More About Baking Bread

I bake my bread in the oven. The loaf that comes out of the breadmaker just doesn't cut it for me. So here are detailed instructions for what I consider to be the perfect loaf of bread.

Firstly, I use Laucke bread mix. I like it. Gives a great loaf every time. It's totally Australian made and owned. There are no added anythings outside of what you actually need to make a loaf of bread. My favourite is the Golden Wholemeal Bread Mix. You can buy a box of 4 pre-measured packs so that you don't need to weigh, mix or measure flours. On the box are directions for breadmakers and for bake it yourself. Even though I mix the bread dough in the breadmaker I use the bake it yourself measures for water.

So for the Golden Wholemeal Bread:

Into the breadmaker goes 2 tsp of yeast (conveniently provided for you with the Laucke bread mix) and 400 mls of warm water. If you like add half a teaspoon of sugar to provide food for the hungry yeast. I then use the jam setting on the breadmaker to get the yeast moving along because it has a 10 min cycle of heating at the beginning of the jam setting. After 10 mins the yeast and water mix will have bubbles and froth forming on top of the water. Add the packet of bread mix and set the bread machine to dough.

When the cycle is finished heat the oven to 200 deg C. While it's heating up place the dough into a greased/oiled and floured large loaf tin or bread tin. Cover it with a damp cotton tea towel and place in a warm spot. (I have a spot inside the loungeroom window where the sun shines through that has been dubbed the "bread spot" by the kids.) The loaf will rise even further! When the oven is hot cook your loaf for 30 minutes or until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it.

Today I'm making bread rolls. I just took globs of dough about the size of small dinner rolls, rolled them into balls between my hands and put them on a oiled tray. The dough made 16 of them. At the moment they sitting in the sun and look to be bigger than a dinner roll but smaller than a hamburger roll. I plan to put them in oven for about 15 minutes to cook so that we will have hot, crusty bread rolls to go with our Beef Bolognaise. Droooooool. Minimal effort for a delicious, warm, crusty bread.

Freshly Baked Bread

A few weeks back I was going through my generously sized pantry wondering why on Earth I didn't have any shelf space. So I thought I'd rationalise and get rid of any appliances which were a good idea the time/were used to death and now we hate them/languishing sadly waiting for someone who would use them and love them. The first thing I pulled out was the bread maker.

Commercial bread is often baked with preservatives, additives and flavours. Of all the food additives, it was bread that was the biggest culprit to contributing to my son's massive tantrums. The very first item I cut from his diet was preservative laden bread. Three days later his tantrums had ceased and my sanity was restored. If you really don't want to bake your own bread ask your local baker if they used additives. If you can't find one that doesn't rest assured that Brumby's bread is preservative free and I found my son didn't react to it. ;)

I used to love the bread maker. There's nothing like waking up to the smell of freshly baking bread. But the loaf it baked wasn't quite right. It didn't gel together properly, had a big hole in the bottom from the stirrer and was really difficult to cut.

Now my friend gamer friend Doug makes his own bread. So inspired by the thought that if Doug could do it, then so could I....  I turned to one of my other friends in internet land (Google) and did some serious research (wandering through blog land oohhhing and ahhhhing over all the delicious recipes with accompanying visually delicious pics). Turns out you can use the bread maker to make the dough and then bake it in the oven!! Who'd have thought!! :) You know what?? It works an absolute treat. It works so well that 5 of us ate a whole loaf for Saturday lunch. ;)

Here's how you do it. 

Step 1 - make the bread dough according to the directions and set the breadmaker on the dough cycle.
Step 2 - Cook it in a preheated 200 dec C oven for 30 mins.
Step 3 - Cut while still warm so the bread can only be enjoyed in big hunks with lots of delicious crusty bits.

A few details. It's all in the details isn't it?

Do you need a proper bread tin? NO I used my large loaf tin bought from the Supermarket.

Remember to butter and flour the pan so the bread doesn't stick coz you don't want to lose any of that delicious, crunchy crust to the bread pan goblins.

DON'T follow the rules!! If you are a teacher/lawyer/judge/rule maker/of lawful good alignment look away now. I ALWAYS put the yeast in with the water. *Gasp* Add 1/2 tsp suger *Double Gasp* and let the yeast activate before adding the bread flour. Your loaf will rise to the occasion every time.

Pizza is a regular affair in our household. Not only does it make it easy to cater to the different tastebuds it's easy, delicious and uses up all those bits and pieces that float around the fridge looking for a home.

There was a time, long ago when unicorns roamed the planet and I regularly used the bread maker to make pizza dough. Somewhere along the line I got busy/lazy/distracted and was buying fresh store bought pizza crusts. So, armed with the knowledge that I was now officially a fabulous bread maker I started making my own pizza dough again. OMG Divine! Why did I stop? I don't remember. But I'm so glad I started making it again.

Here's my really quick and easy pizza dough recipe:

2 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 cup warm water

At this point I like to give the yeast time to activate before adding everything else. I found that the jam setting on the bread maker has 10mins preheat at the beginning on the cycle. Who knew reading the instruction manual could be useful? On a cold, wintry day it is perfect for getting the yeast up and running.

Add:
1 tsp salt
2 tblsp oil (I use a lightly flavoured cold pressed Australian virgin olive oil)
2 cups plain flour

Switch on the dough setting on the bread maker, sit back and relax.  Yeah, it really is as easy as it sounds.

This is enough to make 2 family sized pizzas with a fairly thin crust which will crunch up perfectly in the oven. I cook my pizzas at 240 deg C for 10 mins, turn oven down to 200 deg C and cook for about 7 mins.

To get a really crunchy crust cook the crusts on a tray without any toppings for 3 mins at 240 deg. This is long enough for the dough to hold it's shape and not go droopy when you pick it up. Assemble your pizzas and then finish cooking them directly on the oven rack.  Yummmmmoooooo