Why am I nervous about making.......

[happyhippy]

Bread!lol I have some time to spare this week and thought its about time I learnt how to make some bread.I have a good bread book and will make my bread by hand,but.....I still feel nervous! I think I'm better learning some skills when someone actually shows me in person!!!Not possible so I have to go it alone!I'm hoping some of you kind people might be able to offer me some tips/idea's/encouragement.I'm sure once I've mastered it,I'll never look back and its something I've wanted to do for a long time.So.......how did your first loaf go?Yummy or did it resemble a house brick? Thankyou xx

[becks77]

You could try soda bread first that is quite easy very tasty and may act as a confidence booster


Irish Soda Bread–White Version

Combine:

4 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1-3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups water
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Stir; it very quickly becomes dough. Form a round loaf. Place on greased baking sheet. Cut slits in top. Bake 40 minutes at 400° F.

[Milims]

It might be the recipe you are reading. I always felt the same way about making mayonnaise until I found a recipe that I liked and made sense to me. Have you seen this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dough-Simple-Co ... 436&sr=8-3. Beautiful book, clear, easy instructions and I defy you to watch the DVD without wishing you were that piece of dough!

[happyhippy]

Thankyou Becks 77,will try out that recipe,looks simple enough and sounds delish!Milims thankyou for the book recommendation,looks fab!I think the dvd would be a good idea too!Price is also good so might look into buying it.

[Thomzo]

For what it's worth, my first few attempts in the breadmaker came out like housebricks. But they still made lovely bread and butter pudding. So give it a go, even if it's flat as a pancake, you can still use it for something.

Zoe

[Susie]

I'm agreeing with Zoe, I'm not a wonderful breadmaker (but luckily my breadmaker is ;-) ), the worst that can happen unless you're using yeast from 1983 or something is that your loaf turns out a bit solid, and if it does, who cares? It'll still be delicious.

(Also, in my experience you have to knead it a lot - more than you would think).

Good luck with it! You might be an absolute natural, at the worst you'll have edible bread and possibly an amusing anecdote ;-).

[Big Al]

Happy Hippy,

Put 500g of strong white bread flour from the likes of Allinsons premium or doves organic in a bowl. Add to this 1and a half teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of sugar.

Add to this 1 x 7gramme sachet of fast active dried yeast and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Finally add about 270 mls of warm water which is 50 deg c. mix it all together in the bowl with your fingers for 2 minutes and then tip it out onto the work bench.

Imagine your worst enemy or even the chancellor of the exchexors face is on the bread dough and punch the daylights out of it for 10 minutes. Put it back in the bowl and cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm area for 45 minutes.

After this time tip it out of the bowl and beat the daylights out again for 5 minutes and then form into a round ball shape. Flaten it down a bit and put a slash in the top of the bread. Put a bit of flour on top of the loaf and place on an oiled tray.Leave for 20 minutes and whilst doing so warm your oven to 220 deg c

cook for 10 minutes at this tempriture then reduce the temperiture to 180 deg c and cook on for a further 30 minutes.

Take out and leave to cool a bit or you will get indegestion.


Cut and enjoy with lashings of home made butter....

[Kezz]

You could try soda bread first that is quite easy very tasty and may act as a confidence booster


Irish Soda Bread–White Version

Combine:

4 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1-3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups water
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Stir; it very quickly becomes dough. Form a round loaf. Place on greased baking sheet. Cut slits in top. Bake 40 minutes at 400° F.

Ooooo I might have to try that. But I have some questions....

Is that plain flour? Can you use wholemeal/brown?
And
Baking soda? I have baking powder or Bicarbonate of soda, which one does the recipe want?
And
Can I bung any vinegar in? I've got a little cyder vinegar left but it's in the bathroom cus I use it as a hair rinse!

[snapdragon]

I'm currently using yeast that says best before somewhen in 1999, it's fine :)

push out; fold back, push out; fold back, is a good kneading system I find. Are you near any breadmaking Isher who could give a quick demo?

[Big Al]

I'm currently using yeast that says best before somewhen in 1999, it's fine :)

push out; fold back, push out; fold back, is a good kneading system I find. Are you near any breadmaking Isher who could give a quick demo?

I'll vo;unteer if anyone is near Hartlepool and would like a baking afternoon......

[becks77]

Ooooo I might have to try that. But I have some questions....

Is that plain flour? Can you use wholemeal/brown?
And
Baking soda? I have baking powder or Bicarbonate of soda, which one does the recipe want?
And
Can I bung any vinegar in? I've got a little cyder vinegar left but it's in the bathroom cus I use it as a hair rinse! [/quote]

So plain flour, bicarb reacts with vinegar making it rise so any vinegar BUT probably not malt brown
There are loads of recipes on the net but almost all others use buttermilk or soured milk (to react with the bicarb and make it rise) some wholemeal flour recipes but tend to need sifting
B

[Kezz]

Thanks! I shall give it a go :)

[Zech]

My experiments with bread led me to the conclusion that which flour I use doesn't matter very much, but good, fresh yeast (vs. old, dried yeast) does make a big difference:

I wanted to post a picture here to show you, but the forum software won't let me because it's too big, so I'll just have to plug my blog - http://growingthingsandmakingthings.blo ... bread.html - instead

[happyhippy]

What some fabulous idea's from some great people! lol.I havent got round to making it as yet,but I think tomorrow is "B"day!lol Yes I did watch one episode of RC,where the young woman was learning to bake,and ended up with a baking circle which i thought was really good!!!Thankyou everyone,much appreciated!

[Carltonian Man]

Have a go HH.
I had a bad time with bread making at first and our fan oven seemed it would only cook it to a brick. The good folk of this forum offered encouragement so I persevered. Now I use the River Cottage recipe (from the prog you watched) and bake for 40 mins at 160 degrees. Using Lidl bread flour and Doves Farm fast action yeast every loaf turns out blummin lovely. Not bought shop bread for ages now and would never want to go back.