I'll send my daughter over to help you with the mixing, mixing things with a spoon in a big bowl is one of her favourite activities! ;)
Good luck Harpy, let me know how you got on when you decide to give it a go
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Good, while she's over there you can come over here and show me how to do this :p Just another quick question or two for you guys. After you let it rise, you can knock the air out of it again so it's back to the way it was originally right? If I formed it the way I wanted and cooked it immediately without letting it rise, what would be the result? Un-fluffy bread? Is that alright to do? Also, about how long does the bread last? I've never made my own, so without the preservatives would it last as long as a week? Lol, I'm thinking I'm going to try making some tomorrow as long as I get everything all figured out here :p
I use a machine as well but I do it often so I'll try and give some advice.
Unrisen bread doesn't just make it un-fluffy, it makes it inedible.
I think home baked bread lasts about 5 days in an air tight container, it won't be so good towards the end though. I think bread made by hand may be more prone to mould as you'll have added bacteria making it but it's usually dry and unpleasant before it goes mouldy anyway.
There's a widely spread idea that putting bread in the fridge will cause it to go stale faster. It would only be true if you put the bread in unwrapped due to the constant air circulation so if you've got room put it in the fridge in a sealed container.
I know when you read about making bread properly they knead it an extra time, but I never bother, I don't find a huge difference and I'm very happy with the outcome every time. I find the bread I make is nice and fluffy. I do also find that if you let it rise the last time for a longer time it will be a lot lighter and fluffier. I've made it before in the morning then actually forgot about it until I came in the late afternoon and then baked it, it's very light then and really lovely, you can never get it like that in a breadmaker. So if fluffyness is what you're after you can consider letting it rise a long time.
Should you bake it immediately without the final rise, I've done that a few times when in a hurry, I put the bread in the oven while it's warming up so it gets a bit of a rise. It won't get very much, the bread will be a bit denser. The baking time might vary a bit as well when you do this because denser bread takes longer to bake and you really don't want it to be raw on the inside and too dark on the outside. If you're in a real hurry to bake it I suppose you could flatten it out or make it into buns to make sure it will cook evenly then. I would really recommend it to rise at least 30 minutes or better at least an hour for a nice result though.
I never had the result of an unfluffy bread unless I actually forgot to add an ingredient like yeast or oil or such.
If I'm really desperate to eat the bread asap at that point what I sometimes then do is roll (some of the dough) out flat and bake them as tortilla's in a dry baking pan. But then again if I'm that desperate usually I just make a tortilla with flour, baking powder, margarine, salt and bake that.
I find it hard to say how long the bread lasts because in our house it's usually eaten within 1-2 days.. I never use preservatives. If you have too much you can freeze it as well and keep it fresh. Some older bread you can use for toasting as well for instance if it dries out a bit. I think it would last a week, but it depends on how you keep it. When you keep some in the fridge it will keep longer. In the summer it won't keep a week, so I would definately keep it in the fridge then. Every now and then I have a bit of bread that doesn't get eaten, usually just the bits of bread that were cut off funny, I just throw them in the dehydrator and use them later for croutons in soups.
The best way to learn to make bread is just to go for it. I find it very satisfying and such a treat as well. It's never like what you buy in the store, but much better. And you'll learn a lot from your mistakes as well, soon you'll be loving it so much that you never want to go back ;). Well that's what it was like for me anyway!
Good luck! :)
Re how long it keeps, I make a medium size loaf (probably about 500g) and put half in the freezer and the other half in a sealed bag in the fridge. The fridge half keeps for several days, no problem.
The recipe includes a couple of tbsp oil and that makes it keep better I believe.
Back space you could try chapattis? Quick and easy and tasty.
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/indian...ad/Detail.aspx
just one of many recipes on google....
I might try that today actually :) Depends if anything comes up, but if I get around to it, I'll take pictures so everyone can see how they turn out :p
I think as well as cooking them in the pan you can make them balloon by putting them directly over a flame when they have finished cooking. So if you have a gas cooker just hold them horizontally over the lighted burner for a few seconds after normal cooking and they should puff up! :D
I've got an electric burner :p I was never the best at baking anyhow. The cooking I could do for some reason, but the baking... Lol, we'll have to see how this turns out. I've never baked bread before, not even in school :p
Making bread isn't really very hard, so let's hope you're pleasantly surprised. I usually use a mixture of half wholemeal (spelt) and half white (wheat) flour as a completely wholemeal loaf tends to be a bit heavy (and indigestible IMO). If you're using barley flour though who knows what will happen? Do report back if you live to tell the tale ;)
Okay, lets do this :) I've got everything I need, I hope :p Gonna go for that Chapatis recipe. So, start time will be about 10 after 12
http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/...e/P2020675.jpg
Pfft.. Figures... I forgot to buy tablespoons. Oh well, I kind of remember how much is in one.
http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/...e/P2020676.jpg
They might have turned out better if I actually measured everything out properly. I was just kind of adding what I saw fit :p
http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/...e/P2020677.jpg
Okay... Finished shaping them, gonna let the pan heat up a bit and throw the first one on, see what happens :p Here's hoping they turn out okay. If I screw up something this simple I wont be trying again :p
http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/...e/P2020679.jpg
Lol, they look terrible, but they don't taste too bad actually. It's got a familiar taste bu I can't quite put my finger on it.
http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/...e/P2020682.jpg
They look very interesting BS - hope you didn't suffer any after-effects? ;) What's your next project?
lol, they don't look terrible at all back-space! They look great! As long as the taste is there and they're cooked that's all that matters. Looks like a succes to me! I haven't tried the chapati's myself yet, want to try them soon though :)
They tasted pretty good. I ate them all yesterday which probably wasn't the healthiest idea, but.... :p
That's proof of success!
Lol :p I'm thinking cookies aswell, but I'm not sure if I could cook them on the pan. You think they'd stick to the bottom?
You could try making Welsh cakes, which aren't exactly cookies but are quite nice
http://www.earth.li/~kake/cookery/re...elshcakes.html
What exactly is baking powder? Trying to make things as natural as possible, but I've never known what baking powder is even made from. It's a chemical leavening agent isn't it? I was thinking of flour, margarine(Shhh :p), oatmeal, sugar, and raisins would be good, if they turn out. They'd probably be a little dense if they don't rise, but... :p
baking powder is bicarb of soda(alkaline), a starch (corn starch for instance) and cream of tartar(acidic). When it's heated the alkaline and acids react to eachother making air bubbles.
You can also just use one of the ingredients that you'll find in baking powder: bicarb of soda or baking soda, that will give some air in the mixture. Not as much as if you were to use baking powder, but the mixture itself will be slightly lighter and have more air in it, so a bit less dense. Bicarb of soda gives cold things more air and baking powder gives heated more air.
Oh okay. Couldn't it be possible to make cookies with yeast then? I mean, the ingredients are basically the same. Just a little more sugar :p
I think the baking powder in that recipe may be to replace an egg which is in traditional Welshcakes. I would imagine you could do it without if you prefer - as you say they just wouldn't rise, but as far as I can remember they're pretty flat anyway.
Cookies with yeast sounds like sweet bread to me :)
eww... sweetbread
Lol :p I'll have to try a cookie recipe one day aswell... Then I can just add more of whatever I see fit to make them the way I want them. I'm hoping for a really soft chocolate chip cookie, but you'd probably need a lot of oil for that, right? We used to make cookies a long time ago, but 20 minutes after taking them out of the oven you could chip a tooth on the things :p
I don't know how soft you are looking for exactly. But if you're just looking for a soft biscuit what I do is make sure the cookies are just cooked in the oven. The longer you cook them the crunchier they'll become. Then as soon as they've cooled down I'll keep them in an airtight container, they stay nice and soft then. I love soft cookies! :)
I got some baking powder today :p Brown sugar and luckily I brought some chocolate chips from home because there's not a single bag that doesn't contain milk in our grocery store :( So I'm thinking some of the flour, some oatmeal, lots of sugar, some vegan butter, chocolate chips, and a little bit of salt and baking powder. Might try tomorrow depending what time I get home at. I'll just throw it all together and see what I end up with :p
Hi khadagan:D
Much nicer home made !
My ex mother in law was Asian and taught me how to make them ...I kinda got it but never managed to re-create the perfectly circular ones she made. Mine bore more resemblance to a map of Africa but they tasted good.
Secret of good chappattis is the proper equipment ie. a flat griddle rather than trying to cook them in a frying pan with sides and a special Asian rolling pin which is fat in the middle and tapers at the sides to produce the right shape.
Slack
Wow I never heard of rolling pins like that! I'm an absolute sucker for kitchen gadgets ;) And I put a flat griddle pan on my wishlist as well, I just looked it up and it's good for tortilla's as well. I'm very much into making tortilla's at the moment.
Well I'll definately give the chapati's a go soon. I'm a bit sorry now I have so many (non-curry) leftovers from yesterday, so it won't be today unfortunately :s
I'm into making my own pita's lately. It's even easier than making bread and quicker as well! Today I mixed olives and oregano into the white flour mixture today, really lovely! The great thing about pita's is that I don't have to measure any ingredients either and they're very nice!
I use just flour (about 3 cups makes a good amount), yeast, tbsp sugar, tsp salt, then mix the whole thing together with water until it's mixed. Mix for about 10 minutes. Cover with a tiny tiny bit of oil on the dough and wet cloth in warm place for about an hour.
Then divide in about 12 pieces or so depending on how much dough you have, roll them out, it's best to leave them for about 5-10 minutes before baking.
Preheat oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, including the trays (otherwise they don't puff up)
Bake at the bottom of oven for 5 minutes first side, turn around for 2 minutes more.
And they're done! You can use wholemeal flour or a mixture of flours, add seeds, dried fruits, spices or whatever you want. I've been having them with humus, refried beans, salads, they're lovely! :)
How do you make them open up into pockets? I thought pita was unleavened bread so how come the yeast?
Well mine puff up fine, but I did not know that the bread was supposed to be without yeast? I found this recipe somewhere on the internet and it was so easy that I thought I'd give it a try. My basic ingredients are flour, salt, yeast, sugar. I find they only puff up if I preheat the oventrays first. I also fold the dough once before I roll them out, don't know if this actually makes a difference or not. They puff open and you can cut them beautifully in the middle. Don't roll them out too thin, but just like you would find any pita in the store.
I'm actually just baking them right now, with half white, half wholewheat flour and hemp flour (grind up hemp seeds in my vitamix), they're not finished yet, but they smell awesome!
Wow! I was about to post my favorite and easiest whole wheat bread recipe, and see that your pita recipe is VERY similar. I want to try pitas now! Yippee!
My bread is so easy...and you don't even have to knead it. It is rustic and has a rich flavor, and I do a lot of variations with it:
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups warm water (about the same temp as warm from the tap, but I use filtered and heat it)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon raw sugar (I have subbed with brown rice syrup, molasses, and maple syrup)
1 packet quick-rise dry active yeast
Mix the dry ingredients, using a whisk to mix it thoroughly. Add the water, and stir just until everything is wet. The dough will be wetter than a kneading-style dough, but don't worry about it. It all works out in the end.
Place this wet dough in a mixing bowl that has been "buttered" with Earth Balance or your favorite oil. Let it rise double.
Pick it up, stretch it slightly into an oval. Fold the right end over into the middle. Fold the left end over into the middle. Place it with the folds underneath into the pan you are going to bake it in. The pan should also be buttered or oiled. Let it rise double once more.
Bake it at 375 degrees (F) for 35-40 minutes. When the crust is a deep brown, it is done. That's it!
It makes one loaf, and I do it almost daily. We use it for everything bread-like, and it is best when fresh, since there are no pesky preservatives in it to keep it longer.
You can also add some cinnamon into the initial mixing, and add a little extra raw sugar.
I like to add about a tablespoon of dried Italian herbs into the mixing stage---oregano, basil, thyme, parsley. That one is great with any type of pasta dish, or a nice hearty veggie soup.
I have used the same measurements to make pizza dough, except it needed an extra half cup of the flour to make it stiff enough. I only let it rise once for pizza dough. Adding those Italian herbs and some garlic is very tasty in the dough, too. The baking time is 15-20 minutes, depending on how thick you spread your dough.
One of my brilliant sons who is a college student has recently begun making this bread to eat on his starving student budget. He made it into the pizza dough style, and pressed it very thick into a rectangular baking pan. He baked it 10 minutes, took it out of the oven, and spread the top with vegan mozzarella. After finishing the baking time, he cut it into large strips and used them for dippers in leftover pasta sauce. I told you he was brilliant! :cool:
OMG! Yum!
I'm making bread this weekend :)
I might mix through some olives too....:D
Re. the pita bread question, I've only ever seen recipes that do include yeast. I understand to get them to make a pocket the oven has to be very hot, and you pre-heat the sheet, that way a 'skin' forms quickly on the outside and the inner air puffs up.
I suppose it would be worth trying it without leavening, after all you get the same effect with pooris, which are unyeasted (although that's deep fried).