Hobbies and Crafts

Dear All

Hello

Hope you are okay.


This is a small thread about making your own bread, by machine or hand.


Please add if you want to.

All welcome.


Take gentle care
Best wishes
Elizabeth, EOS
xx

You can't beat the smell of freshly baked bread or the stress relief that comes from kneading the dough by hand.

Yum

Where's Allan from WA??

I thought he'd be posting on this thread........ when he posts about the bread he makes I can almost smell it :-D

Just made some Elizabeth and am waiting for it to cool. The dogs are sitting here impatiently, methinks they think they will be sharing in the mouth-watering delight....No chance! :-D.

I like mine crusty, thick, spread with butter and lashes of raspberry jam. ....EDIT:- with a nice hot cup of tea

Hello all

I've just had a message from LadyScozz about this thread.

I really enjoy making bread, but until recently I had to desist due to arthritis in my hands which made kneading difficult.

We do have a bread maker, but I prefer the hands-on type of cooking.

Allan

Why does my crust come out as hard as rock ...every time? we need a saw to cut through it :-S

Nolls,

I usually make rolls and dust the tops with flour, this keeps them soft.

I'm also experimenting with putting a baking pan with boiling water in it in the oven when the rolls are baking. It's supposed to keep them soft.

You may also be cooking at too high a temperature, or too close to the top of the oven :-)

Allan

Hello all,

I love crusty bread. I used to love kneading bread, but have the same problem as you Allan,- painful hands.

Have you tried any of the no-knead recipes? I tried one from the Mother Ear*h magazine and it was pretty good, but would have to experiment a bit.

Hi Ruby

For my birthday the family all chipped in and bought me a powerful food mixer, a K*tchenAid, that does the kneading in a bout three minutes.

Not a cheap mixer, but powerful

Allan

Boy!

This thread is as difficult to rise as dough on a cold and wet day :-(

So, on such a day, how do you get your dough to rise?

I sometimes use my car :-0

Any recipes, tips etc? :-D

Pretty please :-D :-D

Alan my sister in Canada suggested I try a recipe taken from

http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/white-bread-recipe-zmaz10djzraw.aspx#ixzz2fj9WTagZ

Sister changes the recipe slightly she doubles up and uses 3/4 wholemeal flour (UK) wholegrain flour (Canada) 1/4 unbleached organic white flour.

I only received this this in a mail today so haven't tried it myself yet.

Lesley x

Thanks Diamond

That looks interesting.

I saw a programme the other day about making focaccia bread which talked about a 'wet' dough to create lager holes in the crumb :-)

Allan

Ruby I apologise I hadn't seen your post about Mother Earth.

Has anyone got an easy peasy foolproof low G I bread recipe please. :-)

Lesley x

Lesley

Not a recipe as such, more a suggestion; use wholemeal flour and put some grains/seeds in the mix.

I've done that from time to time to use up the seeds which were added to our bread maker mix.

As I have type 2 diabetes I always try for low GI foods as well as low fat.

I did find this site of interest which talks about how proving and rising times can affect the GI of white bread

http://lowgicooking.com/tag/sourdough-bread/

Thank you for that link Allan............I've learnt something new today :-D

As far as I know I'm not diabetic I just have a love for low G I multi-seed bread so much so I am prepared to drive a 50 mile round trip to buy the bread I like best, I normally buy 6-10 loaves at a time and freeze some.

I wonder if I can bribe the baker into sharing his recipe:-D

Lesley x

I'm glad to have been of some assistance :-)

Have arthritic hands? Own a bread machine? Away to go.

My machine, and I imagine most others, has a setting that mixes the dough, develops the gluten and a gives a proving time, about an hour and a half in all. So use it to make your dough, a knock back halfway through proving improves the texture. Shape your bread to what you want, bloomer, tin, cottage, plait, dusted with flour, sprinkled with poppy seeds, whatever way you like it. Let it stand in a warm place to prove then put it in a nice hot oven. If you have a water spray bottle, before you shut the oven, give it a couple of good sprays, the oven not the bread. Yummy.

I have found bread machine to be useful if you want to build a wall.
;-)

Hello Ardee,

We do have a bread maker, but I prefer to use my mixer as I can do a couple of batches of dough in quick succession with different ingredients in each. I then let each batch rise before knocking back, shaping and proving

Gentle nudge for all bread-makers.

Thank you.
xx