New Year's resolutions?

[ina]

Oh Ina... that is so crap... is it time for a 'work-to-rule' strike?

I'd love to - but my conscience doesn't let me: it would be the lambs that suffer... But once lambing is over, we'll see about it. I'm just soooo glad that I'm in the union - on the committee, too - they are taking it up for me!

[eccentric_emma]

errmm ... pizza dough IS bread, emma. Congratulations

lol i kind of felt like that was cheating as the pizza dough was easy to make. and i really meant that i wanted to master the art of making sandwich loaves that didn't break my teeth. however i'm happy to consider making pizza dough as completing my new years resolution!

[MKG]

Yeah, I know what you mean. It's an unfortunate fact that ishy bread is pretty tough stuff. To get to the rather attractive soft bread, you have to un-ish yourself and use softer (more processed) flours and leave it for much longer to rise (twice). Personally, I'm getting used to a lot more chewing.

[eccentric_emma]

last time i tried to make bread rolls they bounced! so i put them out for the seagulls and they wouldn't even touch them! so chewy bread would be good as opposed to bread that will break my teeth!

i have a few days off coming up so i may well give it another bash then.....

[Annpan]

Assuming that you are following a basic recipe for pizza dough (flour, water, olive oil and yeast) you have the makings for homemade fresh focaccia.

make it the same as pizza dough then just stretch it out with your hands (to about the size of a nann bread) smother the top with olive oil, black pepper, herbs and put in a oven BEFORE you turn it on, then turn the oven on to 200 and 20 - 25 mins later... yummy bread.

I make this loads, it is really easy... you may have noticed there is no mention of garlic, as I am allergic to it so I guess you just add it as you do to other stuff

[eccentric_emma]

that sounds fantastic. i love foccacia but never even thought about making it at home. thanks Annpan!

[ina]

To get to the rather attractive soft bread,

Soft bread is utterly unattractive to me - but that's a cultural thing! I like to get my teeth into it... My favourite are the heels of "proper" bread, i.e. with a good, hard crust. Not crispy hard, chewy hard.

But I make focaccia style bread, too, just for a change...

[hamster]

We were watching telly last night and there was an advert for some commercial, pappy, Chorleywood bread going on about how 'soft' it was, and my bf turned to me and said, 'Why is bread supposed to be soft? Bread with texture and a crust is so much nicer!'

[MKG]

It all depends upon whether you have teeth.

[ina]

I think if you are used to harder bread from early on, you train your teeth and gums to be more resilient. I don't have all my teeth anymore - most of them, but in various states of repair, as comes with middle age - but I would be hard pushed to give up on proper bread! And as I say, it's cultural. I know a lot of Germans around here (have once been told that Germans are the largest group of foreign residents in Aberdeenshire - but we may have been overtaken by Poles now!) - and they all agree: they love living here, but the bread is crap. Most bake their own, and thanks to Lidl's and Aldi at least we now get some basic "Schwarzbrot" (dark rye bread). And there are some bakeries springing up that cater for "our" taste, too.

[Flo]

Could we start considering resolutions for next year then as I haven't made any for years? Or can we start New Year on a different date?