Making bread. Does anyone have an easy recipe?

[MmeLindt]

I have a strange urge to make bread. Probably brought on by my new food processor that is sitting forlorn in the kitchen waiting to be used.

My questions:

Can I prepare the dough tonight but bake in the morning?

Do I have to use a tin? I seem to recall my DH's granny making bread without one. Or was that a German bread perhaps that is done without a tin.

Yeast. Is "dry yeast" powdered yeast. That is all I could find in the supermarket here in Switzerland.

And finally, do you have a great but easy recipe?

Thanks

bread bump

If you prepare the dough tonight, you have a dilemma. It needs an hour to rise, but no more. You have to put it in the fridge at some stage - either before after the hour, or before it.

You can make bread without a tin - such as a plaited loaf or rolls.

If the yeast is very powdery, it is probably designed to be added straight to the flour. If it is tiny balls (about 1mm in diameter) then it needs to be activated first by adding to warm water/milk and sugar.

Thanks. It is powder so should go straight in the flour then.

If I let it rise tonight and put it in the fridge, will it be ok to bake tomorrow morning?

Are there instructions on the packet of yaest for you to follow?

If you make the dough and let it rise tonight, then put it in the fridge, you can put it in the oven tomorrow once it has warmed back up to room temperature.

Alternatively, you can get it started tonight, then put it in the fridge once it has started rising - then let it finish rising in the morning.

Btw, be careful that your 'levure' is actually yeast.

One of our French aupairs brought us levure from France, and it turned out to be sodium bicarbonate (a fine white powder rather than a course brown one).

Ok, have made the dough and will let it rise tonight. I will see how late it is when it is done to whether I bake the bread tonight.

I am sure that it is the right levure. It smelt yeasty. I am becoming quite the expert on levure, there is the bicarb one, the proper baking powder and the yeast one. Thank God for google and MN

Thanks for your help, Scienceteacher.

DH is looking very impressed. Hope it turns out ok.

Enjoy your breadmaking, Madame.

I have 'discovered' the joys of making pizza dough over the last year, and I often make rolls. I am not particularly ambitious about bread making but I think you can experiment to your heart's content. The downside risk is pretty low.

I nearly always make my loaf on a baking tray, not a loaf tin.
Often ends up too doughy in the loaf tin.

I did not think of making pizza. Must try that next week.

I am going to go without the tin I think. I only have a small loaf tin and I dont think that it will be big enough anyway.

Thanks all.

Ok, the rolls were good, but a bit too crusty. I used Delia's recipe.

this recipe that I found online is very similar but uses much more yeast. Would adding more yeast make the bread chewier and less crusty?

Mmm, I'm not sure - sounds plausible, but given that it's a French bread recipe, isn't it possible that they will be even crustier?

I think perhaps try the same recipe but slightly less long in the oven? The rolls my mum made were frequently bullet-hard crusts - you might also get a better result with a loaf. Don't worry about a tin - plaited loaf is lovely, or just dump the dough on a baking sheet in a roundy shape.

If you do make rolls again, maybe, once you have taken them out of the oven and put them to cool, try covering them with a damp teatowel?

Use replace half the water with milk for softer rolls.

I made half the dough into a loaf and it was a bit softer. I think that I left the rolls in too long.

I will try using half milk, will that make the soft British rolls that we miss so much?

Yes, milk will give you nice baps. If you give them a heavy dusting with flour before baking, this will protect the tops from getting to hard as well.

You'll just need some bacon and brown sauce to go with them

I can get bacon, just need to source brown sauce.

My DH will think I am fantastic if I can make "real proper Scottish rolls"

Off to make scones now. I love my FP, can you tell?

Thanks, ST.