Hooray - bread shaped bread!

[Robson Valley]

Hard to imagine but I think that there are some standards for baguettes & fougasse. I suppose that 'boule' must have a certain baked mass.
I like the rectangular loaf shape for my kitchen convenience. Including focaccia, I don't see why they all can't be squirted out by the thousands!
Mass production seems limited only by the horsepower of the mixer motors.

Darnedest thing I ever watched was a bun-scaling machine. Stack of floured trays at one end, mass of dough went into the other end.
Back to the trays, the baker pushed a button and out came beautifully scaled buns that he arranged on the trays = done in no time.

Baked, my bread seems to freeze very well. Bread stales really badly in the refrigerator for chemistry reasons, so that's out.
Usually just for 2 thick slices of toast in the morning, the tail-end is fairly dry but I don't care.

 

[hughlle1]

Not bad personally I like to just make it by hand. Not including the raising and proofing, it's only about 20 minutes of actual work (and if you have a mixer, then the only real work involved is knocking back and shaping)

@quixoticgeek mine tend to be good for 3 days max unless frozen. Each morning just place it cut side down on a baking tray and pop in the oven at 180 for about 5 minutes to get that firm crust back. Nothing worse than a soft crust on homemade bread

 

[British Red]

How long does it take for the machine to produce a loaf from when you first hit the on button? Have you tried to 2 small loaf option?

J

Depends on the recipe but three hours ish. There is a one hour fast loaf as well. I normally put it on its own timer so the bread is ready about 7am - nothing better than getting up to the smell of baking bread. Pot of coffee on and watch the sun come up. Lovely

 

[British Red]

How long do your home baked loaves last? I love making bread, I use my Kenwood chef, but the shelf life of it is typically under an hour, maybe 90 minutes if I am slow... freshly baked bread, with salty butter, still slightly warm... I tried making more, on the basis that I might get full and not eat it all immediately... all that happened is I got fatter...

J

I'm okay with bread - although a crust must be scoffed. This is my nemesis

Sausage rolls by British Red, on Flickr

 

[Robson Valley]

I draw the line at making my own puff pastry for the few times that I make sausage rolls!
Became hopelessly addicted in the 4 years that I lived in Melbourne OZ. They were a Christmas treat
and your reminder is about the right time. Each year, I change the seasoning but always "that special something"
is missing and my memory fades. too. -21C/-8F at 8AM sunrise today.

 

[British Red]

By "bread shaped bread" I assume you are referring to the type bread of bread that is shaped to facilitate mass production. Are there Euro norms for bread shape?

Really I'm referring to the weirdly tall narrow loaves most bread makers produce - a slice wont fit in the toaster

 

[Arya]

We used to have a bread machine when I was a child. It was great! And the loaf you made looks perfect!

These days my bread shape is round I am terrible with yeast (and don´t tolerate it very well), and can´t bare to spend time on kneading, plus I love a clean kitchen so I only make "No knead bread" now.
They are wonderful, and seriously time saving. And the crust... omg the crust.... *drooling*
I bake them in an iron pot.

Eltefri1 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr

Eltefri2 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr

 

[British Red]

Between the hunting and the bread making and butchery, your man has hit the jackpot Arya! He must thank the stars every morning

 

[santaman2000]

Between the hunting and the bread making and butchery, your man has hit the jackpot Arya! He must thank the stars every morning

+1 to this! Do you fish as well!?

 

[Arya]

Hahaha! I don´t know about that. He is quite "urban" and doesn´t share any of these interest with me, so I don´t know how much of it he is capable of appreciating. On top of it all I bought this farm in the middle of nowhere, and dragged him with me.
Sometimes I actually feel a bit sorry for the guy. It´s lot of woman to handle

About fishing, I have done very little of it but I am determined to learn more about it. I have only been fishing in the ocean (I was born and raised by the coast), but I really want to learn how to fish in rivers. My property borders to a river with fish, pluss we have a lot of big rivers in the area. it is silly not to take advantage of it.
In other words, there will be a lot of fishing questions from me in the near future. Ye be warned!

 

[British Red]

You are wasted on him lass! My wife has blokes asking me "does she have a sister"all the time because she does the same sort of stuff.

I'll tell them she has a Norwegian kid sister now!

 

[Arya]

Please give my best to my new big sister!

 

[oldtimer]

A timely post. We are now on our second Kenwood breadmaker. The first died because we used to soak the pan to clean it and the paddle spindle packed up: to my dismay and angers, parts aren't available. The second has been going for years, baking about 5 loaves a week. It too is beginning to get a bit tired and I was wondering what to replace it with, so I will be watching this thread.

Those who prefer more traditional shaped loaves could do as I do and use the bread maker to mix the dough and then reform it into french sticks, rolls of hamburger or frankfurter shape and then bake in oven.

We really miss our breadmaker in France where we have to put up with tradtional French baguettes, fougassess, and pains de campagne from our local artisan boulangere. They've only been baking bread for three generations, so what do they know!

Watching my grandmother make bread as my grandfather tended a vegetable garden that supplied all their fruit and vegetable needs was part of my childhood. Some of it must have rubbed off.

 

[Robson Valley]

I settled on a stand mixer with the belief that it had some versatility over a bread machine.
Got lucky and the Hamilton/Beach was on sale, about $100 off.
I looked at KitchenAid & Cuisinart, might have bought them if they had been on sale in that day and time.
I do use a KA, but it's far from my favorite.

I want a bigger machine to make more bready things in one batch.
I want a far larger oven (a second one?) to bake more, even pizzas, in one load.

Trivia: Hamilton & Beach were a pair of American engineers who built the first electric hand drill.