When I buy wholemeal bread from a bakery (which in practice is normally a supermarket bakery), it is wonderfully light and fluffy, with a thin, crisp crust.
But when I make it myself, carefully following the instructions on the flour packet, it always turns out grey, tough and miserable.
What are Sainsbury’s doing that I’m not?
Probably shoving some chemical type preservative in it.
I made a loaf yesterday using plenty of olive oil and after the first prove, I then shaped it and left it on the tray and promptly forgot about it. 3 hours later I remembered and it hadn't over risen and collapsed, so I bunged it in the oven and it was the lightest loaf I have ever made with a thin, crispy crust. I believe if you add sugar to your mix you will achieve a thicker crust. It is all in the kneading. Knead for as long as you can stand.....at least 10 minutes. Then don't rush the raising - to much heat and it will zip up and collapse. Finally, you can always put a tray of hot water in the bottom of the oven whilst cooking the bread which creates steam and makes a nice crust and a softer loaf.
Do you use a bread maker, I rarely do but I did design a loaf for mine if I needed to use it,It is super light granary one XX Jeannine
A) you might be over or under kneeding
B) you might be using the wrong flour
C) you might have the wrong mix of dry and wet ingrediants.
Hint when you add your water try using soda water with dry yeast :-)
3 ways for lighter wholemeal, assuming that your kneading etc are as should be -
1. Add white flour.
2. Use improvers as they do.
3. Double rise.
I think!!
Kneading it more will give you a lighter loaf. Also don't try to make a supermarket loaf ;) They achieve a light loaf with the aid of chemicals :(
Commercially, they add "improvers" to make it rise quickly and then steam bake it. The whole process has to be as quick as possible. But for home-made bread do the opposite.
Half white flour and half wholewheat; 1 pint of water to 2 lbs flour (Sorry - don't do metric!); a scant tablespoon of salt; a tiny amount of fresh yeast.
Dissolve yeast in water, make a well in the flour & pour in the yeast mixture. Leave it for half an hour. Mix well & knead for 10 minutes. Leave it half a day. Bash it down and leave it for a few hours more. Shape into loaves and leave it again. Bake in very hot oven for 15 minutes, lower the heat to medium for another half an hour. Loaves should sound hollow when you hit the base.
Just fit it round your timetable and don't rush it. I start in the morning and bake it after the evening meal.
Trevor
PS - The better the flour, the better the bread.
I've found it's very important to not make a completely wholemeal loaf as it seems to become very dense, either by hand or by machine. You wind up with small, sturdy bread that can also be used for building walls! ;D
I use a breadmaker (the Panasonic seems to be sturdy and reliable - I went through 3 others before finding that one â€" though it is slower than other breadmakers, it does the job well) and always mix half and half (300g each) wholemeal and white. And add some seeds. One packet quick rise yeast, 1.5 tsp of salt, 1.5 TBL sugar (or honey) and a good dash of olive oil. 320ml water. Depending on your breadmaker, either load water in first or the dry ingredients. XL setting.
I also like semolina bread, and you basically half and half that as well as above (can get semolina in turkish/cypriot food stores). I used to hand knead but now am too lazy and resort to the breadmaker. :D
One thing my husband does with his wholemeal bread to keep it moist is to mix up some plain oatmeal and just add that to the dough. It helps keep it moist and you don't actually taste the oat pieces in the bread. It's like they were never there.
Plain yoghurt or milk that has just gone off work well too.
Thanks for the tips. You’re right Squashfan - my wholemeal bread resembles an engineering brick. Yet my white bread is always fine.
I agree that I'll get a lighter loaf if I add white flour, but I feel this is cheating. I get bread from a bakery that uses 100% wholemeal stoneground flour, and it's still very light.
My bread will certainly taste better if I add a good measure of olive oil, but does it improve the structure?
What are these nasty flour improving chemicals? I want some. What do they do?
I've tried kneading more and kneading less, and it doesn't seem to make a difference. Is it possible to over-knead bread?
STHLMgreen, what does the yoghurt do?
http://www.foodproductdesign.com/archive/1997/0397de.html
Do you double prove, & prove slowly?
At least your previous attempts at making bread will keep the birds happy :-)
The vital ingredient is TIME! Leave it to rise for hours and hours.
As Tim says,
Quote from: tim on March 12, 2007, 15:46:39
http://www.foodproductdesign.com/archive/1997/0397de.html
Do you double prove, & prove slowly?
As with all good things in life, don't be in too much of a hurry....
Squash fan the Panasonic rules!!!
Try adding vitamin c to your flour as a conditioner. XX Jeannine
In a bread maker you had dried skimmed milk and that makes the bread nice and soft.
We have a panasonic too paid £20 back 3 year ago and its been brill its been on mostly every day since. Had to buy a new pan though that cost £30.
Good luck hope you find the right formula.
Tim, that’s a great article. Yes, I double prove â€" how slowly depends on how warm it is in the kitchen.
I will try:
(1) Adding olive oil.
(2) Experimenting with milk products.
(3) Adding ascorbic acid / vitamin C.
(4) Leaving it to rise for what I think is an excessive amount of time.
(5) Bake it for the first 15 minutes on maximum, with a steaming dish beneath.
BTW â€" cowpie is my old login name. I’d stopped using it, but for some reason my new work computer thinks I am cowpie. Odd.
I’ll let you know how I get on.
I also use a Panasonic breadmaker and I too got solid brick-like loaves until I got the hang of it and different flours.
Like others I add about 1/6th teaspoon of Vitamin C to each yeast starter to aid oomph, plus when using shop-own wholemeal and Doves use the WHITE cycle - ignore the wholemeal, white loaf cycle brings it up nice and fluffy.
PS I have had problems buying vitamin C powder (make sure it isn't orange flavoured!), the chemist was reluctant to sell it to me until I explained what I wanted it for. It seems vitamin c powder is often used by druggies to cut their herion, it looks the same.
we use the breadmaker to make dough, then do other things with it, I have a brilliant book, bought by my daughter-in-law called 100 bread machine recipes by Vicki Smallwood..it has some fantastic recipes in, well worth a look, ;D
PG just thought i'd say I always use Sainsbury's own brand bread flour its cheaper and very very good. I don't have much luck with Hovis or Tesco. Yeast I have found that allisons in a white packet goes well with it.
I buy my bread in full sized sacks from the miller in Driffield, I buy Bradmalt for my favourite bread recipe,it is a sprouted flour which I mix half and half with white.f anyone wants a recipe that is very light that I devised for my Panasonic let me know. There is also a catering company that will deliver these flours nation wide.,I forget the name but I can look it up, if anyone wants it. I but large quantities of sugar/cake decorating supplies from them too. They are very reasonable .
XX Jeannine