easy bread!

[Muddypause]

I can't wait to buy some English bread flour and see if I get better results.

My favourite white flour so far is Canadian stuff that come from Waitrose. It's very strong flour (high gluten content), and produces well risen loaves that taste good, too. I like many of the Dove Farms flours, especially their wholemeal flours, but TBH, their white bread flour is a bit of a disappointment, with poor flavour. Hovis malted stuff is a bit of a treat, too.

[ina]

I often get a problem of the risen loaf sinking in the short time it takes to take off the tea towel covering it and put it in the oven. I can't brush with milk and put seeds on top as it will sink in this time! I don't know why it does it. Any ideas?

I generally let it rise in the oven - just preheat up to 50 degree or the lowest setting, then turn up high when it has risen enough. I have a fan oven, which means it heats up very quickly; works fine like that. You would have to brush with milk etc before the rising, though.

[Muddypause]

I often get a problem of the risen loaf sinking in the short time it takes to take off the tea towel covering it and put it in the oven.

According to this page, you could be leaving it to rise for too long.

[Millymollymandy]

Thanks Muddy. So it's over proving, whilst the texture problem could be due to underproving! I think it is the flour actually. There is no difference here between ordinary cheap flour and the new, expensive, bread flours that came out last year!

I have another question - does your bread actually rise more in the oven? Mine never does, but my pizzas (with bread base) always do. I'm very puzzled by this!

[wulf]

Talking about flour, I noticed an article on the BBC website today that suggests folic acid may soon become a mandatory additive for some types of flour, because of its alleged health benefits for various conditions.

Personally, I'm far from keen on the idea. I can't find details of what types of flour would be affected but I'd hope it would be clearly labelled and that unadulterated flour would still be available for home baking. Mind you, now I'm wondering what else is already in the bread flour on my shelves at home!

Wulf

[glenniedragon]

I heard that on the news too... I'm not keen on mass medication, as that in fact, is what it will be- they did say that wholemeal will be free from the folic acid, I wonder if the inference is that if you choose w'meal bread your diet must be healthier?!? What needs to happen is women need to be informed about good diet before/during pregnancy and schemes developed to encourage a healthier diet, not this 'sticking plaster' approach.
I'll get off the soapbox now,

kind thoughts
Deb

[wulf]

The Wikipedia article on Folic Acid suggests:
[quote]Leaf vegetables such as spinach and turnip greens, dry beans and peas, fortified cereal products, and some other fruits and vegetables are rich food sources of folate.[/url]
What we need is not more additives in our bread but more people adopting a healthy, balanced diet!

Wulf

[ina]

I can't find details of what types of flour would be affected but I'd hope it would be clearly labelled and that unadulterated flour would still be available for home baking. Mind you, now I'm wondering what else is already in the bread flour on my shelves at home!

From what I heard on the radio, only wholemeal bread would be exempt (probably because folic acid is contained naturally in whole cereals - so if you take them out, because you want white bread, no wonder there's a shortage in the diet then!). I don't know how far flour will be affected.

If you want to know what's in your (commercially produced) bread, read "Not on the Label". It's put quite a few people off from buying bread already. If there are additives in the flour, they should be declared on the packet - at least it should say something like "raising agents", and then the book could probably tell you what's behind that term. I try to avoid anything that has additional ingredients apart from "wheat", or "rye"...

[Muddypause]

Oh, gad! I've just had a vision of the future.

"Loaf of bread please - wholemeal."

"Are you folic-exempt? I'll have to ask you some questions:
Are you pregnant?
Are you expecting to be pregnant?
Are you over 65?
Are you suffering from any form of cancer, colonic polyps, neural tube defects or any sort of cardiovascular disease?
Do you take vitamin B12 suppliments?
Now, put your ID card in here and entre your PIN number please.
I'm sorry, according to this readout, you are a pregnant woman of 75, so I can only let you have a loaf of Mother's Pride Conformist, or Wonderloaf Extralife. Would you like a carrier bag for that?"

[Pumpkin]

I love yeast bread but don't have patience for all the waiting so here is my cheats version.....To get a diiferent flavours you can experiment with different beers, stouts or ales as they all have yeast....

3 cups of self-raising flour
3 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp chopped rosemary(or choice of herb)
375ml beer

topping:
1tsp olive oil
1tsp chopped rosemary
1/2 tsp coarse seasalt

Sieve flour add in sugar and herbs make well in center and mix in beer.
Transfer batter to greased loaf pan 8*4 inches or 1.5L
brush top lightly with oil sprinkle with seasalt and herbs
Bake in preheated oven 350F/180C for about 75 to 90 minutes.

[Shirley]

Hi Pumpkin....

Welcome to SSISH!!

I will try your recipe next time I bake - I've done a similar one but not with herbs... I've got rosemary growing... so will use that.. it sounds delicious.

Mmmm - thanks for the recipe!!