handmade bread

thriftlady_2

I think it is a shame that people have to ask if they can make bread without a breadmaker.

Please don't think I'm having a go at you Helzbelz:o but I do think lots of people new to old style come on the board and their overwhelming impression is that they must 1) get a bread maker, and 2) get a slow cooker. Sorry to bang on about this again folks but that's how I feel.

I'm glad you like this thread Helzbelz -there is a wealth of info on it. You'll have great fun making your own bread, it is easy once you get into the swing of it and hard to make do with boughten bread once you've had the real stuff.

I think it is very cost effective as I've probaly already said.

Penelope_Penguin

helzbelz_57 wrote: »

brilliant thread, i have no excuse now.

Take a look at Adventures in Bread too

Penny. x

Almo

kunekune wrote: »

Just a word of warning. You don't say where you are, but flour isn't the same in every country. It may well be worth checking out what the gluten content of the local flour or looking at local bread recipes is before using recipes developed in the UK or US. In Australia and New Zealand you have to add all sorts of bits and bobs to the flour to get decent bread (I know that there are people trying the artisan bread in 5 minutes method, but would be curious to know whether it worked).

Do you know what I need to add kunekune (or anyone else with the relevant experience)? I'm very new to breadmaking, made cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, which were fine, and have just made a sort of cobbled together fruit loaf. Both are from the same recipe (on the back of the yeast packet - I searched high and low for a cinnamon roll recipe without milk powder, and decided to use that one) but I experimented today and wacked in some raisins and cranberries and bunged the whole lot in a loaf tin. The bread tastes great but is a bit dense. I guess that could just be me/my oven?

The flour is boxed and there are two types available - bread and pizza, or cakes, baking and pastry. Those are the only choices for bread flour in my local supermarket. I'm planning to investigate an organic supermarket but it's the other side of Melbourne so even if I strike gold there it may not be a regular thing. I'm using sachet yeast and have no idea if I can get live yeast from a bakery here.

Any advice gratefully received!

ETA: while I certainly can't claim to have looked extensively, when I search on the internet for local recipes I get helpful advice such as 'using your bread mix' (widely available), 'follow your bread maker's instructions' which is not so helpful for me! Same thing happens when I look for ice cream recipes: 'put the ingredients in the ice cream maker and follow the instructions'. Frustrating!

Almo

Shameless bump because I saw kunekune reply to another thread but this one had fallen to page 5

pinkie_pie

I'm not too keen on bread, but my son and daughter have sandwiches and I'd love to make homemade bread with them. However, when exhubby and I had a breadmaker the bread used to come out with a thickish hard crust and very crumbly, half would fall to pieces when he cut it.

I need a bread that's going to be easy to make into 'normal' sandwiches for the kids, is that possible? I don't have a breadmaker at the moment, so it'll have to be 'freehand' although if it helps I'll keep my eyes open on freecycle!

beautiful_ravens

Ive been making 1 hour bread -
1 lb self raising flour, 2 teaspoon of salt, half pint of milk.
Stir flour and salt, add milk and mix to a dough, grease an 8" cake tin, put dough in & pat top to tidy it, and bake for 45min-1 hr on 180-190 C.
I use a bit less salt than 2 teaspoons, have also tried adding a little baking powder too. Result is a bit like a scone! Im still experimenting with it...I put a milk glaze on it yesterday, but the crust went really hard even when cooled.

Butterfly_Brain

I make rolls for my lot its a lot easier and they seem to prefer them to sliced bread
Try this link to Allinsons Bakery Club it is really good http://www.bakingmad.com/

ziggyman99

beautiful_ravens wrote: »

Ive been making 1 hour bread -
1 lb self raising flour, 2 teaspoon of salt, half pint of milk.

There's your answer. You must use bread flour to make bread. Normal baking flour doesn't have the long gluten chains necessary for making good bread.

Back snowedunderitalls post, I use a breadmaker (Panasonic SD255) and get perfect results on all wholemeal and white loaves. I only get dodgy loaves if I use rye or spelt flour. Even then it's onlt the look of the bread. They still taste and cut fine.
Were you using bread flour in your original recipes? Normal flour will produce a cakey loaf. Also, kneading is an important process. It helps develop the long gluten chains which give bread it's "airy" texture.

Penelope_Penguin

snowedunderitall wrote: »

I'm not too keen on bread, but my son and daughter have sandwiches and I'd love to make homemade bread with them. However, when exhubby and I had a breadmaker the bread used to come out with a thickish hard crust and very crumbly, half would fall to pieces when he cut it.

Do you allow the bread to cool before you slice it Warm bread can have a tendency to crumble.

We have an exisiting thread with loads of recipes for handmade bread; I'll merge this thread so that you can take a look

Penny. x

Gingernutmeg

beautiful_ravens wrote: »

Ive been making 1 hour bread -
1 lb self raising flour, 2 teaspoon of salt, half pint of milk.
Stir flour and salt, add milk and mix to a dough, grease an 8" cake tin, put dough in & pat top to tidy it, and bake for 45min-1 hr on 180-190 C.
I use a bit less salt than 2 teaspoons, have also tried adding a little baking powder too. Result is a bit like a scone! Im still experimenting with it...I put a milk glaze on it yesterday, but the crust went really hard even when cooled.

That is a scone recipe, to all intents and puposes. It won't be like bread because you're using baking powder (in the s/r flour) to make it rise, rather than yeast, and you're not kneading it. Using strong flour won't make any difference here as gluten develops through kneading, and if you kneaded this it'd be as tough as old boots and flat as a pancake. Also, you'd probably get a tougher scone to start with. It's best to stick to plain/sr with this kind of bread, but do be careful about how much raising agent you add. If you add too much, it'll taste horrible and you'll get a funny greenish/yellowish tinge to the bread. Not nice at all.

You'll get a softer crust the longer you leave it, but it'll go stale quite quckly. You could try wrapping it in a cloth as soon as it comes out of the oven, so that the steam keeps it softer. That's an old trick for bread and soda bread, so it might help here.