HM bread and the alternative......

[SarzWix]

Noooooo! I want an excuse to get a new gadget!

Seriously. There is no way I want to do it manually.

Is this the sort of thing you mean? EvenSlice - Lakeland, the home of creative kitchenware

[Croila]

Ooooh, yes! Thank you! "Integral crumb catcher" - yep, that would do beautifully. Think I'll get my folks one as a present ... And think more seriously about getting a breadmaker myself now. Thank you for the link, much appreciated

[Alison]

Ooooh, yes! Thank you! "Integral crumb catcher" - yep, that would do beautifully. Think I'll get my folks one as a present ... And think more seriously about getting a breadmaker myself now. Thank you for the link, much appreciated

The first cut of the bread does form quite a few crumbs but if you slice bread ever day then you get much better at it and I don't see a problem with it not being 100% straight - adds to the charm! As for the crumbs, they're only bread crumbs and take 2 seconds to clear up and if you're making butties you need to wipe the board over anyway after use so no real hassle.

[Two_Sheds]

To slice evenly: part slice one way, then turn the loaf and keep slicing; keep turning, keep slicing ...
easy

[Croila]

As for the crumbs, they're only bread crumbs and take 2 seconds to clear up

But ... I hate crumbs! I'm totally OCD in the kitchen!

[Croila]

To slice evenly: part slice one way, then turn the loaf and keep slicing; keep turning, keep slicing ...
easy

Thank you Two Sheds ... I can see there must be a bit of a knack to this. Will definitely try this when the situation calls!

[BrokenOphelia]

We don't have a bread maker but I dont find making HM bread that hard without one. I do it as a relaxing activity in the evening, especially good when you have had a hard day, nothing more satisfying than knocking back some dough. We like to vary what we put in ours too. We add all kinds of things and it is so much cheaper to do it yourself than go and buy gourmet bread from a bakery or a supermarket.

[northepaul]

I found the secret to slicing bread up is to have a very sharp bread knife, then it just glides through the bread without squashing it.

[Croila]

Oh no ... When I've had a hard day I just want to sit down with a cup of tea - if I had to make homemade bread because I hadn't bought any shop stuff, I'd just feel it was another pressure on me, something I "had" to do. I think it would be okay doing it in a breadmaker as that's fairly fast, but I think for me personally I wouldn't want to do it by hand.

Sharp breadknife, now there's an idea. Mine barely cuts butter

[Flummery]

But ... I hate crumbs! I'm totally OCD in the kitchen!

I'm not OCD anywhere! I think I have OSD - Obsessive Slob Disorder!

[Croila]

Obsessive Slob Disorder ... that IS funny! I need to work on that, it sounds much less stressful, heheh!

On a more down-to-earth note, I'd be interested in people's thoughts on whether making your own bread (even taking into account buying a breadmaker cause I'm sorry, I really don't want to do it by hand) works out cheaper in the long run than buying the stuff?

I really like Hovis Granary bread, bought six loaves of it last night for the freezer, and was a bit startled to see it came to £8.04 in total. I know you can get much cheaper bread than that, but that's our favourite kind that's widely available. Apart from my mam's homemade (in a machine) bread, that is. Cause that's amazing.

So this all made me wonder if it would work out cheaper over a year, say, just making your own?

[pigletwillie]

I have gone from using a bread maker to doing it by hand now. The dough is started in the kenwood then finished by hand, proved in the bowl it was mixed in, knocked back and then shaped or dropped into a tin to rise. The actual time is about 10 mins plus rising time.

You can do everything on an evening and leave it to rise in the tin in the fridge overnight to bake in the morning.

Home made bread rocks.

[Croila]

Hmmm, I can see why this would work for you, it sounds a pretty good plan.

However, personally I'd have two problems with this: a) I absolutely hate the feeling of dough on my hands (I know, it's pathetic!) which is pretty much why I rarely bake, and b) I get up for work every day at 6.00 am and it's always a mad rush. No way could I factor in breadmaking at that time of day unfortunately, I feel a nervous twitch coming on even thinking about it!

[Rabidbun]

Thanks for the rising tips all, will give this a try next week!

(I would try this week, but the OH already thinks I'm mad for painting and DIYing and gardening and running while the wee one is at nursery instead of just passing out in front of the telly. I should aim for OSD once in a while!)

Edit: And it's definitely worth getting a nice sharp bread knife, made a huge difference to my slices (as in they are slices, albeit crooked ones)!

[Phoenix]

Okay, stupid question time now... in my rack of cooking knives I have one labelled as a bread knife, and it has a serrated blade. I find that this creates a lot more breadcrumbs when slicing bread. I personally prefer a flat bladed knife for slicing bread, even though it's not a 'bread knife'.

What does everyone think about serrated versus flat for slicing bread? Or is it just me?

Nix