Cooking with Jonny69: baking bread.

BigBoy said:
no what I mean is the knock back is not needed, you will get a much lighter loaf if you don't knock it back!

you can but a wholemeal flour being as heavy as it is will more often than not kill the yeast before proving is complete. (that's just my 10+ years of being a baker talking ;))
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I gave this a go last week. It does indeed give a lighter loaf. But I also found it had detrimental effects on the crumb and taste. I like a robust bread, both in taste and feel (which is why I also use sourdough), and I even go as far as to prove my dough 2 - 3 times assuming I have the spare time.

Maybe it's better with wholemeal flour due to its more intricate taste and texture (I made a white). Also I think my tastes may be quite specific with bread.

But was interesting to try, for sure!
 
cool glad you tried it :) I completely understand what you mean especially with a sour dough, it needs a good two or three proves. I don't use sour dough just because I don't have the time to be making the starter and waiting for the prove cycles :)
 
I've been busy making Soda Bread This morning (Well all week actually :D)
Malted Grain
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Straight Wholemeal
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Mixed Seed Wholemeal
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Basic Recipe

500g Strong Flour
Pinch of Salt
2 teaspoons Bicarbonate of Soda
400ml (or there about's) Buttermilk or natural Pro-biotic yoghurt
a splash of milk or two


Basically mix all the dry ingredients together well, add the buttermilk/yoghurt (or a 50/50 mix of both works well) mix well kneed for about 1min (don't kneed to long of the bicarb will be worn out), shape bang it on a tray in a pre heated oven 225oC for 35-45min depending on fan assisted or not :)

From staring the dough to getting it in the oven the quicker you do it the better, getting it in the oven whilst the bicarb is still active is key to a good loaf!
 
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Good tip for soda bread. if you whisk / beat the living daylights out of double cream, it will eventually separate into buttermilk & butter. Use the buttermilk (which can be hard to find in smaller shops) in the loaf, salt the butter and use it on top. Heavenly.

Also, the *best* soda bread I have ever made is a Guinness, cheese & apple, found here.
 
HeadlessChicken said:
Good tip for soda bread. if you whisk / beat the living daylights out of double cream, it will eventually separate into buttermilk & butter. Use the buttermilk (which can be hard to find in smaller shops) in the loaf, salt the butter and use it on top. Heavenly.

Also, the *best* soda bread I have ever made is a Guinness, cheese & apple, found here.
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Yup made that one before was awesome :)

beating the cream is a lovely way to make buttermilk but my god you would need a pint or so of cream to make 400-600ml of buttermilk!!
 
OK then boys and girls, talk to me about French Bread!!

You go off to France, you hit the first French bread shop and get a French stick and wonder why the hell you never seem able to find that quality, flavour and lightness of bread here in the UK. Sure, you can buy loads of French sticks, but non in my experience taste as good as they do in France.

How do I make them, what's the secret?
 
Housey said:
OK then boys and girls, talk to me about French Bread!!

You go off to France, you hit the first French bread shop and get a French stick and wonder why the hell you never seem able to find that quality, flavour and lightness of bread here in the UK. Sure, you can buy loads of French sticks, but non in my experience taste as good as they do in France.

How do I make them, what's the secret?
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The secret is French flour!
 
They also take the time to knead their dough properly and bake it in proper ovens. Sainsburys claimed to use French flour but their bread stinks of underkneading and flour improver, and it's baked in steam ovens which is fast (saving them money) but doesn't produce a very good crust.
 
Housey's right it doesn't taste the same. Also other than using proper ovens, I believe the throw some water into the hot oven to give it that crisp crust too?

Furthermore they use no preservatives, or flavour enhancers, stabilizers etc....
 
Last night I baked with the sour dough I've been preparing for the last week (just organic, stoneground wholemeal flour and water) . It did take longer to rise than 'fast action yeast' and I think I had the dough just a little bit too wet… however, it baked nicely and tastes great.

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Had a bash at no knead bread (actually tried it a few days ago but it came out undercooked and doughy).

Recipe came from here http://www.breadsecrets.com/noknead.html.

When I tried it before, I made the dough too wet so this time, I made it exactly as the recipe says. Here's a photo after 12 hours fermenting. I put the cotton bobbin on top to show how much the cling film had blown out with the gas produced :D

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I increased the cooking time this time (25 mins covered + 15 mins uncovered) and it turned out much better. Maybe my oven isn't as hot as the one the author has (it rather unhelpfully just says "preheat the oven and baking stone or cast iron casserole dish to the hottest setting."). The hottest setting on my oven is 250C but I have no idea how accurate that is (must get an oven thermometer).
Here's the finished product anyway:

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And here's one of it sliced. It has a nice open texture and is quite light. The bread has a slightly chewy texture and the crust is chewy and crunchy at the same time. I quite like the texture (others may not). tastes fine too :)

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Looking forward to having some with my (homemade) spicy butternut squash soup at lunchtime :cool:
 
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