The Bread Thread

[citoyen]

Edit: they have rye flour in stock as I type. £12.49 for 16kg. Bargain!

It may well have been true at the time of typing but... arses. That really is quick.

I can get hold of white and wholemeal wheat flour easily enough from my wife's friend who is a baker, but they don't do any of the fancy "artisan" stuff like rye or spelt.

[Wowbagger]

Just keep an eye on the website. When I bought the bag of "golden" plain flour and the brown the other day, both were sold out once I'd bought them.

[perpetual dan]

In a normal year, we have about 20 weekends away from home. We only buy bread when on holiday.
My standard batch is four pounds of flour, by hand, which makes either for 'two pound' loaves (which is a month's worth of breakfasts) or 40 rolls (which is two month's worth of lunches for me, MrsC preferring a jacket potato). They all go into the freezer, having cut the loaves in half. I also make bread for our re-enacting displays. I use a sponge method. All the water, all the yeast, about half the flour for one rise, then add the rest of the flour, knead, then leave for a second rise, and finally shape, third rise, cook. 
Usual procedure is get the sponge going while sorting breakfast. Go to parkrun. Once home again do stage two. Then we usually end up going shopping. Third stage around or after lunch. Total time spent is under an hour. Elapsed time obviously much longer.

So it is possible to fit bread making into a busy lifestyle and I wouldn't want to go back to buying.

On a day when I'm mostly about fitting in baking seems easy enough. I'm favouring mix and knead after supper; knock back and into a banetton then the fridge before bed, out for an hour or so while I have breakfast and wash, then into the oven as I do my morning coffee, emails etc. If I were out for 10 hours at a stretch in the day it gets harder to fit all that in. I like fresh bread, but not enough to set an earlier alarm or work part time! Our freezer is pretty much tetris to get stuff in already, so I'm not convinced I'd make that work either. It'd be a nice weekend treat still, and as citoyen says keeping the starter going isn't so hard.

[Wowbagger]

Edit: they have rye flour in stock as I type. £12.49 for 16kg. Bargain!

It may well have been true at the time of typing but... arses. That really is quick.

I can get hold of white and wholemeal wheat flour easily enough from my wife's friend who is a baker, but they don't do any of the fancy "artisan" stuff like rye or spelt.

There again now, it seems. https://flour.co.uk/view/dark-rye

[pcolbeck]

Hmm 50% dark rye loaf has come out not so good. There is a fair bit of white flour that hasn't been incorporated into the do and i stuck to one corner.
I wonder what it's like inside, I'll find out in 10 minutes when it cools enough to cut.

Next time I think I will mix the rye and normal strong flour together manually before dumping it in the bread machine.

Update:

This inside was fine. It was just a thin layer of white flour on 1 x 1 x 1 inch corner of the crust.

[hatler]

Brioche buns ready for last Saturday's home made burger-fest.

[Gattopardo]

Here are some free kindle bread books:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B087ZQMY4T
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0875FV6JP
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0883GH95Y
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B087T9KNMK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B087Z2F7RH
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B087TS1TRV
And a pizza one
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B087ZK6BXC/

[trekker12]

Are those with bulk (or other) bags of flour concerned at all about weevils (etc) showing up for a good time? Any issues?

Not really. Extra protein

And always take the lesser of two weevils 

[robgul]

Our 16kg sack of bread flour arrived today  . . . should keep us going for a bit.

Rob

[Woofage]

I got some live yeast from a local baker. Haven't used it for years. I've managed to ascertain the right quantity for use in the breadmaker though and the results are better than I've ever had .

[Little Jim]

I got some live yeast from a local baker. Haven't used it for years. I've managed to ascertain the right quantity for use in the breadmaker though and the results are better than I've ever had .

It freezes quite well too if you have got loads left over.  Cut it into the lumps the right size for the next mix and then rub it into flour and freeze individually as a sort of powder wrapped in cling film or small plastic bags.  When you are ready for the next mix just remove from the freeze, allow to thaw and away you go.

[Tim Hall]

I tried wetter but it sort of splurged over the baking sheet when I tipped it out. I'll increase it a bit once I've bought more flour.

Try above recipe. I'll find some youtube vids for shaping


Here you go: https://youtu.be/8uz97MZZmRg

Reporting back

Can't get any super hard Canadian flour at the vmoment, so used your recipe with the strong white I get from my local farm shop.  Studied the shaping video (and a couple of others) and had a go. I don't have a cloche or cast iron casserole so have been using the bowl of water in the bottom of the over to good effect.

Result: Much airier bread. Gorgeous taste too. I need to refine my shaping to suit  the long oval proving basket I have. I've spotted a couple of YouTube videos to help.

Thanks, all very useful.

[Hot Flatus]

Great! 

An iron casserole made all the difference to mine. Have a Hunt in tkmaxx at some point as they tend to have that sort of thing quite cheaply.

Next project...just before mixing, lob in 150g of strong grated cheddar and 3 or 4 sliced green chillies (hot indian ones, not tha pointless dutch shit) Then proceed as normal.

Just trust me on this one 

[The Family Cyclist]

I have inadvertently ended up with a lot of plain flour. Some will get mixed with strong for pizza bases but considering trying to make bread with some if I run out of strong. Any tips?

[Mrs Pingu]

Great! 

An iron casserole made all the difference to mine. Have a Hunt in tkmaxx at some point as they tend to have that sort of thing quite cheaply.

Next project...just before mixing, lob in 150g of strong grated cheddar and 3 or 4 sliced green chillies (hot indian ones, not tha pointless dutch shit) Then proceed as normal.

Just trust me on this one 

When you use the casserole do you preheat it before putting the dough in?

[citoyen]

When you use the casserole do you preheat it before putting the dough in?

Yes. Makes putting the loaf into it a bit tricky, which is why a cloche is better. Or if your casserole dish has a flat lid, you can simply invert it.

I quite fancy one of these Fourneau cast iron ovens - not cheap, but cheaper and easier than building a proper bread oven in the garden. They're also launching a 'levee' to make lifting your loaf into a casserole dish easier:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stranddesign/fourneau-grande-and-levee

[Tim Hall]

OK, for the quantities in Flatus' recipe and my recipe of about 1kg of dough I've been using a 30cm x 16cm oval banneton. I also have a 22cm round banneton.

Is the 22cm big enough for the Flatus recipe, so I can get a nice boule loaf? 

Will a stainless steel mixing bowl inverted over the dough on a baking sheet work as a substitute cloche?

[Mrs Pingu]

When you use the casserole do you preheat it before putting the dough in?

Yes. Makes putting the loaf into it a bit tricky, which is why a cloche is better. Or if your casserole dish has a flat lid, you can simply invert it.

I quite fancy one of these Fourneau cast iron ovens - not cheap, but cheaper and easier than building a proper bread oven in the garden. They're also launching a 'levee' to make lifting your loaf into a casserole dish easier:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stranddesign/fourneau-grande-and-levee

Hmm. Maybe I could put an upturned dish over my pizza steel lump of metal off ebay. When it comes. 🤔
Still sounds like quite a lot of opportunity to burn myself though.

[Mrs Pingu]

OK, for the quantities in Flatus' recipe and my recipe of about 1kg of dough I've been using a 30cm x 16cm oval banneton. I also have a 22cm round banneton.

Is the 22cm big enough for the Flatus recipe, so I can get a nice boule loaf? 

Will a stainless steel mixing bowl inverted over the dough on a baking sheet work as a substitute cloche?

Bakery Bits have a 1kg basket that measures 22.5x8.5cm internal dia x depth if that helps you decide.

[Hot Flatus]

Great! 

An iron casserole made all the difference to mine. Have a Hunt in tkmaxx at some point as they tend to have that sort of thing quite cheaply.

Next project...just before mixing, lob in 150g of strong grated cheddar and 3 or 4 sliced green chillies (hot indian ones, not tha pointless dutch shit) Then proceed as normal.

Just trust me on this one 

When you use the casserole do you preheat it before putting the dough in?

Yes, for at least 40 minutes.    I used a wooden pizza peel, lay it on top of the banetton, invert, then wiggle out the loaf. Then I slide it in to casserole.
For my large oval casserole I increase the ingredients by 50% and get a stonking huge well risen loaf

[Hot Flatus]

OK, for the quantities in Flatus' recipe and my recipe of about 1kg of dough I've been using a 30cm x 16cm oval banneton. I also have a 22cm round banneton.

Is the 22cm big enough for the Flatus recipe, so I can get a nice boule loaf? 

Will a stainless steel mixing bowl inverted over the dough on a baking sheet work as a substitute cloche?

Don't know about the banetton size. I think mine is about 25cm diameter.

For the mixing bowl thing, give it a try. Remeber the loaf needs space to rise because itll burn the top if not.

[SteveC]

I have inadvertently ended up with a lot of plain flour. Some will get mixed with strong for pizza bases but considering trying to make bread with some if I run out of strong. Any tips?

You probably won't get the rise you would expect from hard wheat, but it will be perfectly edible.
They discussed this on Radio 4's Kitchen Cabinet on Saturday (available on BBC Sounds and as a podcast).
We will be having a go with plain flour when the re-enacting gets going again. Hard wheats weren't available until the 1860s (according to the programme) and we do cooking from the 1640s.

[pcolbeck]

50% rye load 2.0

I mixed the rye and white flour together by hand before dumping it in the breadmaker this time. Much better, no unmixed bits at all and a better load all round.

[citoyen]

50% rye load 2.0

I mixed the rye and white flour together by hand before dumping it in the breadmaker this time. Much better, no unmixed bits at all and a better load all round.

Did you use the same recipe as for a standard white loaf? If so, another thing you might try is increasing the water content - dark rye will absorb a lot more water than white flour, or even wholemeal.

[pcolbeck]

50% rye load 2.0

I mixed the rye and white flour together by hand before dumping it in the breadmaker this time. Much better, no unmixed bits at all and a better load all round.

Did you use the same recipe as for a standard white loaf? If so, another thing you might try is increasing the water content - dark rye will absorb a lot more water than white flour, or even wholemeal.

No the Panasonic has a dedicated rye bread mode (and dedicated rye paddle) and recipes for rye.  It did have more water than the standard white loaf.