The Bread Thread

[Ham]

I've been baking my own bread, only buying the occasional baguette, for more years than I care to think about. Right now, I have zero time, so I bought bread. From Waitrose, "bakers" loaves, so I thought would be ok. Jeez, is THAT what people think bread is supposed to be? The white was reasonable, but the wholemeal was puffy shite.

[citoyen]

I've been baking my own bread, only buying the occasional baguette, for more years than I care to think about. Right now, I have zero time, so I bought bread. From Waitrose, "bakers" loaves, so I thought would be ok. Jeez, is THAT what people think bread is supposed to be? The white was reasonable, but the wholemeal was puffy shite.

This is entirely the reason I decided to finally start making the effort to make my own regularly, rather than as a 'special occasion' thing.

I really don't know why I put up with shit bread for so many years. It's not like it's difficult to make your own, nor even necessarily all that time-consuming.

[L CC]

Well duh.
Bought bread isn't nice enough to tempt me. Home made is. Special occasion it shall remain.

[citoyen]

Bought bread isn't nice enough to tempt me.

Yes, there is that. I have been known to devour as much as half a loaf as soon as it's cool enough to cut into. I just can't resist fresh bread. I'm amazed I don't have diabetes yet.

[Tim Hall]

Right then hipsters. Sourdough. Do you knead or are you a disciple of stretch and fold? Or something of a mixture? Just to see what else is out there I've been watching too many YouTube videos, all which seem to be different.

[Hot Flatus]

I shove it in the mixer.

[perpetual dan]

What I call kneading has a large element of stretch and fold. Unless it's my ciabatta, which gets a stretch and fold in the bowl with very little squashing.

[citoyen]

I usually knead but I'm not a disciple of anything. I'll just follow the recipe and hope I get tasty bread as a result. As far as I can tell, stretch and fold seems to be primarily a way of working with very wet and sticky doughs - and these will form gluten without kneading because of the high water content and long fermentation time. But others OTP know a lot more about this than me.

[Tim Hall]

I'm working on ways to improve the loaf shape, so watching a lot of Youtube on that, plus practice. I watched Bake With Jack and had a go at the technique there - no kneading, three lots of stretch and fold, then a preshape followed by a shape.   A shade higher hydration than I normally use (72% instead of 67%).  Good looking (and tasting loaf), still a bit of sticking to the basket and it could have done with a touch longer in the oven, but I'm quite pleased.

[Ginger Cat]

My latest invention is sourdough sodabread. An emergency recipe for when you forgot to bake the usual bread and run out of bread and all 3 starters need refreshing. You can have a loaf coming out within an hour of starting it so long as you put the oven to heat before you do anything else.

Take a bowl of the leavings from refreshing your starters. Ideally been left in fridge at least a week so nicely acidic.

Add enough Balachdre Rustic flour to get a soft dough.

Chuck in salt and a good helping of bicarb.

Knead a bit to mix it up.

Pop in a round tin, into a preheated oven and bake for 30 min or so.

It looked unpretty and is a bit crumbly ( though not dry), but boy it tastes soooooo good, even better with a bit of butter on and topped with some Somerset brie.

GC

[Mrs Pingu]

Anyone got a recipe for a nice bread involving caraway seeds?

A few years ago a Hungarian bloke who worked with us for a while made a caraway bready thing. It was really nice so I thought I should make some. Still not got around to it...

[SteveC]

Try

http://boroughmarket.org.uk/recipes/rye-spelt-loaf

I made it over Christmas and is was very good.
MrsC then requested a version without caraway (so I didn't put any of the other seeds in either) and that was also rather scrummy.

Both are probably better toasted.

[L CC]

Anyone got a recipe for a nice bread involving caraway seeds?

A few years ago a Hungarian bloke who worked with us for a while made a caraway bready thing. It was really nice so I thought I should make some. Still not got around to it...

I'd just throw a bunch of caraway seeds in a standard wholemeal or rye mix.

I love caraway seeds, put them in random dishes when Mr Smith isn't looking.

[citoyen]

I used to have a really good recipe for an Eastern European (possibly Russian) dark rye bread made with plenty of caraway seeds, and orange juice. I think it also contained treacle and lots of butter. It was truly delicious.

Lost in the mists of time though. I think I got it from BBC Good Food magazine.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I used to have a really good recipe for an Eastern European (possibly Russian) dark rye bread made with plenty of caraway seeds, and orange juice. I think it also contained treacle and lots of butter. It was truly delicious.

Lost in the mists of time though. I think I got it from BBC Good Food magazine.

Rye bread with caraway seeds and treacle sounds familiar to me. This certainly isn't the recipe you lost but with a bit of luck it might be similar:
http://truffle-in-a-rum-chocolate.blogspot.com/2016/04/chleb-zytnio-gryczany-z-melasa-i.html

Chleb żytnio-gryczany, z melasą i kminkiem

Zaczyn:
2 łyżki zakwasu żytniego
160 g wody
100g mąki żytniej razowej
50 g mąki gryczanej

Wszystkie składniki wymieszać, miskę szczelnie przykryć folią i zostawić w temp. pokojowej na 10-12 godz.

Ciasto właściwe:
cały zaczyn
1/3 łyżeczka drożdży instant
2 łyżeczki soli
400 g wody
400 g mąki żytniej razowej
100 g mąki gryczanej
1 łyżeczka nasion kminku (całych, nie mielonych)
1 szczypta mielonej kolendry
1 łyżka dowolnej melasy, słodu, syropu lub ciemnego miodu

2 tablespoons rye starter
160g water
100g wholemeal rye flour
50g buckwheat flour

Mix, leave to rise for 10-12 hours

Dough
whole starter
1/3 teaspoon instant yeast
2 teaspoons salt
400g water
400g wholemeal rye flour
400g buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon whole caraway seeds
a pinch of ground coriander
1 tablespoon treacle or honey etc

[quixoticgeek]

I have a 2lb loaf tin. How much flour should I use to make a loaf to go in a 2lb loaf tin. 900g seems... excessive.

J

[citoyen]

I have a 2lb loaf tin. How much flour should I use to make a loaf to go in a 2lb loaf tin. 900g seems... excessive.

J

For that size tin, I would use 500g flour (with 300g water).

It’s not an exact science but 900g is definitely way too much.

[slope]

I have a 2lb loaf tin. How much flour should I use to make a loaf to go in a 2lb loaf tin. 900g seems... excessive.
J

My 2lb ancient 'Prestige' loaf tins - measure externally: 9¼" x 5¼" x 2¾"

I use 650g total mix of flours + 200g mixed sunflower and pumpkin seeds - and around 400ml water

And that's just lovely

[quixoticgeek]

I have a 2lb loaf tin. How much flour should I use to make a loaf to go in a 2lb loaf tin. 900g seems... excessive.
J

My 2lb ancient 'Prestige' loaf tins - measure externally: 9¼" x 5¼" x 2¾"

I was about to ask "Wtf is that in real units" then realised I did ask about a 2lb loaf tin, so it's kinda my own fault.

I got it on amazon uk back when I could order things from the UK easily. Wish i had got two now...

I use 650g total mix of flours + 200g mixed sunflower and pumpkin seeds - and around 400ml water

And that's just lovely

Need to work this one out. I normally make a pizza, and then use the left over dough to make a loaf. So I need to end up with 500g flour's worth of dough after I've taken the fist size lump for my pizza...

J

[quixoticgeek]

What do you all cover your dough with while it proves? Last time so used a ramp tea towel, like I always have done, and when the dough rose enough to touch it, removing the tea towel meant all the gas for let out the dough and I got dwarven battle bread. The dough is in a 900g loaf tin.. 

[Tim Hall]

What do you all cover your dough with while it proves? Last time so used a ramp tea towel, like I always have done, and when the dough rose enough to touch it, removing the tea towel meant all the gas for let out the dough and I got dwarven battle bread. The dough is in a 900g loaf tin..

My current recipe has uncovered dough, so not much help.

Have you dried dusting the top of the dough with flour?

[quixoticgeek]

What do you all cover your dough with while it proves? Last time so used a ramp tea towel, like I always have done, and when the dough rose enough to touch it, removing the tea towel meant all the gas for let out the dough and I got dwarven battle bread. The dough is in a 900g loaf tin..

My current recipe has uncovered dough, so not much help.

Have you dried dusting the top of the dough with flour?

No I haven't. Would that cause issues with the dry flour and damp tea towel?

J

[Tim Hall]

What do you all cover your dough with while it proves? Last time so used a ramp tea towel, like I always have done, and when the dough rose enough to touch it, removing the tea towel meant all the gas for let out the dough and I got dwarven battle bread. The dough is in a 900g loaf tin..

My current recipe has uncovered dough, so not much help.

Have you dried dusting the top of the dough with flour?

No I haven't. Would that cause issues with the dry flour and damp tea towel?

J

Hmm. I'd go for a light dusting and a dry tea towel rather than damp.

[quixoticgeek]

Hmm. I'd go for a light dusting and a dry tea towel rather than damp.

Shall give that a go. Timer just went ping, so time to make the pizza and put the rest of the dough in it's loaf tin.

J

[citoyen]

I was about to ask "Wtf is that in real units" then realised I did ask about a 2lb loaf tin, so it's kinda my own fault.

It’s a nominal measurement anyway and there will be much variation in capacity between 2lb loaf tins from different manufacturers.

If translating it into metric, you’d call it a 1kg tin rather than 900g.