handmade bread

dandy-candy

Quick question! I have a bag of Waitrose Canadian white strong flour lurking at the back of my cupboard but I have just noticed it went out of date in Nov 2009 - do you think it will be ok to use still?

thriftlady_2

dandy-candy wrote: »

Quick question! I have a bag of Waitrose Canadian white strong flour lurking at the back of my cupboard but I have just noticed it went out of date in Nov 2009 - do you think it will be ok to use still?

Yes, I'm sure it will;)

elf06

Hi all please help me with something. I am making bread for the first time. Its (hopefully) going to be a granary loaf and has been mixed, kneaded and in the airing cupboard for nearly 2 hrs but doesnt seem to have grown at all will it work or should i leave it longer??

Penelope_Penguin

elf06 wrote: »

Hi all please help me with something. I am making bread for the first time. Its (hopefully) going to be a granary loaf and has been mixed, kneaded and in the airing cupboard for nearly 2 hrs but doesnt seem to have grown at all will it work or should i leave it longer??

Are you confident that your yeast is good Did you use all Granary or half and half with white flour

I'd take it out and kned it again. Does it then smell yeasty Pop it back into the airing cupboard, and if it's going to work it'll start rising in another hour or 2

If it doesn't rise, you can make it into pizza :T

Penny. x

elf06

I used only granary flour and followed the recipe on the back of the bag of flour just been and checked the yeast and its still in date . Got the oven all heated up and no bread to go in yet Will go give it another kneading and maybe put it in the bathroom - its the warmest room :rotfl:

ETA - meant to say thanks for the response !!

thriftlady_2

It's a bit puzzling because I've just made a batch of loaves and as usual I left the dough to rise on my counter for 2 hours. My kitchen is pretty cold today but it still doubled in size. I never put it anywhere particularly warm.

Are you sure you put enough yeast in? Was your water too hot? That can kill the yeast. Did you put too much salt in as that can inhibit the yeast?

If it doesn't rise, it will still be bakeable and edible. Penny's idea of pizza sounds like the best use for it. Just put it down to experience and try a different recipe next time;)

elf06

thriftlady wrote: »

It's a bit puzzling because I've just made a batch of loaves and as usual I left the dough to rise on my counter for 2 hours. My kitchen is pretty cold today but it still doubled in size. I never put it anywhere particularly warm.

Are you sure you put enough yeast in? Was your water too hot? That can kill the yeast. Did you put too much salt in as that can inhibit the yeast?

If it doesn't rise, it will still be bakeable and edible. Just put it down to experience and try a different recipe next time;)

I deff followed the quantities in the recipe but didnt use the brand of yeast it recommended as I already had a shop own make in. Didnt use quite as much salt as recommended and didnt use hot hot water but its my first time making so could quite easily be something I did wrong
I have other recipes (from this site) so if this isnt any good I will try one of them

thriftlady_2

Was your yeast the kind you have to reactivate in warm liquid first? It's usually in a little tin and looks like little balls.

If your recipe called for easy-blend yeast which you add straight to the flour and you used the other sort then that would explain it.

elf06

nope its a bag of hovis flour and it said to use hovis fast action bread yeast. I only had Mr T own brand of fast action dried yeast??????????

kippers

I made cobs today and left them to rise at 7.30am this morning...at 11.00am they hadn't moved as my kitchen was so cold. I put my oven on in the end and put them on it to rise before i cooked them an hour later