Finally got round to making some bread at home (not in a bread maker) and loved it. Never knew it was so simple, and tastes lovely with the Mrs' home made jam.

So let's see your variations on bread recipes. Looking for tasty top tips!

G

My brother does Guinness and Marmite bread… omnomnomnimnom…

Well done. I've been loafing around. Does that count?

So no one in the combined greatness of STW makes bread? Or all jealously guarding secret recipes?

used to when the nearest bakery was 250 miles away. Something sensual about kneading dough and also very good for cleaning fingernails 😉

the missus recommends a book called "dough" by Richard Bertinet

Completely OT, but was out in the garden taming a bramble bush today. Harvested the berries and here's what i did
toasted some oatmeal
roughly liquidised most of the brambles with a small splash of whisky and some honey
whipped some cream with some more whisky, honey and some toasted oatmeal
put some of bramble mix in a large wine glass
some whipped cream mix in glass
folded in some more bramble mix
toasted oatmeal and brambles on top
= bramble cranachan

ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, if I do say so myself

Meanwhile, outside the main course is doing it's stuff
-chicken being smoked with tea leaves
I picked up some chantarelle (?) mushrooms today, so off to see if they fit in anywhere

oh and yes, i make bread as well from time to time, but pretty plain stuff, so no recipes to share

pizza

bigG try some of these…

olive oil instead of whatever fat/butter you normally use, that's nice.

half and half white flour and wholemeal flour, less heavy than all wholemeal, rises better.

chop sour cherries and marzipan into the dough – fruity and yet not megasweet.

my brother makes his bread with half the dry ingredients, lets it rise and then mixes in the other half at the 'knock back' kneading stage

I pinched a loaf this morning.

Let them rise twice……..that is all

So no one in the combined greatness of STW makes bread? Or all jealously guarding secret recipes?

We do but in a machine – just got one of the Panasonic ones having had a cheapo Aldi job for a few years. So far we've been sticking to recipies from various books but there have been some crackers. With our previous machine we used to have it on a self-timer so it'd start early in the morning and we'd wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread.

try different mixes of seeds, i like anything from a 70:30 to 50:50 mix of white to wholemeal/wholegrain.

you don't actually need oil or fat but applying some butter to the crust when it's still hot makes it really tasty. as has already been said raise twice, if you can let it raise slowly then it gets more flavour but i still stick it in a warm oven to quicken things up on a cold winters day.

other things to try, if you like a soft thin crust put a bowl of boiling water at the bottom of the oven. i don't favour this most i'll do is spray the top with water before it goes in the oven. then of course there's sourbough if you really get into it….actually i almost forgot my favourite is a 50:50 mix of white and spelt flour makes a really nice nutty bread, which is ace with soup, not tried 100% spelt before