Topic: Making Bread

[Mortality]

Thinking of making some bread, years since i've made any.  :-\
Anyone got a decent bread recipy using dried yeast please?
Also where do people get the fresh yeast from?  ???

[Jeannine]

Tescos, Asda etc  are not allowed to sell it but they will give you it free if you ask at the bakery XX Jeannine

[small]

Our tesco no longer give the yeast away, they charged I think 50p an ounce so after 30 years using fresh I went on to dried this year and am totally converted.  I use one and a half pounds bread flour to a sachet of yeast and 3/4 pint hot water.  I won't say how much salt because I got into trouble for that on here a while back........I warm the flour in the microwave which speeds up the process. It proves in about an hour and then about ten more minutes to be ready for cooking.  I've tried all sorts of flour over the years and find own brand just as good as the bakers flour I used to buy by the sack.  If you want to try fresh yeast, a small baker will sell you some, I used to buy a big block, freeze it in small chunks and revive in hot water. Worth experimenting and practising, you'll never go back to bought bread once you're in the swing.  Good luck!

[PurpleHeather]

If you want to get a quick rising then look out for 'Spelt' it rises much quicker than ordinary strong plain flour.

In my view salt does make a lot of difference to the flavour of bread and I prefer to add extra. It is entirely up to the individual to decide about health issues.

[goodlife]

I prefer my yeast to work a bit slower as I use mainly heavier flours eg rye,,wholemeal..supermarkets sell Allisons dried yeast one sort is quick acting..for machine baking and orher sort slower acting for hand baking. The slow one is very much like using fresh stuff..you just mix it to small amount of warm liquid with little sugar to wake it up. After minute or two it is ready.
If I need yeast I do prefer fresh..but it is always trouble of remembering to have it or to use it in time...
Most of time I do sourdough though..
As for recipes..I almost never use one..I just mix what ever takes my fancy and hey ho..it will turn edible..after while you will learn your way of doing it..come as rutine..
Just start with recipe on a side of your flour packet...You don't have to do exactly..but it does give you idea of the quatities of liquid, flour  etc..and you just adjust the recipe for your liking..after all it doesn't have to be perfect straight away..with bread dough you can always adjust it as you go on....

[Trevor_D]

The proportions are half a pint of liquid to a pound of flour. (Don't do metric - the numbers are too big & fiddly.)

But why all the hurry with proving? You're not standing there watching it, surely? Leave it alone and go and do something else.

My normal way is to mix it all together and knead it first thing in the morning, then leave it alone till after lunch; knead it again briefly and leave it again until I'm seeing to the evening meal. Then I shape it into loaves and when the meal comes out of the oven, the bread goes in.

[small]

The reason I like to make bread fairly quickly, Trevor, is that I bake weekly and freeze most of the batch.  But day-fresh is so delicious I like to use it for both lunch and tea on baking day!  Got a batch cooling on the worktop now. Funny thing is, I really don't like the smell........

[valmarg]

I buy 750g blocks of yeast from Sainsbury's bigger bakery branches (ie where they bake all their own bread, as opposed to bringing in the dough, and baking it) for 99p.  I don't use it all, but at that price, its much cheaper than the local health food shop.

If I can't get fresh yeast, rather than dried yeast granules, I would prefer to use the sachets of easyblend yeast.  You add it to the dry ingredients, and don't have to reconstitute it.

valmarg

[Mortality]

If you want to get a quick rising then look out for 'Spelt' it rises much quicker than ordinary strong plain flour.

In my view salt does make a lot of difference to the flavour of bread and I prefer to add extra. It is entirely up to the individual to decide about health issues.

Thats very interesting since 'Spelt' is one of the older wheat grains used by man.  :D
Used in roman/iron age times if I remember correctly.

[PurpleHeather]

 



[/quote]



Thats very interesting since 'Spelt' is one of the older wheat grains used by man.  :D
Used in roman/iron age times if I remember correctly.
[/quote]


You have the advantage there as I can not remember that far back, it was before my time.

It was when I discovered that 'wheat' was not doing my digestive system any good that the lady in the health food shop suggested I tried it as an alternative since it is one thing which has non of the regulation additives, just to try to eliminate those as the cause.

Sadly, it was no help to me. It does say on the packet that it rises quickly and the bread was a different but pleasant texture and flavour. Himself liked it a lot. Pity is it is not an agreeable price but some of the bread flours available are probably not a lot cheaper, and it is not exactly bank breaking. 

I also bought Doves organic plain flour in case that would work for me. Obviously from what I have said, it did not. But the way it rises when making Yorkshire puddings is pure magic. Again not cheap but works out less than the frozen ones if the oven is already on and batch baking can be done for the freezer. OH is thrilled with his huge crispy Yorkshire puddings........Win some.....Loose some I suppose.

Since GrannyJanny introduced me to 'Genius' gluten free bread. The variety of wheat free flours I got to try to make something suitable have become rather redundant but I will when winter comes or it starts raining and I am bored, go and research what I can do with them all. May be another thread coming up there...

[qahtan]

 bread is better when it's allowed to take it's own sweet time. the flavour and texture is far superior, slow and easy......unless its a baking powder bread......................
 I add crumpled fresh yeast straight to my fist couple cups flour then my sugar and liquid what ever I am using. same thing with the direct yeast, I never use dried yeast so never have to reconstitute it....  Plus I don't like the taste of the dried yeast..... qahtan

[Mortality]

Well I made a small loaf and 6 bread rolls, glad to say I haven't forgotten how to kneed and it all turned out well. ;D

My eldest son who is very picky with food asked for another bread roll to eat, so they definetly can't be that bad.

I used this recipe http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/964/no-knead-white-bread.aspx but left out the butter, put in less salt and I did kneed it by hand.

[amphibian]

I have given up on dry yeast bread making with all its finicky exactitude, now we bake sourdough, it's so easy and tastes so much better, we don't buy bread any more, sourdough is the way. Plus our standard sourdough loaf contains no fat and no sugar.

We bake a huge loaf, it lasts about 5 days, doesn't go stale either.

It takes a total of about half an hour of manual labour to produce.