The Bread Thread

[Mrs Pingu]

Back from hollybobs with a sneaky extra day and have researched sourdough again, I am determined to get it properly holey this year!
After reading Whitley, Lepard and the aforementioned blog I have this afternoon started a Rye starter and once that's going I'm going to try Whitely's Cromarty Cob recipe. If I don't get on with that I might try something else. And now I'm off to see about getting some fancy flours....

[Mrs Pingu]

That did not go particularly well. I decided to keep to my usual bake in a tin method. However, once I'd left the production leaven for a bit I then stuck it in the tin and left it in a carrier bag for a few hours.
I then had a few gin and tonics. Come the end of the night it didn't appear to have risen at all, certainly nowhere near the top of the tin, but I thought 'sod it' and baked it anyway.
It's a bit like a brick, and having sawed it open this morning it's not been baked long enough either.

I must admit, that despite all his protestations of simplicity I'm finding Andrew Whitely's method rather enlongated and confusing. My previous method involved feeding a small starter for a few days and then using all of that to create the final dough. Whitely's method of making a starter and then fermenting a leaven and then making a dough I don't really get....
Confused of Furrybootoon.

[Ham]

I bring you The Wedgie Roll ^tm (c) Ham 2013 all rights reserved



Cooking for a  dinner party on Saturday night, I thought I would experiment, and now can't understand why this isn't more common (I've never seen this suggested before, have you?). Baking up 500g of flour into rolls, after the first prove I formed into a round and sliced into 1/4 then each into into 3 wedges, with a knife sharp enough to cut. The result is a roll with an extra crusty bit, and they stack up well in a bread basket.

[Tail End Charlie]

A great success with a sourdough loaf. I'd made the starter and left it in the fridge and to be honest forgot about it. This would be in July. Anyway I decided to risk using it two days ago as it had the appearance which my book suggested (a dark film across the top) and the book said it would be good and it made a really tasty loaf. Holes and everything  I've now started another lot.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Recently I've been leaving the oil out of my bread. The first time was an accident, I mentioned it and Mrs Cudzo said it seemed a bit dry, but I tried it again and it seemed ok to me - didn't mention it and she hasn't commented. So now I've stopped putting the oil in and it doesn't seem at all dry. In fact it doesn't really seem any different, except perhaps it rises a tiny bit more. So what role does the oil actually play?

[Ham]

I think it helps with the consistency and slightly with the flavour. I think it is also easier to get a crust without oil, but it doesn't keep. Why leave it out?

[Cudzoziemiec]

The first time was an accident, I was in a hurry and just forgot.  But then I thought I'd try it deliberately to see how it turned out - and as it turns out well, I don't see any point adding it. It's probably the largest single use of oil in our kitchen recently so it should cut the grocery bills a tad too, but tbh that only just occurred to me!

[Ham]

How much do you put in? How do you get by without using oil in the kitchen?

[Cudzoziemiec]

One tablespoon in a medium sized loaf. I didn't say we don't use oil in the kitchen, just that three or four loaves a week seems to be the largest single usage - no, I haven't measured this!

[Tail End Charlie]

My latest bread has been a couple of loaves with raisins and black treacle. The book I got it from calls it "Maritimer's Bread". The oats, raisins, treacle, bit of butter and water are left to soak overnight then added to the flour, yeast, salt and kneading and proved in the normal way. It is a very sticky dough to work with but the results are excellent.

[Gattopardo]

Am deciding to restart my sour dough again.  This time no yoghurt or rhubarb just 50g of wholemeal bread flour and some tap water at room temperature and see what happens.

[Tail End Charlie]

That's what I do to start the sourdough. 50g of flour and same of water each day for five days, then use it, if it is frothing up, (it might need an extra day). I tried with rhubarb and apple and it didn't really work.
If I'm not ready to use straightaway, I put in the fridge and leave it till I am ready. After a while it looks like this


I left some on the fridge for months like this (actually I had forgotten about it) and it made a great loaf. Apparently it'll keep like this for years.

[Gattopardo]

Will see how it goes but adding every 24 hours is going to be what I'm going to do.  All I'm doing is that making sure the tap water is at room temperature and living in a glass for a few hours.

[ran doner]

I'll be trying my first go at sourdough bread tomorrow. The starter is a couple of weeks old and based on Paul Hollywood orangic apple method.

My previous attempts have been with pineapple juice which all ended in disaster but this one could be the one !

[Tail End Charlie]

Fingers crossed for you!! I like the taste of sourdough, whereas my wife does not, so more for me! Result!!

[Mrs Pingu]

Anyone made hazelnut bread?

Mrs P, the thing is with adding nuts to dough is that it can be a little painful when kneading if done by hand so take care when doing so. I finely crush half the amount of nuts I am using (to give the dough the flavour) and keep the other half in big chunks (for the texture). For hazelnuts I'd toast the nuts first, gives a lovely flavour.
An advantage to using the soda bread recipe above is that, as no kneading is required, the problem doesn't exist in that type of loaf. I'd use a bit of honey aswell.
I've made both sorts of loaf and can recommend both.

Most important thing is ....... let us know how you get on        

So, yesterday I made a wholemeal loaf and I chucked in some toasted hazelnuts after I'd knocked it back. Tastes OK

[Chris N]

Nothing fancy, just basic white bread:



No photos of the pizzas I made at the same time though, it got eaten too quickly.

[T42]

Muesli bread, up close:

[Tail End Charlie]

That's gross! Could be used in one of those quizzes which has everyday things taken at strange angles or up close! Can anyone else see the little chicken on the left? It's wearing a hat.

[delthebike]

Tomato bread just out of the oven.

[Tail End Charlie]

Looks great. Sun dried tomatoes?

[delthebike]

Looks great. Sun dried tomatoes?

Half a tube of puréed toms! 

[Tail End Charlie]

Bet it tasted great! My latest was a fig and date wholemeal loaf, which oddly enough tasted great with marmalade. Sorry no pics.

[longers]

This is my best ever loaf. (not that many to choose from, yet)



Thankyou to Daniel Stevens who wrote the River Cottage bread making book which has made the whole process easily understandable.

[Tail End Charlie]

I made a milk loaf recently and instead of milk used whey (I had some from making curd cheese, which is another story). It was delicious, made the taste quite acidic, a bit like a sourdough.
Also made some scones using whey in place of milk and they were equally delicious.