bread flour, baker's flour, plain flour

[gertbysea]

is the gluten flour available at coles  or woolies 

so far i have been more than happy using plain flour .

Are you saying Uni that  you have been using only plain flour for all the wonderful breads you make?

Gert

[fundj&e]

yes the no name stuff,my bad

[gertbysea]

yes the no name stuff,my bad

You don't  add anything to it?  Amazing.  Goes to show eh?  I just buy the 5 kilo sacks of Kookaburra or whatever  when on special but now..........

Gert

[fundj&e]

just the normal stuff + bread improver

[jkmt]

I get gluten flour at the health food shop, or occasionally one of the big fruit and vege grocers that have lots of exotic things you don't see at the supermarket.

[fundj&e]

thank jkmt ,i will try some just to see if theres any difference.

[stacelee]

Most of my bread baking is done with just the plain flour....no bread improver, no gluten and it seems to turn out fine.  I was buying bread flour from Global Trading here in Underwood, but I kept running out of time to get there so I was just using whatever flour I had at home (which was normally cheap home branded aldi, woolies etc).  The main recipe that I add the gluten flour to is a rye bread recipe from the "Hot Bread Book" for bread makers, and that is only because the recipe asks for it.  My main recipe is 400g water, 1.5 tablespoons oil, 600g flour and 14g yeast and 1 tsp salt.  That makes a pretty nice loaf/rolls that normally only last one day (my 16/17 year old is fussy and won't eat day old bread.....so I bake every day....and yes I have told him he is a spoilt brat).  The rye bread is normally a weekend recipe because it takes me a little longer to get the ingredients out of the cupboard.  My family are going to suffer for the next two weeks because I will be putting in 11 hour days at work and won't have time to bake, so store bought bread it will probably be unless someone else finally works out that making bread is not that hard!

[achookwoman]

Stacelee, your recipe has nearly twice the yeast that many other recipes have.  This compensates for the low gluten in the flour that you are using.  It also has a higher percentage of water.   This is what the commercial bakeries do.   Water and more yeast with cheap flour make for more profits.  If this works well for you,  go with it.  Everyone likes something different in their bread,  this is what makes it such a challenge.

[stacelee]

I just had a look at my original recipe....its actually a Bourke Street Bakery recipe.  It states 14g fresh yeast, which would work out to be about 7g (give or take) active dry yeast.  I am a bit of an ADHD cook so I flick between fresh and active depending on what I can easily get at the time...the recipe also is supposed to have 20ml buttermilk which I only add when I've actually got it in the fridge.  I always have a bit of the last batch sitting in the fridge which I dump into the new batch...I think each loaf now has a bit of dough that dates back at least six months which probably adds to the flavour.  As I said I'm a bit of a ditz when it comes to cooking and I dump in whatever takes my fancy so it can have anything from chia seeds to left over olives and sun dried tomatoes in the end result...I only follow a recipe to the letter if I am going to be feeding people other than my own family.  Then I am paranoid about poisoning people (i.e whether it is edible)....my own family eat whatever it is or starve....luckily I don't have too many disasters.

[achookwoman]

Love your description of how you make a loaf.  I'll bet they are all different and great.  You are using 3 raising agents,  yeast, buttermilk and sour dough.   Great,  this is what many commercial bakeries do and call it Sourdough.

[Amanda]

Interesting that this is a Bourke Street Bakery recipe. I've got that book and am not in love with it at all. I've not had any resounding success with it yet.  In fact a good friend of mine who is a brilliant sourdough bread maker said she threw her copy of this book out!

I just had a look at my original recipe....its actually a Bourke Street Bakery recipe.  It states 14g fresh yeast, which would work out to be about 7g (give or take) active dry yeast.  I am a bit of an ADHD cook so I flick between fresh and active depending on what I can easily get at the time...the recipe also is supposed to have 20ml buttermilk which I only add when I've actually got it in the fridge.  I always have a bit of the last batch sitting in the fridge which I dump into the new batch...I think each loaf now has a bit of dough that dates back at least six months which probably adds to the flavour.  As I said I'm a bit of a ditz when it comes to cooking and I dump in whatever takes my fancy so it can have anything from chia seeds to left over olives and sun dried tomatoes in the end result...I only follow a recipe to the letter if I am going to be feeding people other than my own family.  Then I am paranoid about poisoning people (i.e whether it is edible)....my own family eat whatever it is or starve....luckily I don't have too many disasters.

[achookwoman]

Interesting that this is a Bourke Street Bakery recipe. I've got that book and am not in love with it at all. I've not had any resounding success with it yet.  In fact a good friend of mine who is a brilliant sourdough bread maker said she threw her copy of this book out!

I just had a look at my original recipe....its actually a Bourke Street Bakery recipe.  It states 14g fresh yeast, which would work out to be about 7g (give or take) active dry yeast.  I am a bit of an ADHD cook so I flick between fresh and active depending on what I can easily get at the time...the recipe also is supposed to have 20ml buttermilk which I only add when I've actually got it in the fridge.  I always have a bit of the last batch sitting in the fridge which I dump into the new batch...I think each loaf now has a bit of dough that dates back at least six months which probably adds to the flavour.  As I said I'm a bit of a ditz when it comes to cooking and I dump in whatever takes my fancy so it can have anything from chia seeds to left over olives and sun dried tomatoes in the end result...I only follow a recipe to the letter if I am going to be feeding people other than my own family.  Then I am paranoid about poisoning people (i.e whether it is edible)....my own family eat whatever it is or starve....luckily I don't have too many disasters.

Amanda,  I also have this book, but have made nothing from it.   I don't know why.  Must have another look and see.

[Amanda]

Chookie, I'll be interested to see what you make of it. I had dismal failures from it and know of several others who had similar experiences.

[achookwoman]

Amanda, will have another look at it.