Baking Bread with Garp

Garp · 31-03-2007, 15:35

One of the little tasks I've taken upon myself in out house is to make bread regularly. I don't know about anyone else here but I love fresh made, home made bread. Breadmaker made bread is nice, but there is something nicer about hand made bread.

Hand made > Bread Maker > mass produced bread.

Making bread consists of nice and simple techniques that even someone who has never cooked before can cope with. So I thought I'd introduce you to how to bake bread. If you've got a spare bit of time I'd highly reccomend giving it a shot.

So what do you need?

450g Bread Flour, personally I prefer Stoneground but as you can see from the picture I'm using ordinary Brown Bread flour.

15g Dried Yeast. Its almost impossible to find ordinary Yeast these days in supermarkets, the main thing you'll see is packets of "Fast Yeast". Either will do but there will be a change to the instructions if you use ordinary yeast.

1/2 pint of warm water. Its important that it is warm, and not hot or cold. This is one you'll learn to judge for yourself. Too hot and you'll activate all the yeast, two cold and it won't activate any

1 tsp Sugar, preferably Brown.

1 tsp salt.

9g Butter / Margarine.

1 Mixing Bowl

1 2lb loaf tin, lightly greased

Instructions

Measure out 450g of bread flour and put it into your mixing bowl, and then add your tsp of salt, followed by your Butter / Margarine.

Take the yeast and pour it into your half pint of warm water, then add in the tsp of sugar, and give it a good stir.

Doesn't that just look so appetising?

Pour the whole lot into your mixing bowl and then its time to get your hands dirty. You could cheat and use a mixer if you have one with a dough hook, but thats just being lazy. Mix everything together really well using your hands. The object of the exercise is to end up with a single piece of dry feeling dough, and no flour left in the bowl, it should all be part of the dough. This never seems to work out perfectly each time I've made it. Sometimes I've needed a bit more water, others a bit more flour. Ideally you should find that most of the dough that was on your hands and fingers when you started mixing it all together will have come off.

When you're happy that you've got a nice dry feeling piece of dough and its not sticky at all, then put this down on a lightly floured surface.

This part is great for your wrists. We get to the kneeding stage. Depending on how warm your hands are this can take between 5 and 10 minutes to do. People with naturally warm hands will find this a lot quicker than those who don't. A little tip for those people that don't have warm hands: Run your hands under a hot tap to warm them up before starting the kneeding.

Kneeding should be full on, no half-hearted efforts here. Press down on the dough with the heel of both hands and push it firmly away from you, so that it stretches out. Repeat, turning the dough back in on itself every after every few stretches to ensure it doesn't just become like a long sausage!

After 5 minutes (or anywhere up to about 10 for cold hands people) you should notice that the loaf has reached a fairly elastic state, you can prod it and it will slowly start to retake its prior shape. If this happens before the 5 minute mark, great, but don't stop kneeding till you've done at least 5 minutes. When you're happy with the dough, take your dough and place it in your loaf tin, stretching it out to fill the tin, and then lightly score the top of it in the shape of a cross:

Now take some clingfilm and wrap up the bread tin. You need to leave some space at the top for the loaf to rise to, but keep the sides as tightly wrapped as possible so it doesn't spill over the top and down the sides (as happened to me last week.. whoops)

Now you need to find a nice warm and dry place. As with the "warm" water, this is a bit of a difficult one to guage. I'd generally advise somewhere around 20 degrees or so, and then leave it to prove. Our Airing cupboard here is a little too warm, but you may find thats the ideal place in your house. I just left it in my room on a shelf.

This is where there is a slight difference in approach depending on the type of yeast used.

With Fast Yeast
Leave your dough for at least 2 hours to prove, letting it rise nicely. This should now be really elastic and reform to shape if proded.

With Ordinary Yeast
Leave to prove for 30 minutes - 40, take out of tin and kneed again for another couple of minutes before placing it back in the tin and leaving to prove for another hour or so.

Remove the clingfilm cover, and turn your oven up to 220 degress C / 425 degrees / Gas mark 7.

Place your loaf in its tin on a shelf in the oven and leave for 30 minutes until it is a nice golden brown colour.

Remove from the oven and then tip out of the Bread Tin. Voila:

Your lovely loaf of handmade bread

N.B.Leave to cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before you try and eat any of it.

Haly · 31-03-2007, 15:41

My Dad used to make bread, lovely stuff

Tak · 31-03-2007, 15:42

LOL at the Maidstone Beer meet glass

Looks very yummy

I've never had freshly baked bread

Will · 31-03-2007, 16:13

I've made hand made bread a few times - it's delicious but not worth the effort. Long live my Panasonic bread maker

It tastes just as good, and requires a lot less effort

I sometimes just make the dough and then bake it after shaping it or sometimes glazing it.

Here in Germany they do make really good breads - I'm eating far too much and not doing any exercise!

I want to go home!

Robert · 31-03-2007, 18:02

My mum's a superb cook - she bakes bread once a week and makes fresh pasta with this lovely old style paste maker.

Jonny69 · 31-03-2007, 18:14

Looks great G. Makes great pizza bases if you load it up with olive oil

JodieG · 10-04-2007, 23:49

Looks lovely

I make bread when I get the time

Aitch · 11-04-2007, 23:34

Home baked bread is heavenly! It tastes even better for all the effort that goes into it too. We started off with a Jamie Oliver recipe I think and loved it so much we bought a 'Book of bread' recipe book with some fab recipes from cottage loafs to an amazing cheese and onion bread.

I also find home baked bread doesn't bloat me like shop bought bread.

Will · 12-04-2007, 08:25

That's because it doesn't have all the preservatives and chemicals that supermarket/mass-produced bread has.

leowyatt · 12-04-2007, 08:56

Kitten got a bread maker for Christmas and we've been using it off and on since and the bread is great. We've mainly been getting plain white mix and putting chopped onions in it. There is an international market that comes into St Helens every few months and they have onion and olive loaves and they are awesome

Home made bread is great, even with a bread maker

31-03-2007, 15:35	#1
Garp Preparing more tumbleweed Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Hawaii Posts: 6,038	Baking Bread with Garp One of the little tasks I've taken upon myself in out house is to make bread regularly. I don't know about anyone else here but I love fresh made, home made bread. Breadmaker made bread is nice, but there is something nicer about hand made bread. Hand made > Bread Maker > mass produced bread. Making bread consists of nice and simple techniques that even someone who has never cooked before can cope with. So I thought I'd introduce you to how to bake bread. If you've got a spare bit of time I'd highly reccomend giving it a shot. So what do you need? 450g Bread Flour, personally I prefer Stoneground but as you can see from the picture I'm using ordinary Brown Bread flour. 15g Dried Yeast. Its almost impossible to find ordinary Yeast these days in supermarkets, the main thing you'll see is packets of "Fast Yeast". Either will do but there will be a change to the instructions if you use ordinary yeast. 1/2 pint of warm water. Its important that it is warm, and not hot or cold. This is one you'll learn to judge for yourself. Too hot and you'll activate all the yeast, two cold and it won't activate any 1 tsp Sugar, preferably Brown. 1 tsp salt. 9g Butter / Margarine. 1 Mixing Bowl 1 2lb loaf tin, lightly greased Instructions Measure out 450g of bread flour and put it into your mixing bowl, and then add your tsp of salt, followed by your Butter / Margarine. Take the yeast and pour it into your half pint of warm water, then add in the tsp of sugar, and give it a good stir. Doesn't that just look so appetising? Pour the whole lot into your mixing bowl and then its time to get your hands dirty. You could cheat and use a mixer if you have one with a dough hook, but thats just being lazy. Mix everything together really well using your hands. The object of the exercise is to end up with a single piece of dry feeling dough, and no flour left in the bowl, it should all be part of the dough. This never seems to work out perfectly each time I've made it. Sometimes I've needed a bit more water, others a bit more flour. Ideally you should find that most of the dough that was on your hands and fingers when you started mixing it all together will have come off. When you're happy that you've got a nice dry feeling piece of dough and its not sticky at all, then put this down on a lightly floured surface. This part is great for your wrists. We get to the kneeding stage. Depending on how warm your hands are this can take between 5 and 10 minutes to do. People with naturally warm hands will find this a lot quicker than those who don't. A little tip for those people that don't have warm hands: Run your hands under a hot tap to warm them up before starting the kneeding. Kneeding should be full on, no half-hearted efforts here. Press down on the dough with the heel of both hands and push it firmly away from you, so that it stretches out. Repeat, turning the dough back in on itself every after every few stretches to ensure it doesn't just become like a long sausage! After 5 minutes (or anywhere up to about 10 for cold hands people) you should notice that the loaf has reached a fairly elastic state, you can prod it and it will slowly start to retake its prior shape. If this happens before the 5 minute mark, great, but don't stop kneeding till you've done at least 5 minutes. When you're happy with the dough, take your dough and place it in your loaf tin, stretching it out to fill the tin, and then lightly score the top of it in the shape of a cross: Now take some clingfilm and wrap up the bread tin. You need to leave some space at the top for the loaf to rise to, but keep the sides as tightly wrapped as possible so it doesn't spill over the top and down the sides (as happened to me last week.. whoops) Now you need to find a nice warm and dry place. As with the "warm" water, this is a bit of a difficult one to guage. I'd generally advise somewhere around 20 degrees or so, and then leave it to prove. Our Airing cupboard here is a little too warm, but you may find thats the ideal place in your house. I just left it in my room on a shelf. This is where there is a slight difference in approach depending on the type of yeast used. With Fast Yeast Leave your dough for at least 2 hours to prove, letting it rise nicely. This should now be really elastic and reform to shape if proded. With Ordinary Yeast Leave to prove for 30 minutes - 40, take out of tin and kneed again for another couple of minutes before placing it back in the tin and leaving to prove for another hour or so. Remove the clingfilm cover, and turn your oven up to 220 degress C / 425 degrees / Gas mark 7. Place your loaf in its tin on a shelf in the oven and leave for 30 minutes until it is a nice golden brown colour. Remove from the oven and then tip out of the Bread Tin. Voila: Your lovely loaf of handmade bread N.B.Leave to cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before you try and eat any of it. __________________ Mal: Define "interesting"? Wash: "Oh, God, oh, God, we're all gonna die"?

31-03-2007, 15:41	#2
Haly Do you want to hide in my box? Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 14,941	My Dad used to make bread, lovely stuff __________________ Halycopter

31-03-2007, 15:42	#3
Tak L'Oréal Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Portsmouth Posts: 9,977	LOL at the Maidstone Beer meet glass Looks very yummy I've never had freshly baked bread __________________ The look on your face when a toddler rips out your heart and shows it to you? Priceless.... For everything else, there's FWOOSH!

31-03-2007, 16:13	#4
Will BBx woz 'ere :P Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 2,147,487,208	I've made hand made bread a few times - it's delicious but not worth the effort. Long live my Panasonic bread maker It tastes just as good, and requires a lot less effort I sometimes just make the dough and then bake it after shaping it or sometimes glazing it. Here in Germany they do make really good breads - I'm eating far too much and not doing any exercise! I want to go home! __________________ *No No!*

31-03-2007, 18:14	#6
Jonny69 Noob Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Socialist Republik of Kent Posts: 5,032	Looks great G. Makes great pizza bases if you load it up with olive oil __________________

31-03-2007, 18:02	#5
Robert Chump!!! Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: North West Posts: 993	My mum's a superb cook - she bakes bread once a week and makes fresh pasta with this lovely old style paste maker.

10-04-2007, 23:49	#7
JodieG Long Island Iced Tea Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Cambridge Posts: 340	Looks lovely I make bread when I get the time __________________

11-04-2007, 23:34	#8
Aitch The Bride Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Maidstone Posts: 749	Home baked bread is heavenly! It tastes even better for all the effort that goes into it too. We started off with a Jamie Oliver recipe I think and loved it so much we bought a 'Book of bread' recipe book with some fab recipes from cottage loafs to an amazing cheese and onion bread. I also find home baked bread doesn't bloat me like shop bought bread. __________________

12-04-2007, 08:25	#9
Will BBx woz 'ere :P Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 2,147,487,208	That's because it doesn't have all the preservatives and chemicals that supermarket/mass-produced bread has. __________________ *No No!*

12-04-2007, 08:56	#10
leowyatt Chef extraordinaire Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Infinite Loop Posts: 11,143	Kitten got a bread maker for Christmas and we've been using it off and on since and the bread is great. We've mainly been getting plain white mix and putting chopped onions in it. There is an international market that comes into St Helens every few months and they have onion and olive loaves and they are awesome Home made bread is great, even with a bread maker __________________ "Dr Sheldon Cooper FTW!"