Bread Making

[Topdog]

Ok Thanks Dave
Mike

[lemonD]

I used 500g Sainsburys Strong Bread flour. Allisons dry yeast, activated in 350ml water and a touch of sugar, and 2 tablespoons soft bread improver.
Dave

Dave how much allisons yeast did you use?

LD

[saucisson]

About 2/3rds a tablespoon.

[Oddley]

Hi guys, been baking over the last few day's. I've run out of fresh yeast so have been using dried, no, not the rapid, but allinsons dried.

The thing I have noticed is using the same recipe and technique I posted, the last rise to spring in the oven takes 75 minutes. Instead of, with fresh yeast 25 minutes.

I have discovered, that the difference, between really quite good bread using improvers, and masterbaker bread, is the combination of flour. improvers and yeast.

imho Fresh yeast is best.

[Hampshire Jack]

hi i think that odley is right i have spent thirty years breadmaking and would not bake bread without improvers also a good quality tin makes a differernce craft bakers use fresh yeast and so do the superstores jack

[Kitchen Foods]

Hi,
Oddley, how long do you find your fresh yeast keeps for?? I've been thinking of selling it along with my other stuff but am worried that by the time its posted and arrived it will be off, or wouldn't last too long.
Getting it from a friendly baker or a superstore is a great idea as fresh yeast is best.

cheers
Emma x

[saucisson]

Very interesting, all of this.

I bought a bag of Wessex Mill Strong Bread flour at �1.70 for 1.5kg from the local farm shop and the list of local farmers supplying the mill from within 10 miles was heart warming.

However, they chose to put ascorbic acid in it as a flour improver, which took me back somewhat. So I made a loaf without improver, using standard techniques as recently quoted.

It was OK, certainly better than I have made for ages, but not special. I added improver and it was as good as my most recent effort with improver with supermarket flour.

I confirmed this suspicion by using Lidll flour at 48p for 1.5kg (also with ascorbic acid as an improver) with improver and got an identical loaf. In shape form, texture and taste.

My local artisan flour is no better than the cheapest from the supermarket...



Dave

[Hampshire Jack]

Hi,
In my experience there are two types of dcl fresh yeast. One is in a blue packet and the other is in a red packet. The blue one keeps for about 3 weeks in the top of the fridge the red one keeps for about 5 weeks in the top of the fridge. In my local Sainsburys I can buy a block of red for 99p.As I have already said Tesco's will give you a small ammount for free.I have bought fresh yeast on the internet but found that it did not keep very well. The big problem with the internet is royal mail if it is not delivered the next day and the other is it is so cheap to buy in Sainsburys. Hope this helps everyone.
Jack.

[Hampshire Jack]

Hi Saucisson,
For your information Wessex Mill is Clarks of Wantage and as you live in Oxford the mill is based in Wantage and you can buy bulk bags of flour by visiting the mill. I use this flour all the time they are very helpful on any questions you may have. You may want to look at this site. WWW.Freebake. who sell flour at very good prices the pp is also very reasonable. The last time I looked you could buy up to 25kg for £5.95 p&p .
Hope this helps.
Jack

[saucisson]

Hi Hampshire Jack, thanks. The cost of the flour in a 1.5kg bag is the same at the mill as my local farm shop and at only �1:00 a sack saving to pick it up in 10kg sacks from the mill I'd need a grain silo to keep it in for it to be cost effective to go and get it, close as I am. And my bread wasn't any better using it either

Where in Sainsbury's do you find the fresh yeast though? I almost asked at the bread counter today, but bottled out

Dave

[Kitchen Foods]

If you could find out who makes the cheap flour, you may be surprised, it would probably be one of the major mills, the major mills are owned by the same companies who own the bakeries, most also own some wheat fields in canada and other bakery chains worldwide. .
Its the same with bread, there's only really 3 to 4 major players supplying all the supermarket bread, Allied= Sunblest, Allinson, Kingsmill, Bergen. Premier Foods= Hovis, Mothers pride, Nimble. Both these share most of the s/market own labels, including lidl, aldi, spar, co-op etc. There are a few 'independent' bakeries also supplying, Morrisons recently bought a few rathbones bakeries to make there own label breads when rathbones went bust. The third major supplier is warburtons, these only supply their own make, they won't put their bread into another bag.
I would say that premier foods now owns most of the food producing companies in the country!!!! have a look on their website, you will be shocked.
Anyway, enough babble!!! I tend to look at the protein content, higher the better, I tend to buy from my local co-op or Aldi and always get good results. Strong canadian flour is considered the best.
A word of warning, if you start to get bad bread, change the yeast, I have had customers who have had poor results and once they have changed the 'in date' yeast all is fine again, once dried yeast is open to the atmosphere is starts going off as its sucking up moisture. I was going to get some large 1kg bags once off a supplier for re-sale but they told me not to as it needs to be used within a week or so once opened.

God, haven't i wrote a lot!!!!!

Cheers
Emma x

[Kitchen Foods]

For those who like the flour milled the traditional way have a look at the site;

http://www.tcmg.org.uk

I was going to start selling some of their flour but the postage makes it too costly to buy.

[Oddley]

I asked very politely in a large Sainsburys in central London, If they would sell me some fresh yeast, and was told they didn't sell it. My wife asked in a large Asda on canary wharf and was told the same. I managed to get some in Tesco on the A40. Although I really like fresh yeast and stand by everything I said about it, I refuse to pay 33p per loaf to use it, from the Internet.

I find that flour in large sacks have one great advantage, that being, once you have established how much water to add, you can use that percent for the rest. With 1.5 Kg bags, every bag is different, so by the time you have it sorted, you have used that bag. 5 - 10g of water really does make a difference.

[Kitchen Foods]

Oddley is quite right with the water, every batch of flour will have a different water absorption rate so don't be too scared to adjust your water to suit a new flour.
Big Bakeries get a absorption figure with each 20 tonne tanker delivery, this is so they can adjust the water levels if required.

[Hampshire Jack]

hi for fresh yeast in sainsbury ask at the bakery counter in reply to emma iwas talking about the instore bakerys in superstores jack