Help With Making Bread

lil_me

My MR fastbake can do the gluten free loaves, can buy the stuff from the likes of Tesco, I use the Doves Farm Gluten Free one. It is of course more expensive than normal flour by a lot, but cheaper and nicer than the shop bought GF loaves.

shoeaddict

Wow, some fantastic tips, thank you all so much. My birthday's coming up so perhaps I'll ask for a breadmaker! (That's a huge change, a couple of months ago I'd have gone out and bought one on the credit card!)

Wee Bargain Hunter - thanks so so much for getting that recipe from your mum that was ever so kind and I really appreciate it.

I'll let you all know how I get on!

lil_me

If you want a Morphy Richards one have a look on the MR Fastbake club thread there is one for under £30.

PS Orgran bread mix is seriously expensive, £2.99 for something like 450g, wouldn't buy that one. The Doves Farm is about £1.80 for a kilo of bread flour which will make a couple of small loaves. Bread ready made GF is about £2.

Addiscomber

Just spotted this on the BBC website - might give you some help
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mostof_coeliac1.shtml

Justamum

shoeaddict wrote: »

I've never done it before, plus I'm gluten-intolerant (although I can eat small amounts with no ill-effect) so I'm not sure if it's really an option. Do I need to buy a bread maker or special mix, and is there actually any savings to be had?

I've just been reading "Bread Matters" by Andrew Whitley. It's not just a recipe book - in fact I'm on about page 200 and haven't got to any recipes yet! It's one of the most interesting and informative books I've read in a long time.

He explains all about how bread has changed over the years. One of the interesting things he mentioned was gluten intolerance. It would appear that the longer bread is risen the more of the gliadin is broken down. The rise in coeliac disease and gluten intolerance seemed to start around the time of the Chorleywood breadmaking process, which is the method used to provide us with the tasteless cotton wool sold as bread these days. I try and let my bread rise for as long as possible - I often set it to rise (not in a warm place) about about 7.30am and don't get it into the oven until about 4pm. I've found I don't get the bloated feeling from eating homemade bread which I used to get. I did have a breadmaker a few years ago until it broke down, but as it is so easy to quickly mix it up I wouldn't bother again - and they make it too quickly anyway.