food 2

I made some bread again yesterday. not everyday as the body won't take it now and i don't get the hang of the bread maker. I've tried shed loads of recipes, different combinations of putting in the constituents such as salt first then yeast, salt then sugar then yeast etc but all to no avail. Sure it's edible but it's not like "what your mother used to make" etc.

Anyway i experimented with adding vitamin C to the mix and it seemed to work really well, so well I've got orders from my wife to make some more tomorrow. The only vitamin C I could find was in some Halliborange tablets in Asda so I used them. The colouring is from beetroot so although it looks a bit purple when you use them it doesn't turn the bread purple, thankfully.

The texture was soft and springy with no holes in it. The crust was dark brown as i left it in a bit too long without turning it around in the oven, so much for a fan assisted oven that evens out the temperature..... It had risen very well and really tasted nice, I mean REALLY NICE... in fact it was better than my mother made,lol.

One other thing I done was after the first rising i knocked it back and then put it in a greased bowl covered with cling film ans left it in the fridge for 24 hours before knocking it back a second time then putting it in the tins for a final rising.

The reason for the fridge was simply that i was too knackered to carry on so rather than waste the dough I reckoned it would be OK in the fridge although I did think the yeast might be killed off with the temperature and thus we might have sour dough bread.... whatever that is.

I've since seen that it can improve the bread by leaving it in the fridge overnight or for 24 hours so I got away with that one. In another article I've read it tells you to bake your bread on a "stone" even in a conventional oven so this must be something like the old stone ovens the older artisan bakers used to use prior to modern set ups.

Still the recipe is as follows,

1.5kg of strong white flour
1oz of fresh yeast
450ml of tepid water at around 100 deg f
2 tsp salt
1tsp sugar.
2 vit C tablets in the water

Method
Put the vit c tablets and yeast in the water and leave to ferment / bubble
Put the dry ingredients in the bowl and make a well in the middle.
Pour in the water mixture and mix it all together.
Turn out onto a floured worktop and knead for 10 - 15 minutes. Leave covered until it doubles in size. Knock it back or knead it again for another 5 minutes then put in a bowl and cover with clingfilm. Put in fridge for up to 24 hours.

Take out and let it return to room temperature for about 2 hours, less if put in an airing cupboard etc.

Knock back again when at room temp and cut into either buns or into pieces that weigh around 800g. Put into tins and cover with a tea towel to rise. When risen bake in a hot oven about gas mark 7 ( 6 for fan assisted) for 35 - 40 minutes. Should sound hollow when knocked on bottom of bread.

This is how I make bread and only offered here as a guideline. You should make sure for your self that all necessary food hygiene practises are followed. Basically this disclaimer means if you get the squits don't blame me.....