Cooking with Jonny69: baking bread.

Had a bit of a bake-a-thon this weekend...

Poppy seeded knot rolls:
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A sesame seed topped twist bloomer. I have no idea what to call this thing, it was ring shaped and delicious. And yeah, I forgot to take a picture before I got my noms on. Anyway:
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And my personal favourite, a type of bread I remember from living in Switzerland as a child. It's called butterzopf, and it's not burnt - it's golden coloured, just a **** photo. The crust is soft and chewy, and the inside is made of tasty, butter and clouds:
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Sorry for the tiny pictures... For some reason, after upgrading my GSII to ICS, it reset the camera to take photos at 640*480 ¬_¬ and I can't take more photos, 'cause the breads aren't exactly whole any more! Nom.

Edit: Fixed pics
 
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Mrs Seakitchen said:
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I give you Almondbury cheese bread!! :D Its nice for a first attempt but the flavour of the cheese means you cant really taste the beer also its quite solid, will persevere :D
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Looks awesome, I need to try a cheese bread one day.

I made some Panini rolls, enriched with extra virgin olive oil. They have become my roll/loaf of choice for sandwiches during the week :)

They are so soft and light:

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Made some bread today that involves cutting in diamond shapes, did so and the thing deflates a bit =[

Ach well only my second time baking bread, last week was a sweet sandwich loaf, sweet so it's like shop bought bread.

edit: been in for 45mins, still rather pale =[ Might just take it out.
 
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No pics, but I made my best white loaf today. Lovely and soft, with a great texture. Only downside is it's exceedingly tricky to slice as I made it in a tin. If I'd left it to find it's own shape it'd be flatter but easier to work with. At least I have a target for next time. This was 68% hydration with a single rise. Only difference was a longer kneading, not that I noticed any difference in the dough before proving (indeed, it wasn't even as springy as others) but it obviously made a difference.
 
Like Jonny says, you need a pretty warm room for proving. I usually cheat and put mine in the cupboard under the stairs with a fan heater to prove. With the heater on, it's probably about 30c in there - does the trick nicely :D
 
Mrs Seakitchen said:
Is it possible to make the dough prove, then store it for a few days until ready to cook?
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A better bet would be to store it in the fridge before rising. You can make a batch of dough and stick it covered in the fridge for a few days. Then take out a portion of it and stick it in a baking tray. You will have to give it a long time to warm up and then prove - at least 6 hours I would say (overnight would be good, then bake in the morning).
 
Most bakeries use an over night prove method where the dough is frozen or chilled until nearly frozen in a retarder (basically a big fridge with shelves) it then warms gently over a set period of time keeping the doughs moist (80% humidity) and increasing the heat until the air temp is around 60oC.

This can be done at home if you chill the dough after kneeding im the freezer and then storing in a very cold fridge over night. The only problem you will have is how to keep the dough damp/moist whilst warming it, as the retarder uses injected steam at regular times based on current humidity and temp.
 
Jonny69 said:
It needs to be pretty warm in the kitchen to make it pop up nicely. What yeast are you using? What flour are you using? Any other ingredients?
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Dried yeast stuff, but that's what the recipe asks for:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/paul_hollywoods_crusty_83536

Had it in the kitchen, first time it was fine.
Second time I had it sitting in the sun in the lounge in the front of the house (where the sun shines into so pretty warm on a summer days). But this was on a sloped stool so I think as it was rising it was also sliding.
Yesterday was ontop of the oven (off for half of it) and again it expanded but mostly just out.

I've got two ideas that might be why.
1) Mix too moist?
2) Too much oil on the cling film weighing the mix down and stopping it rising so forced it to expand side ways.
 
Sounds like your loaf was to wet, for the clingfilm your best off using a spray pump and lightly spraying the cling, also try to suspend the cling so its not on the dough at all, I now use a large plastic tub suspended over the loaf tin (about an inch off the work top) by two cans of beans with two small glasses of boiling steaming water under it. Then have it placed in the warmest room of the house preferably in the sun.
 
I only use dried yeast but there are two types and I've had different results with both. There's the instant dried yeast for bread makers which typically comes in a box of sachets that you thrown in with the dry ingredients (but Waitrose do in a big packet which works out a lot cheaper). Then there's Hovis dried active yeast that comes in a small tin, which you have put in warm water with sugar to reactivate.

The instant stuff makes good bread for me. The other type I've found makes an odd texture when you knead the dough. It seems to break down the dough and makes a sort of chewing gum texture. When you leave it to rise, it sort of acts like it's runny and spreads out, rather than holding its shape, and the finished bread tastes like it is under-kneaded.

This is different to my experience with an overly wet dough (and instant yeast), which I've found has a habit of rising out rather than up. You end up with a big wide flat loaf with quite big rubbery looking bubbles.

Sounds like yours might have been a wet dough. If you stick a few cuts in the top just before you put it in the oven, it does make the loaf pop up when it bakes. The other thing to do is bake it in a tin, which supports the shape a bit more :)
 
BigBoy said:
Sounds like your loaf was to wet, for the clingfilm your best off using a spray pump and lightly spraying the cling, also try to suspend the cling so its not on the dough at all, I now use a large plastic tub suspended over the loaf tin (about an inch off the work top) by two cans of beans with two small glasses of boiling steaming water under it. Then have it placed in the warmest room of the house preferably in the sun.
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Spray oil would just be used for the purpose of bread baking, feels a bit excessive purchase if I'm honest. Unless they're stupidly cheap these days?
May need to try and construct something to hold the cling film over the baking tray, as this is where the bread is placed the second time.

Jonny69 said:
I only use dried yeast but there are two types and I've had different results with both. There's the instant dried yeast for bread makers which typically comes in a box of sachets that you thrown in with the dry ingredients (but Waitrose do in a big packet which works out a lot cheaper). Then there's Hovis dried active yeast that comes in a small tin, which you have put in warm water with sugar to reactivate.

The instant stuff makes good bread for me. The other type I've found makes an odd texture when you knead the dough. It seems to break down the dough and makes a sort of chewing gum texture. When you leave it to rise, it sort of acts like it's runny and spreads out, rather than holding its shape, and the finished bread tastes like it is under-kneaded.

This is different to my experience with an overly wet dough (and instant yeast), which I've found has a habit of rising out rather than up. You end up with a big wide flat loaf with quite big rubbery looking bubbles.

Sounds like yours might have been a wet dough. If you stick a few cuts in the top just before you put it in the oven, it does make the loaf pop up when it bakes. The other thing to do is bake it in a tin, which supports the shape a bit more :)
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First two where done with the packet stuff, second one was done with half packet and half can. I grabbed it as it was a lot cheaper, but will need to have a gander to see what type it is.

It's just that first and second where identical, but two and three couldn't have gone any more flat if I tried, yet nothing really has changed.

Ach well I only got two slices out of this one! One after I baked it and one last night with my dinner.
Father and mostly the mother scoffed it off.
 
The Can of Alinsons yeast is not the same as the packet fast acting yeast, If you can goto your local bakery and ask for a block of fresh yeast (some will charge some wont, it costs pennies for them to buy in bulk) use that instead of the dry stuff and your dough will prove differently, also remember each loaf will need a different amount of water due to flour density and current room humidity, it may only be a few ml or anywhere up to 100ml per dough!

99% of the time flat dough is because of poor flour and to much water. You are using Strong flour? Sainsburys sell some very nice organic strong flour from a local mill and It makes a lovely loaf, just try cutting your water content down by 50ml and see how you go.
 
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