Bread

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Does anyone else make bread in the field using yeast rather than Bannock using baking powder? There is nothing to lift the spirits on a cold wet day than to sit by the fire eating hot bread and butter, I'm not sure it would be the same made with baking powder.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,992
4,645
S. Lanarkshire
I've been making bread for three months now using sourdough (really just wild yeast) and it is really, really good. I made some of the bread on a stone heated in my little outside hearth at home, so I had some to take with me to show the kids I was working with doing Bronze and Iron age living history.
I agree the smell of the bread cooking outdoors is wonderful, kind of makes hot bread and butter and cuppa taste even better :cool:

cheers,
Toddy
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,992
4,645
S. Lanarkshire
I followed the advice on this page
http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm
but I mixed in some freshly ground flour from my own grown wheat, barley and oats reckoning that it would be the right yeasts and a small handful of dried elderflowers.....kind of because it seeemed a good idea at the time :rolleyes:
it seems to be working just fine, smells great, makes excellent bread, even with the wholemeal stone ground coarse stuff the kids managed on the saddle quern.

There's another site that had good info too,
http://www.sourdoughhome.com/

It's really pretty straightforward, the starter lives in a big pickle jar in the fridge and I feed it every three or four days, though I have left it a week and it seems to be fine.
My sons keep making comments about *Audrey* for some reason :))

cheers,
Toddy
 

aelf

Member
Mar 13, 2007
34
0
uk
I use fast acting bread yeast for bread machines and cook the bread in a tin or box oven.
 

Toadflax

Native
Mar 26, 2007
1,783
5
64
Oxfordshire
Having been trying for a few weeks to get my sourdough starter going (thanks to Toddy for the link to the "sjohn" site) it finally seems to be going well.

The first two attempts did produce some fermentation - but nothing like the "froth" described. With the second starter I did get a loaf that was edible, tasted good but very heavy - though it was bread rather than cooked dough - but I had to leave it to prove for 24 hours before it was risen anywhere near enough to cook.

I remembered that Toddy had mentioned adding some dried elderflowers and on Sunday I noticed that the elder tree at the bottom of my garden still had one flowerhead open (all the others have started to set) so I added this to the mix. When I checked my jar this morning there was a real head on it and it smelled properly sour (a bit like yoghurt) - so it's wait until the weekend now to see how the bread turns out.


Geoff
 

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