Ping, Just like with growing weed or tuning a bike, change one thing at a time to see what works best....
It's bizarre but it never seems salty enough. Don't forget a decent butter none of this cheap marg or crap butter for home made bread. Something like sea salt president butter mmmmm
Check the butter fat content good stuff is 80% plus most 'butters' are around 60%. My 'mate' Raymond blanc told my wife that. I shit you not
Tastiest loaf ever!! Used loads of salt in the dough this time. That's the secret to breadiest breads!
What did you do, throw it in the tin from across the room? You've got to learn how to shape your dough before it proves and bakes, then you won't get uneven tops and splits in the middle. How much salt? I only use 20g per 1kg of flour, you shouldn't need more than that. And just to show I know vaguely what I'm talking about, here's last night's bake, six wholemeal rolls and a medium-sized loaf, coated in oats and oatmeal:
That looks great. I don't have any tips on shaping, I just knead it, make a rough shape, then bake it. That was my first try with a bread tin. What would you recommend? I previously used about as much salt as you'd put on your chips. That wasn't enough, so I added some more, and more until today when I used the most. I just chuck it in the bowl so I couldn't tell you how much it was. Less than 20g though! I'm more than willing to receive advice on how to improve, but telling me to I need to do something without going any further as to what you mean and how I should do it doesn't help! Your bread looks great
After you've initially kneaded it, and after each time you let it rise, flatten it out with your fingertips and shape it in to a round, something like this: River Cottage Baking recipes: Shaping dough into a round - Telegraph For putting it in a loaf tin, you probably want to flatten it out, roll it up tightly, press and pinch the seam to join it, then tuck the ends underneath before you put it in the tin. Ah, OK... you said "loads of salt", which sounded like you'd used, well... loads. I weigh everything, then add small amounts of water or flour to get the dough to the right level of stickiness. Well, yes, but I was trying to avoid writing an essay on bread-making... you could try searching for 'shaping dough'... Thanks! Putting a good coating of 'something' on before baking always helps. If you're just making a plain white loaf, you could coat it in the flour you've used, or something like rye flour gives a good appearance.
I used olive oil and rock salt as a coat today which is why it's so dark. Perhaps too much salt on the crust but the bread itself tastes very bready. Without salt it tastes of nothing! Now that I can produce soft, tasty bread within the crust, I can start experimenting with flavours, shapes and styles. I might have a bash at brioche sometime too.
I don't think all 1,671 outlets are in Newcastle. there are 17 alone in central London. And 4 in Swindon. We don't have any near Holmfirth
