handmade bread

mumofjusttwo

Well am just waiting for my bread to rise. Using the econ gastron recipe.

thank justamum I wondered why my bread/rolls was always heavier than shop bought. Although previously my bread never seemed to be cooked in the middle.

Hoping this recipe may work.

Penelope_Penguin

trixietoes wrote: »

A quick question... I have finally mastered bread baking (well in comparison to previous attempts). I have a couple of questions to see if my results are right as I don't know anyone else who makes theoir own bread to compare with or ask.

I have only made bread rolls so far and they are quite heavy and dense. Is this how other peoples h/m bread ifeels? They do taste yum though. It's just the ones bought from the bakery are a lot lighter (weightwise) and more spongy (hole-ier).

Thanks xx

This is the recipe I use The rolls are light and delicious :T Make sure your dough is neither too wet or too dry, knead well, and let them rise for long enough.

Good luck with the next batch
Penny. x

tomterm8

Justamum wrote: »

You won't get the same light bread that you buy because of the Chorleywood Process which is used to make mass-produced [STRIKE]tasteless spongy pap[/STRIKE] bread.

Hm... its right that you wont get the same results* but I've been reading a lot about bread on 't interwub thingie, and from what I can tell lightness of bread appears to depend on a lot of things... My own basic experiments suggests you can go a loong way by taking more time to proove the bread, instead of following the process on the yeast packet.

http://sourdough.com/blog/sourdom/beginners-blog-proving seems quite a good strategy.

* You will get better results than tescos, but it takes time to learn.

thriftlady_2

tomterm8 wrote: »

http://sourdough.com/blog/sourdom/beginners-blog-proving seems quite a good strategy.

* You will get better results than tescos, but it takes time to learn.

I've just embarked upon this sour dough lark. I've started a starter without any yeast at all, just wholemeal flour and water. It'll be a few days before I can use it, if it works. The instructions I am following don't specify what type of water to use, but I've read elsewhere that tap water is no good because of the flouride and whatnot so I'm not sure whether it will work.

The key certainly does seem to be long slow rising. No need to rush anything.

mouseymousey99

I tried it a while ago. Made the starter in the Kilner jar. In a about half a day it was breaking out of the jar - obviously a ninja strain. Will have to give it another go. The thought of using all the flour puts me off a little bit. I did read you could save a 'lump' from every bread dough you made and add it to the next one - its soupposed to help the flavour?

thriftlady_2

mouseymousey99 wrote: »

I tried it a while ago. Made the starter in the Kilner jar. In a about half a day it was breaking out of the jar - obviously a ninja strain. Will have to give it another go. The thought of using all the flour puts me off a little bit. I did read you could save a 'lump' from every bread dough you made and add it to the next one - its soupposed to help the flavour?

I read that too.

I'm also a bit worried about having to discard parts of it every day and then add more flour, sounds wasteful.

Did you use tap water Mousey?

zippychick

i read the whole SD thread, and still didn't properly understand. ! Do report back. Think i need to read that thread again

mouseymousey99

Yes tap water, from the hot tap so it was about hand hot (maybe should have used cold - drrrrr). May give the lump thing a go. Let me know how yours turns out Thriftlady.

Justamum

mouseymousey99 wrote: »

I did read you could save a 'lump' from every bread dough you made and add it to the next one - its soupposed to help the flavour?

A couple of years ago I went to a talk by Andrew Whitley (who founded The Village Bakery). It was very interesting (I've got his book too!) He said he had a sourdough starter which he had got about 17 years before!!!:eek: I must admit I've never done sourdough before. I do rise my bread for ages - a few hours at least (I don't put it in a warm place, just on the worktop).

tomterm8

I've started a sour dough culture yesterday. I'm using 50% lukewarm tap water, because it doesn't seem to have chlorine in it, and wholegrain flour. 24 hours in, there are a few small bubbles, and a slight wheety smell.

As long as the starter doesn't smell bad, there is absolutly no need to throw away any flour when feeding, just store it in a seperate container in the fridge, and chuck it into your dough when you make normal yeast bread, pancakes, muffins, or buscuits.