Sourdough Bread

My first ever attempt!

I'm not sure if it turned out right but it is yummy! It is really holey and spongey, dense and moist. And sour. I'm not sure if it's too sour. I may have used too much starter or it may have been left too long before baking. Either way, it's yummy (I think) although Elliot did tell me after a while that it hurt his mouth!

Archie devoured four slices with local jam from the markets for morning tea, so it can't be that bad!

Over The Weekend We ...

made a start on the chicken coop

continued edging the herb garden with recycled bricks

decided it was time to try out making a sourdough starter

watched new life springing up in the veg garden

played on the verandah

planted two more fruit trees in the orchard

A lovely quiet weekend pottering around the house.

Kenny Gets His First Workout

Now that we're all (mostly) settled and I'm back to getting the good, bulk wholemeal flour I've started making our bread again. And boy, how I missed homemade bread! I'm sure my waistline hasn't missed it though!

Elliot loves Kenny too! And yes, my benches are normally this cluttered!

I'm not using the breadmaker anymore, I now much prefer to use Kenny to mix and knead the dough and then shape by hand. For our everyday loaf (which I make about every second day) I get two loaves from the following recipe. I've also been making raisin/fruit bread too so I'll post that recipe once I've perfected it.

The verandah is a great, sunny place for the bread to prove. Especially when Matt is out mowing the grass!

The original recipe that I used was from the Kenwood recipe book that came with Kenny but I've tweaked it a bit.

Everyday Wholemeal Bread

Makes two 700ish gram loaves

750g wholemeal flour

150g white flour

3tsp dried yeast

1 tbls salt

1 tbls bread improver

2 tbls honey

500-600 ml warm water

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix through water until it forms a dough. 

Mix on minimum speed setting for 1 minute and then turn speed up to 1 and knead for 4 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.

Let rise for 1 hour.

Knock down dough with hook on minimum speed and then slowly knead for another minute or so.

Remove from bowl and shape into two loaves. 

Place in oiled bread tins and let rise for at least 30 minutes.

Bake in preheated 230C oven for 10 minutes then reduce 

temperature to 200C and bake for another 15-20 minutes. 

Remove from tins and cool on wire rack.

Third Time is a Risen Charm ...

... sort of.

I've been making our bread for a couple of years now. Every now and then I hand-make it, but 99% of the time it's in the machine. If we're just using the bread for sandwiches I bake it in the machine but if I want to make rolls or a fancy shaped loaf I let the machine to all the hard work then take it out to shape and the final prove. For a while I was using these pre-mixes, just adding water and yeast. The Germain Grain was hands-down our favourite, dark and grainy and really really yummy. After a while I started experimenting with different recipes and finally found a good one and have stuck with it. That was until this weekend and my fiddling hasn't really stood me in very good stead.

Gathering ingredients to begin baking.

The other week I bought myself a book. That's right, something just for me, not the boys, not the house, ME! Well, the title of the book is 150 Recipes for your Bread Machine so everyone benefits, but you know what I mean! It has gotten me very inspired to make different kinds of bread, heaps of different things to do with the machine (English Muffins or Naan anyone?). Feeling inspired I used the recipe in the book to make a basic 100% wholemeal flour bread (Our usual is 100% wholemeal too). It was unequivocally a disaster. Too dry, not mixed properly and completely not risen. Not even a smidge. So it got chopped up and put in the freezer to take to the park to feed the ducks. Who knows if they'll even eat it?

The next day, take 2. I used my old faithful recipe and the same result! This time everything was mixed and cooked properly but completely not risen! All I could think was 'What is going on?' I started troubleshooting. Bad yeast? I tested it, nope perfect. Different ingredients? Nope, same batch of flour (I buy 20kg at a time), same batches of bread improver, salt, sugar, everything! I then remembered that when I took the pan out of the machine it had dripped some black, grease-looking stuff onto the bench. It also made a different 'knocking' sound when it was kneading. I'm hoping it's not our machine. It's at least 15 years old and was my Mum's before mine. It sat in her cupboard unused for years before I 'borrowed' it. It gets used at least three times a week, so from it's point of view, I understand if it's had enough, I probably would be thinking of packing it in too if I were it!

V2.0 Not risen, but properly mixed and cooked. V1.0 was such a disaster it didn't warrant a photo!

This morning I thought I'd give it one last go, and the third time was almost lucky. The bread this morning had risen, but not as much as it normally does. The machine made the funny sound again while kneading and I think it's on it's last legs. The bread is edible and it'll do until I can figure out what is going on.

V2.0 and V3.0 next to each other, there is an obvious difference but V3.0 is still not as risen as usual.