The New York Times - A New way to make bread?

[Oddley]

I heard on the NYT video, that general purpose flour would be ok to use. I had a hunt in my cupboard and found 350 g Tesco plain and the rest of the weight I made up with Tesco self raising four. I made the recipe as before.

The crumb was much lighter and slightly less of a heavy taste, less crumpet like. I think, I personally prefer the plain flour variety of this recipe. I'm quite surprised really because apart from soda bread, plain flour doesn't usually make good bread.

As an aside the whole loaf only came to about 17p. Up the road in the posh bakers this would cost between �2 - �3. Happy days...

[jenny_haddow]

That's nice Oddley, and not just the price either. I ran out of bread flour once and used Tesco's value plain flour which is rediculously cheap. Obviously I was using my bread machine as I do most of the time, and it turned out a darned good loaf, rose well and good flavour. I tried it with chapatti flour later on and produced a house brick!

[vinner]

The baker whose recipe we are all basing this on prefers plain, unbleached flour for this method. The higher protein count in bread flour demands that it be kneaded to hydrate the four (he says, while eating toasted olive bread with his fried eggs for breakfast). I Googled that bit of info.

i have just turned plain dough out to rest for 15 minutes.

[Oddley]

jenny_haddow
I once had a bread machine, I knocked the stuffing out of it in just over a year. Of course just as the warranty ran out Although I produced some reasonable bread with the machine. I find personally, that I can make a better loaf without.

vinner
It's early evening here, so it seems funny hearing you eating breakfast. I would be interested to hear your view on the plain flour bread.

[saucisson]

That looks very nice Oddley, and after that nugget of information from vinner I'll try plain flour too.

Dave

[jenny_haddow]

Yes, me too.

Your loaf is a nice shape Oddley, what size dish did you use? I have a very large oval cast iron casserole which I used, I have a smaller round one which I was concerned might be too small, but I think I'll use it next time.

[Oddley]

Hi Jen
I use a round Pyrex casserole dish measuring 22.5 cm wide by 7.5 cm high-without the lid.

[jenny_haddow]

Thanks Oddley, that's about the same size as my smaller dish. I was concerned it might rise too high and get stuck to the lid in the cooking, but its not really that kind of bread.

[saucisson]

My cast iron pot is 22cm, pretty much the size of Oddley's pyrex, it seems just the right size for this size of loaf. I had only 145g plain flour left so I have tried an even sloppier mix with all self raising.
Slice of cake anyone

Dave

[vinner]

Not sure how this bread will taste, but the kitchen smells great. We had neighbors over to pick lemons, grapefruit, tangerines and oranges from the trees,and we could smell the loaf from outside. They are curious, thinking what kind of production is going on in this striclty residential district.

[Terry]

Here's my effort. Followed the recipe using bread flour with a mixture of oatmeal and flour on the tea towel. Baked in a cast iron pot with a 20cm base. It's nice and crusty and slightly chewy and makes great toast.




Terry

[saucisson]

They are curious, thinking what kind of production is going on in this striclty residential district.

I've been surrepticiously smoking a christmas ham, salmon, loin chops, herring, cheese and garlic for the last 24hrs in a residential area hoping nobody notices, mind you it is 10 degrees C outside.

Terry, your bread looks great!

Dave

[Terry]

Thanks Dave, I was a bit dubious about using a tea towel to do the final proving in as I know how dough sticks to things when I have made focaccia and ciabatta in the past, however it came away cleanly and I just chucked it in the pan like the guy in the video did.

Terry

[saucisson]

The NYT recipe with bread flour and Oddley's quantity conversion, mixed in a bread tin, risen in the tin and popped straight into a 240 C oven after 24 hrs, uncovered, for 36 minutes. So, a minutes mixing and no further intervention before putting it on the oven the next day.



A fine crumb, still a bit crumpet like.
Still a nice loaf.

Dave

[Oddley]

The question I set out to answer was, is this truly a better bread recipe. The answer for me is no. The crust is really good, the taste is nice, the texture lets it down I'm not over keen on it.

I'm going to keep experimenting with something like this recipe to get:

1. Good crust
2. Good Taste
3. A nice rustic holey look
4. A light fine crumb

What I come away with, is the knowledge how to make an excellent crust on any bread.