So I mentioned a while back that I'd cracked my white bread recipe...
-----------
250ml water
480g White bread flour
2 - 5g salt (depending on who I'm making the bread for. Less salt for us, but more for guests as it tastes nicer)
I do the first knead and rise in the breadmaker, then knock down, put in bread tins, second rise in a barely warm oven (be able to touch the inside of the door without burning hand) and cook.
-----------
I'm getting a nicely risen, light white loaf every time with this method.
So, having got that under my belt I wanted to move on to wholemeal and multi-grain. Wholemeal has caused me many issues in the past (have offered mumndad wholemeal loaves to use instead of bricks for house - they'd last longer). Multi-grain however has been a complete unknown, and when I was in the health food shop on Monday and picked up some whole grains.
I soaked a cup of mixed grains overnight in buttermilk. I only used buttermilk because we had some leftover, and I read somewhere it was a good thing to soak them in, otherwise it'd have been water.
I added a (very approximate) cup of soaked grain to my usual recipe above and voila...
A first try, bread baking success. A light loaf with lots of lovely nutty chewy grains. Simple and delicious.
Rather chuffed actually. Bread is not known for turning out well at the first try (or the one thousand and thirty fifth).
A lot of people ask me where I buy my fresh yeast. At the big deli outside Woolies in Hornsby - which isn't much help to anyone except locals. But fresh yeast is almost always stocked by big delis. It's very rarely on display, so you have to ask. Using fresh yeast, that doesn't have a predictable rise cycle like packet yeast, means that you can't really just bung your bread into the breadmaker and forget it. I find the first rise is a lot slower, up to an hour more, which is why I complete the breadmaking in the oven.
Still, if I throw everything in the breadmaker to knead and rise before I do the school run in the morning, we will have fresh baked bread for lunch.
:)
5 people love me:
Hey, I'm going to try this tonight- as I've been looking for a good white bread recipe.
I will probably kneed and rise by hand. How long do you think you let it rise for (both times)? I will probably hand kneed for about 15-20 minutes...
Hi Talia,
My first rise takes about two hours, and that is either inside the warm breadmaker or warm oven. I judge by eye when its doubled in size - or nearly filled up the breadmaker tin.
The second rise (in the warm oven) takes less usually, around an hour, maybe a bit more. Again I leave it until its doubled in size and well risen up and out of the tin (but not sagging over the sides).
Totally admire your hand-kneading. It is something I need practice at, a lot of practice! You've inspired me actually, I might give hand kneading a go for tomorrows batch :)
Cait
It KIND of worked!! :-P
The bread was a bit crumbly, but I think I'll try again tomorrow and hopefully have a bit more luck! Tasted wonderful toasted though!
Yup, crumbly is my problem too. Whenever I try to hand knead anything, it comes out really crumbly, just falling apart, and yes, brilliant for toast. I know this can happen if you over knead AND if you under knead. Its the main reason I use the breadmaker for the first knead, as that way I get a good crumb structure each time.
The original recipe I use is here http://caitlynnicholas.blogspot.com/2010/04/good-bread-recipe.html. I know the one I've got up on this post is a bit vague.
Fascinating about the fresh yeast, when I was making hot cross buns I discovered the hard way that fresh yeast and dry yeast are different beasts and had to make a triple batch of hot cross buns because I'd measure out too much yeast. (I had to really!)
I'm experimenting with wholemeal bread after buying 12kg of wholemeal bread flour at Preston market. So far it works best with 2/3 wholemeal flour and 1/3 white flour.
Post a Comment