Bread for the household

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I don't like the bread in the supermarkets. Not the taste, and not the way it's full of additives. There's some good bakeries around, but I can't really afford to buy their lovely loaves too often.

So a few years back I decided to start baking all the bread for the household. Or as much as possible, anyway. Does anyone else (try to) do this?

It was a challenge at first, but I've got it into a routine that works pretty well now. In case anyone would like to give it a go, these are my tips.

First, get a good recipe. I refined mine to suit my needs and ingredients and equipment. This took time, but it now turns out perfect bread every time and I can do it in my sleep.

Equipment. I couldn't do it without my Kenwood mixer. Hand kneading is time consuming. The mixer does the work while I do other things. While proofing etc. still takes time, I have very little active input in the bread making. I considered a breadmaker but I don't really have the space. The timer would be handy though; I can't bake overnight.

Have a routine. When I was working, I got the dough started as soon as I got home to get it done before bed. Now that I'm at home with the kids, I start first thing in the morning and have it ready before lunch. I don't need to bake every day, though once my children grow and start getting hungrier I reckon I will.

Lastly, accept that sometimes it's just not going to happen, and get your bread elsewhere. It's not the end of the world.
 
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I haven't found a really easy to use bread recipe. I have one that I have to spend about 5 hours from start to finish. It is just takes more time than I have right now. If you could share your recipe, that would be truly helpful!
 
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One of my daughters makes all of her family's loaf bread, buns, dinner rolls, tortillas, ect for her family. I taught her to make bread when she was small, but she has gone so far beyond what I taught her. She also makes scones and an Irish bread called baps. She loves to bake and does some kind of fresh bread every couple of days. And occasionally, I am the lucky recepient of a one of her creations.
 
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I started making my own bread a few years ago, when it was discovered that some health problems I was having was due to the additives in commercial bread. I since discovered that to make bread you only really need 4 ingredients:

Flour
Yeast
Water
Salt

In commercial bread, there are no less than 20 ingredients!! That sounds scary to me.

Anyway, I totally agree with drpiggledy about the equipment - I have a Kitchen Aid that takes all the pain out of mixing and kneading by hand. I used to mix and knead by hand when I first started making bread, and it was generally quite satisfying. However, it's not good for even mildly arthritic fingers like mine, so I turned to my Kitchen Aid with its dough hook. I like that I can just throw the ingredients into the bowl and just let it do its thing. I can load the dishwasher or washing machine whilst its doing it - multi-tasking in motion!

Since beginning to make my own bread, I've bought several different types of bread flour, and fiddled around with the recipes on the backs of the packet. I could never get these to my satisfaction, so I turned to bread baking books. I found 'Dough' by Richard Bertinet to be fantastic - it showed me the ropes of getting a really good result at home, and his method really works. The thing that did it for me was the use of fresh yeast. I'd always used the little sachets of dried yeast - which are absolutely fine - but fresh yeast is something else! I try to use it all the time now but it's not always available at the supermarket. My local supermarket used to give it away at the bakery counter; they charge for it now, but at only 50p for a tray of 4 large chunks, I can't complain. I can make 8 loaves of bread with that one tray. I've heard you can freeze fresh yeast too, but I haven't ever needed to as yet. Incidentally, if you do want to have a go at using fresh yeast, just replace the amount your recipe calls for with three times the amount of fresh yeast, for example:

7g dried yeast = 21g fresh yeast.

I think you can dissolve it in water first, but I crumble mine into the flour and just rub it in - like you would rub butter into flour.

I tend to make a few doughs up on a Saturday morning, and bake up several loaves for the week. I freeze it either sliced or unsliced, and I find it a real help to have bread available whenever I need it.

Baking bread is such a homely thing to do, and once you make and taste your own, you'll never go back! ;)
 

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