Flat, hard, odd tasting home/handmade bread

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uli, Jan 6, 11:42pm
You realize that when you can cut a straight slice of bread from a free form loaf then you are ready to get married! :)

samanya, Jan 6, 11:53pm
"Champion Flour Mills produce around 60% of New Zealand’s flour and cereal based products at two milling sites in Christchurch and Mt Maunganui. "

http://www.championflour.co.nz/net/about-champion.aspx
doesn't say where it's grown, though.

elliehen, Jan 7, 12:39am
0800xford, that's the second time I've seen you use that very naughty word 'marge'.Three strikes and you're out!

You're newish here.be warned: Beware the Butter Police!

elliehen, Jan 7, 4:04am
'Fraid so. I think you've charmed them both with your 'eligibility' and your willingness to engage in free form bread.

Why else would they let you off the hook!

davidt4, Jan 7, 4:29pm
Digging yourself in deeper oxford.

elliehen, Jan 7, 4:45pm
0800xford.you know not what you say.

Those same police do not like Light Blue milk either - they're into fat.the more the better.They even make something called a 'cheese sandwich' with a slab of butter between two slabs of cheese.And they fry everything in duck fat and bacon fat and add fat to everything.

They belong to a group which dare not speak its name ;)

elliehen, Jan 7, 5:00pm
I think you've just reduced your 'eligibility' considerably.cats are often their avatars.

elliehen, Jan 7, 5:09pm
Because they've looked in the mirror and decided the cat will get more hits!

uli, Jan 7, 6:55pm
:) you're welcome.
How is the sourdough coming along free-former!

buzzy110, Jan 7, 8:58pm
Are you escaping to somewhere safe from predatory people out seeking a man who can make fabulous bread then!

uli, Jan 7, 11:12pm
Yes we have had many over the years - I would never buy non-stick anything. What is wrong with a lovely steel fry pan!

It is as non-stick as they come - once you have seasoned it . and much lighter than the terrible cast-iron ones . and in addition it will not shatter if your drop it (because its so heavy) onto some tiles or slates or garden path .

uli, Jan 8, 1:14am
Looks terrible - what would you use THAT for!

buzzy110, Jan 8, 4:24am
As you live in Ak why not pop off to the French Market in Parnell one of these days! In the huge carpark beside the market there is the most wonderful warehouse catering to commercial cooks of all types. Within the confines of this treasure trove of cooking utensils and other stuff, is a range of spun steel frying pans.

They sell to the general public as well.

As uli says, they are light, heat up at high speed and cook steak to a perfection that defies their light appearance.

NOW back to bread.

buzzy110, Jan 8, 2:44pm
Gosh. I don't know about pyrex. I read a post a long time ago by someone who had tried it and the outcome wasn't that successful as it took longer to heat up than tins.

Why not 'size' your dough by taking off about 100grms, placing the rest in the tin and forming the 'sized' portion into a stick or a few buns for the deep freeze! If you have a horde of women who would do anything for a perky man who bakes, then you could just throw directly from freezer, to warm oven to defrost and serve. Yum. From experience I know it is just like coming fresh out of the oven.

Or you could cut in half and use two tins. Now there's a thought.

buzzy110, Jan 8, 2:46pm
And boy. Don't you know your way around Auckland! I think I shall ask you in future when I want some ideas on where to go for something I can't find. It could save me hours of thinking about and searching.

buzzy110, Jan 10, 6:26pm
Or conversely you could get a fantastic, strong and rampant starter from me.

OR, once you have got a viable starter going you could just refresh it the way everyone has been doing for centuries.

Because I am uncertain about what the final starter that you are making will contain -i.e. potato peel, etc, which could go just a tad toxic in a new starter that is being left alone for a couple of weeks at a time, I'd suggest you do this with your very first batch of dough made from your starter:

Make your dough then cut off a small amount, say two tablespoons full, and mix it in with a mixture of equal quantities of pre-boiled water that has been left to cool to 28C or colder and flour. You can use high grade flour or plain flour. It just depends on whether you will be using that starter to make another loaf or making a fresh batch from which to make your next batch of bread. Following me so far!

Mix it all up with a whisk (don't worry about lumps, the growing yeast will deal to those) and put it in a jar or jug with a lid that lets in some air and stow it in the back of your fridge. Mine used to take a week to get 'buoyant' but now, even in the arctic conditions of my fridge, it is working like crazy inside of 2 days. So don't worry if nothing happens for a few days, it will. I keep mine, like that, untouched, for two weeks and then I refresh by taking out a tablespoon full, adding it to another mix of water and flour and returning to fridge.

If I want to make bread with the refreshed starter (as opposed to tossing most of it away and refresh again) I use whatever flour I want my bread to be - i.e. rye, wholemeal or white flour, or a mix, etc.

I find that the cheapest supermarket flour works well just for refreshing the starter. Don't use bleached or sterilised flours (some have tried this but I don't even know where to get them from) as they are essentially dead and will not feed your yeast.

buzzy110, Jan 10, 6:28pm
Do you want a link to the site that I used for basic sour dough and white bread recipe!

buzzy110, Jan 10, 7:24pm
! Now you've lost me. What is yuk! - As opposed to yak that is.

buzzy110, Jan 10, 7:42pm
Oh but it is my pet and it would die if I left it out. It is my substitute cat - 'cause I'm not allowed to get another one just yet, not till I'm in my dotage'. So I lavish all my love an attention on my pet, who lives in my fridge.

buzzy110, Jan 10, 11:00pm
Well congratulations you. You are a very intelligent and intuitive chap in the kitchen aren't you! I like the way you problem solve. Can your mother take some of the credit!

buzzy110, Jan 11, 4:41pm
That is fantastic about the dough. Good dough hydration is definitely the secret to creating a lighter, 'fluffier' loaf.

buzzy110, Jan 11, 4:46pm
oxy. It seems you have a knack for things. The numbers of people who tried to make the starter (which IMO is quite simple if you start in the summer, rather than the depths of winter as my experiments bore out) and failed miserably left me seriously depressed. But you have restored my faith in humanity.

Once your starter becomes strong (not very long at all btw) you will never need to use sugar at all. All the food your yeast needs will be in the flour alone.

When you have made your first successful loaf I'll tell you how to make s/d bread with lots of added mixed grains - e.g. kibbled wheat and rye and rolled oats, quinoa (which I don't like for nutritional reasons) and various meals.

It is not how everyone else would think. I learned this by accident and something juliewn posted in another thread.

buzzy110, Jan 11, 4:55pm
Mmm. I wonder why that would be. I have a Kenwood and a dough hook and have always been lazy enough to make up my dough with that. Though I always hand knead 'cause I love doing that so I couldn't make any comment, except to think about doing some by hand on the bench the way my mother used to and see the difference.

Maybe I should alternate between oxy and ford10 (something to do with my enduring admiration of Douglas Adams!)

gotland3, Jan 12, 7:58pm
Bussy110 . I use the same recipe in breadmaker (used to do the old way) but use only 3/4 teaspn salt and a GOOD splash of olive oil. Also table spoon of black strap. Chopped dates go well too, if not included too early. As i'm single, I usually have a warm loaf of bread for visitors to take away.

buzzy110, Jan 12, 9:21pm
Are you talking about the recipe in the sour dough link I posted earlier!

I know of others who make theirs in a breadmaker. I haven't got a breadmaker. Actually I sort of fell into sour dough by accident when I discovered a shop in Auckland that makes awesome sour dough. They had copies of the Sour Dough Bread and Health on their counter. I read it and the rest is history.

But I have been toying with the idea of buying an ice cream maker so that on the rare occasion I make ice cream, I don't have to keep remembering to haul it out of the freezer and whip it - I'm talking traditional custard ice cream here, not the semi freddo sort.