Moving from breadmachine to handmade bread

[BumptiousandBustly]

Please can you recommend on line recipes or even a book for breads that I can make by hand - either rolls or in bread tins.

Simple white/brown/wholemeal recipes I can make to feed the family.

I would really appreciate it.

Eh?

I mix it in a big bowl, cover with a plastic bag, leave overnight, tip out onto floured table, fold in 3, tuck ends under and tip into preheated floured pan, shove in hot oven for 45 mins, take lid off for last 5 mins, take out, cut and eat slathered in butter.

That sounds much better!!!

and how DO you tip it without getting flour absolutely everywhere???

Why not ask this lady here

Another big fan of no knead bread.
I use an old cracked lecruest casserole.
Add a bit less water than the recipe recommends and oil your hands and surfaces really well as the stuff sticks better than weetabix.
Also sprinkle poppy seeds on top when in the casserole dish and slash top.

taste is amazing and looks fantastic.

Half Sponge Wholemeal Bread Recipe:

Ingredients:

For the sponge:
450ml Warm Water (300ml cold and 150ml boiling)
2 level tsp Dried Active Yeast
350gm Allinson?s Country Grain Bread Flour

For the dough:
350gm Wholemeal Bread Flour
1 level tsp Salt
1 level tsp Soft Brown Sugar
50gm Butter

---

(Optional)
2 tbs Pumpkin Seed
2 tbs Linseed

Method:

Take a large mixing bowl, then pour in the water and yeast. Add the flour and mix up well with a wooden spoon. Cover the bowl with cling-film and leave overnight.

When you are ready to make your dough, put the second batch of flour into another bowl, add the salt and then rub in the butter until it vanishes, so there are no lumps floating around. Mix in the sugar and, if adding, mix in the seeds.

Add the new mix to the bubbling, fermenting brew from the night before and mix the whole lot into a big, stick clump of dough. Scrape the clag from your hands (into the bowl), cover with a Tea Towel and leave for 10 minutes. Give the dough three light kneads over the next 30 minutes then cover and leave for another 30 minutes.

Grease your 2lb loaf pan with butter and then flour. Lightly flour the work surface, then knock back the dough (gentle knead) and stretch into a rectangle slightly narrower then the length of a 2lb loaf pan and about 1? thick. Roll up tightly and place, seam side down in the loaf pan. Cover with a Tea Towel and leave to rise, in a warm place for around 1½ hrs, or until it has doubled in size.

Pre-heat the oven for 15 ? 20 minutes at 240º C (220º C fan-assisted), and place a dish of hot water in the bottom of the oven to give off steam during baking. Dust the top of the loaf with flour then slash the top with a serrated knife. Bake for 20 minutes, then turn the oven down to 200º C (180º C fan-assisted) and bake for a further 20 ? 25 minutes until dark golden brown, remove from the oven and loaf pan and cool on a wire rack.

You won't look back (to the machine) - it's such a satisfying thing to do. Been doing plenty of it myself along with moving house, (hence a sabbatical from MN!).

I tend to use Waitrose organic flours and my favourite recipe is to make 2/3 white & 1/3 malted bread rolls. I basically combined the recipes from the side of the waitrose packs; so there's a bit of milk in the water (from the white recipe) and some honey instead of sugar (from the malted recipe). I find this mix gives the nice malty but light flavour, without becoming heavy and chewy the next day like pure malted. Not that they ever last more than a day in our house!

I always knock it back and rise twice too.

Can't imagine do no-knead as it's the part of the process I enjoy the most. It's like meditation for me!

Have found that the evangelical production line of the summer has dwindled somewhat since the school run kicked in though...

I do the half-sponge method if I work from home - mix sponge in the morning at breakfast (yes, I'm super-efficient and can do yeast sponge and packed lunches and breakfasts and sometimes even laundry at breakfast time - but really it doesn't take any time at all) and leave for about 4 hours (or longer if I have to go into the office). Then do the rest throughout the day when I have time. I tend to do 2 or 3 loaves at one go (energy-saving etc) and freeze them.

It's true you don't get the fun of dough-handling with the no-knead. It's the Dan Lepard method of light kneading that I like best. Real magic.