Baking Your Own Bread

[moose]

A wholemeal loaf is in the machine so should be ready for tea.

How are you doing with it?

 

[farmerbarleymow]

How are you doing with it?

It's fine - dead easy to chuck the ingredients in of a morning to make a loaf. A lot easier than making bread by hand. The only downside is that it doesn't fill the kitchen with the smell of baking bread - probably because it's largely a sealed unit that keeps most of the smells inside.

 

[moose]

You need some of this

 

[maomao]

It's fine - dead easy to chuck the ingredients in of a morning to make a loaf. A lot easier than making bread by hand. The only downside is that it doesn't fill the kitchen with the smell of baking bread - probably because it's largely a sealed unit that keeps most of the smells inside.

An oven without ventilation is dangerous surely. Maybe you've hot a touch of anosmia coming on.

 

[RubyToogood]

An oven without ventilation is dangerous surely. Maybe you've hot a touch of anosmia coming on.

Would you like a side order of creeping paranoia with your freshly baked bread, sir?

 

[farmerbarleymow]

An oven without ventilation is dangerous surely. Maybe you've hot a touch of anosmia coming on.

Nah, I can smell it when I open it up once it's done so no issues with my sense of smell. It could be that using a fan oven inevitably chucks out more smells that a breadmaker, so the latter doesn't smell as strongly.

 

[dessiato]

Mrs Dess has taken to making bread. It is delicious. Unfortunately we eat too much of it and have put on weight since she started.

She has a recipe for ciabatta which doesn’t require kneading, nor the yeast starting. You chuck everything in together, mix it, give it some time to prove, then cook. It tastes great, but doesn’t have the open texture of a ciabatta.

 

[gentlegreen]

I bake my bread 7 metres from where I sleep, with the prevailing breeze from that direction, so I sometimes get a yeasty whiff when I walk past it to the bathroom, but now that I think about it, I'm not woken by the aroma of baking bread ...
But the sealed-in nature explains why you can bake a loaf with only 500 watts...

 

[existentialist]

Mrs Dess has taken to making bread. It is delicious. Unfortunately we eat too much of it and have put on weight since she started.

She has a recipe for ciabatta which doesn’t require kneading, nor the yeast starting. You chuck everything in together, mix it, give it some time to prove, then cook. It tastes great, but doesn’t have the open texture of a ciabatta.

That's because the open texture of a ciabatta relies on good gluten development in the dough (and quite a high level of hydration). What some recipes do is to "cheat" slightly by eliminating knocking back and a second rise, allowing bubbles in the dough to keep growing to give a kind of simulation of the open texture.

 

[dessiato]

That's because the open texture of a ciabatta relies on good gluten development in the dough (and quite a high level of hydration). What some recipes do is to "cheat" slightly by eliminating knocking back and a second rise, allowing bubbles in the dough to keep growing to give a kind of simulation of the open texture.

My feeling is that you can’t rush a good ciabatta. But some recipes we’ve seen require up to 9 hours proving.

 

[existentialist]

My feeling is that you can’t rush a good ciabatta. But some recipes we’ve seen require up to 9 hours proving.

Most of the bread I make spends at least that long in various stages of rising.

 

[gentlegreen]

I think it's time to start putting stuff in my bread again and I want to start with milled linseed for the omegas - since it's really the only part of my diet where I can sneak it in ...

Does anyone know how much I could get away with substituting in a loaf made with 500g of mostly WM flour and 307g water ?

The recommended "dose" is one tablespoon a day - though I don't actually own a spoon...

 

[farmerbarleymow]

though I don't actually own a spoon

Really?

If you want omega bread you could add some smoked mackerel. Might be a bit weird but it would be full of good fats.

 

[Saunders]

I think it's time to start putting stuff in my bread again and I want to start with milled linseed for the omegas - since it's really the only part of my diet where I can sneak it in ...

Does anyone know how much I could get away with substituting in a loaf made with 500g of mostly WM flour and 307g water ?

The recommended "dose" is one tablespoon a day - though I don't actually own a spoon...

The bread recipe I use is 500g flour: half pint water. I substitute a cupped handful mixed seeds for flour (by weight) and it works fine for me (and also my mum and my ma-in-law). We all put mixing receptacle on the scales, press 0, Chuck in the seeds and then add flour to make to make total weight up to 500g. Then add the water, starter, etc.
None of us are artisan bakers, just like bread that looks ok and tastes good.

 

[gentlegreen]

The bread recipe I use is 500g flour: half pint water. I substitute a cupped handful mixed seeds for flour (by weight) and it works fine for me (and also my mum and my ma-in-law). We all put mixing receptacle on the scales, press 0, Chuck in the seeds and then add flour to make to make total weight up to 500g. Then add the water, starter, etc.
None of us are artisan bakers, just like bread that looks ok and tastes good.

I'm using ground linseed - which can be used as an egg substitute ...

I used to make bread that was more of a seed brittle, and did for a while use milled linseed too - these days I want a loaf that will hold together for 7 days ...

 

[gentlegreen]

Well if I had added linseed last night, it would have been wasted as I forgot a key ingredient for the first time in decades
I sliced it up while I still could..
The first slice, eaten hot, isn't completely disgusting.
I'll see if at least some of the rest will work as dumplings ...

 

[farmerbarleymow]

That's because the open texture of a ciabatta relies on good gluten development in the dough (and quite a high level of hydration). What some recipes do is to "cheat" slightly by eliminating knocking back and a second rise, allowing bubbles in the dough to keep growing to give a kind of simulation of the open texture.

Wonder if you could cheat by using a sodastream CO2 cannister and somehow inject the gas into the dough before baking?

 

[existentialist]

Wonder if you could cheat by using a sodastream CO2 cannister and somehow inject the gas into the dough before baking?

I suspect you'd end up with a kind of ciabatta balloon - a thin layer of dough around a huge bubble of carbon dioxide

The point - and the magic - of the dough-rising thing is that the bubbles form within the material - I don't think we can improve on yeast.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I suspect you'd end up with a kind of ciabatta balloon - a thin layer of dough around a huge bubble of carbon dioxide

The point - and the magic - of the dough-rising thing is that the bubbles form within the material - I don't think we can improve on yeast.

Think you should try it and report back.