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Baking your own bread

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nioka

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15 July 2006
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We used to bake our own bread. Nothing like the taste and smell of a freshly baked loaf. I've made a mess of an attempt to restart doing this. Any tips?

We use a Sunbeam bread maker. After a mix that frankly didn't mix, baked a crust with uncooked goo inside I have come to the conclusion that it is wrong to add the flour first and the water second. Have tried again with one mix done by hand and baked in the oven and a second try in the mixer by putting in the water first. I await results.

Any tips appreciated. :1zhelp:
 
water first, flour, yeast in that order; if using normal flour and not purpose sold bread mix, do not forget to add salt after yeast
 
qldfrog said:
water first, flour, yeast in that order; if using normal flour and not purpose sold bread mix, do not forget to add salt after yeast
Click to expand...

Self raising flour, honey and water mixed into a dough, experiment with quantities until you get a taste that suits you. Toss in some salt if you want. A light coating of butter to grease the inside of the cooking tin will prevent the bread from sticking to the sides.
Shove it into a moderate oven for about 45 minutes until it’s golden brown on top, and just slightly doughy inside when you test it by sticking a knife in.
Your choice whether you call it bread or damper, but it tastes and smells wonderful and is much simpler to make than most breads.
 
Take 3 another disaster. Looked to be going OK until it overflowed the breadmaker and made a big mess before it was baked. Looks like McDonalds if we want to eat today. Take 2 (in the oven) cooked a nice crust with a wet dough centre and it didn't rise at all.

Thanks for the suggestions. will keep on until I beat this beast.
 
overflowing is a problem, do not use the max size, we usually ask for dark crust 9aka bake longuer on a standard or wholemeal flour setting;
honestly once we had the correct ratio:
320ml water (from tap so not too cold), 520g flour1.25 teaspoon yeast, dark crust 3h program on our breadmaker and success all the time, we do not differ the start
And i can do it, the man and not cook, of the house
persevere and you will succeed
One issue: it is too good and tend to disappear very quickly in our household
good luck
 
The machine may not be mixing /kneading properly. Check that the paddle rotates freely. They sometimes stiffen up, especially if unused for a while.

The motor driving the paddle can also get damaged and lose its power. I had that happen to an old machine. Had to replace the machine.

It's also worth hunting down and using bread flour, rather than just plain flour. Bread flour gives a better dough allowing a lighter bread.
 
The place for the dough to rise isn't in the oven, but before it gets there.

Give the yeast plenty of time to work (prove) before baking. Also, don't add the salt too early in the process, it works against the yeast.
 
Logique said:
Also, don't add the salt too early in the process, it works against the yeast.
Click to expand...
For what it is worth: I thought so, and was very careful initially but did not find it an issue in our bread maker (mix and cook in the machine);But I may not use that much salt vs yeast amount
 
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