Bread that isn't like a stone!

[jonny211]

I've had a few forays into making bread, a few walnut loaves and a few foccacia type buns. Trouble is that they always come out rock hard, or very chewy in the focaccias case.

I tried the oven on a lower heat but the bottom part of the bread doesn't cook very well.  Does anyone have any tips on how to make softer bread?

Cheers.

Jon

[jonny211]

[qahtan]

I HAVE MADE A FEW NOTES, IT BEING A CANADIAN RECIPE.

Aha, One of my favourite subjects, making bread, have been doing it for 50 years and this is a favourite with all.



 
I serve this bread with a variety of cheese on a cheese board. At the moment I have Ontario 5 year old cheddar, UK Red Leicester, British Farmhouse, two German cheeses, Cambozola, a Brie with blue, and Montagnola. It would indeed make a lovely sandwich, plain or grilled.

GUINNESS WALNUT BREAD

1 cup Guinness or dark ale, just warm      8 ozs
1/2 cup less 1 tablespoon walnut oil         4 ozs
1 1/2 cups strong white flour
1 1/2 cup strong whole wheat flour, home ground hard wheat kernels
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons yeast      not dried yeast, but direct yeast, you may have instant yeast that goes in with the flour,
1 cup toasted loosely chopped walnuts
1/4 cup toasted loosely chopped walnuts

Make a dough in food processor with all but walnuts. You may have to add a little more flour or a splash of water to get right texture. Change blade to plastic one, add 1 cup of walnuts and buzz just enough to blend in nuts. Proof, shape, rise, paint top with a little egg white and water mixed well, sprinkle with 1/4 cup walnuts. Bake 35/40 minutes at 380º.

YIELD: 1 loaf
   qahtan,,,, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada.

[OllieC]

You normally want to turn the heat up, not down... and I'd try a simple wholemeal with fresh strong flour. Personally I don't have a machine, just hands & tins.

Good summary of common problems here...

http://www.baking911.com/bread/problems.htm

p.s. - Lovely looking loaf qahtan!

[valmarg]

These are quite good:-

SCOTTISH BAP OR FLAT LOAF

1lb plain flour
1 level teaspoon salt
2oz butter
½oz fresh yeast
¼pint lukewarm water
¼pint lukewarm milk

1.   Sift flour and salt into bowl.  Rub in butter.

2.   Mix yeast with the water and milk.

3.   Add all at once to the dry ingredients.  Mix to a firm dough, adding a little extra flour if necessary, until dough leaves sides of bowl clean.

4.   Turn out on to a lightly floured board.  Knead 10 minutes (or until smooth and elastic.

5.   Cover and leave to rise until dough doubles in size.

6.   Turn out on to a floured board.  Knead lightly.  Divide dough into 10 equal pieces.  Roll each into ½inch thick ovals.

7.   Transfer to a lightly buttered and floured baking tray.  Dredge with flour.

8.   Cover and leave to rise until double in size.

9.   Bake just above centre of a fairly hot oven (200oC) for 15-20 minutes.  The baps should sound hollow when tapped on the base.  Cool on a wire rack, covered with a dry teatowel.

[qahtan]

 One thing to remember about bread/yeast baking it cannot be hurried, Yes you can put it in a warm place to help it along but in doing things like this you will have flavour/texture loss.
Bread/ yeast baking takes it own sweet time when it rises..... Some times a long time some times a short time.
   Yes you can interchange fresh yeast for the direct yeast, different taste but still very nice.  This is a white Pullman.
qahtan

[twave]

Jon, my bread always turned out like yours so I didn't make it for years.

I recently tried again after getting this book and every loaf has been a success! 'Bread: River Cottage Handbook No. 3' - £8.49 from Amazon. I can't recommend it enough! It covers every step of bread making in detail.

Mistakes I was making included: not kneading properly, having the bread too warm while fermenting the yeast, and not having the oven hot enough. Turn it up as high as it will go!

Good luck!
twave

[Borlotti]

We tried with a cheap bread machine and it wasn't very good.  Now buy Warburtons, but your loaf looks so good may try again when the summer is over.  Too much to do at the allotment at present.  My mother made rock cakes that even the birds wouldn't eat and when we threw them to the ducks in the park they sunk to the bottom.  We only ate them when we were extremely hungry after school, and she didn't mind us teasing her about their weight, she said that is why they are called rock cakes.

[Trevor_D]

I don't use a bread machine either, but I've been making it by hand for about 40 years.

Two very important things:

Turn the oven to maximum and get it as hot as it will go before you put the bread in. About a third of the way through the baking time, turn it down. (You are trying to replicate the old-fashioned bread oven, where the fire was lit inside the oven, then raked out in order to bake, ie. you want it burning hot, then with a slowly declining heat.)

And the really important thing is the proving: don't leave it for half an hour or so; leave it all day! (Or all night, if that suits your timetable better.) If you like, after half a day, tip it out, re-knead very briefly, then leave it again for a few hours. And once you shape the loaves, don't be in too much of a hurry to get them in the oven. As qahtan says, yeast takes time. Don't rush things!

[rbull]

We use a Panasonic breadmaker that is the only one that really works.  We have recently taken to substituting 50% of the wheat flour with spelt flour (from Tesco), and that has produced very tasty bread that is lighter in texture and keeps better.

[Borlotti]

Do you remember how much it was approx. as may ask for one for Xmas, can't be doing with all that kneading, my poor old hands/wrists.  Too much tennis.

[OllieC]

Yesterday I got a new food processor which happens to have bread kneading blades. Actually got it mainly for the grater as son chokes on the big bits of carrot, apple or whatever but thought I'd give the dough a try...

It took a few minutes to go from flour, salt, yeast & water to having a bowl full of dough sitting on top of the fish tank... and the bread is excellent (finished with tins & oven as normal). Using that I can see myself doing it a couple of times a week instead of every couple of months. Plus it's smaller than a lot of bread makers!

[qahtan]

 I often do a small batch of dough in my Cuisinart, if I just want a couple pizzas or Pita bread.

Hovis bread is not sold here in Canada, and it took me years to get a couple of Hovis tins,  now I have 2 at 2 pound and 2 at 1 pound.....;-))))) 


A kind soul sent me these from Wales, the state of them I didn't mind.


This was the same tins after my husband worked on them


Hovis loaf. yippee. ;-)))))


qahtan

[Borlotti]

Could do with your husband here to clean my oven.  He certainly did a good job on the Hovis tins and the bread looks lovely.  Think you must be an extremely good cook looking at your recipes and results.  Mine are a bit of 'hit and miss'.  Might stick some pears in the oven with a bit of alcohol and brown sugar and have with cream tonight.  The allotment is OK with all the planting, weeding and picking but all the cooking and freezing is hard work, but can't bear to waste anything if I have grown it.  Do give some away, but haven't had too much over this year.

[macmac]

I'm with Borlotti do you rent out hubby and his cleaning stuff ;D
Try as I might I can't make "light" brown/wholemeal bread, even the birds snub my efforts :(

[dtw]

The hovis logo is different on the tins than on the bread.  ;D

[OllieC]

The hovis logo is different on the tins than on the bread.  ;D

So it is... perhaps it's a different shape inside?

[qahtan]

 
here's a different batch.....;-))))) qahtan

[Borlotti]

Wonderful, looks good enough to eat.  ;D ;D

[valmarg]

can't be doing with all that kneading, my poor old hands/wrists.  Too much tennis.

Well, I have a food mixer, and I should have to say it does make light work of kneading.  Even before I had it, it was always worthwhile 'making your own bread'.

valmarg

[jonny211]

Hi all,

I think I've cracked the foccacias now, I've done two batches that have come out soft. I made a few changes so I don't know which one made the rolls soft but I suspect it was the final stage - stuffing the warm rolls into a carrier bag to sweat for a bit.

Here's the recipe I used.

350g strong white flour
7g grams yeast
105ml of warm water
105ml of warm whole milk mixed in with the water
half a tsp of salt
handful of sun dried tomato pieces chopped small
1 tsp of sun dried tomato paste
1 tbsp of olive oil
chopped rosemary

I mixed the flour, yeast, rosemary, olive oil, chopped tomatoes and tomato paste in the blender on the lowest setting, then gradually added the 210ml of liquid to form a dough. Then I added the salt and set the mixer on '1' for five minutes.

I then let the dough rest for 2 hours. Then removed dough and cut it into four equal lumps and shaped these into rolls. Rested for half an hour then made deep indentations to try and get the foccacia look.

Then I let it rest for four hours under lightly oiled clingfilm. Sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Into the oven at 220 degrees for 5 minutes, then down to 160 for about ten minutes. When the bottom of the rolls felt solid out they came, they were a bit hard at this stage though. When they were cool enough to handle but still warm I popped them into a Tesbury's bag to sweat a bit.

Job done!

Next one on the to-do list is Guiness and walnut bread. Yum.