Wholemeal Loaf

I love cooking, but successful bread making has always eluded me. My loaves were very hit-and-miss affairs — too yeasty, not risen enough, dense and heavy as bricks. My soda bread was fine, but any other type was a disaster. Some of you kindly sent me your own tried-and-tested methods in response to this plea. I carefully followed the instructions for a white loaf and a wholemeal loaf, but still no luck.

I'm not one to give up easily, so yesterday I had another go, having found this piece in the Guardian. Success! Dan Lepard's recipe for wholemeal bread is simply brilliant. It's unusual in that you add half a crushed vitamin C tablet and melted butter to the mix. Also the dough requires hardly any kneading. The result is a pleasantly light loaf with a soft open crumb. You can find the recipe at the end of the Guardian article. (One tip: keep the dough nice and soft, on the wet side rather than too floury.)  

Bread

Here's two I made earlier: rather (ahem) rustic-looking soda breads. They are ok, but I prefer them sliced and toasted and spread with butter and jam the next morning.

I've tried making my own bread for years, but it's been very much a hit-and-miss affair. Some loaves have turned out fine; others not so well. Like all cookery, it's an art and a skill, and you've got to get it right. It seems to me there are so many stages where you can go wrong: flour not fresh enough, yeast too old, not enough yeast, too much yeast, water too hot, water too cold, under-kneading, over-kneading, too quick a rise and so on. A common problem I have is for the finished loaf to be too dense and moist in the middle, and for it to have too 'yeasty' an odour. If you search the internet for solutions, it's a minefield, and would probably put you off breadmaking for life! I'm thinking of drastically slowing down the proving time, as I'm assured this will produce a better, healthier, tastier loaf. I wonder if anyone out there has a bread recipe they've been using for years and is absolutely foolproof?

Soda Bread

Inspired by Riverdaze's simple, authentic recipe for soda bread, I thought I'd give it a go. Soda bread is an Irish staple food. It's been made in Ireland since 1840 when bicarbonate of soda (soda powder) was first introduced into the country. The kind of wheat produced in the wet Irish climate was not ideal for breadmaking using yeast as the leavening agent - so bicarbonate of soda was used instead. Buttermilk reacts with the baking soda to form bubbles of carbon dioxide and - hey presto - you've got a risen loaf.

There are 2 basic kinds of soda bread - the traditional round loaf, and the flatter griddle cake or farl cooked on a griddle. I tried the loaf. No messing about with lengthy kneading and waiting, and kneading again and waiting, in this recipe. It's quick and straightforward. You could make some when your friends drop in for coffee and they'd be eating it before they left. It's great warm and fresh, and fried in bacon fat, or served with jam, cheese or marmite (yeast extract) - anything sweet or salty.

Based on Riverdaze's recipe, I mixed together 4 cupfuls of strong white bread flour with a teaspoon of soda powder and a teaspoon of salt. So far, so easy. And it doesn't really get much more complicated than that! I stirred in nearly a pint of buttermilk (actually I didn't have enough buttermilk so I used half ordinary semi-skimmed milk) and formed a rough, sticky dough on a floured surface - just as you would in ordinary breadmaking. But I only kneaded it for a few minutes before it was knocked flat, shaped into a circle and placed on a greased tray in a very hot oven. After 40 minutes or so it was ready. Delicious!

At Riverdaze's suggestion, we ate some with a beef casserole I'd made earlier (diced stewing beef, onion, carrot, potato, swede, parsnip, celery, garlic, a little oil for searing and a little flour for thickening, beef stock, beef extract, some passata with basil, seasoning.) They worked pretty well together. Double delicious!

(Authentic soda bread has a cross scored on the top. Although thought by some to ward off evil spirits, the cross probably has a more practical purpose - to aid the cooking process, and to facilitate cutting the bread into 4 quarters when ready to serve.)

Read my other breadmaking post here.

Bread And Wine

I'm descended from a line of flour millers on my father's side and bakers on my mother's side - so I must be genetically predisposed towards bread making. Yesterday I made a loaf of bread.

I activated some dried yeast granules with a little sugar and warm water. In a bowl I mixed together seeded white bread flour and salt, and rubbed in some butter. To this I added the frothy yeast and stirred in some more warm water. I hand mixed to a soft, sticky dough and kneaded for 10 minutes or so on a floured surface - until I had the right elastic consistency. I shaped the dough and placed it on a greased baking tray, then put it in the airing cupboard under a tea towel. After about 2 hours the yeast had done its magic and the dough had doubled in size. I stuck it in a pre-heated oven and baked it at a very hot temperature for 35 minutes. Finally I let the finished loaf cool and firm up for a while on a cooling rack, after checking it was baked properly by tapping it underneath (if it sounds hollow it's done). We ate it with butter, cheese and pickle, and washed it down with red wine. It was absolutely delicious.

I do urge everyone to make their own bread - at least now and again. I feel strongly about it. The above recipe is just a plain old basic one - but there are countless recipes and variations. I'm interested generally in food and drink, and in cookery - but making bread is the best thing. It's healthy, it's physical, it's sensual, it's easy, it's creative, it's fun, and...

... it's pure alchemy.