Cooking with Jonny69: baking bread.

AcidHell2 said:
Well that's a total disaster 2 and a half days later it's baking. But it's like a really heave sponge, rather than bread. I don't understand why it's like that.
Just needs a few more minutes for the centre, so not sure it cooks like.
Certainly lacking aeration.
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Has anyone got a 100% wholemeal flour loaf recipe they used with a sourdough starter?
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I have never liked making a 100% wholemeal dough as the flour is too course and heavy for the yeast. I always go 60/40 wholemeal to white, and to be truly honest with you there is little difference between white and wholemeal flour when it comes to nutritional value :)
 
Impromptu Monday night nommage

So I cooked a roast last night, and had more chicken than I knew what to do with, not to mention mushrooms fast going out of date. Well add pepperoni, cheese, pizza sauce and a quick and cheap dough mix...

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Mix up dough, knead for 5 minutes and leave to rise for a further 5 whilst you prepare your ingredients.

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Step one, layer pizza sauce and a little cheese:

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Step two, layer pepperoni and chicken:

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Step three, more sauce cheese and mushroom:

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Step four, rollover and seal the edges using a fork to press together. Pierce the top several times to allow steam to escape:

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And a couple of action shots:

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Om, nom and finally nom. :)
 
Do it, do it, do it!

Takes 15 minutes to prepare, tops. Then about 15-20 mins at 220.

Epically filling, I'm definitely doing another one at the weekend. Will roll the dough out a little thinner next time, and wedge more pepperoni in it. :)
 
I also followed suit and have made several stromboli now. Is great! Took a while to perfect. I try to roll it out quite thin and then roll it up densely so there are lots of layers. Also: jalapenos. Love 'em.
 
Since starting my foray into baking, I've never been totally happy with the rise and consistency I've got out of my loaves. They've always been too heavy, or just plain not right. I'm not expecting supermarket loaf bounce, but normally two slices and it's doughy overload for me.

I've always kneaded for about 10 minutes as per all recipe instructions and left it to rise for 1.5-2 hours in a warm place. So, did a bit of reading on the effects of kneading and stumbled across a recipe by Doris Grant. Long story short, she sieveheaded kneading dough once and accidentally baked a loaf. Became a wartime hero of the kitchen or something. More here if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_loaf

Working from home today, I had a chance to do a little experiment. I followed Delia's recipe to the letter, then I did the same again for another loaf this time kneading the dough for a solid 10 minutes.

Outcomes:

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Both loaves are tasty, no doubting that. Still didn't get the result I wanted, so I'm going to up my kneading/rising times again and give it another go when I've chowed this lot.

Any other tips?
 
Do you cover it when you leave it to rise? I use a plastic tub (old washing up bowl) and put two glasses of boiling water under the bowl with the loaf. Takes half the time to prove and makes the loaf more fluffy/light.
 
I normally cover with a damp tea towel and leave it to prove in the airing cupboard, it's warm enough in there but I might try your trick next time actually.

Mine was resting for about 2-3 minutes before getting shaped into the tin, again might leave it a little longer next time. :)

Cheers
 
Try some lightly oiled clingfilm instead of the tea towel as that does not pull on the top of the loaf :) Years of baking has helped me improvise :D
 
randal24 said:
I've always kneaded for about 10 minutes as per all recipe instructions and left it to rise for 1.5-2 hours in a warm place. So, did a bit of reading on the effects of kneading and stumbled across a recipe by Doris Grant. Long story short, she sieveheaded kneading dough once and accidentally baked a loaf. Became a wartime hero of the kitchen or something. More here if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_loaf
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First things first, I've seen a few chefs show a no-knead loaf on TV, but I can't see how you'll get decent results. It's basically a scone recipe with yeast at that point, and the baked result will crumble rather than stretch. I only say this, because that's what happens when you don't knead the dough enough; you end up with bread with a slightly cakey texture which breaks when you bend it over. It should fold and not crack or split if it's fresh.

For your brown loaf, try using 50/50 white flour and brown flour to lighten it up. All my all-brown loaves have been very dense, unless I've used Hovis Granary flour. This seems to make a nice light loaf :)
 
Good tips dude, I've got a load of white left which I'll experiment with next time. Out of interest, how strong a flour do you use? I've been trying Allinson's Extra Strong white/wholemeal, which is OK. Think I had better results with the Hovis strong though.

On the subject of dough texture, nearly all of the dough I've had split/tore in kneading. Does that mean it's too dry?

Previous loaves have been 500g flour, 350ml water and a glug of oil. The latest efforts were 570g flour and 400ml water with a glug of oil.
 
350ml of water should be plenty! I usually use 600g of flour, a teaspoon of olive oil and about 350ml of water (including the liquid used for the yeast) - oh and about half to one level teaspoon of salt.

At the end of kneading the texture is usually quite smooth and moderately sticky.
 
randal24 said:
Previous loaves have been 500g flour, 350ml water and a glug of oil. The latest efforts were 570g flour and 400ml water with a glug of oil.
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That sounds about right. If anything it's slightly on the wetter side, so maybe make a wider flatter loaf so the base doesn't end up thick and doughy :)

I flour the top of my loaf heavily and use a dry tea towel. A damp one is both heavier and evaporation will have a slight cooling effect. Think what it feels like having a damp flannel on your face - it does the same to bread dough. Also try doing the first rise in the bowl with clingfilm stretched over the top. The clingfilm traps some heat in the bowl and helps the yeast work :)
 
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