OneGuyFromBarlick

All this talk about breads is making me needy!

Finally tried the breadmaker again. Followed the recipe the previous owner had encapsulated and left in it. She said it worked fine. The electricity tripped just as it had about 45 minutes to go - and of course there's no way to get to the exact same point in the cycle. I didn't panic, and took the container from the machine and put it in the oven.
I guessed the temperature, and time.

Apart from it looking like a big square Hollands Meat and Potato pie - I think I've got away with it.

Looks like the cycle didn't quite get to the end of the second rise. I take it the full cycle was somewhere around 2H 50m or just over 3H?

Here is my offering baked today, less than an hours prep and 30mins in the oven:





They are basic recipe with added Chia seeds.

Nice breads all round!
I’ve just made a batch of Pumpkin and Toasted Almond Spiced Muffins. ( it is Friday and I was looking for a way to use the leftover Japanese Pumpkin in the fridge). I threw some Cinnamon, Cloves and Cardamom in. Yummy.

I'm trying a Nigella variant on a white loaf. Uses quite a bit more liquid, (mix of hot/cold water, milk and butter) than normal and produces a slacker dough. 30 seconds total kneading in 3 x 10 second sessions 10 minutes apart. Just waiting on it's first rise at the moment. It will be interesting to see how the gluten develops.

Here's the result after an hours rise, knock back and a further half hour in the tin then 35 mins in the oven.

That looks good. I've always used a slack dough, I found it makes it easier with the dough hooks in the mixer. It almost pours into the tin

One of my Christmas presents was a Banneton so I thought I would give it an airing with sourdough loaf. My starter looked to be alive and in good order so I mixed the dough yesterday and set it to rise. It's a long rise when you just use a natural starter so I left it overnight. Checking it this morning it was still fairly flat with hardly any rise at all! I thought of a rescue plan which would either make it sink or swim.

I got the mixer out with the dough hook and then knocked back what little rise there was in the dough then cut it up into small chunks. I got a sachet of instant yeast and mixed it with a little warm water to dissolve the grains. I tipped the whole lot into the mixer then left it mixing for about 5 minutes. I ended up with a bit looser dough but tipped it out and gave it a hand kneading for a few minutes to firm it up. I floured up my Banneton and after balling the dough put it in the basket and then into a large plastic bag to see if that improved the rise. 90 minutes later it was up to the top of the basket so I floured a baking tray up, tipped it out gave the top a couple of light slashes and shoved it in a hot oven for half an hour. Here is the result.



Looks like a successful rescue, proof will be in the eating.

I think I will dump the remainder of my starter and start again. It's been on the go since about last August. I'll get some green grapes the next time I see some.

My starter was definitely dead so I dumped it and started another batch last week. Wednesday I think it was. 250g strong flour, 250ml tepid water and 6 or 7 green grapes chopped up to start the fermentation. I put it in a plastic sweet box that we had from Christmas and left it to fester until Sunday. It was certainly active by then and ready for another feed. I discarded half of the mixture and then fed it with 100g of flour and 100ml of water and gave it a stir, popped the lid back on and left it overnight until yesterday when it was ready for use. I took 250ml out for a batch of scones and another 250ml for a loaf which I mixed up firsts and then set aside for its first rise. I left it all day until evening and then knocked it back and put it in the floured up Banneton for its second rise overnight. I made a dozen scones with the other batch of starter, they turned out well.

The dough had risen sufficiently overnight and passed the push and spring back test to say it was ready for the oven. Here is where I hit a problem. I couldn't release it from the Banneton and keep its shape and once scraped out it looked like the dough was actually a bit "slack". I knocked it back again and gave it a good kneading on a bed of strong flour to firm it up some more. When I balled it up I liberally coated it with flour and semolina mix along with a re-flouring of the Banneton. It's back now in it's plastic bag hopefully on a second rise.

I had decanted my remaining starter into it's Kilner jar but noticed that it had gone flat. I can only put this down to temperature as it has been well fed and should still be active. I have given it some more grapes to see if I can pep it up a bit and put it back in the plastic box and it's thinking about whether to live or die in the living room. I will have a look tonight to see if it has done the trick and offer it a bit more flour if it's still flagging. I should know by this afternoon if the loaf is going to rise or remain a brick.

Half brick like actually, good crust as I put a water bath in the oven with it. Tangy enough and the crumb shows some activity of rising but not very much. Fine if you have it with soup or something else moist, otherwise it is considered a fail.

I'm fairly certain this is down to the variation in ambient temperature at this time of the year, cold blasts when the back door is opened etc. Anyway, bread making is a chemistry experiment in many ways and this one definitely went wrong.

I am in the process of making a bog standard hand baked 2lb loaf, cant go far wrong with that one.

I have made the executive decision to dump my sourdough starter until the ambient temperature increases a bit. My newly formed one has not revived despite letting it rest in the living room. I will start another one the other side of spring.

Our local artisan bakers are shut for a few days as they have a Covid issue at the moment I believe. To this end and as we have just finished the last Chia of theirs that we had on the go, I have tried a variant on the Nigella loaf. In previous Chia efforts I have always added the seeds directly to the dry ingredients and relied on the liquid added during production to do the bit of expansion on the seeds.

The Nigella recipe uses a mixture of hot and cold water and milk with added butter for the liquid content of the dough. So what I did this time was to add the Chia to the boiled water component of the liquid and let the magic begin there before adding the other portions to make up the required moisture content of the dough. Doesn't sound much of a tweak but I think it does make quite a difference to the dough.

Here it is after it's three 10 second kneadings over 30 mins and back in the bowl for proving.



Here after just over an hour proving, I think this is going to be a good one!



Knocked back and ready for folding for the tin. You can see the swollen Chia seeds throughout the dough.



It needs another hour or so to rise in the tin then I will bake it and put another post up later with the final result.

Later edit after 40 mins in the oven:

Flushed with my previous success of soaking the Chia seeds as part of the liquid content when mixing my dough. I thought I would try another variant with my next loaf. I soaked the Chia seeds in the larger portion of water as defined by the recipe. The liquid content is made up of 125ml of milk, 150ml of cold water and 100ml of hot water from a boiled kettle. You then add 47g of butter to this. I soaked my Chia in the 150ml component then added the other liquid components.

I had decided to make this loaf a mixture of Chia and Sunflower so I added 2 tblsp of sunflower seeds to the dry mix before adding the liquid. I had noticed with the previous loaf that swelling the Chia produced quite an overhang on a 2lb loaf tin after the final rise, added to the extra rise you get when you bake the loaf turned out quite top heavy.

So, I decided to put this batch into a 3lb tin to give it a bit more room. Here is where I ran into a slight problem. I mixed the dough, let it rise for an hour until doubled. It didn't look any more than before. I knocked it back and shoved it in to the 3lb tin for it's second rise. Went back to it an hour later and it had risen so much that it had risen so much it had spilled over all four sides of the tin! I couldn't bake it like that so had no option other than to knock it back again. For a third rise I set it in two 2lb bread tins and only left it until it was just about level with the top of the tin before flouring them up and shoving them in the oven. The extra rise when baking turned them out just about perfect. So lesson learned not to underestimate the bulking capabilities of soaked Chia. In effect I produced a single 2lb dough mix but got two 2lb loaves from it. That's magic!

Well if there is a flour shortage post brexit for the italian milled ones, you know where to save money

It looks like lovely bread...

Thanks, one of the best recipes I have found Maz. It produces a wetter dough and has minimal kneading done in short stages. Less then a minute in total. Doesn't seem to inhibit the gluten development and the crumb produced is soft and reasonably long lasting. It's one of Nigella's that I have tweaked a bit, the details are earlier in the thread. You can use turned milk or sour cream in which case you leave out the butter.

Just realised I didn't put the recipe up just the method.

500g Strong white bread flour
7g (1 sachet) fast acting yeast
2 tsp Caster Sugar
2 tsp Fine sea salt

125ml spoilt milk (or sour cream) straight from the fridge
150ml cold water
100ml hot water from a just boiled kettle
45g soft unsalted butter (omit if using sour cream)

Cube the butter and let it melt in the warm liquid mix. It doesn't have to melt fully it will get absorbed when you mix.

Mix all dry ingredients in the bowl then add the liquid. Mix until roughly combined, it will be a slack mix, rest for 10 mins in the bowl.
Tip out after 10 minutes onto oiled surface and give it a quick 10 second knead, back in bowl and rest 10 minutes.
Repeat for three 10 second kneads then back in bowl to prove until doubled in size.
When doubled, knock back and form for 2lb loaf tin. Put in plastic bag until second rise is to top of tin. Dust with flour (I use 50/50 flour and semolina). Bake for 40 minutes at 200c/180 fan/400F. Dough will rise a bit more in the oven. If you want a seeded variant add to the dry ingredients unless using Chia which as mentioned above I soaked in the liquid content for the dough. Sounds more complicated than it is. You basically need just over half an hour staged prep to the first rise.

Not a stable enough day for painting the gate so a batch of bread it is. Similar to above but with the addition of sunflower seeds as well as the chia. Sunflower in the dry mix and the chia into the liquid content so that it swells. I find that this expands the dough enough to make two loaves instead of the one from the mix. I have used 1/3 strong wholemeal to 2/3 strong white flour as well. The sunflower seeds and the wholemeal component give the bread a slightly nutty taste and texture. I have found also that this mix keeps very well, two or three days is no problem in the bread box.

Later.....



Looks good enough to eat, though I say so myself.

Your bread looks good, Ian. I wouldn't have the patience to go through all that process. My wife makes steamed bread buns called mantou. She puts different things inside including seeds like you do, but also uses sweet potato. My job is to enjoy them! We have a bread maker machine lying forgotten in storage in one of the cupboards. That was another of her passing fads.

Thanks for the comments China. Bread makers don't actually bake bread, they essentially steam it and you always end up with a hole in the bottom.

Hand baking isn't a chore it only takes fifteen minutes to pull all the ingredients together and mix the dough. Short burst kneading over half an hour, (or do it all at once). An hour for the proving rise then knock back. Shove it in the tins and then the oven when it has risen again. 40 minutes and you are done. You can do other stuff of course once you have got to the first stage. I find it quite therapeutic.

I agree Ian. I used to bake almost a stone of flour every Thursday night when I was full time in the engine house and never found it too taxing. The kids loved it!

No competition for Ian's great effort, but I'm pleased with this -

Is that a clock with your loaf David?

Much better than your last go David, that one looks bob on.

PanBiker wrote: ↑21 Jun 2021, 08:52 Much better than your last go David,

Agreed - and it tastes Ok too.

Stanley wrote: ↑21 Jun 2021, 02:42 Is that a clock with your loaf David?

No - It's a perpetual calender. I got it unexpectedly on eBay. I bid, fully execting to be outbid, but ended up buying it. I like it though - so no harm done. It's missing a brass peg to put in the date hole though.

"It's missing a brass peg to put in the date hole"
Send me the other as a sample and an address and I'll make it for you...