Experimenting with Bread

[faffa_70]

Thanks for the tip andie.

Yes, my oven is fan forced, Andriani.

More recently, I've been baking my bread at around 220C when I do bake. It's too hot here, so I've been buying my bread....

Just catching up on all my unread threads here 

When it has been hot here I make my dough, do the first rise, shape the loaf and do the second rise in the fridge over night, Then cook the loaf when we get up at 5am before it gets too hot - was the only way that I could do it - even with air conditioning!

[meganjane]

  You get up at 5 am to bake bread?? Good grief, there's no way I would do that! Your family are very, very lucky.

[TheCrone]

Trying bread in tmx again after seeing this thread.  Was very with out results of the quick EDC versions.

Now to find the perfect Italian crusty loaf....

[meganjane]

Hope it works for you!

I'm baking a crusty Italian Loaf right now, so I'm also crossing my fingers! I'll let you know if it works out.

[Greyhoundmum]

Hi rather than start a new thread I am posting here but it is a very general  question and also quite a dumb one!!!
so here goes...

I want to cook a large loaf in my cast iron pot, do I cook with lid on the pot or off?? 😄

[Bonsai]

Chookie advises to cook with lid on for first 30 mins then lid off for last 10 mins. adjust the times to suit size of loaf. I tried this on weekend and it worked for me.

[fundj&e]

bonsai is right GHM.

[Halex]

Halloween Fun

I am making a spider dip  bowl & 3 cauldrons for dip.

I was thinking of adding black food colouring to the water when I make the dough in the hope to get black cauldrons & spider.
Has anyone added food colouring to dough before & if so how did it turn out?

H

[achookwoman]

H,  I have add color to egg wash to brush over bread.  Not all that successful.

[Wonder]

H i've added colour before many years ago and from memory it worked quite well. I'm not sure how you will go with black because you would have to use quite a lot to get the dark colour. I also used to use saffrom threads which gave a fantastic yellow colour to the bread.

[Halex]

Ok, thanks, will need to use a lot. Might trial the cauldrons today as I can freeze them if they work well.

Ds & dh had great delight in eating the legs last night

[judydawn]

Hally, scroll down and check out farfallina's coloured bread here.  She uses squid ink for the black section - guess you wouldn't be keen on using that though with your seafish allergy?

[achookwoman]

A lot of black color is actually very very dark blue.

[Delightful Den]

Even when you get true black food colouring (usually only available from specialist cake decorating supplier) the result is often grey as the white colour of the dough or icing dilutes the black.

[Frozzie]

H the tip is when you want black cake or bread whatever that you use mainly cocoa then just a bit of black food coloyring and u get black without the bitter..