Making Bread At Home

"THE KIT"

Making your own bread is certainly less expensive than buying from a “Real Bread Bakery” In fact probably for half the cost of a mass produced non- organic loaf from the supermarket you will be able to bake a couple of decent sized loaves yourself. I can assure you it will be fabulous bread even if not quite up to the mark on your first attempt. You will want to bake more and more and be very reluctant to purchase processed bread ever again

My first loaves of bread were rather reminiscent of a house brick, virtually impossible to chew even the garden birds were not terribly interested, and almost unusable except that it made exceedingly good toast. Don’t despair it CAN be done.

To get started you need to assemble a bit of a baking “kit” which although not essential tends to make life a little easier. As you progress and become more passionate about your bread making you may wish to improve your kit.

In my workshops I provide kit to take home. Sometimes this is included in the price, sometimes at an additional cost. 

Large mixing bowl,

I like to use earthenware, but plastic and stainless steel are fine too.

Weighing Scales.

I use digital scales which have at least 2kg capacity in 5g or less increments. In reality any scales will do. I will  always test them for accuracy by weighing 1 kilo bag sugar.

Linen Cloths

You can use clean tea towels; however linen is best as it prevents the bread from sticking. Keep your cloths dry as you do not need to ever wash them. Try a fabric shop and purchase a metre of linen fabric or buy a couple of linen tea towels.

Dough Scraper

Scottish Dough Scraper

This is an essential I cannot manage without! It becomes an extension of my right hand, for mixing, scraping and cutting dough.

Baking Stone and Loaf Tins

The best way to bake bread is on a hot stone, for this you can find an off cut of granite work top, a paving slab or an upturned or rimless baking tray. 

I often use a terracotta pizza plate.

Alternatively you can use a loaf or cake tin . The heavier ones will give the best results.

Water Spray Bottle

Ideal for spraying bread before it goes into the oven and to mist the oven to create a little steam whilst baking. Alternatively you can use new 2.5cm paint brushes to brush water on the bread and put about 6 ice cubes into a baking tray on the bottom of the oven.

A Peel

A peel is used to pull bread in and out of the oven. If you start with bread tins you don’t really need one, however for baking baguettes, batches etc it is rather useful. I started by using either a completely flat baking tray or a thin plastic pliable chopping board.

Machines and Mixers

I frequently use a food mixer fitted with a dough hook to mix my bread, but also my bread maker machine on the dough cycle only. Someone recently asked why I did this.

When you only have one pair of hands, it is useful to allow the machines to do some of the work for you, so whilst I am mixing one batch of dough by hand I have machines mixing other batches of dough.  The mixing is important but the moulding and shaping of the bread gives the bread its strength and structure. This means that I can speed up the process use my hands to mould the machine made bread then be able to use my and use my oven time more efficiently and bake a variety of different breads in the same session.

The method, good ingredients, and slow fermentation process remain the same.

When choosing a bread machine make sure it has a dough only option. Remember too that a large capacity maker can handle a smaller loaf. A small capacity machine cannot handle a larger one.

Proving Baskets

Very nice to have since they "hold"  the softer breads in place whilst the prove and rise. This ensures that you don't get a loaf looking rather like a pancake They come in different shapes and sizes and often have optional liners. The  liners are used when cooking strongly flavoured breads so that the flavours do not transfer to the baskets which again are not usually washed.