Bread

mashedavocado

Sorry folks, I know this has probably been done to death, but thought I'd ask anyway.

I've been thinking of making my own bread, but I don't know whether it's worth getting a breadmaker, or just doing it by hand. Aside from a one off in primary school I've never made my own, so I really have no clue what I'm doing!

There's just the two of us in the household, but we do often find that bread goes off, or goes stale, before we've chance to use it. I was thinking it might save us a little if we can make smaller, nicer, fresher loaves as we need them.

Any help appreciated!

Linda32

There are only two of us as well. We split the loaf into 3 and freeze. So we only have a 3rd of a loaf out at a time.

Ilona

There is only one of me. My bread goes in the freezer, I take out as and when I need it. Make sandwiches with frozen bread, when I come to eat them they are thawed. I put two frozen slices in the toaster when I want toast. Bread never goes off in my house, I buy it on yellow stickers, for those reasons I wouldn't bother making any.
Ilona

pinkladyvenus

There are 2 of us and we would not be without our bread maker. It is so much nicer than supermarket bread, also a lot more convenient if you need bread just put a loaf in (5 minutes to prepare), 3 and a half hours later a fresh loaf.

[Deleted User]

two of us here and I have had a breadmaker for many years, through having a family at home to them leaving. I got a new one 2 years ago and it is now taking up a shelf in a cupboard, redundant. Hand made artisan and sourdough bread is far nicer and bread made this way keeps a good few days to a week. If I make a large loaf (a boule) then I simply slice the excess and freeze. My bread rises over 48 hours so is far easier to digest

I am going to give my panasonic bm to a dd, she has a family and will use it. I would not recommend a bm for two, unless you eat bread at least two meals a day

flopsy59

i have a bread maker but make mine by hand. its easy. ten minutes and i have a loaf been left to rise and its lovely

indsty

I "gave" myself a breadmaker from Lakel**d for Christmas. But only on the strict understanding that I now NEVER buy bread. Otherwise it would go the way of other kitchen gadgets. I wouldn't be without it now. It makes a small loaf, half goes in the freezer and I make a loaf every four or five days depending on menus (there's only me). As I also have a very small kitchen it was well worth it as I really didn't have room for kneading etc.

Mr_Singleton

kittie wrote: »

Hand made artisan and sourdough bread is far nicer and bread made this way keeps a good few days to a week. If I make a large loaf (a boule) then I simply slice the excess and freeze. My bread rises over 48 hours so is far easier to digest

Respect!!

Out of interest where did you get your recipe from? Am always on the lookout for fresh ideas.

Personally, started off making Chad Robertson's "Basic Country Bread" from "Tartine Bread" but was knocked sideways by Ken Forkish's "Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza" so currently most of what I do is "White bread with 80% BIGA" & "Field blend #2" all baked DARK!!

teddysmum

I bought a bread maker a few years ago and it has been at the back of the pantry for most of that time.


The loaves I made were small, heavy and had a hard crust .There was a lot of waste from taking the blade out of the bottom, which resulted in most slices having large holes.


The only good result was fruit loaf.


Perhaps machines which make larger loaves are better, but they are too expensive to try.

[Deleted User]

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Out of interest where did you get your recipe from? Am always on the lookout for fresh ideas.

!

I have been making sd bread for 20 odd years and had to make a new starter 8 years ago, I am still using the same one. I have had the very best results since getting a `la cloche` from bakery bits. I get amazing oven spring and the slashes are all inches apart and with curled up tags. Anyway the very best recipe is from peter reinhart via a mother starter that I keep in my fridge. It is so accommodating, I made the pre-ferment 2 days ago and the dough today, which is now in the fridge and I will put in a banetton either tomorrow or monday. It is only stretching really, together with my food mixer, so is easy peasy. The one I am making today is `pain au levain` and I make the purist 100% sourdough version

Craftsy have an amazingly good class on artisan bread `artisan breadmaking` by Peter Reinhart and I just bought (and highly recommend) his latest book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peter-Reinharts-Artisan-Breads-Every/dp/1580089984/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

The trick is to get the moisture into the oven and to try and use a stone. I got pretty good results in the past via a dutch oven but la cloche is superb

There are some super bread making forums on the net

andyfromotley

i can hardly boil an egg but i make bread in my Panasonic bread maker. Which i picked up cheap on amazon. I did a lot of research about them and Panasonic came out miles ahead on real person reviews online. (and this site)

Its great. Really great. The small loaves are fine.