Bread makers

[geoff]

Right - that's the first loaf (basic white) baked

nice isn't it

[Rod]

Certainly used to enjoy it (SD253). But don't use it now - partner now can't eat bread!

I recommend recipes such a French country loaf and others that have some rye in them. Also the ciabbatta.

It's a shame you could take full control and set your own times for every step of the process. Don't suppose anyone has managed to connect it via USB?

[mark]

Congratulation on your first baby! I found that the basic white is nice on the first day but goes off quite quickly. Granary is my favourite.

mark

[Andrew Gabriel]

I found it quite difficult to have any left after the first day...

More fat (butter usually) will help a loaf keep it's freshness for longer, but can also change the initial texture - depends what you like.

I prefer white breads in a bread maker, although a brown or granary loaded full of sunflower seeds (many more than you can get in the seed hopper) is also nice.

Currently seem to be making mostly white milk loaf, painted with thick dressing of poppy seeds before final bake. No one seems to be able to resist that.

Another favourate is ciabatta with whole olives, and if I have them, sun-dried tomatos. I used to make sandwiches for work from this, and someone was rather alarmed at the sight of my sandwiches wrapped in cling film with all the black, green, and red patches showing ;-)

We had some hot cross buns, although I discovered a few years ago that it's actually nicer if you make it into a loaf and then slice it.

Rye bread with caroway seeds is nice, but the flour has to be high protein and fresh, because the rye flour seems to dilute it's effectiveness at bread making.

When you've got familiar with the first few loaves from the instructions, it's worth trying to vary proportions to see what effect it has. Most of the loaves I routinely make I have settled on slightly different ratios of ingredients than the original recipe suggested.

[Dave]

What I do with a basic white, is to leave it overnight and then slice it the next day. Split it into 3 and freeze 2 packs, as my wife likes other types of bread. I find that leaving it cooling over night it separates better while still frozen. I tend to bake it so it is ready for about 6-00pm.

Dave

[Tim Streater]

Im tending to use less water, and no butter (Panny 254).

What I'm intrigued by is how the French get a traditional loaf so nice and crusty, and very firm inside. For a while, I figured it might just be due to using flour *milled in France*. I though this because, even though Tesco says "made with French wheat" about their baguettes, they are barely any better than any other unsliced Tesco offering.

So I wondered if flour (T55) bought in France would be better. It is, slightly, but not by enough to be worth it. So any ideas as to how to make a white loaf in a breadmaker with a *much* firmer texture?

[Bob Minchin]

The French use a very low protein wheat in their baking. Which leads to the crisp outer, air interior and zero keeping qualities.

Bob

[Dave]

I have just obtained, but not yet used some genuine French bread flour grown and milled in France and sold by the Wessex Mill Co.

Minimum order is 6 bags at 1.5 kg

Dave

[Dave]

The 3 bags I have described don't mention the protein level.

Dave

[Huge]

Don't French bread ovens do something with steam?

[Dave]

Yes, I don't have a link for it, but I watched a clip about this about 9 months ago, where, domestically, you get the oven up to temp, with a heavy gauge baking tray in it and place the baguettes on it and spray with water, cover with what I can only describe as an old fashioned serving tray lid and bake for 15 minutes. Take the lid off and spray again and bake for a further 15 minutes. After this, you take off the lid and bake for another 15 minutes.

Dave

[geoff]

In message , mark writes

Oh definitely, but when you only have white flour available, granary is a bit difficult to make without floor sweepings etrc

[Andrew Gabriel]

I don't like french bread much (OK once in a while for a change, but not for my regular bread), so it's not something I strive to achieve.

You can get large holes/bubbles by kneading the dough less. Back in the days of making it by hand (which I used to do occasionally), it was a symptom of not enough kneading. The kneading process is (amongst other things) smashing down the small bubbles which start to form into more even smaller bubbles, and affects the eventual number and size of bubbles in the loaf.

If you wanted to experiment with this, you could try lifting the bread container out of the machine for the second half of the kneading process. (On my machine, it kneads for about 20 minutes, so lift out for the second 10 minutes, and then put back when it's finished the kneading phase.)

Like someone else said, it would be interesting to be able to program such changes.

Protein content is important too -- too little and the bubble walls are too weak and break by themselves, but this can happen as a chain reaction and generate large voids in the loaf, or it can collapse completely. Protein content in flour seems to have increased over the decades, and some flour which is not sold for bread making probably has enough to work. The minimum protein content for white bread flour is normally considered to be

11g/100g of flour, and "string" (bread) flour is normally around 13g/100g. Some non-bread flours now just about hit 11g/100g, so you could try using one of those instead, or even dropping below 11g/100g.

[Andrew Gabriel]

s/string/srong/

[mark]

Granary flour made by Hovis and available in your local supermarket.

mark

[pcb1962]

I used to drive a forklift at a huge continental bakery plant. All the flour for the French bread came over in bulk tanker lorries from France. The owner was a dodgy mafia type who would cut corners everywhere he could, so if it were possible to make decent French bread from locally sourced flour then he would have done, so on that basis I'd say that there's definitely a significant difference between French flour and ours.

[Adrian C]

Contains supermarket floorsweepings ....

Er, I'll get my brush.

[Bruce]

I believe it is made from a different variety of wheat, one that is not widely grown in the UK.

[geoff]

In message , mark writes

Not on a sunday afternoon when you can't be arsed to go out it isn't

also - one step at a time - a bit of cotton wool first to try the thing out