The Bread Thread

[woollypigs]

I'm on a mission to bake my mum's(well rather my dad's since it is he who bakes it) rye bread that has fed the family for over 25 years. The sour dough has been passed to many friends and family over the year. Sadly it will be too hard to transport a "starter pack" of sour dough over here from Denmark, without it starting to do its job.

The main problem is to find the right rye and flour over here. Getting the right cream and a cream that behaves like the cream in Denmark has caused a few not so good batches of my mums home made ice cream. So getting the right stuff is rather important.

I have asked over here on Ham flour power thread about it.

Multi grain bread is probably my starter to get used to the dough and our oven, which one would the panel recommend as a starter ?

[Cudzoziemiec]

In what way is the cream in Denmark different? Perhaps you might find something similar in a polskish sklep - I've no idea if it will be what you're looking for, but their dairy products are certainly a bit different (and more various) than English ones.

[woollypigs]

I'm not a dairy specialist but it didn't fluff up right and didn't behave the way I'm used to in DK.

[Sergeant Pluck]

Does anyone use a food mixer / dough maker for their bread?

[woollypigs]

My mum does and its call dad I might do it for the rye bread since I'm told it is a good old workout. But I do like get my fingers dirty and doing the kneading.

[Mrs Pingu]

I think I've got a duff batch of yeast. This is the 2nd loaf of bread I've made that isn't rising properly the 2nd time

[Mrs Pingu]

I've got a wholegrain sourdough starter but not enough wholemeal flour to make a loaf. I do have a bag of Wholegrain rye flour. Any good rye sourdough recipes I might be able to get away with?

[Pancho]

I bought two loaves from my daughters' school today. The pupils make bread every week and in the last week of the year do all night baking sessions so there's plenty to take home.

All fully hand made in an ancient old bake house with, I hadn't realised, a wood-fired oven. Tastes absolutely delicious. And the bakery smells gorgeous; wood smokey and bready.

The little ones spend a lot of Wednesdays collecting and chopping firewood. But it's well worth it.

[Tail End Charlie]

My local bakery used to use a charcoal oven till recently, then the father retired and I guess the son didn't fancy getting up so early each day and it was replaced with either electric or gas (not sure which). The bread doesn't taste the same, the charcoal loaves were fantastic.

[renard]

Does anyone use a food mixer / dough maker for their bread?

We got a Kenwood Prospero food mixer at christmas and  I use it to make bread.  Still experimenting, but it does a grand job of kneading the dough with a dough hook.

The breads seem to rise a lot more than one I made with hand kneading, although I have switched to trying Paul Hollywood's recipes which seem to use a bit more yeast.

[Mrs Pingu]

So....I made my sourdough with a w/meal starter and 1:2 w/meal to rye flour for the dough. After reading the blog I posted on the flour power thread I thought that possibly the reason my sourdough never has holes in it was a)high protein flour 15%!! and/or b) not enough water.

Obviously because I used a different recipe with the rye flour I didn't know how much water to put in so I did it by feel and tried to go for the wet side.
The dough was very nicely full of holes after the first rise but I think I might have lost most of it when I tried to get it in the tin.
The resulting loaf - a few tiny holes, but nothing like sourdough typically looks like.

Oh, and stupidly when I made the dough I forgot to keep back some of the starter, so now I don't have a starter anymore 

[Sergeant Pluck]

Too hot out there for me today. I'm staying mostly in until normality resumes. I've acquired some spelt flour. Any good recipes? Is it really as easy as my first couple of googlings suggest - hardly any kneading required? I also haz walnuts - would a walnut spelt loaf be nice?

[Sergeant Pluck]

Actually I fancy this one:


http://www.sharphampark.com/about-spelt/spelt-recipes/sour-dough-with-dates-and-walnuts

But how do I make a leaven?

150g of a 50/50 spelt/wheat leaven

Edit: Oh. I see that if I wanted a leaven, I'd have had to start making it about a week ago. Bah.

[Tail End Charlie]

A bit of a success! Tried again at a sourdough loaf. Just mixed 25g of rye flour with 50g of water each day for five days and then used the starter (which had bubbled up nicely) to make the loaf. Used stoneground flour in the final part. The dough was quite wet and I think next time I'll use a tin, as this time it flattened a bit too much and the tin would help it keep shape. Tasty all the same, but the crust is a little too thick.
Onwards and upwards!!

[Tail End Charlie]

Another success, this time with soda bread, adding a tbsp of black treacle to the mix. Absolutely superb taste and it went well with cheese (Leigh toaster) and a glass of stout. I could live on that!!

[Sergeant Pluck]

soda bread

Ooh. Recipe?

[woollypigs]

I know its a sin to mention it here and I'm ready for the hounds.

But, I baked a loaf today with pre mixed flour packs where you just add a bit of water, throw it in the oven and then eat.  It is rather nice sure truly home made from scratch can only be better.

[Tail End Charlie]

OK Sergeant pluck (and anyone else), soda bread recipe I use.

500g flour (I use stoneground wholemeal, but have had good results with wholemeal and white mixed)
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1 tsp salt
420ml buttermilk (in place of buttermilk I put three tbsps of lemon juice in the jug and fill up to the 420ml mark. Leave five minutes for it to curdle, then use)

1. Mix  flour, bicarb and salt
2. Add buttermilk (or substitute), mix with wooden spoon to form a sticky dough
3. Flour a work surface, tip the dough out and roll it around to form it into a ball (not kneading it)
4. Flatten top slightly
5. Put on non stick baking tray and cut a cross into the flattened ball, cutting deep and opening the cross out a bit (this is so the inside bakes properly)
6. Leave for 30 minutes
7. Heat oven to 200C and cook for 30 minutes
8. Leave to cool completely

As an extra speciality, add 1 generous tbsp of black treacle to the dough at number 2, and mix well, you will need to add a small amount of extra flour. This is superb with stout and cheese.
I've also made variations with added honey and walnuts.
 
I would say it's a piece of cake to make but it's even easier than that!!

[Sergeant Pluck]

I know its a sin to mention it here and I'm ready for the hounds.

But, I baked a loaf today with pre mixed flour packs where you just add a bit of water, throw it in the oven and then eat.  It is rather nice sure truly home made from scratch can only be better.

The Waitrose bread mixes are said to be very good although I haven't tried one.

OK Sergeant pluck (and anyone else), soda bread recipe I use.
/
I would say it's a piece of cake to make but it's even easier than that!!

Thanks! I'll be giving that a go in due course. And that reminds me, I still haven't made a cake.

5. Put on non stick baking tray and cut a cross into the flattened ball, cutting deep and opening the cross out a bit (this is so the inside bakes properly)

Interesting - I always do some cuts on my loaves (my latest ones are a mix of rye and white, getting a bit bored with my usual walnut / olives / dates variations) and I thought they were purely decorative. 

[Mrs Pingu]

Anyone made hazelnut bread?

[Tail End Charlie]

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        

[SteveC]

I know its a sin to mention it here and I'm ready for the hounds.

But, I baked a loaf today with pre mixed flour packs where you just add a bit of water, throw it in the oven and then eat.  It is rather nice sure truly home made from scratch can only be better.

I've not used one for decades, but we used to bake bread when we were on canal boat holidays using those. When our most experienced bread maker had her turn, she was generally impressed but decided to add some oil to the mix. I seem to remember the results were pretty good all week but the beer before hand might have helped! Our routine was to make the bread after breakfast with the aim of getting it cooked by about twelve, then go to the pub and return for bread and cheese lunch with the fresh loaf.

[Sergeant Pluck]

When I add nuts to bread, usually walnuts, I add them after I've kneaded the bread and left it to rest for an hour. Then I just knock the air out, flatten it, scatter walnuts, roll it up, flatten again, add more nuts, repeat maybe twice more. Then form the loaves and rest again before putting into the oven. So I don't knead with the nuts in.

[Tail End Charlie]

Nice tip, Sgt P, will try that way. My problem is that years ago I managed to draw blood on a viciously sharpened pumpkin seed whilst kneading and the memory has stuck with me since !!

[Mrs Pingu]

I did the same last time I made my walnut & raisin bread. I didn't find any hazelnut bread recipes that weren't more like a dessert so I'll take TEC's advice and try just bunging them in a wholemeal loaf...