Anyone like to bake their own bread? A friend gave us their bread machine. I use it every week. I would like to make some different kinds of bread sometimes.
Anyone want to talk about bread?
I also like to make tortillas but they are difficult. I can never seem to roll out the dough in a round shape even though I have a tortilla press. I am not too good at cooking them either.
I like baking bread, with my bare hands, and an oven that is. I like the texture and smell of the dough to much to let a machine have that fun.
Bread with curraway seed is very nice, I think. Just take the amounts of yeast, flour etc as usual, and a two tablespoons of the seeds. You could enhance the flavour by replacing a handfull of flour with oatmeal.
Garlic, olives and olive oil are nice too to put in the bread. You have to find out for yourself wich amounts you like.
Just use all your imagination. Tomato's are possible too. Just try.
I enjoy baking bread. I don't make loaves in the summer because I prefer not using the oven when it is hot, so summer bread tends to be biscuits. I don't use a bread machine either. I like handling the dough .... and I like eating the dough. Definitely a dough eater. Sometimes I mix just a small bit of dough just to eat.
Yes, the salty taste. mmmm
I never use scales or so. Just mix the amounts I think are OK. The texture and taste of the dough tell me if I did it right.
I'm getting hungry,
There's a bit left of my last loaf, with raisins, lemonzest, cinnamon, AND Almondpaste (Bargain only 20 ct's, I could not resist)
So I'm going to have a slice of it, with some butter....
I also like to make tortillas but they are difficult. I can never seem to roll out the dough in a round shape even though I have a tortilla press. I am not too good at cooking them either.
I make flour tortillas, as I find the preservatives in the commercial product really foul. Corn tortillas are another story. Proper masa isn't available locally, and masa harina just doesn't work for me (I suppose I should get a metate and do the job right).
I never worry about getting them round, just really, really thin, so they puff up nicely and remain flexible. I've found that the best tool for the job is a plain old narrow rolling pin. I just took a 1" hardwood dowel, cut it to length, sanded it well, and finished with a food-safe varnish.
I don't make loaves in the summer because I prefer not using the oven when it is hot, so summer bread tends to be biscuits.
I probably haven't bought a loaf of bread in over two years. I have a nice, big countertop oven and just bake single loaves (easy if you purchase bulk yeast) summer and winter. Of course, it's just me, so one loaf every few days is plenty.
I like baking too. It's strange, I have real trouble with cooking, but little trouble baking (of course I doubt I could bake daily, but even the amount I can bake is better than the amount I can cook). And I've never really been taught, I just started doing it and things turn out good.
As executor of mum's estate I simply requisitioned her Regal breadmaker.
I bake bread around the holidays but maybe I'll do it more often.
Mix yeast into dough, let yeast convert sugar to ethanol (ethyl alcohol) and carbon dioxide, after dough rises, bake bread to remove ethyl alcohol (boils at 79 degrees Centigrade, water boils at 100 degrees Centigrade, you're baking it even higher than that), and when you get a nice brown crust, remove and let cool. Makes one loaf leavened bread.
I don't bake the bread in the breadmaker. I hate the weird shape and the paddle hole. I cut the dough in half and put it in a extra large loaf pan, let it rise and bake it in the oven. I split the loaf when cool, bag it and freeze it.
What kind of pan is best for cooking the tortillas?
Proper masa isn't available locally, and masa harina just doesn't work for me
The reason for that is because probably because proper masa contains lard
A good suggestion is one part lard to every eight parts masa harina. Mix it up briefly in a food processor until just thoroughly combined, and be sure to add a little salt.
when i was on the GFCF diet my mum used to make her own bread she tried to make herby bread and the herbs all sunk to the bottom of the bread lol!
could be how she made it.
Last year I went on short breadmaking course, one of several free "taster" (no pun intended) courses run by the local FE college to encourage us to sign up for evening classes come the autumn. I was given a lump of fresh yeast to take home, which I shoved in the freezer compartment of my fridge. This week I've been on a mission to clear out the icebox in the hope that I might get around to defrosting it. So I retrieved the yeast and made some bread using one of the recipes from last year's course:
Wholemeal Bread
275g strong flour
200g wholemeal flour
250ml warm milk
45g fresh yeast
12g salt
50g clear honey [I used fairly traded Mexican orange blossom]
Dissolve the yeast into half of the warm milk.
Mix together the flours and salt. Make a well and add the honey.
Add the yeast and milk mixture to the well and start to mix together using the rest of the milk to bring together a smooth dough.
Work the dough to stretch the gluten, cover the dough in a bowl and leave to double in size. Knock the dough back and scale the bread.
Spray with water and sprinkle with flour, score and prove. Bake at 190degC for 15 to 20 min until bread sounds hollow when tapped.
Leave to rest.
I used two loaf tins so got two small loaves, but in fact the quantity would have fitted into one tin. The last time I attempted bread at home I followed a recipe that specified 1.6kg (3 1/2 lb in old money) wholemeal flour and 1 dessertspoon each molasses and sunflower oil for two loaf tins, and the mixture proved (!) to be too much for the containers after the rising. This time I erred on the side of caution.
Does anyone know how to substitute one type of yeast for another? Specifically, how much fresh yeast is equivalent to a packet of "easy blend" dried yeast?
Does anyone know how to substitute one type of yeast for another? Specifically, how much fresh yeast is equivalent to a packet of "easy blend" dried yeast?
The standard U.S. measure is 3/5 oz. av. (17g) compressed fresh yeast per cake. This substitutes for about a tablespoon (15ml), or one packet, of active dry yeast. There's also liquid yeast, but it's not generally available from U.S. retailers, so I don't know much about it.
I've been making some bread with bread mixes. It's a packet that contains all the flour and yeast in appropriate proportions, so you don't have to faff about with weighing scales, and you simply add a measured portion of warm water.
I find the kneading quite calming and therapeutic. I take the mixing bowl into the sitting room and knead while watching television.
And the smell of freshly baked bread oozing through my home... mmmmmmm... lovely...
Does anyone here use sourdough starters that they make themselves? I was doing it for a while but stopped since I started using the bread machine. It is just difficult to gauge the amount of liquid and flour needed in the bread machine. I guess I should try again and use my mixer.
Last year I went on short breadmaking course, one of several free "taster" (no pun intended) courses run by the local FE college to encourage us to sign up for evening classes come the autumn. I was given a lump of fresh yeast to take home, which I shoved in the freezer compartment of my fridge. This week I've been on a mission to clear out the icebox in the hope that I might get around to defrosting it. So I retrieved the yeast and made some bread using one of the recipes from last year's course...
And now I've followed another one of the recipes, this one for white bread, which has just finished its proving. Excuse me while I put it in the oven! 