It's All About the Bread, Man, Part 2

So tonight is going to be short. But I had to write this down.

The experimenting with the bread making continues apace.

Tonight we (my eldest kid and I) decided to use some flour that we got last year (don't worry, it's been in the freezer so it's fine) from The Town Mill in Lyme Regis.

We go every year for a week's holiday, and last year we went to see the mill in action. It's pretty amazing stuff. You can go in and listen to a volunteer talk about the history of the place, and hear about all the different parts of the mill, what they do, and how it all works. The wheel itself is pretty amazing, and when they open that gate and let the water in, and the wheel starts turning, the noise is incredible. Even for kids who weren't very old at the time (6 and 3), they were pretty astounded.

The eldest asked 'what makes it go?', and when I told her it was just the water, she said 'I like that - no pollution.' Smart kid.

So they can't sell the flour they grind (for Health and Safety reasons -- aargh), but if you give a donation, you can take a bag home with you. So we did. We watched them pour the wheat into the shoot, and watched the damsel rod regulate the cascade of wheat kernels onto the millstone. Then we went downstairs and watched the miller collect the flour into a brown bag, label it, tape it shut, and that was it.

So fast forward to tonight. Tonight it was suggested that I get the Lyme flour out of the freezer, and use it for tonight's loaf of bread. So we used the same recipe as before, but instead of four cups white flour, we did 2 of each kind of flour. Then I let the bread machine go through a cycle of kneading, stopped the machine, and then started it from the beginning for a second knead cycle. I also decided to put the warm water, sugar, and yeast into the pan first and let it sit for about 5-6 minutes before I put the flour in, to let the yeast ramp up a bit.

After the Third Rise

First rise in the bread machine. Second rise after the punchdown is in the warmed bowl (in the low oven) greased with olive oil. You put the punched down dough in the bowl and turn it so that it's all coated with the oil. Then into the over for a 30 minute second rise. After 30 mins, you get the second punchdown, and then shape it on your baking tray where you've got a dusting of white flour. Another 15 mins rise in the warm oven, and then out to make a few slashes on the top while the oven's preheating properly for the bake (200C/425F). Then bake for 30 mins. Here it is before baking.

(Just between us, it just seems important to let you know that I know I'm starting to obsess about this bread thing. I can't help it. I have struggled for years to bake my own bread. Now that it's working, I feel like I've achieved something major here. I realize it's not string theory, or the double helix, but it's a serious personal milestone that I've reached, and I'm unashamed about shouting about it).

I've also emailed The Town Mill to tell them they should open up a part of their website to allow people to upload photos of the bread they've baked using flour from the mill. I know. It's just getting nerdier and nerdier.

After the Bake

Satisfied Customer

So I'm feeling pretty good about this bread thing. Really good. I actually just did a little jig in the kitchen. And the husband came downstairs, in the middle of his ablutions, just to have a little nibble off the end of the bread. We cut it open and you could see the steam coming out. Oh! And I forgot. I put some of those herbes de Provence in again (eldest voted for herbs, instead of sunflower seeds again). So it should be a good combo - the whole wheat flour with the herbs.

And we all know that the family is pretty much the toughest customer there is. So now it's really a question of if the kids will eat it. I'll bet they will.

And I have to say that I'm actually rather excited to take a sandwich to work tomorrow, using this bread. Ham and cheese with Branston pickle, mayo, and some wild rocket thrown in for good measure. It's so middle class, it's sickening. But I don't care.

I DID IT!!!!

It's All About the Bread, Man...

I'm really getting into the manual arts (see previous post about building the wood storage thingy).

I've been on this crusade for the last few years or so to bake decent bread. I know a few people who consistently bake great bread.

One of 'em is a guy who keeps chickens, cooks from scratch, grows his on veg on his allotment, etc., so it's not a surprise that his bread is great. He's pretty much rustic when it comes to knowing how to do that shit.

The other guy is the former singer in a punk band (therefore, NOT rustic) who not only brews his own beer, but also uses the same yeast that he uses for his beer brewing to make his bread. It's pretty amazing to drink the beer and have a slice of the corresponding bread. 

So here I am, year after year, faced with the glory that these two bread-baking geniuses consistently turn out of their ovens, while my bread turns out like a doorstop.

So I started investigating. Knead time. HOW you knead. Type of yeast. Number of times you let it rise. WHERE you let it rise. Order of ingredients. Temperature of water. It went on forever. I asked my mom about how her mom made bread (which she did EVERY Monday without fail, in copious amounts). Turns out my grandma had one huge bowl, and after kneading, would put the bowl on top of the heating pad, and set it to low, and let the bread rise there. So I'm considering investing in a cheap and cheerful heating pad.

But I also had a great suggestion from someone I know who also tries for bread success. She asked if I had a bread machine (which I do), and if I made my bread in the bread machine (I have - see above comment about doorstop, which applies to both machine and hand-made bread). The suggestion was that I let the machine do the kneading, but only that. Once the kneading and the first rise are completed by the machine, I do the rest.

So I tried it. I followed the recipe in the bread machine book. 1.25 cups of water, 4 cups unbleached white flour, 1.5 tsp sugar, 1.5 tsp salt, and yeast (1 packet). I also tossed in a handful of my herbes de Provence, which I buy a large bag of every year when we take our mini-break to visit friends in Valensole. (Please note that the recipe above doesn't have any E numbers, palm oil, stabilisers, or other garbage in it that bread isn't supposed to have. Your bread isn't supposed to stay 'fresh' for 10 days. Yuck.).

The machine did its job. Then I took over.

I also tried the trick for the second rise of turning my oven on low and letting it heat up for a good 15 mins before the first rise was completed. After the first rise, I took the dough out, punched it down, and put it in the opened, still-warm oven, to go through the second rise.

Then I baked it - 25-30 mins at 200C/425F.

And it worked.

Not only was it edible, but it was GOOD. Properly good bread.

I did it again tonight, but tonight I added sunflower seeds instead.











I'm so pleased about this. This means that officially I can bake bread. 

Watch out, geniuses. Your days of lording your MENSA-calibre bread skills over me are about to end.