Bread Makers out there?

balidey

Thread revival.
I've had a weekend of making bread by accident really.
I wanted to make some more pizza bases from scratch for the BBQ, so I had stocked up on dried yeast, butter, flour (strong white and tipo '00'). But the plan last weekend was for normal BBQ so I thought I would try some bread rolls for the burgers and hot dogs.
I have a book called (from memory) 365 bread recipes. So I used the basic 'dinner roll' recipe and sprinkled half of them with poppy seeds.
Turned out really well and everyone commented on how nice they tasted.
Then on Monday I gave another recipe a try, white bloomer. Very slight mishap in the bake. I put the bread too high in the oven and the top was done slightly before the bottom so it was a bit doughy underneath, but another 10 minutes in the cooling oven upside down seemed to rescue it (although I'm sure thats not a well known baking practice).
But again it tasted really nice, looked good and my 3 fussy kids all asked me to make another one so it looks like I'll keep making bread from scratch.

I have made bread and pizza doughs before but I hate kneading. Some people find it therapeutic, but I find it just arm ache. I don't have a stand mixer (yet...) so used our Dualit hand mixer with dough hooks. I wasn't expecting them to do a very good job and I was worried the gears would strip when I did the bloomer mix, but they have so far performed very well.
Kenwood mixer is on the cards I think.

And no photos from me, its not my thing taking pictures of food, but I guess I'll try and break the habit of a lifetime if the next loaf comes out well.

alphaomega16

I remember making a Fried Egg Bloomer, keep the yolk intact and when you put it in the bloomer pop it and squeeze it down so it all spreads and soaks up into the roof of the bloomer and then add a bit of salt.

balidey

Another bloomer today.
And I broke the habit of a lifetime and I have  taken pictures of my food...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

balidey

Another batch at the weekend.
Rolls were wholemeal flour with a handful of mixed seeds in at the end. These went down very well, but the dough would not mix with my dough hooks, so I had to resort to hand kneading for those.
Also made 3x French sticks. These turned out really well apart from the glaze. The instructions said to make a salt and cornflour mix and paste it every 10 minutes of the bake. But the outside of the bread was really salty. I think we'll do these again but will just milk wash them.

I'm sure I'll be doing more this weekend, but I really must get a stand mixer, the little hand mixer is struggling and getting hot and I know I'm going to strip the internal gears if I carry on with mixing dough.
                                                                       

Thug

Had a go myself the other day.
Was a little tight and almost cake like, but still very nice.

                                                                                                                                       

balidey

Another weekend, another bread.
My wife and I used to make this before we had the kids, about 13 years ago. Managed to find the recipe in the old cook book.
Its a cheese and red onion bread. Quite flat, but it has yeast and does 2 rises, but its baked flat like a pizza, on a griddle first, then into the oven.
Tasted amazing. You can obviously put whatever you like in it, but we stuck with the red onion and 2 sorts of cheese.
Going to try a loaf in a tin next weekend as I don't think I have ever done that before.
                                                                                                                                                        

balidey

I'm not an expert on this, but did you sift the flour before mixing? I have read many comments on line where people say that if you don't sift then you get a very close end result. May be worth trying.
I use a hand sifter, size of a large tin of beans with a handle and trigger, just load it up with flour then sift into the mixing bowl. Really doesn't add much time to the prep, maybe a minute at most.

Thug

Never heard that and never tried it, but no I didn't. Worth a try I guess.

balidey

Disaster tonight. Tried a yeast free quick bread. Cheese and bacon rolled, cut and layered in a tin. Looks great, baked ok but tasted like a scone. Will give those a miss in the future.

balidey

Beer bread this afternoon.
Very quick and easy to make. Didn't rise too much, but looked OK.
I know the clue is in the name, but it really did taste of beer. I was just expecting the beer to replace the yeast stage, I was not expecting such a beery flavour.
Plan for tomorrow is pizzas from scratch on the BBQ, so pizza dough with 00 tipo flour with some semolina.