5 minute wholemeal bread

[CyberPaddy66]

They don't take up much space, I have a small unit I built that sits next to the kitchen work surface, it holds my bread machine and deep fat fryer with space on the top for whatever machine I'm currently using.

To be perfectly honest it's really just a glorified mixing machine for me (as I don't use the cooking facility on it any more) but it does save you hours in the week mixing the dough for you so you can forget about it and come back when the dough has risen.

[Green Aura]

Ha - that's where the 5 minute bread comes in - no work, it does it all itself and you only need room for it in the fridge, to keep a weeks worth of dough!

[craig.r]

hi, this sounds really good, i don't suppose some one has the recipe for the white bread. i am really eager to have a go at this

[Green Aura]

Is it breaching someones copyright replicating it here?

Heyho! They show it on You Tube, so I'm guessing (hoping) they're not so precious about their basic recipe.

3 cups tepid water
1.5tbsp yeast
1.5tbsp sea salt (only 1 if you use ordinary salt)
6.5 cups plain white flour - not bread flour or any other speciality type.

Everything else is the same as prevoiusly described - but if you want a crispy crust put a tin of hot water in the bottom of the oven to steam bake it.

[craig.r]

I have just tasted my 1st white 5 minute loaf. its tastes good!! the crust is a bit like concrete and its a bit doughy but the taste is there so when i get it right its going to be really good.

[Green Aura]

Mwahahaha - another convert.

[Mainer in Exile]

I've been making the white version for a few weeks now, and my whole family finds it to be as good as anything we get from a bakery.

I modified the recipe a bit, to work with European measurements:

750 ml water
42 g yeast
1 kg flour
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon salt (or 1 1/3 tablespoons)

42 grams is the standard size fresh yeast cake here. The flour is the regular white wheat flour.

[Uller]

I've been making the white bread for ages now, and it was fantastic when I first started. Now it all seems to be going wrong! I've stopped steam baking it, which I might go back to again, but I've lost the light, holey, ciabatta-like texture that it used to have. It is really dense - so dense that it doesn't cook all the way through sometimes, even though the crust is dark brown.

I'll have to go back to my book and remind myself of what I am doing wrong - probably something to do with proportion of flour/water which I believe has to be adjusted sometimes because of humidity etc?

I love the taste and the ease of it all - just need to get the texture right again. And try the wholemeal version when I get to the food co-op and buy some wholemeal flour!

[Green Aura]

That's weird Uller, because we've had a similar problem with our wholemeal version - I thought maybe it was because the gluten doesn't keep so well in the mix.

I only take it out of the fridge to cut off a chunk then stick it back in, but I have found I've been having to add more flour than before to be able to handle it. Surely the humidity levels in the fridge will be fairly constant.

We've not made it for 24 hours and I've washed out the tub to start again, I think scraping down the old mix into the new may be the problem.

It won't hurt to have a break - we've been eating a whole loaf almost daily!

[CyberPaddy66]

I find that keeping bread dough in the fridge makes it difficult to handle, I make all my bread dough the day I'm going to bake it and I usually have no trouble.

Mainer in Exile - I notice your recipe doesn't have any sugar, what does the yeast feed on to produce the CO2 for the air bubbles?

[Green Aura]

There is no sugar in it- that's why it takes a long time to prove - the starch in the flour converts to sugar in the water, slowly.

Dough's often kept for long periods - that's the basis of sourdough bread - many places that use this method of baking will only bake once a week, so the dough is at least a week old by the time it's used. I'm guessing that's why the authors of this recipe say to keep it going - to get the sourdough texture and taste. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work with the wholemeal and I can't eat white flour

[Mainer in Exile]

I find that keeping bread dough in the fridge makes it difficult to handle, I make all my bread dough the day I'm going to bake it and I usually have no trouble.

Mainer in Exile - I notice your recipe doesn't have any sugar, what does the yeast feed on to produce the CO2 for the air bubbles?

The recipe is the one from "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day". I just increased the amount of each ingredient slightly to make it easier with standard European packaging. Like Green Aura said, the yeast feeds on the starch in the wheat.

The dough is very wet, compared to regular bread dough, and is easier to handle after it's been refrigerated.

[CyberPaddy66]

The dough is very wet, compared to regular bread dough, and is easier to handle after it's been refrigerated.

That explains a lot then :D