Bread baking

[graysalchemy]

Nothing like real bread made with your own fair hands or bread machine :whistle: :whistle:

 

[Baz Chaz]

Made a Brioche today in the Panasonic, first try at this bake ......... unfortunately ......

it was rather good, very moreish, can't see this lasting more than a day or so :whistle:

thats the problem with baking your own, it's head and shoulders above shop bought :!:

 

[graysalchemy]

My kids ate half of that loaf before they went to bed.

 

[Baz Chaz]

and as for toast ............. :whistle:

 

[graysalchemy]

I make the toast :whistle: so there will most certainly be some for me, probably a doorstopper crust. :rofl:

 

[motomaniac]

i sometimes make my own bread... its just finding the time nowadays.... we bought a bread maker at a car boot for £2.50.... its been used a few times, but i find the bread isnt too good, i also like to make it all myself, the kneading is very therapeutic i find... and after12 yrs being a chef, its becoming a pleasure to do this sort of thing now i aren't one anymore .

i bought a small bag of james martin bakery,red onion and balsamic vinegar bread mix 2 days ago, for a quid,just to see ,10 mins in the blender, into a greased bowl, covered with a damp cloth and left for 45 mins... knocked back, onto the baking sheet, left to rise for 15 mins... into oven, cup of water chucked in the bottom and 20 - 30 mins later, yum yum, lovely tasty fresh bread..... my daughter , who is 11 and very fussy about bread loved it... result....only problem was, i made a chicken risotto and the whole loaf of bread was eaten in one meal... ho hum, oh well, good excuse to do more...lol

 

[mike383838]

Great Maltese loaf Grays, looks great. Im gona make some Challah (shabbat bread made with egg) and Ill post a pic later.

By the way the water in the bottom of the oven can be a little distructive and I find the best bread needs to only have the steam for the first five-ten mins then dry oven after that, hence why I made this steamer which only gets about 70ml of boiled water at the start, than after 10 mins I open the oven and let the steam out. It works I promise, here is a pic.

I put this in the oven dry for 30 mins on heat up at top temp, then when I pour the water it steams like a gud-un, shut door quick, super steamy oven.

 

[graysalchemy]

Definitely going to try the pebbles :thumb:

Breakfast sunday morning

:thumb:

 

[mike383838]

GA, I wouldn't mind getting that recipe :thumb: , did you add extra yeast at mixing or just the sour-dough. That's a big rise and great Chapata size holes.

Here is my Challah bread, 4 braids, risen in a plastic bag, no steam for this one, egg washed and sesame seeds for crunch.

 

[graysalchemy]

Hi Mike,

I improvised a bit and added more sourdough as it wasn't wet enough. I was a bit denser than I had anticipated but I think that perhaps i should have got my starter out of the fridge and fed earlier, also i don't think I kneaded enough and perhaps I should have left it to ferment overnight.

The recipe was adapted from a recipe of River cottage forum and converted to sour dough using info I found on line, but as I said I added more starter as it wasn't wet enough.

Anyway the recipe is this

White Bread Flour 407g
Starter (100% Hydration) 406g
Water 84g
Milk 75g
olive oil 3tsp
Salt 2 tsp

This should make 1000g.

As you can see no other yeast was added.

BAsically all the ingredients except the salt were added and thoroughly mixed. Left for 20 mins then the salt added and kneaded for 10-15 minutes (I think this is where I went wrong I think perhaps I should have stretched and folded and for a lot longer as I didn't get a window pane when i stretched it out. It was then left for 6 hrs again this probably needed to be longer. I then just shaped it and placed it on a preheated backing tray ( I need a stone) and as previously said baked at gas mark 9 with steam for about 50 minutes.

If you have any thoughts on getting it a bit lighter (without resorting to yeast) I would be grateful.

Yours looks fantastic. :thumb:

 

[mike383838]

Grays

I have another tip for you on the baking stone issue. Ikea have a 16" terracotta plant pot tray/saucer made in Malaysia or Taiwan. it costs about £1.50. I have 4 of them and use them for Breads and pizza. They go in the oven to preheat and make great baking stones. When I get them I scrub them with pot scrubbers to get the water seal off them and they work just like a good baking stone.

The lightness on the crumb on your bread would be sorted by getting your starter really going before you mix. I have found this to be the hardest thing for sour dough and hence give it a fast yeast kick when mixing to make it easier. Iv never thought about the vitamin B1 thing until starting to home-brew, so we can both try it and see if it really works. check this out

http://www.redbeardbakery.com.au/sourdough_baking_tips.html

Ill post my results, but its gona take me a bit cause I need to grow a new starter, let the last one die because it was much easier to do my 2 hour bread bake (with yeast) as opposed to the day prep version (with a 3 week wild starter) :)

 

[graysalchemy]

Interesting reading. Yes I think I need to waken up my starter on thursday to bake saturday and perhaps as I said let it ferment over night friday to bake saturday.

I must take a trip to ikea to look for those stones. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[mike383838]

The best flour it seems to feed the starter is rye as its high in Vitamin B. I struggle sometimes to get the starter going so that the dough is like a fresh yeast starter and getting window pane test to be satisfactory, with sour dough, has always been elusive, except for a time when my starter was going nuts before I mixed it. I never understood this until now, with this wine fermenting it all starts to become clear.

I also started baking bread a year ago in an enamel pot to get your Maltese type loaf. Search for "New York Times No Knead Bread" on Google. Below is a video of the process, this really works and you can keep the dough wet which makes it lighter also. Trying to get the pale bright crumb every-time with sour dough has been the hardest thing about bread I am still trying to master. I'm going to experiment with rye flour, to see if it makes a difference.

http://www.breadtopia.com/basic-no-knead-method/

And this one is the one I used get great sour-dough bread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dAnHY7UCVU

Voice over version here:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sehmXeywZgQ

 

[graysalchemy]

Interesting Video that . I nearly put it in a large cast Iron casserole pot that I have. I think Next weekend I am going to do an overnight ferment and also get my starter going earlier.

Interestingly I used rye wheat to make my starter but have feed it with just bread flour I may try some rye again for the vitamins. :thumb:

 

[mike383838]

I added two more videos above in an edit, just in case you missed them. :thumb:

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Interesting thread this (GA/Mike) I thought bread was just plain old bread untill seeing the pics you two have posted...well done lads. :clap: :clap: :clap:

BB :hat:

 

[graysalchemy]

Thats what we eat this side of the Pennines :lol: :lol:

 

[Baz Chaz]

Thats what we eat this side of the Pennines :lol: :lol:

Not all the time I made a brioche on Saturday, what a result as well :thumb: only problem (as usual) it didn't last over long

 

[graysalchemy]

Thats what we eat this side of the Pennines :lol: :lol:

Not all the time I made a brioche on Saturday, what a result as well :thumb: only problem (as usual) it didn't last over long

You will be brewing foreign beers soon

A belgian blonde anyone

 

[Windy]

What's the difference between beer and bread?

Ingredients:
Bread: grain, sugar, water, yeast
Beer.: grain, sugar, water, yeast, hops

Well bread normally uses wheat grains while beer normally uses barley grains, but you can use barley for bread and wheat for beer :wha:

Beer has hops in it, but you can have Hops Bread, although that does not have hops in it :nah:

Maybe the only real difference is that you put bread in the oven :hmm: