Made My own bread

[grasscarp]

As suffering with heavy cold and not wanting to go out to buy bread, I decided to use unopened, and well past sell by date, of oatmill bread flour. Added sachet of quick acting yeast. Kneaded with dough hooks that I have never bothered with before as a secondary attachment to mixer hooks. Put half in a loaf tin and other half in silicone container I was give recently. Slightly forget when I put them in the oven but luckily I had posted on answerbank just after putting them on, so found out from that. Result 2 amazing looking loaves and the silicone one just fell out. Love it. Only wish I could smell them.

[boxtops]

wow, well done grasscarp - I hope they taste good!

[craft1948]

Well done you..............I used to do a bread bake twice a week, you can't buy anything as nice.

[owdhamer]

I find home made bread ok on the day you make it, but after that a bit hard,but we do make wonderful fruit scones using jumbo raisins

[craft1948]

...................except for The Carpenters' Greatest Hits.

[pastafreak]

I used to always make my own bread...and it was fine for several days-not just the first. Though that *was* the best.

[venator]

try my recipe - this is the version I give mums & kids, with the flour and fresh yeast. I enjoy seeing people discover real bread, and try to wean people off bread machines - not bad in themselves - a good step on the way to the real stuff!


BREAD RECIPE

700 gm Strong bread flour
470 gm Water (good idea to weigh it - jugs can be inaccurate)
12 gm Salt (sea salt is best—use less if preferred)
20 gm Baker's yeast or 15gm dried yeast.

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, stirring with your hand to get some air into it.
Put the water, pleasantly hand warm, into another bowl, and dissolve
the yeast in it.

Tip the flour onto the water, and mix with a wooden spoon until it comes
together into a lump, then turn it out and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. It will be sticky at first, but keep at it! You can dust the dough with a little bit of flour if it’s too sticky, but not too much! You can use a mixer with a dough hook, but it’s less fun!

Cover and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. It's even better to
allow it to rise overnight in a cool place if you have the time.

Tip out carefully on to a floured surface and place in a bread tin or shape into loaves and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet.

Cover and allow a further 30 - 45 minutes until risen again, then bake.
Spray water into the oven or place a metal tray of water in the bottom - steam really helps.

Baking will take about 50 minutes, starting high at 200 degrees and turning down to 170 after 5 minutes. The loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the base.

[grasscarp]

Thank you for your comments, well most of them! Thanks also venator for the recipe. I did most of that but didn't wait again after putting them in the tins. With the way bread prices are going I will be doing this again.