bread making

[ina]

And it'll probably strengthen your jaw muscles...

[Cheezy]

See here, this is the best thing you can do to get really good bread:

Dough: Simple Contempory Bread By Richard Bertinet.

As book reviewed by me! :

http://selfsufficientish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8053

You make his bread with fresh yeast (if possible), water, salt and flour.
And lots of time and a bit of technique.

[Thurston Garden]

See here, this is the best thing you can do to get really good bread:

Dough: Simple Contempory Bread By Richard Bertinet.

As book reviewed by me! :

http://selfsufficientish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8053

You make his bread with fresh yeast (if possible), water, salt and flour.
And lots of time and a bit of technique.

How spooky, I got his Dough book from the library yesterday! Looks good but I have only flicked through. It's got a DVD in it too which I am going to watch tonight!

[missie moo]

]

i use the measuring stuff that came with my bread machine.....i use 1.25 teaspoons of yeast 2.5 teaspoons of sugar for 300g flour. so my suggestion is maybe not enough sugar?
jane

Never use any sugar - it really isn't necessary.

it's just sugar, mate, not crack cocaine
chill
jane x

[Thurston Garden]

I am going to try some of the recipes and methods in Richard Bertinet's dough book at the weekend.

In his basic bread, there's only 4 ingredients: flour, water salt & yeast.....NO sugar.

He makes his dough very wet: 500g flour and 350g (not ml) of water. But it comes together very quickly - there's a 30min DVD with the book that shows you how to do it.

[ina]

it's just sugar, mate, not crack cocaine
chill
jane x

Sorry - I didn't mean it to come across as if I thought it was dangerous- I was just trying to say that it can't be the lack of sugar, as I never use any!

[Thurston Garden]

I am going to try some of the recipes and methods in Richard Bertinet's dough book at the weekend.

In his basic bread, there's only 4 ingredients: flour, water salt & yeast.....NO sugar.

He makes his dough very wet: 500g flour and 350g (not ml) of water. But it comes together very quickly - there's a 30min DVD with the book that shows you how to do it.

OK I have just made a white loaf and a wholemeal loaf they are both proving for the first time at the moment. One thing to note though - the dough is h3llishly sticky. Bertinet is right when he says "sticky porridge" or "70% water" oh what a mess! I had to add more flour and it was still very sticky!

I will persist though and try more once I have bought more flour next week.

[ina]

My wholemeal sourdough is always very, very sticky. Doesn't work so well otherwise. On the other hand, if I make a light yeast dough, it tends to be non-sticky; just not dry.

[Cheezy]

I am going to try some of the recipes and methods in Richard Bertinet's dough book at the weekend.

In his basic bread, there's only 4 ingredients: flour, water salt & yeast.....NO sugar.

He makes his dough very wet: 500g flour and 350g (not ml) of water. But it comes together very quickly - there's a 30min DVD with the book that shows you how to do it.

OK I have just made a white loaf and a wholemeal loaf they are both proving for the first time at the moment. One thing to note though - the dough is h3llishly sticky. Bertinet is right when he says "sticky porridge" or "70% water" oh what a mess! I had to add more flour and it was still very sticky!

I will persist though and try more once I have bought more flour next week.

Nooooo Don't add more flour! it's the whole point!. (easier said than done ) This is the reason the bread is much less heavy: it's 70% water, which then gets cooked out.

But I know what you mean, your first few times are scary and very messy. One tip I would recommend is to double up the recipe and use a kilo of flour. It's a lot easier to "slap" down a larger amount of dough.
I have just bought Crust his second book, and there are more recipe's.
Also more technique in the DVD. Do watch him again on the DVD, it's weird, you will see his hands are messy, infact in the Crust DVD, his hands and dough are vertually one mass of stickiness until it's worked.
If you think the white bread is sticky you should see the brioche. OMG imagine, white bread recipe, plus 6 eggs, slapped around for 8 minutes then add a LOAD of butter...it's a real eye opener, you do panic but go with it it's worth it.
And if you do double up the recipe , just freeze the spare loaf's as in the book, it works really well.

[Thurston Garden]

Cheezy I think you hit the nail on the head saying to double the quantities up. I really did not have enough dough to get my hands into! I used the last of our flour and tried to phone the shop to order more - 10kg of wholemeal and 10kg of strong white but the phone line was 'temporarily out of order'. Now I have bought small quantities of flour from a mill about an hours drive away and I rang them for prices - £9.50 for 12.5kg! I quickly rang a neighbour to see if she any and she was devastated to have paid the local shop £24 for 15kg two days ago. Needless to say she has ordered some with me from the mill as did my parents who are collecting it for us tomorrow on the way back from visiting friends.

Roll on the weekend!

[ina]

TG - do you know if that is local wheat they are milling?

[Thurston Garden]

It is Ina, but it's kind of in the wrong direction for you - at Ford near Etal at Heatherslaw Mill

It was just luck that my folks are passing it tomorrow but it is certainly worth a drive for us if we are getting 60+kg. Ford is a lovely place - I used to go camping there with the Scouts both as one and as a leader.

[ina]

Thanks! Yes, a bit far for me just to go for flour - but the folks from the Fife Diet were looking for local flour, for them it's not quite so far...

[Mal]

Just been googling fresh yeast to work out where to get it from and came across this thread about free yeast over on a different forum:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/sho ... l?p=636751

Anyone tried it?

[Mainer in Exile]

That sound like the yeast I use for my bread. I do have to pay for it, though, over here. But, at only 9 cents per cube (42 grams), it's very nearly free. It is a lot cheaper and gives a better result than dried yeast.