Bread

[Glynne]

As I write I can smell the wheatgerm, sunflower seeds, rye flakes and linseed baking ...

Just think of crispy bacon as well - and see how long it is before you have to have something to eat!

 

[mseries]

Glynne, can you detail how you dried and freezed the starter ?

 

[Glynne]

It's very simple.
You spread some of your starter as thinly as possible over a sheet of greaseproof paper and leave it in a warm place. The moisture will evaporate to leave a very crispy residue (like a crust) which you can just then crush and seal in a zip lock bag for the freezer.
I dried some last week and it took about 2 days in our utility room - even with herself going in and out to the garden.

As I'm trying to avoid a very early lunch (thanks to phil.p), I'll go and drag one out of the freezer and start to "resuscitate" it so I let folks know how it works.

 

[mseries]

I am not sure which starter we ended up with. We made one with just flour and water, but we also made one with raisins. Our bread is just starter + water + salt + flour

 

[Glynne]

Just to add to my previous post: -
I dragged the dried sourdough starter out of the freezer.

I then just added it to a jar with warm water and some wholemeal flour at ~11:30 this morning

Just had a look now (+3 hours) and bubbles are starting to rise so it is alive and the process worked

I only dried some in case my normal starter (which I keep in the fridge) didn't survive not being fed for some time (i.e. holidays) but so far it has managed periods of 2 weeks.

 

[woodpig]

We've had our Panasonic bread maker for Donkey's, makes great bread. I recently got some Wessex French bread flour and that worked well on the basic setting.

And don't forget, if you eat supermarket bread you could be eating hair of a Chinaman! :-&

http://www.vrg.org/blog/2011/03/09/l-cy ... -hog-hair/

 

[Fat ferret]

Glynne, thanks for your kind offer. Will see how I get on making my own starter but if that doesn't work I will PM you.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Interesting (frightening, really) figures from Andrew Whitly's book Bread Matters.

Vitamin and mineral loss during the refining of whole wheat to 70% extraction white flour :-

Thiamine 77%
Riboflavin 80%
Niacin 81%
Pyroxidine 72%
Pantothenic acid 50%
Vitamin E 86%
Calcium 60%
Phosphorus 71%
Magnesium 84%
Potassium 77%
Sodium 78%
Chromium 40%
Manganese 86%
Iron 76%
Cobalt 89%
Zinc 78%
Copper 68%
Selenium 16%
Molybdenum 48%

I quote "The only way to describe bread made with such flour is "depleted"."

No wonder they attempt to put stuff back into it. :?

 

[Fat ferret]

https://flic.kr/p/tH1J41
https://flic.kr/p/unzwpk
https://flic.kr/p/uEfZpR

Look what I made! Not sourdough decided that was running before I could could knead just ordinary wholemeal.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

=D> Looking good!

 

[Steve Maskery]

Excellent, but I hope those chisels were not absolutely necessary...

 

[Fat ferret]

Excellent, but I hope those chisels were not absolutely necessary...

No but might need a saw, feels like quite heavy bread! Will find out tomorrow when I try to make sandwiches from the stuff.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It will probably be heavy if you didn't cut it with white.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Indeed. All these fancy flours are fine, and indeed excellent, but I wouldn't use any of them on their own. They are additives to improve plain flour.

My favourite blend is 500g flour made up of
About 175 granary
About 175 strong wholemeal
The rest strong white

 

[woodpig]

Sainsburys own brand wholemeal bread flour turns out a lovely loaf in our bread maker, no extras need except water and some butter.

 

[Fat ferret]

Sainsburys own brand wholemeal bread flour turns out a lovely loaf in our bread maker, no extras need except water and some butter.

That was what I used. It was actually very good, heavy but not dry. No saw necessary. I used;

6lb wholemeal flour
8oz medium oatmeal
Olive oil 4tbs
Honey 4tbs
Salt 2tbs
3 pints water
2 seven gram sachets dried yeast.
Egg and crushed oats glaze.

35mins at 200 degrees fan oven.

Thanks for the inspiration everyone.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

And yeast, presumably.

 

[woodpig]

No, the stuff we used is all in the packet, just add water and fat. Comes in 500g bags to make one loaf.

 

[Fat ferret]

And yeast, presumably.

Yes well spotted Phil two 7g sachets dried yeast.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I use two to a kilo, so you would have a better rise with a bit more.