Bread baking

[graysalchemy]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[graysalchemy]

Made more Baguettes this weekend

And the wife and Kids made..........

Cinder Toffee. :thumb:

 

[Runwell-Steve]

This baking thing is taking over, I made 2 granary loaves and a Garlic and Herb Focaccia this weekend. The bread maker has been packed away now, bread baking by hand these days.

 

[graysalchemy]

Its the only way steve, very therapeutic.

Made tortilla wraps for the chicken Kebabs tonight, thought I had made a sourdough starter but had just mixed flour and water no sourdough

Had to resort to mr allinsons

There goes my Sourdough Diehard accreditation :lol: :lol:

 

[Pjam]

And the wife and Kids made..........

Cinder Toffee.

First time I misread that as Cider Toffee :lol: :lol: :lol: ............ hmmmmmmm Cider Toffee, I wonder :hmm:

 

[calumscott]

REVELATION!!!

I'm no stranger to making pizza dough. Been making my own bases for yonks.

I just used the proper flour, the 00 stuff, for tonight's tea. :shock:

All of my pizzas, up to this point, have been rubbish. How can a grade of flour make such a difference? Is it actually different flour or just milled differently? It's awesome and I don't quite understand why it's so much better...?

 

[BigYin]

as I understand it, the amount of gluten in flour is what defines it's grade - the better the flour the higher the gluten content, and the better it's able to hold the expanding air pockets and expand without bursting, hence whatever you're making with it, to rise.

I use 'strong' bread flour for everything I make that needs flour - be it bread, pizza, yorkshire pudding, muffins - whatever! It all works better with better flour :thumb:

 

[calumscott]

Ah! So 00 is high gluten stuff then?

 

[graysalchemy]

It is

But quite a lot of people use half strong bread and half plain flour for baguettes. I do and they turn out much better :whistle: :whistle:

 

[Runwell-Steve]

It is

But quite a lot of people use half strong bread and half plain flour for baguettes. I do and they turn out much better :whistle: :whistle:

Useful info there, my baguette trays arrived today, yet to try them out. Perhaps I will go out and knock up some dough. Some baguettes would be good for lunch tomorrow.

 

[graysalchemy]

You need a long rise with baguettes mine take 24 hrs from mixing to baking :thumb:

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I use 'strong' bread flour for everything I make that needs flour - be it bread, pizza, yorkshire pudding, muffins - whatever! It all works better with better flour :thumb:

Strong flour is less useful for cakes and pastries, as the gluten can make them rubbery and tough.

The best flour I've found for shortcrust is dove's farm plain flour, which is gluten-free. It's drier than ordinary flour, so you use more fat (5oz butter to 8oz flour) and an egg to bind rather than water, resulting in a richer pastry at the end. It's particularly good for mince pies as it can roll out thinner than ordinary pastry, so goes up to a third further. I normally add either a tablespoon of tamari or a large teaspoon of muscovado for savoury or sweetcrust (respectively) to give a bit of colour, as this pastry tends to come out pale after baking.

For cakes, I use a 2:1 blend of ground almonds (or other ground nuts) to dove's farm flour or (for chocolate cake) cocoa.

 

[rpt]

Ah! So 00 is high gluten stuff then?

Not necessarily. 00 is a milling grade - you can get strong 00 flour and cake 00 flour. At least you can in Italy.

 

[Fiona2013]

Great thread! Definitely making me hungry though! Think I'll make some bread at the weekend...

I make pizzas most weeks, I'm afraid I'm not as dedicated at kneading as you lot are, and give up after 5 min. I normally mix 500g flour with 300ml of water (approx), a tsp of yeast, maybe a dash of oil, mix to form a dough and knead for a few minutes. It then gets left in a warm place for about 5hrs, if i get chance I'll knock it back, but otherwise it gets ignored until I'm ready to make the pizzas. Again, I'm really lazy and don't bother rolling out the dough, just flatten it between my hands. Because my OH is allergic to tomatoes we use grated apple as a base - sounds weird, but it really works! These generally turn out to be deep pan with a really thick fluffy base.

I managed to get a sourdough starter going a few years ago, kept it alive for about 6 months, made great bread (most of the time), I think I'm going to have to start another one off soon though! Although I have discovered a cheats version, you basically put half your flour in with the full amount of water, yeast and sugar, mix and leave overnight. The next day add the rest of your flour and make your bread as normal. I have found that it's easier to knead than normal bread.

I did have a sort of disaster last week though, I added a handful of the grain (left over after the sparging stage, not sure what to call it) to the cheats sourdough above. Made the bread as normal but it didn't cook right, I think there was too much moisture which couldn't escape, so it just soaked back into the bread, so it had a nice crusty outside but soggy middle. Tasted fantastic but the texture was yuck!

Sorry for the long post!

 

[graysalchemy]

I tend not to kneed as much now but use long slow ferments and a few stretch and folds in the bowl. :thumb:

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

I dropped the Panasonic bread machine idea and bought a Kenwood mixer....

First attempt with it....

 

[graysalchemy]

That is a thing of utter beauty, and it is shiny :party: :party:
:evil: :evil:

 

[Fiona2013]

I tend not to kneed as much now but use long slow ferments and a few stretch and folds in the bowl. :thumb:

Definitely the way forward! Less work but more taste

 

[Fiona2013]

I tend not to kneed as much now but use long slow ferments and a few stretch and folds in the bowl. :thumb:

Definitely the way forward! Less work but more taste

 

[Runwell-Steve]

I use a Kenwood Chef now for my bread as well, marvellous piece of kit. I think I have the same shiny one as you BB.