Re: I Might Buy A Soup Maker!

Making your own bread by hand doesn't require loads of your time, nor does it require strength to knead. Those are very outdated misconceptions I'm afraid.

I can teach anyone here how to make a fantastic homemade loaf with just the following actual hands on involvement:

1) 3 mins to weigh and mix the ingredients
2) A total of 40 seconds of dough stretching requiring no strength at all
3) 1 min to shape the proved dough into a log or boule

So in total that is maybe 5 mins of your actual time from which you could make a loaf that looks like this:



or this



And the only equipment you need you will already have which is:

1 large mixing bowl
Some digital weighing scales
A spatula
A baking tray

You can even get more professional and buy a round pizza stone which will cost only about £18 from a good dept store. That will give the loaf better oven spring.

Really these bread machines are a waste of time. You can only make one shape of bread, you can only make one loaf at a time and a fairly small one at that, it makes very drab looking loaves, it leaves a silly hole in the bread where the paddle was and it chews up electricity. It's silly, wasteful and frankly a crutch that people mistakenly think they need when actually they don't.

5 mins of your actual "doing time" is all you need to make a fantastic hand made loaf that will truly impress your family and friends.

Anyone for bread school?

Re: I Might Buy A Soup Maker!

I'm with realist on the bread maker

If I'm making pizza, I make by hand

Bred, I sometimes start if off in the Kenwood, esp if I'm busy

But bread or Kenwood , it's not a long process.

Best of all, the longer and slower the rise, the better tasting. I often leave my dough to rise overnight in the fridge

Re: I Might Buy A Soup Maker!

Yep the long fermentation is definitely the way to go. Better flavour, better dough, better crumb. So easy to do. Everyone should make their own bread imo. You can fit bread making into any busy work schedule. Just 5-10 mins of your time end-to-end.

Re: I Might Buy A Soup Maker!

I gave up making bread for a couple of years because I could no longer manage to knead it, it was getting a bread maker got me back into it. I've done both IMO there is room for both no one way is right or wrong. As long as people are happy with their method that's all that matters.

Re: I Might Buy A Soup Maker!

Heavy kneading of bread is simply not necessary.

Lay out a kitchen towel on your kitchen counter. Lift one corner up with your fingertips and bring the corner to the centre of the towel. Now do the same with the other 3 corners.

If you can do that, you can do the same with dough in a bowl. It takes no physical effort whatsoever and that's all it takes to make great homemade bread. Problem is, a great many people haven't really delved into the more recent changes in bread making and still think it all involves heavy thrashing around of dough for many minutes. It just isn't true any more. That's the stuff of the old 'Women's Institute Era'.

The length of time you physically spend touching the dough for it's development is nothing more than 40 seconds, yes that's seconds not minutes !

I'm going to post up a basic recipe and process for a straight white loaf next so those who are interested in regaining their lost homemade bread making skills can start afresh.

Re: I Might Buy A Soup Maker!

Try it on a day you can't even dress yourself buttons are a nightmare, zips no way. You I would guess have full dexterity I'm typing with voice recognition more and more lately.

Why can't people just do what they find easiest ? You do this a lot reams of writing to make people feel they are doing things wrong when all they are doing is what is best for them.

Re: I Might Buy A Soup Maker!

OVERNIGHT WHITE LOAF BY HAND

This is a recipe and process for a basic but tasty Overnight White Loaf all made by hand to demonstrate how easy it is.

Why overnight? Because the very best bread, the most flavoursome bread is achieved through long periods of fermentation. Many people who make their own bread at home or whose mothers used to do so, will most likely make bread very quickly, mixing the ingredients and letting the dough rise for about 1-2 hrs then baking it. It's just how people used to make basic bread at home. Nothing wrong with it, but it could be so much better. So in this recipe we make the dough late at night and leave it to ferment the entire night, up to 12 hrs and that develops flavour and structure.

Ingredients

Strong White Bread Flour - 500g
Salt - 5g
Fresh Baker's Yeast - 1g to 2g
Water - 300g

Note that we weigh everything here. No measurements in ml or cups. You weigh everything in grams including the water.

Note also that I am using fresh baker's yeast not instant yeast in packets. You can get fresh yeast from any Sainsbury's. Ask at the bakery counter and ask for 100g of fresh yeast. It will cost just pennies. Fresh yeast imo gives a better result and flavour and is easy to work with.

Method

Begin late in the evening on Day 1 shortly before you go to bed. Let's say it's 9pm-10pm.

1. Weight the flour and salt in a large bowl

2. In a pyrex jug, weigh the 1g of fresh yeast
(This is a tiny amount about the size of a pea. Your scales may not register this small qty. It is fine if you end up with 2g.)

3. Tare your scales (zero them) with the jug and yeast on them and then pour in a little water and with a teaspoon mix the yeast so that it dissolves in the water

4. Now add more water until the scales read 300g

5. Pour the yeast water into the flour/salt and using a spatula or spoon stir everything together. Feel free to get your hands in and simply bring everything together until there is no loose flour left.

6. Cover the bowl with a large plate or tea towel and leave it for 10 mins. Good time to put the kettle on for a cuppa.

After the 10 mins is up, we are ready to begin the "kneading" process. It's not really kneading in the traditional sense but it develops the dough nevertheless.

7. Leaving the dough in the bowl, use your fingers to pinch some of the dough at the outer edge, lift it up and then push it down into the middle of the dough ball. Rotate the bowl slightly, do another pinch and push into the middle. Rotate again and keep doing this until you have been all the way around the bowl. The entire thing should take about 10 seconds once you are used to it.

8. Cover the bowl again and leave for another 10 mins
Have that cuppa and read a paper.

9. We are now going to repeat the last 2 steps a total of 3 more times. So when the 10 mins is up, you do your pinch and folds around the bowls again, cover and leave for another 10 mins

In total then you should have done 4 lots of pinch and folds over a period of 40 mins. In that time you only handled the dough for about 40 seconds in total.

10. Now cover the bowl and leave it out on the kitchen counter overnight.

Day 2

First thing next morning we will continue. The dough will have fermented overnight anywhere from 10-12hrs depending on when you got up. It will be bubbly and at least doubled in volume.

11. Flour your work surface lightly and tip the dough out. Try not to be rough and heavy at this stage. We want to preserve the airy bubbles that developed overnight.

12. Gently form the dough into the shape you want. A simple round boule is fine or you might choose a log.
I tend to favour not using a tin as I find free-form more fun and gives a more rustic looking loaf.

13. Transfer your shaped dough onto a baking sheet and leave it to rest a further 30 mins.

14. At the same time turn your oven on to 220-240 C and place a deep roasting tray in the bottom of it. Fill a mug with water and have it ready at the side of the oven.

15. When the 30 min rest is up we are ready to bake. Be very quick here so as not to loose the oven heat. In the space of a few seconds, open the oven door, put the loaf in and quickly empty the cup of water into the hot roasting tin in the bottom and quickly close the door.

The water will generate steam which will help to give the loaf more oven spring.

16. Bake the loaf for about 25-35 mins or until it is golden brown. Every oven varies so just keep an eye on it towards the 25min mark

That's it !

You should hopefully have a lovely sprung loaf that sounds hollow when you tap it on the bottom. Enjoy.

If you tried this then please post up pictures of your finished loaves. Good luck.

Re: I Might Buy A Soup Maker!

I appreciate you have difficulties Julie. I just feel that if you are capable of using a bread machine then you are capable of making the loaf yourself. Do what feels right for you of course.

Re: I Might Buy A Soup Maker!

I just put whatever veg leftovers from the fridge in a slow cooker cook then blend we eat half freeze half simples .
I've to many obsolete gadgets I mustn't buy soup maker.

Re: I Might Buy A Soup Maker!

Well, l have gone and done it!
After lots of research and pondering, if l should, or should not! I have gone and bought a Morphy Richards Total Control Soup Maker!
I wanted one that would sauté and have a Pre-Clean Function and removable jug.
It was almost £60 at Costco but costing up to £100 and more elsewhere! Ok, it’s not an essential requirement but my excuse... you only live once!!
I have carrots and coriander all ready to make some soup!
I’ll let you know the outcome!!