Bread Making.

[thesunflowergal]

I have started to make my own bread this week. I made a garlic and rosemary flat loaf, and today soda bread.
Does anyone have a simple everyday white loaf recipe please? I am making it all by hand.

Thanks Nikki

[JulieSherris]

Dangerous ground Nikki!!
Ask 20 people for their bread advice & you'll get 20 different views

I wrote a piece for our irish forum - you're most welcome to have a read.
Once you realise that there is no voodoo attached to bread making, it'll be as easy as making the morning tea!
http://www.mayoplodders.com/whitebread.html

[Millymollymandy]

Aha, so that's where you've been hiding and posting for the last year!

[JulieSherris]

Ooo!! MMM, I haven't! Well, I dibble dabble on that site a bit, but this is my main forum-love

I just had to learn to curtail my forum habits, or I would never have got anything done here!

[seasidegirl]

I've been struggling with bread too so am glad of the instructions. Really clear and easy to follow.

Leaving it overnight to rise looks like the plan for me from now on. Apart from anything it will fit in better time wise.
Do me more good to do a bit of pummeling in the evening and then cook in the morning. All that waiting about in the day was driving me nuts.

Thanks

[thesunflowergal]

I thought that way I might get a few different recipes to try. Thanks Julie, looks like I will be trying your way.

[JillStephens7]

What great instructions Julie .

Why don't people write books that read like this?!

x

[indy]

At the risk of sounding a fool, when it says household flour.....does that mean self raising? Never thought to try it with that

[thesunflowergal]

Indy, not sure sorry. I am sure Julie will be along soon and she will be able to help.

Julie, thanks for the recipe hun. I made some and its wonderful.

[JillStephens7]

Indy, I am sure I have read others saying that it it is best to use really cheap flour (if you're not using bread flour) as 'normal' flour is soft for making cakes and such like. So apparantly the value range type flours are good for bread making

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along shortly

I used bread flour to make Julie's recipe, white yesterday and half white half whoemeal today. Both are scrummy

[thesunflowergal]

I used strong bread flour, as thats what I had in the cupboard.

[JulieSherris]

Hey all! Sorry, I blew the PC up again today Hubby popped to the PC shop in his dinner break & when he got home at 9pm, he fixed it for me - what a darling

Anyways, I use 'Milford Household Flour', as it's one of the cheapest flours that we get here. You can use strong flour for bread, or if you can see an 'all-purpose' flour - maybe in T***o, or one of those places - even the 'nice price' type flours will do & that's the true beauty of the recipe. Over here there can be as much 4 euros difference in price between the household flour & 'proper' bread flour as well, so our Milford gets my vote any day!!

In my opinion, it's more the yeast that changes everything.... if you can get fresh yeast, it's well worth it. I really don't like the taste or the texture of the dried yeast at all. It's also been a lot easier since I found out that you can freeze the fresh yeast as well - I was buying it in kilo blocks & then couldn't use it all before the use by date! Now I just buy it, portion it & pop all the little twists of yeast into a big bag in the freezer - pop it into warm water & leave it until it 'fizzes'.

Hope that helps! Once you've made it like this a few times, just experiment with flavours & shapes... etc etc! Have fun!

[grahamhobbs]

Plain flour can be used for bread making as Julie says but you need the long fermentation to make it work. It has less gluten in it and it needs time to develop that gluten. Try and do it quickly and will be a heavy loaf.

Strong flour provides a good rise with quick fermentation.

Plain flour has better flavours than strong flour, which to me tastes a bit metallic.

I disagree with Julie on the importance of fresh yeast, for me dried or fresh there is no difference, the important thing is to use very small quantities so that you get that long fermentation, which not only develops the gluten but also the flavours.

Personally I think bread is central to life and you should use the best ingredients you can, for everyday bread that means wholemeal organic, ideally using a natural leaven rather than commercial yeast, for maximum flavour and nutrition.

[grahamhobbs]

Sorry there was a couple of other small points in Julie's method that I would query

"Put a small oven-proof dish of water in the bottom of the oven, and CAREFULLY put in the bread. If you knock the bread tins now, the bread will collapse as the air holes gets knocked out, so be gentle!"

"Leave for about 10 minutes in the oven, and then brush the tops of the bread/baguettes liberally with cold water."

I don't think Julie really meant to say to put the bread into the small dish of water. The dish of water is there to make steam, the bread (in tins in Julie's case) goes in above.

Personally, I put a cast iron pan in the bottom of the oven when I switch the oven on (to pre-heat the oven to temperature) and pour a cup of boiling water into it, just after I put the bread into the oven.

Personally I don't like the idea of painting the top of the bread with water (I think it can spoil the look of the bread), I'd rather add a little more water to the pan at the bottom if necessary. Don't overdue the water in the bottom, basically steam is wanted for the first 10 to 15 minutes but not after.

Finally, the warning about the dough collapsing if you knock the tins, I think that this suggests that the dough could be a little over risen. Try to catch it a little earlier. This is one of the difficult things in bread making, judging when it has risen sufficiently. If it is so fragile that it collapses then it is usually because it has been left just that bit too long. Better to be slightly under proven, because it will rise that last bit in the oven.

[JulieSherris]

Graham, my little write-up there was just a blow-by-blow account of how I do things here, obviously, what works for me might not be right for anyone else but having found a system that took the voodoo out of the whole process, I was only too glad to share!!