Baking your own bread.

[Hunter_zero]

I have just started to bake my own bread, after a two year break.

I was wondering if anyone on here bakes their own bread?
To be honest I sort of cheat a little. Around four years ago, I was driving home and spotted a bread making machine in a skip. I had a look (I honestly don't make a habit of skip raiding) and it all looked brand new, so I popped in in the back of the 4x4 and that was that. Couple of days later I gave it a good clean, and tested it out. All work fine, there was nothing at all wrong with it!

This is my simple recipe to make white bread which will slice when hot

1 1/2 lbs of strong flour (from Lidl)
1 1/2 tsp of sea salt
1 1/2 table spoons of rape oil
1 1/2 sugar (I have used maple syrup)
3/4 pint of milk
Yeast. (mixed with a little warm water and sugar)

Chuck it all in the machine, leave and enjoy or you could bake in the oven.

John

 

[Old Timer]

Have you tried baking bread outdoors?

 

[Toadflax]

We make a lot of bread at home (using the breadmaker) - we definitely prefer granary bread. We don't buy the ready mixed packs of flour - it's cheaper and just about as easy to buy the separate ingredients. We also make our own pizzas every Saturday night using the breadmaker to mix the dough.

1 tsp dried activated yeast
600g strong white flour
1.5 tbsp dried milk powder
1.5 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
350 ml water

This makes enough for four decent sized pizza bases. Roll out fairly thin and put on a baking tray (we have round pizza trays with lots of holes in the bottom to let the heat through).

Boil down a carton of passata (sieved tomatoes) to reduce it to a thick sauce and spread on the unbaked pizza base, add grated mozzarella (we find Tesco's grated mozzarella to be the best) plus toppings of your choice (again I find that Tesco's pepperoni is the best for pizzas), bake on the top shelf of the oven at a hot setting until nicely browned (gas mark 7-8). Way better than any bought pizza from a supermarket.

You can also make a nice tomato sauce from a tin of peeled plum tomatoes, a crushed clove of garlic and some fresh (or dried) basil and some salt. Again, boil down until it is a nice consistency for spreading on the pizza base.

This recipe has been tried and tested pretty well every Saturday night for the past 3 years.



Geoff

 

[British Red]

Of course!

At home and on the camp fire! Home baked bread (and bannock, cakes, rolls croissants etc) are just so much nicer. We often do it by hand but the one thing a breadmaker has is a timer - lovely to wake up to the smell. Roast and grind some fresh coffee and have the bread warm with hand churned, lightly salted butter melting through the still warm loaf.

Stuff your "sausage mcmuffin" I'll take fresh bread and fresh coffee and a little birdsong

Red

 

[Westnorfolk]

one i use all the time..

1lb white bread flour Tesco
1lb stone ground bread flour tesco
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 (2 if cold) quick yeast
1 pint warm water
2 tbsp olive oil

mix, need and let rise for 20 to 30 mins then cook 200 for between 25 and 40 minutes depending on how good the electric is that time of day. Poor near me as lots of farms have tapped off the lines.

makes 2 2 lb loves of good brown bread and does not disintergrate in soup and stew. i like hard bread not the fluffy shop stuff that gives you gas :bluThinki

 

[fred gordon]

Of course!

At home and on the camp fire! Home baked bread (and bannock, cakes, rolls croissants etc) are just so much nicer. We often do it by hand but the one thing a breadmaker has is a timer - lovely to wake up to the smell. Roast and grind some fresh coffee and have the bread warm with hand churned, lightly salted butter melting through the still warm loaf.

Stuff your "sausage mcmuffin" I'll take fresh bread and fresh coffee and a little birdsong

Red

Absolutely Red. We have been baking our own bread in the bread maker for years using basic ingredients. Recently though my wife has started to make dough to make rolls. Its great, much better than anything you can get in the shops. What we wish though is that you could make something similar when away camping. Bannocks yes but real bread would be a treat.

 

[Hunter_zero]

Of course!

At home and on the camp fire! Home baked bread (and bannock, cakes, rolls croissants etc) are just so much nicer. We often do it by hand but the one thing a breadmaker has is a timer - lovely to wake up to the smell. Roast and grind some fresh coffee and have the bread warm with hand churned, lightly salted butter melting through the still warm loaf.

Stuff your "sausage mcmuffin" I'll take fresh bread and fresh coffee and a little birdsong

Red

Exactly what I'll be eating and drinking in the morrow! (cheating as I set my coffee maker and now my bread maker for a 6am breakfast). Hey I've been planning to do this for over a month but time..work...life..
Which is the reason I was determined to dig my bread maker out and crank the handle today!

John

 

[ilan]

Yes make our own in the bread maker similar recipies also great if you add an egg nutmeg cinnamon and mixed fruit use malted flour and double the sugar but use soft brown .

 

[British Red]

Fred

?

Thats what dutch ovens are for mate! Turned some croissants out it camp once - we aren't animals you know!

Red

 

[woodwalker]

For outdoor baking, try using an upturned billy can, covered over in hot embers. It makes essentially an oven inside and is great for cooking all manner of breadstuffs!

woodwalker

 

[fred gordon]

Fred

?

Thats what dutch ovens are for mate! Turned some croissants out it camp once - we aren't animals you know!

Red

I've always had to resist taking tha Dutch oven on the canoe as it is quite heavy, that is along with the 3 dogs and my wife. However, only one dog and one wife going on the next trip, might give it a try. Thanks for the reminder Red.

 

[Tadpole]

I have just started to bake my own bread, after a two year break.

I was wondering if anyone on here bakes their own bread?
To be honest I sort of cheat a little. Around four years ago, I was driving home and spotted a bread making machine in a skip. I had a look (I honestly don't make a habit of skip raiding) and it all looked brand new, so I popped in in the back of the 4x4 and that was that. Couple of days later I gave it a good clean, and tested it out. All work fine, there was nothing at all wrong with it!

This is my simple recipe to make white bread which will slice when hot

1 1/2 lbs of strong flour (from Lidl)
1 1/2 tsp of sea salt
1 1/2 table spoons of rape oil
1 1/2 sugar (I have used maple syrup)
3/4 pint of milk
Yeast. (mixed with a little warm water and sugar)

Chuck it all in the machine, leave and enjoy or you could bake in the oven.

John

I think that I am the only person to wear out a breadmaker, (at least in my circle of friends) two or three loaves a week for the last four years. The darn thing started stopping, leaving me with the complicated process of using the breadmaker as a glorified dough mixer, and cooking and timing it using the clock in the kitchen and proving it on top of the stove.
My dad has LTL (long-term loaned) me his hardly used breadmaker… so I’m coming home to fresh bread most mornings. Never tried campfire breadmaking, but I will be trying to at the moot,

Edit to add
1 1/3 teaspoon dried activated yeast
300g strong white flour
300g granary flour (brown)
1.5 table spoon dried milk powder
1. teaspoon salt
1 table spoon sugar
2 table spoon olive oil
1 table spoon melted butter
355 ml tepid water
soft light brown not to sweet, ideal for toast with unsalted butter or thick sandwich slices loaded with home cooked ham.

 

[JohnC]

I was given an unused breadmaker by a workmate, and we use it 2-3 times a week for all our bread. The dough function is great for pizzas and rolls. I know the bread wont keep as long a store bought, but it's eaten before that s a problem.

 

[Hunter_zero]

So has anyone got the "MOTHER" of all bread recipes ?

I really like Geoff's pizza base recipe and will try it tomorrow for tea.

One of the problems I found with home baked bread is slicing. Using milk got around this problem. I've been planning to buy some mixed grain and make a "best of both" type bread. I'll be checking the pest control in a well known heath food store next week, so I'll have a mooch then.

Is there any real noticeable difference in white bread recipes?

John

 

[xylaria]

Here is my best bread recipe:

1lb Self raising Flour
1pints worth of dry milk powder
1taespoon bicarbonate of soda
1teaspoon salt

Store as dry ingredients
To make dough add enough acidic liquid to make into dough, such as orange juice or cider. No need to let the dough rise just bake as is. Orange juice is the best we have tried out.

 

[Rebel]

I'm now on my third electric bread maker.

The first one I got in a car boot. It lasted for a year or so and got me hooked.

I picked up the next on in a half price sale and after many years of use the tin gave up the ghost. I could have bought a new tin but the rest of the machine was looking well worn and I wasn't sure it would survive much longer.

A couple of months back Lidl were doing bread makers with a three year guarantee for only 25 quid (a new tin for my old bread maker would have cost close to that) so I bought one.

It's performing splendidly and it came with a decent recipe book in proper English only (not ten other European languages which I was expecting).

My regular recipe that I use is for wholemeal bread (850g about the same size as a regular full loaf from the shop):

340ml water
10ml vinegar (to soften the water)
5g (1 teaspoon) salt
5g (1 teaspoon) sugar
25g real butter or extra virgin olive oil
270g white flour (strong)
270g wholemeal flour (strong)
5g fast action dried yeast

I sometimes use other recipes and another favourite in our house is olive and garlic bread.

 

[Rebel]

One of the problems I found with home baked bread is slicing. Using milk got around this problem.
John

I don't have any problem slicing my loaves. Use a bread knife of course, a regular knife isn't much good for bread. Always leave your loaf for about five or ten minutes to cool down out of the tin before slicing or it will be too hot and moist and it will tend to fall apart.

Adding milk will help the crust to stay soft when the bread is stored but, depending on how much you use, it can hinder the growth of the yeast and it will add flavour to your bread (which you may or may not like).

 

[boisdevie]

I dont' use a breadmaker because they only cook you the same shape of loaf and it's small. I do about 3kg of bread mix at a go using a Kenwood Chef and then cook it in the oven. This gives 4 good sized loaves so it's far more efficient and less wasteful of our planets resources.

 

[gregorach]

How come I never find anything good in skips?

Yeah, I bake my own bread, but none of your breadmaker nonsense... Well, OK, I just can never get on with recipies, so the idea of making a batch to a fixed size is just a little wierd. My usual recipie is something like "yea much flour, pinch of salt, dollop of sweetener (sugar, honey, treacle - whatever), a good glug of oil, teaspoon of dried yeast started off in sugared water, mix it til it feels right". Seems to work OK...

I'm also a big fan of caraway seed in bread.

 

[aelf]

I've made bread on the camp fire using a box oven - just a cardboard box lined with foil - and it was great! Just put your risen dough on a tray over a few embers (not too many or the bread burns) and put the box oven over the lot. Takes about 20 minutes. Did this at cub camp and we made chocolate bread, banana bread, chocolate banana bread, all with and without raisins. Great fun