The Bread and Baking Thread

If you haven't seen it , Wallace and Grommit: A Matter of Loaf and Death can be found here - and how appropriate for followers of this thread!
It's available on catch-up for two months. Unmissable.
It's got so many throw-aways, both visual and spoken that I suspect it needs considerably more than a couple of watches to find them all!

Colin :):):)
 
Well I followed the instructions in the sourdough kit received for Christmas. Not a success. Middle was moist even although it sounded as a normal loaf would do when cooked. Used the tin in the kit.

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I've been baking all our bread for a couple of years, but not visited this thread before because I use a bread maker and feel it's a cheat.

It's wonderful to wake up to the smell of fresh warm bread.

But I had my first fail the other day, exactly as described by Biggarmac. I've thought about what I may have done differently and am certain that instead of gently drizzling the water nice and carefully over the mix, I bunged it in fast because I was in a hurry and it must have hit the yeast.

We still ate it, because we're not keen on wasting food.
.
 
I've been baking all our bread for a couple of years, but not visited this thread before because I use a bread maker and feel it's a cheat.

It's wonderful to wake up to the smell of fresh warm bread.

But I had my first fail the other day, exactly as described by Biggarmac. I've thought about what I may have done differently and am certain that instead of gently drizzling the water nice and carefully over the mix, I bunged it in fast because I was in a hurry and it must have hit the yeast.

We still ate it, because we're not keen on wasting food.
.
Like you, I use a bread maker. Two days ago my usual recipe returned a dense loaf with a sunken top. FWIW, I put it down to the weather as the kitchen was a lot colder than normal. I'll make another loaf in a day or two and I'll bring the bread maker into the living room (where it's warmer) and also try using tepid water rather than straight out of the cold tap. Hopefully, normality will return!
 
Thanks for your thoughts as I hadn't considered temperature. I bake my loaves in our Utility Room, and to be honest, it too suffers large temperature fluctuations. I still think, for me, I was rushing and threw the water in far too fast.

Normality returned for us on New Year's Eve, when the subsequent loaf was perfect again.

I'm a happy (cheating) Baker again.
 
Hi Colin my thoughts are it's your thread do what you want. And happy if you make a separate thread or change the name. A wee lazy spell got all the ingredients to make a loaf but can't motivate myself. Marmite breakfast biscuits ( I am making faces everytime I read marmite :eek:) so how do I say this is the marmite over powering how does it taste. Gerry
Apologies for the late response, Gerry.
If you're not a Marmite person then these biscuits are probably not for you!
I quite like savoury biscuits and these could be made with something other than Marmite to give them a bit of a kick. How about finely grated parmesan?

Colin 🙂🙂🙂
 
I'm doing two weeks self isolation before going I to hospital for tests. And I'm bored. I get everybody in hospital must be safe and rightly so. I found artisanbreadwithstev. On YouTube. And could understand his methods. I have made three different loafs from the 23rd. A made a cinnamon/raisin loaf. I enjoyed that. And my next one il put come icing on it. And a had a bag of muesli don't know why I bought it as its not my thing. Anyway put in recipe with muesli and found a loaf recipe turned out good tasted better than I thought it would I added sultanas as I had them. Colin you say your making biscuits what have you been making and how did thay turn out. Gerry

Sorry to hear about your upcoming assessments, Gerry. I hope everything turns out well for you.
It sounds as if you're making very good use of the extra time we all have as a result of not moho-ing.
I've been using some recipes available on Geoff's Baking Blog. The site is very well organised with several years of baking recipes covering pretty much all branches of baking. If you click on the year shown on the right of the page it will open up to months and then recipes. Each recipe can be followed by video as well as the written recipe. I've yet to find a recipe that doesn't work. There's also the usual search box at the top of the page if you know the name of the baked product you're interested in.
I've baked the Marmite Breakfast Biscuits, Scottish oatmeal spiced biscuits (also known as Perkins) etc, etc.
A highly recommended site and I hope it's of interest to our bakers.

Colin 🙂🙂🙂
 
Well I followed the instructions in the sourdough kit received for Christmas. Not a success. Middle was moist even although it sounded as a normal loaf would do when cooked. Used the tin in the kit.

View attachment 57985View attachment 57986

Sorry that your loaf didn't turn out as you'd hoped, Biggarmac. It's always disappointing when that happens, and I should know having had my fair share of disastrous bakes!
Do keep at it.
As Sue (Moonshadow) mentions above, other recipes are available!
The sourdough recipe I use is at post #322 above, if that's of interest.

Colin 🙂🙂🙂
 
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I've been baking all our bread for a couple of years, but not visited this thread before because I use a bread maker and feel it's a cheat.

It's wonderful to wake up to the smell of fresh warm bread.

But I had my first fail the other day, exactly as described by Biggarmac. I've thought about what I may have done differently and am certain that instead of gently drizzling the water nice and carefully over the mix, I bunged it in fast because I was in a hurry and it must have hit the yeast.

We still ate it, because we're not keen on wasting food.
.
I have a bread maker and certainly don't feel it's cheating, HurricaneSmith! As you say, it's great if you want to wake up to the aroma and taste of freshly baked bread. I used one for many years (and still have one for occasional use) and it actually led me into baking bread which led me into baking biscuits which ......
So no, you aren't cheating!

Colin 🙂🙂🙂
 
Like you, I use a bread maker. Two days ago my usual recipe returned a dense loaf with a sunken top. FWIW, I put it down to the weather as the kitchen was a lot colder than normal. I'll make another loaf in a day or two and I'll bring the bread maker into the living room (where it's warmer) and also try using tepid water rather than straight out of the cold tap. Hopefully, normality will return!

I had similar dense loaves with a sunken top when using a breadmaker, Geoff.
In my case it was a result of the dough over rising and then sinking. Reducing the quantity of yeast solved the problem for me.
Could it be that you were over generous with the yeast with your disappointing loaf?
Bread making machines have a thermostatically controlled heater so should automatically adjust for most temperature variations in houses.
One of the advantages of making bread by hand is that the baker can adjust times and temperatures based on what they see happening with each individual loaf.

Colin 🙂🙂🙂
 
Thanks for your thoughts as I hadn't considered temperature. I bake my loaves in our Utility Room, and to be honest, it too suffers large temperature fluctuations. I still think, for me, I was rushing and threw the water in far too fast.

Normality returned for us on New Year's Eve, when the subsequent loaf was perfect again.

I'm a happy (cheating) Baker again.
Full Member said:
Could it be that you were over generous with the yeast with your disappointing loaf?
I've been using the same recipe for almost a year with reliable results. The difference with the failed loaf was the temperatures, both ambient and of the water. That said, you are on the right track as I'd reduced the amount of yeast from 12ml to 7.5ml for the reason you gave.

FWIW, my recipe calls for 500g of flour (I use 125g of strong white and 375g of wholemeal), 325ml of water, 45ml olive oil, 10ml 'runny' honey, 7.5ml salt and 7.5ml quick-action yeast. The method I use calls for floating the flour on the liquid and is as follows:
  1. measure out and thoroughly mix the flours in a jug;
  2. add the water, olive oil and honey to the pan of the bread maker;
  3. gently add the flour evenly over the surface so that it floats on the liquid;
  4. make two wells in the flour and place the salt in one and the yeast in the other;
  5. place the pan into the bread maker and select the 'dark loaf' programme;
  6. my bread maker goes through a 'pre-mix' before starting kneading. Once it's started kneading, I use a spatula to push any unmixed bread down into the pan (takes a minute or so) and then leave the machine to complete the cycle.
  7. when the cycle has finished, place in a preheated oven at gas mark 5 for 15 minutes for increased 'crustiness'.
HTH, Geoff
 
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Sorry to hear about your upcoming assessments, Gerry. I hope everything turns out well for you.
It sounds as if you're making very good use of the extra time we all have as a result of not moho-ing.
I've been using some recipes available on Geoff's Baking Blog. The site is very well organised with several years of baking recipes covering pretty much all branches of baking. If you click on the year shown on the right of the page it will open up to months and then recipes. Each recipe can be followed by video as well as the written recipe. I've yet to find a recipe that doesn't work. There's also the usual search box at the top of the page if you know the name of the baked product you're interested in.
I've baked the Marmite Breakfast Biscuits, Scottish oatmeal spiced biscuits (also known as Perkins) etc, etc.
A highly recommended site and I hope it's of interest to our bakers.

Colin 🙂🙂🙂
Likewise all the best for the assessments Gerry. Thanks for the link Colin, looks an excellent site and Susie is set to give some a go.
 

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