to dislike my hone made

[bucketbetty]

Bread.? It just doesnt taste right. I know its not very exciting, but I'd love to make a nice loaf but can't seem to achieve it. Any recipes or hints? Ps. Only have microwave oven oven.

Home not hone. I'm on my phone.

Buy a bread maker?

What Worra said!

Uch no worra, surely there's a way? I refuse to believe I can't make good bread. Mine is reminicent of a cheap diluting fruit juice with a bad after taste. Im doing something wrong.

yes yes, you need to use the sponge method!

take 600ml lukewarm water and a couple tsp sugar, mix sugar in. add 2 sachets quick action yeast. stir in 500g bread flour

leave to rise until it looks about doubled

mix in another 500g bread flour, 2 tbsp olive oil and some salt and knead for 10 minutes (4-5 if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook)

divide into 2 and put into tins. leave to rise again for about an hour or so, or until it's doubled again

put oven on to about 200 degrees and put tins straight in! don't pre-heat it. bake for around 30-35 mins

oh gawd, hang on... do you really only have a microwave????

Yes thisisyesterday, a micro with an oven built in. It's a good one but maybe not ideal. I only used one yeast and didn't knead long enough. I'm following our recipe above. I also over baked it, twas brick hard.

is it quite big? can't imagine fitting a large loaf in a microwave lol

Ha ha. Yes, its a big micro but tis also an oven. I really must get a new oven. I had to throw the loaf in the bin, it was bloody brick hard and not very nice tasting either. I'll wait until u get my new oven.

Use fresh yeast. Makes all the difference. You can but it online from Bertinet Kitchen. In fact, go on one of their bread making courses if you can. My bread is faultless, really lovely since I did.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2060/easy-white-bread

this is the recipe i use and my oven is SHIT. I let it rise in a warm place for at least 1h then knead it again and shape it on the tray i am going to use to bake it and let it rise again covered by a tea towel for 1-2 hours then whack it straight in the oven. I use Lidl's own brand bread flour and yeast.

this is how it comes out

i41.tinypic.com/b6tyrr.jpg

beaten egg on top and cheese optional

I am normally a really shit cook and i found this literally foolproof.

you can get fresh yeast in most supermarkets with a bakery dept....tesco used to give it away.

You do have to knead it properly and also I'd recommend the sour dough method if you intend to make bread often. Similar to the herman cakes, you have a starter which you keep and feed, and you use that to start off your loaf, so you save on one of the rises I think...it's been a while since i did bread, but the sour dough is definitely nicer.

I always felt there was something cakey about home made/bread maker bread but sour dough is fab!

Use good quality ingredients (dried yeast is fine), make your dough very soft (not stiff), knead it until your arms ache and then knead it some more (this activates the gluten). Above all let it rest and rise for a decent length of time before you put it anywhere near the oven. Leaden bread is usually under-risen, inadequately kneaded, made with poor flour or the yeast is old.

Just read you only have a microwave oven. Those things are only good for heating up peas...

We also have a combi microwave/oven and grill, and we bake our bread in it. It turns out fine.

We use the Dives Farm wholemeal bread recipe, but use fresh yeast, which we buy from Morrisons, which normally has a 3 week use by date on it.

We also put a 1/2 tsp vit c powder in, as wholemeal can be a bit dense. We bake our bread for 45 minutes on 180 degrees c. Is yours a Panasonic?

Doves

It's a DeLonghi combi and it really is pretty good, but I suspect not as good as the real thing. I think my yeast was out of date and my flour is wholemeal, so yes, really dense. I guess it's probably worth investing in some good flour and yeast.

Cogito I literally have tears rolling down my face, DH thinks I have gone totally mad when I told him what I was laughing about.

i do no knead bread almost every day, mostly white, with half a cup of wholemeal, use normal plain flour if i've run out of bread flour. left 18-24 hours and cooked in a large le creuset at 250 degrees, with lid off for last 15-20 mins.

better bread than even borough market's finest sourdough

google jim lahey no knead bread.

YABU to make bread when you could be making muffins....

Whatmeworry.... muffins are just as bad the bread - except instead of being able to knock a hole through a wall I can only knock a hole in someone's head.

My life is so incredibly dull I thought I would share my joy at baking lovely sultana scones in my combi this morning for breakfast. See, not just good for heating up peas. :)

second the sponge method.
I do it slightly different:
mix 1cup of flour with 2cups of water, add half a teaspoon dried active yeast (tastewise closer to fresh yeast than fast action one).
leave for at least 6 hours.
then add 500g flour, 1 tablespoon oil, half a teaspoon salt.
knead well and leave for about an hour. then shape the loaf and leave again for a bit.

if you want a crust preheat the oven to as hot as it goes, put boiling water into a baking tray in the bottom of the oven. when it is hot and steamy put in the loaf, turn down the oven to around 180(fan oven) or 200 and bake for about 50 min- 1 hour.
if you don't like crusts so much (I'm looking at you, dc), don't preheat the oven and bake at 175 for 50-60 min.

Catsmamma
you can get fresh yeast in most supermarkets with a bakery dept....tesco used to give it away.

OT - I was once in Tesco and it was pracrically devoid of own bakery bread.
I asked a member of staff why and he said they "Didn't have any yeast".
Err, who was in charge of ordering in that department? Pathetic.