The most basic bread recipe.

[Billy-o]

There's also a bunch of red lentil and chickpea recipes both for flatbread and leavened with bicarb.

Some of them are hilariously simple. Like, a cup of lentils into two cups of water. Soak for four hours or overnight. Into the blender and you are done. Just fry the batter. I really like these with eggs.

Here's a roll.

 

[Woody girl]

There's also a bunch of red lentil and chickpea recipes for flatbread and leavened with bicarb.

Some of them are hilariously simple. Like, a cup of lentils into two cups of water. Soak for four hours or overnight. Into the blender and you are done. Just fry. I really like these

Sounds perfect for me, as its gluten free. I've just put some red lentils in to soak and I'll have a go at them tomorrow. Morning.. I like wraps , but the g/f ones are so expensive.! Sounds like this would make good wraps for my favourite tuna salad wrap sarnies.

 

[Astrochicken]

My usual is just strong bread flour, water, salt, yeast, sugar, sometimes with a little olive oil to help with the texture.

Something I've found is to be careful of the salt quantity and when you bring the salt into contact with the yeast - seems that even a little bit 'too much' is enough to shut down the yeast, with my results becoming flat even after ideal proving conditions if I've not paid enough attention when measuring.

Another thing I've found is to make the water slightly warm, to help wake up the yeast (I normally use the dry packet yeast), and I usually add the sugar into the warm water with the yeast for 5-10 mins to give it something to work on. The result is that the water gets a little foamy, but this also tells me if the yeast is still alive before I add it to the flour - I've had in-date yeast fail multiple times and so now I like to see the yeast in action before I waste time, energy and flour trying to make a loaf that may never rise.

Finally, a nice trick I came across years ago was to save the water left over from cooking rice / pasta / potatoes and to use this water, as it has some dissolved starch in that also seems to help get the process going. Obviously need to be careful about cooling and storing the starchy cooked water to make sure it's safe. I usually cool mine as quickly as I can outside with a lid on the pan, and then I freeze it in bottles, taking it out to defrost when I know I'm going to make bread. The potato water always seems to make more moist bread than regular water.

 

[Toddy]

My usual is just strong bread flour, water, salt, yeast, sugar, sometimes with a little olive oil to help with the texture.

Something I've found is to be careful of the salt quantity and when you bring the salt into contact with the yeast - seems that even a little bit 'too much' is enough to shut down the yeast, with my results becoming flat even after ideal proving conditions if I've not paid enough attention when measuring.

Another thing I've found is to make the water slightly warm, to help wake up the yeast (I normally use the dry packet yeast), and I usually add the sugar into the warm water with the yeast for 5-10 mins to give it something to work on. The result is that the water gets a little foamy, but this also tells me if the yeast is still alive before I add it to the flour - I've had in-date yeast fail multiple times and so now I like to see the yeast in action before I waste time, energy and flour trying to make a loaf that may never rise.

Finally, a nice trick I came across years ago was to save the water left over from cooking rice / pasta / potatoes and to use this water, as it has some dissolved starch in that also seems to help get the process going. Obviously need to be careful about cooling and storing the starchy cooked water to make sure it's safe. I usually cool mine as quickly as I can outside with a lid on the pan, and then I freeze it in bottles, taking it out to defrost when I know I'm going to make bread. The potato water always seems to make more moist bread than regular water.

To quickly cool a pot; fill the sink with cold water, it needs to be deep enough that the pot 'just' floats. The pot will cool quickly from the outside in.
Works very well to save a pot of hot oil from going overcooked, too.

 

[Billy-o]

Anyone tried asking their local brewer for some 'barm'

I don't know if it is still used in barm cakes, but it is the stll active yeast sludge that remains after a brew.

 

[Pattree]

Local bakers here buy in yeast in 1 kilo blocks. It’s a solid brick so I presume it’s cultured with flour but maybe it’s solid product.

Balm just means yeast as far as I know. I have a balm pot that I used to keep on my window-cill. On warm days after feeding it could “go balmy” and froth all over the place.
I don’t cultivate yeast any more and it certainly takes the recipe out of the “simple” bracket.

pee ess
Yeast cultures for sourdough are so important for some folk that there are sourdough hotels where you leave your sourdough together with a list of its requirements when you go on holiday!

 

[Billy-o]

There's that thing about beer being liquid bread.

 

[R_Fonseca]

I've had a sourdough starter going for the last few years. It's pretty easy. Just flour water salt and some starter.

A little bag of yeast would make a bread the same way if you don't have starter, but it's different bread.

An easy bread to pack in a bag would be a soda bread. Even better would be a beer bread. I prefer beer bread, just mix the dry mix and add a can of lager when you want to bake it. You can flavour them with different herbs and spices too.

I guess even more simple is a bannock type bread with self raising flour, but I find bannock a bit sad

 

[Billy-o]

Beer bread has got to be worth a go. Maybe with a stout

 

[Nice65]

Balm just means yeast as far as I know. I have a balm pot that I used to keep on my window-cill. On warm days after feeding it could “go balmy” and froth all over the place.

Is that where ‘going barmy’ comes from? Lovely if it is

Something I've found is to be careful of the salt quantity and when you bring the salt into contact with the yeast - seems that even a little bit 'too much' is enough to shut down the yeast,

Same happened with sauerkraut when I guessed the salt per kilo of cabbage, it just sat in brine and bubbled a bit, didn’t really ferment. Makes logical sense of course, once you think about it.

 

[Nice65]

And it does

The phrase "going barmy" (meaning to become slightly crazy or foolish) originates from barm—the frothy yeast head that forms on top of fermenting beer or ale.

That’s a cheery end to my day

 

[grainweevil]

I guess even more simple is a bannock type bread with self raising flour, but I find bannock a bit sad

I make bannock with sundried tomatoes and olives, and it seems fairly jovial, fwiw.

 

[R_Fonseca]

I make bannock with sundried tomatoes and olives, and it seems fairly jovial, fwiw.

Haha. Fair enough

 

[Billy-o]

pee ess
Yeast cultures for sourdough are so important for some folk that there are sourdough hotels where you leave your sourdough together with a list of its requirements when you go on holiday!

Yes, I was visiting friends in Shropshire and we were nattering about sourdough (twenty plus years ago) and on a whim started one up. It tasted great and I had it for a few years at home in London. Then it died through neglect at a hectic point.

So, when I shifted to Canada, I tried again. Didn't taste good. Tried again and again, and I have had no luck with the taste. Might give it another whirl, now I am thinking of it

 

[Billy-o]

Going to give that red lentil bread a go - only with a bit of yeast in it - over the next day or so. We'll regard it as an experiment for now.

 

[Toddy]

There's that thing about beer being liquid bread.

True enough

 

[Toddy]

Going to give that red lentil bread a go - only with a bit of yeast in it - over the next day or so. We'll regard it as an experiment for now.

I really want to know how you get on with that. It looks lovely, it sounds good, but I got so scunnered with gluten free bread that wasn't really 'bread' that I've become cynical. Something that works properly is worth knowing.

 

[RROverland]

What would be the most basic BREAD recipe one could use if one was limited in terms of ingredients and cooking methods

Im not talking flat bread but load like breads.

But as S-I-M-P-L-E as SIMPLE could be?

I travel alot in my specially equipped Range Rover L322 Overlanding. I have a dutch oven and learnt many ways on mytravels and this is the most simple and tasty I have done so far! PS I do cook good too! So, not easy for me to choose something simple!

No Knead Bread

420 grams flour
1 tsp. Salt
2 1/2 tsp. Yeast
360 ml of warm water ( not hotter than 50c or 110F)
Vegetable oil

Put the flour in the container you’re going to use to let the bread rise. Add the salt and yeast. Do not let the yeast touch the salt because the salt will kill the yeast. Mix well. Make a hole in the middle and add the warm water. Mix with a spatula until the flour is incorporated. Add a little vegetable oil to your hands and form the dough into a ball covering it all over with the oil on your hands. Cover container and leave in a warm place preferably in the oven while the oven is off with the light on for three hours. After the three hours are over take the dough out and put the oven on at 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Every oven vary so if your oven usually heats up fast go with the lower temperature. Put the empty bread Baker in the oven so it heats up. You can use any oven proof pot with a lid as long as it can withstand the high heat. A cast iron pot works best.

In the meantime oil a rubber mat or the surface you’re going to use to fold the dough on. Oil your hands too and take the dough out gently from the container. Flatten into a rectangle and fold like an envelope. Form into a ball and put it in a bowl covered with parchment paper to rise again for 30 minutes. Cover it with a tea towel. At the end of the 30 minute rise, sprinkle the top of the dough with flour and score the top either with one line down the middle or a cross shape. Take the empty bread container out of the oven and lower the bread dough gently into it by holding on to the parchment paper. Cover again and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover it and bake for an additional 10 to 20 minutes. It depends how brown you like your bread. Let it cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.

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