Cooking with Jonny69: baking bread.

May as well bump this one back up since there has been some progress in the kitchen. The KMix mixer turned out to be completely useless at kneading dough, despite trying every adjustment it had, so I sent it back to Amazon as unfit for purpose. True to their word they gave me a full refund and it cost me nothing, which I am very chuffed about and will shop there with confidence from now on. I'm looking at getting a Kitchen Aid Classic instead, as I know it will do the job properly. With a bit of luck it'll go in the sales and in the meantime I'll use my dough hooks and hope the hand mixer holds out!
 
Jonny69 said:
With a bit of luck it'll go in the sales and in the meantime I'll use my dough hooks and hope the hand mixer holds out!
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Keep an eye on your local Debenhams; my local one tends to have one or two hidden away every time there's a Blue Cross Sale or whatever the call their Christmas one.

Admittedly they've been the odder colours (one was pink and two were mustard yellow) and probably returned items, but they were knocking them out for around £200 IIRC.
 
aceface57 said:
Have gone a bit mad again, made another loaf and thought while I was at it, make some pizza base's for tonight's dinner. Will get some pictures up of the results later. Really fancy making something a bit fancier next time.

*edit* still waiting for the bread to rise properly. I think the pizza turned out ok for a first attempt. (Two types of cheese, lots of bacon, Tomatoes and the Tomatoes base I made with a can of chopped tomatoes, chilli, garlic, onion and herbs)
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That looks really tasty and rustic style :D
 
I had a go at a plait tonight. Normal dough but rolled into 3 long sausages, then plaited together. Let it re-rise under a damp tea towel and bake as usual...

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I already started it even though it was too hot to hold when I cut it :cool:
 
krooton said:
Baked my first loaf tonight, strawberry multi-grain, almost like muesli bread, delicious!!

Little bit denser than intended, might need to knead for a bit longer next time. :)
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Awesome first effort!

Brown flour can be quite difficult to get a light loaf out of and it's always come out dense for me. I find it has a habit of flopping flat as soon as you move it once it has risen. Quite a lot has gone to the ducks in the park :D

Try using 2/3 white flour to 1/3 brown if it's coming out too heavy.
 
Haven't read entire thread so apologies if this has been covered.

What about bread making machines? I've got a Kenwood that I used a few times and I thought the results were good. Don't really eat bread nowadays so haven't used it for a good while,but looking at this bread thread has given me a craving for a fresh loaf!

Are bread making machines frowned upon by you bread baking people?
 
JBuk said:
Some bread makers are quite good, my Panasonic one is excellent

I use it from time to time but also hand knead and oven bake loaves
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IMHO:

Artisan bakers / hand made at home > Bread maker > Supermarket

Bread makers make significantly better bread than supermarket rubbish (altho I question the amount of ingredients they seems to require), but baking by hand is a step up again.

At the end of the day it depends if you just want nicer bread, or if you want to actually make bread. Making daily bread is a bit of a routine, but one I wouldn't be without these days.
 
I made a couple of pizzas last night, first time I'd done a pizza dough. So much fun! The stuff it so stretchy and when covered in flour is really easy to handle. Got them super thin and cooked at 250C with a stone in the oven they came out amazing.
 
Almost 9 months after I first posted in this thread saying I should post up some of my bread pictures, I've finally got round to doing it.

I ended up getting the River Cottage bread book to complement my other bread book and this was the first loaf I did using some of the techniques from the River Cottage one.
I've got to say it came out pretty well.

In the past I've baked bread on a constant 220 degrees or so, but the RC book says to whack the oven up as hot as it will go for the first 10 minutes. My oven gets hotter near the back and you can see in the sliced open shot it's a little dark on one side, so will have to compensate for that in the future.

The dough was also a little drier than I've made in the past. 500g flour to 300g water (normally would have used about 450g flour to that much water) but it still rose well. I got some very good height on the loaf and it was easier to knead, so reckon I'll stick to something like this recipe going forwards.

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This thread inspired me to bake my own bread last year and I've not bought a loaf since. I use a Panasonic bread maker for during the week and I make hand made stuff when I have time at the weekends.

Many thanks Jonny69

I'll have to post some pics also. I've been trying to perfect tiger bread lately with some reasonable success.
 
Haircut said:
Almost 9 months after I first posted in this thread saying I should post up some of my bread pictures, I've finally got round to doing it.

I ended up getting the River Cottage bread book to complement my other bread book and this was the first loaf I did using some of the techniques from the River Cottage one.
I've got to say it came out pretty well.

In the past I've baked bread on a constant 220 degrees or so, but the RC book says to whack the oven up as hot as it will go for the first 10 minutes. My oven gets hotter near the back and you can see in the sliced open shot it's a little dark on one side, so will have to compensate for that in the future.

The dough was also a little drier than I've made in the past. 500g flour to 300g water (normally would have used about 450g flour to that much water) but it still rose well. I got some very good height on the loaf and it was easier to knead, so reckon I'll stick to something like this recipe going forwards.
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That book is pretty much my bread bible.

The simple 500g / 10g / 5g / 300ml ratio works really well and lends itself excellently to experimentation.

My current fave bread is to do as you have for the white, add 2 handfuls of mixed herbs (basil, thyme & sage mostly), a small jar of olives, halved. Make into 2 small stick type thingies, then coat with dried herbs. Makes the best bruschetta :D


*edit* just a week Friday till I get my stone & peel. Wooooooo :D
 
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HeadlessChicken said:
That book is pretty much my bread bible.

The simple 500g / 10g / 5g / 300ml ratio works really well and lends itself excellently to experimentation.

My current fave bread is to do as you have for the white, add 2 handfuls of mixed herbs (basil, thyme & sage mostly), a small jar of olives, halved. Make into 2 small stick type thingies, then coat with dried herbs. Makes the best bruschetta :D


*edit* just a week Friday till I get my stone & peel. Wooooooo :D
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Yeah, it's definitely a good buy.
I shaped it into the stubby cylinder that he recommends and you could tell straight away that it was going to rise up to a nice shape when proving.

I figured I'd stick to a basic bread for my first time using this recipe, but now that I know it works well I'll be experimenting a bit.
 
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