Kitchen Chat

Hi,

I have followed the Farmhouse recipe that came with the Farmhouse Bread Improver and am making it in a Morphy Richards Fast Bake breadmaker.

During the initial mix and 1st knead it was soft ball and seemed perfect, not too hard and not too wet.

The problem is that after the first rise and the padle went to knock the dough down for the second knead the dough seems to have gone quite wet and would not ball up on the second knead leaving half the dough stuck to the sides.

Is this right for the Farmhouse loaf or have I done something wrong, it just didn't look right to me.

It is still making as I write this, so have no idea how it will turn out.

Followed the recipe exactly with

500g Alison Super Strong White Bread Flour,
300ml Water,
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Farhouse Bread Improver
1 Sachet of Hovis Fast Action Yeast

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Regards,
Brisycom

Hi All,

Well it didn't turn out good at all, the top collapsed just after it started baking and it had a not very nice looking white scaliness to the outside.

I have used the recipe out of my breadmaker book for the quantities, just omiting the ingredients not needed.

This time came out ok, though for a 2lb loaf it could have risen a bit more, looks more like a 1 1/2 lb loaf.

Regards
Brisycom

Hi, All recipes are balanced, particularly for breadmakers where there is no room for mistakes, so that all the ingredients work together, if you leave out something or put the wrong amounts in, the recipe is not going to work as it should. What did you leave out?

The scaliness you describe would indicate that your dough is too lean (not enough fat) try adding fat at the rate of 2% (2g per 100g of flour) Also a dough that looks right when first mixed softens considerably during resting and this could be the reason why it went sticky

I tend to use the fast setting when using improver, improvers dont need (knead!) the second rise, the recipe supplied is a very basic recipe for beginners i think. I was told the improver contains fat,sugar etc but extra fat can be added.
I also used to make bread in the machine but now find a cheap mixer with dough hooks and a good old fashioned bread tin makes a far superior loaf.