Flat, hard, odd tasting home/handmade bread

Is the yeast fresh! check the use by date, I went to make some today and it was a week or two too late so threw it out and now realised I forgot to go and get more so wont be making any tomorrow! also at Ruth Pretty's last week she put the dough into the oven to rise, heated it to 80 deg C.thats what I wanted to do tomorrow - fig and walnut bread. Damn

Did you allow it to rise/prove again before you put it into the oven!

After you have knocked all the air out, place it into the dish and leave it to prove up again, then slide into the oven.

OK. The recipe is not bad (could be better) right up to this instruction: "make a fist and punch your dough. punching deflates the dough. squeeze and work the dough with your hands. The bubbles inside it will pop."

Now I have no idea why recipes tell you to do this as it is just not right.

Here is how dough should be created:

1. Once you have mixed your dough, it should be sticky. Resist the urge to add more and more flour to stop it from sticking. Kneading and light dusting as you go should take care of that.

2. Rest the dough for about 30secs every 3-5 mins as you knead. This helps the gluten bonds to form and relaxes the dough. It helps make it less sticky.

3. You know it is properly kneaded when you can flatten a piece of dough, hold it up and sort of stretch and press with your hands. The dough should be 'elastic' and not break unless put under pressure. Form into a ball, pulling the sides and bottom under to form an unbroken skin on the top. Place in oiled bowl, seam side down. Cover bowl to prevent skin forming and leave to almost double in size.

Here is where you DO NOT go punching your dough down.

4. Tip it out of your oiled bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Gently press it into a rectangle. Fold one side to just past the centre and then other side over that. Press gently to slightly flatten. DO NOT press out all the air or completely flatten. Press this folded 'lump out and fold in half again. Gently pressing, form a rectangle.

At this point your dough should be at least a third of the size it was when you tipped it out of the bowl. Now invert your rising bowl over it and let your dough rest for ½hr to give it time to recover.

6. Now you can size if making smaller loaves/buns/rolls/ plait, etc and gently form the desired shape. There are techniques for doing all of these things but I'm not going into that here. Just form it as best you can, gently, place in tin or boule or whatever. Make sure you create a perfect skin on top and pull sides to under the dough to create a seam. Put into your tin, seam side down and unbroken skin on top.

7. Second proof - covering to prevent a skin forming (I use supermarket bags but gladwrap is more usual. When it is almost double and still 'springy', cook as per instructions.

8. Cooking tips - Pre-heat oven. Put a small oven proof metal dish (not glass or ceramic as it will break when ice is put into it) on a lower rack. Just before you put your loaf in throw some ice cubes into the hot dish to give your bread a shot of steam.

Good luck.

These are very brief instructions. I don't really have space to go into all the other stuff. You will learn as you go. Bread making is actually easy. Looks like a lot of instructions but the doing is a lot less complicated than the writing.

yes if you dont use at least a teaspoon of sugar the yeast wont cream up

Dont use water that is too hot.or you will kill your yeast

oxford how are your loaves lasting! Are they staying fresh for a couple of days or are you finding that they go hard and stale fairly rapidly!

to me your recipe sounds a bit light on the water side.My recipe requires 11/4 cups per 3 cups of flour.I have noticed that a dry mixture produces a solid loaf.Some of the biggest and best loaves I have made have been sticky to knead.I always use Champion high grade flour,Flours differ.This recipe is almost foolproof.in a bowl place.1 c flour,2 Tbsp milk powder,2 Tbsp Sugar,2Tbsp Oil,3 tsp Yeast{Tasti Breadmaker.} 11/4 C warm water.Mix,cover and leave to double in size,then add two cups of Flour and 11/2 tsp salt.Mix then knead for 5 to 8 mins.The Dough should be quite smooth.Put in greased bowl,cover and leave to double in size.Once this has happened,tip out onto bench and knock back,reshape and put into Tin,cover and leave to double in size,then into oven,210c for 30 mins. There are a million recipes for bread,but I find this one works well.

buy a bread maker.So easy, makes nice bread, wake up to the smell of bread. Gets the feet moving.

when you start using wholegrain flour etc, they are heavier, you will find that you need to increase the yeast to get the same amount of rise.
Rye bread will keep up to 5 days .and is yummy

Hmmm thats kind of true up to a point, however I have made bread using potato flakes, plain flour and mashed pumpkin.totally awesome. Ive also used plain flour and corn meal.also very good.
The trick is in the kneading.if its not kneaded enough.it doesnt matter what flour you use, lol

Hi. using a mix of wholemeal and white flour works well, as a loaf with only wholemeal flour will be quite heavy. I use 2 cups wholemeal to 4 cups white flour.

Bread can be hit and miss. the yeast, the humidity, the heat of the day, the oven. old flour. so much can alter things.

Basic Ciabatta that I use for 99% of my bread loaf bases.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php!pid=32083365&l=35a7970bc3&id=1225939081(obviously minus the tomato etc flavourings) http://www.facebook.com/album.php!aid=2097349&id=1225939081&l=f605e2b629
http://www.facebook.com/album.php!aid=2070363&id=1225939081&l=dddd6356ac Basic Foccicia that I use for my pizza breads.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php!aid=2076266&id=1225939081&l=b0065520a4
http://www.facebook.com/album.php!aid=2071141&id=1225939081&l=1d79405aef

Thought I'd post beaker's ciabatta recipe here for you to try. It is so simple, and an oft requested bread.

Ciabatta a la beaker:

"OK Ciabatti recipe I used is all in cups and 100% successful so far.

2 cups water
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
¼tsp yeast
A splash of olive oil

Stir up into a sticky dough and leave on the bench for 18hours to rise then split in half and form into two flatish loaves on a baking tray careful not to deflate too much
Leave in the oven for half an hour to prove a bit more then turn on to 190c fan bake for 30 minutes.

Enjoy, I use 3 white to 1 wholemeal flour but traditionally its all white flour
It takes 19 hours but only 15 minutes work."

I understand that the practical skill in breadmaking is much more interesting to you at present but you may want to take out a few minutes to read this article. It is mostly about the health benefits of sour dough, but it has some really interesting information about flour as well.

http://www.danreid.org/health-alerts-sour-dough-health.asp

Sadly we can't all grind our own flour, and even organic flour may not be optimum but it is even less of a good idea to buy flour that is past its use by date.

uli grinds her own flour and I'd love to do that too but as I don't I usually buy organic flour in sealed packaging and store it in my deep freeze.

I'd be happy with the man that readily enjoyed the bread I made. hmmm Recipes Singles Thread possibly.!

I buy my high grade flour from the local Countdown shop = $1.79 for 1.5 kg - that works out to just under $5.00 for 5kg.

I made my first ciabatta yesterday using the recipe from the Alison Holst book. It wasn't easy finding malt in the supermarket but I tracked it down. The ciabatta was so good that I'm making another loaf today

.

Wow, that's a big difference in price. I'm in the Rangitikei area

"He" doesn't exist.hahaha

I hear you re the flour being a highlight. I'm always excited to try out something new I've bought!

Not quite 'nowhere' - we're only 40 mins drive from W(h)anganui or Palmerston North.

I've just had some of my 'new' ciabatta with salad vegies from the garden. Yummo!

A little bird tells me you will still have to take beer. But be careful, you may just be roped into bringing a 'plate' everytime like women are expected to.

I'm looking forward to hearing about your pizza. Once I had mastered bread, pizza bases were next on my list. I made so many I had to give a whole heap away. Am much more practical about that now. Oh and don't forget baguettes.

Oh that's classic. Mine has to be cleaned out at least once a year because of that.

Nah - he will get roped in - like I do - to bring bread rolls every time a BBQ is on in the neighbourhood - and it is so much cheaper to bring some cheap carbs and then go and eat all the meat and salads that all the others provided.

I have found a new way of making bread buns and I am totally chuffed. I bought a couple of muffin pans with rectangle shapes - 8 to a tray.I weigh out the dough (forgotten how much but it comes back to me when I'm up to my elbows in flour), shape and pop into a tin and each bun comes out looking like a mini loaf. Have received much praise and exclamations of wonder for my mini loaves.

Cheating - are you buzzy - what else can one say - you MUST know how to form them so they do not go flat!

In case you sincerely cannot - there are some tutorials - but I am afraid they are in German :(

it is an easy way out I am sure - but my "pride" is still to do a good sourdough "free form" - but then - for beginners your post might be invaluable .

Bows head and bows out .

No we like each other and understand about each others ribbing style. I like the handbag imagery though.

And yep, a bread knife is a great addition to any well equipped kitchen. We like crispy, crispy crusts here and an ordinary knife, even one professionally sharpened all the time, can't really hold a candle to a decent serrated bread knife.

Have you thought about free form bread yet!