Breadmakers

[Alison]

Had a wholemeal loaf on timer over night and was lovely to wake up to the smell of bread this morning. Had some for brekkie and am about to have some for lunch too - probably easier to cut now it's cooled down, couldn't wait earlier.

[Nicos]

Well done!! Have been recommended a bread slicer from Lakeland for about £15 which enables you to cut hot/warm bread.
Have bought one (as we have a shop locally) but now need to try it out.

[annie trip]

Am so jealous of everyones bread makers (got one on order from santa!) i am having a go by hand. First time so will prob be awfull. Using extra strong wholemeal flour,dried yeast and oiled the inside of my cling film to prove. Just a question on the proving thing(technical hey) my yeast says only prove once but do want it light so can i prove more and do i just knead it a bit and leave again??

[Earthbabe]

Has anyone got a decent recipe for rye sourdough bread. I made one with the recipe on the side of the packet and it's like a brick. Doesn't have to be for a breadmaker but that would be handy.

[Alice]

Hello Annie, I have my breadmaker on order too - coming next week. I went for the Panasonic. I used to make my bread by hand and found I got a mucher lighter loaf if I made it with half wholemeal flour and half white. The quality of the flour does matter so go for the strong bread flour.

Also I made the dough in a big batch, enough for 3 loaves. I kept it in the fridge and just took out a loaf to prove on the day I wanted to bake it. That way I always had fresh bread without having to make the dough everyday. And yes, you can prove it more than once.

Hope your bread turns out great.

[Earthbabe]

I agree with you about the flour Alice and it does seem that you get what you pay for. I got better bread when buying organic strong bread flour than when buying the cheap stuff. So I've decided to use up what is left and then go back to the good stuff. It might stop Mr E buying loaves for his and Miss E's sandwiches.

[Alice]

Hello Earthbabe, sorry about your bread and I think the fault was probably not you. I don't have a recipe for the loaf you want but I do have instructions for making sour dough. It's a long and complicated procedure, whichever way you do it. Also Rye flour is very heavy and will make bread like a brick. It is much better mixed as a small quantity with other flour. I don't know what the recipe on your packet said but I suspect therein lies the fault. Why not get on to them and tell them how disappointed you are. I'm sure you'll get a freebie of some kind from them

[Earthbabe]

It may be worth a try, I'll check the website to see if there is a diff recipe there.

[JennieAtkinson]

Am so jealous of everyones bread makers (got one on order from santa!) i am having a go by hand. First time so will prob be awfull. Using extra strong wholemeal flour,dried yeast and oiled the inside of my cling film to prove. Just a question on the proving thing(technical hey) my yeast says only prove once but do want it light so can i prove more and do i just knead it a bit and leave again??

Annie - I made our family bread for nearly 20 years before getting a bread machine. Your first batch will probably not be your best - so don't give up and keep at it. It is a skill which has to be learnt unfortunately, but a very worthwhile one.

I always used to prove twice. You get a far better loaf. I know you all like to use 100% wholemeal flour, but it doesn't necessarily make the best loaf, a combination of flours (white and wholemeal) makes a far superior loaf and if you get your white flour from an organic health food shop will be just as healthy.

It is also nice to make a mixture of loaves and rolls. I used to make loaves for breakfast and rolls for the packed lunch (hubby, me and two boys), saved all the arguements about who had the bigger slices!

Good luck (and I hope Santa is good to you!)

[Alison]

Bought the Panasonic about 3 weeks ago now and haven't bought any bread since - have been putting it on timer for a fresh loaf for Saturday breakfast and have currently got rolls in the oven from a dough mix I made earlier. Have also made pizza dough (too wet so need to adapt the recipe) and naan breads so am a very happy baker! So far the best loaf has been a malted brown which was lovely, tried a seeded bread this week which was a bit heavy but think OH could have used too much flour (let him play with my new toy!) as it was a 1kg bag and if he'd only used the 475g required in the recipe there should have been plenty for me to use 500g for the rolls tonight - either that or Doves Farm are underweighing their flour and my suspicions are that this one is down to OH's use of the kitchen scales.

[dexterdoglancashire]

Has anyone got a decent recipe for rye sourdough bread. I made one with the recipe on the side of the packet and it's like a brick. Doesn't have to be for a breadmaker but that would be handy.

have one for farmers rye, rustic rye, rye&caraway, seeded rye, and spiced rye....any good? DDL

[Earthbabe]

Any that don't involve wheat or where wheat flour can be substituted will be great thanks.

[Two_Sheds]

bumped

for Bigt888

[buzzingtalk]

Can you get bread makers that do the kneading for you?



Probably a silly question!

But I have really weak and painful wrists that wouldn't be able to knead bread, let alone pick up a load of dough!

Also, can you make bread without dairy (I know you can) But I keep seeing recipes with butter and stuff in it.

[Phoenix]

Can you get bread makers that do the kneading for you?

Also, can you make bread without dairy (I know you can) But I keep seeing recipes with butter and stuff in it.

As far as I know, ALL breadmakers knead, you just add the ingredients and switch it on, mine rests, then mixes, then kneads, then bakes. It has a knead-only setting too, so I could bake the resultant dough in the oven if I wanted.

And the dairy, well, couldn't you use olive oil? I'm sure there must be dairy-free breadmaker recipes out there...?

Nix