Bread. What's the big deal?

[Ms T]

A tip for sourdough starters is that using rye flour makes them a *LOT* less needy. Plus a bit of rye in your bread tastes nice. It's incredibly hard to kill a rye starter - I know wheat starters aren't exactly easy to kill off, but rye's near Superman status.

I do sometimes put rye in my starter - makes for very tasty bread as you say. Do you use a mixture of white flour and rye, or all rye? I nearly killed my starter recently o), but managed to revive it with a lot of tlc and now it's all frothy and lovely again, with a pleasant beery smell rather than overly sour.

 

[RubyBlue]

I didn't see this thread before - loads of good tips even for a novice using a machine Good thread.

 

[rubbershoes]

simple seed bread

lebanese thyme bread

 

[Chz]

I do sometimes put rye in my starter - makes for very tasty bread as you say. Do you use a mixture of white flour and rye, or all rye? I nearly killed my starter recently o), but managed to revive it with a lot of tlc and now it's all frothy and lovely again, with a pleasant beery smell rather than overly sour.

It's mostly rye, since I happen to like the stuff. Every so often a bit of wheat goes in as well, depending on what I'm planning on making. But when I put wheat in, I know when I'm going to use it next so there's no risk of it being ignored for too long.

 

[Ms T]

It's mostly rye, since I happen to like the stuff. Every so often a bit of wheat goes in as well, depending on what I'm planning on making. But when I put wheat in, I know when I'm going to use it next so there's no risk of it being ignored for too long.

How long can you leave your starter without feeding it? I keep mine in the fridge and it's fine for a week or so. I recently went on holiday for three weeks and revived my starter easily on my return simply by feeding it twice.

 

[Brainaddict]

Mmmm, that spelt bread was good. It's even easier to make than normal wheat bread. If anyone wants to try something really simple and quick and delicious, buy the Doves Farm Organic spelt flour (I got mine at Tesco) and follow the recipe on the back. Double the salt though because those people at Doves Farm are way too health conscious

 

[Ms T]

Mmmm, that spelt bread was good. It's even easier to make than normal wheat bread. If anyone wants to try something really simple and quick and delicious, buy the Doves Farm Organic spelt flour (I got mine at Tesco) and follow the recipe on the back. Double the salt though because those people at Doves Farm are way too health conscious

Is your bread as good as your mead, Brainaddict?

 

[Brainaddict]

Is your bread as good as your mead, Brainaddict?

My mead is just too much for your tastebuds to deal with

 

[Chz]

How long can you leave your starter without feeding it? I keep mine in the fridge and it's fine for a week or so. I recently went on holiday for three weeks and revived my starter easily on my return simply by feeding it twice.

I pretty much ignore it. So it can sit anywhere between 3 days and a month. At the long end, it needs one feeding to get it back up and going or else it'll be too vinegary. I think once wheat's been going for several months, it's pretty easy to take care of - I've heard a lot of people start off on rye and then switch once it's been going a while.

 

[berniedicters]

If you're happy to freestyle, I'm happy to keep my gob shut

You chuck bagels in boiling (sugared) water before you bake them, and sometimes you add an egg too. If you're cooking with your daughter do bagels, it's way more fun than just kneading kneading kneading.

The sugar feeds the yeast, but maybe it's different with that quick yeast, I dunno, ask someone who does. I find bread without salt in pretty rank too, and I basically don't ever eat salt.

AIUI from my brewing researches, yeast will break down starch to sugars, then ferment those, but it's quite a slow process and isn't very encouraging for the yeast at the point that you've just tipped it from a packet into the bread. So a little bit of sugar (I reconstitute yeast in warm water, with a little sugar) helps it while it gets started. It'll work without sugar, even in brown bread, you just have to leave it quite a lot longer.

And the reason we use bread flour is that it tends to have a lot more gluten in it - that's what makes the difference between the texture of the bread being somewhat "cakey" and that more tuggable quality that nice bread needs to have. And the kneading stage is about developing the gluten, so that it becomes - yes! - glutinous. If you over-knead, your dough gets so glutinous it's sticky.

 

[Hassan I Sabha]

This is a pretty good bread related website I sometimes have a browse around if I have the time.