What sort of bread do you eat?

[Old Hack]

That could be it - I've not been slashing. I'll try this tomorrow.

Cheers

You absolutely have to slash it.

Here's a trick. Oven to as hot as it goes, put a tray in the bottom and boil a kettle.

Using a very, very, very, feckin, very sharp knife (otherwise it catches the dough and deflates it - I use a very sharp long kitchen knife), slash it (if a long tin loaf - slash lenghtways, if a round loaf, slash in cross shape) down to about half way, put it in the oven, shut the door, then pick up the kettle, and open the oven, and pour in the kettle into the baking tray and shut the door quickly; really crisps up the top of the bread.

[moggy]

Tiger Bread.. lovely!

[speling bee]

My absolute favourite breads are Jewish. I like the Russian type white rye bread that you only seem to get from Kosher delis. It has to be freshley baked and then sliced off the shelf. From the same source I also love the Jewish chollah bread.

You can get alternatives from waitrose et al but to me they taste entirely different.

Mmmmm I had forgotten chollah. We can get good sourdough in town.

In two weeks we descend into the gluten free circle of hell.

[AnnaO]

I've been dabbling with bread making over the last couple of weeks, making bread with my kids. One problem I seem to have is with the second rise - it never seems to rise as much as I would like, resulting in quite dense, but still tasty, bread. What am I doing wrong? Could I be leaving the first rise too long, hence my yeastie beasties running out of gas?

Also, while on foodie stuff, anyone got advice on cooking a haunch of venision - I've got one coming tomorrow from the local gamekeeper. Do I just treat it like a lump of beef and roast it pink?

Normie, I did a haunch of venision recently. Put it in one of those roasting bags and roast it @ 150 for 7 hrs. When I picked it up by the bone, the meat fell off. Lovely. (red wine, thyme,bay leaf and garlic went in the bag as well)

[AnnaO]

I was recently reading about the Chorleywood process of bread making which for decades has given us the uniform plastic wrapped bread which makes up the bulk of what's available on supermarket shelves, even the store baked crusty loaf is probably produced by the same method. More yeast than traditionaly made bread as well as added chemicals doesn't make it the tastiest or perhaps even the healthiest of breads.

I remember a thread on here a while back about breadmakers and it seems a few on here preferred to bake their own. I use mine to knead the dough but finish by hand and for soda bread I do it by hand.

So, over to the panel. What do you prefer and why? Would you make your own for economic / taste reasons or is it too much of a faff? Would you pay a bit more for tastier, traditionally made bread?

Cliphead, once you have let the breadmaker knead the dough, do you have to leave it to rise (if so for how long) or is it ready to go into a tin straight from the breadmaker?

[Scrag Meister]

Breadmaker all the way,

Apart from your standard white, brown and 50/50 loaf, I really love the pepperoni and olive loaf and spicy fruit loaf.

Came with a great recipe booklet with loads of ideas.

[Normie]

Normie, I did a haunch of venision recently. Put it in one of those roasting bags and roast it @ 150 for 7 hrs. When I picked it up by the bone, the meat fell off. Lovely. (red wine, thyme,bay leaf and garlic went in the bag as well)

Sounds good - I've got some big foil roasting bags. So that's Sunday dinner sorted out. Not sure I'll tell the kids that they're eating bambi until they've finished. Although my eldest was quite happy with his bunny burger the other week.

[NotAllThere]

I was recently reading about the Chorleywood process of bread making ...

That's because you read this article BBC News - Breakfast, lunch and dinner: Have we always eaten them? didn't you?

[stek]

Warburtons for me, I am from Bolton. Toastie, or Thin, whatever happened to the erstwhile Thick 'n' Thin I wonder????

Warbies crumpets too!

[Old Hack]

Cliphead, once you have let the breadmaker knead the dough, do you have to leave it to rise (if so for how long) or is it ready to go into a tin straight from the breadmaker?

I'd always want to knead it by hand, at any stage. I use a kenwood chef to mix/initially knead the dough, then have five minutes by hand making sure it's all glossy and smooth, also use a bit of olive oil to knead.

Sorry for jumping in CH