Bread baking.

[gonzo]

Another +1 for olive oil.

For my main loaf I use about 1/4 wholemeal flour, with a good strong bread flour.
And breadmake is the way to go, unless you like the workout. I can load mine in under 2 mins in the eve, press the go button and be woken by the smell of fresh bread for breakfast.
Make sure you get yeast intended for breakmakers. Have made that mistake myself.

I have experimented with a 100% wholemeal loaf. To try and re-create the wartime 'National Loaf'.
Tastes good when really fresh, but christ, it's hard going. It's been nicknamed 'dwarf bread' in our house. (A bit of a Discworld reference there.)

 

[NoIDeer]

We have competitive bread making going on here, my other half has gone into the lead with these steamed bao buns, atm :-

 

[Yorkie]

Another +1 for olive oil.

For my main loaf I use about 1/4 wholemeal flour, with a good strong bread flour.
And breadmake is the way to go, unless you like the workout. I can load mine in under 2 mins in the eve, press the go button and be woken by the smell of fresh bread for breakfast.
Make sure you get yeast intended for breakmakers. Have made that mistake myself.

I have experimented with a 100% wholemeal loaf. To try and re-create the wartime 'National Loaf'.
Tastes good when really fresh, but christ, it's hard going. It's been nicknamed 'dwarf bread' in our house. (A bit of a Discworld reference there.)

Hi.
I happen to enjoy discworld nearly as much as bread, so i get the link .

 

[macfarlane]

Try mixing your flour 50% plain 50%strong that way you’ll get the lift and body of the strong flour,and a heavy thick doughty kind of loaf.
Most Italian,Mediterranean type of bread is made with soft,all purpose flour and has olive oil in it.
Watch what olive oil you buy some of it contains rape seed oil as well.Rape seed oil is good as well gives the bread a nutty taste.

 

[Olaf]

Hi Olaf I’ve been making rolls the same way for 30 odd years ,my dad for closer to 60 years ,we don’t have any fancy machines just a big Hobart mixer ,a divider for cutting the rolls out by hand and an oven,The divider ,mixer and oven are older than me (54) I remember making our rolling pins out of old brush handles at school ,still in use daily .biggest problem we have nowadays is getting a good quality strong flour ,two many chemicals bleaching agents in it ,stuff we use comes from Canada ,my dad thinks it has more gluten from getting more sunlight when growing so it keeps its body doesn’t collapse or go soggy.I’m not so sure but sometimes it’s best to agree with him.

That’s interesting, I remember a friend of mine ( a grain farmer) telling me that Canadian grown wheat produces the strongest and best flour their is. I used to stop off at Waitrose especially just to buy their Canadian very strong flour as a result of what he’d told me. It was good flour, but I prefer the untreated flour I buy directly from the mill now, and it’s way cheaper and organic too.
ive always quite fancied a Hobart mixer, thing is one might be a bit of overkill for my 500g of flour
how big a mix do you make in one go ?
kindest regards, Olaf

 

[cyberstag]

That’s interesting, I remember a friend of mine ( a grain farmer) telling me that Canadian grown wheat produces the strongest and best flour their is. I used to stop off at Waitrose especially just to buy their Canadian very strong flour as a result of what he’d told me. It was good flour, but I prefer the untreated flour I buy directly from the mill now, and it’s way cheaper and organic too.
ive always quite fancied a Hobart mixer, thing is one might be a bit of overkill for my 500g of flour
how big a mix do you make in one go ?
kindest regards, Olaf

You don't need a bread maker of any sort, just rearrange the letters in your name

 

[Limpet]

Rightly or wrongly, I've been buying strong flour on the Protein level. For pizzas, I've found Waitrose 00 flour to have a whopping 14% protein and mixed with 25% semolina flour makes great pizza bases.

 

[Woodsy]

Like lots of other people I started experimenting with sourdough bread during the first lockdown. It took me a few attempts but I eventually started making consistently good (very good actually) sourdough loaves. It’s a fairly long process, but the results are so worthwhile.

 

[RichardAllen]

Really interesting thread here. I too have been making sourdough during lockdown with good success, trying various proportions of rye flour to white from none to about 1/5th rye, kids prefer all white. Also have a breadmaker for pizza dough, quick white, wholemeal and rye loaves, some with linseed, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. I have yet to make a walnut bread, oddly as it is one of my favourites. Must do that.

A quick plug for Ori Hellerstein who sells fantastic walnut bread, foccaccia, ciabatta and his Nelson bread at Stroud Farmers Market. His book is wide ranging and reliable.

I also use a splash of olive oil in the breadmaker instead of butter. Cannot remember buying margarine, and lard is kept for hot eater pastry for raised pies.

And another vote for Shipton Mill (and the pike fishing on the canal there can be good).

I once had the most amazing bread in Köln and never had anything to rival it. So does anyone have a recipe for a very nutty light springy German rye bread, not one of their more solid ones

 

[McKenzie]

I liked this one for a change, although it's probably darker than you are looking for;

 

[spiker76]

You may find this video enjoyable if you like baking

 

[Olaf]

Really interesting thread here. I too have been making sourdough during lockdown with good success, trying various proportions of rye flour to white from none to about 1/5th rye, kids prefer all white. Also have a breadmaker for pizza dough, quick white, wholemeal and rye loaves, some with linseed, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. I have yet to make a walnut bread, oddly as it is one of my favourites. Must do that.

A quick plug for Ori Hellerstein who sells fantastic walnut bread, foccaccia, ciabatta and his Nelson bread at Stroud Farmers Market. His book is wide ranging and reliable.

I also use a splash of olive oil in the breadmaker instead of butter. Cannot remember buying margarine, and lard is kept for hot eater pastry for raised pies.

And another vote for Shipton Mill (and the pike fishing on the canal there can be good).

I once had the most amazing bread in Köln and never had anything to rival it. So does anyone have a recipe for a very nutty light springy German rye bread, not one of their more solid ones

Yes, I do some that’s like that. Use 40% white wheat flour instead of pure rye ( 100% rye = heavy loaf) also add some sunflower and pumpkin seeds and linseeds
Andrew Whitleys book has several such recipes.
kindest regards, Olaf

 

[RichardAllen]

Thanks Olaf. With your white/rye proportion, do you use dried yeast or sourdough starter ? Whitley book arrives tomorrow.

 

[JMikeyH]

The girlfriend's sour dough is to die for. Doesn't have any fat in it at all, just flour, water, salt and the starter (yeast). Best bread I've ever eaten, and I've eaten a lot!

 

[macfarlane]

That’s interesting, I remember a friend of mine ( a grain farmer) telling me that Canadian grown wheat produces the strongest and best flour their is. I used to stop off at Waitrose especially just to buy their Canadian very strong flour as a result of what he’d told me. It was good flour, but I prefer the untreated flour I buy directly from the mill now, and it’s way cheaper and organic too.
ive always quite fancied a Hobart mixer, thing is one might be a bit of overkill for my 500g of flour
how big a mix do you make in one go ?
kindest regards, Olaf

Generally 50lb of dough at one time.

 

[John Gryphon]

A 10 day walk in hunt in the Wonnangatta Valley going back a few years had us using the 200 litre drum oven..old mate is a champion and cooked fresh bread daily. The site of the most remote cattle station in Vic,right in the guts of the mountains. Everything is dumped in months before the gates are shut to the area.

 

[Olaf]

Thanks Olaf. With your white/rye proportion, do you use dried yeast or sourdough starter ? Whitley book arrives tomorrow.

Hi, I use a sourdough starter. If I want to make a loaf without that slightly rubbery texture of sourdough, then I hydrate all the ingredients overnight or even for 24 hrs and then mix in some organic yeast ( Shipton mill sell Bio- real organic dried yeast , it’s made by a German company and they are the only maker of organic yeast in the world - so I’m told- and it makes a totally different loaf to normal baking yeast) and treat it like a normal loaf ( 1 hr rise - shape, 1 hr proving in a tin then baked) Just use the book, you will see a picture of exactly the sort of loaf that you want to bake in the book.
that book is brilliant, if you read it all you will know how and what to do to make whatever you’re aiming for as opposed to just following a list of ingredients and aiming high and hoping for the best. It sheds much light on the subject.
kindest regards, Olaf

 

[JockStalk]

Another ‘master baker’ here?
In lockdown it’s been both an enjoyable task as well as a practical way to access fresh bread. My staple version is 250 whole grain and 250 white strong bread flour, 7g salt, 8g quick yeast, 40ml olive oil and 340ml tepid water. Throw it all together, bring it to a ball and knead on an oiled surface for 5-10mins. Into an oiled bowl until tripled in size (1-2hours), knock it back then onto a baking sheet or oiled tin as you fancy until doubled in size then couple slits with a sharp knife. Fan oven 200C with a pan of water in for steam for 15 minutes then reduce to 180 for 15/20 minutes. Wrap in a tea towel and leave to cool.
Easy and never fails.

 

[Yorkie]

Hi Lads.
Made my first attempt at bread making today, in fact my last loaf is in the oven as i type.

I thought i would walk before i run so started simple. To be honest, when i got to Morrisons i was not exactly spoiled for choice. I bought a Morrisons own brand, ready mixed, seeded flour. This was just add water, mix and then nead and leave to rise.

Second was an Allinson, country grain, bread flour. For this i needed to add the yeast, water, salt and butter as suggested by my 1970s cookbook.

I will give a taste report later and hopefully get some pics up for you to giggle at .

Many thanks for what turned out to be a fun and interesting thread.

 

[nic531]

when I moved into our current house 10 years ago, we got a woodturner with an oven (no central heating or radiators in the house)
we had a sourdough starter on the go and made loaves every other day in the stove's oven...... absolutely gorgeous, but did we ever pile some weight on!

still miss them though