Bread Making

[jenny_haddow]

I've found the pictures of the farmhouse loaf I made using 500gr of Tesco's bread flour, 1 tsp salt, 20gr bread enhancer, 1tsp dried yeast and 300ml water. Made in a bread machine, 4 hours from start to finish, I monitor the early stages of kneading and add more flour/water as required to make a good dough.

[georgebaker]

Hi
our Panasonic Bread Maker says not to use fresh yeast.

Anyone use fresh yeast successfully in a bread maker?

George

[jenny_haddow]

Hi George,

I tried it once, although the instruction book said not too. Took me hours to clean the machine afterwards, the dough rose to fill the whole machine. Cleaning the heating element was a real b******d.

Best not to I think, or maybe someone out there has mastered it.

Jen

[wheels]

John

The reason I used SS Milk is 'cos that's what I'd got! Had I have had whole milk I would certainly used that instead - it's what comes of living with 3 women - anything you enjoy eating/drinking, you're not allowed to have.

Jenny
Both loaves look great - I bet your really pleased with the wholemeal that you milled yourself? Was the grain from a local supplier? Or, online? How quickly does the Kenwood Mill process the grain? Questions, questions...

Oddley/John
I agree about the sourdough - the stuff I made before, using grapes in the starter, was disgusting! I'm hoping that the new method I came across online will be better - watch this space!

Phil

[jenny_haddow]

Hi Phil,

I'm certainly going to get more use out of the grain mill. It will grind rice, millet etc as well as the usual cereals. It took about 3-4 minutes to grind 500 grams of wheat. The resulting flour could have been sieved to remove the bran, but I left the lot in, next time I might sieve it to note the difference.

I bought the wheat at a local garden/pet supplies shop. So its chicken feed really. They had some interesting mixed grain bags which I may try out. I shall put a few feelers out though to pick up some grain from local farmers, there should be plenty of it about here in East Anglia.

Jen

[wheels]

Jenny

Wow, that's a lot quicker than I imagined.
The Kenwood Mill is definitely now on my wanted list.

Phil

[wheels]

I give them 2 lots of 5 mins kneeding in the kenwood chef. (Or 10mins in one go if you have a machine that doesn't need a service!).

Phil

What's wrong with it Phil? I thought I'd bought a dud off ebay but after advise from here it has been going strong for several years now...

Dave

Sorry, Dave I overlooked your post.

It's very noisy of late - I've yet to take it to bits to find out why, making the post has reminded me to do it - I wonder if it needs re-greasing as mentioned on this post.

Phil

[saucisson]

That was the thread to which I was referring, so you've saved me having to look for it for you .
That mill is quite an expensive attachment:
http://www.4kenwood.co.uk/cgi-bin/produ ... 0336:73371
though there is one on ebay for a bit less.
Dave

[jenny_haddow]

I bought mine off ebay. With P&P it was about £27.00. It's the latest model which fits the 901.

Jen

[lemonD]

Does anyone have a KM336? Is it compatible with the 901 attachments?

LD

[jenny_haddow]

LD

With Kenwood there doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule when it comes to the attachments. I always ring up their customer service and ask before I buy, they have all the info on all their machines and will put you right. The number is on the Kenwood website.

They have saved me bidding for the wrong item on ebay many times.

HTH

Jen

[clivmar]

Asda are selling Doves Farm Organic White Bread flour 1.5 Kg for 67p. I use Doves Quick yeast 125g £1.10.

I have been using doves yeast for years as it lasts for months and makes perfect bread (for me that is). I normally use tesco's or asda own brand flour but they have run out. So see how it goes.

[johnfb]

What about plain flour versus strong flour. I use strong flour all the time.
Anyone any suggestions?

[wheels]

John

I use strong (bread) flour except for pizza dough where i prefer ordinary plain flour.

Plain flour may be OK though if you use loaf tins - the problem if you don't is that it tends to spead out rather than up!

In the supermarkets is there much difference in price?

Phil

edit: I've just checked ASDA online. Their cheapest bread flour is 48p, cheapest plain flour 39p. To me, it's just not worth the hassle for about 4p per large loaf.

[jenny_haddow]

John,

Plain flour tends not to have sufficient gluten content to achieve a good rise. The strong bread flour we buy here mostly comes from wheat grown in Canada/US where the wheat develops a good gluten quota.

Also, I think a lot of the plain/SR flour we get here has added agents to keep it light (no need to sieve) plus bleaches etc. Having said that, I have made bread fairly successfully with Tesco's value plain flour, but it's rough old stuff compared with Macdougals, which is perhaps why it worked!