What are you baking?
- Thread starter kittyP
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polly
Well-Known Member
I thought they were brownies for a celebration, not Celebrations brownies
<3<3 They deffo look too thick - you can't use those. Just send them to us and we'll dispose of them for you 
Biddlybee
making knots with sticks
They were left at the picnic to be disposed of, sorry love.I thought they were brownies for a celebration, not Celebrations brownies
polly
Well-Known Member
I was joking, they look amazing! No such thing as too thick xx
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
My third loaf. Keep changing ingredients, but used the no kneed sough dough method. Fuck yeah. Leaving it that long gives it that wonderful really sough taste. Ive just had my second Ham and pickle sandwich, despite not being that hungry. Rose is a weird way though.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
So I think I want to buy a food mixer, mostly for baking bread. Has anyone used this Kenwood Chef?
Kenwood KM330 Stand Mixer, 4.6 L, 800 W - White: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home
Kenwood KM330 Stand Mixer, 4.6 L, 800 W - White: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
How would that help you bake bread?
Bread dough is too dense for a mixer.
It's really best to mix it with a big wooden spoon and knead it by hand unless you have a bread machine.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
They come with dough hooks so it makes the kneeding process quicker and easier.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Ah ok, was thinking of those weird little beaters. Can they knead though? I've wondered how bread machines manage to get the air into the dough.
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
That doesn't look as though it rose all that much. What flour was it? Also, I detect that you didn't use a casserole dish with a lid. I think this does help as it makes the bread steam for the first bit of baking. You can use a pyrex one if you don't have a cast iron one - anything you can superheat before the dough goes in.
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
Bread dough doesn't need air in it particularly. You knead it to stretch the gluten strands. The gas that makes it rise is generated by the yeast (or sourdough, or if soda bread, the bicarb).
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
I used mostly white with a bit of rye in for flavour. I didn't use a casserole dish, your right, I just have a large bread tin which is all I currently have.. It rose more then it looks, so was a nice loaf, but, yeah could do better. I'm going to see if I can find an old floor tile to use as a bakers stone. I did have a roasting tin full of boiling water, but apparently that's even better if you get that really hot as well before the water goes in to make more steam.
We're dead quite at work at the moment, so my colleague was baking bread and showing me what dough should look at different stages and different types, which was really helpful! Garlic butter was pretty special as well.
I actually found myself watching you tube videos last night of people kneeding bread.
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polly
Well-Known Member
I don't have that Kenwood UnderAnOpenSky - mine is smaller, I think - but the dough hook is brilliant. I don't use it for sourdough because I use the method RubyToogood mentions, but it's great for normal bread if you're in a hurry.
Eta that's a bloody good price for a Kenwood though!
Eta that's a bloody good price for a Kenwood though!
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
I can see me making a lot of bread. I've wanted to do it for ages, but with my GF being gluten free it didn't seem worth it. Now that's stopped I can bake for both of us.
Next up I think is get my naan nailed and do a Focaccia half as good as my work mate cooked.
Next up I think is get my naan nailed and do a Focaccia half as good as my work mate cooked.
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
I would get into the swing of it and find out what you need as you go along rather than buying a lot of expensive equipment up front.
polly
Well-Known Member
You can definitely better that focaccia! It looks a bit anaemic to me. I have a good recipe, unfortunately by the enormous arse, Paul Hollywood. Will post up in a bit.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Awesome. That would be great polly. Think it was so good as it was hot and fresh and the garlic butter was amazing.
Definitely here what your saying RubyToogood, but also wanted to strike the balance with something that will last. Can't see my interest in cooking declining and it can be used for other things like mincing meat.
Definitely here what your saying RubyToogood, but also wanted to strike the balance with something that will last. Can't see my interest in cooking declining and it can be used for other things like mincing meat.
polly
Well-Known Member
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Thank you. Sounds good. On that note do people have any favourite baking books?
I quite like the little river cottage one I bought, as much for all the stuff before the recipes, but more inspiration is always good.
I quite like the little river cottage one I bought, as much for all the stuff before the recipes, but more inspiration is always good.
pug
Well-Known Member
I got that book (100 great breads) in a charity shop the other day, he is a right knobber but some of the recipes are good.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
I bought a seriously meaty Chef (KMC010?) when we moved into a new house, about 15 months ago. What swayed me towards the top end was my intention to use it primarily for bread, when I CBA to hand-knead. (I keep my starter at room temperature, which means it... kinda has to be used every day. Perhaps every two days, at the outside).
Reading up on the machines, afaict the main significant difference is in motor power and frame build. And in the construction of the gidgets that come with it (though that struck me as pretty insignificant). I have a feeling (though I'm not sure / can't remember) that some of the Kenwoods don't have a fully metal frame, which slightly bothered me, as I'm not allowed to keep it out and I thought I might drop it. And I wasn't sure about the sturdiness implications for stiff work.
And motor power - on reading up - seemed to be mostly relevant to... bread baking. Particularly if you want to knead large amounts of dough, IMU that's one of the highest / higher power consumption thingies that machines can be put through. That swayed me towards getting a top end Chef though, tbf, it was priced at about £260-270 at the time. Subsequently, they seem to've stayed (on Amazon, at least) at daft high prices.
Most days, ours kneads a couple of kg of dough, and does an exceptionally good job of it. The dough hook does everything you'd want it to. And is great for e.g. focaccias if / when your recipe calls for a very long bit of machine kneading indeed. (The bread course I went on gave us a recipe which I still use, which requires about 15 mins of machine kneading of wet dough, at v high speed, at the outset. It'd be physically impossible by hand / without a machine).
edit: and the creaming attachment is properly, properly tremendous for cakes.
Can also throw in a cup of water up the sides / across the floor of the oven for an instant flash of steam. It'll be fine. Just beware if you have a baking stone, as the temperature shock (if it's splashed) can cause it to crack. Would also cheerily recommend a peel if you're getting a stone - allows baking directly onto the stone (rather than mediated by the bottom of a tin), which gives better oven spring.
edit: and I'd cheerily recommend exploring sources of flour, if you're going to be baking regularly. I was picking up stoneground organic at £12.50 / 16kg from the farm gate in North Yorkshire, but then got speaking to our local organic baker. (Who ran the course I went on). He's now selling me sacks of ^^^ the same stoneground organic at £10/16kg, and sacks of Shipton Mill strong white (organic) @ £8.50 / 16kg.
Which is ridiculous.
The attached is today's loaf. (Its beauty suffered a bit from being carried into work in a backpack). It's a >2kg organic white. Total cost of ingredients: 62p.
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