Comment thread for Hints for Making Bread by Chookie

[dede]

Yes football can certainly be a rough game, I don't know haw many times my DS 16 has come home with some kind of injury from playing football. He's even been knocked out a couple of time.

[fundj&e]

get him cooking like did with my DS 

[achookwoman]

Yes,  cooking would be a lot better.

[cookie1]

Uni your saying is ever so true.

Chookie I hope your grandson is on the mend and also you and your children dede.
My DD has been diagnosed with whooping cough. She had her last booster in 2005 so they say it's not too bad. She is no longer contagious and is on a different antibiotic and the very best thing is I THINK SHE IS GETTING BETTER. She's been off work for 3 weeks except for the odd day when she went in and they kicked her out again.
She has a conference on next week, but the doctor has given her a certificate to say she can fly and is no longer contagious.

[dede]

Glad to hear she is getting better cookie. What a horrible thing to have
Yes my lot are getting better, still had 2 home from school today (although I thing DS 5 just wanted to get out of doing the cross country)
All should be back to school Monday.

[achookwoman]

Cookie,  how awful.  At least you all know what it is.  Mums always know how things are.  Little fella still not good.  Told us today that he would rather be at school.   

[droverjess]

Achookwoman do you ever use autolyse?
I do this all the time which is why I kept the big kenwood for bigger batches.

Basically the 2 stages I use:

First add flour & yeast and liquid (I almost always use a sponge which can be any age from several hours to days) and knead in TMX 4 mins or kenwood 6 mins.
Wait 15 to 20 mins on timer.
Add salt and fat ( butter or oil) ( and sugar if sweet loaf)
Knead again 2.5 to 4 mins TMX or 3 to 5 mins kenwood til very silky.

Leave to rise until double, can be done all day in covered bowl in fridge while at work.

Turn onto lightly oiled worktop. Fold onto self 4 times, just to get air out. Cover with plastic bowl and leave another 15 mins to relax.

Then shape and allow to prove normally before baking,
( if fridge method used it will take longer to prove before baking)

Am just about to make my English muffins and a loaf for supper tonight.

Oh and you asked somewhere about using your own wheat.
We have grown and used our own milling wheat. We have a small stone mill and use it for teaching children about farming. Last week we taught 3000 children over the course of one day, boy were we tired!
The red Canadia spring wheat we grew was without doubt the best as high in protein. This was on contract for Hovis and we kept back - few kgs.
Every season and every variety varies. Wet summers ( this is England) dry summers all make a difference.
As we can only produce wholemeal I always buy in white flour to mix in and after much testing of brand names and specialist mills I now buy un bleached organic No 4 from Shipton mill.  A good miller is worth his weight in gold as milling is like alchemy.  They blend British and Canadian wheat to get the best results. Family still prefer higher proportion of white. DH thought. Of getting specialist  sifter but I know the results will not be as good as shiptons as the top millers really know what they are doing, and we'd just be playing at it.

Hope all this helps and it is great to meet another great breadmaker and all these  great cooks and lovely people on here.
Thanks to everyone.

[achookwoman]

thanks for the wonderful description of your process.  I'll bet you produce a great loaf.  You would also be a fab. Teacher.   I can't imagine  teaching that many kids.  8 adults at a time is all I can imagine.   Keep up the good work.

[droverjess]

thanks achookwoman very much.
We usually onlydo farm visits, only 30 kids at a time and teach them all bout farming. Give them a ride on a trailer. See the animals, crops whatever is seasonal.
Then we might do dairying, milk the house cow, make butter, separate te cream etc. I have been teaching myself yogurt/ cheesemaking this years add to my repertoire. Crazy thing is I have to buy the cream for butter making as ours is raw milk and that is a no no with environmental health.
Or we do milling and bread etc, or seed planting.
At the last farm a lot ofthesekidswerefrom inner London and had never been in a field before.

DH and I had training for this and we do enjoy it.
Last week was a new experience for us. A whole day. 60 schools with years 3 & 4 ( ages 8 and 9) to learn all about farming. We did milling and arable production and were next to the bakers.  We also did  sifting of the flour we milled. Some of the kids were covered in flour!

I am sure your classes are great. My thermomix demo lady asked me if I did adult bread classes. Never considered it before.

[achookwoman]

Droverjess,  this sounds wonderful,  and such a valuable exercise.  I once taught a class of 13 year olds to spin wool using hand spindles.  Mums and aunts all turned up to help and the kids had a great day.  I think it was a history lesson.  If you are interested in the adult classes I could tell you what i do.

[droverjess]

Thank you achookwoman.  It would be very interesting to know what you do for bread courses. You can always DM me. Thank you I'd love to know sometime. There is no hurry though if you are busy.
I am flat out gardening in between rain storms and other things on the farm as we go away next week to beef expo for 2 days and then have a holiday wooppeeeee! First break for me in a year, and we've moved house twice since then!

[CreamPuff63]

Did anyone see the Fig & Walnut Bread masterclass on Masterchef tonight? Lots of good little hints there.

[Halex]

Yes I caught that by chance. Very interesting, ice in the oven. I must admit I am nt going to heat my oven up for an hour to cook a loaf of bread. I wonder if the recipe is on the wbesite.

H

[CreamPuff63]

the kneading technique was interesting, and also that you proof for an hour but knock it down every 20 mins. There was so much to learn, I'll have to have a search on the net to see if I can find it. The loaf looked absolutely gorgeous.

[achookwoman]

CP, this is Dan Lepard 's method. Tried it in the TMX,  but didn't make any difference.  Thanks. For the info.