Anyone here make all there own bread?

[LauraNorder]

I can't believe I didn't do this years ago.

For Lent I decided to make bread (In a breadmaker) everyday and stop buying sliced bread - and I've amazed myself and done it, ok I have a few weeks til the end of Lent but it's now a habit and I can set the bread machine up in a commercial break.

If you have a bread machine really you should try it! I've had a bread machine for years but hardly used it.

We do, well DH does, set's it every night and we only buy 1 small loaf of sliced bread every other month which we keep in the freezer and use for the weekends when we can't be bothered. We've been doing this for about 2 years now, since we went on an economy drive. We make rolls and pizza dough at the weekends too.

My tip is to buy the most expensive bread flour you can afford - we used to buy shop's own brand but ran out a couple of weeks ago and bought Allinson from a local shop (at twice the price!) but the difference in the bread and the time it stays fresh for is amazing and for us, worth the extra £.

Why have I put an apostrophe in sets?! Apologies for like-minded pedants :)

We make all our own bread. Usually in the bread-machine but occasionally branching out into pizzas and bread-rolls. I agree with DHU above.... no point skimping on the quality of flour. Garbage in = garbage out. :) The difference in price is minimal.

We make our own bread too. And I second what everyone has said about good quality flour. We use Carrs breadmaker flour. A good machine also helps. But it's so easy and so lovely, I really don't understand why most bread machines are gathering dust at the back of kitchen cupboards!

Friday is pizza day, so we make our own dough too. Lovely!

I make almost all my own, we don't have a breadmaker so I do it all by hand. Sometimes I buy a few rolls fromt eh local shop if I've been knackered the evening before and have not made any but otherwise we make it all, make the pizza dough for Saturday pizzas, cheesy breadsticks to have with soup at the weekend and so on.

Have started making all our own bread here also. Got really fed up with the cardboard sticky cotton wool bread and also the amount of "extras" in shop bought bread.
We dont have a breadmaker so I do it by hand or if I am feeling lazy I do the initial mix and knead in the Kitchen Aid, but always finish off with a hand knead.

Bonus is that DH now taking sandwiches to work every day and not buying - which is cheaper! Also have started to introduce very dilute quantities of "grained" bits and the DDs dont seem to mind!

I use Doves organic flour - 50/50 (ish) wholemeal and white or Allinson - have some rye and spelt flour in the cupboard to try - just need the time to get the rye bread started as you need to make a starter batch and leave it - also we dont have the yoghurt etc needed for it in the house.

Cant recommend highly enough though. It really is fantastic knowing exactly what is in the daily slice and so much tastier!

i make all my bread in my panasonic bread machine its fab

however sice being pg i cant bear the smell of it, so back onto sliced bread for a while.

cant wait to get back to it though, its si tastey, easy, and cheaper and quicker than going to supermarket

I make nearly all my bread, except for rolls or baguette every now and then.
I don't like the looooong ingredients lists of conventional bread + it makes dh farty
I mostly use the breadmaker but sometimes make bread conventionally, as it gives a nicer crust.

The majority of the bread we eat i make. I buy a loaf and put in the freezer for emergencies but generally its either home made granary or white. Today i am teaching dd2 to make it.

I lost the instructions to my Panasonic, so started to make by hand. I much prefer a loaf without a hole in the bottom. So easy.

Rather embarrasingly, I made some rolls to help out a friend at a soup and cheese lunch a month ago, and all my rolls went (and not all of her bread went)!

I am very impressed with those of you who make bread by hand. i have my trusty panasonic bread maker to rely on although I tried the Brioche recipe at the weekend and it didn't work! sunken bread, tasted ok.

I use Doves flour and their yeast too. Can't believe it's taken me so long to do this!

At £1.25 a loaf I'm going to give it a go

Anyone care to share their hand-made recipe? Pretty please

We make all our bread ourselves by hand, much more convenient than using a breadmaker.

The trick is to use a minimal amount of yeast one small teaspoonful will do and then leave it to rise till a convenient time for you to bake it. So we often make the bread in the evening and bake it some time the next day, or even the following evening.

The taste is wonderful because the flavour develops slowly and it doesn't taste all 'yeasty'. You also get a fabulous spongey texture. If you brush the crust with water before you put the bread into the oven the top will go crisp and crackly too. Oh, I love home made bread!

Our children have grown up on home made and turn their noses up at shop bought bread but then it is cardboardy, flavourless, dry pap and that's the 'taste the difference' stuff.

Forgot to say we use Sainsbury's bog standard bread and wholemeal flour -- we get through about 10 bags in all a month. Just as good and lots cheaper than more expensive branded flours. Though if we ever get the chance to buy flour direct from a mill that is really lovely.

We've had a Panasonic breadmaker (now on our second, but that's another story) for more than five years now and I haven't bought a loaf of bread for the family in that time. I'm sure it saves us money, there's no worrying about running to the shop because there isn't enough for sarnies or breakfast and it is just sooo much nicer.

My rule of thumb is to put another loaf on once I've started to cut the current one so that it's slightly more solid and easier to cut, but still fresh.

I also do pizza dough, pittas, dough mixture for iced buns and lots more.

Wouldn't be without it.

We make our own bread. I tend to use the breadmaker for loaves but make my own pitta breads/bagels etc by hand. So much tastier and not that difficult. We're just about to switch to using wholemeal flour.

I make my own soda bread by hand but normal bread........I just worry it would turn out like a brick!

Broke out the bread machine this week too. And dusted off my copy of this book. Planning to try out the stilton & port bread this weekend seeing as I have a stash of cheese in the freezer, left over from Christmas.

The loaf I made last night was lovely & to be honest, just used up all the scrapings & odds & ends of every kind of strong flour I had in the cupboard. Was a complete mixture. Turned out fab.

Lidl ciabatta mix is very good in the machine BTW.

notactualllyamum i make all our bread by hand with this really simple recipe....

1kg flour
1 sachet yeast
2 teaspoons salt (though the original recipe was 10g so you may prefer more)
3 cups tepid water

Mix, kneed, prove, rise, knock back, rise, bake (dough on to a hot tray in a hot oven, slash the loaf, turn down a bit after ten) Let me know if you want me to elaborate.

My tip for making by hand is don't be too hung up about times. You can rise and prove dough many times, knocking it back every once in a while till you are ready to bake. I have neglected mine all day before now, scraped it off the work surface and back in to the bowl before knocking back and baking...and it was great for the extra long prove!

I make all our bread by hand. We only buy croissant. If anyone knows how to bake butter-rich dough without it going all oily when baked tell me!

Thanks very much MoonFace

Will get the ingredients tomorrow and give it a go

Couple of questions if you don't mind. What does 'prove' and 'knock back' mean?

Prove is to ripen and expand (to about double its starting size.
Knock Back means just that: knock it back down to nearer its start size.

I see, thanks for that

Will give it a try

To prove shape in to a round (the best way to do this is by tucking all the edges in to the middle, as you turn the dough, so you do it about eight times) flip over so it's smooth side up, pop in a bowl, smear with a touch of oil to prevent drying out, cover with a tea towel and leave a while.

The best yay to knock back is to close your eyes and think of george w bush.

By hand, following what I have read that smaller amounts of yeast, quality flours and improved nutrician which you dont really get with a bread maker. I also like a decent sized loaf.

I have done overnight sponges but havent get got the rise and have been slightly disappointed but cant understand as using recipes out of "Bread Matters".

We are thriving on the little french man - Micheal Roux - white sandwhich loaf. The taste and texture is superb. www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sandwich_bread_loaf_93879 I like using the melted butter and syrup. I sometimes use a wholemeal mix with white flour, using a mix of white and brown allows a good rise as I find wholemeal is too dense.