the cost of bread down. I've even trained OH to run it when needed (I don't eat bread very often)
I know it's a big lay out initially, but it costs about 5p a loaf in electricity to run it, and we use 600g out of that1.5k for 60p bag of flour. Well worth it, and you know exactly what has gone into it!!!

Eating seasonally, and making use of the freezer, and using every last scrap of food would be the other things I'd suggest. Not every meal needs to be a gourmet feast, something on toast is an acceptable meal at least once a week, and so is a jacket potato. I've now trained OH and DS to eat all the leftovers - every now and then I say to them this is what needs to be eaten, DS gets first pick usually being the fussiest, then I sort out a meal for OH out of the rest, then I'll have something really simple like poached eggs and rice, which is lovely. It's taken me years to train OH that I'd rather he ate what he considers to be the 'best' stuff and not share it with me....but it keeps my calorie intake down and he's not noticed :rotfl:

Kate

Justamum

twiglet98 wrote: »

Every time I end up with a very dense, chewy loaf, and the offspring like very light, sliced bread, the Hovis Best of Both is their favourite.

Homemade bread is much denser and chewier than bought bread. You'll never ever make bread that has the texture of a bought ready-sliced one (and personally I don't know why you'd want to, but that's probably just me - I prefer homemade:D) I've been making my own bread for a few years now, and it did take the children a while to get used to it - they also preferred the bought stuff - but after a while they got used to it and don't like bought bread any more.

I will make a rare exception though - last week a proper artisan bakery opened up in Douglas, and I just had to try it - delicious doesn't even begin to describe it. We bought a couple of baguettes the first time, then last Friday we bought a date and walnut loaf (I've never thought of putting them in bread before). There's one baker there and he makes it all himself using a sourdough starter. It's not cheap so will only be an occasional treat for us I think. Anyway strictly speaking it's not 'bought bread' in the way I normally think of it as is is handmade.

Justamum

twiglet98 wrote: »

I guess I do something very wrong in the kneading and proving area. I get cramp in my wrists when kneading and probably give up too soon.

You're probably not doing anything wrong or giving up too soon. I bought a Kenwood just before Christmas to make my bread. Before that I kneaded it all by hand, and to be perfectly honest would get bored very, very quickly and would knead for probably a couple of minutes, just until it started to change texture. I expect your bread was probably perfectly fine, it's just that you were maybe expecting something similar to the texture of a white sliced.