December 27, 2020 - 3:18pm
Bread making machines?
I baked a loaf of bread today following a standard recipe and it seemed stodgy perhaps someone might offer a reason. My daughter picked that disappointment to visit us and told me she used a Bread Making machine. Bearing in mind mixing the ingredients then kneading that mixture I have difficulty in understanding just how and just how effective a machine could be perhaps someone could enlighten me.
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What's your question?
And what do you mean by "effective" ?
idaveindy, don't waste my time with Trolish comments.
What do you want to do ?New mailCopyI've read through your comment a few times and don't understand it either. Please be civil. Dave was only trying to help!
So let me see...
Well I'll venture an answer. First of all are you making the same recipe? A bread machine and it's recipes are finely tuned with the machine itself acting as a kneader, proofer and oven. Everything is measured out very accurately and perfectly controlled for the given recipes.
When making a loaf of bread by hand a lot more variables come into play and you have to adjust here and there to get a good outcome. One has to go by feel more so.
Sorry. No offense intended.
Your post is just unclear, this part in particular:
"Bearing in mind mixing the ingredients then kneading that mixture I have difficulty in understanding just how and just how effective a machine could be..."
and I was just trying to understand what it is that you are seeking.
You then asked: "What do you want to do ?"
For now, I am going to make lunch.
Have a nice day!
Many thanks for your patience; I have only baked bread once before and a few days ago being fed up with the factory produced bread I decided to have another go. I baked a loaf of bread following a standard recipe and it turned out very stodgy so I was looking for advice on what might have caused that.
My daughter visited us that day and told me she used a Bread Making machine and remembering that I had to mix the ingredients then knead the dough I had doubt in accepting just how effective a machine could be.
My interest in bread baking was awaken by a recent British BBC TV program about country life which showed a Welsh farmer who grew a special type of wheat, threshed it the old fashioned way, ground it and then baked a loaf with the resultant flour which looked superb.
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"... and remembering that I had to mix the ingredients then knead the dough I had doubt in accepting just how effective a machine could be."
Ah so.... This is a bit more clear than your original post. This now explains your misunderstanding.... -- in reality, the machine does the mixing and kneading, not you.
Watch this video for a short, 5 minute, introduction to what bread machines do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNVg_I0IlPw
"What do you want to do ?"
After signing-off here, I will prepare to go out on a shopping trip.
What was your "standard recipe"?
May I suggest: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons/yourfirstloaf
- Preheat oven to 230c, grease and warm bread tin.
- Mix flour, salt and sugar in bowl, rub in marge and stir in yeast. I used a powdered yeast.
- Add water and mix to form soft dough, knead for ten minutes.
- Shape dough and place in tin.
- Cover and leave in warm place for 25 to 30 mins untill dough has doubled in size. Aha, my dough had merely grown an inch or so""""""""""
- Bake for approx. 30 minutes "should sound hollow when tapped).
- Turn out and leave to cool.
What do you want to do ?New mailCopyIf your dough didn't grow as expected in the recipe, likely your yeast were not very active, and that's why your bread was not great. Get some new yeast and repeat. You can check activity of yeast by adding them to the water recipe with the sugar, and within a few minutes should observe bubbling/foaming. If there is none or very few bubbles, the yeast are not going to rise the dough well.
Active dry yeast and instant yeast need to be handled differently, maybe require different amounts I haven’t used active dry yeast for 20 or 30 years. Instant yeast can be added to the flour directly, I avoid having it contact the liquid directly, active dry yeast needs to be proofed before adding to the other ingredients otherwise it is less effective. I have talked to folks that did not realize there was a difference, they just figured same thing different name.
Many thanks for your replies which I've placed on my Bread Baking sheet to reffer to when I've checked the chickens.
As a mide eighties old duffer assesed as vunerable I'm in lockdown and will not be shopping for some time by the looks of it which raises the question;
Can you or anyone else on the forum recomend a dostant shoping outlet for Flour and Yeast in England?
What do you want to do ?New mailCopyhttps://www.bakerybits.co.uk/ for example
the bread machines arent any good and thats the reason that people buy them! They are bored with the tasteless commercial breads tasting like salt and dough.
They arent good for the poor people and neither for the rich one! They arent fast and they produce an ugly loaf shape!