Tuesday, November 06, 2007

bread making

came across this article on breadmaking

If I buy bread flour from Lidles at 49p for 1.5 kg I can make 3 loaves for the price of almost half a loaf.

This is my basic recipe

Mix 500 g of flour, 1 dessertspoon of sugar, 1 desert spoon of oil, one egg, one teaspoon of granular yeast, a pinch of salt, and temp water 250 g (if its too hot the yeast is killed) Mix, kneed for 5 mins of so until a smooth dough. Cover and leave to rise.

Either shape into bagels and do a second rising then briefly dip into boiling water and then bake for 15 mins or put the dough into oven for a loaf. About 5 or 6 gas mark until the bottom of the loaf is hollow sounding.

If you have no egg you can leave out the egg and a mix of wholewheat flours is good and sunflower seeds.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There's no nicer thing in the world to eat than home baked bread (especially fresh out of the oven with nice butter and home made jam!).

My mum has always made her own bread so my brother and I were really spoilt as far as that went.

Her recipe was really simple too...
One bag of bread flour - she used stoneground wholemeal.
Three times round the mixing bowl with olive oil.
Three times round the mixing bowl with the salt.
One packet of yeast. If you prefer to use live yeast (she did) then ask at the bread counter at Asda and they'll give you a lump for free!!
Equal amount of sugar to yeast.
Lukewarm water - she got the temperature right by mixing equal quantities of boiling water and cold water. For one bag of flour you need probably just under half a pint - add gradually till the dough feels right.

If you are using live yeast then add yeast, sugar and water to a mixing jug/bowl and leave till it goes bubbly then add to bread.

When its all in the mixing dish start to knead. You can tell when the dough is working because it will feel right. If there's too much water it will feel hard.

Knead for 5 -10 minutes.
Cover with a damp tea-towel or a well oiled carrier bag.
Put dough in a warm place to prove.
Leave till doubled in size
Knead again

Either put in loaf tins or if you don't have loaf tins then split dough into two parts and shape into rustic rounds!

Put in preheated oven. Oven must be hot.

Bake until bottom of loaf sounds hollow.

Actually that's quite inspired me - I think I'll buy some bread flour.