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Bread making fundamentals


Kenny202

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wet hands and a floured board.

bowl of water beside you to keep dipping your hands in.

Just mix thoroughly.

I don't bother kneading ........ old wife's tale.

I don't bother knocking back ...... old wife's tale.

room temperature, whatever it is.

temperature of oven?
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wet hands and a floured board.

bowl of water beside you to keep dipping your hands in.

Just mix thoroughly.

I don't bother kneading ........ old wife's tale.

I don't bother knocking back ...... old wife's tale.

room temperature, whatever it is.

temperature of oven?

225 for 20 minutes, 175 for the rest.

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What difference would it make to a loaf sifting the flour?

It airs the flour and removes any lumps (unlikely). Airing is quite helpful if the flour has been sitting around in a sealed bag for ages but a similar effect can be achieved by just running the mixer for a minute before adding any wet ingredients. I always do this.

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Hello everyone, I'm so happy found this thread here on TV.

I'm baking my own bread since 1,5 years.

My equipment is quite simple. Zanussi electric oven with fan from PowerBuy, a Bosch mixer with rotating bowl and a digital scale.

I'm only using natural ingredients, mostly just bread flour, sugar, salt, butter and yeast.

So far everything you can find at your local supermarket.

The only thing a bit difficult is wholewheat and rye, but Tops Supermarket has it.

I really can recommend you Schmidt's Bakery supply in BKK.

They have everything you need including pre-mixed bread powder for speciality bread as well as (I call it "fake") sourdough for rye and wheat.

If I need something for cake or sweets I go to KCC Baker Mart. I also bought my moulds there.

Mostly I'm baking some kind of toast that I can keep a few days in the fridge in a ziplock bag and just put them in the toaster at the morning.

My favourite and almost single resource for recipes is this website:

www.ploetzblog.de

Unfortunately in German but with Google translate it should be okay.

There are also links to English websites.

My favourite bread is Toast bread from Jeffrey Hamelmann.

It's quite simple and easy but very tasty.

And don't forget, good bread needs time to develop good flavour.

Welcome to share your experiences and recipes here!

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Never tried to make bread in my life as in no dough but I see sugar as a ingredient then not for me.

I agree, little need for sugar in most breads.

"the whiter the bread, sooner your dead"

Being a retired baker and diabetic.

Not all breads are bad, plenty of decent alternative flours available these days.

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Way too expensive.

Bread flour from YOK = 34bht/Kg.

Cake flour from YOK = 24bht/Kg.

Rye and Wholewheat flour from YOK = 38bht/Kg.

Why pay more?

Is the bread flour from Yok bleached or unbleached? Not worth it at any price of it's bleached.

Edited by stillbornagain
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Never tried to make bread in my life as in no dough but I see sugar as a ingredient then not for me.

The yeast eats the sugar ....... not you.

Without any sugar, the yeast can't live and the bread is flat.

@SBA

Almost all commercial flour is bleached, including the brown flour .... they add dye to make it brown.

Edited by MaeJoMTB
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Never tried to make bread in my life as in no dough but I see sugar as a ingredient then not for me.

The yeast eats the sugar ....... not you.

Without any sugar, the yeast can't live and the bread is flat.

@SBA

Almost all commercial flour is bleached, including the brown flour .... they add dye to make it brown.

Most, if not all commercial flour milled in Thailand is bleached. But the flour I get here from Australia and the countries of the EU is definitely not bleached since it's illegal to do so... By brown flour do you mean a specific type of white flour that is dyed to make it brown? Or do you mean any flour that is brown? Except for a few special varieties, whole wheat flour is necessarily brown. So why would it be dyed? The reason some white flour is dyed brown is to make it look like whole wheat flour.

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Except for a few special varieties, whole wheat flour is necessarily brown. So why would it be dyed? The reason some white flour is dyed brown is to make it look like whole wheat flour.

Don't think many places use 100% wholewheat flour.

About 20% is the maximum I can put in wholemeal bread.

(Maybe If you use another 20 chemicals you could use more)

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Except for a few special varieties, whole wheat flour is necessarily brown. So why would it be dyed? The reason some white flour is dyed brown is to make it look like whole wheat flour.

Don't think many places use 100% wholewheat flour.

About 20% is the maximum I can put in wholemeal bread.

(Maybe If you use another 20 chemicals you could use more)

I don't see what relevance this comment has to bleached and unbleached flour. Anyway, unbleached flour can be bought both at Yok's and at Bakersmart. At Bakersmart they repack it in plastic bags so it has no brand name. At Yok's it's all their imported European flour.

And if you're willing to do a little extra work, you can definitely make a 100% whole wheat bread that's not bitter. Look up Peter Reinhart's recipes for whole wheat bread on the internet.

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Never tried to make bread in my life as in no dough but I see sugar as a ingredient then not for me.

I put one teaspoon of brown sugar in my dough as it helps the yeast to get going. By the time the fermentation is done I doubt that there is anything of it left.

I also add some lime juice (ascorbic acid/vitamin C) which acts as a flour improver.

But bread will rise perfectly well without any sugar or vitamin C; it just takes a bit longer. Even for the 100% wholemeal flour that I use and which happily doubles in size if left for a few hours.

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Don't think many places use 100% wholewheat flour.

I do. It's fine. But I do use good quality organic strong bread flour from the UK (direct from Prince Charles actually smile.png ). The organic part is not relevant to its ability to rise, of course.

Sometimes I mix it 50/50 with strong white bread flour from the same source, and that makes it a little more airy. Depends how I feel on the day.

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Way too expensive.

Bread flour from YOK = 34bht/Kg.

Cake flour from YOK = 24bht/Kg.

Rye and Wholewheat flour from YOK = 38bht/Kg.

Why pay more?

Is the bread flour from Yok bleached or unbleached? Not worth it at any price of it's bleached.
I usually buy unbleached bread flour at my local Big C. It's from UFM, United Flour Mills, as far as I can remember. Swan Brand at Tops is also unbleached, but I'm not sure.
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I was wondering what is the purpose of punching down and then waiting for the second rise? Always seems to be a higher rise after the first kneading

You get a fine and evenly distributed pore

Old wifes tale ...... no need.

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I was wondering what is the purpose of punching down and then waiting for the second rise? Always seems to be a higher rise after the first kneading

You get a fine and evenly distributed pore
Old wifes tale ...... no need.
I didn't knead much and only gave one rise. It was crap and didn't rise much Joe. Lost total faith in you :-(
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Anyone living in Khon kaen, just found a bakery supply shop basically next door to Fairy Plaza on the Klang Mueang road. Looking at the plaza from the front, it's on the lh side next to a CD shop. Had most accessories and all the flours discussed. Cheap too

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works for me,

today's lunch, Rye bread (25% rye + 75% white), and vintage Cheddar.

attachicon.gifbread.jpg

..... gone now!

that looks exactly the same as my non kneading effort. I like it a bit more lighter and spongier than that. Bigger air holes. Chewy like Sour dough. The addition of lime juice appeared to do jack
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I was wondering what is the purpose of punching down and then waiting for the second rise? Always seems to be a higher rise after the first kneading

You get a fine and evenly distributed pore
Old wifes tale ...... no need.
That's kind of philosophical question [emoji6]

Same with kneading the dough.

But it's neither wrong nor right.

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I would think lime juice would kill your yeast.

You should not put the lime juice straight on to the yeast, and the same applies to the salt.

I mix about 5% lime juice to about 95% water, which is barely enough to taste. And I mix the salt with the dry flour before adding the yeast and wet ingredients.

Many commercial bread mixes include ascorbic acid (vitamin C - lime juice) as a flour improver.

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that looks exactly the same as my non kneading effort. I like it a bit more lighter and spongier than that. Bigger air holes. Chewy like Sour dough. The addition of lime juice appeared to do jack

I think you need to leave it longer. Maybe much longer.

It should be at least double the original size when you put it into the hot oven (or when you turn the heat up from the proving temperature if you do it the way I do). For me the advantage of letting the dough rise for the second time in the baking tin in the oven is that it wont later collapse as it's moved to the oven.

The lime juice acts as a flour improver, not as a proper raising agent. Yeast and time is all you really need.

One other possibility: are you sure that your yeast isn't old and past it? And that you aren't using too much salt?

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FWIW there's a really interesting short series just started on the BBC called "Victorian Bakers". Professional bakers recreate the techniques of commercial baking in the early to late Victorian era with mixed success.

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