bread

[CookOnFire]

I've recently thought about doing Grant loaves again. I used to do them in a batch of six at a time in my former house where the Rayburn was a big "Supreme". Now I'm wondering about trying it out again in my smaller "Royal". Has anyone tried bread making in a traditional wood-fired oven? Could you do GRant loave that way?

[diggernotdreamer]

I used to bake bread in our range, we did away with it and I have an electric oven now. If you are using wood, you need to keep a good eye on the temperature and have some small pieces of wood, sticks, etc that you can stick on to burn quickly to keep the heat up, just means you have to be around for the time that the bread is in the oven. I guess that is why soda bread and fruit cakes do better in solid fuel ranges as they are more tolerant and don't need to rise like bread and sponges.

[bonniethomas06]

I have just googled 'grant loaf' as had never heard of it.

What is the texture like? I have seen a lot of recipes for 'no knead' bread but I am just too much of a chicken to try!

Plus if I am honest, I quite like kneading while listening to the Archers - one episode is ten minutes, perfect!

Welcome to Ish btw

[diggernotdreamer]

I rather like kneading bread as well, there is the Busy Woman's bread as well which you knead as normal and then just leave to rise and then bake it

[ina]

If I do make bread at all these days, it's a kind of sour dough - and that doesn't need kneading, either... Dough too sloppy for that, anyway.

[diggernotdreamer]

I have a soda bread recipe given to me by and Irish woman, and it looks just like slop, but you plop it into a loaf tin, bake it for an hour and it is really lovely, takes just a few minutes to mix up

[littlemissrose]

Oeh! I've always wanted to try sodabread. Can I have your recipe? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ?!?!

[CookOnFire]

I'd love that soda bread recipe too. I have one but it sounds very different to what you describe.
The texture of a Grant loaf is very solid. My children grew up on them - they just thought it was normal and white sliced was something you had for a very very special treat!
By a wood oven I meant the traditional kind where the fire was inside the oven then raked out quickly and the bread put in afterwards to bake in the residual heat. I've often wondered about that process - does anyone have any experience?

[diggernotdreamer]

soda bread recipe is

llb brown flour
1 level teaspoon salt
1 desertspoon flour
1 heap teaspoon bread soda (I think this is bicarb?)
mix all dry ingredients together

in a jug mix 15 floz buttermilk (I use ordinary milk if I have none and add a teaspoon of vinegar)
1 large egg
1 desertspoon oil
whisk together

put wet ingredients into dry, mix well and pour into a greased/lined loaf tin bake for 1 hour at 190c

I also fiddle with it, may put different flours together, add seeds etc, milled oats

As for the woodoven, a friend had a smaller version in his house and he made pizza in it, so the fire was made inside and then raked out. There was a great programme called the Victorian Bakers and they went into this process at length, really interesting

[littlemissrose]

Thanx I'll deffinately try