Can I make bread out of this ?

RobAMerc

I was watching Huge Infrnal Whitlessall on the telly last night making bread - and I have to admit I was pretty damn tempted to go out and buy a loafer and tear into it after and I am still thinking about it.

Anyway that got me to thinking.

I often blend porridge oats, wheat bran, flax seed and hazelnuts to make a kinda flour which I add to protein and berries with water as a quick breakfast shake.

according to HFW all you need to make bread is flour, yeast , salt and water.

Anyway - my q is, would my blend of porridge oats, wheat bran, flax seed and hazelnuts (flour) make any sort of bread? Would the above react differently to ordinary flour or something - I don't know the chemistry of making bread sorry.

I know I should just go and try it but I am trying to decide whether I should go buy yeast on the way home or buy a nice fresh loaf and go nuts.

Kewreeuss

No, not with those ingredients alone, you may get a solid indigestible brick.
You need wheat flour as a base.
When you buy your yeast get a bag of odlums strong flour too.
There is usually a simple recipe on the back, follow that for your first attempt.
Then next time try substituting a handful of flour with porridge and throw in the other stuff as well and see what happens.
This could open up a whole other world for you:D

Kewreeuss

Hey, try this bomb, although there may be too much sugar in it.
2 cups of nuts, almond, pistacchio, hazel walnuts pinenuts
1 cup dried chopped fruit apricots, figs prunes dates.
1/4 cup raisins, 1/4 cup sultanas.
zest of one orange and one lemon.
4 tspsn bread soda.
big pinch of cinamon, nutmeg and cloves, little pinch of salt.
1 3/4 cups water, 1 cup strongly flavoured honey
3/4 cup sugar.
2 tblspns dark rum
3 cups of flour.

combine the nuts, fruit and zest in a big bowl.
add in the bread soda and spices.
put the water, honey sugar rum in a saucepan, bring to the boil and then take it off the heat.
pour the liquid over the fruit and nuts and stir gently. leave to rest for 5 mins.
then add the flour, mix just until the flour is wet and rest it for another couple of minutes. it will be all lumpy.
Put the mixture in a loaf tin and bake for about 65-75 mins or until a skewer comes out just dry, it doesn't matter if the tip is a tiny bit sticky.
let it rest in the tin for 5 mins then take it out to cool.

As I said, you might not make this because it's full of sugar but its lovely and you can add other spices too

EileenG

You could make bread out of that, but not yeast bread. If you used baking soda and buttermilk as your raising agent, you'd get a denser bread, but still edible. Also a lot less work. Having made yeast bread by hand, I can tell you there's a hell of a lot of kneading and proving and kneading again before you get to bake. Honestly, home-made bread smells wonderful but for the amount of time and effort you put into it, I'm not sure it's worth it.

Soda bread on the other hand, is a piece of piss to make. Two cups of flour or whatever flour substitute you are using, one cup of butter milk, a half teaspoon of baking soda (bicarb, NOT baking powder) and a little salt. Everything else is optional. Mix till it comes together, knead very briefly, shape as desired, and bake for about 20 minutes in a 200c oven.

Dotcomdolly

Here's a recipe for flaxseed bread I really enjoy.


250g flaxseed .The aldi bag is the exact 250 g
100g of butter
2 tsp of baking powder
5 eggs
6 tsp of mixed herbs
2 table spoons of parmasan cheese

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl well .

Melt the butter and add to this the 5 eggs .

Add the butter and eggs to the dry mix in the bowl and mix together well .

Place in a greased loaf tin and put in the oven for 20 mins at 170 Celsius . Place on a wire tray to cool .

I cut this in half and put half in the freezer the other half should be kept in the fridge .A great alternative to bread

RobAMerc

Dotcomdolly wrote: »

Here's a recipe for flaxseed bread I really enjoy.


250g flaxseed .The aldi bag is the exact 250 g
100g of butter
2 tsp of baking powder
5 eggs
6 tsp of mixed herbs
2 table spoons of parmasan cheese

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl well .

Melt the butter and add to this the 5 eggs .

Add the butter and eggs to the dry mix in the bowl and mix together well .

Place in a greased loaf tin and put in the oven for 20 mins at 170 Celsius . Place on a wire tray to cool .

I cut this in half and put half in the freezer the other half should be kept in the fridge .A great alternative to bread

thanks - I have made this loads of times and its lovely.

but as stated - I don't understand the chemistry of baking that's why I cannot figure out why I can't make a lovely crusty loaf from the above ingredients ( think vienna loaf but healthy and probably darker ). - sorry if this seems obvious to some but I am just not getting it, is there something in flour thats not in my mixture to make it rise ? Is that not what the yeast does ?

EileenG

It's all to do with gluten, which wheat flour contains lots of, and other flours contain very little. Gluten acts as a sort of glue when you bake it with yeast, and give you lovely light fluffy bread, with lots of air holes and a nice crust. Without the gluten, you get a sort of edible cement.

Yeast plus sugar plus water plus white flour gives the lightest bread.

Yeast plus sugar plus water plus wheat brown flour gives a denser bread. Other flours give a dense bread.

Sodium bicarbonate plus buttermilk (or yogurt or other acid) will also cause bread to rise, but not as dramatically as yeast and gluten rich flour.